John P. White to the Council of National Defense

Our nation is at war and so long as such a condition continues it is the duty of each and all to give the government their full measure of support. This is our country within whose borders are built our homes and wherein dwell our families and loved ones. Our nation therefore in its broadest sense is our home and inseparably associated with it are our hopes, our lives, our happiness and our destinies.

The protection of the land in which we live, the preservation of our free institutions, the promotion of democratic ideals, and free governments among men are matters of everlasting moment. We must protect, during our own time, the nation we claim as our own and bequeath to posterity unimpaired, a government responsive to the needs of a free people and resting securely upon the principles of democracy and righteousness.

The present is no time to theorize or speculate. We are confronted by the stern realities of war. It is the immediate duty of all citizens to give the nation the best service of which they are capable.

The United Mine Workers of America fully realizing its obligation to the government of the United States has pursued from the beginning of the present state of affairs, a policy of cooperation. This is our declared policy and purpose. We wish to be helpful in the fullest sense and in every way we can.

More than a million men are employed in and around the coal mines of the United States. They are engaged in mining and producing coal, a commodity essential to national success and national superiority. Without the energy which coal supplies, our armies would be helpless and the nation would become paralyzed.

The United Mine Workers of America claims the right to speak for the men employed in the coal mines of America. There is no other agency through which they can express themselves, nor is there any other instrument through which they can collectively transmit to the Federal Government assurances of co-operation and patriotic service.

The policy of the International Executive Board of the United Mine Workers of America, is to promote harmony and good will among coal operators and coal miners, to exert its influence in maintaining uninterrupted operation of mines and a maximum production of coal. Service is emphasized and co-operation is urged.

The present war has created such an urgent need for coal that the national government realizes the necessity of developing mining operations to their maximum capacity. This can only be accomplished by the promotion of the greatest individual efficiency among those engaged in coal production.

We hold that this can be accomplished in a most satisfactory manner if the workers are assured they will not be exploited by those who wish to reap excessive war profits and that they will be accorded justice, the enjoyment of liberty and the excercise of their normal activities along legitimate lines.

As a result of years of struggle the mine workers of America have raised their standards of life and living. They have, through their own efforts, improved their conditions of employment, increased wages and dignified their calling. They are determined that these standards of life and labor for which they have sacrificed and struggled in years gone by shall be maintained. In giving to the government and humanity their whole-hearted service and best endeavor they ask in return justice, humane consideration and the enjoyment of all those tolerable conditions of employment which make for efficiency and capable service.

In order to safeguard these standards of life and labor, and to present clearly at all times the workers' point of view, the International Executive Board, United Mine Workers of America, feels fully warranted in demanding representation upon commissions appointed by authority of the Federal Government which deal with coal production and coal mine operations. It is only through their own representatives on such commissions that the needs and opinions of those who mine the coal can be correctly expressed. We regard such right as fundamental and conceive it to be as putting into effect the principles and spirit of genuine democracy.

We protest against restrictions which prevent our great organization from excercising its normal functions. Representing this great producing factor (the men who mine the coal) and whose services are as essential to national success as that of the armies in the field, we are expected to speak for them. In the Councils of the nation where policies are formed and where orders emanate which vitally affect their producing power, their well being and happiness, their voice and opinion should be heard.

We are inspired to make this declaration:

First, because we deem it necessary that the attitude of the United Mine Workers' Organization at this critical war period may be correctly understood.

Second, because it is made absolutely necessary by the creation of a committee on coal production by the Council of National Defense upon which not a single representative of the mine workers has been appointed.

Mr. Francis S. Peabody has been selected chairman of this Committee, and he in turn has appointed the following named persons and assigned to them jurisdiction over the coal producing territory of the nation as follows:
Geo. W. Reed, Secretary,
EJ Berwind, New York, representing Central Penn., Maryland and Low Volatile field of West Virginia.
WW Keefer, Pittsburgh, Pa., representing Western Penn., Ohio and Mich.
Van H. Manning, Washington, DC, Director US Bureau of Mines.

CM Moderwell, Chicago, Ill., representing Illinois, Indiana and Western Kentucky.

EL Pierce, Syracuse, NY, representing coke industry.

Erskine ramsey, Birmingham, Ala., representing Ala., Tenn., Georgia and North Carolina.

Geo. Otis Smith, Washington, DC., Director, US Geological Survey.

Jas. J. Storrow, Boston, Mass., representing New England.

HN Taylor, Kansas City, Mo., representing Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

SD Warriner, Philadelphia, Pa., representing Anthracite Coal Industry.

JF Wellborn, Denver, Colo., representing Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, N. Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Daniel B. Wentz, Philadelphia, representing Eastern Kentucky, Virginia and High Volatile field of West Virginia.

Third, a lengthy statement has recently been issued by this Committee in which suggestions are made and plans outlined which if enforced would stifle the legitimate purposes of the Trade Union movement as represented by the United Mine Workers of America. It would lead to sullen resentment in the mining communities of our country, and inevitable disruption of the industrial peace which is so greatly to be desired during this crisis, in the mining industry.

We feel that we cannot surrender our inalienable right to carry on our propaganda by legal methods, nor can we subscribe to any policy that under the plea of necessity would prevent free men from excercising their inherent right to affiliate with the United Mine Workers of America.

As convincing evidence that the Committee on Coal production has in mind such restriction, we are in receipt of a communication from one of its members, setting forth that complaints have been made by operators in Western Kentucky, that their production is being impeded because of a campaign of organization recently entered into by the United Mine Workers of America.

We are told by this member of the Committee that it would be wise to call off efforts of this kind at this time.

We wish to point out for the benefit of all who may be interested that no strike has been called in Western Kentucky and no effort made by us to impede coal production in this territory. On the other hand, men who have peaceably affiliated themselves with our organization have been discharged by the coal companies, and at this writing upward of 500 miners who are anxious to work and produce coal and contribute their individual effort as mine workers to the nation's needs, are suffering enforced idleness because they signified a desire to belong to a labor organization.

We are willing to fight for the government of the United States to establish world democracy, but we must insist as a matter of sincerity that we be allowed to retain some measure of that democracy of which we so proudly boast, in the mining regions of our nation.

We are anxious to cooperate with the Government in the maintenance of industrial peace in the coal industry, and have offered our services to the government, but up to date little consideration has been given to our organization and the hundreds of thousands of men it represents, by those who have been entrusted with this work by the Federal Government.

We hereby renew our offer to cooperate with Government in stimulating coal production and in preserving harmonious relations between employer and employee in the coal fields of the nation, but we hope the justice of our position will be recognized when we reiterate our demand for proportionate representation upon all commissions appointed to direct affairs in the coal industry.

We are unalterably opposed to the policy adopted whereby plans have been outlined and a statement issued by the Committee on Coal Production without the voice of labor having been heard.

We are opposed to the personnel of that committee and we protest the action that created it without giving recognition or consideration to the great army of men who produce the coal.

We cannot subscribe to such policy nor cooperate in the plans that such a committee has outlined for the government of affairs in the mining industry of our country.