WI/AHC: Worse Coal Wars

The Coal Wars were probably the worst incidents of public violence outside of the American Civil War and Bleeding Kansas. Exploitation of the mining proletariat in Appalachia and Colorado lead to strikes, which lead to strikebreakers, and sometimes to shooting, as depicted in movies like Matewan.

The worst incident I'm aware of, though, was the Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia. In this case, the combination of native populism and outside Communist agitators lead to an open rebellion. As in, so-bad-that-Baldwin-Felts-did-tactical-bombing-runs rebellion.

Alas, an Appalachian War of Independence is ASB, but what do you all think could have happened if the Coal Wars had gotten worse, or, say, what could have made them worse. In any situation they'll probably still get crushed flat by the Federal government, but if it could somehow escalate to the level of local civil war, I could imagine it being a much bigger deal in the state histories of Tennessee, West Virginia, and Colorado.
 

DaHound22

Banned
Very interesting concept. I wonder if a more violent coal war might lead to labor unions not being taken as seriously or being seen as evil. Much in the way that the KKK deligitimized segregationist thought in the 1920s-1930s
 
Maybe if the communist agitation is stronger than you have the recipe for near endless violence and insurgency.

Or a much harder repression.

But yeah these incidents could have been far worse.
 
Interesting concept: land-locked proletariat rebelling against industrialists. Miners were demanding safe working conditions and living wages.
Easy for the US Army to blockade rebellious miners and starve them into submission.
What other coal mines could keep American industry supplied?
What about coal used to heat houses?
Which other states have significant coal mines?
How much more would it cost to import coal from Nova Scotia?
 
I wonder if a more violent coal war might lead to labor unions not being taken as seriously or being seen as evil.
There was a pretty strong view that way OTL, wasn't there? (Maybe only among non-union company owners...)

I wonder if a somewhat harsher response by company bosses, or government, or both, might lead to something near rebellion. (And getting a harsher response means a lot of bloodshed,:eek::eek: considering what it was like OTL.) How you do that, IDK.
 
Parts of the army would be sympathetic to the strikers, Maintaining a blockade would be difficult. Supplies and more importantly reporters would get through. There would be support for the strikers in every state.
 
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