Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-25

demned the plan as an invasion of the governor in an attempt to dis
 rupt the union."
 The campaign to work the mines under a state receivership, howev-
 CT, continued. A call hten went out
 tor volunteers. Scores of husky
 young Kansans, many war veterans, answered the appeal. They started to work in the face of a blizzard,
 but they turned out coal. State
 troops were brought into the dis
 trict to guard the workers, with federal troops at hand for reserve
 duty.
 The Kansas governor organized a
 temporary executive office in Pitts burg and while here formed ten tative plan for court of industrial
 relations. W. L. Huggins, then
 chairman of the Kansas state public
 utilities commission, and Judge I.
 c. Price, a leader in the state sen
 ate and chairman of the judiciary committee, were called into confer ence 4 day or two later the gov
 ernor issued a call for an eXtraor- dinary session of the state legisla
 ture and in January the law creat- ing the court of industrial relations
 was enacted. Howat, meanwhile at meetings of the miners in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, declared the law was designed ito enslave the worw ing people of Kansas" He threat
 ened a fresh strike of the Kansas
 miners.
 After the new industrial court had begun functioning, 1t was an- nounced, an investigation of the coal
 industry of the state would be helc here The court assembled and howat and other officials of the ] imne workers were summoned to ap- pear as witnesses. The order was 1 ignored.
 ] The presiding judge then applied ] to Judge A. J. Curran of the Craw- i ford county district court to order l Howat to appear before the indus ! trial court. When Howat and oth-
 CT officials did not appear, Judge Curran found them in, contempt and
 issued an order committing them to jail until such time as they con sent to appear before the Kansas in- l dustrial relations court and answer i III questions dShtu thSiu.
 Howat is serving his 18th year as an official of the United Mine 1 Workers. He was born in Scotland
 three years old At 10 he went to
 work in coal mine. A face to i compromise, when the nation-w i bituminous strike was settled in No vember, 1919, Howat denounced some 1 ivoI Df ,arf nn. cember 22, 1919, he was sent to jail
 in Indianapolis for contempt because
 a strike in the mines of the Central Coal and Coke company in Kansas called the previous July, was still I in progress after the nationwide set 1 tlement. Howat was released the
 next day upon his promise, it was
 said, that he would endeavor to in duce the miners to return to work.
 The court of industrial relations
 which launched into an entirely new
 field of legislative endeavor. was 1 attacked before the Kansas legis
 lature by representatives of capita l and labor Ample time was giveT 1 both sides to present arguments, ant l the bill was condemned as inimica | to the interests of capital and labor alike. Mir. Huggins presented tht
 views of the public. Both houses ! of the legislature adopted the mea l sure by overwhelming majorities. | The new law has been in opera l ton only a few months, but pc titions have been filed under it's pro 1 visions by local, state and nationa
 labor union organizations, as wei as by groups of workers and by in ! dividuals. Ie not only prohibit:
 strikes and lock-outs in essential in ! dustries, but it requires essentia ! industries to operate with "a req sonable continuity necessary for thu protection of the public" I The court which it created is em powered to regulate wages, hours ant working conditions, pending agree
 ment between employer and em plcye. Labor officials or employ CTS violating provisions of the law
 may be charged with a felony, sub