Part V

The Collective Response: The Physical Plant

The anthracite industry’s physical plant produced two major problems for the mine workers. First, it was necessary to reduce the high accident rate of the mines by upgrading safety standards. Since the high cost of improving the safety of a particular mine would be damaging to the competitive position of the operator, management would never acquiesce to such a proposal unless assured that all operators would simultaneously comply. Faced with the need for inclusive and simultaneous compliance, the mine workers turned to the state, which alone possessed enough coercive power to compel universal acceptance of safety standards.

Second, because of the simple fact that even with the cooperation of the state the mines could never be accident-free, the mine workers needed welfare provisions for the victim and his family. A variety of techniques could be used to solve this problem. The state could be asked to provide a welfare program. The mine workers could help their unfortunate colleagues. And management could help its distressed employees, although operators were not likely to establish welfare programs unless they were forced to.

Each of the several techniques for solving the problems projected by the productive system’s physical plant presupposed collective activity. Low wages precluded individual savings and made the group the mainspring of self-help. Most important, although the mine workers possessed numbers, the raw material of political power, this resource became meaningful only when organized and directed.