davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21
Coal Fight Brewing

Coal Fight BreWing
A BIG blowup is brewing behind
4 n the scenes in the month
old Bituminous Coal Commission,
which may rend it from stem to
stern even before the expected
Supreme Courts ak descends.
Cause of the undercover churn-
ing is Commissioner George Ed
ward Acret of California. So Bit
ter has feeling become that sew
eral important executives are
threatening to resign and issue
public statements denouncing Ac-
ret.
Acrets special province is the
legal work of the commission. To
assist him in this he has large
staff of lawyers.
Acret has been at loggerheads
with fellow commissioners from
the start. One of his first acts
was to elect himself vice chairman
when most of the other commits
sioners were out of town. He has
repeatedly clashed with his COL
leagues on policy, particularly the
question of price-fixing, which he
favors, while most of the others
believe it should be handled eau
tiously.
The commissioner owes his Job
to Senator William Gibbs McAdoo,
who took him into his law firm
last year after patching up
peace with Upton Sinclair. Acret,
a Sinclair lieutenant, was the
EPIC candidate for the California
Supreme Court.
In addition to these qualifca-
lions, Acret's background fitting
him for a place on the coal COM
mission includes wartime service
in the aviation corps, a term as
city attorney of Venice, Cal, and
an inconspicuous part in the pros
ecution of the famous Centralia
tWash) I. w. w. cases a decade
ago. Until he came to Washing
ton he was unknown outside of
California.
Copyright, 1886, by United Feature
Syndicate. Inc.l
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21
Times Books

nNE of the best bits of news from the winter pub
" fishing season is the fact that Phil Stong seems
to have decided to forget about the movies for a
while and go back to writing novels
His new book, Career" (Harcourt Brace e. Co.
So. Goes not bear the Hollywood stamp. It is re-
turn TO the level of State Fair and to this review
ers notion 1t is fully good as that book-if not
indeed, little better
once more, Mr. Strong simply sits down in small
Iowa town. looks about him, and writes. This time
he shows us village storekeeper and his son-the
Storekeeper a grizzled old crossroads veteran who
has been father-confessor and leading citizen to his
town for whole lifetime. the son a serious and
talented lad about to embark on medical career
THE son clearly is headed for great things The
father just as clearly, is headed no place at all
and never will be- But you follow the story you
discover presently, that this old storekeeper is hav-
ing career as rich and significant in its own way
as anything for which the son can hope In his
undistingushed life the father has somehow fulfilled
himself
Mr.. Stong is up to his old game of confusing
the critics One of their dearest traditions has been
that life in rural Iowa. rural anywhere else is of
necessity barren, bleak and dull
Mr.. Stong knows better, and he tells of men like
this village merchant VINO meet life on its own
terms forego the luxury of broad horizon and still
pack richness and significance into their lives.
Career, in short, is an excellent book. CBy
Bruce Catton)
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21

only handful of Senators dared to vote against
the Wagner labor bill Vandenberg one Of the
handful
AS a member of the Nye munitions investigating
committee, he didn't lose his nerve and run out on
the committee when it got into the Morgan records
Neither did ne Join in the attempt to make either
Morgan or Woodrow Wilson the Scapegoat for our
getting into the war, He Just tried to get what in
formation he could on how we might be saved from
being sucked into another foreign war.
A FTTER all of the believing from Republicans
about balancing the budget just seven of them
had the nerve to be consistent and vote against
the bonus One of them was Vandenberg
The circumstance which makes all of this re-
markable is that Vandenberg has good chance at
the Republican presidential nomination But it de-
pends chiefly upon his making few enemies as
possible.
And can you imagine man who is angling for
the nomination saying as Vandenberg did this
week. that he doesn't know enough about the farm
problem to have a plan?
He broke two rules right there First never adj
NIT you don't know all about anything And seq
ond, never be caught in daylight without having
plan.
Senator Carter Glass is the only Democratic
Senator up for reelection who voted against the
bonus. ~
Rep. George Tinkham Massachusetts Renub
hcan, is laborng valiantly to have the present
Italo- Ethiopan exempted from the new neu
trality legislation. Almost any one else would FOO
II they had to go back this summer and face as
many Italian constituents as he does in Boston
NOME government lawyers have been looking into
~ THIS idea of overcoming hostile Supreme Court
oecSons: Let Congress pass law requiring that the
supreme Court-in the event of a divided opinion
whlcn indicates reasonable doubt as to the constitu
tlonahty OF law-refer the act back to CONGRESS
ana II then Congress by tRree-fourths COR two
tmros) vote shall re-enact the law it shall stand
congress is empowered TO pass such law it is
argued by the Constitution-Artice ILL., Section Q
giving the Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction
with such exceptions and under such regulations as
the Congress shall make"
This, without an amendment would give the
Supreme Courts veto. which is now supreme about
the same weight the Presidents
Style Note-There is some commotion here over
whether. when the American Liberty Ieac,,ers
gather this week to rescue our liberties the uniforr
OF the evening shall be black or white ties and
tails. We have been tipped that Gov AL Smith the
keynoer is expected to discard his brown DERBY for
white tie and tails.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21

