Talk:History of coal miners

Neutrality
This article has fantastic data, but is biased. It is correct that the absence f all weather roads made the remote areas of coal mining isolated and yes, a sole source store, would happen. However, thats why it was a sole source. Nobody else could get there. Stating that coal scrip was a device of exploitation is correct, my ancestors would support that, HOWEVER that is not a neutral POV UNLESS, a balanced counter point is presented. That does exist, Specifically, the Smokeless Coal Fields of West Virginia by Tams would be a start. I very much love this history, but all of us must remain cautious not to imbue a mythos on data that is not presented. Do we know if indeed most miners were paid in scrip? Do we have stats for this? Do we have a non biased source?Coal town guy (talk) 16:43, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what the bias is....there were company stores in remote camps. the statement is "Some company towns that raised the prices of all goods and made eviction a constant threat, these conditions were not the norm for all coal towns."  That seems factual rather than biased.  What does Tams say about West Virginia?? Rjensen (talk) 16:50, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * William Tams was a President of the Gulf Coal Co, and there is a town named Tams, Tams, West Virginia and Tams resided in his coal town. His town had paved roads, his town had traffic signals, and it was for all purposes of that era, a decent coal town. BUT, constant eviction was also bad business for other miners who went between towns. Tams states that coal scrip was a service, provided to a miner so that he was not short on funds. There are at this point, many divergent points of view, all valid. Tams thought that if a miner were careful with his funds, no scrip would be required. So, they were not paid in scrip, coal scrip was a credit issued against accrued wages.As to the availability of money, Hot Coal, West Virginia ,a coal town,was the site of the Winding Gulf Bank, which moved to Beckley, West Virginia, the county seat of Raleigh County, West Virginia. Again, we need balanced views hereCoal town guy (talk) 17:01, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Radicalism?
Most of the early 20th century in North America was a struggle because the miners did NOT want to be radical and did NOT want a union. They wanted work and a strike often branded them as people who would not work. See Mother Jones the Most Dangerous Woman in America for data. OR History of West Virginia Vol 2 by Rice......
 * the article does not mention any "radicalism" in the US. Strike activity by the UMW is covered and is quite famous. Rjensen (talk) 16:56, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * "the late 19th century down to the 1950s, the coal miners on the whole were the most strike-prone group of industrial workers and their politics were the most radical or inclined to the far left." This is from the intro of the article. Why did the UMWA have a decline in membership during this time period if on the whole, coal miners were so inclined?Coal town guy (talk) 17:04, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * the statement is true enough (on the whole, worldwide). In the US the radical stage came in the 1930s under John L Lewis. The UMW membership went up and down; it was up 1900 to 1920, down 1920 to 1933, up 1933-45, then down again. Rjensen (talk) 17:18, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * (you can edit the comments!) I think that would be valid as well. How about a modified statement that describes a global wide trend? Do not get me wrong here, I love the subject matter, but accuracy is important. There was also a decline in the 60's, and again in the 70'sCoal town guy (talk) 17:23, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * MANY thanks for changing the wordingCoal town guy (talk) 17:30, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

-a Wikipedia binge brought me here and I noticed that the blurb/cite at the head of radicalism that starts with: "the Mid 19th Century, coal miners have had prominent connection with the organized labour movement..." and ends at "...coal miners across the world became one of the most militant segments of the working class in the industrialized world." is poorly formatted. The long quote runs off the the screen and scrolls the page in Firefox making the whole citation unreadable and the article quite ugly. The statement should be edited with line breaks for more readability as soon as possible please. I would do it myself but I'm too lazy to sign up/learn how to edit Wikipedia. 173.73.17.212 (talk) 12:45, 29 January 2014 (UTC)Anonymous
 * thanks for pointing out the problem. it is caused by a blank space at the beginning of a line. I fixed it. Rjensen (talk) 13:06, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Anglo-centrism?
This article is heavily Anglo-centric, with references largely confined to UK, USA and Canada. Coal mining is quite a huge thing outside the English-speaking world as well. --Soman (talk) 10:38, 1 April 2013 (UTC)
 * the problem is that Wikipedia doesn't report what is "true"--it only reports what is "verifiable." That is it reports on what the Reliable Secondary Sources say. For coal mining these are heavily concentrated in US, UK, Canada. If you have some good sources on other countries, please add them.Rjensen (talk) 10:48, 1 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, it is possibly the largest in China, if you can add a source from there, go for itCoal town guy (talk) 12:47, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

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