Young Miners

Young Miners. . Child labor was common in West Virginia during the hand loading era, which took place from the onset of coal mining in the 19th century until around 1930. Mining was a skilled craft, and it took a number of years to learn. A young miner usually picked up skills by going down into the mine with his father or an uncle. This was on a part-time basis, perhaps on Saturday at first, then during summer vacation. As he grew older, he spent more time in the mine and less time in school until the day he was strong and skilled enough to enter the mine on his own. , Boys who worked beside their fathers were not paid a wage by the company or even counted as an employee. Instead, they were given an allowance by their fathers from his wage, which in 1910 was about 40 cents for each ton mined. When his father deemed him ready, the boy might be given an independent job. Many held the job of “trapper boy,” in which he would be responsible for opening and shutting the wooden, hinged ventilation doors to allow for the passage of coal cars. A typical wage in 1910 was about one dollar per day for this job. , Boys in their teens with more experience were given difficult and hazardous jobs associated with the haulage of coal inside the mine. In the days before electric or battery-powered motors, mules or horses were used to pull trains of mine cars to the outside. Teenage boys were employed as mule drivers, with all of the difficulties of handling the stubborn animals in the dark environment. , Perhaps the most hazardous job in the mines for a worker of any age was “spragging.” Since the early mine cars had no brakes, the only way to slow or stop a car flying down the haulage entry was to thrust a sprag (a short, round piece of wood tapered at each end) between the spokes of the mine car wheel. Spraggers had to race along side the moving trains of cars, dodging obstructions and ducking low top to perform their jobs. They risked the amputation of fingers and hands, and could be run over by a speeding coal car. At various times, legislation was passed to regulate child labor. In 1887, the state legislature passed an act prohibiting any minor, under twelve years of age, to work in any factory workshop, or mine. In 1907, the minimum age was raised to fourteen and females of any age were banned from mine labor. All that was required for a child to obtain work was an affidavit stating that the applicant was beyond the age limit of fourteen. Fathers of the young boys were primarily responsible for submitting the affidavit. Employers, eager to get cheap labor, sometimes looked the other way. , In 1919, a law was enacted requiring all minors to undergo a complete physical examination from a public health physician in order to acquire a work permit to take a lob in a mine or factory. The new law, which was hailed as one of the most progressive in the nation, also required completion of a sixth grade education prior to acquisition of a work permit and prohibited any child of sixteen or younger from working more than eight hours a day. , Regardless of the legislation, children continued to work in the southern West Virginia mines through the 1930s. From a sample of about 1,000 miners working during the early 1930s, over forty-three percent started in the mines before they were seventeen; nearly sixteen percent began their mining careers between the ages of ten and fourteen; and two percent went into the mines before they were ten years old. , (sidebar) , Interviewed in the early 1930s, one southern West Virginia miner stated: “I started to work in the mines with my father when I was ten years old. Later, I got a job as a trap boy. I worked in the summer and went to school some in the winter. I lived all my life in a mining camp, didn’t know anything else.