CULTURE, CLASS, AND POLITICS IN MODERN APPALACHIA: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF RONALD L. LEWIS

Depression, Recovery, Instability: The NRA and the McDowell County, West Virginia Coal Industry, 1920-1938

283 Depression, Recovery, Instability: The NRA and the McDowell County, West Virginia, Coal Industry, 1920–1938 Mark Myers MCDOWELL COUNTY, the southernmost county in West Virginia, depended on the coal industry for its economic livelihood throughout the twentieth century. During the latter half of the century, however, many of the coal operations in the county closed and left the region destitute. Mechanization within the coal industry, along with other factors, including competition from alternative fuels, caused the process of deindustrialization in McDowell.1 The Great Depression, more than any other event, can be seen as a turning point in the coal industry of the county. During the 1920s, coal companies faced an uncertain future as the industry suffered through a decade-long downturn. The economic collapse of 1929 contributed to the virtual collapse of the industry in McDowell County. By 1932, conditions in McDowell County, and the entire Central Appalachian region, were among the worst in the nation. The 1932 election of Franklin D. Roosevelt as president, and the implementation of his New Deal, resulted in significant socioeconomic changes in McDowell County. The passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the authority given to the National Recovery Administration (NRA) in promulgating industrial codes of fair competition resulted in changes in mining methods and in the relationship between miners and CULTURE, CLASS, AND POLITICS 284 employers. Although it seemed that the NRA succeeded in bringing recovery to the coal industry immediately after the implementation of the coal codes, the agency ultimately failed to achieve the stabilization of the industry. The production and employment figures for three representative mines in McDowell County—Olga No. 1 in Coalwood, United States Coal and Coke No. 6 in Gary, and Peerless Coal and Coke in Vivian—show that the coal industry went through another downturn in the late 1930s.2 Furthermore, the NIRA, with its support for collective bargaining, led to increased labor costs and encouraged companies to implement mechanization in an effort to increase profits. Although the mines of Central Appalachia did not mechanize to the extent that mines in the organized Central Competitive Field did, NRA policy encouraged the adoption of machinery, which was one of the factors leading to deindustrialization, eventually displacing many miners in McDowell County. Depression in Coal, 1920–1933 By the mid-1920s, the McDowell County coal industry held an important place in the markets of the world. Migrants who poured into the region to find work in the coal mines settled into the company towns dotting the landscape . Coal mining had become a way of life. On the surface it appeared that the economy of the county was strong, but industry analysts knew that the coal industry was in trouble. A depression in the bituminous coal industry began in 1919. The industry recovered from the downturn, yet remained unstable. The instability resulted from World War I, the very cause of coal mining’s expansion in McDowell County. The demands of war industries led to the opening of new, marginal mines. As war industries downsized at the end of the conflict, the nation’s coal mines overproduced. As a result, many mines closed and coal prices fluctuated. Because of the importance of mining to West Virginia, the problems in the coal industry set the stage for the Great Depression years before 1929.3 Although wartime expansion was the primary cause, other factors contributed to the industry’s instability. The operators in the Pocahontas coal- field, which included McDowell County, defeated postwar organizing efforts by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). Widespread success in southern West Virginia evaded the UMWA during the 1920s in general. DEPRESSION, RECOVERY, INSTABILITY 285 Southern West Virginia coal was still popular in commercial markets because of its low-sulfur content and smokeless burning. Both the lack of union success and the quality of the coal encouraged the opening of new mines, which in turn inundated the market with more coal than could be sold.4 The problems facing the national coal industry during the 1920s were very complex. The supply of coal increased during the decade as demand fell. Although downsizing of wartime industries constituted the major reason for the decline in demand, there were other reasons for the drop as well. Increased output and productivity of the oil and natural gas industries made these alternative fuels cheaper than coal in many regions of the country. The...