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[Punuo-No. 259-66TH CoNGREss]
[H. R. 13229]
An Act To establish in the Department of Labor a bureau to be known as the
·
Women's Bureau
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be
established in the Department of Labor a bureau to be known as the
Women's Bureau.
SEc. 2. That the said bureau shall be in charge of a director, a
woman, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate, who shall receive an annual compensation of
$5,000. It shall be the duty of said bureau to formulate standards
and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage-earning women,
improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment. The said
bureau shall have authority to investigate and report to the said department upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of women in
industry. The director of said bureau may from time to time publish
the results of these investigations in such a manner and to such
extent as the Secretary of Labor may prescribe.
SEC. 3. That there shall be in said bureau an assistant director;
to be appointed by the Secretary of Labor, who shall receive an
annual compensation of $3,500 and shall perform such duties as
shall be prescribed by the director and approved by the Secretary
of Labor.
SEc. 4. That there is hereby authorized to be employed by said
bureau a chief clerk and such special agents, assistants, clerks, and
other employees at such rates of compensation and in such numbers
as Congress may from time to time provide by appropriations.
SEC. 5. That the Secretary of Labor is hereby directed to furnish
sufficient quarters, office furniture, and equipment for the work of
this bureau.
SEc. 6. That this act shall take effect and be in force from and
after its passage.
Approved, June 5, 1920.
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U . S . DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J-. DAVIS, SECRET ARY
WOMEN'S BUREAU
· MARY ANDERSON, Director
BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN'S BUREAU, No. 45
HOME ENVIRONMENT AND
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
OF WOMEN IN COAL-MINE
WORKERS' FAMILIES
\
)
WASHINGT ON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1925
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ADDITIONAL COPIES
or
THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM
THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
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AT
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CONTENTS
Fage
PART
I. Introduction____________________________________________
Source and scope of materiaL _____ .:. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _
Statistical summary __________ ~_________________________
Conclusion__________________________________________
PART II. Employment and home conditions affecting the women in
mine workers' families _______ ~ ___ ~-_________________
Employment and employment opportunities_____________
Home and community environment____ _________________
Home tenure among mine workers' families_____________
Community resources ________________________ ----_____
The race factor as affecting living conditions.____________
PART III. Analyses of statistical tables______________________________
Maintenance of "normal homes" in mining regions_ _ _ _ _ _
Mine workers' wives gainfully employed________________
Daughters in mine workers' families,___________________
Contributions made by women to family income_________
Household duties of mine workers' wives_______________
Home ownership _____________________________________
Facilities. for the performance of household duties________
Community resources __ ----------------------- - - - - - - _
III
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CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
Page
1. Number of mine workers' homes in the principal coal-producing
States, and number presided over by father and mother, by locality_
2. Number of mine workers' homes and number presided over by father
and mother in th bituminous and anthracite regions, by country of
birth of mine worker___ ___ _______________ __ _______ ______ _____
3. Employment of mine workers' wives inside or outside the home, by
locality_____________________________________________________
4. Gainful employment and earnings of wives of mine workers, by locality_
5. Employment of mine workers' wives inside or outside the home, by
country of bi rth of mine worker___________ ____________________
6. Daughters in mine workers' families at school, at home, and at work,
by locality__________________________________________________
7. Character of employment of mine workers' daughters, by locality____
8. Detail -of character of employment of mine workers' daughters, by
locality _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
9. Actual number of mine workers' wives and computed number of all
adult women in mine workers' families gainfully employed, by
locality _________________________________________________ ___ _
10. Number of gainfully employed wives and daughters and their co ntribution to the family fund, by locality---'"-- -- - --------- -------11. Number of gainfully employed daughters and their contribution to
th e family fund, by locality_ ________________ ___________________
12. Number of persons in mirie workers' households, by locality_____ __ _
13. Number of persons in mine workers' households, by general nativity
of mine worker______________________________________________
14 . Number of children in mine workers' families, by country of b irth of
mine worker ___________________________________ : ____________
15. M ine -workers having children at school, at home, and at work, by
general nativity of mine worker_______________________________
16. ·Mine workers having children at school, at home, and at work, by
locality _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
17. Mine workers' homes maintained in owned and in rented houses, by
locality__________________________________ ___________________
18. Mine workers' homes maintained in owned and in r ented houses, by
country of birth of mine worker_______________________________
19. Company ownership of mine workers'. dwellings, by locality________
20. L ocation of company-controlled communities with r eference to independent communities and employment opportunities_____________
21. F a cilities affecting home comfort and the performance of household
duties in company-owned dwellings, by locality__________________
22. Number of families dependent on a single water outlet in companycontrolled communities, by locality---------------------------23. Systems of water supply in company-controlled communities, by
locality ________________________ · _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
24. Systems of water supply in independent communities, by locality_ __
25. Methods of sewage disposal in company-controlled communities, by
locality_____________________________________________________
26. Methods· of sewage disposal in independent communities, by locality_
27. Methods of lighting in independent communities, by locality_______
28. Community resources in independent communities, by locality ____ _
29. Recreational facilities in independent communities, by locality______
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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
WOMEN'S BUREAU,
Washington, Jmy 20, 19.f ,fif.
Sm: There is transmitted herewith a report on home environment
and employment opportunities of women in coal-mine workers'
families. · A great basic industry, such as coal mining, employing
hundreds ·of thousands of men, brings into· the coal i·egions mineworkers' wives, sons, and daughters, who in their turn help support
the families. The need and opportunity for profitable employment
for the women in the household together with their gainful occupations are questions that we have tried to set forth in this bulletin:
The data used in this report are those collected during the investigations conducted by the Coal Commission in 1922-23 on the living
conditions among the mining population. The writing of the report
was very much facilitated by the cooperation given by the Coal
Commission in allowing us access to their schedules.
MARY ANDERSON, Director.
Hon. JAMES J. DAVIS,
Secretary of Labor.
V
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HOME ENVIRONMENT AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES OF
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
PART I
INTRODUCTION
When a great industry draws hundreds of thousands of workers out
of the centers of normal community life, and when these workers in
major numbers take with them wives and children, grown sons and
grown daughters, the need and opportunity for profitable employment
for the women in the household, together with their environment,
are questions that may well claim the studious attention of the ·
Women's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor.
Since time undated, wage-earning men have required the help of
their women-folk in the business of breadwinning. Before the development of the factory system the help came chie~y through the prod' uct of woman labor in the home. Later it has come through the con: tributory wages of the women who work in factory, mill, and shop, in
restaurant and laundry, in store and office, or-when no better opportunity offers-by such breadwinning labors as can still be performed
in the home.
That the wage earners in coal mines offer no exception in the
matter of the traditional need of breadwinning help from the women
of the household is made clear by the reports of the United States
Coal Commission. 1 Less - than two-thirds of the mine-working
fathers, there reported upon, were sole breadwinners,2 the ot!ler third
and more having the help of wives or offspring or both.
The purpose of this study, therefore, is to reveal the employment
opportunities or the lack of such and the home environment of the
adult women in mine workers' families.
SOURCE AND SCOPE OF MATERIAL
The immediate source of the information presented in this report
is the material collected by the Coal Commission in 1922 and 1923 in
the course of its investigation into conditions of life and the cost of
1 U.S. Coal Commission. Report on bituminous-mine workers and their homes; Report on living conditions among anthracite-mine workers. In pr ss.
2 'l'he census takes cognizance only of the members of a family living in the same household.
"Sole
breadwinners," therefore, means that of those living und er the same roof the father alone was a wage earner.
There may be breadwinning daughters and sons who were not living at home but who still coi,tri buted
to the family support.
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2
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
living of coal-mine ·workers of continental United States. Accord~
ingly, from these data was compiled by the Women's Bureau the
statistical material concerning the home environment and the opportunities for gainful employment of the approximately 500,000 women
in coal miners' families.
All data concerning the constituency of the mine workers' familiestheir domicile status and economic organization-were secured
originally by the United States Bureau of the Census in the course of
its 1920 population enumei~ations.
The census shows that of the approximately three-fourths million
coal-mine workers in continental United States, , four-fifths were at
work in the bituminous-coal fields which, though scattered all over
the country, have their chief producing areas in the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. The other one-fifth of the coal-mine workers
_were employed in the anth;acite mines which lie in half a dozen
compactly located counties of PennsylvaBia. The .Coal Commission
tabulated the material on the constituency of the families for all
mine workers in the anthracite region and for approximately 90 per
cent of the workers in bituminous-coal regions. The mine workers
included in the Coal Commission's tabulation were in the bituminous
regions in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky,
Indiana, Iowa, Alal;>ama, Tennessee, Virginia, Missouri, Oklahoma,
Maryland, Michigan, and certain Western States; and in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania. Those omitted were chiefly some of the
mine workers in Alabama and others scattered through several of the
Wes tern States.
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From the tabulation ·s heets of the Coal Commission dra.wn up from
the census data, the information essential to the picture of home
duties of the miners' wives was compiled by the Women's Bureau.
In a:ddition to the data compiled from the census there was available certain information gathered at first hand by the Coal Commission. Fifteen hundred and seventy-eight mine workers' families·
were visited personally by the Coal Commission's agents in the
course of its cost-of-living study. From each of the families living
in the bituminous fields the income and expenditures of the family
for the year 1922 were secured, and such figures were checked, as
far as possible, by means of the mine companies' records of earnings
and of payments for rent, coal, light, food, and sundries, doctors'
services, and so on, made during the year. In t he anthracite field
the family schedules were taken for the six months ending April 1,
1924.
In selecting the families to be scheduled, the greatest care was exercised by the commission in order tha,t a representative group should
be obtained. In the anthracite field the estimated ·number· .of
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WOMEN IN COAL- MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
3
schedules that could be secured in the allotted time was divided
among the three anthracite districts and each district's quota subdivided according to the number of mine workers living in cities of
various size. The files of the Bureau of the Census were consulted
to ascertain the wards in which mine employees lived in cities having a population of 2,500 and over. A proportionate number of
names and addresses for each ward and city was then secured, such
names and addresses being divided as three to one between miners
and other skilled employees and unskilled mine laborers. In the
bituminous regions, mine settlements representatiye of the varying
communities in a mining district were chosen for family schedules
after agents had studied housing conditions in su~h districts. The
flu ctuation of population in the bituminous fields during 1922 made
it difficult to locate families in 1923 whose earnings and expenditures
could b e checked against a single mine company pay roll for a whole
year. While the material on income and cost of living has not been
used in this report the foregoing description has been given to make
clear the fact that the schedules from the bituminous fields, like
those from the anthracite, represent the more stable part of ( he
mining population. From the schedules thus collected the Women's
Bureau compiled material concerning the. number of daughters in
these families, the number of wives and daughters at work, the
kinds of work in which they were engag~d, and the amount of their
contribution to the family income during the year or half-year under
consideration.
1nformation concerning living conditions as affected by community environment in the bituminous and anthracite fields was
secured on a detailed schedule by the Coal Commission's ag~nts .
who made personal visits to 1,094 communities in which about
350,000 mine workers lived; 811 of these communities were controlled by mine companies and 283 were independent mining towns.
F1·om the unpublished material thus gathered the Women's Bureau
h as extracted facts which concern especially the women of the
miners' households.
ST ATIS TI CAL SUMMARY
I. Maintenance of homes.
1. Of the more than 700,000 coal-mine workers in the United
States in 1920, four-fifths of whom were in the bituminous regions
and one-fifth in the anthracite section, somewhat over one-half
were maintaining normal homes ; as might be expected four-fifths
of these homes were in the bituminous regions.
'.2. About 97 per cent of the married women living in mining regions
~ere maintaining homes. · .
35246°-25t--~
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WOMEN IN . COAlrMINE WORKERS' FAl"\iIUES
II. Number of_wives and daughters in mine workers' families.
In the coal miners' families there were, according to estimate,
approximately half a million (484,186) wives and daughters 15 years
of age and over, 374,582 af these being in the bituminous regions and
109,604 in the anthracite region.
III. Wives and daughters gainfully employed.
1. Of the 376,550 wives., 67,467, or about 18 per cent, were gainfully occupied, the corresponding proportion for the bituminous
regions alone beJng about th e same, but the proportion for the
anthracite section being a little larger, or about 21 per cent.
2. The main occupation of these employed wives was the job
of taking boarders and lodgers. Day work outside the home (laundering and cleaning) was only a secondary opportunity of employ.
'm ent for women with home cares.
3. Of all the States concerned, West ~irginia showed the highest
·,proportion of wives gainfully occupied, a little over one-fifth, and
-Maryland the smallest, one-tenth.
4. An analysis of the figures according to race and nativity discloses that among the wives of the negro, Italian, Russian, Hungarian,
and Yugoslavic mine workers, more than one-fourth o'f each group
.were gainfully employed, but only an eighth of the wives of the
native-born and of the German mine workers were so occupied.
5. Of the 107,636 daught_ers 15 years of age and over, 35,106,
or 32.6 per cent, were gainfully employed.
6. The 1,578 family schedules taken by the Coal Commission· in
1922 and 1923 reveal that approximately 14 per cent of the wives
in these families and 41.5 per cent of_ the daughters were gainfully
occupied.
7. It is obvious from the data on these 1,578 family schedules
that lack of employment facilities for young women in many bitmninous fields forces a large numher away from home; only 23 per
cent of the daughters 15 years of age and over, still members qf the
h ome circle in the bituminous fields 1 were at work as compared with
about 56 per cent in the anthraci.te region.
8. Of all the gainfully occupied daught€rs in· 1,578 families, ·s4
per cent were employed outside their own or other private ho:ipe,
a little less than two-thirds in the bituminous regions being ·so engnged as against nine-tenths in the anthracite field. Also a little
over nine-tenths of the girls gainf~lly employed in the latter region
were at work in factories, offices, or stores, as compared with a little
over two-trurds in the bituminous regions; but only about _9 per
cent in tne anthracite group were engaged in domestic and personal
s ervice as contrasted with nlmost one-third in the bituminous.
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE -WORKERS' FAMILIES
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IV. Contributions of wives and daughters to family income.
1. Nine-tenths of the gainfully occupied wives and daughters in the
1,578 families contributed regularly all or.part of their earnings to the
family fund, the average monthly contribution being $32.64. The
monthly average for the bituminous families, $27.97, was somewhat
lower than the monthly ave~age for the anthracite families, $35.74.
2. 'While 84 per cent of the daughters in the anthracite-mining
_families contribute-cl an average of $35.04 per month to their families-three-£ 9urths turning their entire pay envelope over to the
family fund-almpst 69 per cent of the daughters ·in the bituminous
fields added a monthly average of but $17.17 to the family support,
not much more than one-half of the gainfully employed daughters
visited cont1·ibuting all their earnings to the family.
3. In the anthracite region the contributions of the wives and the
contributions of the daughters formed about the same proportion of
the family income for a period of six months-less than 20 per centwhereas in the bituminous regions the wives' contributions constituted 25 per cent and the daughters' contributions 15 per cent of the
family income for the year ·studied.
V. Household duties.
1. Approximately 45 per cent of the wives in the mining regions had
households numbering 4, 5, or 6 persons; about one-fourth had from
7 to 11 persons. The size of households was noticeably larger in the
anthracite region (where about. 63 per cent of the households had 5
persons or more) than in the bituminous regions (where about 52 per
cent had 5 persons or more). The difference in the size of the households was undoubtedly due to the larger number of foreign born in the
anthracite field.
2. Of the total number of mine workers' homes, 11.5 per cent had no
children; one-third of the negro homes as compared with one-eighth
of the native-white and a little over 7 per cent of the foreign-born
homes were without children.
3. Practically 30 per c~nt of the homes of foreign-born mine
workers had five or more children as compared with approximately 18
per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, of the native-white and negro
homes.
VI. Home tenure.
1. Of the families maintaining homes, in both bituminous and
anthracite regions, somewhat less than a third owned their homes,
slightly more than one-fifth owning them free from encumbrance. In
many pioneer communities there was no chance whatsoever of home
ownership because of company-owned dwellings.
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
· VII. Community resources.
1. Of the 1,D94 communities to which the Coal Commission's agents
made personal visits, 811 were controlled by mine companies and 283
were independent mining towns.
2. About 30 per cent of the 15,486 anthracite-mine workers living
in company-owned houses were in towns of 25,000 population or
more, and approximately 25 per cent additional lived less than 2 miles
distant from towns or cities. Of the bituminous mine workers'
homes, 44 per cent had a place of less than 1,000 population as the
nearest town, only about one-eighth of these homes being within 2
miles of even such a town.
·
3. Of the 80,210 dwellings in 811 communities, a little over 20 per
cent had running water, about 3 per cent had a bathtub or shower,
and less than 4 per cent inside flush toilets.
The bituminous and anthracite sections showed a marked difference
in regard to the proportion of dwellings equipped with running
water- approximately 14 per cent and a little over 80 per cent,
respectively.
4. Outside privies with no sewer system were u~ed in 60.7 per cent
of the company-controlled communities, as compared with 28.5 per
cent of the independent communities.
5. Only 0.4 per ·cent of the companY:.-owqed bituminous communities and 2 per cent of such anthracite communities had sewerage
systems with which every house was connected; 4.2 per cent of the
independent bituminmis communities and 20.2 per cent of the inde.;..
pendent -anthracite communities had complete sewerage systems.
6. In the bituminous and anthracite regions of the company. c·ontrolled communities 66 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, of
the dwellings had electric or gas ·lights; a little more than 81 per cent
of the independent communities in the bituminous regions and over
88 per cent in the anthracite region had a public system of street
lighting.
7. Mining camps distant from towns .quite generally had made
provision for doctors' services, and in ·some instances, for the services
of a nurse; but all of the ·other institutions that are considered as
playing an important part in American community life were lacking.
They were absent also from many of the independent mining towns.
:8. Very few company-controlled mining communities had made
provision for recreation suited to the women in the camp, whereas the
majority of the independent communities provided such recreational
facilities.
CONCLUSION
The problems of the women in coal-mining.communities challenge
the attention of all persons concerned with the well-being of women
in industry and with the opportunities for employment and advance
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WOMEN IN GOAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
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men t of women forced to become wage earners to support themselves
or to aid in the maintenance of a family. Women are naturally an
· important factor in an industry like coal mining which of necessity
•is carried on in many instances in isolated localities. The presence
of the family is essential for keeping the mine workers in these regions,
and the help of the wives in maintaining normal homes means greater
efficiency on the part of the mine workers themselves. Moreover, in
mining communities many women are a more direct economic factor
in the support of the home and the family, serving in the capacity of
actual breadwinners in addition to the role of homemakers. There
were approximately half a million wives and daughters 15 years of age
and over in the minip.g regions investigated, and more than a fifth of
these were gainfully employed within or outside the home.
Because of 'the location of the coal mines, women in these communities who are forced to become breadwinners are faced in so many
cases with extremely limited opportunities of employment. Threefourths of the bituminous-mine workers were living in places classed
by the census as rural-that is 1 sufficiently remote from towns and
cities as to cut off g~inful occupation in many of the important avenues open to wo~en. . On the other h_and, less than a third of the
anthracite-mine workers lived in places classed as rural, and the
women in this group had more extensive and varied opportunities for
employment.
Consequ ently, it·is not surprising to discover that the census shows
a much larger proportion of the women in the anthracite region who
were gainfuUy employed (31.1 per cent) than in the bituminous
regions (18.3 per cent). Among adult daughters alone the difference
in the proportions in gainful occupations was much greater. The
large majority of the gainfully employed daughters in the anthracite
region were in manufacturing establishments-chiefly in silk and
other textile mills-and in commercial pursuits. The employed
daughters in the bituminous mine workers' families still living ·at
home were at work chiefly as salesgirls and domestic servants, a few
finding employment as school-teachers and operators in small factories.
The limited opportunities for employment for young women in ,the
bituminous regions are responsible for the departure of many daughters in need of gainful occupation from the mining regions to other
places more profitable from the point of view of available jf)bs, · and
make for an earlier breaking up of the family circle than would be the
case in a more normal community or as is the case in the anthracite
region. Daughters who have left home for such purposes are economically "adrift" and are less likely to contribute to the family
income, despite the need of their contributions, than if they had con·
tinued under the family roof.
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WOMEN IN COAirMINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
If industries desiring woman labor would establish themselves in
the immediate vicinity of the mining communities, in imitation of
the silk mills which moved into coal-mining regions of Pennsylvania
several decades ago, this arrangement might aid in the optming up of
employment opportunities for women in these segregated communities. The married women in mine workers' families, b ecause of confining home and family duties, are naturally more limited than are
the daughters in regard to opportunities for gainful employment,
even though the need for such may be· very urgent. The study of
the Coal Commission revealed that the overwhelming majority of
the breadwinning wives were supplementing the family income
chiefly by taking boarders or lodgers.
In connection with the women gainfully employed as well as with
those that are not, the home and community environment and resources constitute another challenging problem relatrd to the industrial situation. As already noted, only the presence of the family
can keep the mine worker in the mining region, and his wife therefore
assumes an unusual importance in this basic industry. Moreover,
the fact that the wife frequently looks after not only her own family
but -0ther mine workers boardjng or lodging in her home gives her an
added importance. The facilities available to mine workers' wives
should be of such a type as to enable them to carry on the work of
their households as efficiently as possible. The investigation revealed and emphasized the fact that this was generally speaking not
the case, but that the home and community resources were too of ten
far below what might be termed American standards. Most of the
company-controlled and the independent communities were inadequate in respect to home environment. Apparently insufficient
study and attention had been given to the improvement of the general
environment in mining communities either by the coal-mine wners
or the mine workers themselves. The difficulties of location in a few
instances had been overcome, but more frequently had been allowed
to dominate.
