The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-05
THE GREATEST FIRE ON EARTH


 lYumuri, Cuban ports.
 THE GREATEST FIRE ON EARTH Harry A. Mount, in Leslie's Weekly. If, after the Mingo mine war" | there still remains a man who is not | thoroughly convinced of the utter | folly and futility of such industria!
 struggles. should like to take him | to a certain country of ruin and l tragedy and desolation. should like
 to take him to the top of the highest hill in this country and show him land rich with tho gifts of nature, poor by the folly of men.
 Beneath are rich deposits of coal-- perhaps the very richest in all the world. There is oil. too. and there are days valuable to industry. There are woods and streams and fertile valleys. 1t Is a land which should | support a large and prosperous pop ulation.
 But as far as the eye can reach on every side are spots. brick-red or 1 iime-white, which are desolate of vegetation. Barren spots. totaling hundreds of acres. are bordered by a thousand miniature volcanoes that spout black smoke and steam that | dim the whole view. l should like to show this skeptic the greatest fire | on earth, BeI Dy In0 nhlQ Ol nali CU | during a strike some s6 years ago. | It has spread by this time over nearly | 36 square miles of territory, has con- | sumed over 16,000.000 tons of coal, 1 and, having got beyond, human con trol, will just as surely destroy many | times 16, ,000, 900 tons more in its path. And that is just beginning Of the damage it has done.
 We should not have to travel far | to this land of tragedy-not beyond | tho borders of the United States-in- decd no further than the low hills of ] southern Ohio; scarcely 60 miles from l the city of Columbus. It seems incon- 1 ceivable that so great a catastrophe could occur in such spot without attracting wide attention. But this has been a sort of progressive catas- trophe, beginning with fire in a | single mine that should have been l easily nut out. The fire has ceased | to be even a topic of conversation among the inhabitants except as 1t breaks out occasionally with re- newed fury or as a road or a house tumbles in. The fire country, which | lies between the towns of Shawnee and New Straitsvilie. Is reached from | Columbus by a railroad that takes | six hours to make the 50 miles. and 1 there Is seldom occasion for travel | either to or from that district. And l so, while the whole subject of the folly of sabotage was being drama tized on a tremendously impressive
 scale in these Ohio hills. the public | has known little or nothing of 1t. 1 There is no doubt that the catas- | trophe Is the direct result of a labor war very like the Mingo strike. Tho | big fire started during what Is still | recalled as the "big strike of 'S4." | That strike involved the whole Hock- 1 ing valley district, which Is the rich ; I est bituminous coal district in this
 country. The miners were striking | for higher wages. They were idle ! for a year and a very bitter feeling
 grew between the miners and opera | tors. Finally hundreds of guards were imported to protect the mine properties and 1t was rumored that | strike breakers were to follow.
 1 The fight centered in the district | between Shawnee and New Straits vile, between which lay the cream of the Hooking valley deposits. Tho coal vein here Is from g to IS feet thick, and Is almost entirely free | from shale or other foreign deposits, producing coal Of the finest grade. | Six large corporations and numer- ous smaller ones were operating in this district.
 l One morning smoke curled from | tho mouth of one of the largest 1 mines. A string of mine cars just 1 Inside the entrance had been soaked with grease and oil during the night and set on fire. Some of the miners next day wore knowing grins at the success of the coup. Angry mine of- ficials decided they'd let her burn | State mine officials did not interfere. and when sober-minded men on both | sides finally awakened to the dan ger the fire was beyond control and ] could not be put out.
 1 It would seem to the layman at first thought that there must bs some way to stop even so great a 1 fire. But several private fortunes and much public money has been spent in attempts to put out the fire.
 and not the slightest impression has been made on it. The very fact that 1 the coal is in such rich vein, to- gether with the circumstance that It | lies very near the surface, makes IL