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Personalities in the Smokeless Coal Fields 6 The miner of 1903 would probably not have known what to make of his 1963 counterpart. Much the same thing might be said of the operator . The early operators were a highly individualistic lot, quite different from today's "organization man." Many were men of little formal education; only a handful had any training in engineering. However, all successful operators had great drive, high native intelligence, willingness to assume large rish and an unusual capacity for hard and sustained work. In many respects, the old time operator was the company. He raised the necessary capital, selected the site, and supervised the building of town and tipple. The operator lived at the mine and was completely familiar with all aspects of the operation. The operator was then no remote figure; indeed, many took pride in knowing each of his employees. For these reasons, the gulf between operatara and miners was relatively small in the early days. At the turn of the century nearly all operators were still living on the job. The Kanawha field was close enough to Charleston to enable one or two from that field to have homes in Charleston and spend week-ends there. Justus 74 Personalities in the Smokel... Coal Field. 75 Collins moved to Charleston from Loop Creek in 1903, but all other operators in that field lived at the mines when I came to West Virginia. The operating heads of companies began to build themselves fairly comfortable homes at the mines. Some, like W. D. Ord on the N. & W. Railway and John McGuffin on Loop Creek, built elaborate and costly homes at their mines, but continued to live on the job. When they wanted a taste of luxury, they took trips to the big cities-usually Cincinnati and New York-and stayed at the best hotels. The exodus from the mines to the cities by the presidents of coal companies began after World War 1. By 1950 Austin Caperton of Slab Fork and myself were, SO far as I know, the only presidents of coal companies still living on the job. The resulting lack of personal contact between operators and their employees certainly did much to increase labor-management difficulties . It should perhaps be mentioned that the oldtime operators tended to be extreme individualists . Many of them had fought their way up against tremendous odds. It is probably true that they were not by nature inclined toward cooperative ventures. This individualism was re-inforced by the practice of the railroads of playing one operator off against the other in an effort to obtain the lowest possible price. Needless to say, this practice did not make for the growth of mutual trust on the part of the operators. Thus, the various operators' associations were not as successful as might be imagined. The a

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