Coal Tattoo is taking a couple of days off for the Memorial Day holiday … in the meantime, readers might want to spend some time with this, the Mine Safety Pastoral Letter, from the Rev. Michael J. Bransfield, Bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston Catholic Diocese. You can download a .pdf copy of it here.
On this day, the Memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker, the Church honors Joseph in his role as a worker and, in so doing, seeks to highlight the dignity of human labor. In West Virginia, the Memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker should be a day of celebration. Human labor and the spirit of the working man making a living for himself by his labor are emblazoned on the Great Seal of our State: the two proud figures, a pioneer farmer wielding an ax and a miner with his pick on his shoulder. The symbol of this State celebrates hard-working people who have wrested a living from the Mountain State’s beautiful but challenging landscape. The events of recent weeks also turn our thoughts about workers in a somber direction.
Just over a century ago, the community of Monongah was devastated by the worst mining disaster in American history. Hundreds of men and boys were killed by a devastating explosion in the Monongah Mine, likely triggered by the ignition of methane which in turn ignited the coal dust in mines 6 and 8. In a few short minutes, whole families of men were killed and hundreds of widows and orphans were created at a time before modern welfare support. Bishop Patrick J. Donahue went to Monongah to join the community in its grief and to help them commit the souls of their dead fathers and sons to their eternal rest. The disaster occurred on the Feast of St. Nicholas, December 6, 1907, but there was nothing of Christmas joy amid the cries and tears of widows and orphans.
The Monongah Mine Disaster, and the other deadly mine explosions which soon followed in Pennsylvania and Alabama, were so shocking to the nation that we spurred on to create the Bureau of Mines in 1910. This U.S. Government Agency was charged with the investigation of the methods of mining, especially in relation to the safety of miners and the prevention of accidents, with the hope of preventing workplace fatalities. During the years of its existence, the U.S. Bureau of Mines’ work into the prevention of mine explosions has led to great improvements in mine safety and the Mine Safety and Health Administration has continued to identify opportunities for improved safety, but clearly more needs to be done.
A few short weeks ago, I joined parishioners at Whitesville to pray for the miners and their families involved in the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster. The explosion occurred on Easter Monday. While the readings at Mass spoke of Mary Magdalene’s joy at seeing the Risen Savior, I had to speak to the people also of Magdalene’s tears as she approached the tomb that morning. West Virginians are a people of faith, but this Easter Week was a difficult time for our Mountain State, a time of sorrow and dashed hopes. The Montcoal community experienced the sort of suffering we had all hoped would never be repeated after the Sago disaster four years ago. In the 21st century, there should be a greater span between accidents than just four years.
In my first pastoral letter, A Church That Heals, I acknowledged that “we are far from the place called health: a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.”
It was clear that “the road to this place of health and well-being requires that we develop a healthy, vigorous and just environment of social networks and mutual relationships that supports the health and well-being of all of us.”
These words, originally about health and the access to healthcare, could be equally applied to mine safety and access to good safeguards and adequate technologies.
West Virginia’s coal helps to supply over half of our nation’s energy. A good deal of our State’s coal is exported to help other nations improve their economies and further their development. These are facts of which we can be extremely proud. We can also reasonably expect that miner safety be a higher priority than coal production. The disaster at the Upper Big Branch Mine raises concerns about the conditions within the coal mines across our State and the atmosphere existing in the coal industry’s corporate culture. Experts are clear that such explosions are preventable. We must ask: Is our mining technology in 2010 equal to the technology that is easily available in other industries? Why is it safer to travel in space than to work in a West Virginia mine?
We know that our elected representatives are actively seeking answers to questions such as these. In doing so, they are part of “that great struggle in which men in the course of the ages have sought to improve the conditions of human living” (Gaudium et Spes, 34). As believers, we recognize that “this human activity accords with God’s will” (GS, 34). In the weeks and months ahead, our representatives will seek to address both issues of science and technology as well as questions of justice and equity. We, people of good will, have an obligation to encourage them in these inquiries and to remind them of its human face.
