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went from group to group saying, “I don't think you want to do this, gentlemen. I think you're over-discouraged. I don't think you really mean this. I think it's your duty to run these mines.” I remember that I had the most effect on these nice fellows from Illinois by saying, “I think it's your duty. You have this great property. You have developed it. To be sure there have been great mistakes made. You couldn't foresee that the coal was going to run out. You couldn't foresee the new fuels. Those are just accidents, but you have been competent. (They were willing to say they had been incompetent.) You have shown yourself competent. You were just faced with a combination of circumstances that were too great at the moment, but surely you're as good as any other Americans. Who is the government of the United States going to get to run these mines? You're the best people around to run coal mining, You know more about coal mining than Harold Ickes knows, or than I know. You've got to admit that. Who's the government going to appoint to run them? It's going to appoint somebody like me, or Harold Ickes, or someone else. There's nobody who knows how to run coal mines except the people who have run coal mines. Some of the men in the miner's union perhaps would make good coal mine operators.”