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A Little Journey Into Harlan County: William J. Hutchins and the Harlan County Troubles, 1932_ Shannon H. Wilson In February 1932, the Harlan County coal strike marked its first bitter year. Over four thousand miners were out ofwork, yet the efforts of the United Mine Workers (UMW) had proved futile in overcoming the company operators. Theodore Dreiser and John Dos Passos had described with intensely written prose the violence and apparent lawlessness that had characterized the strike from its earliest phases. The militant and Communistic National Miners Union (NMU) was intent on its own mission to organize the Harlan coal fields, but the vicious conflict only escalated. On February 10, 1932, Harry Simms, an organizer for the Young Communist League and the NMU, was killed on Brush Creek. Local NMU leaders, believing that the NMU's Communist ideology was a threat to government, religion, and family life, disavowed the union. Relief efforts organized by the NMU had also failed, adding more misery to the plight of starving miners and their destitute families. In June 1932, Berea College President William J. Hutchins observed, "A 'sick' industry, with sick politics, has meant grave suffering for hundreds of families, many of which
Appalachian Review – University of North Carolina Press
Published: Jan 8, 1998
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