This is a time of transition in the coalfields. It is certain that the nation will need our coal for years to come. Just as certainly, our nation’s energy needs must increasingly be met by sources that contribute less carbon to the atmosphere. As coal is mined, more attention must be devoted to the increased incidence of black lung disease. Attention must also be paid to the health of communities situated near mines, and to the purity of water flowing through and leaving the coalfields.
Some experts see the supply of easily mined coal dwindling within decades. New policies, new techniques, new ideas will be coming to the mountains which have for so long supplied the energy of this country. “There is a saying in the region that coal is king.” The Bishops of Appalachia in their 1975 pastoral letter This Land is Home to Me recognized that “the coal-based industry created many jobs, and brought great progress to our country.” They also frankly acknowledged that “oppression for the mountains” and suffering for many resulted from tragedies like the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster. And they warned that the temptation toward “maximization of profit” can lead to a disregard for human beings and their needs and lead to “a new kind of powerlessness.”
As our nation has become more dependent on West Virginia’s coal over the past 35 years, we have seen the great foresight of the Bishops of Appalachia. There have been advances in mining and still, for many of our fellow West Virginians, coal is not simply a way to make a living, it is a way of life. We owe it to them and to ourselves to ask the questions that will lead to good safeguards and adequate technologies that prevent disasters; we owe it to them and to ourselves to ensure that unsafe mining practices and mines with a disproportionate number of violations are properly addressed, before lives are jeopardized; we owe it to them and to ourselves to make certain that “safety first” isn’t just a motto but that it is a lived reality in our State’s mines. Indeed, we owe it to our miners and mine operators alike to demand that mines become “zero accident” work places, where an accident is unacceptable to all and where production would always be halted rather than risk an accident.
There is a saying in the coalfields, “Coal-mining laws are written in blood.” Following the Upper Big Branch Mine Explosion, Nick Helms, who lost his father, Terry, in the 2006 Sago Mine Disaster, spoke about the grief and pain that coal-mining families feel. “I never understood that saying until after Sago,” Nick told us. “Dad would say that nothing would ever change until after something bad would happen. It’s a never-ending struggle, but it needs to be a never-ending topic in our government.” Nick concluded, “People were saying, ‘It’s cheaper to pay the fines than to do the safety.’ I know you need to make money, but not at the expense of peoples’ lives.”
“West Virginia needs coal mines,” Nick said. “But, West Virginia doesn’t need unsafe coal mines.” That is the attitude that we, a people of faith, must take as we strive to support those who make their living by supporting us and our lifestyle. The Church has always been responsive to the concerns of workers. Almost two decades before the Monongah disaster, in response to grave concerns about the worker’s plight worldwide, Pope Leo XIII issued his encyclical letter On the Condition of the Working Class (Rerum Novarum, 1891) and drew attention to the essential partnership between capital and labor for their mutual benefit and the common good, the importance of safe working conditions and a living wage, the State’s role in regulating work relationships and conditions, and the right of workers to organize for reasons of justice and safety.
The Church has an obligation to continue to remain vigilant in these areas to ensure that justice is served and human dignity is protected. This is an essential part of proclaiming the Gospel of Life. Indeed, by virtue of human dignity, all persons have a right to a safe work environment and one in which unsafe conditions can be reported without fear of blacklisting or loss of one’s job. Workers have a right to a living wage and to reasonable work hours. The Church has long recognized and supported workers’ rights to organize. In the coalfields, such organization has had measurable benefits in terms of safety and we applaud all that the United Mine Workers of America have achieved. We must discover why union mines have a lower fatality rate in West Virginia and appear to have a much better safety record.
A Bureau of Labor Statistics report, “Coal Mining Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities in 2006,” supported the conclusion that “the coal mine fatality rate was 11 times higher than the rate for all U.S. private industry workers.” It is clear that more can and must be done across the coal industry: safety is about putting people first, making individuals responsible for themselves and one another, and giving all the ability to make appropriate, well-informed decisions without fear of reprisals. In a nation as technologically advanced as ours, the real limitation on safety would seem to be whether we have the desire to make it our first priority. As a people of faith, it is the Church’s duty to encourage this.
