official statistical publications. It does not belong, however, to the realm of history. A tribe of Indian huntsmen, retreating before the advancing lines of paleface invaders, could find new hunting-grounds in the untrodden wilds of the West and the Southwest. But the coal miners could not have withdrawn to new territory unless capital had gone there before them, and had opened mines, built houses, and established commissary stores. From an impersonal standpoint "it therefore seems clearly apparent" that the migrations of the English-speaking miners were the effect of the opening of new coal-fields in the West and Southwest which offered better opportunities to the mine worker than the older fields of the East. In the sparsely settled West and Southwest, far away from Eastern competition, coal prices were higher, and the mine operators were in a position to offer inducements to Eastern miners who were willing to go westward. Turning from the summary to the materials of the Immigration Commission we learn that

both Kansas and Oklahoma were sparsely settled about 1880, when mining on a large scale was begun, and the management of the properties induced Americans, English, Irish, Scotch, and Welsh to come from the coal regions of Pennsylvania to work in the mines. The first employees were brought by special car or trainload from the mining localities of Pennsylvania and the Middle West.1

Gradually large numbers of the old employees migrated from the Middle West to the West, the South and Southwest "where there was an active demand for experienced miners because of the rapid development of the coal industry.

112

The motive forces of the migration of coal miners from the East to the West and Southwest clearly appear from the statistics of the production of coal by States. A glance at the maps on pp. 416 and 4173 shows that between 1880 Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 6, p. 22; vol. 7, pp. 9, 2 Ibid., vol. 6, pp. 666, 667.

II, 15.

3 The figures for these maps are taken from the Report of the United States Geological Survey on Coal, 1910, p. 14. States producing less than 1,000,000 tons are not included.

and 1890 coal mining developed in Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama in the South; in Oklahoma and Indian Territory in the Southwest; and in Colorado, Montana, and Washington in the West; that between 1890 and 1900 new fields were opened in Michigan, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Utah; and that while this development was going on in the West and Southwest, production in the old States was also fast increasing. It is plain that the men to work in the new mines had to come from somewhere. The increase of the population of the United States, both by births and immigration, did not keep pace with the growth of coal production, as can be seen from Table 125 next below. The progress of machine mining has been slow: in 1910 less than one half (41.74 per cent) of the total output of bituminous coal was machine-mined. Certainly the native population alone was insufficient to supply the increasing demand for labor. The extent of the demand can be seen from Diagram XXII.3

TABLE 125.

I

GROWTH OF POPULATION AND OF THE PRODUCTION OF COAL, 1880-1910.4

United States Geological Survey: The Production of Coal in the United States, 1910, p. 51.

2

This is the unanimous testimony coming from all sections of the country. See Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 6, p. 23; vol. 7. pp. 145, 146, 156, 217, 220.

3 The figures for the diagram are taken from the compilation in the Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 6, p. 5, Table 5.

Mines and Quarries, 1902, p. 669, Table 6. United States Geological

The development of coal mining outside of Pennsylvania from 1880 to 1889 was sufficient to have absorbed every old employee who had been working in the bituminous coal

10

Penn.

All Other
States

Middle West

South and
Southwest

Penn. and Middle West

XXII. Number of persons employed in bituminous coal mines, 1880,

1889, and 1907 (thousands)

mines of Pennsylvania in 1880. The development of mining in the South and Southwest since 1889 has been sufficient to have furnished employment to every wageearner who had been at work in the bituminous coal mines

Survey: Production of Coal, 1910, p. 21. XIII. Census: Bulletin on Population.

40611

of Pennsylvania and the Middle West in 1889. At the same time the additions since 1889 to the force employed in the bituminous coal mines of Pennsylvania alone have equaled the increase in the operating forces of the Southern and Southwestern mines, while the additions to the number of employees in the Middle West since 1889 have exceeded the total number of the mine workers of Pennsylvania for that year. This growth of the industry stimulated a great deal of shifting of labor from one place to another.

The main inducement for experienced miners to migrate westward was the greater opportunity for advancement in the rapidly developing coal mines of the new fields. The proportion of supervisory or better-paid positions in an old coal mine, like in any other establishment, is limited. The opening of every new mine, however, creates new positions for skilled and experienced miners. While the expansion of mining operations in the older States offered many opportunities for advancement to old employees, still in no single concern could all the employees be raised to higher positions at one time. The more ambitious, to whom the road to promotion at their old places appeared too long, sought better opportunities in new fields. Their places had to be filled by new immigrants. There was no “displacement" of the old by the new employees; the Southern and Eastern Europeans did not "inundate" the older employees, but merely filled the vacuum produced by the continuous pumping out of the older employees. The ultimate result of these migrations within the coal-mining industry has been that "the largest portion of those remaining, including the most efficient and progressive element, have, as a result of the expansion of the industry, secured advancement to the more skilled and responsible positions." The openings for the English-speaking mine workers were not confined to mining.

The misuse of the word "displacement" in the Reports of the Immigration Commission has been adverted to, in Chapter VII.

2 Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. I, p. 537.

2