Especially conspicuous was the lack of adequate water facilities,
a deplorable condition in view of the extra amount of washing
necessary for cleanliness in connection with the coal-mining industry.
Such lack meant much inconvenience and additional labor for the
women. In comparatively few of the dwellings in either the company-owped or the independent bituminous communities was running
water found in the houses, and bathtubs or shower baths wer even
less frequent. The situation in the anthracite field was different
because of the proximity of so many of the dwellings to towns and
cities with p1:1blic water systems. Running water was reported in
the majority these houses 1 but this meant usually one faucet in the
house, and the prevailing rates for additional faucets were so high as
of
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
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to penalize in an illogical and unnecessary way the use of labor-&wing
devices. Bathtubs and shower ba.ths were also rare. The fact that
a few families in company-owned and _independent communities in
anthracite and bituminous regions had hot and cold water and bathtubs or showers is important not because it minimizes the seriousness
of the inconveniences in the majority of the mine workers' homes, but
because it shows that adequate water facilities are not an impracticable adjunct in co!3-l-mining regions.
·
Emphasis also must be laid on the general backwardness in the
bituminous regions in regard to satisfactory toilet arrangements,
surface privies, a generally acknowledged menace to health, being
commonly found. The anthracite region showed a slight superiority
in this respect, especially as sanitary sewerage systems were more
prevalent.
Lighting facilities were fairly good in both the bituminous regions
and the anthracite section1 since gas and electric lights we:re reported
in the mH,jority of the dvreliings, and electric street lights in most of
the communities.
There was much criticism of the general up}rnep of the houses and
communities, both the mine operators and the mine workers being
apparently responsible for the dilapidation and unattractiveness
reported. It is true that m any of the bad conditions result from the
industry and are difficult to eliminate entirely, but it must be remembered that such things exert a depressing influence on the women in
the coal-mining regions.
One great reason for the i~difference of the mine workers toward
the improvement of their environment is the feeling of insecure home
tenure, due to living in company-owned houses. Even though rent,
light, heat, and so on may be cheape; under such circumstances, there
is always the thought that loss of a job may automatically mean loss of
a home. This fear makes for a certain rootless quality of living among
mine workers' families in company-controlled communities. Independent communities have their drawbacks, too, since shortage of
housing facilities with resulting abnormal rentals, speculative transfers, and uncertainty of tenure complicates the situation.
In the matter of community resources, naturally the mining fields
located within easy reach of independent towns and cities have not
the same problem in regard to facilities for amusement and recreation
as have the isolated communities. An outstanding fact revealed by
the investigation, however, was that the great majority of the mine
work~rs' wives and daughters were living in regions strikingly devoid
of facilities which are necessary in the recreation and improvement for
women-public parks, reading rooms, libraries, r~t rooms, and girls'
clubs.
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES'.
Such are the principal factors entering into the lives of the half
million women-including the 100,000 gainfully employed womenin the families of the coal-mine workers of the United States. In view
of the importance of the extraction of coal to all other industries and
to the Nation's homes, in view of the importance of the women to the
coal-mining industry, and, finally, in view of the social importance of
so large a number of women, the foregoing facts as to . employment
status, employment 'opportunities, and home and community environment raise the question as to whether coal-mining companies, coalmining communities, and the Nation as a whole are returning to these
women value received.
Of course there is no information upon which to judge whether the
w0men in coal-miners) families are better or worse off than the women
in families of other wage earners similarly situated. Indeed, th~re is
no information concerning the number of women belonging to the
families of other great wage-earning groups. -But whatever facts
may be revealed concerning the gainfully employed women in the
households of these other wage-earning groups, they can n0t alter
nor obscure the facts now in the possession· of the public concerning
the approximately half million women in the families of coal-mine
workers.
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PART II.
EMPLOYMENT AND HOME CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE
WOMEN IN MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
Well over one-half of the more than 700,000 coal-mine workers in
the United States in 1920 were maintaining normal homes 3- wives
and children present in the mining regions. If only the wives and
daughters 15 years of age and over 4 are considered, there were approximately half a million women in these families. More than a fifth of
these half million women were gainfully employed in or out of the
home. Nine-tenths of the gainfully employed women in the 1,578
families visited contributed regularly to the family fund, the average
monthly contribution in 1922 being $32.64. Such is the skeleton of
facts as to the gainful employment of women belonging to coal-mine
workers' families. The skeleton is, however, the supporting structure of a body of facts vitally affecting the welfare of all the women
in the coal-mining region, the men in the mines, the mining industry,
and-through all of these-the Nation as a whole.
EMPLOYMENT AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
To understand the extent and character of the employment opportunities open to women belonging to mine workers' families, and to
visualize the home and community environment which bears so
directly upon labor stability and efficiency as well as upon the wellbeing and content of the women themselves, it is essential to take a
glancing view of certain demands peculiar to mining operations.
Unlike manufacturing industries the mining industry can not choose
its location with any reference to labor supply. It must bring its ·
labor wherever the coal seams run, and they run with no regard to
the adaptability of a region to community or family life or to the
employment needs of women. The seams may, and sometimes do,
run in or near populous centers. They sometimes strike through
well-developed farming centers. But more often they trail up the
sides and over the tops of mountains, pitch into deep ravines and
under creek beds, or stretch away into other places remote from, or
inaccessible to, normal centers of community life. Where the coal
seams go the mine worker must follow, and as the operating companies have found no other way to secure a measure of labor stability
a The term "normal home" is used in this study to distinguish the usual family-parents, or those standing in the place of parents, and children-from the boarding and lodging house groups of single men that
would be included in a census enumeration of households, but are generally excluded from this report.
• For method of computing number of daughters, see page 42 of this report.
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
the need for providing housing and community facilities for the mine
: worker's family becomes increasingly imperative as the coal seams
. run away from urban centers into the isolated places that are
included in the census classification of "rural." 5 Therefore it
should be kept in mind that "rural" as applied to mining centers
does not signify necessarily an agricultural community. Frequently
it m eans pioneering where mining operations are the sole producing
. activity and where the mining population-men, women, and
: children, must depend upon operating companies for all the facilities
'. of family and community life.
As already stated, four-filths of the approximately three-fourths
million co I-mine workers in the country were at work in the bituminous coal fields-the States of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Alabama being the chief pro. ducing areas-and the other one-fifth of the coal-mine workers were
employed in the anthracite mines, which lie in half a dozen com! pactly located counties of Pennsylvania.
; The families of these two great groups of mine workers present
: sha:rp contras.ts in the location of their homes with reference to norm al
. centers of community life. In rnzo, three-fourths of the bituminous. mine workers, taken a,s a single group, were living in places classed
by the Bureau of the Census as rural. Approximately one-half were
:housed in company-owned dwellings in company-controlled townsa fact which in itself, with some exceptions,°' refrncts the remoteness
of these families from independent urban centers. For about 44 per
cent of the famili~s so housed. the nearest independent towns · were
places of less than 1,000 population, and almost three-fourths of these
families were from 2 to 10 or mure· miles a;way from the villages.
Only 6 per cent of the bituminous workers' families who were housed
in company-owned dwellings had places of 10,000 population ozr ovel'
as their nea:res.t towns, and four-fifths of these families were from 2 to
10 and more miles away f:rom such towns .
The foregoing figures, conce:ming the distances of bituminous-mine
families born normal centers of population and the usual variations in
employment opportunities which such cen.ters affordr submerge in tlie
general average illuminating extremes o:£ isolation from, or contact
with, independent communities. In. West Virginia, for example,
over 93 per cent of the mine workers lived in places classed as rural,
and ove:r three-fourths were housed in company-owned dwellings in
company-controlled towns. In the Illinois and Indiana bituminous
fields 53 per cent to 60 per cent of the mine workers were in places
6 Incorporated
communities having tlilder Z,500 population.
exceptions are certarn Pennsylvania coal-miDling regions where·, in spite ot the fact that miningoperations are within reach oi the. labor supply of independent towns, a con.sidera:ble munber of the mine
workers, who are chiefly foreign born, are housed in company· dwellings:
6. The
•
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WOMEN IN COAirMINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
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classed as rural, but less• than 9 per cent were housed in companyowned dwellings.
·
·
Obviously, to women belonging to the families of workers in the
newer and more isolated bituminous-mining region/the need of bre~dwinning opportunities created a serious problem. For these regions
no statistical tables are required to show what is a matter of record
and of common knowledge, viz, that there were no industries to afford
employment to women. Only when the mine workers were employed
near the larger cities or in regions that had been fairly well settled
before mining operations began were the women of the bituminous
workers' families able to work outside the home while living wi~hin
the family circle.
To tlhis condition in many sections of the bituminous fields the
situation in the compact and populous anthracite region presented a
striking and in some respects an instructive contrast. Less t han a
third of the anthracite-mine workers lived in places classed by the
census as rural. Less than 10 per cent lived in company-owned
dwellings, and of those so housed ·m ore than nine-tenths lived in, or
could reach within an hour by train or trolley, places of 2,500 population or over. Sixty per cent of the anthracite workers were living
within the corporate limits of cities ranging in population from 5,000
to more than 50,000. Because of the elaborate network of steam and
electric railways and excellent roads, only an insignificant number of
anthracite workers' families, whether housed in company-owned or in
privately-owned dwellings, were-beyond commuting distance of urban
centers which afforded extensive and varied opportunities for the
employment of woman labor.
The pertinence and importance of the foregoing facts as to the location of the mine workers' families become apparent from a review of
the statistical tables in this report concerning the actual employment
of women in the more isolated bituminous communities as compared
with employment of women in the populous anthracite region. To
begin with, there is a marked difference in the proportions· of gainfully employed women in the two great coal fields. Computations
from the census population sheets and family schedules show but 18
per cent of the women in the bituminous families to have been bread·winners, as compared with 31 per cent in the families of anthracite
workers.
Among adult daughters alone the difference in the proportions of
gainfully employed was much greater. The schedules taken in the
1,578 families show that 23.1 per cent of the adult daughters in
•
bituminous fields were gainfully employed, whereas 55.7 per -cent of
the daughters- in homes of the anthracite-mine workers were breadwinners. In ·the anthracite field 90 per cent of the daughters were
gainfully employed outside their own or other private homes, whereas
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
less than 65 per cent of the wage-earning daughters of bituminous
miners were working outside the home. Of the gainfully employed
daughters of the men fo the anthracite mines, the great majority were
employed in manufacturing establishments-chiefly in silk and other
textile mills-and in trade. In the case of the bituminous-mine
workers visited, the gainfully employed daughters were at work
chiefly as saleswomen and domestic servants, a few finding employment as school-teachers and as operators in small factories. Even in
the matter of 'c ontributions to the family fund the difference in employment opportunities in the two regions is reflected. The daughters of anthracite-mine workers contributed to their families an
average sum of $35.04 per month, whereas the daughters of bituminous-mine workers paid only $17.17 per month into the family fund.
A significant consequence of these differences in employment
opportunities open to the young women members oJ mine workers'
families is discernible in the proportion of families having adult
daughters living in the family circle. Although there was only 5
per .cent difference in the proportion of families in the two regions
having daughters when the daughters were counted irrespective of
age, the proportion of anthracite families personally visited having
daughters 15 years of age and over within the family circle (28.5 per
cent) was almost half as much again as the proportion of bituminous
families having daughters so classified (19.5 per cent). These facts
indicate clearly the earlier departure from home of the daughters in
bituminous-mine regions, as the ages of the mine workers themselves
do not differ materially in the two fields, and the smaller proportion
of adult daughters in the bituminous fields is not chargeable to a
larger number of younger parents.
The effect of the early desertion of the home by so many of the
adult daughters of bituminous-mine workers upon the integrity and
solidarity of home life is not wholly within the scope of this study,
but the social consequences are there, nevertheless, and they in turn
exert an influence upon the women at work in and out of the home.
Furthermore, these consequences flow from the same set of facts that
exert other influences which are wholly within the scope of this study,
and stiLlothers that are intimately related to the subject. For example,
the adult daughters who are compelled to leave the parental roof in ·
. search of employment no longer have the moral protection of family
life nor the sense of security and stability that attaches to home
atmosphere. Such daughters are economically "adrift." 7 Whether
or not their earnings are needed in the support of the family, . the
7 The term "adriCt" was used in the Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the
United States (Vol. V) made by the United States Department of Commerce and Labor in 1907-1909 to
describe wage-earning women who bad not the backing afforded by the solidarity of the family group.
They migbt be boarding or lodging, keeping house singly or in heterogeneous groups, or living in institutions, but in all cases-they were "adrift" from normal family life.
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
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daughters who have left in search of breadwinning opportunities must
use a considerable part of their wages for separate shelter and other
facilities of civilized life. If all or the major part of their wages are
required for this purpose, the mine worker's family is helped only by
being relieved of the support of the woman breadwinner, and the
help that comes through the pooling of family earnings for common·
support is withdrawn from the breadwinning daughter as well as from
her family.
At this point it is important to keep in mind a well-known fact of
historical record, viz, that the employment opportunities within
reach of the women in mine workers' families of Pennsylvania were
not mere beneficent accidents. These opportunities were, on the
contrary, the result of a deliberate movement four or five decades
ago of the silk mills, and later of other woman-employing industries,
into the coal-mining regions of Pennsylvania for the avowed purpose
of drawing upon the women of the miners' families, as well as for the
purpose of being ~ear the source of fuel supply.
It is not beyond reason that this movement should be imitated
by employers who are in many places -now complaining of the scarcity
of woman labor; also, what resourceful independent communitie.3
did to attract varied industries half a century ago, and what is being
done in the same direction by new communities in other · regions
to-day, may be imitated by independent mining communities in
the newer bituminous-mining regions. For practically all of them
have the same incentive to keep at home, and in many cases they
have the same possibilities of keeping at home, the adult woman
labor as well as the man labor not required in mining operations.
Among the essential factors, of course, are suitable factory sites,
reasonably cheap fuel, and adequate transportation facilities.Lall
probably obtainable. It must not be overlooked, however, that the
prospect of increased employment opportunities for. women in the
families of coal-mine workers is directly affected by the probable
period of mine productivity. Where the duration of mining operations is known to be short, or has not been determined, productive
activities will be restricted to mining operations, and employment
opportunities in the community will be open, with few exceptions,
only to mine operatives and auxiliary labor. In such cases the
adult woman who must supplement the family income or lighten the
demands thereon often must leave the family circle in search of
employment. Manifestly this necessity operates first upon the
grown and half-grown children. The mine workers' wives, when
supplementing the family income, are not relieved usually of the
home-confining duties of _wife and mother.
Approximately 21 per cent of the wives of anthracite-mine
workers and 17 per cent of the wives of the men in bituminous mines
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
were gainfully employed. But, as might be expected, the overwhelming majority of the approximately 67,500 gainfully employe<i
wives included in the data drawn from the 1920 census population
sheets were supplementing the family income by paid labor in their
homes, chiefly by taking boarders and lodgers. The investigation
mn.de by the Coal Commission's agents in 1,578 coal-mine workers'
families showed substantially the same result as to the gainful
employment of mine workers' wives, and revealed the furth er fact
that these gainfully occupied wives increased the family income by
an average of approximately $37 a month ·by taking boarders and
lodgers, whereas the average monthly earnings of wives doing work
outside the h9me were about $10.75.
HOME AND COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENT
A shifting of attention from employment status and opportunities
for employment to h ome and community environment reveals the
obvious fact that the environment of the gainfully employed is likewise the environment of those not gainfully employed. Furthermore,
the large proportion of adult daughters in the bituminous-mine
families who were neither at school nor gainfully employed makes the
questio·n of home environment and community resources equally if
not more important for them than for those at school or in regular
employment. The tables in this report show that the proportion of
adult daughters at school in the bituminous fields was 16.3 per cent as
compared with 14.3 per cent in the anthracite field, the proportion
who were at home in the anthracite field was 30 per cent, as compared
with 60 per cent in the bituminous fields. The subject of home environment and community resources of all the women in the mine
workers' families gathers a new significance in the light of the nationwide interest in better homes-including better facilities for family
life-and in increased and improved means of recreation and education.
But the women in the mine workers' families most concerned in the
matter are the mine workers' wives, because they were, according to
the investigation, more than three times as many as the adult daughters and because they could not leave the home, except for a few hours
at a time. Even more important is the fact that the mine worker's
wife occupies a position of peculiar industrial and economic importance whether she falls in the class of gainfully employed or not.
The coal-mining industry is acknowledged as basic. Upon it the
operation of other industries depends, and without it bulwarks of
health and creature comforts in the home fall to pieces. The bunk
house and the mine boarding and lodging house long ago proved themselves inadequate to attract a requisite number of workers or to •
maintain a stable labor supply. Only the presence of his family
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WOMEN IN COAL-1'.flNE WORKERS' FAMILIES
17
can keep the mine worker in the mining region, and because of the
isolation of so many mining oper21itions the mine worker's wife
assumes an unusual importance to the industry. The, mine worker
can not at will substitute the restaurant for the family table as can
the wage earners in other important industries. He is more continuously dependent upon his home for the essentials of health and
. working efficiency. This is ·true whether or not the wife cooks and
keeps house for others_besides her own family, but those who do
supplement the family income by taking boarders and lodgers acquire
additional importance to the coal-mining industry because in the
bituminous fields, at least, such boarders and lodgers are almost
invariably mine workers. Indeed, in some company-controlled towns
the operating companies induce employees to t,ake mine-working men
into the family, not infrequently making the. occupancy of a. companyowned house conditional upon promise to take only mine workers as
boarders and lodgers.
Computations from the statistical tables in this report indicate
that the mine workers' wives were cooking and caring fo,r a total of
more than half a million mine workers, more than a hundred thousand
of whom were boarders and lodgers. For about 54 per cent of the
mine workers' wives the daily tasks were measured by the demands
of households ranging from 5 ·persons· to 11 or more. It is· an important fact that the families having boarders and lodgers were
those) in the main, having fewer than three children; at least the
majority of women who had to care for three or more children did
not also have to cook and care for men boa:rde:rs and lodgers. On
the other hand, the working efficiency of the mine-working father
and son is as important industrially as that of the mine-working
boarder or lodger, and, of course, the million and more children
heading straight from these homes into the ranks of American citizen.ship lend an exceptional social importance to the mothers because
of the remoteness of so many of the coal-mining fields from the civil
institutions of normal American population centers.
In view of these facts, the facilities available to the mine workers'
wives for the efficient perf~rmance of household duties, whether all
the wives are classed as gainfully employed or not, assume an
importance equal to that of the working conditions of any other
large group of breadwinning women. To get the full significance of
the facts as to these facilities, however, it is necessary to call attention
to a phase of mining that touches closely the working conditions of
the- mine worker's wife.
Coal mining is dirty work; not filthy, but oily, soiling, and smudging. A veil of eoal dust envelops the region, covering the homes
and home premises with a black deposit. Mining laws in many
places compel the companies to provide washhouses at the mine
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
where the men may "wash up" and leave their working clothes.
But, as a matter of fact, while mining companies maintain such
washhouses, their actual use by the mine worker is confined to a
minority of the men. Wbether or not this is voluntary, the custom
of going home to "wash up" makes additional demands upon the
water and washing facilities of the mine workers' homes. Speaking
of the restricted use of the mine washhouses in the anthracite region,
where working conditions and facilities of civilized life are regarded
as much more adequate than in the bituminous coal fields, the report
of the United States Coal Commission points out: .
Another matter pertinent to this discussion is the requirement of the Pennsylvania mining laws that mines provide washhouses for the mine workers.
Reports from the agents assigned to the living conditions study, as well as the
reports from agents assigned to certain phases of working conditions, show
that practically all of the mines have such washhouses, but the reports from the
same agents show that for one reason or another, thousands of men do not use
these mine facilities. Indeed, t he reports from agents describing family conditions for this study indicate that quite generally the mine worker comes home
"to wash up." This custom, whether enforced by inadequate facilities at the
mine for the number of men employed or followed voluntarily, puts an added
burden upon the domestic water service and upon the shoulders of the mine
worker's wife. 8
The use of the washhouse in the bituminous fields had the same
general limitations as far as the majority of the men were concerned,
so that the home water facilities were equally important in both
coal-mining regions. The physical environs, however, and the
methods of water supply were so different in the two regions that the
facts must be summarized for each separately.
In the bituminous fields the United States Coal Commission made
a survey of approximately 71,000 company-owned family dwellings
in 713 company-controlled communities having almost 100,000
bituminous coal-mine workers. The results of this survey summarized as to water facilities for the purpose of this report show that:
First. Although over 60 per cent of the company-controlled communities had water works, less than 14 per cent of the family dwellings in these communities had any running water at all. Only 2.4
per cent of the homes had a bathtub or shower.
Second. In over 85 per cent of the approximately 71,000 companyowned dwellings water had to be carried from outside the house.
Driven or dug wells, usually equipped with pumps, but not infrequently "bucket wells," constituted the prevailing method of water
supply.
Third. In less than one-tenth of the 713 company-controlled communities was each family supplied with its own well or hydrant. In
one-sixth of such communities there was a single water outlet for
every two families. . But in anqther sixth of these communities 6 or
•U.S. Coal Commission. Report on living conditions among anthracite-mine workers. In press.