silica and, of course, to produce
more power.
Originally, the diameter was to
have been 80 feet-a little larger
than New York's Holland Tubes.
The diameter was increased to 48
feet.
Then the workmen began to
sicken, and number of them
died. The trouble was apparently
pneumonia and tuberculosis. Ne
groes seemed to be hit hardest,
and physicians suggested that the
northern climate was responsible.
New men replaced those who
dropped out. They worked in two
10-hour shifts, with a two-hour
pause between each shift to let
the smoke and dust clear out of
the tunnel.
N7HEN doctors began diagnos-
w ing the lung trouble as
silicosis, and suits were filed, the
contractor contested them. Com
pany lawyers contended at first
that there was no such disease,
then pointed out that no one had
ever heard of so many men con-
tracing the disease on a single
job. Hundreds of workmen were
demanding damages
Finally most of the damage
suits were compromised. Most of
the settlements ranged from $500
to $1,000, but the total amount
distributed by the contractor was
reported to be near the million
mark. The tunnel is now COM
pleted; with a few finishing
touches the big project can be
put into operation.
Whether the contractor took
sufficient precautions to keep
down the dust in the tunnel, and
provide proper ventilation, is a
matter that even the courts have
been unable to decide.
The state might be blamed for
not protecting the men in the
tunnel. For various easons
neither the mine, health or labor
departments assumed complete
supervision of the project.
n
THE obvious explanation for
i tragedy is that the danger
from the glass-like silica dust
was not realized until the damage
had been done and about 1000.
workmen had become either VIC
Tins or potential victims of
silicosis.
Even during the celebration on
the mountain top in 1881, when
gala crowd was rejoicing that
two of the crews had met under
the mountain, with their sections
mot an inch out of line" the
tragedy that had occurred was
not realized.
Otherwise, the Governor of West
Virginia might not have been
there, praising the engineering
feat, and the company official
who told how one heading had
been driven forward 100 feet in
six days might have been less
proud.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21
THE TOWN OF THE WALKING DEAD
Parade of Doomed Nav Be Enacted Aeai-7is Time in Cabita
BY GILBERT LOVE

FAYETTEVILLE W. Va, Jan. 21-The parade of the
doomed may be enacted again
Two years ago. nearly 100 alleged victims of sicoss
industrial disease for which is known, were
paraded before jury in Circuit Court here.
They walked up flight of steps, and came into
the courtroom gaspng for breath This to show the
jury sicosis gradually sodfes the lung tissues max
ing breathing and difficult Some of them were
stripped the waist revealing bodies that little more
than skeletons covered with tightly drawn skim
Such display may be put on in Washington II advo-
Gates of the congressional inquiry into the scoss plague
at Gauey Bridge W. Va. carry out their plan to take
group of the victims to the capital.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21
He's q Schemer, This Clerk

