"We were compelled to trade in the company store- made to buy everything there- and most of the men were in debt there, so that they did not see what was the color of money; did not know what was money, only taking their check from the company- only a slip of paper from the mine when they were having a pay day, and they would have to take that slip of paper right to the store and then deduct anything that the men owed."

Mary Hannah Thomas testimony to the United States Commission on Industrial Relations (1916: 6359)