This Day In History - Coal Miners Needed In America

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Now that the New York Times have dropped their subscription method, readers around the world can enjoy reading all the NY Times articles on the website. Articles from 1851 to 1922 are already in the public domain though, and the removal of subscription applies to articles published since 1987, with the 1923 to 1986 editions available in part for a charge.

That didn't stop me from visiting the NY Times article on 18th September 1907 to dig out this headline - COAL MINERS NEEDED. Probably fed-up with the non-English speaking Italian, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak who observed around 35 holidays a year, the Coal mining companies sent agents to England, Scotland and Wales to get English speaking miners. The United States Steel Company, however, went looking in American cities for (English speaking) men to replace the 30,000 or so 'Foreign workers'.

Some piece of history eh? I like how it contrasts with today's top American employers of technology people (Google, Microsoft, among others) and their global approach to talent acquisition. What do you feel about the article? Your views in the comments. For a link to the original PDF containing the article, click here.