Expand. Seen 'em carried out on a stretcher," she says. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. Harlan County U.S.A. by Felicia Elliott, August 2, 2016. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association, were run as open shops from October 27, 1933 - March 31, 1935. Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Yarborough tells us that the company does not now object to paying the miners for portal-to-portal time for inside mine work, but that the union wants comparability for outside workers too, in effect requiring the company to pay outside workers overtime for all work in excess of a seven and-a-quarter-hour regular day. My brother died at the age of forty. Done. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. Middleton died on the scene. They had no safety committee, the miners say, and the federal reports bear them out. And, even so, it usually takes forty-five minutes to an hour for the inspector to get from mine entrance to the face of the coal. The National Industrial Recovery Act only partially succeeded in accomplishing its stated goals when it was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on May 27, 1935, which was three weeks before the Act was set to expire. The local grand jury returned an indictment against Dreiser for adultery, but by that time Dreiser had finished his work and had left the county on the train. Harlan Fuel Co. Download PDF. The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? We stop for fish and chips at a chain-operated Long John Silver's Sea Food Shoppe, as out of place in the Cumberlands as a clam in a spruce tree. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. Over one thousand shots were exchanged during those fifteen minutes. Special Judge F. Byrd Hogg, a neighboring county judge who has been assigned to the case, entered an early order limiting the strikers to three pickets at each of two entrances to the Eastover Mining Company property. Ky., told the Senate Civil Liberties Committee as it resumed its investigation of alleged terrorism in connection with Harlan County Coal Operators' efforts to resist union organization drives. This was not just a flashy slogan, and the truth of it is . I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. They have done this only since the Brookside strike. The miners speak of other dissatisfactions with Eastover and the old Southern Labor Union contract. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). He fined the UMW $20,000. Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. Done. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. "A gun thug pulled a gun on us, and I broke a switch over his head, and the little gun thug pulled out," Lois Scott says matter-of-factly. Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. It reports that "Piedmont" is an adjective derived.from Italian words that literally mean "formed at the foot of the mountains." A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. Two more Inquiry panel members join us, Willard Wirtz, who was Secretary of Labor under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the Reverend Max Glenn, executive director of the Commission on Religion in Appalachia. They want the terms of the standard UMW contract or better. "The danger's just the same," they say. Does the Association hire for all the mines in the county? As correspondent Bob Simon reports, 47 miners died, six of them from just one county in eastern Kentucky . During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. J. D. Skidmore says that, back in the mines, the phones are always out of order, there is no transportation out until the end of the shift, and it's a one-hour walk to daylight. An investigation was conducted on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields. Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. They point out that most of the big coal companies, such as U.S. Steel and others, have signed UMW contracts, but that the smaller companies of eastern Kentucky have held out. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . It is thought that Middleton was assassinated for backing troops who were present in the County to protect the miners. The committee has invited owners as well as workers to participate in the hearings, but the impression we get is that management will not appear. They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. They are neatly and attractively dressed. When filmmaker Barbara Kopple traveled to Harlan County, Kentucky, the resulting Academy award-winning documentary, Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) captured a historic story. "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. HARLAN COUNTYHarlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. No. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. ", What about federal inspection? But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? On the way back to the Mount Aire at the end of the day, we pass back through Brookside with its deteriorating mining-camp houses along the stinking Clear Fork River. All too many Americans are under the naive belief that, while unions may have been necessary in the 30's, they are no longer needed in the United States today. Attempts to organize led to the dismissal of employees who were suspected of having leanings toward the organization and having them evicted from their family homes. Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. If for example, they did not behave in the way the companies wanted them to, they could lose all their benefits up to and including their jobs. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. Why couldn't Eastover live with the same national UMW contract that so many other companies have accepted? Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. The roof is approximately forty-eight inches high in the mine. We are handed copies of court records concerning a certain Claude Beach, who has been hired by Eastover during the strike as a "security guard." . He says that, standing. I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. Bill McQueen says that the shuttle car into the mine usually has no brakes, and that it can only be stopped by putting it in reverse. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. When a miner complains, Jerry Johnson says, the foreman says, "If you don't like it, you can always get your bucket," meaning pick up your lunch bucket and get out. Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. The Kentucky Coal Association is an IRS designated 501 (c) (6) nonprofit organization that aims to educate its members and the public of coal production and safety in the state of Kentucky. The Harlan Daily Enterprise story of September 16, 1943 is serious and straightforward: 17 miners are trapped a mile underground and help is on the way.. Much of the story is about help. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. Duke went into the coal business directly in 1970 when it organized Eastover Mining Company as a wholly owned subsidiary and, through it, bought several mines in eastern Kentucky, including the one at Brookside. The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. The decade-long conflict between miners and the coal operators who adamantly resisted unionization has been immortalized in folksong by Florence Reece and Aunt Molly Jackson, contemplated in prose by Theodore Dreiser and Sherwood Anderson, and long been obscured by . James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. A Committee was formed and conducted by Activist Theodore Dreiser under the auspices of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP). There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." The airline magazine contains an article on southern skiing, a feature on hot, winter drinks for the "Piedmont palate," an article on how tough it is to be thirty-three and middle-class today, and a success story about an Atlanta bra, sleepwear, girdle, and pantie company. I look at the government statistics once more. After the Battle of Evarts, the Red Cross and the United Mine Workers Union refused to help the striking men on the basis that it was now an industrial conflict that needed to be resolved internally. USBM Final Investigation Report (1.7 Mb) Successful Rescue . The Citizens Inquiry meets in the attractive, river-rock Evarts Community Center, directly across the Clear Fork from the site of the 1931 "Battle of Evarts." As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. On Friday, October 3, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt called a precedent-shattering meeting at the temporary White House at 22 Lafayette Place, Washington, D.C. A . (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) McDonald's. The miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. ", Bill Doan says that he was hurt in a rockfall at 7:15 one morning and that he didn't get out of the mine until nine o'clock. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. These women have organized a special kind of feminist movement, and the issues to them are life-and-death issues. After breakfast, we travel fifteen miles east to Evarts. He says that wages are no longer a problem and that the amount of the royalty to be paid into the UMW Welfare & Retirement Fund is not crucially important. After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . Fifty miners and their wives have at one time or another been held in contempt of this order. Garbage along the roadside. On September 9, 1935, for the first time since the beginning of the war, troops were dispatched to Harlan County on behalf of the miners by the Governor of the State of Kentucky. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. Prior to Miller's election, the union had become corrupt, dictatorial, and a frequent collaborator with the mine owners. Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. I've got five living children and four dead. But, I say, even without further investigation of each of the complaints, it is possible to conclude that fear is an everyday part of the miners' lives. Soon after the "Battle of Evarts," novelist Theodore Dreiser led a citizens' group to Harlan County to find and publicize the bloody facts. Whitfield recalls working in his father's coal mines during the first years of commercial mining in Harlan County, and he describes the conditions. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . When drafting these articles, I found that many things have not been taught to the future generations about the struggles for coal miner rights have been in the Appalachian Mountains. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. Mr. It was Miller who defeated W. A. Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. There is a suit still in litigation. Biographical History . As discussed in a previous video. The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. It was two o'clock on a Monday morning when the accident occurred, and he'd been in the mine., more than twelve hours. (This . Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. Nannie Rainey says, "I told him if he got my children, he was gonna haveta take me too." Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association decided to cut all wages by ten . My man was mashed up in the mines. The women spent the night. "With all those state police, we knew we had three choices," she says. The Harlan County Coal Operators Association, still functioning today, spent nearly a half million dollars from 1927 to 1938 to combat unionism, most of it going to pay strongarm men to terrorize . The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. It doesn't seem like enough. Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. Available for both RF and RM licensing. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? She says that the women decided that they couldn't fight guns with switches and that they had taken sticks with them the next time. We huddle before breaking up. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. Following this episode, the women say, Norman Yarborough asked Judge Hogg to hold the UMW and a number of miners and women in contempt of the Judge's order limiting the number of picketers to six. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. Willard Wirtz says he senses that the Harlan County Coal Operators Association is a major factor in the dispute, that it doesn't want a settlement with higher wages and benefits and tough safety provisions to be made by Eastover, because it fears the domino effect of such a settlement on the rest of the companies in the county. I have attended the University of Kentucky. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. It is the second coal mining fatality in . Exist Dates. The SLU was largely seen as serving the interests of the mine owners rather than the workers. In Harlan County on July 7, 1935, during a celebration of the Wagner Act, a group of disgruntled deputies severely beat up several miners and dispersed the crowd. Freda Armes says, "I run him off. We hope that our hearings will help hold down violence. We never would find out what happened. KCA's constitution and by-laws were adopted on April 28, 1947, "to promote the best interest of the coal mining industry in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and all those engaged therein". "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." [citation needed] On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. Mr. Blanton explained the reasoning behind coal camps. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. Dateline Newport News, Virginia, November 12, 1931: Dreiser denies the charge and says he wants people to concentrate on the facts of the labor dispute and "get the American mind off sex for a moment." Now, forty-three years later, Harlan County is again gripped in a UMW strike, this time at the Brookside mine of the Eastover Mining Company, and another citizens' group has been formed. Source Citation [ }] Descriptive Note Contributors from initial SNAC EAC-CPF ingest. Lifelong resident of Harlan. After this, the first strike occurred, in which only about 13% of strikers showed up to work. Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. "Not at all," Yarborough says. It is too early for dolor. Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. Why haven't the car bodies been removed from the highway and the streets? The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. They were convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder. On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." Yarborough comes out of a staff meeting and ushers us hack to a large, paneled meeting room with folding tables and chairs. Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. Working barns of gray-black weathered wood. But Barbara Bode has arranged for eleven of them to come up onto the stage at the same time, and they seem to take strength from their numbers. 1931, only $13.5 million. Isolated trailer houses. Barbara says that she was reacting spontaneously to the spirit and determination exhibited by the women, that their testimony was the highlight of our hearings. Coal companies refused to back down while the Red Cross refused to give aid . Capitalizing on the general . Troops had to be called into the county three times to maintain order. They file with us copies of specific federal safety violation reports, and they say that nothing was ever done to correct these violations. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. KCA traces its origin to a statewide association of coal operators who united their efforts in 1942. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. Before the first meeting of the Citizens Inquiry, we sit around and talk with the Inquiry chairman, Daniel Pollitt, a professor of law at the University of North Carolina. Steeped in Appalachian culture and surrounded by the influence of coal, Harlan County has amassed an interesting reputation and national attention with rest of the world. There is no water in the house. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions Jul 5, 1938. By 1908 the union had . She doesn't know where she will go when the camp is closed.
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