Monongah: The Tragic Story of the 1907 Monongah Mine Disaster

McAteer's work is undeniably significant and his extensive research is evident. He presents a chronological history of Monongah, West Virginia and its development; from a briar town to its role in the country's largest coal producing company. Having been founded on incestuous agreements, consolidations and on exploitative economic principles, its explosion, and the fallout landed on the backs of its laboring families, according to McAteer, may have been imminent.

A substantial amount of McAteer's text emphasizes the political interweaving associated with the West Virginia mining industry—a byproduct of an agrarian society rapidly compelled towards industry at the hands of steel and electricity, the reliance on coal and the railroad, and a network of elite men capitalizing on nearly all accounts.

Chapter two opens, "The Monongah mines were developed by the most powerful, wealthy West Virginian entrepreneurs and politicians and financed by some of the wealthiest men in America" (7). Some key players included, John D. Rockefeller, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and Standard Oil.

The founding principle of the endeavor according to McAteer was, "… to mine coal at a lower cost than their competitors" (91). McAteer shows that this cost was paid on the backs of a largely Italian and Polish immigrant workforce, who was employed at well below the prevailing wages on account of illiteracy, fear, and otherwise ignorance to their options. The coal company exploited their vulnerability, specifically targeting foreigners with the intent of preventing organization and ultimately labor unions.

Governors, senators, judges, and sheriffs, all had vested interest in the company. U.S. Senator Johnson N. Camden was the primary force behind the Monongah mines—from the land and mineral rights to the railroad. Early on, he purchased as much of the upper Monongahela Coal Basin as possible and invested in infrastructure; building a rail line connecting to the B&O. He eventually leased his coal properties to the Fairmont Coal Company, which was a product of the Watson family, including Senator Clarence Watson. Further, Camden supported his legal advisor's rise to Governor of West Virginia.

On a local level, Monongah's mayor was a Fairmont Coal Company manager, members of city council were employed by the company and the town police force was "hired and paid by the coal company.…" Further, "The company's own private security force was far more substantial both in size and authority.…" (48).

This offers insight into Consolidation Coal Company's political influence. A large-scale strike, and arguably the first successful attempt to unionize the workforce at Monongah, led by a host of labor notables including Mother Jones, was crushed through the creation of arbitrary laws, arrests and subsequent legal proceedings. McAteer quotes of Mother Jones, "… the coal company controlled the courts" (107). This sentiment was repeated during the trial following the explosion.

Of the operation itself McAteer describes a subjugated collection of immigrants working in two interconnected mines. Like most of the industry at the time, there were no federal regulations and safety measures were inadequate.

Before entering the mine, men checked in with tin tags on a board outside the entrance. The board was destroyed during the explosion—complicating the establishment of a death toll. Bodies were badly burned, and often destroyed beyond recognition. More are assumed to have been forever entombed. Further confusing the number of dead was the common practice of miners taking assistants into the mine, including children of whom there would be no record.

Of the disaster itself McAteer devotes only one chapter, but further details are revealed in the subsequent examination of legal proceedings. He vividly illustrates the havoc surrounding the tragedy, with crowds gathered en masse and women in distress pulling out their hair as shock turned to despair.

Rescue efforts initially provided brief glimmers of hope, but the focus quickly shifted towards recovery, as doctors and clergy were overwhelmed with bodies. The disaster represented total destruction of a community, in cases leaving not a single miner. "Out of thirty houses on one block … twenty-seven didn't have a man left in them" (154). Once again, the political ties established in previous chapters play out their significance in the trial that follows. Ultimately the company was relieved of responsibility. No conclusive answer was established as to the cause of the disaster, but rather a list of possible scenarios, including a runaway train of coal cars stirring up coal dust, ignited by overcharged shot. Likewise, "… the number of dead would never fully be known" (150).

In the end over 500 men and boys perished in the Monongah Mine disaster, with many leaving wives and children with no means of support. McAteer mentions the small sums of money these widows received from the company and other relief sources. But what became of them? Did they remain in the community, did they return to their home countries, or did they move elsewhere? He also mentions that Monongah went back to work. What did that look like? Who was left to do the work? Where did new workers come from and what difficulties did the stigma of the disaster entail?

McAteer continues, examining mining on a federal level, including the development of legislation and regulations following the Monongah disaster. Finally mine safety reform was on the minds of the public, and ultimately the mining industry, though progress was slow. Despite the stirring of the nation's conscience by the Monongah disaster and others similar, McAteer concludes that "Death still stalks the mines of America" (270).

At times the extent of McAteer's research bleeds through in his overwhelming presentation of facts, but this does not detract from the significance of his work, which stands testament to the 500+ souls lost in the West Virginia coal mines on the morning of December 6, 1907.