The coal company utilized the housing industry as another powerful suppressant. By requiring that all miners rent a house from the company, the coal company was assured of not only financial gain but also increased control over the lives of the miners. According to West Virginia law, ". . . because the operator-owned residences were necessary to employment, the relationship of owner to renter was not that of landlord and tenant, which would protect the miner from abrupt eviction, but that of master and servant."

The threat of immediate and often violent eviction from the company houses was frequently wielded as a weapon against the miners and their families. In one particular instance, the level of disrespect for the miners and the blatant misuse of power by the operators can be acutely observed. When mine guards appeared at the doorstep of Tony Seviller in order to evict him and his family, they found his pregnant wife in child labor. The woman begged to be allowed to stay until her child was born since she was already in the painful stages of advanced labor. In response to her pleadings, one of the