Muhlenberg County Kentucky
Mining
Operators furnish free transportation to miners rally
Many union miners unable to understand why Lewis cooperated with the coal operators.
With 4,200 miners in Muhlenberg and Ohio counties idle and a large number on relief rolls, John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America, in a speech at Pikeville, Monday, told the miners that “the position of all Kentucky mine workers had been bettered and all with the exception of those in Harlan county, have been made free.”
Lewis came to Kentucky to plead for the election of A.B. Chandler for Governor. He was the principal speaker at the rally. Free transportation was furnished by the coal companies of the district, special trains and busses owned by the coal companies bringing the men to the speaking.
This was one of the first instances recalled where coal operators have come out openly for a candidate for governor and insisted that their employes support their candidate.
When Mr. Lewis' visit to Kentucky was brought to this section in news dispatches, many miners here were in hopes that he would come to Western Kentucky and devote his time and efforst to the interest of the United Mine Workers of America and not to the interest of politicians.
The miners and working men in the Western Kentucky coal field are better able to know the true conditions in the State of kentucky than any outsider, and many do not appreciate the fact of outsiders coming into the State in an effort to sway votes and to elect a man who during eight years of service in the Legislature has made a miserable failure.
After all, the result Tuesday will determine whether the voters of Kentucky will be swayed by partisan bigotry, or will use their own good, solid judgment when they go to the polls.
Source: “Operators furnish free transportation to miners rally.” The Messenger [Central City, KY], 31 Oct 1935, p. 1.
Updated April 23, 2020