Public Works Can End Poverty In Kentucky, Journalists Predict

Two journalists who have studied the tense situation in the coal fields of eastern Kentucky agreed last night that the only solution to the problems of that area is a vast program of public works.

Gene S. Graham, a Niemann Fellow who writes for the Nashville Tennesseean and has recently published a Harper's article on the coal-field situation, told a Liberal Union audience that only the building of dams, highways, and power stations will bring in the needed industry to this area.

He attributed much of the present problem there to the pricing policies of the T.V.A., which forces companies to automate in order to supply the Authority with cheap coal.

Graham explained that T.V.A. holds a virtual monopoly by being the only major purchaser of coal in the area. He contended that when the T.V.A. cuts the price it will pay, "owners cut back on costs and the coal miners are caught in the middle."

Joseph M. Russin '64, who recently returned from eastern Kentucky where he researched an article for the CRIMSON, told the group that "there needs to be action beyond the coal fields--there just isn't enough work in the mines for all the miners." He said, however, that the miners themselves do not understand the need for this approach, and that instead they feel a strong union is the real answer to their problems.