Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

1 Howard Herron 40
Q: Did you read in the paper just two weeks ago there was a bad mine
disaster in Virden that killed a young man. So they still do have
accidents.
A: Oh yes, but that was mostly the fault of the company. There's always
a squabble between the union and the company because the company would
take every advantage for their part and the union people had to Eight
for, stand up for their rights. I have a friend right now that works in
the mine and he makes about $50 a day. But he works and they produce
well, one man can produce about twenty times the amount of coal a day
that we used to do then back in the old days.
Q: When you worked at a coal mine here, did most of the people in this
town have coal type furnaces?
A: Yes, everybody did.
Q: And was there a company that delivered this coal to their homes?
A: No, anybody in town would, half a dozen or more men, what they called
draymen.
Q: Drayman? What is the word dray?
A: Well, d-r-a-y and m-e-n, I guess. They're teamsters, they were
draymen or teamsters and they had a team and a wagon and if you wanted a
load of coal you would meet him on the street and you'd say, "Hey, Dick,
get me a load of coal." They'd haul a load of coal and if you worked at
the coal mine, you give them your number and they would just charge you
and the union would take it off of your pay. That's the way you got your
coal.
Q: Were these wagons very big and sturdy?
A: Oh, they were just ordinary wagons. They would scoop it in and scoop
it out. Everybody had a coal shed and cob house or kindling house and
they had to. . . .
Q: I'm curious about the woman's side when these miners came home black
all over, with dust all over their clothes, did you have some place to
wash outside of the house?
A: Some of them had what you called summer kitchens. They would have
water warm for them and they would come and take a bath and you would
never know they were coal miners after they were home a while. Then, see
that's one thing that, where the unions had to fight, now they got wash
houses right at the mine and they are nice too. But they took their time
and strikes and everything, perseverance for the miners to fight for
their rights and compensation in case someone got hurt, the coal mine
would pay the doctor bills. But that took time and the coal miners had
to go a long ways before they got those conditions. But now they've got
very good conditions and there are not so many, I don't think there is
near as many casualties in the mine now as there used to be and they
don't have props. They used to have to prop coal up. Posts like that