Wages mattered to workers, but their independence and control over their work mattered even more. When Parton described the coal miner who “begins work when he likes, works as fast as he likes, or as slow, and goes home when he likes” and whose “ ‘room’ is his own against the world,” he described how American workers thought work should proceed. This was what they meant by control over work. They were republican citizens and their independence should not vanish when they entered the workplace.