THE scheming clerk preys upon the fears Of John
L and Mary. He points out that taxes are heavy
and asks, in the most insidious way, whether they
can afford to get married So skillful is his propa
ganda that they decide not to and go out down.
hearted
The clerk has already insinuated a belief that
they are living together out of wedlock. He has
planted a thought, and it will burgeon and blast
them. For them Is Elm-st (do you catch the SYM
bolism?) will prove unlucky number. And it will
be unlucky day for young manhood and young
womanhood in America when the noXious radical
notions of Chairman Fletcher are carried by the
radio to every 1resde in the land
Come out from behind those bolshevist whskers,
Comrade Fletcher and if you wish to challenge Amer
lean moralities and American institutions do so
frankly. Give your revolutionary radio program its
right and proper name. You are not talking about
liberty. What you really mean is License at the
Crossroads"
Copyright 1885,
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21

sulting dust. They said they were
not provided with protective
masks.
After a blast of dynamite was
set off to loosen the rock, the
workers would be hurried back to
the heading" before the smoke
had cleared away, they testified.
The contracting company main
tanned that it had used the most
modern methods available in Dor
ing the tunnel, and brought tun-
mel experts here to testify on this
point. It commended, further, that
it did not know such a disease as
silicosis existed.
II
TINE trial ended with a hung
L. jury. Another case, tried
short time later, ended the same
way. Then the lawyers got to-
gether and decided to compro-
mise the cases.
Experts were appointed to ex-
anime those who had sued. A few
hundred dollars was given to
each litigant who had a we'll de-
veloped case of silicosis. The
amount varied with the size of
his family and the severity of his
affliction. widows got about twice
as much as men still living.
A few suits are still pending in
the local courts and in Federal
court at Charleston, but most of
the cases have been settled by
compromise or thrown out of
court because they were filed
more than a year after the plain
tiffs left the companys employ.
Emaciated men still come into
lawyers offices in Fayetteville
and Charleston and ask them to
sue the tunnel people. They want
something on which their wives
and children may live for a time
after the disease has finished
them, they explain.
=
COME of the lawyers will take
~ the cases and some will not.
1t takes a lot of money to put on
trial like that at which the
doomed men we're paraded, and
the outcome is most uncertain.
Lawyers here believe that if ma
tional attention is focused on the
silicosis tragedy. legislation may
result that will at least clarity the
rights of workmen affected by
such occupational diseases.
1t should be decided, they say,
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21
Disfranctised Farmers

WHEN Henry Wallace called
w farm leaders to advise him
regarding substitute AAA, he in
Guided almost every farm organi-
cation in the country except the
one which represents the largest
number of farmers.
Representatives of the tenant
farmers, applying for entry to the
Wallace-farm leader conferences
at the last minute, were turned
down.
AS the reason for this veto Wal.
lace gave the. lack of large
enough room in which to meet.
However, the auditorium where
his 100 delegates sat has a capacity
of 1000.
Wallace's delegates represented
approximately 100000 farmers
who own their own land and pro-
duce about IS per cent of the
countryS farm products.
Unrepresented were about
100000 farm tenants who pro-
duce only IA per cent of the
country's farm goods; also about
100000 agricultural workers.
These two groups have benefited
little from the AAA; many ten
ant farmers have been evicted as
a result of the crop curtailment
program.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21

They won't be the same
men who were paraded
here, however. Many of
those are dead, and others
are too weak to get out of
bed.
Death lowered near the Fay
cite County courthouse while that
trial was in progress. 1t was a
test case, designed to determine
the legal right of several hundred
workmen who had filed damage
suits against a contracting firm
and power company because, the
workmen alleged, they contracted
silicosis while tunneling through
a mountain near Gauley Bridge
to divert part of New river for
hydro-electric use.
THE plaintiff, Raymond john
Z son, is dead today So are
four other members of his house
hold-three brothers-in-law and a
young boarder-all of whom
worked in the tunnel.
Most of the foremen on the job
who came back from their
homes in Virginia to testify that
their company had done every.
thing possible to protect the men
in the tunnel--are dead also.
Some of the foremen coushed
constantly while testifying-an in
dication, doctors said, that they
were suffering from silicosis even
then.
The trial lasted six weeks. Out
standing silicosis experts were
brought here to testify. Nearly
score of lawyers, from Charleston
and Fayetteville, we're arrayed
against each other.
Autopsy records, X-ray plates,
solidified lungs from the bodies of
SlliCOSlS NlCCiIllS, ana pneumatic
drills from the tunnel, were on
display in the courtroom.
q II
A e. A. LILLY, attorney for the
4 n plaintiff, threw into the air
handful of silica dust from the
tunnel. 1t hung in cloud over
the courtroom, showing the jury
the nature of the material that
had penetrated the lungs of work
erS.
He testified that a dozen penu-
matte drills would be pounding
it off to loosen the rock, the
tunnel, with little or no water
being used to keep down the re-
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21
Here's Documentary Proof