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS" FAMILIES
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7 families used a single water-supply point, and in still another sixth
of such mining communities from 8 to more than 31 families were
dependent on one well or hydrant.
Fourth. While the summarizing tables in this report do not ~how
the distances over which water had to be carried for household purposes, the Coal Commission's agents reported members of mine
workers' families, including the wives, as carrying water over distances ranging from just outside the house to the equivalent of, "an
a~era.ge city block." In the northern bituminous-producing States
the labor involved in- carrying water was increased and ·complicated
during the winter months by snow drifts and ice-covered walks and
paths.
Fifth. Water service, of whatever nature it may be, was quite
generally included in the rental charge for company-owned houses
in the bituminous fields.
That the water facilities in privately owned houses in the 167
independent towns located in the bituminous-mining regions scheduled
by the Coal Commission's agents did not differ materially froin the
facilities available in company-controlled towns is shown by the fact
that approximately 14.4 per cent of the 167 independent towns, as
compared with 14.9 per cent of the company-owned towns, had
water piped practically to all home premises (not necessarily to the
inside of the houses), and 56.9 per cent of the 167 independent towns
had waterworks systems as compared with 60.8 per cent of the
company-owned towns.
The Coal Commission's caution should be quoted in connection
with the foregoing comparison of water service in independent and
company-owned towns:
It should not be overlooked * * * that water systems are installed in
company-controlled communities with littl~ reference to the improvement of
the mine workers' homes. * * * While in the ind.e penderit towns waterworks do not necessarily mean running water in the mine workers' houses, the
systems are installed with special reference to the welfare of community m embers
and running-water service in the home is largely a matter of the mine worker's
ability to pay for, and his inclination to have, such convenience for himself and
his family. 0
Another matter which requires passing notice is the frequent
comment that well-water service is all that most farmers' wives have,
and the labor of water carrying, therefore, is not the peculiar hardship of the coal-mine worker's family. The comparison is scarcely
valid. In the first place, every farmer's family has its own well.
In the next place, farming does not envelop the farm and the farmhouse in veils of black, oily dust, nor encrust the farmer's clothes
and person in soft coal grit that gives way only b efore continuous
g U. S. Coal Commission.
p . 30. Mimeographed .
Summarized report on bituminous-mine· workers and their homes, 192!,
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS ' FAMILIES
apJ)lications of warm, soapy water. In other words, the bituminous
coal-mining operations that are extracting new wealth from the soils
in old agricultural regions are also discharging wastes that create
new labor exactions from the women who feed and care for the
industry's workers. This is not to belittle the labor performed by
the farmer's wife. It serves only to point out that the widespread
efforts made by public and private farm-improvement agencies to
lighten the tasks of farm housekeeping by supplying running wat~r
for the wife are even more needed in regions where bituminous
coal-mining ·operations are under way.
In the anthracite field quite a different situation presents itself.
In the first place, because of the proximity of the anthracite mines to,
or their location actually withi..r1, independent towns and cities, the
mine worker's wife does not bear quite the same relation to her
husband's industry that the bituminous miner's wife does to the
bituminous industry. The anthracite worker can have recourse to
the ordinary town or city boarding house, to the public bathing
facilities, and to the recreation resources that prevail in the usual
American communities ranging in population from 5,000 to 50,000
and more. On the other hand, beca'use of the compactness and
populousness of the anthracite field, the dust from the anthracite
mines and the huge culm piles creates the same labor problem for
thousands of women in the families of other wage earners that it
does for the 78,000 anthracite miners' wives, more than 16,000 of
whom were supplementing th.e family income, chiefly by taking
boarders or lodgers.
Ninety-three per cent of the independent towns, where over ninetenths of the anthracite-mine families were living, had public waterworks systems, as compared with about 83 per cent of the companyowned towns. Of the company-ow-ned dwellings in the controlled
towns, 80.6 per cent were equipped with running water, though but
5.4 per cent had either bathtub or showers. In approximately half
of the independent towns having public waterworks systems was
water piped to practically every house in the community.
"Running water in the house " meant usually one faucet in the
kitchen, for which $6, $7.20, or $8 was the prevailing annual charge.
For an additional faucet, regardless of whether the volume of water
used was larger, an additional annual charge ranging- from $1.50 to
$4 was made. A bathtub entailed an annual charge of $4 to $4.80;
a washbasin equipped with faucet, $2 to $2.50; stationary washtubs
(not to exceed three), $3 to $4. The United States Coal Commission
publi hed this scale as "the schedule of one of the water companies
having a number of subsidiary companies" (in the anthracite field)
and as one "which does not differ substantially from any of the other
companies in the matter of rates."
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WOMEN IN C0~¥INE .WORKERS' F AMIUES
A water-company rule published in connection with.,the for_eg-oing
rates is of peculiar significance t0 the anthracite miner's wife and.
family in view of the nature of the chief wage earner's occ_u pation.
This rule provides that "no consumer shall conduct hot or cold water
.to any fixture by mfans of a hose or otherwise without paying the
regular rate for such fixture." In other words, the mine worker's
wife may carry all the w~ter she needs from the faucet ,to the stove
and the stove to the tub or basin or sink, and the family income wil}
be taxed only the minimum rate, but if she uses the same amount
of water, ·drawing it through another faucet placed over a sink, tub,
or basin, or even if she seeks to reduce her labor by attaching a hose
to the kitchen faucet, an additional charge is made.
Whatever degree of economy in the use of water may be necessary
in the anthracite region because of the prevailing use of the wet
process in mining hard coal, this practice of virtually penalizing the
use of labor-saving devices would seem -both illogical and unnecessary.
It is illogical because the industry's waste discharge calls for a region al
policy of fixing water rates that encourages rather than discourages
the use of cleansing facilities. It is unnecessary because meters
would check a wasteful use of ·water without discouraging the use of
labor-saving devices by the mine worker's wife and family.
The water facilities in the homes of both bituminous and anthracite
workers have been discussed with special reference to the miners'
wives because, as previously stated, they are numerically more
important and because their presence in the coal-mining regions is
more essential to the stability of the industry, but it is obvious that
the daughters at home and at work are intimately concerned in the .
conditions above described. Coming home at the close of a day's
work to a house whose restricted water facilities are under heavy
drain to meet the needs of the mine-working men in the household
and to supply the cooking requirements of the evening meal does not
constitute an en~oura.gement to a gainfully employed daughter to
remain in the home as long as employment opportunities will permit.
On the whole, ample supplies of water not only are essentials of
health, but are an indispensable basis of comfort and cheerfulness.
The United States Public Health Service, in a report on a special
sanitary survey made for the Coal Commission, calls special attention
to the bearing of the facilities for bathing and cleansing on the health
and happiness of the women and children in the mining communities.
It says:
There is another factor entering into the lives of the people residing in mining
camps which has received but scant attention. Bathhouses and change houses
are lacking in the vast majority of the settlements. Dirty-faced miners wearing
th eir working clothes are so universal that any other condition would excite
comment. In a very few patches, however, bath and change houses have been
provided for the miners. Here the working clothes are kept and dried while the
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22
·
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
miner is .at home, while his street clothes are likewise kept while he is working.
After work there are ample facilities for thoroughly removing the dirt and grime
acquired while at work. But even in these few places there are no public bathing
facilities for the women or children. Likewise, there are no public laundri es,
such as might facilitate the washing of clothes, and eliminate unsightly and
offensive accumulations of wash water from the gutters ~ear the homes. 10
Th e disc·u ssion of water facilities, lik~ the discussion of all other
factors affecting the welfare of the employed and unemployed
women of the mine workers' families, applies to the majority of company-controlled and independen t mmmg communities-. Water
facilities as shown for the majority of mine workers' families do not
rep.resent the small minority at either end of the scale of "-quipment.
Some families living in company-owned houses, like many mine
workers' families living in well developed independent towns or
cities, had hot and cold water and bathtubs or showers. Some families, too, had distressingly meager and inconveniently located water
supplies, and these were often perilously unprotected from pollution.11
The importance of these extremes should not be overlooked.
They show that adequate facilities are not an impracticable adjunct of
coal-mining life; they show also to what a level of drudgery daily living
falls when a mining community's water resources are little more than
n ature has provided. But limitation of space and funds restricts
discussion of extremes in water facilities as extremes in all other .
matters to a mere reference to their importance. What prevails and
what affects the women belonging to the majority of coal-mine
workers' families necessarily constitutes the burden of this report.
The character of water facilities prevailing in the majority of
the coal-mine workers' families is a fair index of the other facilities which enter into the livability of home and community. Less
than 4 per cent of the more than 80,000 company-owned family
dwellings scheduled in the bituminous and anthracite regions had
inside flush toilets; only five (six-tenths of 1 per cent) of the 811
company-controlled towns in the two coal fields had all the houses
connected with sewers. Of the 283 independent towns located in the
two coal-mining regions and included in the commission's investigation, almost 11 per cent were sewered throughout; about 45 per cent
of such towns and three-fifths of the company-controlled communities had no sewers at all. These communities depended entirely
upon privies, some of which were provided with cesspool and septic
tanks, but more of which, in the bituminous regions, were merely
surface privies. Concerning these facilities the report of the Coal
Commission s~ys:
10 U.
p. 32.
11 U.
p . 33.
S. Coal Commission. Summarized report on bituminous-mine workers and their homes. 1924.
Mimeographed. S. Coal Commission. Summarized report on bituminous-mine workers and their homes. 1024.
Mimeographed.
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS? FAMILIES
23
* *
Manifestly, the best type of privy
* will become a marplot and
health menace if left without care. The poorer types of construction, namely,
the surface, fly-exposed, loose structure affairs, are inevitably unsightly and
unsanitary at the start, and without care, quickly become indescribably filthy
~nd indecent. 12
That there was a ..general lack of adequate care, as well as of adequate sewage disposal facilities, especially in the bituminous regions,
is made plain not only by the Coal Commission's report but also by
the sanitation report incorporated therein, that of the United States
Public Health Service, which says:
There can be no question as to the general backwardness of the bituminous
coal patches as regards satisfactory methods of disposing of human excreta. In
many mining camps and towns, too, it is apparent that the importance of the
subject is but partially realized. Moreover, it is plain that little progress has
been made since the establishment of the towns.
The average sewerage ratings in the anthracite coal districts show a slight
superiority over those of the bituminous regions. It is probable that the higher
ratings * * * are due to the relatively infrequent use of smjace privies, the
greater number of sanitary sewers, greater size of the communities, better
supervision of excreta disposal and better -economic conditions. 12
The foregoing comparison-to the slight advantage of the families
of anthracite-mine workers-lends further importance to the fact that
nearly four-fifths of the women belonging to the mine workers' families
were living in the bituminous fields.
It is important to refer at this point to the fact that a comparison
of prevailing sewage-disposal facilities of the average farmhouse with
those of the average mine worker's home is no more valid than the
comparison of water facilities, for, unlike farming, mining operations
bring mine workers' families together into communities of hundreds,
sometimes thousands, of people. One privy more or less faulty in
construction or lacking in care is neither a pleasant nor a healthful
adjunct of a farmhouse, but hundreds of such marplots within an
area of a few acres will well-nigh submerge all other assets of home
and community livability, to say nothing of imperiling the health
of every person who lives or labors within reach of the privy
emanations.
An encouraging contrast to the standard of equipment maintained
in the toilet facilities was the lighting facilities prevailing in both
company-owned and independent towns. Over 61 per cent of the
80,000 company-owned dwellings were equipped with electric or gas
light, and nearly 84.3 per cent of the independent towns had electric
street lighting. An exception was the company-owned house in the
anthracite region, which was not so important because of the relatively small number of families housed by the companies and because
(as already described) of the location in, or the close proximity to,
u U. S. Coal Commission.
p . 34. Mimeographed.
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Summarized report on bituminous-mine workers and their homes. 1924,
24
WOMEN IN CO.AL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
the independent towns. Of course, for the families :and communities
who were without adequate iighting facilities, the depressing-not to
say unsafe--gloom was not relieved by the fact that the majority
of other mine workers' families and communities had the cheer and
the protection afforded by good light. It is haro.ly necessary to call
attention to the fact that the women-especially the gainfully
employed women who had to come home after dark-were particularly concerned in the proper lighting of the streets of a community.
No statistical tables have been incorporated in this report refiecting
the general layout and the degree of upkeep in mining communities,
as the purpose of such tables is served efficiently by brief quotations
from the Coal Commission's published report on these subjects.
Speaking of the inherent physical obstacles to satisfactory community
planning which confront many coal operators, the _report says:
Difficulties of n'a tional location frequently confront the operators who must
bnild towns in precipitous country. Sometimes they are ov-ercome; more
frequen tly .t hey are allowed to dominate.'13
The United States Public Health Service in its special report says:
* * * It jg at once apparent that insufficient study and attention ha
been devoted to the improvement of the general environment in many mining
towns. For one thing it can not be expected that grass, trees, flowers, and gardens will thrive on slate dumps, where so many houses have been thoughtlessly
located. Nor can suitable streets, walks, or playgrounds be maintained under
such conditions. While not directly concerned with sanitation, suitable environment is believed to exert a subt le yet nevertheless certain influence upon the
human mind. Moreover, it is felt that a favorable mental reaction is reflected
in increased happiness and contentment, which in turn aids in the mainteI)ance of health.H
The Coal Commission's findings as to the general upkeep of company-controlled towns in the bituminous-coal mining regions are
reflected in the following quotations:
Repair and general upkeep are as important in determining the character of
a community as are plan, construction, and equipment. The repair of company houses appeared to be a subject of constant controversy between individual
mine workers and mine officials. Tenants contended almost uniformly that it
was a difficult matter to get defects and dilapidations corrected b y the companies without repeated complaints and insistent demands. On the other hand,
there was general complaint by company officials that the tenants willfully or
carelessly destroyed company property. Unquestionably it is true of tenants in
company houses-as of tenants in houses rented for 20 times the amounts they
pay-that they do not take care of other people's property as they would of
their own. Sometimes the mine workers make repairs at their own expense.
Sometimes the companies provide materials and the tenants do the work. Many
exceptions were found to the prevailing neglect, but they were not so numerous
as to constitute more than exceptions. In places where some pains were taken
1a U. S. Coal Oomm.issi001.
Summarized report on bituminous-mine workers and their homes.
p. 19 et seq. Mimeographed.
u Op. cit. p. 32.
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1924.
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WOMEN
IN . COAL-MINE
WORKERS' F AMILlES
25
to keep the houses painted, .it seemed to be done usually as a measure for preserving the property rather than to increase its attractiveness, for the colors
were uniform, and frequently ugly, throughout the entire community. In this
respect too, there were refreshing exceptions, expressing an appreciation that
monotony of color has an irritating and unsettling effect, like monotony of sound,
and affects the comfort and content of human beings.
In the worst of the company-controlled communities the state of disrepair at
times runs beyond the power of verbal description or even of photographic
illustration, since neither words nor pictures can portray the atmosphere of
a bandoned dejection or reproduce the smells. Old, unpainted board a nd batten
houses-batten going or gone and boards fast following, roofs broken, porches
staggering, steps sagging, a riot of rubbish, and a medley of odors-such are
features of the worst camps. They are not by any means in the majority; but
wherever they exist they are a reproach to the industry and a serious matter
for such mine workers and mine workers' families as are dependent upon the
companies for living facilities. 15
Because of the limitation of time and funds it was not practicable
to appraise the efficiency of the general upkeep of the mine workers'
homes, interspersed as they were with the homes of other wage
earners, in the independent towns located in the coal-mining regions .
Furthermore, except for the moraJ responsibility resting upon mining
officials who, through wealth or other influence, may dominate such
civically-controlled centers, community and home standards are
considered to be within the control of community members. A
very considerable number, sometimes amounting to a majority, of
these community members were the mine workers and their families.
In the anthracite region, however, there are some important factors
entering into the physical environment of the mine worker's family
for which the mining companies are responsible, whether or not there
is any practicable way of reducing or eliminating the sinister effects.
Chief among these are the huge culm piles, whose hundred years of
climbing has marred the sky line and scarred and charred the landscape. In addition, these piles hoard beneath their ever-spreading
bases a great acreage of land much needed for homes. These landabsorbing culm piles materially increase the housing shortage, which,
in some places in the anthracite region, results in such overcrowding,
and in the use of such dilapidated structures for housing, as to make
the communities targets for country-wide criticism. Secondly, the
extraction of this culm, together with the clean, hard coal sent to the
Nation's home fires and furnaces, has left beneath the surface cavities
that still further restrict home building, even where mining operations
have ceased and where no culm pilP.s preempt the land. Caving-in is
not uncommon, and the fear of damage suits from settling surfaces
has kept mining - companies from selling the land near abandoned
mines even though a land-hungry people and a shortage of housing
make a responsive market for home sites. Thirdly, the wet process
11
Op. cit. p. 21.
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26
WOMEN 'IN COAirMINE WORKERS' FAMIUES
of coal cleanin~ used in the anthracite fields has turned the rivulets
and creeks into black, muddy streams that spread over acres of land
a coat of black silt which kills vegetation, destroys the comeliness of
a naturally comely region, and still further reduces the housing
facilities for an already overcrowded region.
These evils may _not be avoidable or even reducible by the operators,
but the conditions grow out of the industry, and they exert a depressing influen~e, especially upon the wiv es and children in the mi ne
workers' families . On the other hand, while the an thracite operators,
because of the wealth they control, are a powerful influence in framing
public policies, the anthracite-mine workers have shown themselves
strong enough to bargain collectively and effectively with the operators. Furthermore, the workers-naturalize<l and native-their
wives, adult daughters, and sons constitute a goodly number of the
electorate, which, in the last analysis, is responsible for the progress
or lack of progress made toward the solution of problems growing
out of the industry.
HOME TENURE AMONG MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
The . general indifference toward upkeep, reflected in the paragraphs from the Coal ~ommission's report, quoted in the foregoing
pages .is inextricably bound up " ,ith one of the most important
factors in the home life of the women of any family and particularly
of the women in the homes of the coal-mine workers. The nationwide movement for better homes, which carries with it a strong
current for home ownership, appeals with speciRl force to the women
of the household because they are most concernec;l in the security of
home t enure. The gainfully employed w<;> man, holding her job onlr
at the pleasure of her employer, has a sense of security that finds
expression in a b etter bargaining power when she returns at night t(?
a home that is owned by her family. When th ere hovers in the back
of her consciousness the possibility that a belated rent payment, an
expired lease, a rise in rental, or other circums.t ances which neither
she nor her family can control may mean an "order to vacate " not
only does she lose affection for, and interest in, the home premises but
she loses that sense of security· essential to a proper valuation of h er
own services as an employee. The psychology due to insecure home
tenure is too well understood to require more than mention here as a
preliminary to the ~liscl.osures of the statistical analyses _in this 1•eport
showing that 31 per cent of all the coal-mine workers studied, owned
their homes in part or in whole, as compared with 46 per cent'of the
entire pop~lation; that for West Virginia and some of . the other
newer but highly important bituminous-producing States the proportion of coal miners' families owning their homes runs below 20
per cent; and that the proportions of home ownership tun highest
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WOMEN IN COAirMINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
27
for the States where there were fairly well-developed communities
before coal-mining operations were initiated.
Wnere the company owned the mining town, there was, with one
or two exceptions, 16 no home ownership by the mine workers in the
town. It is true that the mine worker living in a company-owned
house pays relatively a smaller rent, usually gets heat and light at
much less cost, has water facilities, whether they be antiquated or
modern, at less expense, and is assured of medical service at a much
smaller outlay than is available to the family living outside the company town; but, as previously indicated, the very exigency of mining
in remote places requires that when a mine worker ceases to work in
a company's mine he must, as a rule, cease to live in the company's
house. So essential is this rule that the leases covering occupancy
of company houses stipulate that when. a mine worker ceases to work
for the company for any cause whatsoever the right to occupy the
company house terminates automatically. To 1nsure the effectiveness of the stipulation the leases provide varying penalties for failure
to surrender possession of houses to the operating company upon
termination of lease. Two dollars a day (.normal rent of cottage $6
to $10 a month) may sometimes be deducted from accrued wages for ·
every day the cottage is occupied beyond the date of lease ter:rp.ination. In some cases all accrued wages may be withheld until possession of cottage is surrendered. The owning operator always reserves
the right to evict the miner tenant and family without incurring
liability for any injury resulting from the process to the mine worker's
belongings. It should be borne in mind that this termination of the
lease with cessation of work in the company's mine is not contingent
upon the voluntary withdrawal of the mine worker from the employ
of the company; the mine boss may discharge the worker, or the
latter may be forced by circumstances to cease working for the company. Whichever it may be, he loses his right to the home both for
himself and his family when he loses or gives up the job. In times of
industrial disturbance especially, ·men have not dared to look elsewhere for work, fearing that their families would be evicted if the
companies discovered that the tenant miners ha~ gone in search of
other employment.
This is not to say that it is the custom of operators to turn a family
out of a cottage when the miner is ill or injured or even when slack
work in the mine during times of industrial peace has thrown the
miner practically out of employment. On the contrary, cases of
eviction of a family because the miner was injured or too ill to work
in the mine were not found during the Coal Commission's investiga1& A few companies have made the experiment of selling sites and dwellings to the mine workers to stabilize
mine labor.
