King Coal - A Novel #271017

This time Upton Sinclair has absorbed himself in the study of the miner's life in the lonesome pits of the Rocky Moun tains, and his sensitive and enthusiastic mind has brought to the world an American parallel to germinal, Emile Zola's technical masterpiece. The conditions described in the two books are, however, essentially different. While Zola's working-men are all natives of France, one meets in Sinclair's book a motley variety of European emigrants, speaking a Babel of languages and therefore debarred from forming some sort of association to protect themselves against being exploited by the anony mous limited Company. Notwithstanding this natural bar against united action on the part of the wage-earning slaves, the Company feels far from at ease and jealously guards its interests against any attempt of organising the men.