On visiting Nazareth in 1964 to dedicate the new Basilica Church, Pope Paul VI spoke of the “lessons of Nazareth” among which was to be found “the lesson of work.” The Holy Father acknowledged that at Nazareth, the home of the carpenter’s son and the very place where St. Joseph taught Jesus to labor, “the austere and redeeming law of human labor” is seen, a “consciousness of the dignity of labor” emerges, one begins “to recall that work cannot be an end in itself, and that it is free and ennobling in proportion to the values – beyond the economic ones – which motivate it.” At Nazareth, Pope Paul VI wished “to salute all the workers of the world, and to point out to them their great Model, their Divine Brother, the Champion of all their rights, Christ the Lord!” In recalling these words and the great dignity of human labor as well as the true value of human life, I greet the men and women who labor in our coal mining industry in West Virginia and point out to them a wonderful patron, St. Joseph the Worker. As a workingman, he knew toil and labor; he knew joy and sorrow; he knew lean times and times of plenty; he dealt with great hardships, threats of violence, and boundless happiness in his family. St. Joseph made his living as a carpenter, most certainly. Christ was St. Joseph’s way of life. This is the message we must also bring to our brothers and sisters.
Let us have faith that the tears from Sago and Aracoma, Crandall Canyon and Montcoal, and so many others will result in true safety coming to the coalfields. Let us work diligently to break this tragic cycle. Let us pray that healthy living, pure water, and clean air will return to the coal mining regions of our beautiful Mountain State. May Our Lady, help of Christians, and St. Joseph the Worker, her Spouse, intercede for us, watch over the families and communities affected by this tragedy, and bring to completion the good work we have begun in Christ our Lord.
Prayer to St. Joseph, as Patron of Workers
O glorious Joseph, you concealed your incomparable and regal dignity as custodian of Jesus and of the Virgin Mary under the humble appearance of a craftsman and provided for them with your work. Protect with loving power your sons and daughters, especially entrusted to you.
You know their anxieties and sufferings, because you yourself experienced them at the side of Jesus and of His Mother. Do not allow them, oppressed by so many worries, to forget the purpose for which they were created by God. Do not allow the seeds of distrust to take hold of their immortal souls. Remind all the workers that in the fields, in factories, in mines, and in scientific laboratories, they are not working, rejoicing, or suffering alone, but at their side is Jesus, with Mary, His Mother and ours, to sustain them, to dry the sweat of their brow, giving value to their toil. Teach them to turn work into a high instrument of sanctification as you did. Amen.
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The man with the pick on his shoulder is likely not a coal miner, since the seal was created along with the state, in 1863. There is also a hammer and anvil behind the man with the pick, who represents industry. Commercial iron furnaces existed well before the Civil War, using local ore, while coal mining was not a commercial operation until the late 1880s, long after the seal was created.
There was life before coal in these mountains, and will be after.
From http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh27-2.html:
“The West Virginia, or rather Virginia salt industry continued to grow with rapid strides until the Kanawha Valley became what was perhaps the chief salt producing area in the country. Professor William Barton Rogers, of the University of Virginia, was sent by the state to survey the land over the Alleghenies. He visited all the mines in what is now West Virginia between 1836 and 1840.18 He stated in his report in 1840, his second, that there were ninety furnaces along the Kanawha River which made annually a million bushels of salt and consumed five million bushels or two hundred thousand tons of coal. Nine hundred ninety-five miners and workmen were employed and $1,301,855 was invested in the industry.19 This growth continued until about 1853. From then until 1857, the salt industry of the Kanawha Valley was impoverished by the development of the Ohio River Salt Company as well as by certain developments in Mason County, Virginia, and Meigs County, Ohio,20 counties being located on opposite sides of the Ohio River. The number of furnaces on the Kanawha declined rapidly after that time. The demand for coal, however, did not suffer as great a decline owing to the use of cannel coal in the production of cannel coal oil.21
***
This development of the river service not only provided a demand for coal on its own behalf, but provided also a means of shipment to meet the demands of other places and other industries. In 1819, David Bradshaw opened a mine on the Ohio side of the river across from Mason City, in Mason County. He mined 1,200 bushels of coal that year.31 In 1832, Samuel Pomeroy, the founder of Pomeroy, Ohio, put a thousand bushels of coal from the mine mentioned above on board a New Orleans boat to be shipped from there to Boston. The boat sank in the Ohio, however, and this long distance enterprise was never renewed. George Birthistle began shipping down the Ohio from a mine between Clifton and West Columbia in Mason County the same year.32
“By 1840 mining operations were open in eight of the Virginia counties which later became part of West Virginia, according to the census of that year.33 Although no differentiation is made between coal mining and other forms, it is to be assumed that most of those engaged in mining were coal miners. According to the census, Kanawha County had a hundred sixty persons engaged in mining; Mason County had five; Monongalia County had one hundred twenty-eight; Ohio County (including Wheeling) had eighty-five; Brooke County (adjoining Ohio) had twelve; Hardy County had three; Jefferson County had forty-two; and Marshall County had four.34 In another volume of the census reports of 1840, however, some seemingly contradictory figures are given.”
