In 1999, mines in West Virginia employed 14,845 people who produced 169 million tons of coal. In 1948, it took 125,669 miners to produce nearly the same amount. In the 1940s and 1950s, people mined by hand using a pickax. It s not unusual for miners to mine a million tons of coal every month. Greene said mining companies will never employ as many people as they did in the 1940s or 1970s.
Competition is too stiff.
The market is too global. Technology has changed too much. That s little comfort to David Lesher, one of Bias friends. While in high school, Lesher was offered a scholarship to study music education at West Virginia University. He was ready to head north when a local coal company offered him a job in a deep mine.