35246°-25t-o
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WQMEN ·[IN _COAI.rMINE WORKER ' · FAMILIES
tion of 713 company-controlled mining communities in the bituminous regions. Indeed the instances were frequent in which the
miner's family lived on in the company's house during the illness or
after the death of a miner who had been a vietim of a mine accident;
But these are measures of mercy and are as elastic as the social
sympathies of the operators. Neither the mine worker nor his
family has any protection in law that would secure to him notice of
lease termination and days of grace in wh.ich to p:rovide for the safe
and orderly transfer of his family to anoth r shelter. But deeper
than this lies the constant thought that in health or in sickness, in
prospe~·ity or in poverty, there is no security of tenure which attaches
to a home leased under the ordinary tenancy laws of any State, and
which attaches especially to the ho~e w ich the mine worker's
family owns in part or in whole.
Finally, the mine-working tenant of a company-owned cottage
yields somewhat of that dominion over his abode which is considered
to make of every man's home a castle. Under a company lease the
mine worker frequently agrees "that he has nly the right of ingress
and egress for himself and his immediate family;" "that he will not
entertain without the company's consent persons objectionable to
the company;" "that he will not take into his house without the
operator's consent boarders or lodgers who do not work in the comp any's mine, and he grants to the owning company the right of
entrance to his house for purpose of inspection any hour of the day
or of the night."
This condition can not fail to exert a telling influence upon the
gainfully employed daughters, grown and half-grown, in the miner's
family. It is in itself enough to account for the markedly small proportion of bituminous miners' families, as co pared with the families
of anthracite miners, who have adult daugh ters under the parental
roof. Mention has been made in the foregoing pages of the sense of
security which is usually possessed by the gainfully employed women
who live at home. Manifestly this psychological asset of the breadwinning women not "adrift" is reduced mate ially by the uncertainty
of home tenure wh.en such women belong t mine workers' families
occupying company-owned dwellings. Of course, upon the daughters
who are not employed-and over three-fourths of those living at
home in the bituminous regions were so rep rted-the insecurity of
home tenure exerts an influence even more ndesirable.
But upon the wives who must stay, more than upon the emp1oy-ed
and unemployed daughters who may leave, the insecurity of home
possession puts the greatest strain. The vital connection between
her husband's job and the roof that shelters her children and herself
creates for the mine worker's wife an ever pr sent possibility that any
day he may come from work with both job and home gone.
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WOMEN . IN COAL-MINE WO,&.KERS
1
FAM1LIES
29
Apart from, though a conseq,u ence of, the uncertainty -of'leasehold
on the home there is a rootless quality about life in ·a company-con-trolled town. It is a coal-mining "camp." A. woman may have
lived and labored there a month or a lifetime; her babies may have
been born there ; h er boys may have grown into manhood, may have
m:ined through the years of matUJ"ity, and gone to graves dug close
by the scenes of their labors; but still it is a mining" camp." What's
in the name is in the grain of the wife's thought as it is in the thought
of her family and of the public. It is the ever present sense of tempo:rariness, a place not in which to live, but in which to camp-for a
month, a year, or perhaps a lifetime. In physical conditions the community may fall anywhere in the wide range previously shown to
characterize mining centers. The camp may be a model, made so
by the resourcefulness and sense of social obligation of a coal operator
who in the teeth of a snarling opposition from nature has carved a
townsite out of the hillside or wedged it between mountain base and
concrete wall that holds in check unruly river or overflowing creek;
it may be laid out with care, built, equipped, .and kept up with an
envisioned liberality. Or the camp m ay be at the other end of the
scrile- a collection of sordid shanties in disheartening unrepair, surrounded by an indescribable clutter, and not infrequently enveloped
in odors arising from conditions which stamp the owning operator as
a breeder of social and physical disease. Or it may be one of th·e
ordinary camps, rows of red or brown, yellow, green, or mud-colored
cottages strung along a creek bank, flung helter-skelter up the hillside,
or sown in hit-or-miss clusters in a rolling valley or over a level
tableland-none of them very bad or very good, just drab, aloof,
without community root. Not the best, nor the average, nor the
"vorst mining community, if -owned and controlled by the operating
company, can be anything but a camp, and on no camp will descend
that spirit of "to have and to hold" that is at once the breath of life
and the stimulator and regulator of healthful community growth.
Especially do the womenfolk of the mine worker's family reflect
this camp or "mining-patch" complex:
·
It's no place for girls to live in-no place to bring up a family. We've bee~
here 20 years and more; seen managers come and managers go-some good and
some bad. But _after 20 years we have nothing that we can call our own.
This is the utterance of one woman, but its import is that of all
the others commenting clearly or confusedly, with calmness or with
impassioned vehemence, on mining life in the company-owned camp.
The fact remains, however, that until independent communities
have built up around the present isolated mining regions, as in the
earlier days of Pennsylvania's mining fields when factories were
Qrected to use the women and young la_b or of the mine worker's
family, other houses being built in turn to meet , the demands of the
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30
WOMEN IN COAirMINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
growing industries, the company-controlled camp will be a necessary
evil. In many cases the building up of independent communities
and privately owned homes will have to come on the initiative of the
operating companies, who frequently own all the land within convenient reach of the mine.
It is plain that under ordinary tenancy laws the ownership and the
leasehold of homes even in independent communities have their drawbacks for mine workers' families as for others. Conditions described
in the anthracite region in connection with the physical environment
of mine workers' families complicate the problem of ownership and
tenancy, for an increasing shortage of housing facilities necessarily
results in abnormal rentals, speculative transfers, and uncertainty of
tenure.
·
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
When mining communities are within easy reach of independent
towns, the question of community resources has not the same importance that attaches to such facilities in the isolated mining camps.
The schools, motion pictures, girls' and women's clubs, churches and
church societies, the b~nks, libraries, commercial est ablishments, and
all the other accessories of civilized life are at the service of the women
in the mine workers' families, provided, of course, that the term
"within easy reach" means possibility of access when there is but
an hour or so to spend in recreation or amusement. For a large
majority of the more than 78,000 wives in the families of the anthracite-mine workers this was the case. It was also the case for a few
of the wives in the families of the bituminous-mine workers occupying
company-owned houses in districts that had been fairly well populated and civically organized before mining operations began. It was
the case also for a considerable number of women belonging to mine
families living in the larger independent towns in the bituminous-coal
regions. But for one-half of the approximately 300,000 wives in the
families of bituminous-coal workers the facilities for recreation and
amusement were confined to those provided by the operating comp_anies. What these community resources were in the companycontrolled towns in the bituminous fields is best told in the words
of the Coal Commission's report:
Among other community resources which are important factors in living conditions are educational facilities, provisions for medical and dental service, institutions of public worship, and means of recreation and amusement. The most
conspicuous facts about resources in the company communit ies themselves may
here be summarized as follows:
In the majority of the communities provision for recreation and amusement is
so meager as to be almost negligible.
Educational facilities were rated at 75 or over in 44 per cent of the communities
which were scored in the field on· the basis •of 100. These facilities were not
always provided by . S.tate or. county boards of equcation, but .sometimes were
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
31
subsidized by the companies, and sometimes supported by a school tax deducted
from the pay of the mine workers.
,
Medical service was within reach of practically all the communities, but with
varying degrees of ease. One physician sometimes serves several communit ies
and is therefore not able to respond to calls promptly. Dental service was
within practicable reach qf only a small minority of the communities. Hospital
and nursing service, except in model communities, is not within convenient or
even reasonable distance, taking into consideration the condition of the roads
and the available transportation facilities.
Churches, or buildings which were available for church services, were found in
a majority of the communities. Frequently the same structure served more tha~1
one denomination and other purposes than tl~at of a place for church activities.
In some cases the community has raised money for the erection of a church, the
company contributing to the fund. 17
The United States Public Health Service digressed sufficiently
from the main object of its report to comment on this feature of
mining life in the bituminous fields with special reference to- the
children. As facilities which provide wholesome and safe play for
children lighten the labor and care of the working wife and mother,
the quotation is pertinent to this report. The Public Health Service
says:
The absence of playgrounds in many mining camps, especially for the smaller
children, is particularly noticeable. In a few of the larger places apparatus of
a simple type is provided, but the grounds are invariably in poor condition, the
locations frequently difficult of access, while skilled supervision of play is universally lacking. · Now that supervised play is deemed a necessary part of a child's
mental and physical make-up some thought could well be directed to this phase
of health maintenance. '8
The foregoing quotation refers alike to company-owned and independent towns in the bituminous-coal communities. In the matter
of playgrounds· and other recreation.a l provisions, as in all other resources of community life, the miners' families in independent towns
generally do not depend upon the operating companies. With all
the other members of the community, they possess th.e privileges
and duties of initiative and progress. That these privileges and duties
have been met, by and large, in about the same degree as in independent American villages, towns, and cities of corresponding population in the East and Middle West, · is indicated by the statistical
tables in this report which summarize the facts as to facilities for
recreation, education, and other group activities. These tables
show that 64 per cent of the 283 independent communities scheduled
in the bituminous and anthracite regions had dance halls, that 76
per cent had motion-picture shows, 54 per cent had basket-ball
teams, 79 per cent had church clubs, 37 per cent had playgrounds,
29 per cent had public parks, and 14 per cent had rest rooms. Over
17 1J. S. Coal Commlssioa.
p. 21. Mimeogrnpbed.
18 (;p. cit. p . 32.
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Summarized report on bituminous-mine workers and their homes
1924.
32
WOMEN IN COAL- MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
four-fifths of the towns · had resident physicians, -though only 27 per
·cent J;i.ad public and 35 per cent private nurses. In less than onefifth of the towns there were -public libraries or reading rooms. As .
might be expected, the larger the town the more ample were the
community resources.
The outstanding faet revealed by the table summarizing community resources is that, with few exceptions, the lower percentages
prevail for the facilities in which the recreation and improvement of
women are most concerned-public parks, reading rooms, libraries,
rest rooms, girls' clubs. This is even more conspicuous in' the assembly of facts concerning "the company-owned towns. In other
words, the community resources affecting the approximately half
million women in the mine workers' families were not such as to
offset materially the usual disadvantages of physical environment
which attach to life in coal-mining communities whether company
or civically controlled.
.
THE RACE FACTOR AS AFFECTING LIVING CONDITIONS
Finally, while Americanization is not an obj ect ive of this report,
it is important to know the racial origin and aspect of the families
to which these half million women belong in order to assess properly
the importance and the r eciprocal b earing of t he conditions described in_ the foregoing p ages. Isolation, drab or dingy physical
environment, monotonous and resourceless community life are of
varying social and industrial importance. When confronting a
woman into whose blood and bones are bred the spirit and tradition
of normal American community life these factors obviously have an
effect different from that which results when the same conditions
confront a woman whose family is presided over by a m un born
abroad, laboring to secure for himself and his family a foothold in
coal-mining regions, with no understanding of the civil institutions
and community facilities which constitute the living body of normal
American ~ommonwealths. To the woman of American birth and
extraction conscious and subconscious fellowship with the American
people is a powerful offset to detaching isolation, even though she
may live in the remotest of coal-mining communities. She has
always the serise of belonging to the American Nation, f.nd if she
leaves the mining community for a normal American community
she is but going among her own people. This is not the case with the
woman belonging to the family of the foreign-born worker, particularly if the mother and the woman herself were born abroad.
To her whose father has come direct from the old country to work
in the mines, the coal-mining community-whether populous independent town or isolated company-controlled mining camp- is
America. Only the memories and traditions of the homeland stand_
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WOMEN IN -00:A.L-.MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
33
by for comparison with her present environment. When she leav,es
the mining community in s-earch of employment, or per.haps to go
to a home of her own, she carries with her ..all the old country traditions, and only .h er experience with the coal-mining community to
serve her as a standard of American life.
It is important to know that of the 376,500 normal homes in the
coal-mining regions -0f continental United States, nearly 15-0,000
were presided ov-er by the fo:raeign born. It is encouraging that the
relatively .largest proportion of foreign born-constituting nearly
two-thirds of the mine workers there- were in the populous anthracite region, where constant intercourse with American community life was inevitable. The largest actual number of foreign born,
however, were in the bituminous regions, where four-fifths of the
women in coal-mine workers' families were to be found.
The Polish led all other foreign born in the number of - homes
maintained in all coal-mining regions. They constituted over 20
per cent of the homes presided over by the foreign bom 1 or about
8 per cent of the. total number of homes, native and foreign born
t ogether. The Italian born were next in order, with a record fairly
close to that of the Polish born; Austrians and Russians came hext in order, these four together constituting over 60 per cent of all
the foreign-born mine workers maintaining normal homes in the
coal-mining regions and about one-fourth of the total of 376,500
normal homes in these fields.
A careful scrutiny of the tables in this report will reveal racial
influences on many conditions which enter into standards of home
and community life-such as the number · of gainfully employed
wives; the number of children at home, at school, and at work;
the number in the household; and the ownership of homes. They
tell an instructive story and one whose drift does not always run
parallel with popular conceptions of standards prevailing in families
of native Americans as compared with families of the foreign born.
One fact exerting a direct and important influence upon the women
in the coal-workers' families should be mentioned in closing. The.
Coal Commission includes in its published reports 19 tables showing
the literacy of mine workers. These tables are not reproduced in
this report. But the condition there disclosed, that of the mine
workers born in non-English-speaking countries, ·23 per cent were
unable to read or write in any language and that nearly 13 per cent
did not speak English, created an economic risk for all th e mine
workers' families whether native or foreign born in those regions
where no law existed on the statute books forbidding workers un1
Jg
U. S. Coal Commission. Summarized report on bituminous-mine workers and their homes. 1924. :
Mimeographed:
p. 14.
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34
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
able to understand English from going into the mines. Coal mining
is a hazardous industry at best, and the mine worker who can neither
receive nor give a written warning, and who can understand no
warning, written or spoken, if given in English, not only is an extra
hazard to himself and his fellow workmen of whatever country of
origin but creates a special hazard for the women in the families
of. his fellow workmen as well as for the women in his own family.
Every mine worker crippled or killed puts an added burden upon
the gainfully employed women in his household and increases the
need of employment opportunities for the others•
. I
.' '
I•
;
.
••,• •,
:'•
I•\
;
:
!
,•
.''
1;
I·
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'
PART III
ANALYSES OF STATISTICAL TABLES
In the preceding section which contains the principal factors
entering into· the lives of the approximately half million women
in mine workers' families-including the 100,000 gainfully employed
women-a picture of the family life and an outline of the social and
economic problems of the women in coal-mining communities are
presented. It is important, however, to give in detail the statistical
information which has made possible the foregoing discussion.
Accordingly this part of the report is concerned with the analyses
of the statistical tables. The sources and methods used in compiling
these tables are given in the introduction. MAINTENANCE OF "NORMAL HOMES " IN MINING REGIONS
As four-fifths of all coal-mine employees were reported in -t he
bituminous region it is not surprising that four-fifths of the homes
maintained by such workers were located in these fields. Table 1
shows the States in which the larger numbers of normal homes were
located. Pennsylvania, with more than 20 per cent of all mine
workers' homes in her anthracite field and 23 per cent of all mine
workers' homes in her bituminous fields contained, therefore, 43 per
cent of all the mine workers and their wives in continental United
States. West Virginia and Illinois follow, each with approximately •
one-eighth of the mine workers' homes; then come Ohio and Kentucky,
each with about 7 per cent. Although Table 1 shows Alabama to
have only 2 per cent of the homes, it is probable that it ranks next to
Indiana in the number within its mining regions since, as previously
stated, less than one-half of the family records of Alabama mine
workers were included in the Coal Commission's tabulation.s. Iowa
shows about 2 per cent of the mine workers' homes; Tennessee,
Virginia, Missouri, and Oklahoma each between 1 and 2 per cent.
No other State rt veals so much as 1 per cent of the mine workers'
homes.
A slightly larger percentage of the homes in the anthracite region
than in the bituminous regions were presided over by wives of mine
workers. This is due to the fact that the percentage of single men
and men with wives abroad is larger for the bituminous than for the
anthracite fields.
35
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36
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES-
T ABLE
1.- Number of mine workers' homes in the principal coal-producing States
and number presided over by fath er and mother, by locality
[From 1920 United States census population sheets]
Homes presided
Homes maintained over by father and
mother
Locality
Number
Per cent Number P er cent
All Sta.tea _______ ___ ______ • ___________ _- - -- _____ __- ______ __
411 , 482
,100. 0
376, 550
Bituminous-mining .regions, t-0ta.L_____________ _________________
327, 605
79. 6
298,385
f-----1----1--
P en us y Jm:i n i a ___ ---------------------------- - - --___ ___ ___ ___
West Virginia_________________________________ ____________
Illinois___ ________________________________________________ __
Ohio ___ ___ _________________________________ _______________
Kentucky____________________________________________ ______
Indiana_ ____________________________________________________
Iomr _______________________ ----------------- __ _________ ___
Alabama _____ ________________________________________ ·____ __
!~iJ:1:8-
Olrlahorna___________________________
__________ __ ____________
=================================================
lVIaryland_____________ ___________ ___ ___ _____ _____ _______ ___
Michigan ___ ___ ____ ___ _________ ____ ____ ______ ______________
Western States______________________________ ______ ________ _
Anthracite-mining region of Pennsylvania ______________________ _
94, 322
54, .753
52, 947
31, 089
28, 065
16, 526
8, 524
8,257
iiii
5, 511
3,410
1,273
2, 627
83,877
22. 9
13. 3
12. 9
7. 6
6. 8
4. .0
2. 1
2. 0
1. 9
1. 6
1. 5
1. 3
86, 157
49,033
48,367
:28, 103
26, 258
15,345
7, 579
7,436
7,302
6,199
5,257
4,809
~8
•3
.6
3,071
1,205
20. 4
78, 185
2,244
The United States Coal Commission did not tabulate the countries
of birth of mine workers' wives. It concerned itself only with the
birthplace of the head of the family. While the country of birth of
the father is not necessarily that of the mother the i..-rifluence of the
father's racial characteristic.s and traditions is too important to be
overlooked in a study of factors entering into the envir:onment of
wives and daughters. Table 2 lists, therefore, the countries from
which have come mo.st of the mine workers having families with them
in the mining regions. In the bituminous regions about 60 in every
• 100 were born in the United States, whereas in the anthracite field
only 35 in every 100 were so classified. Nor had the anthracite field
m any native negroes, ·whereas 7.5 per cent of those employed in the
bituminous fields were negroes. Practically 23 per cent of all mine
workers maintaining homes in the anthracite field were Polish. No
other foreign group approximates the Polish in numbers, although
about one-eighth were born in Russia. In the bituminous fields
Italian heads of families were more numerous than those of any other
foreign race, the Austriam, next in number, having less than threefourths as many, and the Poles, ranking thiTd, having about twothirds the number.
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• 37
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES·
2.-Number of mine workers' h-0mes and number presided. over by father
and mother in the bituminous and anthracite regi ons, by country of birth of mi?:1,e
WDrker
TABLE
{From 1920 United States census population sheets]
Homes
maintained
Country of birth of mine
worker
Number
Per
cent
Homes p resided
over by fatb~r
and mother
Number
Per
cent
Homes presided over by father anri
mother inBituminousmining regions
A nthracitemining regio:a
Number
Per
cent
Number
- - - - --
--All oountries __ _______ __ 411, 482
United Sta.tes, white ___ _______ 223,950
United States, negro ___ _______ 26,411
Foreign countries, tot:i.L _______ 161, 121
Poland ___________________
Italy __ __________ ____ __ ___ 32,624
27,447
Austria __________________ 21,404
British Isles ____ _________ 18,675
Russia __________ _________ 17,920
Czechoslovakia ___________ _ 14,615
Hungary ____________ .. ___
9, 3S3
Germany ________________
5,720
Yugoslavia .... _________ ..
5, 451
All other. ___ ______ ____ ___
7, 882 .
1
Per
cent
100. 0
376,550
100. 0
298, 365
. 100. 0
78, 185
100. 0
54. 4
6.4
205,567
22,.301
148,082
54. 6
5. 9
39. 5
178,444
22, 2S0
97,641
59. 8
7. 5
32. 7
27, 123
21
(1)
51,041
35. 3
30,976
25, 063
19,828
16, 706
16, 741
13, 817
8,623
5,111
4,757
7, 060
8. 2
6. 7
5. 3
4. 4
4.4
3. 7
2. 3
1. 4
1. 3
13,047
19,537
14,223
11, 3!)4
7,138
9,896
7,442
4,533
3,762
6,669
4. 4
6. 5
4. 8
3. 8
2. 4
3. 3
2. 5
1. 5
1. 3
2. 2
17, 92!)
5,526
5,605
5,312
9,603
3,921
1,181
578
995
391
22. 9
7. l
7. 2
6. 8
12. 3
5. 0
1. 5
.7
1. 3
.5
39. 2
7. 9
6. 7
5. 2
4. 5
4. 4
3. 6
2. 3
1. 4
1. 3
1. 9
1. g
34. 7
Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.
MINE WORKERS' WIVES GAINFULLY EMPLOYED
More than 97 per cent of the married women living in -mining regions were maintaining homes. The 3 per cent who boarded or lived
with their mothers have been excluded from this report because their
numbers were too insignificant to b e carried in the statistical summ aries. As th.e preceding tables show, there were 376,550 wives
presiding over homes in mining regions, and Table 3 in dicates that
over four-fifths devoted all their time to the duties involved in home
making. The remainder were supplementing the family income by ·
earning money.