According to this histotrian John Stealey at Shepherd University, a lot of African American slaves worked in pre-Civil War Kanawha County coal mines to get fuel for the salt furnaces, including, I think but am not sure, the young Booker T. Washington. However, the miner on the State Seal is not something I have researched and Lisa deGruyter may well be right as to what kind of mining he was supposed to represent when the seal was adopted.
Lisa deGruyter, you state “Commercial iron furnaces existed well before the Civil War, using local ore, while coal mining was not a commercial operation until the late 1880s, long after the seal was created.”
Just how do you think the commercial iron furnaces were fueled… windmills, maybe solar panels. The commercial coal industry began as a raw material supplier to fuel the iron/steel industry.
See the following, Lisa:-
‘Important Dates in West Virginia’s Mining History
1742 First discovery of coal by John Peter Salley in the area now comprising West Virginia.
1770 George Washington noted “a cole hill on fire” near West Columbia in current Mason County.
1800 Pittsburgh Coal Seam was discovered in northern Kanawha County.
1810 First commercial coal mine opened near Wheeling by Conrad Cotts for blacksmithing and domestic use.
1817 A coal mine opened in the upper Kanawha Valley to supply coal to the salt industry.
1830 Development of Clay industry in Hancock County.
1834 First commercial coal mining company in Kanawha Valley incorporated.
1843 Baltimore and Ohio railroad reached Piedmont and coal was shipped to Baltimore.
1847 Coal shipped by river from Mason County.
1853 The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was opened to Wheeling.
1855 Mines opened on Big Coal River near Peytona and coal shipped by way of Kanawha River.
1863 West Virginia becomes a state (June 20).
1873 Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad completed lines to Huntington ……………………’
http://www.wvminesafety.org/History.htm
Concerened miner: not many people know it, but for hundreds of years, commercial iron furnaces, like the existing Henry Clay Furnace at Coopers Rock State Forest in Mon County, the Valley Furnace near Nestorville in Barbour County, or the Bloomery Furnace in Hampshire County, etc., etc., were fueled, not by coal, but by charcoal — made from local hardwood.
My understanding is that you have to “purify” coal into coke to have a fuel suitable for making iron and steel, and I believe that huge technological innovation and change happened in about the mid-nineteenth-century. (It would be easy to look this up, but I’m busy and lazy this PM).
So, I would guess (I emphasize guess) that you are right — mining coal for iron and steel manufacture did begin before West Virginia was created, but it didn’t really take off until after the Civil War. Maybe some commenter can confirm this or straighten it out.
Public understanding of our species’/civilization’s basic technological history sometimes is not optimal. Building a small charcoal kiln and iron furnace (I’ve seen photos of primitive furnaces five or six feet high made of mud, with hand-powered bellows) would be a good addition to any high school curriculum!
Ken,
Thank you very much for reprinting this. I had the opportunity to accompany Bishop Bransfield when he traveled to Whitesville the day after the explosion. He visited with many in the community and then said a special Mass dedicated to the miners and their families. I saw first hand how passionately Bishop Bransfield feels about doing whatever we must to ensure miners’ safety.
