The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-02-02
Emergency Near
In Coal Dispute
Truman Is Told

washington lLFA) - PRESIDENT
Truman was advised the evening
of Jan. "a, by Director James Boyd
of the Federal Bureau Of Mines,
that "unless there is an immediate
resumption of substantially in
creased coal production the nation
al economy, health and welfare Of
the nation is now or soon would be
imperiled."
The president now may seek an
80-day injunction against the en-
battled United Mine Workers under
the national emergency provisions
of the Taft-Hartley act, provided
board of inquiry supports the
finding that a coal crisis impends.
And he may, as Senator Humphrey
Cd, Mimi suggested, seize the
mines and place them under fed
eral operation.
Under questioning by Senators
Humphrey and Herbert Lehman
Liberal, NY) when Boyd ap-
peared Jan. 25 before the Senate
Labor Committee, it was brought
out that Boyd has been keeping the
White House informed regularly or
the state Of the nations coal sup
ply, and that only on Jan. "a was
the condition considered serious
When group of Republican Sen
ators introduced resolution order
ing the President to find state
of emergency Jan. II, Boyd said ht
didn't think the facts would have
backed up their assertion.
While in previous crises the
Bureau of Mines has received large
numbers of letters from individual
consumers complaining about Goa
shortages, Boyd said that to dat'
he has received no report of per
sonal suffering caused by the Goa
strike. All complaints so far have
come from retail coal dealers, HI
observed, Humphrey added that h
had received none either, thougi
winters are severe in his state.
Humphrey brought out the fac
that more coal was delivered in th'
September through December per
iod in 1913 than in the correspond
ing months in 1948-39, ATS, ,00t
tons compared with 28,640,000 tom
in the previous year. He alsC
pointed out that Boyd's own testi
mony was that there has been {
substantial replacement of coal
burning furnaces with oil-anc
gas-burning equipment, so that thii
supply would go further.
The Minnesota Senator wa!
especially critical of the Captive
coal mine owners, whom he called
"p i u larly recalcitrant." Us
Steel's dividend statement, and tn,
recent profits report of the NJ. A
Hanna steel and coal interests, one
of the largest coal producers in the
country, give the lie to any claims
that they can't afford to settle
what Humphrey pointed out "ori
ginated as a labor dispute"
He bitterly attacked Republican
sponsors of the resolution aimed al
the President. "I'm not taking VI
the cudgels for John l.. Lewis,
he said, "but | think the people Of
the country ought to be informed
that the miners are ready to go Il
work if they can get contrac
and at this time coal industry pro
fits are among the highest on re
cord"
The criticism of the Presiden
for not using the TIL emergency
powers "is not founded on fact bu
on wishful thinking" and som,
COP Senators "have been tryinl
to make political hay" Humphre!
charged.
If the emergency is real, he ad
ded at this point, he might suggest
to the President that the govern
ment take over the mines, rather
than subject the miners to "tht
ubiquitous injunction" which "woulC
again push down a group of mer
who for generations have beer
oppressed"