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4,000 STRIKERS RESUME WORK IN KENTUCKY COAL MINES HARLAN, Ky., May 22— An estimated 4,000 men, roughly 30 per cent of Harlan Countys soft coal miners, were ready to go back to work today under union shop contracts signed by independent operators with the United Mine Workers of America. Ten thousand other miners remained on strike, as the Harlan Coal Operators Association continued its stand against the union shop demand by the union. The association was the only one in Kentucky which had refused | to yield to contracts along lines laid down by Lewis. Announcement that Harlans I third independent mine had signed a con-! tract was made by Wm. Turnblazer, Harlan district president of the United Mine Workers Association. He said the Cloversplint Company, which employs about 300 men, signed with the union late yesterday and would resume operations tomorrow morning. A Federal conciliator, John L. Connor, brought the associated owners together today with United Mine Workers Associations representatives in an effort to settle the deadlock, but although he said he was hopeful of a settlement, there was no such confidence in the camp of Brigadier General Ellerbe Carter, commander of 1,300 national guardsmen protecting mines opened without union contracts. Carter said he feared further outbreaks of violence of the sort that occur almost daily.
