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Deteriorating work conditions, low wages, and wholesale unemployment, all resulting from the Great Depression, opened the eyes of the coal miners to unionism. The workers began to see that the hardships following from the Depression were beyond the control of themselves or the paternalistic coal companies. When low wages, irregular employment, and unemployment brought poverty, hunger, and disease to Harlan County, coal workers finally realized that they needed help. As a result of falling wages and severe unemployment, 231 children died of malnutrition in Harlan County from 1929 to 1931. If not for a child-feeding program launched in the fall of 1931 the number would have been much higher. One mine owner sadly remarked, "The miners' families are still able to eat and keep warm, but I don't pretend that they are living as they ought to live." Other miners felt despair because they were unable to...
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This section contains 205 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) |
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