The Human Cost of the Coal Mine
As Seattle's mines teeter on the edge of insolvency, the burden of reorganization falls squarely on the shoulders of the workers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A general reduction of the wages of employees of the Seattle Coal and Iron Company, from the vice president down to the boys in the mines at Gilman, was ordered yesterday by Receiver John H. Bryant. About 300 men are affected. The reduction to manual workmen is 10 percent, while officers suffered a larger cut. Receiver Bryant explained the move as one of simple necessity, noting that the mine was not earning enough to pay running expenses. He stated, 'The question I put to the men was whether they would work for less wages or have no work at all.' Meanwhile, workers like W. M. Fiaskey express despair, noting that married men with families have no choice but to accept the cut or starve. Furthermore, miners are required to buy their supplies at the company store, where prices for staple articles are 50 to 75 percent higher than in Seattle. One miner, John Foxor, was fired for buying groceries in Seattle rather than at the company store, and was only rehired after promising not to do it again.
“The question I put to the men was whether they would work for less wages or have no work at all.”
The tension between corporate 'reorganization' and the survival of the workforce remains a defining feature of the Seattle economy. In 1894, the mechanism of control was the company store; today, that pressure has shifted to the skyrocketing cost of urban living that forces workers out of the city they serve.
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