Eugene Siler, a life revisited (part 7)

Before being elected to a third term in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1958, Williamsburg’s own Eugene Siler, Sr. was hard at work in searching for opportunities that might provide some relief to the people living in some of the more impoverished areas of his home district.

One of those efforts was documented in an article that appeared in the July 10, 1958 edition of the Whitley Republican. “Congressman Eugene Siler hopes McCreary County, Kentucky will be eligible for help under the depressed areas bill pending in Congress,” the report read. “He has taken action to make McCreary, and perhaps several other hard-hit counties, eligible for consideration. The Williamsburg Republican is a member of the House Banking Committee, which has recommended a $275,000,000 depressed areas bill.”

The report noted that, of the 17 counties that were in Siler’s district at that time, a total of 13 were already on the eligible list of depressed counties. This included Whitley County.

In August, Siler asked the House to aid Southeastern Kentucky, being quoted in the August 7, 1958 Republican as saying, “Such an area is one where the levee of misfortune is so high that the flood tide of prosperity never spills over into its little valley of despondency. It is a place where the jam is never quite down on the lower shelf… It is a hungry bread line in the midst of a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Siler went on to once again encourage his fellow congressmen to enact the aforementioned depressed-areas bill, which would provide millions of dollars in grants and loans that would, hopefully, “stimulate new factories, public facilities, technical help, and vocational training in hard-hit areas.”

Siler described Southeastern Kentucky to his peers in the House as “rolling in verdant beauty, abounding in mineral wealth, and rising high above in magnificent mountain peaks.”

“Yet, paradoxically, it is something of a barren desert,” Siler added. “That is to say, a desert in the matter of employment opportunities for its citizens. Eastern Kentucky lost about 92,000 people between 1950 and 1956, or more than a tenth of all its population.”

Clearly, Siler had his work cut out for him during this particular moment in time, but as mentioned in a previous column in this series, he never ceased in being a cheerleader on behalf of the region.

In September of that same year, he complained to state and federal officials that the plan to begin work on the Kentucky leg of the new north-south interstate highway was not designed to provide employment where it was most needed.

Instead of beginning work near Cincinnati and continuing south, Siler argued, construction should begin at the Tennessee line and go north.

“Please doctor the sickest patient first,” Siler was quoted as saying in the September, 18, 1958 Republican. “The one in bad shape down here in Southeastern Kentucky. Our people want work, and feel that this construction will be a great help to them if begun down here.”

In response, Siler was re-assured by Governor A.B. Chandler that work in that area would get underway shortly, sometime in 1959.

1959 would end up being another eventful year for Siler, as we will soon see…

Reminder – After his political career came to an end, Eugene Siler continued to serve the people of Whitley County, using a newspaper column that he titled “Head or Tales” to keep the local citizenry informed of various important topics. He would also often discuss historical matters, offer thoughts on recent events, and more.

To learn how you can read many of these Head or Tales columns for yourself, contact the Whitley County Historical and Genealogical Society at (606) 549-7089.