Page 4-Tuesday, March 14, 1978-The Michigan Daily
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Down in the old coalfields
9
Decaying wooden shacks and
crowded mobile home camps.
Polluted streams and strip-mined
hills. Underfinanced schools,
roads, and health care facilities.
These are the hardships most
American coal miners face in
their communities. For them'
this winter's strike is only one
skirmish in a larger battle to im-
prove the quality of coalfield life.
Although their jobs are the
most dangerous in the country,
miners' wages are no higher than
other unionized industrial
workers. They now average $60
per day, with increases projected
in a new contract. Their income
is seriously eroded by the high
cost of food, fuel, transportation
and housing in the Appalachian
mountains.
Community services are
generally poor because
mushrooming profits from coal
go to stockholders and executives
in such cities as New York,
Boston and Philadelphia, without
being adequately taxed by the
coal states and counties.
When oil and gas prices
skyrocketed after the Arab oil
embargo in 1973, the energy
companies jacked up coal prices
as well, but the miners did not
share in the bonanza.
Take the case of Occidental
Petroleum, owner of the fourth
largest coal producer, Island
Creek Coal Co. According to
studies by economist Tom
Woodruff, an independent energy
consultant in Washington, Island
Creek's pre-tax profits climbed
from 69 cents per ton in 1973 to
$8.96 per ton in 1975, an increase
of more than 1,000 percent. In the
same period, miners' pre-tax
wages increased only 21 percent.
In 1974, virtually all of Occiden-
tal Petroleum's windfall coal
profits were used to expand oil
exploration and production in
Libya and the North Sea, and in
1975, at least 60 percent went to
Oxy stockholders and overseas
oil investment, according to the
company's financial reports.
Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO),
owner of major coal producer Old
Ben Coal Co., provides another
example of the draining away of
wealth from coal communities.
After its coal profits doubled as a
result of the Arab embargo, com-
pany official Dewitt Buchanan
told a U.S. Senate subcommittee
that "Old Ben's recent profits
have added important support to
SOHIO's major financing efforts
to develop (oil production in)
Prudhoe Bay and construct the
ByMatt Witt
Trans-Alaska Pipeline."
One reason these profits leave
the coal states is that taxation of
the politically powerful energy,
companies is inadequate. A 1974
study by the Huntington Herald
Dispatch in West Virginia found
that the state.loses at least $150
million per year because of low
taxation of coal and other proper-
ty. Appraisals for rich coal lands
are sometimes as low as $5 per
'When I'm down in that hole, I'm
thinking about those stockholders
in New York making millions of
dollars off people
like me.
Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 128
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
acre.
In McDowell County, for many
years the country's largest coal
producing county, the appraisal
on a 21,000-acre parcel owned by
Norfolk and Western Railway
had been increased only $4.50 in
the previous 37 years, while the
appraisal on a 7,000-acre tract
owned by Consolidation Coal Co.
hadn't been changed at all in 15
years.
"When I'm down in that hole,
I'm thinking about those
stockholders in New York,
making millions of 'dollars off
people like me," said Charlie
Ross, an underground miner for
Continental Oil in Raleigh, W. Va.
"It's blood money, that's exactly
what it is, and I resent it, I sure
do."
Coalfield schools, which
depend on state and county taxes,
suffer directly from this under-
taxation. Despite the coal boom
of recent years, Kentucky the
nation's largest coal producer -
ranks '34th among the states in
education spending per person.
Delaware, the nation's leader,
spends 50 percent more perper-
son on its schools than Kentucky,
according to figures from the
National Education Association.
Coal company control of land
has not only resulted in an
inadequate tax base, but it has,
also meant there is little land
available for housing. Two-thirds
of West Virginia's privately held
land is owned or controlled by
out-of-state corporations, in-
cluding Continental Oil,' which
owns more than one-half million
acres through its subsidiary,
Consolidation Coal. In the state's
major southern coalfield coun-
ties, 10 corporations own 90 per-
cent of the land.
Most of these absentee landlor-
ds prefer to hold their property
for coal development rather than.
release it for housing. As a result,
a coalfield housing shortage is
worsening as the coal industry,
expands. The workforce doubled
from 1964 to 1974, and a similar
increase would be necessary to
meet President Carter's goal of a
65 percent production increase by
1985. In addition to population
pressures, experts say one-half of
Appalachia's existing homes -
many of them old company-built
houses - will have to be replaced
within the next 15 years.
The housing shortage has been
made worse by repeated flooding
aggravated by erosion from strip
mining. Thousands of people
were left homeless by floods last
April, August, and October 1977
in the Appalachian mountains.