The mine workers' wives who were remuneratively employed
numbered 67,467 . The census figures concerning the number of
households taking boarders or lodgers, together with T able 4 based on
families personally interviewed, leave no doubt that the chief means of
earning money afforded women who must maintain homes in mining
regions is taking boarders or lodgers . In the more isolated bituminous-mining regions this involves not only cooking and the care of
sleeping quarters but doing the laundry for boarders and lodgers.
In many camps it is customary for the boarders to bring their own
food, the wife of the household cooking for each boarder as well as for
her own family. While this system probably makes for greater satisfaction among the boarders it must entail much more cooking on the
pa.rt of the housewife than if the same food were cooked to be eaten
by family and boarders alike.
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38
WOMEN IN COAL- MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
· The only other remunerative tasks which commonly fall to the
mine worker's wife are in day work-laundering or cleaning-in the
homes of mine official or professional men attached to the mining
community. As such homes are few in number compared with the
number of mine workers' wives, day work can be considered as only a
secondary opportunity of employment for women with home cares.
TABLE
3.-Employment of mine workers' wives inside or outside the home, by
locality'
[From 1920 United States census population sheets]
Mine
workers
maintaining
homes
with
wives
present
L:>cality
M ine workers having wives gainfully
employed
In home
T otal
Number
Per
cent
Number
Mine workers
having wives
not gainfully
employed
Outside
home
Per Num- Per
cent ber cent
Number
-- - - - - - - -
Per
cent
All States ___ _______________ ____ 376, 560
67, 467
17. 9
65,610
17. 4 1,848
0. 5
Bituminous-mining regions, total. ____ 298,365
P ennsylvania ____________________ 86, 157
"\-Vest Virginia _____________ ____ __ 49,033
Illinois __________________________ 48,367
50,924
17.1
49,344
16. 5 1,580
0. 5
247,441
17, 128
10,421
7,101
3,943
4, 354
1,854
1,097
1,315
788
852
644
618
306
16, 890
10,106
6,792
3,797
4,179
1, 775
1,017
1,232
766
836
578
.3
.6
.6
.5
.7
.5
1. 1
1. 1
.3
.3
I. 3
.7
306
192
294
19. 6
20. 6
14. 0
13. 5
15. 9
11. 6
13. 4
16. 6
10. 5
13. 5
11. 0
12.1
10. 0
15. 9
13. 1
238
315
309
146
175
79
80
83
22
16
66
34
204
299
19. 9
21. 3
14. 7
14. 0
16. 6
12. 1
14. 5
17. 7
10. 8
13. 7
12. 3
12. 9
10. 0
16. 9
13. 3
----12--
------
80.1
78. 7
85. 3
86. 0
83. 4
87. 9
85. 5
82. 3
89. 2
86. 3
87. 7
87.1
90. 0
83.1
86. 7
16, 543
21. 2
16,275
20. 8
78. 8
Ohio
__ -------------------------Kentucky
__ _______________ ____ __
Indiana
----------------------Iowa _____
_______________
- _____ -- __
Alabama ___ ----------------------
❖1~~1!~~
====: ==: ====== ======= ==
Missouri._---------------------Oklahoma _______________________
Maryland _______________________
Michigan ____ _____________ _____ _
vVestern States _____________ _____
28, 103
26,258
15,345
7,579
7, 436
7,302
6,199
5,257
4,809
3,071
1, 205
2,244
Anthracite-mining region of Pennsylvania ___ __________________ __ --- _ 78, 185
TABLE
309, 083
::::=r===:::==:
584
5
1.0
.2
69,029
38,612
41,266
24, 160
21,904
13,491
6,482
6,121
6,514
5, 317
4,613
4,191
2, 765
1,001
1,945
268
.3
61,642
=
82. 1
82. 9
4.-Gainful employment and earnings .of wives of mine workers, by locality
0
[From family schedules: Figures taken for one year ended December 31, 1922, in bituminous fields and
for six months ended March 31, 1923, in anthracite field]
Wives taking boarders or lodgers
Locality
All fields represented ______
Bituminous fields in
Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, Ohio, and
Illinois _____________ _
Anthracite field of
Pennsylvania _______
Wives having other gainful employment
I
I
NumNumber doingber of
AverAve,. Averfamilies
age
age
age
visited Num-number earn- Num- LaunearnTeleings
ber dering Sewing phone Farm ings
be, bo..-d
per
ers or
or clean- or cro- oper- work
per
ing by cheting ating
lodgers month
month
day
- -- -- - -- - - - - - - - 1,578
~I ~
866
98
2. 1
712
90
1. 5
--
1 $36.
I
I
89
2
35. 77
1
38. 09
32
27
25
21
67
6
In two families boarders paid in foodstuffs supplied to the famil y .
Four women also took boarders.
3 One woman aJso did laundering.
1 Three women also took boarders.
10ne woman also took boarders.
1
1
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34
2
3
2
1
1
1
1
------ ·- ------
$10. 75
9. 88
13. 85
39
WOMEN IN ·c oAir MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
Table 3 indicates also that the proportion of wives gainfully
employed varied considerably from State to State. It was highest
in West Virginia and lowest in Maryland, the former having 21
wives and the latter 10 wives gainfully employed of every 100 maintaining homes. Pennsylvania shows a slightly higher proportion of
wives at work in the anthracite field than in the bituminous field:;,
the figures being 21.2 per cent in one case and 19.9 per cent in the
other.
The proportions of women maintaining homes who were also
gainfully employed varied more by nationality than by State. Oneeighth of the wives of German mine workers were employed, and
but slightly more of the wives of native whites. More than a fourth
of the wives of negro mine employees, and of Italians, Russians,
Hungarians, and Yugoslavs, earned money to supplement the
husband's income. Table 5 shows that the race having the largest
proportion of wives leaving the home to work was the negro, and
only 2.1 per cent of these worked away from the home premises.
TABLE
5.-Employment of mine workers' wives inside or outside the home, by
country of birth of mine worker
[From 1920 United States census population sheets]
Mine workers having wives gainfully
Mine
employed
workers
maintaining
Country of birth of mine worker homes
Total
In homes Outside home
with
wives
_pres- Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per
.. ent
ber
cent
ber
cent
ber
cent
--- ---
Mine workers
having wives ·
not gainfully
employed
Number
- - -
--
Per
cent
All countries __ ________________ 376,550
87,467
17. 9
65,619
17. 4
1,848
0. 5
309,083
82. 1
United States, white ________________ 205,567
United States, negro _________________ 22,301
26,571
5,916
12. 9
26. 5
0. 4
2.1
178, 996
16,385
87. 1
73. 5
Foreign countries, total_ _____________ 148,682
34,980
23. 5
"·'" I''-'
833
473
7,570
7,094
4,410
4,936
2,520
2,849
2,301
638
1,445
1,217
24. 4
28. 3
22. 2
29. 5
15. 1
20. 6
26. 7
12. 5
30. 4
17. 2
Poland _________________________
Italy ___________________________ 30,976
25,063
*~~~1~a__ -------.----------------
19,828
741
British Isles ___ _________________ 16,
16, 706
Czechoslovakia _________________ 13,817
Hungary _______________________ 8,623
Germany _______________________
Yugoslavia _____________________ 5,111
4,757
All other_. _____________________ 7,060
5,443
24. 4
34,438
23. 2
542
.4
ll3, 702
76. 5
7,469
7,006
4,349
4,865
2,446
2,812
2,270
613
1,428
1,180
24.1
28. 0
21.9
29.1
14. 6
20. 4
26. 3
12. 0
30. 0
16. 7
101
88
61
71
74
37
31
25
17
37
.3
.4
.3
.4
.4
.3
.4
.5
.4
.5
23,406
17,969
15,418
11, 805
14, 186
10,968
6, 322
4, 473
3,312
5,843
75. 6
71. 7
77. 8
70. 5
84. 9
79. 4
J3. 3
87. 5
69. 6
82. 8
DAUGHTERS IN MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
The family schedules secured from coal-mine workers indicated
that while about three-fourths of the bituminous-mine workers had
daughters, only 19.5 per cent had daughters 15 years of age or over
~till living at home. When compared with the figures for the anthracite region, it is obvious that the lack of employment facilitie·s for
young women in many bituminous fields forces a large number away
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40
WOMEN _IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
from home. The.re was no great difference in the two fields in the
proportions of daughters 15 years of age and over who went to
school, but while about 56 per cent of the young women of this age_
in the anthracite region still members of the home circle were at
, work, only 23 per cent of daughters in the bituminous-mining regions
' had been employed during the year 1922.
; TABLE
6.-Daughters in mine workers' f amilies at school, at home, and at work,
by locality
[From family schedules: Figures t aken for one year ended December 31 , 1922, in bituminous fields and
for six months ended March 31, 1923, in anthracite field!
Locality
Status of daughters 15- years of age and
overNum•
ber of
daughfamiters 15 At school
At home
At work
years of
lies
visited
age and
over Num- P er Num- P er Num- Per
Num- Per Num- Per
ber cent ber cent.
ber cent ber cent ber cent
Families
having
Number of daughters
Families
having
daughters
15 years of
ag_e and over
Bit uminous fields in
Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, Ohio, and
Illinois ___ _____________
Anthracite field
of
Pennsylvania. ________
866
643
74. 2
169
19. 5
221
36
16. 3
134
60. 6
51
23.1
712
564
79. 2
203
28. 5
287
41
14. 3
86
30. 0
160
55. 7
The limitation of opportunity for employment in bituminous
regions is further emphasized in Tables 7 and 8. Whereas ninetenths of the girls in the anthracite region worked outside the
home in factory, office, or ·store, almost a third of the girls in the
bituminous fields were employed in domestic or personal service.
The silk mills in and around the anthracite region afforded employment to the largest number, although factories making various
products employed a considerable group. The stores and offices in
the cities and towns also furnished opportunities to many girls,
while schools, hospitals, telephone exchanges, hotels, restaurants,
power laundries, and aB other establishments resulting from organized
community life offered employment opportunities to some of the
daughters of anthracite-mine workers.
.
Within reach of only a few of the older bituminous-mining regions
were factories to be found which gave employment to the mine
worker's daughter. The large store in each small mining community
may have one or more girls as saleswomen, or a girl cashier; the school
may have a local mine worker's daughter as teacher; the doctor's
wife may prefer a young woman for cleaning rather than a mine
worker's wife; but adding together all opportunities for employment
that may occur in the sparsely settled bituminous-mining region
there could not possibly be enough work for the girls 15 years of age
and over-estimated to number more than 75,000-in the families
of bituminous-mine workers.
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7.-Character of employment of mine workers' daughters, by locality
TABLE
[From family schedules: Figures taken for one year ended December 31, 1922, in bituminous fields and for six months ended March 31, 1923, in anthracite field]
Daughters whose place or
employment was-
Daughters the character or whose employment was-
Number
of gain- Outside own or Within own or
fully
other private
other private
employed
home
home
daughters
Locality
Number
-
I
P er
cent
Number
Per
cent
Total
Total
Number
Per
cent
Domes- Personal
tic
Number
Per
cent
Manu- Me- Trade
factur- chani- (sales- Clerical Professional
ing
cal women)
--- - - - --- --- - - - - - - --- ------ - - - - - -
All fields represented .• ___________________
211
177
83. 9
34
16.1
30
14. 2
28
Bituminous fields in Pennsylvania,
West Virginia, Ohio, and Illinois ...
Anthracite field of Pennsylvania. ____
51
160
33
144
64. 7
90. 0
18
16
35. 3
10. 0
16
14
31. 4
8. 7
16
12
TABLE
Other employment
Domestic or personal
2
-------2
181
85.8
92
35
146
68. 6
91. 3
8
84
3
------3-
42
'1:'I
17
13
29
6
21
8
g
8.-Detail of character of employment of mine workers' daughters, by locality
[From family schedules: Figures taken for one year ended December 31, 1922, in bituminous fields and for six months ended March 31, 1923, in anthracite field}
Number of daughters in-:.
Locality
Domestic
service
Manufacturing
Number
of gainfully
employed
daughters
Total
Other
textile Glass
Silk
mateand
goods rial and lamps
clothing
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51
160
7 ------- 35
83
Professional
service
Power
Tele- laundry,
Trade
phone sewing,
(sales D ay- Hotel
Cashoperat- milliwomen)
Nurses
ing nery at
All
work and res- Stenog- iers School- and
taurant raphers and teachers other
in
other
home
homes work
others
- - - --- --- --- - - - --- ---
--Bituminous fields in P ennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Illinois _________________________
Anthracite field of Pennsylvania ____________ ______
Clerical service
-------22
4
2
3
24
13
29
16
12
-------2
1
5
3
11
7
6
1
3
2
5
1
4
lzj
~
~
1-i
t:
l:_zj
U1
42
WOMEN IN COAlr MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
The United -States Coal Commission did not separate adult daugh. ters from adult sons in tabulations made from census sheets. In
order to ascertain approximately how many adult daughters there
were in mine workers' families, the information taken from family
schedules (see Table 6) has been used in connection with the figures
on normal homes from the census records. There were,. for example,
78,185 normal homes in the anthracite field. The schedules from 712
representative anthracite-workers' families 20 show that 28.5 per cent
had daughters 15 years of age and older at home. Applying ·this
figure to the total number of normal homes would indicate that there
was a total of 22,283 families having adult daughters. The family
schedules further show that the average number of adult daughters
per family was 1.41, so that there would be about 31,419 daughters 15
years of age and over in the families of mine workers maintaining
homes in the anthracite region. The family schedules further show
that 55.7 per cent of the adult daughters of anthracite workers were
employed, indicating that approximately 17,500 girls living under the
parental roof of anthracite-mine workers were wage earners. The
same method was used to determine the probable number of daughters
and employed daughters in the bituminous fields. The validity of
the deductions depends, of course, on the representativeness of the
families personally visited. The resulting figures shown in Table 9
indicate that there were more ·than 76,000 daughters 15 years of age
and over still living under parental roof in the bituminous fields, as
compared with a little over 31,000 in the anthracite field, but that
about an equal number of daughters in each field-approximately
17,500-were gainfully employed.
9.-Actual number of mine workers' wives · and computed number of all
adult women in mine workers' families gainfully employed, by locality
TABLE
[From Tables 3 and 6]
J'vline workers' wives
Locality
Total
number
Gainfully
employed
Number
P er
cent
Computed number of
adult daughters
Total
number
Gainfully
employed
Number
P er
cent
Computed number of
adult women
Total
number
Gainfully
employed
Number
Per
cent
- -- -- -- -- ----- -- All fields ..••••••••.• 376,550
67, 467
17.9 107,636
Bituminous fields .•••••••• 298,365
Anthracite field ... •..••.••• 78,185
50, 924
16, 543
17.1
21. 2
jQ
For method of selecting families, see pp. 2-a.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
76,217
31,419
35,106
32. 6
484,186 102,573
21. 2
17, 6061
17,500
23.1
55. 7
374,582
109,604
18. 3
31. 1
68,530
34,043
43
WOMEN IN COAirMINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
CONTRIBUTIONS MADE BY WOMEN TO FAMILY INCOME
Combining figures on the actual number of wives at work with the
estimated number of daughters at work gives a total of more than
100,000 women breadwinners in mine workers' families. This is
about one-fifth of all wives l¼nd daughters living in the family circle.
In the anthracite region about 23 in every 100 adult women in the
· families personally visited were adding to the ·family income, whereas
in the bituminous fields the proportion of women who contributed
regularly to the support of the family was about 14 in every 100.
The information concerni'ng income secured by visiting mine workers' fami!lies was to the effect that 90 per cent of the wage-earning
women in the families regularly turned into the family fund all or
part of their earnings. As appears in Table 10, the amount so contributed averaged in 1922 about $28 per month among the women
in bituminous-mine families, and for the six months ended April 1,
1924, averaged $35.74 per month among the women of anthracite
workers' families.
TABLE
10.-Number of gainfully employed wives and d_aughters and their contribution to the family fund, by locality
[From family schedules: Figures taken for one year ended December 31, 1922, in bituminous fields and for
six months ended March 31, 1923, in anthracite field]
Number of gainfully employed women contributing to
the family fund
Locality
Irregularly or
, Regularly
Numnot at all
ber of
CamiWomen
Wives gainlies
Avervisited and
age
daugh- fully
emPer month- NumNumPer
ters ployed
ber
cent lyconber
cent
tribution
--
-All fields represented . . ..• .•.•••
1,578
2,069
427
I
385
90. 2
$32. 64
42
9. 8
Bituminous fields in Pennsylvania,
West Virginia, Ohio, and Illinois ...
Anthracite field of Pennsylvania. ____
866
712
1,082
987
171
256
I
155
230
00. 6
89. 8
27. 97
35. 74
16
26
9. 4
10. 2
1
Two women did not receive money for services because boarders paid for board and lodging in foodstuffs .
The breadwinning wives of the mine families studied gave all their
earnings for the support of the families, so that the earnings of the
wives shown in Table 4 represent also their contributions to the family
income. In the bituminous fields iri 1922 the wives' earnings represented 25 per cent of the yeiuly income of the families studied;
in the anthracite field for the six months covered by the field survey,
they formed less than 20 per cent of the family income. 21
21 U. S. Coal Commission. Report on cost of living and family budgets among coal-mine workers'
families. In press.
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44
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
Table 11 shows that not only was the employment of young
daughters materially less in the bituminous regions but the amount
of the monthly contribution made by the girls giving regularly to
the family support was only half as much as in the anthracite field.
This is due in part to the smaller proportion who turned over all
their earnings to the family purse, in part to the character of employment, and in part to its irregularity during .the year. While
about 83 in every 100 daughters in the anthracite-mining families
contributed an average of $35.04 per month to their families-threefourths turning their entire pay envelope o-rnr to the family fund-69
in every 100 gainfully employed daughters in the bituminous fields
added a monthly average of but $17.17 to the family support. Not
much more than one-half of the daughters in the families visited in
the bituminous region contributed all their earnings to the family .
Whereas, therefore, the proportions which wives and daughters in
the anthracite-mine homes contributed to the family fund were
substantially the same, in the bituminous-mine homes visited the
contributions of the daughters constituted but 15 per cent of the
family income as compared with 25 per cent contributed by the gainfully employed wives. · These wives and daughters were not necessarily in the same families, of course, in either region.
TABLE
11.-Number of gainfully employed dauohters and their contribution to the
family fund, by locality
[From family schedules: Figures taken for one year ended D ecember 31, 1922, in bituminous fields and for
six months ended March 31, 1923, in the anthracite field]
Adult daughters
Gainfully empl o:,·ed daughters contributing
to the family fu.nd
·'
Gainfully
employed
Locality
'I'otal
number
Number
P er
cent
Irregularly or
not at all
-
Regularly
Number
Average
P er monthly
cent
contribution
Number
contributing
Entire P art
e&rn- earnings
ings
Number
Per
cent
- -- -- -- - - All fields represented .. __
508
B ituminous fields in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio,
and Illinois ________ ____ ____ _
Anthracite field of Pennsylvania . .. ··-····-·- __________
221
51
23. 1
35
68. 6
17.17
19
16
16
31. 4
287
160
55. 7
134
83. 8
35. 04
101
33
26
16. 2
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211
41. 5
169
80.1 $31. 34
120
49
42
19. 9
--
'
WOMEN
IN
COAirMINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
45
HOUSEHOLD DUTIES OF MINE WORKERS' WIVES
Although the earnings of a mine worker's wife are a material contribution to the support of the fa:r;nily, in the coal regions, as elsewhere, a wife's great service is the care she gives to husband and
children within the home. As stated previously, there were 376,550
women maintaining homes in the mining regions studied. The
tabulations of family data upon which were based the following
tables showing numbers in the household and ownership of homes
included all the mine workers' homes regardless of whether the family
was presided over by the mother; that is) the homes in both anthracite and bituminous regions presided over by single men, . widowers,
or men whose wives were absent were included in the commission's
tabulations. 1-,he influence of this inclusion has been obviated to
some extent by the elimination from the figures in Tables 12 and 13
.of the approximately 9,000 men-2 per cent of all-maintaining
homes for themselves. The remaining 6 per cent of homes without
wives is too small to affect materially the conditions revealed by th e
94 per cent which were normal homes.
Some 45 of every 100 wives in the mining regions had households
numbering 4, 5, or 6 persons; more than 25 in 100 had from 7 to 11
or more persons for whom to cook and clean and launder. The
size of households, as shown in Table 12 following, was noticeably
larger in the anthracite region than in the bituminous. In the bituminous fields, 48 in every 100 households had less than 5 persons, as
compared with 37 per 100 in the anthracite field; among the anthracite workers, almost 33 in every 100 wives as compared with less
than 24 per 100 in the bituminous fields had 7 or more persons to care
for. This difference in the size of households was undoubtedly due
to the larger number of foreign born in the anthracite field. As
Table 13 makes clear, the larger households in all fields were among
the foreign born. While 35.5 per cent of the foreign born had households numbering from 7 to more than 11 persons, only 19. 7 per cent
of the native white women, and but 13.9 per cent of the negro women
had this number of people in their care. One-half of the homes of
negro women had less than 4 members and about a third of the
native white homes were so reported, whereas less than a fifth of the
homes of the foreign born fell into this category.
