The central record. (Lancaster, Ky.) 18??-current, 1914-07-09

The steel corporation admitted tina
these convicts We're employed, just a
L stated. on the floor of the house, and
worse than all that, the reason give
by the steel corporation was that tn
Tree miners were members of the Unit
ed Mine Workers of America, that, un
able to import strike breakers from tn
north, they utilized the scab convict
from the prisons of Birmingham.
felt that this condition deserved ex
posure and condemnation. and l ex
posed 1t and condemned it,
Kentucky has seldom produced {
more accomplished, more admirable
and a more sensitively honorable gen
' tleman than Robert Wickliffe Wool
ley, the present auditor of the treasury
of the United States.
At my request Mr.. Woolley went tc
birmingham and made a personal in.
vestigatiOn of the conditions existing
there.
am just in receipt of a letter which
speaks for itself:
Robert Wickliffe Woolley's Letter.
Treasury Department,
! Washington, March %, 1914
Hon. A. o. Stanley, House of Representa-.
tives:
Dear Mr.. Stanley-Far be it from me IN
become involved in the contest which YOU
ana my esteemed relative and friend,
| Governor Beckham, are waging for the
| Democratic senatorial nomination in Ken
lucky. but in justice to you feel that it
Is necessary to clear up one or two points
concerning which Mr. Beckham has either
{ been misinformed or is laboring under an
, erroneous impression.
few days ago 1 read in the Lexington
Herald a report of his Elizabethtown
speech, in which he quoted the Hon. Oscar
Underwood to the effect that YOU had
made statement unwarranted by the
facts. l recall the colloquy between YOU
ana the latter very well. Underwood was
denying that the Steel corporation EN-
ployed convict labor in it's mines You
gave as your authority Mr. Harrison
an expert investigator in the employ of
the Survey, who had testified before your
committee concerning this very employ
ment OF convicts in the coal mines of the
tennessee Coal and Iron company and the
injurious manner in which the unfortu-
mates We're treated. What you should
nave done was to quote John G. Oakley
president of the Alabama state board of
convicts. who testified before your COM
mittee on Feb. u, 1917, that not only was
the Tennessee Coal and Iron company
employing at that very time county con-
victs in their mines, but that the president
OF the company. Mr.. George Gordon Craw-
tord, had made strenuous efforts to re-
new in November. 1911, the contract with
the state of Alabama for state conyicts
then about to expire.
or course Mr. Underwood, for whom YOU
ana both have the highest regard and
esteem as a friend, was not fully inform
ed when he undertook to challenge your
statement on the floor of the house
Acting under general directions from
you' L investigated fully the Steel corpo-
ratlons operations at Birmingham and
then went to Montgomery and inspected
the contracts between the Tennessee Coal
ana Iron company and the state of Ala
bama.
Mr.. Beckham seemed bent upon making |
nsnt or the Importance of the investiga- |
ton of the Steel corporation | hardly |
think he would do so were he to talk to |
Mr.. Louis d. Brandeis, who stated to me
not more than month ago that in ex-
posing the relations between the indus
trlal and the common carrier and the in
EQUITIES of the interlocking directorate the
work OF your committee had been of in
estimable value; that as an ex-Kentuck-
ian he was proud of the fact that Ken
tuckian had directed such an inquiry
Furthermore, Judge j. NJ Dickinson. ex-
secretary OF war and at present speciaI
asslst2nt attorney general of the United
states in charge of the governments suit
TO dissolve the Steel corporation under
the Sherman antitrust law. has told me
several times that but for this inyestipa
tion That great suit would never have
been brought. On one occasion he asked
me to say to you that he would be very
glad to state over his signature Just how
greatly he esteemed your work
Recently have read Professor Charles
X Van Hise's much talked of work Con
cehtraton and Control 1t is only nee
sssaiy 10 note now often ne refers to the
testimony given before your committee to
realize how much of his information he
secured from the hearings and report or
course Governor Beckham would not have
made such statements had he been cor
'ectly informed.
You may make such use of this letter as
nay seem best to YOU. With kindest re-
cards am cordially,
r. w. wOOLLEY.
3eckham and Stanley at Platform Con-
vention.
Mr.. Beckham draws parallel be
ween his conduct and my own at the
10 not shrink from the comparison. | .
I'D not attend the convention at nv {
lOme, nor did | directly or indirectly
tempt to influence the vote of any ,,
nan who did attend it. :
When the question was raised i'm the c
ounty convention as to the propriety
f instructing the delegates on the SO !
allied county unit plank, the vets. led ,
Y an excellent gentleman, my most :
elentless political adversary, carried
ne day for the vets, and the delegates i
'ere bound hand and foot by ironcIad /,
lstructionS to vote against the county i
nit plank. This gentleman is now an
vowed and tireless advocate for Mr.. $
eckham's cause o
attended the session of that conyen- #
on at Louisville but a few hours. As II
act OF courtesy my friends and a
elghbors in that delegation on several y
:casions delegated me to cast its vote
nd |. of course, followed the i:struc-
ons by which l was bound and Cor
hich | was in no way responsible. Il
rectly or indirectly. and this is how
Mr.. Beckham says. | happened TO :,
cast the votes of Hender- n
IN county against the county unit IL,
ank." -,
How he can refer with such compla. :,
ncy to that convention is amazing to q
ose who attended it. The Louisville n,
ines of May %, 1912. thus character. IN
es the methods by which he secured h;
S seat in that body: =,
As an evidence of what may be expected ~,
the way of fairness and Justice at thu ~
nds of the desperate and discreditec M
aley- Rhea- Beckham appraoot;o, =. - | q,