Federal Coal Commission

{{Infobox government agency | name = Federal Coal Commission | native_name = | native_name_a = | native_name_r = | type = | seal = | seal_width = | seal_caption = | logo = | logo_width = | logo_caption = | image = | image_size = | image_caption = | formed = September 1922 | preceding1 = | preceding2 =  | dissolved = | superseding1 = | superseding2 =  | jurisdiction = Federal government of the United States | headquarters = Washington, DC | coordinates =  | motto = | employees = | budget = | minister1_name = | minister1_pfo = | minister2_name = | minister2_pfo =  | deputyminister1_name = | deputyminister1_pfo = | deputyminister2_name = | deputyminister2_pfo =  | chief1_name = Thomas R. Marshall | chief1_position = | chief2_name = | chief2_position =  | public_protector = | deputy = | parent_department = | parent_agency = | child1_agency = | child2_agency =  | keydocument1 =  | website =  | map = | map_size = | map_caption = | footnotes = | embed = }} The '''Federal Coal Commission''' was an agency of the Federal government of the United States of America, enacted by the U.S. Congress in September 1922. It was headed by former U.S. Vice President Thomas R. Marshall.<ref> {{cite web | title = Thomas R. Marshall | publisher = NNDB | url = http://www.nndb.com/people/264/000093982/ | place = | date = | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref>

==History==

===Background===

On April 1, 1922, the United Mine Workers (UMW) began a nationwide coal strike. By mid-May 1922, the United States faced a "serious coal shortage." Only mines without unions remained open; prices rose, as did hoarding.<ref name="Clements" />

On June 8, 1922, Warren G. Harding announced that voluntary pricing was relieving the situation. UMW president John L. Lewis complained for miners about cheating by non-union operators; operators and industry (e.g., the National Coal Association, National Retail Coal Merchants Association) complained about prices. On June 21–22 the Herrin massacre occurred in Herrin, Illinois: three union miners were shot and killed on June 21 and twenty strikebreakers and mine guards were killed next day. On July 1, Harding called for labor negotiations to start, led by U.S. Secretary of Labor James J. Davis and U.S. Secretary of Commerce (and future U.S. president) Herbert Hoover. On July 18, the U.S. Geological Survey issued a report stating that non-union mining operations could not maintain sufficient supply of coal nationally. Hoover then formulated a plan to create regional committees, supported by railroad and ICC executives to keep coal supplied to critical users: his plan became the Coal Distribution Committee, with representatives from the departments of Commerce, Interior, and Justice, plus the ICC, and headed by Henry C. Spencer. By August, with no resolution, miners and operators were ready to talk.<ref name="Clements"> {{cite book | first = K. | last = Clements | title = The Life of Herbert Hoover: Imperfect Visionary, 1918–1928 | publisher = Springer| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NZHGAAAAQBAJ | pages = 213–216 (strike), 250–251, 344 | date = 2010 | isbn = 9780230107908 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref>

In August nearly a fifth of soft coal miners and operators met in Cleveland, Ohio. They agreed to extend their pre-strike contract on soft coal to April 1, 1923. They pressured the anthracite coal industry to extend their contract to August 31, 1923. They also endorsed a presidential commission. On August 22, 1922 President Harding announced his intention to form a Federal coal commission, as well as his opposition to allow miners and mine operators become commission members.<ref name="Clements" /><ref> {{cite news | title = Protect Public: Harding's Policy for Coal Board Favors Nonpartisan | newspaper = Chicago Tribune | url = http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1922/08/23/page/5/article/protect-public-hardings-policy-for-coal-board#text | date = 22 August 1923 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref>

===Formation===

*On August 19, Harding asked Congress for a bill to create a coal commission.<ref name=London> {{cite book | first = Gordon J. | last = Goldberg | title = Meyer London: A Biography of the Socialist New York Congressman, 1871–1926 | publisher = McFarland | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=NZHGAAAAQBAJ | pages = 250, 251, 252 (passage), 253 (report, deterioration) | date = 2013 | isbn = 9780230107908 | accessdate = 19 July 2017}}</ref>

*In September 1922, the U.S. Congress passed a bill that created the Federal Coal Commission, as well as a Federal Coal Distributor. A House bill did not provide for members from among miners (labor), as congressional representatives such as Meyer London noted. A Senate bill excluded all people with coal interests, which cleared both houses.<ref name=London /> *In October 1922, President Harding appointed the commission's members, as well as F. R. Wadleigh as Distributor. At the same time, he disbanded a similar, private committee he had formed previously, funded by the Cabot Foundation.<ref name=Clements />

===Activities===

The commission commenced an industry report in late 1922.<ref> {{cite journal | title = Federal Coal Commission Assembles Data Already at Hand: New Wage Statistics Wanted Later | publisher = Coal Review | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aP1EAQAAMAAJ | pages = 2 | date = 1 November 1922 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref><ref> {{cite journal | title = How the Coal Trade Is Organized in Germany | publisher = Coal Age | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UcsfAQAAMAAJ | pages = 988 | date = 21 December 1922 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref> The commission engaged Dr. Jerome Davis, then a Dartmouth College professor, to investigate labor situation in West Virginia coal mines; man of their findings appeared in their report.<ref name="FDRlibrary"> {{cite web | title = Davis, Jerome | publisher = FDR Library at Marist University | url = https://fdrlibrary.org/documents/356632/390886/findingaid_davis_jerome.pdf/d0d4b6dd-6e43-4263-8167-789da6b972dc | date = | accessdate = 16 July 2017}}</ref>

On February 2, 1923, Chicago-based Federal Judge Samuel Alschuler quit the commission.<ref> {{cite news | title = Huge. Distillery with Tuinel Feature Discovered on Police Raid--Explorer Cook Arrested | newspaper = Chicago Tribune | url = http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1923/02/02/page/38/article/huge-distillery-with-tunnel-feature-discovered-on-police-raid-explorer-cook-arrested#text | date = 2 February 1923 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref>

On July 5, 1923, the Commission completed its report on anthracite coal.<ref> {{cite web | title = Labor Sunday message, 1923, of the Commission on the Church and Social Service and a review of the year, 1922-1923 | publisher = Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VwdTAAAAYAAJ | pages = 23 | date = 1923 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref><ref> {{cite web | title = Plan Action in Event of Coal Strike: Coal Commission Has Completed Report of Industry | publisher = Madera Tribune | url = https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19230709.2.21 | place = | date = August 1923 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = Federal Coal Commission's Report on Anthracite | publisher = Mining and Metallurgy | url = http://library.aimehq.org/library/books/Mining%20and%20Metallurgy%20%E2%80%93%201923/Mining%20and%20Metallurgy%20%E2%80%93%201923%20-%20062.pdf | place = | date = August 1923 | accessdate = 18 July 2017 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The "verbose and inconclusive" report did not avert an anthracite coal strike by September 8, 1923. On September 17, 1923, Gifford Pinchot, governor of Pennsylvania, brokered a settlement, which embarrassed Secretary Hoover (as they were political rivals).<ref name=Clements /><ref name=London /><ref> {{cite journal | first = Harold K. | last = Kanarek | title = The Pennsylvania Anthracite Strike of 1922 | journal = The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography | jstor = 20090945 | pages = 207–225 | date = April 1975 | volume = 99 | issue = 2 }}</ref>

(Harding died in office on August 2, 1923; Calvin Coolidge succeeded.<ref name=Dublin> {{cite book | first = Thomas | last = Dublin | title = The Face of Decline: The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century | publisher = Cornell University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pp49DQAAQBAJ | pages = 55 | date = 2016 | isbn = 9781501707292 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref>)

Despite the intervention of the Federal Coal Commission, "in the ensuring years, the position of the coal miner continued to deteriorate, as did the industry."<ref name=London />

==Works==

* "What Lies Before the New Federal Coal Commission" (1922).<ref> {{cite web | title = John Brophy: An inventory of the Papers of John Brophy at The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives | publisher = Catholic University of America | url = http://archives.lib.cua.edu/findingaid/brophy.cfm | place = | date = 2005 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref>

== People==

=== Commission heads ===  {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * Thomas R. Marshall (1922–1923) {{div col end}}

===Members===

* Edward Thomas Devine<ref name=Iowa> {{cite book | first = Jan | last = Onofrio | title = Iowa Biographical Dictionary | publisher = Somerset Publishers | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RdjsvD_4crIC | pages = 222–XXX | date= 2000 | isbn = 9780403093045 | accessdate= 21 October 2018}}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|United States|Politics}} * U.S. Anthracite Coal Strike Commission of 1902<ref name=Dublin /><ref>{{cite web | first = Jonathan | last = Grossman | title = The Coal Strike of 1902 – Turning Point in U.S. Policy | publisher = US Department of Labor | url = https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/coalstrike.htm | date = | accessdate = 18 July 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160620195828/https://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/coalstrike.htm | archive-date = 20 June 2016 | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref name=UAW> {{cite web | title = The Anthracite Strike of 1922 | publisher = The Anthracite Bureau of Information | url = https://archive.org/details/anthracitestri00anth | place = Philadelphia | date = | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref> * U.S. Anthracite Coal Commission of 1920, AKA U.S. Coal Commission of 1920<ref name=UAW /><ref> {{cite web | title = Report, findings, and award of the United States Anthracite coal commission | publisher = US GPO | url = https://www.loc.gov/item/20026709/ | date = 1920 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref><ref> {{cite web | title = Report, Findings, and Award of the United States Anthracite Coal Commission | publisher = US GPO | url = https://www.loc.gov/item/20026709/ | date = 1920 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref><ref> {{cite web | title = United States. Anthracite Coal Commission | publisher = University of Pennsylvania | url = http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=United%20States.%20Anthracite%20Coal%20Commission | date = | accessdate = 18 July 2017}}</ref> * Thomas R. Marshall * John L. Lewis * 1922 UMW General coal strike ** Herrin massacre * United Mine Workers

==References==

==External sources==

* {{cite book | first = Walter T. | last = Howard | title = Forgotten Radicals: Communists in the Pennsylvania Anthracite, 1919-1950 | publisher = University Press of America | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MLJvCBIqPi4C | pages = 20 | date = 2005 | isbn = 9780761830900 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}} * {{cite journal | title = Create Federal Coal Commission | publisher = Brick and Clay Record | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=P48_AQAAMAAJ | pages = 468–469 | date = 1922 | accessdate = 18 July 2017}} * {{cite journal | title = Labor Costs | publisher = Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers' Journal | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hz4oAAAAYAAJ | pages = 36 | date = 1922

| accessdate = 18 July 2017}}

Category:Government agencies established in 1922 Category:1922 establishments in the United States