April 29: The Guggenheims’ Mining Disaster

One of the worst mining disasters in U.S. history, at a coal mine owned by the Guggenheim family in Eccles, West Virginia, was reported by the New York Times on this date in 1914. Between 183 and 186 workers were killed in an explosion the day before in Mine Nos. 5 and 6. These deaths would foster widespread unionization in West Virginia coal mines as well as some safety and labor reforms. The Guggenheims held major interests in mining all around the world: copper and gold in Chile, tin in Bolivia, diamonds in the Congo and Angola, copper in Alaska, etc. Their strategy, according to the Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders, “was essentially three-fold: first, always go in for the big development when the business barometer is low; second, always use the cheap labor and raw materials of undeveloped countries to depress your own country’s industries, to force its wages and prices down until they are so cheap you can afford to buy them up and integrate them into your own monopoly; and third,” to “own everything from mine mouth to finished product.” “While the loss of life here will be heavy, there is a relief for the families of the victims that was not in force when former disasters occurred. The new workmen’s compensation act provides $20 a month for the widows of the dead, and each of the surviving children, not to exceed three, is entitled to $5 a month.” —New York Times, April 29, 1914