xt7zcr5n9g1t_43 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7zcr5n9g1t/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7zcr5n9g1t/data/82m1.dao.xml Evans, Herndon J., 1895-1976 3.5 Cubic feet Herndon J. Evans, editor of the Pineville Sun in Bell County, Kentucky, closely followed labor unrest in the Kentucky coalfields, especially in Harlan and Bell Counties, during the early 1930s. The collection contains handbills, leaflets, pamphlets and newspaper clippings collected by Evans primarily from 1931-1933. Also included are handwritten notes, correspondence, and drafts of articles and editorials written by Evans as well as memorabilia such as Communist Party membership books and organizational charts. archival material English University of Kentucky This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed.  Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically.  Physical rights are retained by the owning repository.  Copyright is retained in accordance with U. S. copyright laws.  For information about permissions to reproduce or publish, contact the Special Collections Research Center. Herndon J. Evans Collection Coal miners--Kentucky Coal mines and mining--Economic conditions. Communism--Kentucky. Editors--Kentucky. Pamphlets. Strikes and lockouts--Coal mining--Kentucky. Scrapbook pages: Handwritten notes and speeches, p. 69-77 text Scrapbook pages: Handwritten notes and speeches, p. 69-77 2012 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7zcr5n9g1t/data/82m1/82m1_5/82m1_5_2/195315/195315.pdf section false xt7zcr5n9g1t_43 xt7zcr5n9g1t r Kas}
V M   ep _?‘$» — V `  
~     " P i
There are two roads which lead into Harlan County. There is the road 1
"which winds monotonously between brown hills, with squalor.and untidiness- gd
the squalor of the very poor? Then there is the road called "Rhododendron ,
Highway" because of the profusion of this evergreen along the right-of—way, ’
that winds like a wide,white ribbon between towering mountains and beside r
green, turbulent Gumberland River. ‘ dvi
h It is the same road, but all depends upon the viewpoint of the travel-;
er. I have traveled this road on the right hand side and have seen the thingsv
that have given it it's name "Rhododendron Highway? I also have traveled it I
ion the other side and have seen its it in its more sombre aspects. Zmzthis I»€
will endeavor now to travel this same highway straight down the middle, hop- g
ing that out_of the cross fire of opinion that has put Harlan County on the lg
front pages of American newspapers during the last year will come a view of. d
the real conditions in the mountains of Sgutheastern Kentucky. t
First let us travel the left side of the road with Margaret Lane,
feature writer for the London Daily Express, who came to Harlan a few weeks
ago to get the inside facts onsthe Exextxsxtnaxtnnizx Kentucky coal field
disorders. “ _ . V
. l (Take in Lane f*·rticle,in part)       éémb gg
Let us begin again at Pineville and arrwsecatrv sewer -;\roa through
Harlan{County. Ehexeanaratezhtghwayzhegtnsxaxfxwxmikasxfxemzhtmextkka On the
right ixzxznemzhzxzk side of the road, a bare two miles from Pineville, one,
Lsees a handsome new brick consolidated high school where several hundred boys
and girls of Bell County go to school. A few hundred yards and the road
dips into a valley and joins Cumberland Hiver. Then for miles we travel
along this winding stream. Now it is a broad river, stately under the_shadow
of "The Seven Sisters", seven amtxzappimgxzaf rock pillars which attract
tourists from all parts of theJcountry. The roadside is a mass of rhododen—
I dron and mountain laurel. In the springtime a laurel festival is held in

 ne mountains and visitors from far and near gather here to honor the blossoms;
The purple blossoms, high on the mountain sides, have just gone. The pink Q
and white laurel makes one think of wandering through rows of peach trees Z,
in the springtime. Ferns)and here and there dozens of varieties of spring E
flowers make beautiful this roadway. The waklile blosscn of the wild mag-
nolia makes the traveler pause for a closer view. A I
Far below us is Cumberland River, now but. a tiny ribbon! winding in -
and out between rugged cliffs. Its broad expanse now has been squeezed into }
a stream that can’t be more than ten feet across, but from our elevation we
know that it must still be at least a hundred feet wide at this narrowest p
p point. Moss—covered rocks soften the hillsides. High up on the mountain side 2
· in a little clearing we see a farmhouse. It is made of logs and before the i
open door sits the €$£§£%i‘He is preparing to put in a crop; already he has i
cut down trees from the little swag begow his house and with the yeeld of . L
corn promised by the County Farm Agent if he follows instructions, he will I i
have plenty this winter. He hasn't been used to much; he, and his father teaser
him lived on the same place and they "allus managed ter make out". d
A I We leave the river and wind slowly to the top of the mountain. In the
distance we see the smoke of Harlan Town, so designated to distinguish it _
from the county of the same name. It is a city of more than.§£000 souls,
despite what may have been said to the contrary. Its streets/;;; akixapaved;
it has hundreds of fine homes, fine churches and excellent schools! The i l
. city schools have an enrollment of more than 2,100 boys and girls. The Bap-
tist Church has a membership of about l,200; the Christian, Methodist and C
Presbyterian about 500 to 400 each; other churches swell the total a few
hundred. More than fifty teachers, university graduates with special training,
teach there youngsters in the city schools. I ·
I Beyond Harlan Town one sees the mines. You come to they first one
before you really clear the city limits and from then onv one mining camp
almost merges with anothera as you make your way up and down the "hollers"
where the coal is found.