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46
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS 1 . FAMILIES
TABLE
12.-Number of persons in mine workers' households, by locality
Mine workers having households consisting of-
Number of
mine
Locality
workThree
Four
Two
Five
Six
persons
ers'
persons
persons
persons
persons
households
having
2 or
more Num- P er Num• Per Num• Per Num• Per Num• Per
persons ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent
present
-- -- -- ---- -All States .. . ·- · ··-·----- __ 402, 724,52, 027
12. 9 65, 077
Bituminous-mining
regions, _
total. ________ _ · ______________
319,238 44, 583
I 28 1
14. 0,54,
16. 2 68, 559
17. 0 62, 339
10. 5151, 725
1
12. 8
17. 0,55, 578
17. 4 49, 181
15. 4 39, 864
12. 5
9,528
8,325
7, 454
4,315
4,515
2,619
1,329
1,697
1,022
931
1,048
846
356
153
425
10. 3 12,634
15. 8 9,138
14. 5 9,770
14. 3 5,244
16. 3 5,407
16. 1 3,215
16. 3 1,498
21. 2 1,657
13. 3 1,279
14. 3 1,132
18. 2 1,191
16. 2
931
10. 6
553
12. 2
185
17. 3
447
13. 7 14,063
17. 3 8,920
19. 0 10,094
17. 3 5,350
19. 5 5,044
19. 8 3,383
18. 3 1,655
20. 7 1,363
16. 6 1,334
17. 4 1,103
20. 7 1,083
17. 8
997
16. 5
626
14. 8
197
18. 2
466
15. 2 14, 165
16. 9 7,665
19. 6 8,358
17. 7 4, 775 ,
18. 2 4,202
20. 9 2,625
19. 0 1,217
17. 0 1,048
17. 3 1,206
17. 0
997
18. 8
888
19.1
898
18. 7
540
15. 7
188
19. 0
389
15. 4 12,699
14. 5 6, 2-36
16. 2 6,344
15. 8 3, 758
15. 1 3,250
16. 2 1, 856
14. 9
13. 1
15. 7 1,017
15. 4
837
15. 4
614
17. 2
625
16. 1
446
15. 0
166
245
15. S
13. 8
11. 8
12. 3
12. 4
11. 7
11. 4
12. 0
9. 9
13. 2
12. 9
10. 6
12. 0
13. 3
13. 2
10. 0
Anthracite-mining region of
Pennsylvania.. ______ - - -· ___ ·- _ 83,488 7, 464
8. 9110, 796
12. 9 12,981
15. 5 lS, 178
11>.B 11,881
14. 2
Pennsyl v.ania _______________
West Virginia. _____________
Illinois_._···-------------Ohio ..... ___________________
Kentucky __________________
Indiana .. ____ ___ ____________
Iowa.... ·- __________________
Alabama ________________ ___
Tennessee
Virginia. ___----------------_________________
Missouri. ___________________
Oklahoma ______ • ___________
~f~t:~n~==================
Western States _____________
I
92,238
52, 762
51,543
30,276
27, 753
16,225
8,174
8,02-3
7, 694
6,494
5,766
5,222
3,355
1,253
2,458
~i:,
Mine workers having households consisting of-
.
Seven
persons
Locality
Eight
persons
Nine
persons
T en
person_:l
Eleven or
more per•
sons
Num• Per Num• Per Num• Per Num• Per Num- Per
ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent
---All States .. --.---~- ____ ___ _-________ S9, 778
Bituminous-mining regions, total. _______ 29,7491
Pennsylvania _______________________ 10,638
West Virginia. __ ____________________
Ill.inois . . ____________________________ 4,648
4,176
Ohio
.. ·- .--------------------------Kentucky
___________________________ 2,807
2,258
Indiana .. ___________________________ 1,114
Iowa . ...• _. ________________________ _ 646
Alabama. ______ ·- ___________________
593
Tennessee ___________________________
752
~~!~~~i ____________________________
Oklahoma ___________________ . _______
Mary land _________ ._. ___ • ______ • ____
Michigan_.
__ --------------· ------Western States.
_______ .______________
593
420
435
320
140
209
Anthri.cite-miningregion of Pennsylvania 10, 029
1
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9. 9,27, 731
6. 0,11, 193
4. 3 9, 822
2. 41 8,473
0. 3;20, 384
8. 4!12,544
3. 9 7,033
2. 216,079 .
1. 9
5,116
5. 5 3,065
2,056
3. 9 1, 175
1,469
2. 9
759
1,115 • 3. 7
585
434
842
3. 0
2. 3
189
370
]33
253
3. 1
125
230
2. 9
152
279
3. 6
142
255
3. 9
152
2. 6
69
145
2. 8
58
4. 1
80
138
4. 5
30
56
2. 8
37
68
3. 3 2,669
2. 2 1,221
1. 5
591
1. 9
444
1. 6
401
1. 2
134
1. 6
108
1. 6
86
2. 0
99
2. 2
114
1. 2
33
1.1
38
2. 4
66
2. 4
27
1. 5
48
2. 9
2. 3
1. 1
1. 5
1. 4
.8
1.3
1.1
1.3
1.8
.6
.7
2. 0
2. 2
2. 0
6. 8 2,789
3. 3 2,394
2. 9
11. 5
8. 8
8. 1
9. 3
8. 1
6. 9
7. 9
7. 4
9. 8
9. 1
7. 3
8. 3
9. 5
11. 2
8. 5
7,661
3,378
2,528
1,883
1,400
720
457
431
554
390
268
249
230
111
124
12. 0 7,347
8. 3
6. 4
4. 9
6. 2
5. 0
4. 4
5. 6
5. 4
7. 2
6. 0
4. 6
4. 8
6. 9
8. 9
5. 0
8.8 4,849
2. 1
4.7
- WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' l!,AMILIES
_ TABLE
13.-Number of persons in mine workers' households, by general nativity of
mine worker
General nativity of
mine worker
Number of
mine
workers'
housebolds Two
having per2 or
more SODS
persons
present
--
Mine workers having households consisting of-
Three
per-
Four
per;
SODS
SODS
Five
persons
Six
persons
Seven Eight
perperSODS
SODS
Nine
persons
T en
perSODS
Eleven
or
more
perSODS
- - - -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
Total: Number __ 402,724 52,027 65,077 68,559 62,339 51,725 39, 778 '1:1, 731 17, 193
Per cent __ iOO.O
]2.8
12. 9
16. 2
17. 0
15. 5
9. 9
4. 3
6. 9
Native, white:
Number ___________ 221,078 31,591 42,164 42,283 34,945 26,207 18,442 11,961
Per cent_ __________ 100. 0
14. 3
19. 1
19. 1
15. 8
11. 9
8. 3
5. 4
Native, negro:
Number ___________ 24,781 6,799 5,689 4,053 2,809 2,006 1,351
870
Per cent_ __________ 100. 0
'1:1. 4
16. 4
11. 3
8.1
5. 5
23.0
3. 5
Foreign born:
Number ___________ 156,865 13,637 17,224 22,223 24,585 23,512 19,985 i4, 900
Per cent_ __________ 100. 0
11. 0
14. 2
8. 7
15. 7
15. 0
12. 7
9. 5
9,822
2. 4
8,473
2.1
6,887
3. 1
3,627
1. 6
2,971
1. 3
567
2. 3
292
1. 2
345
1.4
9,739
6. 2
5,903
3.8
5,157
3. 3
Table 14 reveals to what extent the variation in size of households cared for by mine workers' wives is due to <liff erences in the
number of children under the parental roof. One in 3 (33.3 per
cent) of the negro homes were without children, in contrast to one
in about 8 (12 per cent) of the native white homes and one in
13 or 14 (7.4 per cent) of the homes of the foreign born. PracticRlly
30 per cent of the homes of foreign-born workers had 5 . or more
children, as compared with 17.9 per cent and 10.7 .p er cent, .respectively, of the native white and native negro. The small number of
persons in negro households was undoubtedly due to this condition
of relatively few children under the parental roof, for, as shown by
Table 5, the proportion of homes in which the wife was employed,
chiefly by taking boarders, was larger among the negroes than
among the foreign-born mining population.
In the mining communities as a whole there were approximately
508,000 children whose fathers were born abroad. The largest
group of these were of Polish parentage, followed closely by children
of Italians. There were about 39,000 negro children and more than
543,000 children whose fathers were native white. Thus the native
white, maintaining, with wives present, more than. 54 per cent of
the homes, had less than 50 per cent of the children; the foreign
born, maintaining approximately 40 per cent of the homes, had about
47 per cent of the children; while in the native negro homes, which
constituted about 6 per cent of all the mine workers' homes, there
were less than 4 per cent of the children.
·
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48
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' F A.MILIES
T ABLE
14.-Number
.-0! childr-en in mine workers' families,
by -country of ·b irth of
mine worker
Country of birth or mine worker
Mine
workocs
maint aining
homes
with
wives
present
Mine workers reported as havingNo children
Number
P er
cent
One child
Number
Per
cent
Two children
Number
Per
cent
18. 8
61,275
16. 3
423 120.
6
14. 8
32,861
2,209
~6, 205
16. 0
5,496
4,618
3,358
3,377
2, 670
2,413
1, Ml
764
859
1,109
17. 7
18. 4
16. 9
20.2
16. 0
17. 5
17. 9
14. 9
18.1
15. 7
All countries _______________
376, 550
43, 140
11. 5
69,M8
18. 5
70,641
United States, white ___ ________
United Staten, negro ____ ___ ________
Foreign co.untries, total ____ ___ _____
205, 587
22,301
148, 682
24,769
7,432
10,939
12. 0
2L S
33. 3
7. 4
44,839
5,484
19,225
42,
3,304
24,914
Poland
---------------------Italy
___ __
________________________
Austria ___ _____ _____________ ___
Russia _____________ ____________
British Isles ___________________
Czechoslovakia _____ __ ______ ___
Hungary ______________________
Germany ______________ _______ _
Yugoslavia ___________ ___ ______
All other ___ • ___________________
30,976
25, 063
19, 828
16, 741
16,706
13, 817
8,623
5,111
4,757
7,060
1,635
1, 684
1,221
877
1, 818
859
5. 3
6. 7
6. 2
5. 2
10. 9
6. 2
9.1
10.0
6. 1
17. 8
3,272
3,136
2,131
2,136
3,229
1, 392
1,056
896
658
1,319
10. 6
12. 5
10. 7
12. 8
19. 3
10. 1
12. 2
17. 5
13. 8
18. 7
784
509
292
1,260
24. 6
12. 9
Three
children
16. 8
4, 777 1 15. 4
4,430 17. 7
2,973 15. 0
3,199 1 l\U
3,118 18. 7
2, 037-; 14. 7
1, 41a i 1-0.4
m i~:g
1
l, 365 1 19. 3
Number
Per
cent
--
9. 9
17. 6
Mine workers reported as havingCountry of birth of mine
worker
Four children Five children
Six children
Numbar
Numbcr
Per
cent
Number
P er
cent
Per
cent
Seven
children
Number
Eight or more
children
Per
cent
Numbcr
Per
cent
--~ - - - - -.
All countries __________ 48, 508
United States, white ___ ____ __
United State•, negro __________
.Forei~n countries, totaL _______
Poland ____________________
Italy __ __________________
12. 9
35,309
9. 4
23,276
6. 2
13,346
3. 5
11,507
3. 1
23,897
1,506
23, 105
11:0
6, 8
lf>.5
16, 261
1,008
18,040
7. JJ
4. 6
12. l
10, 236
697
12,443
-0. 0
2. 7
8. 4
5,662
392
7,292
2. 8
4, 619
1. 8
4. 9
6, 519
2. 2
1. 7
4. 4
5, 14.2
16. 6
4,165
3,030
2,676
1,007
1,570
1,931
1,031
554
583
13. 4
12.1
13. 5
11. 7
9. 4
14.0
12. 0
3,059
1,979
1,916
1,315
1,023
1,337
1, 765
I, 183
1,216
654
604
10. 8
12. 3
371
425
9. 9
7. 9
9. 7
7. 9
6. 1
9. 7
8. 0
7. 3
533
7. 5
329
019 16. 0
Austria ___________________ 4.,
3,201 16. 1
Russia ___ _________________ 2,700
16. 2
British Isles __ _____________ 2,101 12. 6
Czechoslovakia __ _____ ___ __ '2,286 16. 5
Hungary __________________ 1,411 16. 4
Germany _________ ____ ___ _
65.9 13. 1
Yugoslavia________________
795 16. 7
All otller_ ______________ ___
776 11. 0
689
8. 9
4. 7
5. 7
4. 7
!3. l
3. 9
3.6
6.0
4. 5
4. 4
834
384
223
228
4. 8
201
2.8
369
l, 665
984
1, 136
511
312
254
5. 4
3. 9
5. 7
3.1
3. 4
5. 3
3. 6
5.0
188
168
4. 0
2.4
573
728
A large proportion of the women with c};lildren had little folk under
7 years of age at home. 1\vo-thirds of the women with native white
husbands and pra-ctically three-fourths of thos~ with foreign-born
husbands had young children demanding their care duri_n g the entire day. Slightly more than seven-tenths of the negro mothers had
children under 7 years of age at home. In general, families with
children of school age were numerous also, for 60.1 per cent had children from 7 to 16 years of age at· school, 5.4 per cent had children of
this age .group at home, and 4.2 per cent had .such children already
at work.
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WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKEP..S' F A:M:ILIES
The percentage of families having d1ildren under 16 ·years of age at
work. was largest among the foreign g:roup, there being little difference
in the relative number of negro and native white families having
children at work. So, too, the propo:r:tion of families having children
at work who were 16 years of age and over was gre~test among the
foreign-born workers. It is interesting to note in Table 15 that the
proportion of mine workers having children at school who were at
least 16 years of age was considerably larger among the negroes than
among the native white or foreign mining groups.
TABLE
15.-Mine workers having children at school, at horne, and at work, by
general nat-ivity of mine worker
General nativity of mine
worker
Mine
workers
h aving
c hil•
dren in
family
Mine ,vork·
ers h av ing
children
under 7
yea~-
Mine workers h aving chil•
dren of 7 and under 16
years-
At
At
At
At
school home school home
Mine workers having children of 16
years and over-
Not
At
At
At
re• school
work ported
home
At
work
-Total: Number .. • ..... I 333,410 48,266 233,927 200,396 17,908 13,908
4. 2
Per cent ........
70. 2
60. 1
5. 4
100. 0 • 14. 5
'1 '"'
121, 183 100, 34.5
N ative, white: Numb.er......
Per cent ......
100. 0
11.
67. 0
55. 5
7005 10,630
9,893
N a tive, neg.ro: Number. ..... 180,
14., 869 1,928
Per cent. .....
100. 0
13. 0
71. 5
66. 5
Foreign born: Number ....... 137, 743 25, 631 102, 114 90,158
Per cent ... _. __
74. 1
100. 0
18. 6
65.5
9,620
5. 3
1,023
6. 9
7,265
5.3
5,034
2.8
451
3. 0
8,423
6. 1
9,404 14, 156 37, 121 77,321
2. 8
4. 2
11. 1
23. 2
3,943
2. 2
441
3. 0
5,020
3. 6
8,691 19,058 36,042
4. 8
10. 5
20. 4
1,006 1,924 3, 22 l
6.8
12. 9
21. 7
4,459 16, l39 37, 158
3. 2
11. 7
27. 0
1
1
D etails aggregate more than total, as some families appear in more than one group.
The only marked difference in the status of children between the
anthracite and the bituminous fields was in the groups at work. About
9 per cent of the anthracite-mine workers as compared with approxim ately 3 per cent in the bituminous regions had children under 16 years
of age at work; and about 31 per cent of the anthracite-mine workers as
against 21 per cent in the bituminous fields had children 16 years of
age and older at work. The regions in which the smallest proportions
of mine workers' families had children 16 years of age and over at
work were the sparsely populated sections of Virginia, Kentucky,
West Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Tennessee.
Table 16 offers additional evidence to confirm indications that the
lack of opportunity for employment in many of the coal-mining
regions causes daughters and sons to leave home in search of employment in more developed centers of population, for the sections of the
coal fields showing the smallest proportions of families with children
16 years of age anµ older at work had no larger groups of children
at school or at home than occurred in other mining regions.
Another fact of social significance shown in Table 16 is that the
mininub recrions
of Vire:inia
and Kentucky had a relatively small pro- 1
b
....,
I
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50
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
portion of families with children between 7 and 16 years of age at
school and a relativ ly large proportion with children of these ages at
home. In the Induma and Michigan mining regions the opposite
situation prevailed, for here tliere were unusually large proportions
of families with children of 7 to 16 at school and small proportions
at home.
TABLE
16.-Mine workers having chi ldren at school, at home, and at work, by
locality
Locality
Mine workers Mine workers having cbil- Mine workers having
Mine h av ing cbildren of 7 and under 16
ch ildren of 16 years
workers dren of under
yearsand over7 yearshaving
chi!dren in
family
At
At
At Notre- At
At
At
At
At
school home school borne work ported school borne work
---- ------AllStates : Number ___ _ 333,410 48, 266 233, 927 200, 396 17, 908 13, 908
Per cent_ ___
100. 0
60. 1
5. 4
4. 2
14. 5
70. 2
- ~
Bituminous-mining regions
__ ___ _____________ Total_ _____ 260, 512 37, 135 184, 185 155, 344 14, 871 7,205
Pel' cent_ _ 100. 0
5. 7
2. 8
70, 7
59. 6
14. 3
P ennsylvania __Number __
Per cent__
West Virginia __ Number__
Per cent__
Illinois ____ ____ Number __
Per cent __
Ohio _________ __ Num ber __
Per cent__
K entu cky ___ ___ Number __
Per cent_ _
Indiana ________ Number __
Per cent__
Iowa __________ Number_ _
Per cent __
Alabama __ ____ Number__
Per cent__
T enn essee ___ __ Number __
P er cent__
Virginia ______ _Number __
P er cent __
Missouri_ ______ Number __
Per cent__
Oklah oma ___ __Number __
Per cent__
Maryland ____ _Number __
Per cent__
M ichigan ______ Number __
Per cent__
Western States Number __
Per cent__
Anthracite-mining region of
Pennsylvania. ____ Number __
Per cent__
1
79, 159 11,041
100. 0
13. 9
40,963 4, 232
100. 0
10. 3
42,274 · 5,782
100, 0
13. 7
24,823 3,730
100. 0
15. 0
21, 766 5,912
100, 0
27. 2
13,049 1,723
100. 0
13. 2
6,515 1,445
100. 0
22. 2
5, 748
308
100. 0
5. 4
6,435
746
100. 0
11. 6
5,295
399
100. 0
7. 5
4, 445
568
100. 0
12. 8
4, l'Z8
585
100. 0
14. 0
2,902
260
100, 0
9. 0
1, 046
167
100. 0
16. 0
1,914
237
100. 0
12. 4
49,119
62.1
22, 132
54. 0
25,884
61. 2
14,964
60. 3
11, 301
51. 9
9,304
71. 3
4,003
61. 4
3, 413
59, 4
3, .789
58. 9
2,657
50, 2
2,660
59, 8
2,523
60. 4
1,738
59. 9
742
70. 9
1, 115
58. 3
4,467
5. 6
2,685
6. 6
1,461
3, 5
1,024
4.1
2,102
!l. 7
420
3, 2
211
72,898 11, 131 49, 742 45, 052
100. 0
15. 3
68. 2
61. 8
s, 037
60,467
76. 4
30, 795
75. 2
26,394
62. 4
16,937
68. 2
16, 265
74. 7
7,613
58. 3
3,743
57. 5
3,817
66. 4
4,888
76. 0
4,210
79, 5
2, 586
58. 2
2,638
63.1
1,941
66. 9
657
62. 8
. 1,234
64, 5
3. 2
374
6, 5
627
9. 7
987
18, 6
138
3.1
156
3, 7
123
4. 2
38
3. 6
58
3, 0
4. 2
2,212
2. 8
2,102
5. 1
948
:JI
1. 7
384
~2i1
2. 5
126
1. 9
101
1.8
172
2. 7
84
1. 6
94
2. 1
68
1. 6
------
-
9, 404 14, 156, 37, 121 77, 321
2. 8
4, 21 11. 1
23. 2
=
7, 032 11, 793
4. 5
2. 7
2,616
3. 3
1,114
2. 7
1, 274
3, 0
418
1. 7
605
2. 8
298
2. 3
106
1. 6
172
3. 0
57
.9
19
.4
195
4. 4
76
1.8
1
107
3. 7 (1)
35 ------3. 3 -- --- -81
18
4. 2
•9
8,703
9. 2
2,372
3. 3
so, 812
11. 8
54, 778
21. 0
2,476 12, 194 17, 744
15, 4
3. 1
22. 4
1, 846 4,028 6, 560
9, 8
4. 5
16. 0
1, 931 4,163 10, 459
9, 8
4. 6
24. 7
1,224 2, 880 6,500
4, 9
11. 6
26. 2
898 2,148 3,308
4. 1
9. 9
15. 2
649 i, 368 2,418
10, 5
18, 5
5. 0
447
627 1,746
9, 6
6. 9
26. 8
367
577 1,015
6. 4
10. 0
17. 7
377
712 1,1 26
5, 9
11. 1
17. 5
225
570
682
10, 8
12. 9
4. 2
547 1, 016
316
12. 3
22. 9
7. 1
'176
309
399
7, 4
9. 6
16. 2
172
367
804
12, 6
27. 7
5. 9
448
307
63
29, 3
42. 8
6. 0
417
108
163
5. 6
8. 5
21. 8
2, 383
3. 2
6, 309 22, 543
8. 7
30. 9
Less than one-tenth of 1 p er cent.
