A crusading fortnightly journal last month exposed the derelictions of John Ashcraft, director of the West Virginia department of mines. Ashcraft, the magazine alleged, gentled mammoth coal companies with only token fines for safety violations, while at the same tune violating the law himself by failing to meet the required minimum qualifications for a mine safety inspector. As a result, a committee of the West Virginia state senate will decide this week whether to recommend Ashcraft's impeachment. The aggressive publication that dug out these facts is hardly a national name, though among the miners of Appalachia and labor experts across the...
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