 ,v ‘ Coal Co.,
~ We come to Cloversplint/mine. This is one of the newer mining camps
A and is above the average. Remember, we are traveling the righthhnd side of- I
the roadg j' V‘°`= Sith?aQ]3¤W¥¥;%T*?L§]laed*w§%H“tE§“I@Tm¤
~~sf&@man;,wrmnhee~-pw#w§§?*5-. H.T.Graham, general manager of this property,
takes us around the camp. It is modern in every respect. Latest equipment
gives the mine a capacity of 40,000 tons a month and furnishes employment to
between 275 and 500 men. 4
There is a water system as good as will be found in many cities.
A huge tank on a hillside above the minajtown sends water to every home and
J U _ U qghgqp fdiyshye 4w%gHL g4? favecv W
provides fire protection at éeghla intervals along the stree s. , sewage
A we/’·,»ic»{Z; A . 4
system, street lights, well-plastered housesbpre not always associated with J
pictures of "typical"mining campso A nine months school employs three teach-  
ers for the l75 children in daily attendance. A church provides the religious%
background. The average daily wage at this company, exclusive of superin-
tendence and office, is $4.65, according to Mr.Graham. The company has work- y
ed out a savings account plan with one of the Harlan banks whereby men who p
save a part of their money during good times have it increased by payments é
V by the company when times are slack.These payments reach a maximum of $25 v
on $l00 deposited by the worker, plus interest drawn from the bank on the 1
savings. Whilexthixzmina _
While this mine is above the average there are others better oper-
ated in the Harlan fields.Men in most mines are allowed advances of $1 a day
T when times are bad. That may not be much when half a dozen moumths must be j
. fed but it is better than being dropped from the payroll in a wholesale cute
off of employes as occurs in cities throughout the country. One mine,daning p
I was told, had an overdraft of $10,000 during the month of June this year,
has a result of these advances to employes. Hundreds of families ace being
cared for by the operators where there is no wage—yearner in the camp. The
n men who run Harlan's mines.are not the tyrants pictured by special writers
who rush in, obtain a distorted view of conditions and then.rush out to give

 4. A y p
their findmngs to the world. A recent visitor, whose findings were given
wide publicity in the nation, stated that he"had xbeen informed" that more
than one hundred persons had been killed as a result of the labor disturb- °
ances in Harlan Uounty this year. He missed it just a bare ninety,Q %L even
the ten lives snuffed out were not directly traceable to the "war between
gun thugs and miners". ,
ldhaxkf Now let us travel the middle road. It has been but a skext
timxaxaazyeazx few decades since coal was found in Harlan County.Before
that time aumber epexaxtgggzwnxa the chief industry and in the springtime
millions of feet of lumber neared went out of Harlan with each freshet on
Cumberland river. Then came the_discovery of coal and with it an influx of
labor of all kinds. Some of the great corporations bought mines so that they
would have an everready supply of coal at their command. A large percentage
of the labor in some mines was foreign born, but,ax on the whole, native—born
and by that I mean men born in the Cumberland Valley, made up the greater
part of the workers. I -
C When the war came production was speeded up. Dozens of mines were
opened to care for the growing demand for coal and more coal. Tonnage grew
by leaps and bounds. From a production of a few hundred thousand tons the
Harlan County mines stepped to the front with a flush production of almost -
, nxa@&Q£»%~ {$1—g¢
14,000,000 tonsq After the war,with its prices of $10 to $15 a ton for coal,
came the inevitable slump in the coal industry and siéé then there has been
a slow but certain weeding out process in the mining industry. As a result,
today coal is averaging less than one dollar a ton at the mine mouth. In
September the average was $1.61, but since then the unseasonable weather has
brought the price down to where good block is selling at $1.25 a ton and
· _ other grades are almost impossible to move at any price.
The ninety to oneshundred active mines in Harlan County during V
war times have dwindled to thirty—nine active ones in l95l, and unless there
is a pick—up in the industry in the next six months there will be a further

 5. ‘ ‘
in
reduction. Three passed out of the picture between l950.andxlQ@i One oper-
ator, after taking a big loss, still retained enough of his sense of humor
to post a sign, "Opened by Mistake",over his abandoned property. _
With conditions going from bad to worse operators were faceéd with
the alternative of going broke or reducing costs of operation. Like the rail?
·roads are doing today, they decided that wages would have to be cut. Some
of the mines were operating but a few days a week due to lack of demand for
coal, and the miners could not see how a wage reduction would help the sit-
uation. The wage cut was enforced over the protests of the miners.andxthexx
National labor leaders backed them in their fight and cited the President's
request that the wage standa¥%?bgCmaintained2)
Harlan County, with the exception of a few isolated exceptions, al-
wqys has operated its mines on anzapnnxshepzhaxixx a non—union basis. Despite
` this fact locals have been maintained in many camps and representatives of ‘
I the United Mine "orkers of America always mave been on hand to encourage
affiliation and accept memberships. With mines running but a few days a week
and wages being slashed throughout the county this immediately became a fet-
tile field for the organizer.—The United Mine Workers became active; men were
urged to become members of the union and to be ready to make demands for
the old wage scale. A mass meeting was called at Pineville for March l, and
more than two thousand miners of the coal fields gathered to hear the mess-
ages of higher wages from the leaders.
_ Coal operators were alert to the situation. They sent repres-
entativesj gfthe meeting and took the names of all of their employes who
I attended.The next morning many of these men were discharged. In some instan-
ces they were told that they were being dropped for "union activity"; in othe
cases they~were dropped because of some laxity in work or for some minor in-
.£é»J§ §§@§ of mining pxantxz regulations. Whatever the reason given, the men
T realized that they were being dropped beeause they had attended the union
meeting at Pineville. The operators, many of them on the brink of bankruptcy,
felt that they must take the initiative if they were to continue to operate

 Q .6. _ if"
Their properties on a non—union basis. Both sides in the controversy felt U;
V that they were acting in
that their they were axkingxin the right and/for their best interests.
Excitement ran high in the coal fields centering around kvarts.
Miners who were discharged and companions who quit work in sympathy with
their fellow workers moved into Lvarts. The population was doubled in a few
weeks. The operators feared reprisals and appointed men to guard their pro-
perty. These guards were deputized. Many of them were "loyal" company men;
others were brought in from other camps and from other communities. They
were well paid for it was hazardous work. Random shots were fired from hill-
gffsides as men went to work. The regulars became alarmed and refused to go
""into liql the mines. A tippke caught fire here, a blast rocked the drift mouth
T there. Men watched one another out of the corner of the eye. The word "scab"
was passed between Wilse Burkhart and Ed Cricillis; both drew and beth shot
one another to death. Deputies went to arrest a miner charged with beating
up another who remained loyal to his company. Jesse Pace, the deputy, was
shot and killed by William Burnett, who also was wounded. Stores and comm-
issaries were broken into by armed mobs and everything was carried off.
There was a lull in the trouble and then came the shooting of four
men at Evarts. Deputies came through Evarts to escort some wwkkers to mines
above the town. The workers had been told at bvarts that a strike was in J
progress and that they must not pass through. The guards came down to escort
them and in the general battle which followed four men were slain. Two of
these were deputies, one a commissary store clerk, and the fourth a negro
miner. The clerk was with the officers when slain. Two men were slain at a
swimming pool, where a soup kitchen was being operated, and the count then
A stood three deputies killed on one side and three miners on the other. The
two slain in the duel, while miners, ~~:~~eg-~»~:e¤ · the fight
between miners and guards. A ehort time later a restaurant operator was slain
by one of the guards.He was cleared in a preliminary hearing though the mine
A ers claim that it was a "kangaroo court". Q%»FayéA7 0%bva»- AL-,- £&»*¢é;
`   "‘»\'9*&·@     M f i

 J _?7' Out of the thirty-nine active mines in Harlan Uounty about fifteen f
y "were closed down during the labor disturbances. One did not re-open; another
' { which still is closed would resume operations if orders were available. Of I
" E the fifteen closed some were down just a fewQ2§;§;fothers did not get back
2 » · · lkdggggg · V t L V
g to work fo; a month or six weeks. Now, lack ofé is causing hardship
' { on operators and miners alike as two or three days a week are not enough to
" keep things going. _
When the trouble was at its height in Harlan Uounty representatives
of the National Miners Union from other coal fields made their appearance.
They promised improved conditions;·they attacked the "capitalistic system"
which was "crushing the life out of workers" and urged-the men to "fight
against the iron heel of oppression". They promised soup kitchens in every
camp for the men who would lay down their tooks.They condemned the United
Mine Workers in bitterest terms and charged this organization with "selling
out the miners". The National Miners Union, affiliated with the Trades Union
Unity League, headed by William Z.Foster, communist leader of America, im-
mediately brouhgt into the picture the cry of "communism". Newspapers pub-
lished by radical leaders were distributed in the coal fields; booklets and
leaflets sponsored by the communist leaders were found in miners' houses.
The United Mine Workers joined with other in raising the cry of "communism"
and Harlan officials took steps to"stamp it out."
*:3 Today mines_are operating with the threat of a walkout or strike
harrassing them the operators at every turn. Their properties are not paying
anything, they state, and the miners charge that "huge profits" are being
made. Some properties are being operated six days a week but in most cases
this is where the coal mine isua subsidiary of a untility copporation or
where its whole output is going to a by—product concern. The ether average
mine in Harlan Uounty today is operating on a three day a week schedule.
One coal company, a utilit sub-
_ _ % Waaes vary thr<>¤s1¤<>u’¤ the field- '£hsxHai»li22iasxéaalzkesmaratiamr
$;gb?£%’that on a four—day week the men are earning around $100 a month. An-
other reports that their men earn $3.47 a day. Another reported that the -

 Q f   . I  .”`V‘ Wl; v.``“  
i _‘,;.III _’i€j-Ps; ,
p V, average earnings of miners in his camp, based on a three day week, was @21.5é,
I and that overdrafts for the same period totaled $1,558. One company report-·‘l_
» i ed that one worker{ averaged $122 a month for the last ten months, while-, IET
. _ 3 another worker in the same seam averaged but $74.91. Machine men, who drawUk$l
~ ‘   — much higher pay, averaged $5154 and $129.95 respectively in the same camp. —I   I
» j. The men at most, or I might say all mines, are paid in scrip. Scrip,Il
II I in spite of stories that have been sent out from Harlan of a contradictory A
I I nature, is merely an advance on pay. If a miner has funds to run on he can I
- t ;.__@—_g£aH;hi§_£Ell_paygin_cash_atmthe~end_pf_eygry~two weeks period, Where heI ezi, I%*
I l _ I I draws scrip, in advance of payday, most mines require the men to trade it" l
y ‘ V out at the company store. . E
_· I Cuts are made for many things and this is another sore spot with I
. I the workers, especially in hard times. Rentals run from $1 to $2 per room, t
I I ’ i per month in most camps; electricit is furnished at from $1 to $2 additional.l
I Water is free. Coal is furnished in different manner at different mines. In I
,‘ s y 1 some a flat rate of $1 a month, plus-fifty cents for haulage, is enforced. ·
j,- l Other mines sell the coal at $2 a ton, delivered. Others charge the market
‘I I price, plus a haulage charge. Cuts for the doctor range from $1.50 to $2 1
I . A I ` a month for the whole family. Operations and medicines are paid for in addi- ?
’ tion to these cuts. Burial funds, controlled by the men, cut 25 cents to 5O E
. , _"‘V ,Ig cents a month. This provides a moderately priced coffin and a nominally pri-_{J
, It I g _ ced burial. Compensation is required by the state and where mines do not Ig
_ I I I operate on this basis they are subject to the common law. Some companies I
tII”V_ _A I carry their own compensation and some handle it through regular indemnity i
I 1I concerns. · 1 I
_ ` _  Operators are meeting with operators from other states to seek a I
,· I I./I solution of the problems facing the coal industry. Union sympathizers claim I
I that high wages will bring back prosperity to the mines and miners. OperatorsI
' I y claim that a re—organmzation of the whole industry is necessary. That con-
I,_, ditions are bad and wages are low in the coal fields is admitted by all, but V
` at the same time many who came to seek the"truth" about conditions already
· ‘ - atzxhmzxamextxmn had their minds made up as to what they would find. The
’ _ V middlewground is always better.v 7 __ __, g

 I Dol
,¤’
*” I Mrs. Norton, Ladies and Gentlemen:
In order that we may hear two sides of every questioniand in order
that you may not become biased in your views from anythig; that may have been
said l am taking the liberty of reading my own introduction, kindly furnished
by the Southern Worker], communist newspaper published at Chattanooga,Tenn,,
and gratuihtously distributed throughout the coal fields. \Take in Introd) _p ·
Before entering upon a discussion of the many problems that have
beset the coal fields of our state I want to take this opportunity.¤§iEk to _
express on behalf of the people of Southeastern Kentucky the thanks vs out I
people for the wonderful carload of food and clothing sent by your chapter "
QQLQQE of the Red Cross.It was¢x,fine expression of that sjmpathetic understanding _
QD that always has characterized the people of Louisville when neighboring com- U
\jT49Qp(7_ munitics have faced calamities that have seemed insurmountable. In flood _
relief and in every other emergency Louisville always has come to our assist- 4
- ande and as chairman of the Red Gross I want to express personally the thanks r
¤ of our section. We appreciate your help all the more because we have full know- j
ledge that Louisville is not without its own problems in the matter of caring __
A for the unfortunates. _ J
,` May we discuss tovether for a few minutes the economic bagrepqygd
Q i», that has thrown Southeastern Kentucky and her people into such bold relief. _ 3
€°““'“*A’ _Then, if you care to hear it, I will discuss briefly the chain or events that U
~9¤13§7MW#“£”lmve put the coal field,’on the front pages of American newspapers and kept it
i' there, albeit, not with our consent or appmval. It has not been our wish thus
€i?2}£%Q76]z to be dragged under the spotlight. In some matters it was all right but in l
——— others we stayed too long and the law or nature says that those who stay too l ’
long in the spotlight may get sunburned. shis has happened, sometimes, but I f_
hope to show that even where this has occurred we were held in th» glare by I
outside forces.
Let us get awav from the glare or r cent haopeninps and study the
\ underlying_causes of the present trouble. Then, perhaps, we shall tHE better be pl
  able to understand it.We do not hope to solve the trouble, at least, until we E-
have had a full report from the band of eastern students who came down on a soc-}; ‘L
iological research expedition, sg;-if _4i_
Let us pet away from the cries of constitutional rights, freedom oi' EE; l A`i. %;
the press, free sp och, free love, free transportation to state lines,m¤& toothéliechgg
picks and self-appointed investigators. g ;;;W
jr   1'f‘,,_ _. ef
Lggs_thagLjpd  president of the United Mine Workefgb is
ers of America, a legitimate, American organization that should not be confused I Tji.
4‘49'2Z with the radical National Miners Union, stated that the coal industry was over-;ppI%i°
‘ manned and that 250,000 miners would have to seek a livelihood in other industri-
J2QAfb‘7 es. At that time Mr.Lewis foussaw the inroads that natural gas, hydro—electric ,
gcyvwyc, power, crude oil and other coal substitutes were making on the industry and ir,
T-·"”'“ realized that immediate steps would have to be taken to remedy conditions. Since »
7; _ 1925, I am told, some 200,000 coal miners have left tHE industry. Of the half ·,y ~
U! ,Q~ZéZo~¤ million reneining not more than 250,000 will be needed to supply the present rk *
'need. improved mining practices, and the installation of machines to do the work
of numerous men, also have eliminated the need of manpower. ’ l_d_ t
l
,     h »·.°  
profits were held out to those who had a little capital and a good lease. Wages`“ "Q
p` ranged as high as $2o a day in some instances. Men flocked to the cool fields by it
gzifibzg the tnousands.Silk shirts replaced LHC cotton ones and many a peppermint spripedl ` I
silk shirt found its way to the far reaches of the mines where only blue denim h
had gone before. ‘
  U

 FF***"‘*"'1Q"'·*“TT`T"`“T‘_"""‘  *‘‘‘ "‘"*····r—¤·  s— —~ ·r—·-··~ ~ -—·r—- ·V·· ·~-·-·—:~·~—··-———r—»·———— ———--—·» -»~—-—-——————~..r-»·~ .-0,., sell. ., . . . . ,. ,, -,,,
(2) .
0 at full blast and few persons realized that the day was inevitable when demand
C7%u&)g would play'second fiddle to Supply.TEp_Egal_EEEEEE_Eg§_§lggd§Q;_Exlge§_ghn§hQd‘
_, E 4 Operators who still retained a sense_of humor put out signs, “0pened by Mistake"
and passed from the field of action. . ,
  when
factories were booming and the dull Ehud of the mortgage was drowned out by the
cry for bigger and better stocks, the coal industry already was facing a crisis.
We thought we had been vaccinated against hard times when the crash of 1929 crush-
ed Cadillacs into Fords and sent men home to talk budgets to their wives. When
.§;;M©·<¥,factories'began talking of five—day weeks coal operators already had gone them ~
E6 one or two days better. In the last two years mines that have operated on a bHTG€—
_ day schedule, or better, have been scarce. This year tH6 average has not been
‘sa good. l
- During the mnnth.of March the cost of producing coal in the Harlan
Q’AiI%,1/ County field was $1pjl a ton, while the average selling price for the same per-
• iod was $l.l§. The miners may not have received a livinp wage for their labor but
€4zC"qvu°x°at the sanw time the operators took it on the chin to the tune of 26 cents a ton.
Substantially the same condition existed in Bell County. -*
T   naman mi¤eé.1a,ooo,ooo
_ tons of coal, an all—time record. The daily car load shipments during 1926- Oct-
@4/L/_ ober of that year- showed an average of 1,274 cars. The peak month showed more W A
than 5a,ooo cars in Bell and Harlan Counties. This was the end. From EDGE on there
i has been a aradual fallins off in shipments until this year when an average daily
record of EZ2_cars was shown: or, one—third of the peak production.
The coal operators then were faced with the alternative of closins don
aaa  
_at reduced costs. Competiti n from other coal fields forced operators to bid
against one another for orders. In order to get what appeared to be a good contradt
‘ one operator would underbid e competitor, then go back to his men and tell them
Q he could operate a certain number of days a week provided he could land the con-
tract but that the men would have to share the difference in price by taking a
%xiALg,—— wage cut.Thds the men usually did. Then another operator came back with a better
· price and price-cutting became the-order of the day. This continued until oper—
C&u2QikE7 ators realized that they were sellins coal under cost of production,,Like everyone
else in this period of l9§2 A.D., ante delusion, the coap operators are hangingon
waiting for business to find some hidden corner on the cylinder it seems to be
going around.
CU-turall under such conditions, men are not able to make a l' ' g v ~
lng their children into the same industry as they became or age, now find theme
Zé¢CA2~ ` selves tragically helpless and face the future with a certain amount of dispair.
JL{A ‘ No return of boom days is possible, we admit. TgijEmgd 
’ with the surplus labor. _ A · ¥
Those who have read the newspapers and magazines in recent months may
ZZ* have got the impression that the entire soft coal industry is centered in two
QL counties of Sodpheasto Kentucky. Bell and Harlan have alternated on the front
h,_§L,q/0 pages, yet   tells us in a recent enlightening article in the
,L- New York Times, thmnmhaeenéiczrccntain less than three per cent of all bituminous
i;§L§L//A coal miners.These much-discussed counties are but two of almost 400 bituminous
5 coal producing counties in this country. And it a safe assumption that conditions
Aé:hJW,/ here are no worse than UHSY are in other bituminoudxpfdducinp states. Lower
pggppppgguallynlre D€lHV paid in other Kentucky mine flGddE than in Harlan and
V Bel but these counties have not been sufficiently projected before the public _
eye to make them fertile fields for atitators. ~
`yedgp i rx @hap_pf_phe coal operator in all this fanfare and ballyhoo? Is he the
k`

 - (5) ` ‘
;_,d” ~ tyrant and slave-driver pictured by three—day investigators seeking material for EKQ
yM)°;£§(p ;Pmagazine articles or new books? I_admit_tha§_LheLe_ia_priyaLinn.ahn-¤ant.amnng_the
_'__,.47 miners. But at the same time I want it understood that the loss has not been all
on one side. ` -_____—_—_—___—____—_——`—____—·
The other $ talked with a coal operator who showed me his balanc. .
sheet ree  
gLGqQ}Z cold wave during March and that as a result of this there was an artificial market _
9(Hg, that helped clear much of the coal stored on the tracks. For two weeks many mines _
operated four and five days a week. How they are back on a one and two~day schedule.
