Colorado's coal industry is next in importance to the production of gold and silver. The coal mined is chiefly bituminous, and almost the entire output is controlled by three great companies. The northern coal fields, in Boulder County, are owned and operated by The Northern Coal & Coke Company; and the great mines situated in the southern part of the State in Las Animas County, are owned by The Victor Fuel Company and The Colorado Fuel & Iron Company; the latter company also operating great smelters, steel
The Pinkerton Labor Spy. 21
works and foundries in the City of Pueblo, Colorado.
While there are any number of labor organizations in Colorado, nevertheless, as may readily be imagined, those of importance are the miners' unions.
The quartz miners and smelter employees, as a general rule, are members of local unions affiliated with the Western Federation of Miners, while the coal miners, or rather, those coal miners who dare to belong to a union, are members of locals under the jurisdiction of the United Mine Workers of America.
The Western Federation of Miners is by far the more aggressive of these two great unions, and is recognized as the leading labor organization in the West. Its energetic aggressiveness has resulted in greatly improved working conditions, shorter hours and increased pay to every quartz miner, mill and smelter employee in the West.
The United Mine Workers of America, as an organization, is as a whole larger than the Western Federation, but its ultra-conservatism borders on the torpor bom of extreme timidity, and in no way does it resemble its sister union in vigor, energy and indomitable courage.