HOME OWNERSHIP
In connection wit the foregoing facts it is important to consider
the matter· of home ownership in the several States as revealed in
Table 17. In Michigan a larger proportion . of mine homes- were
owned by the workers than in any other State. Indiana a)so shows
rela.tively many homes owned by the workers. In West Virginia,
Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee less than one-fourth
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51
WOMEN IN. COAL- MINE WORKERS' F AMIL.IES
of the mine workers, and in four of these States even less than onefifth, owned the houses in which they lived. This apparent relation
between the ownership of homes and the larger number of older children living in the home may be a coincidence rather than a causal
relation, but it is at least suggestive.
TABLE
17 .-Mine 'V)Orkers' homes maintained in owned and in rented houses, by
locality
-.
Houses owned
'
Num'
ber of
homos
maintained
Locality
Total
Free
Mortgaged
Not reported
Houses
rented
Not reported
Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per
ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent
- - -- -- ---All States _________ 411,482 127,384 31. 0 87, 553 21. 3 36, 281 8. 8 3,550 0. 9 274,298 66. 7 9, 800 2. 4
Bituminous-mining regions, totaL ___________ 327,605 100,242 30. 6 70,059 21. 4 27,199 8. 3 2,984 0. 9 219, 111 66. 9 8,252 2. 6
--
--
=
-Pennsylvania _______
West Virginia ______
Illinois _____ _______ __
Ohio _________ ___ ____
Kentucky ___ ___ ____
Indiana _____ _______ _
. Iowa ________________
· Alabama _____ ____ __
Tennessee __________
Virginia ____________
M issourL __________
Oklahoma __________
Maryland_---~----Michigan ___________
Western States _____
94,322 27, 108 28. 7 21,021 22. 3
54, 753 6,769 12. 4 5,081 9. 3
52,947 26,336 49. 7 15,773 29. 8
31,089 12,548 40. 4 9,018 29. 0
28,065 4,761 17. 0 3,99-5 14. 2
16, 526 7,831 47. 4 4,122 24. 9
8,524 3,254 38. 2 2,087 24. 5
8,257 1, 340 16. 2
971 11. 8
7,749 1,868 24. 0 1, 653 21. 3
ll, 556
908 13. 8
808 12. 3
5,996 2,414 40. 3 1,498 25. 0
5,511 2,282 41. 4 1,910 34. 7
3,410 1,001 29. 4
785 23. 0
1,273
874 68. 7
642 42. 6
2,627
958 36. 5
795 30. 3
5,512
1,255
9,436
3,232
691
3,624
1,077
292
180
76
873
290
188
328
145
6. 8
575
2. 3
433
17. 8 1,127
10. 4
298
2. 5
i6
21. 9
85
12. 6
90
3. S
77
2. 3
25
1. 2
24
14. 6
43
5. 3
82
5. 5
28
4
25. 8
18
5..5
Anthracite-mining region of Pennsylvania __ 83,877 27 .142 32. 4117, 494 20. 9 9,082 10.8
TABLE
566
.6 65,298 69. 2 1,916
46,442
25,579
17,585
22,537
8,387
4,839
6,744
5,633
5,427
3,371
2,973
. 8 2,315
379
.3
• 7 1,602
2. 0
2. 8
1. 9
3.1
2. 7
1. 9
5.1
2. 1
3. 3
3. 4
3. 5
84. 8 1,642
48. 3 1,032
56. 6
956
80. 3
767
50. 8
308
56.8
431
81. 7
173
72. 7
258
82. 8
221
1>6. 2
211
53. 9
256
67. 9
94
29. 8
20
61. 0
67
2. 8
1. 6
2. 6
0,7 .55, 187 85. 8 1,548
1.8
.8
2. 1
1. 0
.3
.5
1. 1
.9
.3
•4
.7
1. 5
4. 6
18.-Mine workers' homes maintained in owned and in rented ·houses, by
country of birth of mine worker
Ilouses
rented
Houses owned
'
Country of birth of
mine worker
Number of
homes
maintained
Total
Free
Mortgaged
Not reported
Not reported
Num- Per Num- Per
ber cent ber cent
Num- Pw Num,. Per Num- Per Num- Per
ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent
-- --- -- -- -- - --- -- -All countries __ ____ 411,482 127,384 31. 0 Si', 553 21. 3_ 36,281 8. 8 3, 560 0. 9,274, 298 66. 7 9,800 2. 4
--
United States, white _____ 223,950 68, 896/ 30. S 46,790 20. 9 20, 168
United States, negro ____ . 26,411 3, 3901 12. 8 2,227 8. 4 1,068
9. 0 1, 9:,S
95
4. 0
Foreign countries, totaL_ 161. 121 55,098 34. 2 38,536 23. 9 16,046 9. 3 1, 517
1
Poland ______________
9, 630 29. 5 6,079 18. 6 3,282 10. 1
21l9
Italy ________ __ ____ __ 32,624
27,447
329
3161 33. 9 6,648 24. 2 2,339 · 8. 6
Austria _____________ 21,404 9,
167
6, 5351 30. 5 4,821 22. 5 1,5417 7. 2
British Isles _______ __ 18,675 8,621 46. 2 6,183 33. 1 2,270 12. 2
lll8
Russia __ ____________ 17,920 5, 7991 32. 4 3,785 21. l ], 815 10. 1
199
Czechoslovakia _____ 14,615 4, 7501 32. 6 3,546 24. 3 1,064 7. 3
140
Hungary ____________ 9,383 1,918, 20. 4 1,365 14. 5
48
505 5. 4
Germany ____ _______ 5,720
51
918 16. 0
2,330 40. 7
Yugoslavia __________ li, 451
~~,
1,187 21. 8
50
4801
8.
8
All others __ ___ _____ _ 7,882 3, 5131 44. 6 2. 592 ~2. 9
825 10. 5
96
-~: ~r:;
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o. s.'149, 65&
66. 8 5,399
779
. 4 1 22,242 84. 2
1
. 0 102; 401 63. i 3,_622
2. 4
2-. 9
747
692
523
318
353
290
222
109
159
2. 3
2. 5
2. 4
1. 7
2. 0
2. 0
2. 4
. 8 22,247
1. 2 17,439
. 8 14, 341l
.9 9,736
1.1 11,768
1. 0 9,575
• 5 7,243
. 91 2,312
3,575
1.. 291 4,160
68. 2
63. 5
67. 0
52. 1
65. 7
65. 5
77. 2
40. 4
65. 6
52.8
· 209
2. 2
1:9
2. g
2. 7
52
WOMEN IN COAI.rMINE WORKERS' FAMILIE~
Although ~onditions among the families of mine workers from the
British Isles and from Germany were similar to those among native
whites in respect to number of children in the family and numbers
of breadwinning wives and children, the tendency towards home
ownership was far less marked among the native born than the
British and the German groups, these reporting 46.2 per cent and
,57 .7 per cent, resp ctively, as owning the houses in .vhich they lived.
The next largest gr up was found among the Italians, of whom 34 per
cent owned their homes. Only 31 per cent of the native white mine
workers were buyi g or had bought the homes in which they lived.
Unlike normal communities, the question of home ownership among
the different nationalities in many mining communities was not
primarily a matter of race thrift or racial desire for acquiring property.
In many pioneer communities there was no chance whatsoever for
home ownership because the land, the houses, and all the facilities
necessary for mai . taining the home were owned or controlled by
mmmg companies. As already stated, about three-fourths of the
bituminous-mine workers lived in places of less than 2,500 population
and about one-half were housed in company dwellings. The need for
company-owned dwellings and their consequent existence varied
greatly from State to State. In the southern Appalachian Mountains,
where coal mines were located in sections undeveloped and far from
normal settlement the proportion of workern living in company
houses, and consequently in rented houses, was large. Seventy-nine
per cent of the min workers' wives in ,West Virginia were obliged to ·
care for houses which the companies owned. In the mountains of
Virginia, Maryland, eastern Kentucky, and Tennessee, almost twothirds found it necessary to dwell in company-owned houses. In
Indiana and Illinois, on the other hand, agricultural and industrial
towns had been developed before coal-mining began, self-governing
communities were numerous, and transportation facilities were
abundant, so that only 8.5 per cent of the mine workers in these
States were hous d in company-owned property. Pennsylvania
bituminous regions with their exceptionally large contingent of foreign born stand between these extremes.
On the other h and, less than IO per cent of the anthracite-mine
workers of Pennsylvania lived in company-owned dwellings. The
large cities, accessible by the network of electric and steam railways
throughout the region, offer abundant opportunity for home owner; ship or rental of rivate homes and leave but little need for the
company-controlled house.
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53
WOMEN IN , COAL-MINE WOl-t':[{~R,.C: ' FAMILIES
TABLE
19.-Company ownership of mine t11u:r!cer>s' dwellings, by locality
I
Locality
Number of Mine w or k e r s
mine workers
housed in comem ployed by· pany-own ed famoperators reily dwellings
port ing con- 1 - - - - - - r - - - -cerning home
ownership Number Per cent
All States_______________________________________________________
606,782
236,756
39. 0
Bituminous-mining regions, totaL ___________________ __ __ ____________ ~
447, 183
221,270
49. 5
P ennsylvania.•. ____ ___ __ _ ---- - --------------------------------W est Virginia________ _____________ ________________________________
0 hio ____________________ ------ - ----------------------- - - - --------Alabam a ____ ____ _--------- - -- ----- ------------ - - --- --___ __________
Illin ois and Indiana______ __ ____ ___________ ___ _______ __ ____________
:Maryland, Virginia, K entucky, and 'l'ennessee_______ _____________
Kansas, M issouri, and Iowa_ ________ __ ___ _____ _____ ______ ____ ___ __
Colorado, lYiont a.na, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, 'I'e xas,
Utah, M exico, W ashington, and Wyoming_ __ _____________ ______
120, 507
93, 490
29,228
23, 762
71,659
51,099
18,301
61 , 118
73,652
7, 106
15, 661
6,092
32, 899
3,381
50. 7
78. 8
24. 3
65. 9
8. 5
64. 4
18. 5
39,137
21,361
54. 6
Anthracite-mining region of Pennsylvania _________ ~------------ - ------
159,599
,15, 486
9. 7
A little o-ver 30 per cent of the 15,486 anthracite-mine workers
living in company~owned houses were in towns of 2,500 population
or more, and 25.3 per cent additional lived less than 2 miles distant
from towns or cities. In the bituminous regions, on the other hand,
in the case of 44 per cent of the mine workers' homes the nearest
town was a place of less than 1,000 population, and only about oneeighth of the homes were within 2 miles of even such a place as that.
Where new roads had been built, the advent of the automobile was
doing much to relieve the complete isolation of such sections, but
where the roads still were mountain paths or creek beds the isolation
was fairly complete.
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TABLE
20.-Location of company-controlled communities with reference to independent communities and employment opportunities
COMPANY•CONTROLLED COMMUNITIES IN THE BITUMINOUS FIELDS
Communities whose distance from towns of specified population wasMine workers
concerned
Population of nearest town
Number
of com•
panycontrolled
com•
munities
reparted Number
Per
cent
Less than 2 miles
2 and less than 5 miles
Mine workers
Number
of com·
munities Nlllllber
Per
cent
Mine workers
Number
of com•
munities Number
P er
cent
5 and less than 10 miles
10 miles or over
Mine workers
Number
of com•
munities Number
Per
cent
Mine workers
Number
of com•
munities Number
Per
cent
- - - ---- ---.~ - - - - - - - ---- - - - - - - - ---- --- ---- - -- - - - Total. ..•...••••••••.•....
Under 1,000............•••.•.••.
1,000 and under 2,500 ..•.•......
2,500 and under 10,000 ..........
10,000 and over .•.........•....•
1
708
343
213
113
39
I
98, 172
43,227
30, 114
18,889
5,942
100. 0
30.
•19.
.,27 I
6.1
232
25,029
25. 5
224
34,184
34. 8
142
20,976
21.4
110
17,983
18. 3
127
12,382
7,704
3, 7i4
1,169
12. 6
7. 8
3. 8
1. 2
104
16,315
10,426
4,699
2,744
16. 6
10. 6
4. 8
2. 8
53
48
38
3
7,526
6,408
6,611
431
7. 7
6. 5
6. 7
59
23
21
7
7,004
5,576
3,805
1,598
5. 7
3. 9
70
21
14
72
33
15
.4
7. 1
1. 6
COMPANY•OWNED DWELLINGS IN THE ANTHRACITE FIELD
Section of anthracite field
•
Num•
b~r of
com•
pany•
owned
dwellings
re•
ported
Mine workers
housed
Distant ~rom towns of 2,500 population
In towns of 2,500
population or over
Less than 2 miles
1
5 miles or over
lzj
Num•
ber
15, 486 100. 0
4,890 31.6
10,596 68.4
Num• Mine workers
ber of
housed
com•
pany•
owned Num- Per
dwell•
ber
cent
ings
--- -- --- --- -- --- --- -- --- - -- ~-
3, 156
1,875
1,281
4,686
2, 897
1,789
Five communities for which data were not available have been omitted.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
2 and less than 5 miles
Num• Mine workers Num• Mine workers Num• Mineworkers Num• Mine workers
ber of
ber of
ber of
ber of
-housed
housed
housed
housed
COID·
COID·
com•
com•
Per pany•
pany•
pany•
pany•
cent owned
P er owned Num• Per owned
Num• Per owned Num• Per
dwell• Num•
ber
cent dwell•
ber
cent dwell•
ber
cent dwellber
cent
ings
ings
ings
ings
- - -·- Total. .............. ... ...•.. ---- 10,246
Northern .......... . ... __ .....•..... ~ .. 3,227
Middle and Southern ......• • . •... .... 7,019
Location not
reported
3,912 25.3
30. 3 2,703
18. 7 ~ ~ 5.5
3, 060 19. 8
11. 6 2,130
3,342
542
2,800
5, 247
809
4,438
33. 9
975
5. 2 ~
28. 7
738
1,565
330
1,235
10. 1
2.1
8.0
70
76
0. 5
- - - --- - ------70-- ------------76
.5
>-
~
H
t:ti;:!
en
55
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS ' :·FAMILIES
FACILITIES FOR TH E PERFORMAN CE OF HOUSEHOLU DUTIES
From the viewpoint of the mine worker's· wife probably no conditions in the mining community are so essential to her comfort as the
facilities wherewith to carry on her household duties. Whether or·not
she is a breadwinner, she has her housekeeping duties, and these are
con cerned with cooking, cleaning, and laundering, and caring for her
children. At every turn, therefore, the need of an adequate supply
of water is paramount.· And yet women' dwelling in a little
less than 14 per cent of the company-owned houses in the 'bituminous fields had running water in the house, not 3 per cent
had bathtubs or showers, and only 3 pe·r cent had · inside flush
toilets. "In these company-owned communities, with practically
71,000 dwellings, more than 60,000 of the homemaking and breadwinning wives had to run water from an outside hydrant, or
draw or pump it from a well, and carry it in bucket-B to the
house for all household purposes. Nor was a hydrant or well located
in each back yard.
In one-sixth of the bituminous-mining
camps there were from 8 to more than 31 families dependent on one
hydrant or well. Only the women with running water in .their homes
lad the exclusive use of a faucet; in only one-sixth of the communiti es was there a water outlet for the use of two families. For the
majority of the wives living in company-owned .houses in the bituminous districts the carrying of water formed a -material part of the
household burdens.
TABLE
21.-Facilities affecting home comfort and the performance of household
duties in company-owned dwellings, by locality
Locality
Family .dwellings equipped with-
Number of
company-
Number of
family
trolled dwellcommu- ings
nities 1
COD-
Electric or
gas light
Number
Per
cent
Running
water
Number
-- - All States ___ ___________
811
Bituminous-mining
total_ ______ ________regions
________,
P ennsylvania ____________
West Virginia ___________
Oh io __ __ ________________
A la bama __ ______________
Illinois and Indian!\ _____
K ansas, Missouri, and
Iowa ____ _____________ _
Mary l a nd, Virginia,
K entucky, and T ennessee __ ________ _______
Anthracite-mining region of
Pennsylvania ______ ________
2
80,210
49, 154
61. 3
713
2
70,662 , 46, 588
97
402
3 11,850 I
1 38,183
Per
cent
Bathtub or
shower
Inside flush
toilet
Number
Number
Per
cent
-- ~- -
17,465 21. 8
2,216
2. 8
2. 86 1
3. 6
2, 085 1
3. 0
65. 9
9, 769
13. 8
3,597
3,834
2,343
4,842
30,894
968
1, 712
968
40. 9
80. 9
26. 9
44. 7
41. 3
3,630
4,258
34
142
156
30. 6
11. 2
.9
3. 7
6. 7
12
1,160
212
18. 3
17
1. 5
87
9, 695
6,990
72.1
1,532
15.8
91
.9
71
98
9,548
2,568
26. 9
7, 696
80. 6
517
5. 4
776
8. 1
-· ·-
----..
71
19
25
5
1, 899 1 2. 4
507
945
4. 3
2. 5
156
6. 7
:ti~J}l
- - - -156_1_ __ 6. 7
Only communities having 25 or more family dwellings are included in this table.
Of this number 667 failed to report on method of lighting and 837 did not report on water facilities.
Of this number 428 did not report on method of lighting.
Of this number 837 did not report on water fa cilities.
• Of this number 239 did not report <,a method of lighting•
1
2
3
4
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Federal Reserve Bank of St.
• Louis
Per
cent
- ----
.7
56
)VOMEN IN COAL- MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
T ADLE 22.-N umber of families dependent on a singl.e water outlet in campanycontrolled communities, by locality
Locality
Number of communities having a single
Num•
water outlet forber of
com· Num• i- - - - r - - - - , - - - - - - - . - - - , - - - pany• ber of
con· families
trolled ce~~d Eve_ry Every Every Every Every
family 2
3
4
5
ties
:::i.
Bituminous•mining regions, total:
Number....... ......... . ...........
Per cent............................
Pennsylvania...••••••.•••....•••.•..•••.••••.
. West Virginia .•• ···················-·····-···
Ohio ........... _... _... _.............. _.•... _.
Alabama . ..... .... . •.•.. -·-·--·-·············
Indiana and Illinois .........••.•••.•.•.•••...
Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa . .• .•........... ..
Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, and Ken•
• tucky.... ......... •• ....•.......•••... ..•••.
if~· ~i:i• it:i• ~i:i•
713 99,005
100. 0 .....••.
97
402
71
19
25
12
87
67
9. 4
18,345
21
M, 106
28
5, 108
3
5,246 • •• ••••.
2,990
8
], 400
1
11,810
119
16. 7
20
72
8
3
7
3
6
103
14. 4
13
68
7
1
3
1 ;
98
13. 7
81
11. 4
11
5
61
17
1
53
8
1
2
3
l .. .. ... .
10
11
Number or communities having a single water outlet for-
Locality
- -- - - - - - - - -- --------1--- ~ - - - - - - Bituminous•mining regions, total:
Number .......-.. ................
Per cent....... . ..................
Pcnnsytvania............. . . _; . ... ~...........
West Virginia................................
Ohio. . . .... .. ..... ...... .................... . .
80
39
64
44
6
5. 5
3
11. 2
9. 0
6. 2
0.8
0.4
7
3
8
46
13
2
23
3
1
33
5
1
11
8
16
Alabama . ....................................
Indiana and Illinois .... _._···-·····------·-·--····-·--··············Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa ____ . ; ______ ·-·--·
1
1
1
Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, and Ken•
tuckY-- --·· · -·---··-· · ····-·-····. -·-·-·····
1: -····-2- ···-·-i-1
9
1. 3
~
6
1 ··-·-··· ·------1 ······-·
1
7
1
1 -···---· -----···
2
12
1 ···-···.I----·-··
1 ,....... .
How do water conditions in these company-controlled commumties compare with those in towns and cities in the bituminous fields
where the mine worker is responsible with his fellow citizens for the
conditions which prevaiH In 43. 1 per cent of the independent mining communities in the bituminous fields as compared with 38.8 per
cent of company-controlled camps~ mine workers' wives were entirely dependent upon a private supply of water. In 14.4 per cent
of the independent towns and in 14.9 per cent of the company camp~
a general, piped system was used by all homes. In 42.5 per cent of
the independent towns, as compared with 45 .9 per -cent of the controlled settlements, both a general, piped system and a private supply
were to be found . It would appear, then, that the only advantB,ge
which the wives living in the independent places had was that in 42.5
per cent of the towns a public water system was available if they
were financially circumstanced and alert to demand that their homes
be connected with the water mains. In 45 .9 per cent of the camps,
which had a piped as well as a hydrant or well supply, whether or not
· the homes were served by the piped system was dependent upon the
will of the coal-mining company.