A ND If anybody wants documentary proof as to
Athe subversive potentiaties of Liberty at the
Crossroads" he have it.
Consider, then, the sketch about Mary and John.
In the c. O P's Grand Cuignol effort they de-
scribed two typical young Americans" They love
each other, and IN the typical way sanctioned ever
since the founding of the republic they go to the
marriage bureau.
Here they questioned by minor official who
makes much CT the fact that each gives the same
address. This is innocent enough, for. John
points out it happens to be large apartment house
containing many families and at the moment their
don1iciles different But before this explanation
be made the clerk says. What" just like that.
Now his vile insinuation that two typical young
Americans are living in sin, shall we say. is bad
enough. and remember that there all kinds Of
implications in the manner in which the line may
be read simple What" say, "And why
shouldn't you abandon conventional morality and
live without benefit of clergy?'
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21

Last spring he was one of the
few, among Republicans who pro-
fess to want the budget balanced,
to come to the support of Sena-
tor La Toilette in an attempt TO
boost taxes on moderate incomes.
Roosevelt had proposed his
demagogic tax on top incomes
but had sidestepped the touchy
issue of going after middle
bracket taxes where the real vol
ume is. Republicans for the
most part didn't have the nerve
to 90 after them either, Vanden-
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21

whether or not the statute of
limitations will keep a man from
suing if he does not discover that
he has an occupational disease
until he has been out of a COM
pany's employ year or longer.
The status of such diseases I'M
der workmen's mp ensati ion
should also be fixed, they main
tain.
Il
T OCAL residents familiar with
- the situation doubt that the
Federal probers can find any in
dividual, or group of individuals,
on whom to lay the whole blame
for the tragedy.
The committee, it is thought,
will probably find that the cause
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21

was much more complex, and
that sweeping legislation will be
needed to prevent such things
from happening in the future.
Here is the employers side of
the matter:
The Union Carbide g. Carbon
Co., of New York, in commission
ing its subsidiary, the New-Kan-
awha Power Co., to build the tun-
mel, was actuated by legitimate
desire to produce cheap cleo
tricity for it's own plants in the
Kanawha Valley, and possibly for
others, by Harvesting the wild
waters of the New River.
At the point where the New
River comes down out of the
mountains to enter the Kanawha,
it races through a canyon shaped
something like horseshoe. The
loop is nearly 10 miles long.
Il
DY boring a tunnel three and
- one-eighth miles long through
a mountain, part of the water
could be forced to "cut across
lots" and fall of 1863 feet could
be created, engineers estimated.
This hidden Niagara could be
forced to drive dynamos in a
generating plant and produce
10000 horsepower of electricity.
The current would be used in
the electric furnaces of the car
bon company's subsidiaries, MAX
ing steel alloys. A dam on the
Kanawha, and a new steam gen.
Grating plant, were being worked
to capacity to supply the electric
furnaces already in operation.
With the additional power avail
able, the company could move to
West Virginia part of its plant
at Niagara Falls.
The scheme involved about $16,-
100000 A big contracting firm
of Charlottesville, Va.-Rinehart
& Dennis-was engaged to do the
work.
The tunnel was to be one of
the largest ever built. To speed
construction. the engineers not
only started at both ends, but
drove a shaft down into the CEN
ter of the surveyed route of the
tube and began digging both ways
from this spcC. The sinking of
this midway shaft was made
possible by the fact that the tun-
mel route approached the surface
il valley.
WORK began June Is, 1880.
w Mountain folk predicted ca
lamity because the job was started
on the 18th, but jobs were scarce
and they went to work in the
tunnel. Other laborers were i'm
ported from the South.
Fortune seemed to favor the
tunnel builders at first. Only
little way into the mountain they
found that it was composed of
silica of 99.40 per cent purity. So
valuable was this material for
glass and metallurgical work that
the companies enlarged the tun-
mel in order to get out more
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21
Washington Merry-Go-Round