Have a blessed weekend.
Deacon Todd Garlaand
West Virginia Secretary of State
http://www.sos.wv.gov/public-services/execrecords/Pages/WestVirginiaStateSeal.aspx
Joseph H. Diss Debar, an artist from Doddridge county, was chosen by the Legislature to prepare drawings for an official seal for the State of West Virginia. He submitted his drawings with an explanation of each detail. From these drawings, the Legislature adopted a seal which remains the Great Seal of the State of West Virginia to this day.
The seal contains the Latin motto Montani Semper Liberi, which means Mountaineers Are Always Free. A large stone in the center of the seal stands for strength. On the stone is the date on which West Virginia was admitted to the Union, June 20th, 1863. The farmer with his axe represents agriculture and the miner with his pick represents industry. In front of the rock are two rifles, crossed and surmounted at the place of contact by the cap of liberty, indicating that freedom and liberty were won and will be maintained by force of arms.
West Virginia Geological Survey
http://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/www/geology/geoldvco.htm
In 1742, John Peter Salley took an exploratory trip across the Allegheny Mountains and reported an outcropping of coal along a tributary of the Kanawha River. He and his companions named this tributary the Coal River, and his report became the first reference to coal in what is today West Virginia.
Although coal was known to occur throughout much of West Virginia, no extensive mining took place until the mid-1800s. Until that time, there was little incentive to exploit coal as a resource because of the great abundance of wood and a lack of manufacturing industries. Small amounts of coal were used by crossroads blacksmiths or by the settler whose cabin stood near an outcrop. In 1810, the people of Wheeling began to use coal obtained from a nearby mine to heat their dwellings. In 1811, the first steamboat on the Ohio burned coal from the Ohio banks. By 1817, coal began to replace charcoal as a fuel for the numerous Kanawha River salt furnaces. By 1836, the western Virginia coal fields had received so much attention that Virginia’s foremost geologist, Professor William B. Rogers, was sent to visit the mines and analyze the coal in eight counties. The total coal production in 1840 for the State was about 300,000 tons, of which 200,000 tons was used in the Kanawha salt furnaces and most of the remainder was consumed by factories and homes in Wheeling. Between 1840 and 1860 many coal companies were organized, and corporations were created under the laws of Virginia for the purpose of encouraging financial investments from foreign countries.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, the Kanawha Valley mines were closed. Confederate troops set up camps in the valley, and many of the locks and dams along the river were destroyed, thus preventing shipping. Farther north, the Elkins and Fairmont fields remained active, providing coal for the Union via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The coal was used for railroad engines and for heating in the east.
Following the Civil War, an awakening of interest in the State’s mineral resources brought a new era of development and growth for the coal industry. The industry spread to new localities, and by 1880 there were extensive operations in Mineral, Monongalia, Marion, Fayette, Harrison, Ohio, Putnam, and Mason counties. Of the numerous coal fields which grew up in West Virginia, a few are of particular interest. One of the larger fields is the Fairmont Field, developed around the rich Pittsburgh seam. The first marketed Pittsburgh coal in western Virginia was produced around 1852 from a mine near the present city of Fairmont. Production and marketing success of the field increased, and in 1901 the Fairmont Coal Company was formed, later to become the Consolidation Coal Company.
Speaking of holidays, here’s a link to a speech the author says President Obama needs to give soon, well before July 4. (Actually, he needs to rewrite it, but the theme is a sound one):
http://climateprogress.org/2010/05/31/oil-dependence-speech-obama-bp-oil-disaster/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29
“Now there are many reasons folks tell me we should delay doing something about energy independence and national security. They tell me that Congress can’t deal with any tough votes before November. They tell me that the tragedy of the BP Horizon spill means we can’t pursue safe approaches to offshore drilling in American waters. Some even suggest that government should sit this one out—that we should just trust the oil companies and the markets to direct U.S. energy policy.
But this July 4th we’re not going to listen to the voices of business as usual, to those arguing for delay or inaction. Will we be successful in this effort? I honestly don’t know. Yet we will never know until we try.”
Thanks, FactsFirst. I like your posting name!