Labor Day, 1950, in Coaldale

On Coaldale Field, Labor Day, 1950, the occasion being Local 1536's Golden Jubilee celebration, John L. Lewis, pointing to a mammoth steam shovel on the mountainside south of the field, said, "The United Mine Workers of America will insist upon their just share of whatever technological means the future uses to produce coal.  When bigger and still bigger steam shovels are used to take bigger and still bigger bites from your surrounding mountain sides the men of the mines will exact proportionately a fair share of whatever such mining operations bring." (Source: Coaldale 125th Anniversary, page 20.)