Critique of Camp Life

“The social life of the miners in coal camps has been very little, Mr. Chairman, particularly in the closed camps, where the mine operators have what we may term absolutism, or have practiced it, and where despotism prevails, because of the fact that they own the – not only the mines, but all of the grounds, all of the buildings, and the places of recreation, as well as the schools and church buildings.”

 John Lawson testimony to the United States Commission on Industrial Relations