State officials in both West
Virginia and Kentucky have ad-
mitted strip mining was a major
contributing factor.
Another problem area for
miners is health care, which is
especially important because of
the work-related injuries and
diseases they suffer.
Between 1970 and 1976, 225,000
coal miners - four times the
number of U.S. soldiers killed in
the Vietnam War - were judged
by the federal government 'to
have "black lung," an incurable,
fatal disease. Some 335,000 other
miners and widows applied for
black lung cdhipensation. A
recent government study showed
that coal miners also suffer
stomach diseases at rates above
the national average.
Because of increased noise
levels resulting from
mechanization, retired miners
are five times as likely as their
wives to need hearing aids,
although among the general
population men do not need
hearing aids more often than
women.
Each year, the coal companies
report about 15,000 accidents to
the government. An Interior
Department study in 1975 in-
dicated that up to 60 percent of
mine injuries are not reported, so
the real injury figure may be
close to 35,000 per year. That
means that, on the average, a
miner who starts his career at
age 20 will suffer at least eight in-
juries before he retires.
Since 1969, when Congress
passed a law designed to control
coal mine accidents, nearly1,500
miners have been killed on the
job. «
Until last year, more thar
800,000 miners, spouses and
children were provided free
medical care through the com-
pany-financedUMWA Health and
Retirement, Funds. The Funds
paid retainer fees to support
clinics and hospitals in remote
regions of Appalachia where no
other medical care is available.
Those benefits have been cut
off during the coal strike, and the
'companies and union have
agreed that from now on mining
families will have to pay hun-
dreds of dollars per year in
medical costs. The retainer fees
for the clinics and hospitals will
be cut off permanently.
The new deductibles will hit
pensioners' especially hard. Pen-
sions for 80,000 retirees are only
$225-250 per month, and the small
increases under the new
proposed contract would provide
only $1 per month added buying
power'after inflation.
"Every three years, when our
contract expires, the companies
and the politicians start telling us
how important it is to our country
that we stay on the job," says one
high-ranking union official, who
asked not to be identified. "I
guess we don't respond very well
because it sounds like a one-way
street to us. I mean, when have
they ever shown any-concern for
us before?"
s
Matt Witt, former editor of
the United Mine Workers
Journal, now writes on -job
safety issues for the Pacific
News Service.
Sad story in the Mideast
LIKE A WELL-PRODUCED play,
events in the Middle East have un-
folded over the last three months to
reveal brilliant acting, a complex plot,
and a number of surprises. The latest
scene, however, may threaten to bring
the curtain down on the whole show.
That the Palestinian terrorists have
chosen this moment in time to plunder
into Israel and massacre some 36 in-
nocent civilians is no coincidence. The
terrorists are hoping that their ac-
tivities will cause the complete failure
of already shaky Arab-Israeli
negotiations toward peace.
If past occurances can serve as any
indication, Israel will now retaliate for
the latest massacre by sending its
planes and troops into southern
Lebanon to raid what it considers
terrorist strongholds. Occupants of
Lebanon's southernmost villages were
so sure of retaliation yesterday they
began fleeing northward, and in several
public statements since Saturday's
terrorist attacks, Israeli Prime
Minister Menachem Begin has hinted
strongly at military reprisals.
It is tragic to note that all of the most-
recent events may take the Middle East
situation right back where it was early
last fall, disregarding any advan-
cements toward a lasting peace made
since Egyptian President Anwar
Sadat's historic' trip to Israel last
November.
Considering the added complicatipns'
of broken down peace talks, stubborn
stands, and U.S. arms sales, it is very
hard to be optimistic about chances for
an eventual peace in the Middle East.
Leaders of these countries must
somehow find within themselves some
flexibility, some courage and some sen-
se of the future.
Surely, if Begin were to think in
these terms he might stop the expected
retaliatory measures from taking
place. And the Palestinians might come
to realize that their terrorist activities
are only counterproductive to the
establishment of a separate homeland
for themselves.
If Arab and Israeli officials truly
want peace, and Palestinians truly
want a homeland, they will have to ap-
ply some perspective to their argumen-
ts - and soon.
The world-wide audience to this
theatrical Middle East production has
already guessed how awful the surprise
ending could be.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY
Where has capitalism
To The Daily:
Jonathan Reiskin's article,
"An economics primer for A2,"
(3.2.78), requires comment, par-
ticularly for his remark that
"Capitalism as practiced by the
West has worked very well."
Now, nothing I could say would
change the mind of, somebody
who believes that. But I think
such a person would profit by
asking a coal miner how well
capitalism has worked. Or a
black (or white, for that matter)
person from the inner city of
Detroit. Or any woman worker,
or farmworker, or farmer. Or
anybody who's out of work, or
who pays high rents to absentee
landlords, or who pays
outrageous food bills, or who
simply has a dull, alienating job
with no prospects for anything
better under our system.
