Harlan County. Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. It is beautiful in Harlan County, as pretty as any place in the world. Since the county began mining, over one billion tons of coal have 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 . Rev. Filmed during the coal strike of 1974-1975, this documentary does much to capture the tension brought on by the injustice of the coal operators to the coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky. "You could hunt for one, but there just weren't one there," he says. I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. On May 5, 1931 the pot boiled over; in Harlan County Kentucky, heavily armed deputies and company men, called "gun thugs" by miners, confronted disgruntled union men on a road near Evarts. But what of the people of Harlan County? He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." The company will probably demand a new election. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. It seems that unfriendly local law enforcement officials kept a constant surveillance on Dreiser, hoping to catch him in something that would justify a criminal charge against him. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. They relate federal mine-safety figures which show that in 1971 the accident rate in the Brookside mine was three times the national average, and in 1972 was twice the national average. In June of 1973, in a National Labor Relations Board election, the miners at Brookside voted 113 to 55 to affiliate with the United Mine Workers. Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. . Unlike the previous Coal Wars that took place in West Virginia with the Paint-Creek Strike of 1912 and Matewan that lasted for a year or two. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. or smaller. Others claim that his death was caused by an election concerning slot machines into the county. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . There were ten lodges that were chartered for the National Miners Union. I am the only man in the United States who would do that sort of thing.". He says that negotiations were broken off on November 28, 1973, because of the miners' insistence on the full terms of the standard UMW contract. It was Miller who defeated W. A. These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. In response to the violence, the Kentucky National Guard was called upon and arrived for the first time in the county to try to stem the violence. The Harlan County Coal Wars lasted from 1931-1939. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. Grace Elizabeth Hale. ~~ David Sergent. Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? Cite. They also plan to join with a North Carolina group in protesting Duke's requested rate increase, and they are going to attend the meeting of Duke's stockholders on May 30. There is a suit still in litigation. Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . Documentary of mining practices in Hazard County, Kentucky. Lois Scott explains that during the first confrontation at the mine, she saw a pistol in the front seat of every "scab" car she looked into and that a company "gun thug" pointed a submachine gun at the women from the porch of the Eastover office. It was [and still is] used to signify that what happened in the realm of politics, a field largely controlled by men, affect women's everyday lives. California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). The women spent the night. 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 miners and their families. Now, along a cloudy green stream, or through deep cuts in the mountains, or high atop a timbered ridge, looking down on green quilt-patch valleys, we wind our way toward Harlan. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. 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. Only 23 percent of those in the county over the age of twenty-five have completed high school. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. They made several attempts at holding strikes against the coal companies, but these failed in Harlan County. Done Citation. . 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. Each contract varied from mine to mine. A Committee was formed and conducted by Activist Theodore Dreiser under the auspices of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP). It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. 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. 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 . . Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. This caused the clergy to denounce the union. After breakfast, we travel fifteen miles east to Evarts. June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. 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." Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. The Three Point disaster was the worst suffered in the county since December 9, 1932, when 23 men were killed in an explosion in "Zero" Mine of Harlan Fuel Company, Yancey. Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . Expand. The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. With the passage of these acts, there was unrest in Harlan County. "Roof falls are a constant hazard, but the bosses just keep on rushin'.". In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The records show that Beach was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1954 and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary, that he was later charged with carrying a concealed pistol (no disposition shown), and that in 1966 he was tried and acquitted on a murder charge. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. Each of us makes a statement. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) Nannie Rainey says, "I told him if he got my children, he was gonna haveta take me too." Why couldn't Eastover live with the same national UMW contract that so many other companies have accepted? Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. We are joined by Bernie Aaronson, the young public relations director of the UMW, and John Ed Pierce, a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. He was transferred to a worse section, he says. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Exist Dates. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . Did she find the stick on the ground?
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