XXTASHINGTON, Jan. 21.-Ap-
w pointment of Prof. William
O. Douglas, Yale, as newest men,
Der of the Securities and Ex-
change Commission, is expected to
put backbone into an organization
which recently has been coasting
on its previous momentum.
Chairman Jim Lands, the saw
age liberal whose shadow once
sent filters down the spine of
Wall Street, now is suspect of eat
ing caviar a little too frequently
with the boys whom once he
frightened.
Other members of the commits
sion have been leaning in the
same direction. Douglas has been
leaning directly opposite.
Although he was once associat-
ed with one of Wall Streets most
prosperous law firms, Douglas has
been SECS most active crusading
investigator. His Investigations of
the bondholders' protective COM
mitteeS for the Frisco and Mis-
souri, Pacific Railways were sem
sational.
Douglas worked his way through
the University of Washington in
Seattle by living in a tent and
washing his own clothes in an
adjacent stream.
After graduation, he arrived in
New York via the freight car
route with So cents in his pocket,
and applied for a loan to enter
the Columbia Law School. His
record at Washington was so good
that he got small loan, and sold
papers in Manhattan in order to
meet the rest of his expenses.
Graduating near the top of his
class, Douglas was immediately
snapped up by the law firm of
Paul Cravath. Later he became
the highest paid law professor in
the country, drawing down $4,000
a year from Yale.
Touch of Irony
4 FTER all the effort exerted
1 n by Henry P. Fletcher to get
his Republican National Commit
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21
A Medal, Please!
for Vandenberq
BY RAYMOND CLAPPER

WASHINGTON, JAN 21-The political Croix de
w Guerre with palm for recent acts of courage
should be awarded to Senator Arthur Vandenberg
of Michigan
He is not afraid to stand UP in a minority.
Last winter he voted for the World Court when
1t the unpopular thing to do. His eminent
constituent, Father Coughlin, and many thousand
others warning him with deluge of kilograms
that it would be suicide for him to for the court
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21

beIleVe tnaJ ] can prove tnem.
First of all, it is well to point out
that the author of this menacing
entertainment is one Henry Fisk
Carlton, who studied at Harvard
in Prof. Bakers experimental the
alter, the Workshop l need hard
ly point out to Republicans that
anything experimental is inevi-
tally communistic and subversive.
But to make it more binding
Mr.. Carlton later became COL
lege professor, and it is generally
agreed that all the members of
this profession are part of Red
army which is boring from within.
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21
EI;Znough
BY
WESIbR0Ok PEGLER

Darts Jan. 21.-It is impossible to understand the
moves in French politics without first memoriz-
ing the names of the parties and the principles for
which they stand This being done, the rest is easy
The old left wing is not actually left nowadays
but is situated TO the right OF the center This
additional left wings have been added since the
original left wing established The furthermost
left wing is not known the left wing because the
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21

111OI11ONIo no IIUU WISH 10 DC CUT
fused with the ole, original left.
Therefore, the actual leftist group
prefers to call itself the right. The
old original right has been COM
PEELED to yield the wing position
to a radical conservative group
calling itself the moderate ex-
tremists and has shifted over to a
place roughly corresponding to
left tackle.
The French center, by the
same process, has abandoned its
position in the middle and, with
the introduction of the new, open
game has become a rowing center
with leanings toward the prin-
The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-01-21

clpleS OF that growing element of malcontents who
advocate the restoration of the King on a straight
Communist platform. This group is divided into
1hree elements A, B and T. The group selected
That letter to show how widely it dsagrees with
groups and B. These elements demand the de-
valuation OF the franc, the -devsluation of the
franc and a compromise policy of letting the franc
alone awhile for Gods sake