On the Radical Views of Coal Miners in the Early Twentieth Century in Southern Illinois

by Stephane E. Booth and David E. Booth

Journal of Data Science, v.3, no.2, 233-241

Abstract

There has been great interest in the Southern Illinois mine war by historians. An explanation has been that this war was caused by miners who had radical political beliefs. We examine this view by applying four methods of ecological inference to estimate the proportion of coal miners who were socialist voters in this time period. Based on these results (especially considering the assumptions of the methods) we conclude that miners were politically less radical than previously thought.

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