Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-08
BY LANES ]. DAVIS.

limited states Senator from Pennsylvania
and Former Secretary OF bapor'
-HIs is written at a season when
coal smoke is first beginning to
nour ont of house chimneys.
within their homes most OF our
los. 600 900 people, sit In COM
Portable warmth. When evening comes,
the rushing Of a button or the turning
of a switch brings light-ngnV genera'eo
bv millions of carloads OF coal.
ANY one who has the price OF cIeolV
can obtain coal of any grace OF quallIy,
In anv quantity desired. Our rallroaoS
and industries are amply supplied with
col and at prices much lower than IN
years past. I, ro
Yet In the regions where coal Is pro-
duced there is hunger and want ana
desperation among hundreds OF tnou-
sands Who dig the coal that other peo-
nIe NAV be warm and that the wheels
of industry may be kept turning. why
The answers are: UncontroLeo pro-
duction. uncontrolled marketing, I'm.
controlled competition, uncohCroheu
uage pressure, ever downward.
Pie distress in the coal fields Is worth
tho study of any man or woman, for
coal is one of the vital elements In our
national welfare. It was Great Britain s
coal resources that gave her pre-eml-
nence in manufacturing ana exporting
for generations, and 1t was great coal
etrite in England a few years ago that
quickly brought grave national Crisis.
II was the possession OF adequate coal
supplies that gave Germany decided
advantage over France and other ma
tions before the World war. Wlthout
The vast deposits of coal that we possess,
the industrial development Of the United
states would have been impossible.
Is Essential Industry.
Millions of people in this country have
never bought as much as q pound OF
bituminous (soft) coal. It takes hun
dreds of millions Of tons OF this btu
minous coal to keep our railroads and
industries moving and electric current
flowing from power plants into homes
and stores and factories.
Here, certainly, is an absolutely es-
sential industry-yet, just as certainly,
n has been an Improbable industry for
MANY of those who own the mines and
those who work in them when they
have a chance.
That is an economic wrong. OF course.
And when any nation has an economic
wrong. it also has human suffering.
The spirit of our people Is not to per-
NIT economic wrongs to continue in
definitely The typical American spirit
is to discover what's wrong and apply
a remedy.
What an economic wrong entails can
be pictured by recalling something that
occurred in Washington. few months
ago. On hot Summer day there rode
into the Nations Capital in few dilap-
idated trucks some poorly dressed. tired,
hungry. discouraged men, women and
children from nv own State Of Penn
sylvania. They had come a long way
to tell the President Of the United
States of the human distress In the
coal fields.
They told story of dire misery; Of
mother of a miners family dying Of ex-
posture and leaving her children to the
care of those equally in want; of men
going into the mines in the morning
with nothing to eat except potato peel
ings; of children without shoes in
Winter and therefore unable to attend
school; of men able to get only day
or two of work a week. and their fam
lilies on the very verge Of starvation.
Stories Reach President.
Many other stories of that kind
reached President Hoover from the coal
fields of Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia