possible to schedule all persons to be heard personally. I will cooperate by not having a prepared statement and by not requesting time to speak. Instead, I will include some personal and official observations in this communication, copies of which will be made available to your department's Robert O. Swenarton at the conference press table prior to the opening session.

I stated recently, on the sad occasion of the mine disaster near Mannington, West Virginia, that I believe the Nation's coal mine safety laws and programs need to be reevaluated. And I agree with you that it is essential now to reexamine the full range of Federal and state programs for protection of miners and to reevaluate the effectiveness of discharge of responsibilities by government, management, and labor.

And there is, as expressed in your call for the conference, a necessity for looking into ways in which there can be better discharge of responsibilities under existing law, as well as consideration of the additional legislation that is needed in the interest of reducing the hazards to which coal miners are exposed.

Coal mine safety is a subject of vital concern to Senators and Representatives from West Virginia, as it is to those from other coal producing states. During my 14 years of service in the House of Representatives, in the 1930s and 1940s, I remember the difficulties experienced in formulating, through legislation, Federal policy and programs for safety in coal and other mines. The measure we passed and which became law on May 7, 1941 established the first Federal coal mine inspection program. I was one of the managers of that legislation.

Under that initial Federal law, from 1941 until the comprehensive Federal Coal Mine Safety Act of 1952 was passed by Congress and signed by President Truman, the Federal role was mostly advisory. Passage of the 1952 Act marked the establishment of a Federal policy which brought the Federal government actively into the effort to prevent major disasters in mines. But is was a policy and a program that did not apply to the small coal mines-those employing less than 15 miners. It was not until March 26, 1966 that these small mines were brought within the scope and jurisdiction of Title II of the Federal Coal Mine Safety Act. We passed such a bill in the Senate during the 88th Congress, only to have it die in the House with the expiration of that Congress in 1964. I worked vigorously for its revival and passage by the 89th Congress in 1966.

So, in the 27 years since Congress decreed a partial role for the Federal government in coal mine safety under the 1941 Act, we have had the 1952 major Federal participation role enactment providing a safety program for the larger mines, and the 1966 amendment which covers the smaller mines. Coal mining mechanization and modernization have moved mining practices so far since 1952 that it is inded time for a revaluation of safety in the light of current mining methods.

Coal continues to be a vital requirement in the making of steel, and still is needed in very great quantities to help produce the ever-expanding requirements for electric energy. We are on the threshold of even broader production requirements as the feasibility of coal gasification and coal's conversion to liquid fuels become more real in fruition of years of research with which I am gratified to have had an early association as the House sponsor during the early 1940s. So, coal as a basic fuel and as an ingredient of sophisticated new fuels and related products, and coal as an industry, have the prospects of a greater future.

Consequently, with coal production surely to grow-rather than diminish, as has been erroneously predicted in some recent newspapers and periodicalsthere is a greater obligation on the industry, on the union of miners, and on government to make sure that safety in the mines is enhanced.

Then, too, there is no escaping the fact that even without the fatalities and the handicaps of recent major coal mine disasters, the labor force available to the production-expanding coal industry has reached a critically short-supply condition. I have been working with the industry and the miners' union and officials in the executive development and training program in the interest of expanding the trained labor force to be available to the coal mining industry. If such tragic events as the recent disaster near Mannington, West Virginia, are not to cast doubts on coal mine safety and the legal and administrative capacity to stimulate and enforce the best and the necessary in safety practices, there must be prompt and unified action-cooperative action-by the coal industry, the coal miners' union, and governments.

Additional proposed safety legislation was developed in your department. Mr. Secretary, but too late to receive attention by the 90th Congress before its ad

journment. It embraced a degree of the cooperative effort and some consensus on the part of industry, union, and government administrators-but, obviously, did not have the complete stamp of acceptability of all. There probably is not any measure that can be fashioned to achieve total acceptability. Even so, I give assurance that I will sponsor legislation in the 91st Congress dedicated to improvement of coal mine safety and Federal enforcement. Any measure I may introduce will be one which I would endorse in principle, but probably not in all of its provisions and details. Such a bill, in company with those which I presume will be introduced by other Senators and Representatives, will form the basis for what I hope will be thorough hearings. As a senior majority member of the Senate Labor Committee, I will insist on, work for, and participate diligently in thorough hearings on coal mining practices and safety procedures and on the legislation that may be needed to strengthen them.

I believe the Congress and the incoming national administration, as well as the legislatures and the executive establishments of the coal producing states, will give to coal mine safety legislation in the coming year the high priority consideration which has been accentuated by the recent disaster.

Truly,

JENNINGS RANDOLPH, U.S. Senator.

Senator RANDOLPH. Mr. Boyle, I am sure you and Mr. Evans and others of your organization will desire to be cooperative with the subcommittee under the chairmanship of Senator Williams if called again as witnesses, if it is necessary, for clarification and counseling with us in composing viewpoints in reference to the pending legislation. Mr. BOYLE. Senator, with all due respect and apologies to you, I am not trying to be facetious in any respect, but that is an understatement.

The United Mine Workers will more than willingly cooperate with you and your committee and the subcommittee of Senator Williams in any respect, at any time, to bring about greater safety for the coal miners of this country.

It is long over due. It is a sad commentary that this country is so dependent upon coal in order to keep the economy running, and fails to fully protect the lives of coal miners. We have been crying in the wilderness, begging and pleading for such protection. The last time I appeared in the House of Representatives before a committee, one Congressman from a State where they don't produce a pound of coal, said to me, along with other things, "Mr. Boyle, don't be so dramatic about these people who work in coal mines."

I said, "While you and I are talking, Congressman, let me say this to you, men are dying in coil mines right now. When I come back to testify tomorrow, I will prove to you that men are dying."

Sure enough I was not happy about it-but on that particular date, three men had died in a coal mine while he and I were arguing the point about dramatics.

Dramatic or otherwise, the coal miners of this country expect this president to take a firm and vigorous position in protecting their wellbeing.

Then what do we find? We find in the great State of West Virginia, where you hail from, men who have been suffering for 20 and 30 years with black lung, who are not now employed in the coal mines, who have been agitated by others, by outsiders, so to speak, to lead a fight against this union, and lead a fight against anyone for their own political expediency.

And we will correct that. Don't think we won't. We are not forgetting it overnight. And they won't say, like they did yesterday, that

the baloney, and I am talking about one of your Congressmen who has never been in a coal mine, who said that, "The baloney can go for Tony Boyle, up there."

Sure, he had a crowd of listeners. Do you know who they were? People who had contracted black lung disease before I was born.

And I am responsible for it? I am responsible for it because they got black lung?

Where was he when I was trying to get it corrected a few years ago, down in the Truman administration, getting me fined or getting my union fined $4 million?

I will tell him when I meet up with him. Don't think I won't. Senator WILLIAMS. I gather you have answered Senator Prouty's first question, and I think we can leave that.

Mr. BOYLE. I will meet these other overnight experts, too, who never saw a coal mine, and know everything.

I want to say this. He wanted to know who these experts are. These experts who are running around, who are not dry behind the ears yet, who know all the answers to automobiles, they know all the answers to the Food and Drug Administration bills.

The other day I listened to him on the TV. I took time out to listen to him. Now he accuses the medical profession and the surgeons of this country of electrocuting their patients. He wants something done

about it.

I will tell him, too, when I see him, physically, mentally, in the alley, or anywhere he wants to see me.

Senator WILLIAMS. I will say in all fairness, not as a committee, but as the chairman, I concluded the last described individual is Mr. Nader. Am I right?

Mr. BOYLE. Absolutely. I guess that is his name. I don't know him. I have never met him. He has never been in a coal mine. He has never come to see me. He has not asked me anything about coal mines. He is not an expert.

Senator WILLIAMS. I, too, concluded he was not knowledgable about mines. But now you have put us in a position where, in equity, we should bring him on and compare decibels.

Mr. BOYLE. Bring him on. Give me the opportunity to tell him. Senator WILLIAMS. Senator Randolph.

Senator RANDOLPH. Mr. Chairman, I want to add this further word. This subcommittee is very much in earnest in writing good legislation, strong legislation, effective legislation. We are going to need the help of you, Mr. Boyle, and others.

I am sure we will have it.

Mr. BOYLE. You will. Senator, if you will just bear with me for 1 minute, I want to tell you something.

According to a newspaper article that I read, and I have the article. Congressman Hechler read a letter to the black lung people, that contracted black lung before I was born, not knowing that my father died, my uncle also died, my grandfathers died from black lung, and I have a special interest in black lung; he reads a letter from Mr. Nader that says that the coal miners of this country should replace this President Boyle.

Let me tell him I have news for him. Out in our Denver convention in September, last September, over 2,000 delegates in attendance

elected by the rank and file membership to represent them at that convention, and it is more democratic than the Congress of the United States, because every resolution comes to the floor of that convention, they are never killed in committee, they are discussed on the floor of the convention, and that is why I say it is more democratic than the Congress of the United States, we discussed every resolution and every man has a right to protect his resolution.

And there was a bushel basket full of resolutions out there wanting this president to violate the constitution of his union by having the delegates at that convention elect him for life.

Maybe Mr. Hechler would like to read that to the black lung people down there. If he wants a copy of the proceedings of our convention, we will give it to him.

I rose and said to that delegation:

I don't want this delegation to elect me here for life. I want to face the rank and file in every State and every county and every hamlet in this country from Alaska to Alabama and from New Mexico to the State of Pennsylvaania. I will meet them, and I will face them.

Then, Mr. Nader thinks I ought to be replaced.

In addition to that, I did something else, for your edification, Mr. Chairman.

This same group of over 2,000 delegates were insistent that this president's salary be doubled over what was paid to my great predecessor and myself. I again rose and objected, and told them I would not accept it.

Senator WILLIAMS. We would do the same, if that should arise in our situation.

Mr. BOYLE. I know you would. President Nixon did the other day, too.

Senator WILLIAMS. Thank you very much, Mr. Boyle.

Mr. Stephen Dunn, president of the National Coal Association.
I know you have been here with us all morning, Mr. Dunn.
We welcome you before our subcommittee.

STATEMENT OF STEPHEN F. DUNN, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL COAL
ASSOCIATION, ACCOMPANIED BY REX CHANEY, VICE PRESI-
DENT, PUBLIC RELATIONS

Mr. DUNN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen. My name is Stephen F. Dunn. I am president of the National Coal Association. Our headquarters are in the Coal Building at 1130 17th Street NW., in Washington. The National Coal Association was founded in 1917 and represents the major commercial bituminous coal producers and coal sales companies in the United States.

I want to thank you for inviting me.

I have shortened my statement, but I do ask that the complete version be part of the record.

Senator WILLIAMS. Certainly it will be included.

Mr. DUNN. Thank you, sir. At the outset, Mr. Chairman, I want to state as emphatically as I can that the coal industry regards the safety and health of coal miners as paramount.

As John Corcoran, president of Consolidation Coal Co. and chairman of the board of National Coal Association, said at the hearing

called by former Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall last December: "There can be no question that the health and safety of employees in the coal mining industry must be given first priority."

And, at the time the pending legislation was introduced, I said that when hearings are held, it will be made clear that mine operators are sincerely concerned about the safety and health of coal miners.

There may be differences of opinion over specific provisions, but we believe such differences can be resolved. Our common objective is to make coal mining safer.

The coal industry strongly favors strengthening the present Coal Mine Safety Act wherever the changes will make mining safer and protect the health of coal miners.

While in pursuit of this common goal, differences of opinion may develop over some proposed changes in the law. We will have alternatives to offer to some sections of the bills that have been introduced.

In all cases, however, we submit alternatives in an effort to be helpful, to give you the benefit of the guidance of those who are experienced in coal mining, and who must deal with the practical problems.

In behalf of National Coal Association, as well as other mining organizations, we are asking for time to present a panel of expert witnesses, when the committee gets into substantive hearings. They will be:

Mr. John Corcoran, chairman of National Coal Association and president of Consolidation Coal Co.

Mr. Woods C. Talman, chief inspector, coal, U.S. Steel Corporation. who will appear for the American Mining Congress.

Mr. James R. Garvey, president of Bituminous Coal Research, Inc.. which is the research affiliate of National Coal Association.

Mr. Guy Farmer, a Washington, D.C., lawyer, who formerly was chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. He understands the coal industry and is an expert in administrative law.

At the same time, we hope that you will view the 10-minute version of our coal movie, which contains footage on both health and safety. When you reconvene, I think it would be very helpful if you could see what is done for safety in this field.

Senator WILLIAMS. We will look forward to that presentation.
Mr. DUNN. Thank you very much.

We also would like to invite you and your staff to visit the mines, so that you can see for yourselves how much emphasis is placed on health and safety.

We offer you and your committee- and all those interested-our complete cooperation. In this brief statement today, I shall do only what I was asked to do: lay the foundation for the presentation our qualified witnesses will make at the time you determine.

They will cover general observations about the best approach to the most effective legislation, what should be done about safety and health standards (including dust), and what is the best administrative and legal procedure.

Here are some of the points the experts will make (these remarks now are directed primarily to S. 355, known as the Udall bill):

(1) The industry's safety record has improved, but we want it to improve faster. We will endorse much of the pending legislationincluding burdensome and expensive provisions-if they might increase safety.