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https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis [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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis • / 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ADDITIONAL COPIES or THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 10 CENTS PER COPY https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 1 1 3 6 11 11 16 26 3"0 32' 35 35 37 39 43 45 50 5559 IV 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______ https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 36 37 38 38 39 40 41 41 ~2 43 44 . 46 47 48 49 50 51 51 53 54 55 56 57 57 58 58 59 60 61 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis f. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. 1 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. · · 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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--~ https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 4 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis • WOMEN IN COAL-MINE -WORKERS' FAMILIES 5 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 6 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis WOMEN IN GOAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES 7 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 8 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES ·9 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 10 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. 35246°-25t-3 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 11 12 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 • https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis WOMEN IN COAirMINE WORKERS' FAMILIES 13 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 14 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS' FAMILIES 15 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 16 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis · WOMEN IN COAL-MINE WORKERS" FAMILIES 19 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!, 35246°-25t----4 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 20 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." https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 1924. / 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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_ https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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· https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis ' 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis • 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. · https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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:; https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org 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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org 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 . https://fraser.stlouisfed.org 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 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org 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. 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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. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis