Strikes, Prohibition, and the Politics of Policing in Pennsylvania Coal Country during the 1920s

During the 1920s, progressive Pennsylvania governor Gifford Pinchot relied on the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) to bring professionalism and efficiency to state law enforcement. Pinchot hoped to use the state police to cut into the power of the coal and iron police, a state-sanctioned force controlled by private corporations that enforced laws and company policies in corporate-owned mining towns. Pinchot also used the PSP to enforce prohibition against the decentralized and often reluctant authority of county and local law enforcement. Both attempts to advance public interest against private and localized power faltered during coal strikes between 1922 and 1928. Coal companies hired troopers from the state police to organize private police forces, PSP officers joined coal and iron police on strike duty, and state troopers acted violently against strikers. Prohibition enforcement became another method of strikebreaking, and miners feared the PSP as much as the coal company police.