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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 28, 1922
Senator Kenyon Advocates Tribunal and Coal Code to Settle West Virginia Troubles
From the Washington Evening Star of January 27, 1922:
KENYON ADVOCATES TRIBUNAL AND
CODE FOR COAL INDUSTRY
———-Senator, as Head of Inquiry,
Makes Individual Report
on Mingo Conflict.
A government tribunal for regulation of the coal Industry under a statutory code of industrial law enforced only by power of public opinion was recommended in a report presented to the Senate today by Chairman Kenyon of the labor committee, which recently investigated disorders in the West Virginia-Kentucky coal fields.
The report held that both the coal operators and miners were responsible for the recent fatal conflicts and property destruction in West Virginia, and said mutual concessions by the coal operators and United Mine Workers would have to be made to end the conflict.
“The issue is perfectly plain,” said Senator Kenyon’s report. “The operators in this particular section of West Virginia…openly announce…that they will not employ men belonging to the unions,…and further, that they have the right and will exercise it, if they desire, to discharge a man if he belongs to the union. …On the other hand, the United Mine Workers are determined to unionize these fields, which are practically the only large and important coal fields in the United States not unionized.”
His Personal Suggestion.
The proposal for a federal coal tribunal and code of laws applying both to operators and miners was his personal suggestion, Senator Kenyon said. Other members of the investigating committee did not sign the report, and are at liberty to submit individual reports.
[…..]
[Photographs and emphasis added.]
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SOURCE
The Evening Star
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Jan 27, 1922
Note: see link for full article.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1922-01-27/ed-1/seq-2/
IMAGES
WV Battle by Shields, Same Old Line Up by B Robinson, Lbtr p19, Oct 1921
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/1921/10/v04n10-w43-oct-1921-liberator.pdf
Battle of Blair Mt, WV Today by Bushnell, Guards, Gunthugs, Spies, UMWJ p5, Sept 15, 1921
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=oHItAQAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.RA17-PA5
See also:
Tag: Senate Investigation of West Virginia Coal Fields of 1921
https://weneverforget.org/tag/senate-investigation-of-west-virginia-coal-fields-of-1921/
West Virginia Coal Fields, Vol I & II
Hearings Before the Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. Senate, 67th. Congress
-Senator William S. Kenyon of Iowa, Chair
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
WDC, 1921
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008610716
https://books.google.com/books?id=EQQ9AAAAYAAJ
Vol. I-July 14-22, WDC & Sept 18-22, WV
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=EQQ9AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PP5
Volume 2 – Oct 24-29, 1921, WDC
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=EQQ9AAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA602-IA1
Note: sadly, Volume 3 which has the testimony of Sheriff Don Chafin of Logan County, could not be found online.
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Which Side Are You On? – Natalie Merchant