operators, the United Mine Workers have succeeded in a space of fifteen
years in unionizing the one as well as the other; while at the same time
successfully and progressively solving the gigantic internal problem of
welding a polyglot mass of workers into a well disciplined and obedient
army.

The miners' union attained its first successes in the so-called central
bituminous competitive field, including Western Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. In this field a
beginning had been made in 1886 when the coal operators and the union
entered into a collective agreement. However, its scope was practically
confined to Ohio and even that limited agreement went under in 1890.[51]
With the breakdown of this agreement, the membership dwindled so that
by the time of a general strike in 1894, the total paid-up membership
was barely 13,000. This strike was undertaken to restore the wage-scale
of 1893, but during the ensuing years of depression wages were cut still
further.[52]

The turn came as suddenly as it was spectacular. In 1897, with a
membership which had dropped to 10,000 and of which 7000 were in Ohio
and with an empty treasury, the United Mine Workers called a general
strike trusting to a rising market and to an awakened spirit of
solidarity in the majority of the unorganized after four years of
unemployment and distress. In fact the leaders had not miscalculated.
One hundred thousand or more coal miners obeyed the order to go on a
strike. In Illinois the union had but a handful of members when the
strike started, but the miners struck to a man. The tie-up was
practically complete except in West Virginia. That State had early
become recognized as the weakest spot in the miners' union's armor.
Notwithstanding the American Federation of Labor threw almost its entire
force of organizers into that limited area, which was then only
beginning to assume its present day importance in the coal mining
industry, barely one-third of the miners were induced to strike. A
contributing factor was a more energetic interference from the courts
than in other States. All marching upon the highways and all assemblages
of the strikers in large gatherings were forbidden by injunctions. On
one occasion more than a score of men were sentenced to jail for
contempt of court by Federal Judge Goff. The handicap in West Virginia
was offset by sympathy and aid from other quarters. Many unions
throughout the country an