"The coal is hard, and accidents to the hands, such as cut, broken, or crushed fingers, are common among the boys. Sometimes
there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery, or disappears in the
chute to be picked out later smothered and dead. Clouds of dust fill the breakers and are inhaled by the boys, laying the
foundations for asthma and miners' consumption.
John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children, 1906
This passage is describing a situation that was attacked by writers known as
Populists.
Muckrakers.
the Lost Generation
the Beat Generation