Brian,
From being acquainted with members of several lodges throughout
the "Inland Empire" in both mining and non-mining communities, I know
that membership was based on character rather than job status. In both
the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias, the largest part of the
membership came from fairly humble positions. Although character often
lead to promotions, many miners of rather rough character were advanced
underground, but were not accepted as members of the more dignified
orders. In fact, higher officials were frequently not invited to join
orders, if they were unpopular or mistrusted by the members who were
"working men". In this manner the lodges worked almost like an
unofficial union. One mine superintendent who was a member of the
Knights of Pythias in Kimberley kept in touch with the lodge, but seldom
attended meetings. I believe that this was to permit freer discussion
among the lodge "brothers". The membership in this case consisted
mainly of mine employees - most of whom had joined the order while at
the bottom of the ladder.
While some of these had been promoted to lower management
levels, I knew of no mining engineers who were members, so higher
management positions were usually missing. This would appear to be
because the engineers did not mingle at work or socially with the
members of the lodge. As a young miner, I was considered too immature
to join the KP's, even though I mingled with engineers and geologists in
church. Later, having left the mine to become a school teacher and
having married, I was invited to join the lodge, because my father had
been a member. Naturally, I viewed the older men, who had much less
formal education, with great respect.
It is a fallacy to consider all miners to be crude and
unintelligent. I found many to be much more intelligent than some of
the engineers. I have met many very stupid men with university
degrees. This is essentially the thrust of my own research and
writing. The prospectors who discovered the Sullivan Mine named the
original claims the Hamlet and the Shylock, because two of the four men
were extremely well read and quoted Shakespeare at one another as they
trekked through the wild country.
Most of the major contributions to the community in Kimberley
(churches, schools, arena, curling rinks, charitable committees, medical
services, etc.) were started by men of fairly humble positions -
trackmen, welders, machinists, carpenters, and miners. Although very
intelligent (and several rose to be supervisors of shops), they had
limited formal education.
Quite a few business men joined orders, but these were always
men of sterling character who respected the miners who were their
customers. All mining towns had their "society" stratas, but these were
much less important than the members of the cliques believed. In fact,
some members of the cliques had rather questionable taste and
character. I recall one hockey player's wife who believed that hockey
players were more important to the "company" than engineers.
On the other hand, residents of adjacent towns (Cranbrook in the
East Kooteney and New Denver in the Slocane) had very distorted notions
of the social structure in mining towns. Historians from such
backgrounds often make ridiculous assumptions about status, the level of
wages, and the actual living conditions. Generally, if a married miner
of good character was living in primitive accommodation, mine officials
and business men were living little better.
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