1
1
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
WOMEN 1N COAL-MINE WORKERS ' FAMILIES
TABLE
23 .-Systems of water 8Upply in campa,ny-controlled communities, by localit y
Locality
Company-controlled communities havingNornber or . Num(',OffiBoth genof
General
Private
pany- ber
eral system
piped
supply
mine
con- workers
and private Water
system
only
trolled consupply
supply
comnot remuoi- cerned
ported
ties
Norn- Per Num- Per Num- Per
ber cent ber cent br..r r.ent
All States __ ______ ___ __ _____________
Bituminous- mining regions, total. __ ______
Pennsylvania __ __ • _____ ______________
West Virginia _______________________
Ohio ________ • __ •• ____ ________________
Alabama ____________________________
Illinois and Indiana __________________
Kansas, Missouri, and Iawa _________
Marylanri, Virginia, Tennessee, and
Kentucky __ _____ ___ ________ -·--- __ •
Anthra.cite-mining ·region of Pennsyivania
TABLE
,_ - -
~
811 112,787
181
I
-----
22. 3
293
86. 1
333
41.1
4
14. 9
276
38. 7
327
45. 9
4
23
114
23. 7
28. 4
81. 7
31. 6
80. 0
75. 0
34
240
13
6
3
35. 1
l
18. 3
31. 6
12. 0
2
713
99, 005
10s
97
402
71
19
25
39
40. 2
47
11. 7
12
18,345
54,106
5,108
5,246
2, !)90
1,400
87
11,810
98
13,782
--- -------5 26. 3
[>8
6
I
59. 7
8. 0
25.0
20
10
11. 5
46
52. 9
31
35. 6
-·------
75
76. 5
17
17. 3
8
6. 1
--------
2
3
9
---·--·-·---- --- -- - --------
24.-Systems of water sitpply in independent communities, by locality
Independent communrtie<; having-
Locality
Number of
independent
communities
Number
of mine
workers .
concerned
General
piped
system
Private
supply
only
Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per
ber cent ber cent ber cent
------
- - -,_
All States ____________ _---------- - ---·-----
281
Bituminous-mining region&-, total ____ ______ __ __ _
167
pCilllSYlVanhl _______ _______ ______ __ ______ __
V-lest
Virginia_. _____ __ ____ ·----------- ____ _
0 hio _____________________ _____________ ____ _
Alabama __________________ _____________ ____
Indiana and Illinois ___________________ _____
Kansas, l\!Iissouri, and Iowa _______________ _
M aryland, Virginia, and Kentucky ___ ____ _
Anthracite - mining region of Pennsylvania _____ .
I
,!
Bnth genera! system
and private
snppfy
- - - ·- -
188, llS
107
38. i
BO
28. 5
04
33. 5
5-7, llS
24
14. 4
72
43. 1
71
42. 5
- --1-- - - - l - - -+ - - - - - l - - - l - -- l - - - f - -
19 ·
50
29
2
39
1,099
19
26,427
2,667
7,222
i14
131,000
9
I
3,065
10, .\87
6,146
4
10
21. 1
8
20. 0
5
17. 2
27
15
42. 1
54. 0
51. 7
--------------2- - ----5. 1
13 33. 3
2 22. 2
----------3 15. 8
7 36. 8
83
72. 8
7. 0
7
1:3
1
9
35.8
26. 0
31. 0
100. 0
61. 5
77. 8
47. 4
23
20. 2
9
2
24
Exclusive of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
In the anthracite regions almost 81 in every 100 workers' dwellings
in company-controlled camps had running water in the house (Table
21). More than 17 per cent of these company towns had a well or
hydrant water system only, whereas but 7 per cent of the independent towns in which mine workers lived were not supplied from a
general system. Even so, the anthracite worker's company-owned
home was not generally equipped with bathtub or with inside flush
toilet.
As stated, only 3 per cent of the dwellings in bituminous-controlled
communities had inside flush toilets. Outside privies, with or without
cesspool or septic tank equipment, were used in 60. per cent of the
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
58
WOMEN IN CO,AL-MINE WORKERS; FAMILIES
communities. These were used also .fa a little over 65 per cent of
anthracite-controlled camps. Only_0.4 · per cent of the bituminous
camps (3 of the 713) and 2 per cent of the anthracite (2 of the 98)
had sewer-systems with which every house was connected. Among
i_n dependent bituminous towns 4.2 per cent, and among independent
anthracite towµs 20.2 per cent had complete sewerage systems. More
than 44 per cent of the independent bituminous towns and 47.4 per
cent of the independent anthracite towns had no public sewera~e
system.·
TABLE
25.-Methods of sewage disposal in company-controlled communities, by
locality
r
l
Company-controlled communities
having-
Number of ·
companycontrolle<i
Number of Complete Both sewers
mine
and
Improved
sysimproved privies only!
workers sr.wer
tem
1
privies
concommuni- cerned ,_ _ _ _ _ ,__ _ __ ,___ __
ties
Num- Per Num- Per Num- P er
ber cent ber cent ber cent
Locality
------------, - - - - -1 - - --1- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
All States __________________________________ _
811 112, 787
0. 6
314
38. 7
99. 005
0. 4
282
39. 6
- - ->- = = + - ~l= = •I=-.:: =----=
Bituminous-mining regions, total_______ ____ _____ _
713
=
492
428
60. 7
====
eo. o
- - -l- - - t -- - t - - --t--- - 1 - - - f - - - - j l - -
p ennSy]Vania_ __________________ _____ __ _______
W est Virgini a_ _______________________________
Ohio ________________________ _ .________________
Ahlbama_ _________ ______________ _____________
Illinois and I ndiana_______ ___________________
K ansas, Missouri, and Iowa___ _______________
Maryland, Virginia, 'J'ennessee, and Kentucky______________________________________
Anthrarite-mining region of Pennsylvania ________ _
1
97
18,34 5
2
2. 1
3
3. l
54,106 ______ ______ 264 65. 7
5, 108 ______ ___ ___
1
1. 4
5,246 ______ ______
1
5. 3
2, 990
4.. 0 ______ ____ __
402
71
19
25
12
l, 400
87
11,810
98
13, 782
92
138
70
18
24
12
100. 0
14. 9
74
85.1
~-2 ·s2. 7
64
65. 3
13
2
2. 0
94. 8
34. 3
98. 6
94. 7
96. 0
Privies with cesspools or sep tic tanks.
TABLE
26.-M ethods of sewage disposal in independent corhmuniti es, by locality
I ndependent communities having-
Locality
Number of Numindeber of
-penmine
dent· workers
comconrnuni- cerned
ties
'
- --
Complete
sewer
system
Both sewers
Improved
and
Surface
improved privies only privies on}y
privies 1
Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per
ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent
---- -------
--
--
All States ____ _________________
281
188, 113
30
10. 7
123
43. 8
80
28. 5
48
17. 1
Bituminous-mining regions, total. __
167
57, 113
7
4. 2
86
51. 5
26
15. 6
48
28. 7
Pcnnsy lvania __ _________________
West Virginia __ _________ __ ____ _
Ohio__________ ____ __ ____________
Alabama __ ____ __ ____ __ ___ ______
Illinois and Indiana __ _______ ___
Kansas, Missouri , a nd Iowa ____
M a ryland , Virginia, and Kentucky ______ ____ __ __ ____ ___ ____
19
50
47. 4
44. 0
48. 3
26. 3
10. 0
17. 2
2 100. 0
5 12. 8
4 44. 4
3
20
9
-mo
5
Anthracite-mining region of Pennsylvania. _____ ______ __ ____ ___ ___ ____
29
2
39
9
2
9
3,065
2 10. 5
22
10,487
6. 0
3
14
6, 146
1
3. 4
1,099 ------ ------ --- -- 26,427 -- ---- - ----25
2,667 - ----- -----3
---- -64.1
33. 3
19
7,222
1
5. 3
13
68. 4
114
131,000
23
20. 2
37
32. 5
5
5
---- 9-- ---23.1
------ -----54
47. 4
15. 8
31. 0
2
22. .&
5
26. 3
--- --- ----- .
~
1
Privies with cesspools or septic tanks.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
2
Exclusive of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
59
:WOMEN: ' IN COAL-MINE WORKERS ' FAMILIES
Mine workers' family dwellings were more adequately equipped
with lighting facilities than with water. About 66 per cent of the
bituminous company-owned dwellings had electricity or gaslight
(Table 21}. In 93.4 per cent of the independent bituminous towns
a public-lighting system for houses existed. In the anthracite
region over 95 per cent of the independent communities had a public
lighting system, but i.ri less than 27 per cent of the company-controlled
dwellings was electricity or gaslight available. Where independ'e nt
communities had a public lighting system for houses the great
majority of mine workers availed themselves of this service. Thf'
streets in such towns usually were lighted.
TABL-E
27 .-Methods of li ghting in independent communities, by locality
.
Independent communities ha Ying-
Num- NumM ajority
I?er of ber of
Public
of houses
rnd emine
lighting
ligh ted by
PC nd ent workers
system
public
consyste m
com:
~re~I- cerned 1 - - - - 1- - --
Locality
_.,____________-_
,_____:___
Public
syS t em
oi st rcet
li ghts
1- - --
-
Num- P er Num- P er Num _l Per
~~~~ ~1 ~
All States_____ ____________ ____________ _____
1281 188,113
Bituminous-mining regions, total_ _______________ _
167
57, llS
P ennsylvania _____ ______________ __ ___ _______ _
West Virginia __________________________ ._____ _
Ohio
__ ______ ------------------ - ------ _______ _
A laba1na ___ __ _____ _____ ____ _________________ _
19
50
29
2
39
9
19
3, 055
10, 487
6,146
1,099
26, 427
2, 667
7,222
Indiana and Illinois ____ __________ ___________ _
K ansas, Missouri, and Iowa ___ __ __ _________ _
Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky ___ _____ __
Anthracite- mining region of Pennsylvania
1
1
I
114 131,000
I
84. 3
265
94. 3
233
82. 9
237
156
I 93. 4
146
I 87. 4
136
17
35
19
2
37
9
17
89. 5
70. 0
65. 5
(2)
94.. 9
(2)
89. 5
101
88. 6
19 100. 0
45 I 90. 0
26 89. 7
(2)
2
37 94. 9
(2)
9
18 94.. 7
18
42
22
2
36
17
94. ·;
84. 0
75. 9
(2)
92. 3
(2)
89. 5
95. 6
87
76. 3
109
9
I
Bl. 4
E xclusive of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
Not computed, owing to small number lnvolved.
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
Mining camps distant from towns quite generally had m ade
provision for doctors' services, either by having a resident physician
in the cal'n p or by sharing the services _of a physician with other
camps. Occasionally a large, well-equipped camp had the services
of a nurse. But all the other institutions that are considered as playing an important part in American community life usually were
lacking. They were absent also from many of the independent
mining towns. · The public library and the reading room were found
in less than one-fifth of such towns. Table 28 shows that less than
one-half of these independent mining towns had a publ~c hall, that
only about three-fifths had a hotel, and that less than two-thirds had
a bank. The telephone had reached more than· three-fourths of the
t owns, but telegraph service less than two-thirds of them.
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
60
WOMEN IN CO.A.Ir-MINE. WORKERS' FAMILIES
More than a,. fourth of these independent mining t.owns, and cities
were without police protection, w-ell over- a fourth had no justice of
the peace,, "and more than a. third we.re without j_ails.
Hospitals. existed in about 23 per ~ent of the towns and public
nurses in approximately 27 per cent, while private nurses were a.vailable in 35 per cent of the· communities. Dentists' services. might
be had in about 63 p er c.e nt of such places. Churches were, general, ·
b eing found in over 96 per cent of the independent mining towns. ·
T A BLE
28.-Community resources in inde pendent communities, _by local"ity
Number or independent communities h avingNu mber or
indep endR esi- R esibPrt- D rugent
· H os- dent dent Pn
olie
vate gists R
com- Banks Churches pitals ph ysi- d entels
n
,muniurses
nu
rses
cians tists
ties
.
Locality
------ -
--- All States:
Number _______
t 28S
Per cent_ __ ____ . 100. I
l3 itumino us - mini n g
r egions, totaL __ __-__ ____
.-
-
184
65. 11
2.73
96: 5
23. S
68
237
83. 7
179
63. 3
77
27. 2
35. 0
208
73. 5
172
60. 8
162
57. 2
f67
125
160
44
147
115
27
31
128
103
90
19
18
48
17
4.4
12
29
2
S-4
19'
2
27
2
4
3
14
35
17
5
33
25
3
4
4'
2
35
2
28
8
21
16
2
39
15
30
17.
2
35
9
9
9
2
g
9
2
5
9
8
7
19
17
17
10
rn
17
6
7
16
18
14
1116
59
113
22"
9U
64
50'
68
BO
69
72
2
P ennsylvania... _______
W est Virgin ia ___ __ __
Ohio ______ ____ ____ __ _
A labama ___ --- - ----Illinois an d I ndian a __
K ansas, Ivlissouri,
an d Iow a _________ _
M aryland, V irginia ,
an d Kent ucky ____ _
If. ntl'tracite- mini-11:g region
of Pen:nsylva.nia. ___ ____
L awyers
50
29
2
28
5
1
6 ·
2 ____ .,_
14
38
99
------g ------10
g
22
Number of indepen dent commun ities hav ingLocality
Jus'l'eie- T eleP olice tices
phone graph
officers of the J ails com- compeace
panies pan ies
P ub• City Publie
ing I Rest Parks
lie
h alls b alls lib-ra- rooms rooms
ri es
Read-'
- - -- -- --All States :
Number-______
P er cent_ ___ __
Bituminous-mining
regions,
t-0taL ______ ___ ___ ___ ______
P ennsylvania ___ ~ _______
W est Virginia __ ___ _____ •
Ohio __ _______ ____________
Alabama ______ _________
Illinois and Indiana ___ _
Kansas,
Missouri,
and
I owa ____
_____________
Maryland,
Virginia,
and Kentucky _______ _
Anthr:i.cite-mininiJ region
of Peunsyivanta ___ ______
211
74. 6
202
71. 4
65. 4
216
76. 3
l81
64. 0
140
49. 5
14.5
51. 2
47
16. 6
51
18. 0
113 1
95
102
108
99
68
73
31
34
6
6
18
6
8
23
9
2
38
5
3
12
4
13
7·
1
2
5
4
5
30
9
2
39
8
1
39
185
23
9
1
38
22
9
2
38
4
2 -----32
33
9
9
8
9
9
5
9
18
14
17
17
14
10
7
98
107
83
110
83
72
72
4
I
I
- - 39
13. 8
82
29. 0
28
38
2
2
4
1
1
4
4
6
------ ----- ------ -----19
18
16
23
4
------16
4
1
17
-----11
3
44
1 Scran ton and W ilkes-Barre included in t h is t able.
2 One community did n ot r eport on dental facilit ies; 43 did not report on legal facilities; 42 fa iled to report
on librar y:, rest room , and p ark prov isions .
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
61'
WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES
The company-controlled J¥ining community that had made
provision for recreation suited to the women in the camp was comparatively rare. Here and there a company had fitted up a room
with motion-picture apparatus so that an occasional i::ictme might
be shown; here and there a company had a hall where an occasional
dance mignt be given. Of the independent mining communities,
however, well over three-fourths had church clubs for women and
girls, about 75 per cent had motion pictures, and almost 64 per cent
had dance halls. For the school girl 54 per cent of the independent
mining communities had basket-ball teams and about 35 per cent
had girl-scout organizations. In only 37 per cent of these 283
independent mining towns . were there playgrounds for young children.
The social influence of the almost en tire absence of recreational
facilities in company-controlled camps and the limited facilities in
independent mining towns must be measured in terms of the welfare
of more than a million children, a large proportion of whom v;rere
under 16 years of age, and it must not be overlooked that the deficiency of play provisions for these young children greatly increased
the burdens and responsibilit ies of the more than 300,000 mme
workers' wives whose daily duties included their care.
TABLE
29.-Recreational fa cilities in independent communities, by locali ty
Independent co:mmunltics hav ingNumher
of
Moving
Basket
C hurch
indeD ance
Girl
Playpondhalls
pictures
ball
clubs
scouts
grounds
ent
comm uni- Num- Per Num- Per Num- Per Num- P er N um- Per iNu m - Per
ties
bcr ce nt ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent ber cent
Locality
---- -- All States _____
214
75. 6
153
54. 1
91
53. 3
138
82. 6
76
19
13
16
14
39
20
2
73. 7
!iO
68.4
32. 0
58. 6
78. 0
69. 0
5
15
7
87. 2
39 100. 0
31
180
2167
--
Bitumincus-minin g
r egions, totaL ___ __
P ennsyivanin __ .
West Virginia __
Oh io _____ ___ ____
Ala bama ______ __
IUi nois and Indiana __ __ _____
Kan sas, Missour i, a nd
Iowa __ _______ _
lVI:ar yland, Virgini a, a nd
Kentucky __ __
Anthracite - mining
l'egion of Pennsyl.van fa ___ ______ ____ _
-
--
---
-
34. 6
105
37. 1
59 , 35. 3
53
31. 7
42.1
32. D
34. 5
2
223
78. 8
98
45. 5
133
79. 6
26. 3
30. 0
24. 1
(8)
13
36
21
2
68. 4
72. 0
72. 4
79. 5
36
92. 3
16
41. 0
-
17
29
2 ------ ------
(3)
1
(3)
8
1(j
10
----- - ----- --
11
5
1
10. 5
22. 0
17. 2
(3)
39
34
9
5
(3)
8
(3)
5
(3)
9
(3)
5
(3)
6
(3)
19
!)
47. 4
16
84. 2
12
63. 2
16
84. 2
4
21. 1
5
26. 3
116
86
74. l
76
65. 5
77
66. 4
90
77. 6
3S
33. 6
52
44. 8
'
I
-
63. 8
283
l
23
Scranton and ,Yilkes-B arre included in t h is table.
.
' Forty-two of the 167 communities in th e bituminous fields did not report on pl!iyground facilities.
• Not computed, owing to small number involved .
1
0
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Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
59. 0
- PUBLICATIONS OF THE WOMEN'S BUREAU
BULLETINS
These bulletins and reports will be sent free of charge upon request.
No. 1. Proposed Employment of Women During the War in the Industries of Niagara Falls, N. Y.
16 pp. 1918.
No. 2, Labor Laws for Women in Industries in Indiana. 29 pp. 1018.
No. 3. Standards for the Employment of Women in. Industry. 7 pp. 1919.
No. 4. Wages of Candy Makers in Philadelphia in 1919. 46 pp. 1910.
No. 5. The Eight-Hour Day in Federal and State Legislation. 19 pp. 1919.
No. 6. The Employment of Women in Hazardous Industries in the United States. 8 pp. 1919.
No. 7. Night Work Laws in the United Sta~. 4 pp. 1919.
No. 8. Women in the Government Service. 37 pp. 1920.
No. 9. Home Work in Bridgeport, Conn. 35 pp. 1920.
No. 10. Hours and Conditions of Work for Women in Industry in Virginia. 32 pp. 1920.
No.11. Women Street Car Conductors and Ticket Agents. 90 pp. 1920.
No. 12. The New Position of Women in American Industry. 158 pp. 1920,
No. 13. Industrial Opportunities and Trainingfor Women and Girls. 48 pp. 1920.
No. H. A Physiological Basis for the Shorter Working Day for Women. 20 pp. 1921.
No. 15. Some Effects of Legislation Limiting Hours of Work for Women. 26 pp. 1921.
No. 16. State Laws Affecting Working Women. 51 pp. 1921. Supplement to Bulletin 16. 10 pp. 1923.
Superseded by Bui. No. 40.
No. 17. Women's Wages in Kansas. 104 pp. 1921.
No.18. Health Problems of Women in Industry. (Reprint of paper published in the Nation's Health,
May, 1921.) 11 pp. 1921.
No. 19. Iowa Women in Industry. 73 pp. 1922.
No. 20. Negro Women in Industry. 65 pp. 1922,
No. 21. Women in Rhode Island Industries. 73 pp. 1922.
No. 22. Women in Georgia Industries. 89 pp. 1922.
No. 23. The Family Status of Breadwinning Women. 43 pp. 1922.
No. 24. Women in Maryland Industries. 96 pp. 1922.
No. 25. Women in the Candy Industry in Chicago and St. Louis. 72 pp. 1923.
No. 26. Women in Arkansas Industries. 86 pp. 1923.
No. 27. The Occupational Progress of Women. 37 pp. 1922.
No. 28, Women's Contributions in the Field of Invention. 51 pp. 1923.
No. 29. Women in Kentucky Industries. 114 pp. 1923.
No. 30. The Share of Wage-Earning Women in Family Support. 170 pp. 1923.
No. 31. What Industry Means to Women Workers. 10 pp. 1923.
No. 32. Women in South Carolina Industries. 128 pp. 1923.
No. 33. Proceedings of the Women's Industrial Conference. 190 pp. 1923.
No. 34. Women in Alabama Industries. 86 pp. 1924.
No. 35, Women in Missouri Industries. 127 pp. 1924.
No. 36. Radio Talks on Women in Industry. 34 pp. 1924.
No. 37. Women in New ;rersey Industries. 99 pp. 1924.
No. 38. Married Women in Industry. 8 pp. 1924.
No. 39. Domestic Workers and Their Employment Relations. 87 pp. 1924.
No. 40. State Laws Affecting Working Women. 63 pp. 1924.
No. 41. The Family Status of Breadwinning Women in Four Selected Cities. 145 pp. 1925.
No. 42. List of References on Minimum Wage for Women in the United States and Canada. 42 pp.
1925.
No. 43. Standard and Scheduled Hours of Work for Women in Industry. 67 pp. 1925.
No. 44. Women in Ohio Industries. 136 pp. 1924.
No. 45. Home Environment and Employment Opportunities of Women in Coal-Mine Workers' Families.
No. 46. Facts About Working Women: A Graphic Presentation Based on Census Statistics and Studies
of the Women's Bureau.
First Annual Report of the Director. 1919. (Out of print.)
Second Annual Report of the Director. 1920. {Out of print.)
Third Annual Report of the Director. 1921.
Fourth Annual Report of the Director. 1922.
Fifth Annual Report of the Director. 1923.
Sixth Annual Report of the Director. 1924.
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