A Little Journey Into Harlan County: William J. Hutchins and the Harlan County Troubles, 1932

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 ofthe 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 ofwhich have representatives in Berea." His views on the Harlan County strike took shape from "a little journey" he made in February 1932. Hutchins, a Presbyterian minister and former professor ofhomiletics at Oberlin, had been president of Berea College since 1920. Traveling with alumni secretary Charles Morgan, Hutchins visited Harlan County on February 18-19, 1932. He had traveled in India, China, and parts of Europe prior to beginning his work at Berea, and he had only recently returned in 1931 from observing the development of colleges and seminaries in India. Hutchins was a careful and experienced observer, and his perspectives on the Harlan strike were informed by his earlier travels in India: "It has been said," he wrote, "that there is no such thing as the truth about India. It is equally true to say that there is no such thing as truth about the mountains. What is true of one group or Shannon H. Wilson is the college archivist at Berea and co-editor with Kenneth Noe ofthe recent book The Civil War In Appalachia. section is untrue ofanother situation." One means ofgetting at the truth of the Harlan County "troubles" is contained in Hutchins's impressions as he wrote them during his journey into the coal fields in 1932. Exerpts From Hutchins's Impressions of Harlan County, February 18th and 19th, 1932 William J. Hutchins The Communists and the NMU Charles Morgan and I went through Barbourville where a nineteen year old organizer for the National Miners Union had been killed previously that week. The Herald Tribune of Thursday, February 18th contains a half column story of the funeral of this man, Harry Simms, who is regarded by the youthful communists of the county as a martyr. There are several stories of his death. One story is to the effect that he went up on the private properties of one of the camps, that one of the mine camp guards called to him to stop, called three times. The man went right on and the guard killed him. Another statement is to the effect that young Simms was pointing his gun at a second mine guard and the first mine guard killed him. This second story I do not believe and question somewhat the first story. Mrs. Stacy, one of our former students, wife of another former student, Dr. Charles Stacy of Pineville, was quite eager and definite in her approval of this young fellow's death and also spoke with approval ofthe fact that one ofthe most prominent citizens ofPineville forcibly escorted Waldo Frank and a number of other New York writers to the border of Tennessee. She went on to say that one or more aggressive citizens did unfortunately club Mr. Frank upon the head; but there was apparently no real objection on her part to this invasion of the law ofthe country. I saw in the Knoxville paper ofFebruary 18th the story ofDoris Parkes, a woman who had been put in jail at Pineville, and who in open...