Remember Vietnam?
Editorials which appear without a by-line represent a con- h
sensus opinion of the Daily's editorial board. All other editorials,
as well as cartoons, are the opinions of the individuals who sub-
imit them.
~ A . ..r .. . : . .. . . .r. ..r.: ..1: ":' " ::"{Si ~ r. . n . .. ...l r...rx ~ :.. ... .r . ,i.
Capitalism worked very well in-
deed for the million or so Viet-
namese who died in the war, or
the countless others rendered
homeless by American
"pacification programs" or
bombs, or imprisoned by our'
puppet "democratic" regimes.
Let's not forget, either, the hun-
dreds of thousands of young
Americans who wasted years
doing the fighting, only to return
home unemployable. Capitalism
his worked very well for them,
too. Not to mention for the 40,000
Americans who died there.
Mr. Reiskin calls himself a
Keynesian. Keynes' theory
(greatly simplified) was that
government, by increased spen-
ding financed by budget deficits,
could curb unemployment and
the business cycle. Forty years'
application of Keynes' theory by
government has given us high in-
flation, high unemployment, high
taxes and a huge deficit. So much,
for "Keynlesianism."
As a Marxist, I am far from
regarding the Spartacus Youth
League's often strident calls to
action as a model of
revolutionary practice. (Of cour-
se, in criticizing them, Mr.
Reiskin could have pointed out
that in A2 there exist many leftist
groups ranging from the Socialist
Party to the Revolutionary
Communist Youth Brigade, none
of whom adopt the "militant"
posturing of the Spartacists).
Nevertheless, the members of the
SYL see the fundamental
problems of capitalism and the
urgent need for a radical tran-
sformation of our society. And on
this basic issue it is Mr. Reiskin,
not the SYL, who is "really quite
amusing."
- Bruce Richard
being afraid for my job b
of this proposed cut. I wou
to make clear that my reas
meeting with Rep. Pursell
because I am afraid for my
have been in nursing for
years and, although I am-
employee. at the Univers
Michigan School of Nurs
could return to employme
service setting without diffi
My concerns, rather, arer
to the implications for the
bers of our society who pre
do need or in the future wi
nursing services (in a n
home, in hospitals, in the
munity, in clinics and phys
offices).
The proposed level of fu
nursing will very effec
cripple nursing education
country and, in the face
already existing shortage
sing personnel, will haves
consequences in the I
availability of needed n
services. It seems to me t
real losers in this issuea
citizens of this community
the communities in this cou
- Ruth
Assistant Pr
of N
energy argum
To The Daily:
I would like to take exce
R. L. Marsh's (U.S. Labor:
comments in his article
sun is not a solution."
First, low energy densil
nologies do not have "a n
rate of social profit," im
that solar, wind, and biog
vices consume more ene
manufacture and onerati
led use
ecause to $42/lb. in just 5 years!
ild like Third, development should
son for lower the energy payback time of
is not low energy density devices. How-
y job. I ever public funds are miniscule
many compared to high-energy density
a new development funds. Promisin
sity of developments include chea
sing, I amorphic (glassy) solar conc,
nt in a trators that increase the effi
ficulty. ency and versatility of solar'.
related ergy, and, solar and grou.
mem- water as heat sources for hea
esently pumps powered by water, wind
ill need and/or the electric utility.
pursing Fourth, environmentalists
e com- aren't anti-industry. It's just that
icians' industry has such a bad record.
Utilities would rather sell us
nds for energy than sell us the devices to
ctively produce our own energy. For
in this example, to generate electricity,
of an 70 per cent of the source energy is
of nur- wasted heat when converted to
serious electricity. If each dwelling had
oss of its own generator, the waste heat
nursing could be used to heat that
iat the dwelling. What do most utilities
are the do with waste heat? They dump it
and all into a river or a lake.
untry. What is really needed is devel-
Carey opment of all energy sources so
ofessor there isn't an overall energy
qursing shortage. This will help keep the
price of any energy source lower.
The energy problem isn't as
simple as R. L. Marsh would lik
us to believe it to be. Nor have
ien (S touched on all the reasons why w
should or shouldn't prefer on(
ption to source over another source o
Party) energy. However, within a cen
,"The tury or two, the only practical
high energy density source lef
ty tech- will be nuclear, and nuclea
egative abundance depends on th
eplying breeder reactor. Without it, nu
gas de- clear resources are short-lived
rgy in (Carter halted breeder develop
an than ment.) But, low energy densit
t
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