Anarchy Explored

The condition of quiet but actual anarchy which has existed in four eastern counties of his State since 1931 last week engaged for the first time the active attention of Pennsylvania's Governor since 1935, rich George H. Earle. In khaki overalls and a head-lamped miner's cap, Governor Earle inspected a few of the thousands of bootleg holes and abandoned mines from which 20,000 men and boys are openly stealing some $32,000,000 worth of anthracite coal per year from company-owned lands. In Pottsville, Mahanoy City and Shamokin he conferred with citizens and law officers whose frank acquiescence has made the gigantic theft possible (TIME, July 13).

In Manhattan last week three Pennsylvania truck drivers were fined $25 each for bringing bootleg coal into the city. There legitimate dealers, whom 'leggers undersell by $2 per ton, have prodded police into action, nearly stopped the illegal traffic which in New York City alone amounted to 400,000 tons per year. But at its source the flow of stolen coal continues unabated. Law officers have declined to arrest the 'leggers, grand juries to indict them, petit juries to convict them. And Governor Earle, like Governor Pinchot before him, has refused every demand by coal operators for armed intervention.

It would be cynical to suppose that this Labor-loving New Deal Governor has not been genuinely sympathetic with the masses in this one-industry area, who lost their livelihoods when Depression and the rise of new fuels shut down most anthracite collieries. It would be naive to suppose that the ambitious young Governor has been unaware of the political and civil dynamite represented by the bootleggers and the citizenry whose prosperity rests on their outlaw profits. At his side last week stumped the "King of the Bootleggers," 33-year-old Earl Humphrey, who claims 15.000 'leggers in his Independent Miners & Truckers Association. A slim, shrewd, explosive Welshman who lost a leg in a mine accident, 'Legger Humphrey cried: "We will welcome any impartial investigation by the State Legislature. But any effort by the big coal operators or the State to stamp us out by force will lead inevitably to bloodshed/'

In what he called the "greatest conflict between moral and civil rights" in Pennsylvania's history, Governor Earle made his position clear at the outset of his tour. Virtually all anthracite miners are descendants of English, Irish. Welsh and Slavic laborers imported for the purpose since 1830. "The operators,'' said the Governor, "brought these people into the mining regions and made millions off them. Then they suddenly closed down the mines and said, 'Go make your living on thin air.' I am afraid there can be no solution until the operators recognize their moral obligations to these people."

Trailing a party of officials and newshawks behind him, the Governor tramped across raw hills and black-running streams, clasped grimy hands at the mouths of hillside holes, got his face smudged 800 ft. underground in an abandoned mine, heard the 'leggers' story from their own lips. Perhaps 40% of them, he learned, are onetime farmers and laborers who have never done any legitimate mining. Every one of them would be glad to quit if the legitimate mines would reopen. Unlike Prohibition's liquor 'leggers. they are not growing rich. Joe Filyac, Eddie Wall, Glen Wright, Joe Maratowicz and many another 'legger informed the Governor that for ten hours of cramped, backbreaking work they made $2 or $3 per day. Of the appalling risks they run, the men did not complain. But Governor Earle could see with his own eyes their homemade tipples, their lack of any but the crudest safety devices. J. Robert Bazley, president of Pottsville's Chamber of Commerce and board chairman of Pottsville Hospital, reported that free care of injured 'leggers had cost the hospital $3,500 in the past six months. He estimated that every 200 tons of bootleg coal cost the life of one miner.

The merchants, bankers, politicians, clergymen and educators who flocked to Governor Earle s conferences unanimously deplored their local anarchy, unanimously opposed any suggestion of stopping it by force. Cried Mahanoy City's Lithuanian Parish priest, Rev. Pius Czesnas: "I would go myself to fight the National Guard."

Some witnesses suggested that the Government subsidize the operators to enable them to reopen their mines. Some wanted the mines taken over by the State or nation. One Congressman proposed that the operators be forced to reopen by taxing idle coal lands to the point of confiscation. Nobody blamed the 'leggers; everybody blamed the operators. Seven companies,* it was said, owned 85% of all anthracite lands. Hot were the charges that these absentee landlords refused to lease their lands to miners because they were doggedly determined to maintain a monopolistic price. Another popular charge was that behind the coal companies stood great Interests who controlled other fuels, did not care whether anthracite markets were revived or not.

When Governor Earle called for replies from representatives of the Anthracite Institute, operators' trade association, they held their tongues. The operators have generally been content to stand outraged on their legal rights. But they have also complained that as heavy taxpayers they could never regain prosperity while tax-evading bootleggers were underselling them.

After three days Governor Earle confessed himself no nearer a solution than he had been before. Best he could propose was that the Legislature, meeting Jan. 5, should as its first act create an investigating commission of miners, operators and civic leaders, charged to report within four months. Meantime, he promised, 'leggers could continue without fear of police or troops. The commission, said the Governor, would certainly consider "whether this great national resource should be controlled by a few corporations" and "whether the anthracite districts can expect humane treatment from absentee landowners such as these great corporations."

*Glen Alden, Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron. Lehigh Valley. Hudson, Susquehanna, Lehigh Navigation, Pittston.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.