-*-__"'q This operator showe me figures to prove that he suffered a substantial loss during
Q%é&¤~** ~ the month. I asked him why he didn't close down instead oi trying to operate at a
£¤¤bL’@“Z&; loss, andhe retaliated with, “and let my men starve?". He then told me that he felt ‘
that it would be better to operate one or two days a week and let his men find
outside work to supplement their earnings than to close down altogether. This seems
to be the principle upon which most of our coal operators work at the present time.
Perhaps it is not the best.Perhaps they are to blame for price—cuttina; probably
they should have put aside resources to use in thnes of stress. But point to any
 
No coal operator in Bell or Harlan “r " "ade monei in the lest ~ —
/ ’ ~ years.MGanwhile, the inevitable process of survival of the fittest goes on. In boom
;VLU%§EZiQLti»es there were close to lOO mines operating in Harlan County. Today about thirty- _
f€£122Zm. five mines are operating. Close t0 fifty mines were operating in Bell County and
about one—third of these still are breathing. Rotting coal tioples, piles of up-
7"¢i:T”— turned bank cars and rusty rails speak volumes for an industry that is slowly
ggggiégi dying. Perhaps in this weeding out process we will find the solution of the prob-
lem that faces the operator, but what of his men?
In this gonnentjon I want to talk to you briefly about the effort that we_
are kins t _ — * t coal miner mn other work. We all realize that charity, no
Ziyénxgcvé EQ I§`E§§§IEE`EEEj`EE?ii§E`5E§eeea solution of the problem.If we
-y___,.., `feed these men and their families today, we have to feed them again tomorrow. We are
7; spending thousands of dollars for the emergency cases·but at the same time we are
@j§“éV seeking some plan that will ah rehabilitate these men who never can return to the
f%2u-- mines; Our welfare organization has adopted the slogan "Back to the Farm“ and we are
____,,-*”`¤rging every man who can to get a patch of ground somewhere in the hillsrand try to
make a,fliving for his family. Many who followed this advice last year have not been
back fbr help this year. A mountain man who returns to the soil requires but little
outside help and he usually`can—get-alEhET`heheveYT`thE—few  _
this way make but little impression when the mass of workers is considered. We want
outside advice in this problem and only those who like to distort or exaggerate con-
ditions deny this. It would be foolish, for example, to send this surplus labor to
£gppgr;.distrints where unemployment among the trained factory workers already is
causing grave concern. Likewise, it is foolish to talk of sending out miners to farms
in other sections without making provision for their upkeep until they can become ‘
self—sustaining. We welcome assistance and every suppestion will be given considermki
ation by those who have the prob em at heart. ` `
Jnto this coal field where hunseré?$ggg§&¢and operators felt that they were
viz-` z` doing everything humanly possible to keep t ings going, came communism.At first, a
cuvwgrbp whispering campaign among the miners, telling them that they were fools to work their
.-— lives out for bosses who eased nothing for them and wanted them to work at star-
iizk qg , wation wages while they grewwealthy. Men trained for this especial task in the coal
CZZEL _ iields or other states filtered into the coal Iields of Southeastern Kentucky and
‘ 'y";T““ began the spread of their doctrines. ·
\ The field was fertile · tl` ropawanda. The men were promised food for
mvuyvgbl Umwuselvesfahd*faEiTIEEFfof“an“ obably two years, if they went
on strike. They were getting but little work and some felt they had not a great dggl

 T (M)
to ]`éSG°   te drop l¥;l€j-I` TOO]-9
and live at the expense of workers in other parts of the world who would come to their
?dA$jzhA7 assistance. I told one coal operator at thc time that if some buyer came to him and
,,_gjZ,l% puomised to take the entire output of his mine at $1.50