Federal Mine Health and Safety Inspection Amendments of 1949, Hearings Before..., 81-1, June 16, 17, and July 8, 1949

This morning we begin hearings on H. R. 3023, a bill to amend Public Law 49 of the Seventy-seventh Congress, providing for the welfare of coal miners, and for other purposes.

(The bill referred to is as follows:)

[H. R. 3023, 81st Cong., 1st sess.]

A BILL Amending Public Law 49, Seventy-seventh Congress, providing for the welfare of coal miners, and for other purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Public Law 49, Seventy-seventh Con-` gress, chapter 87, first session, be amended as follows:

After subsection (e) of section 1, add the following:

"(f) Whenever a Federal coal-mine inspector, as provided in this Act, finds that imminent danger to employees in the mine exists, he shall immediately order the operating manager or his representative in the mine to cause all employees to be withdrawn from the unsafe area until such imminent danger is removed: Provided, however, That this subsection shall not apply to those employees that may be necessary to remove such imminent danger. Any operating manager or his representative who refuses to obey such order shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $500 or by imprisonment not exceeding sixty days, or both: Provided, however, That nothing in this subsection shall be construed or operate to nullify any existing contract between mine employees and mine management, or to nullify any existing State statutes, but this subsection is intended to supplement the aforesaid statutes in the interest of increased mine safety."

Mr. KELLEY. Will the Honorable Melvin Price please come forward to testify?

TESTIMONY OF HON. MELVIN PRICE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

Mr. PRICE. Mr. Chairman, I have a prepared statement I would like to read to the committee.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I appear before you this morning, not as an expert on mine safety-I have never worked a day in a mine in my life, nor have I ever been associated in any way with any organizations, State, Federal, or private, that have related activities in this field. I know that the able chairman of this subcommittee, Mr. Kelley, has a career of 45 years from a laborer in the

mines to that of operator and owner on which to qualify as an expert. Other members of the committee have far more experience on this subject than I, because of their assignments on committees, and so forth. Some of them are from coal-mining States and a little closer to the mines than I. That is why I am happy this measure is before this group this morning; for all of you know, as I, even without a background as an expert in the field, the urgent need for the legislation proposed in H. R. 3023.

The Nation was shocked by the disaster of March 25, 1947, when 111 men lost their lives in Centralia coal mine No. 5, at Wamac, Ill. In this mine, the actual location of the explosion was at that time in my district. Under redistricting, it is not now in my district. The opening of the mine was, of course, not in my district. That disaster was close enough to home that I have never forgotten it and I hope my colleagues in Congress will never forget it. Too often men in public life are stirred to a point of action immediately in the wake of a national disaster, only to have their enthusiasm wane as the headlines which aroused them fade into small captions on the inside pages of the newspapers.

It is too bad our legislative processes are so slow on such occasions for I am certain that while the memory of Centralia was still alive legislation such as I propose in H. R. 3023 would have been enacted into law by very close to a unanimous vote.

But it has been 2 years since the disaster at Centralia mine No. 5, so our task in placing this urgent legislation upon the statute books may be a bit more difficult. Yet I remain confident that it will be enacted into law.

I will leave to the experts who will follow me the task of discussing the technical features that would be involved because of the passage of this legislation. I prefer to discuss briefly my reasons for supporting and offering for consideration of this committee and Congress H. R. 3023, a measure designed to put teeth into the Federal mine inspection law.

At this point I would like to state that 32 of my colleagues in the House, who represent the principal coal-producing States in the Nation, have by letter assured me of their support of House Joint Resolution 165, which is identical to H. R. 3023, and I ask that their names be inserted in the record of this hearing.

Mr. KELLEY. Without objection.

(The list of names referred to is as follows:)

SPONSORS OF HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 165

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