In 1914 the coal operators of Illinois and Indiana issued a _Statement of Facts_ for the enlightenment of the Government and the people. The normal state of the coal industry, they declared, was such as to "endanger the lives of the miners, waste the coal reserves, and deprive the operators of any hope of profit." They therefore appealed for "appropriate and definite governmental control" to the extent "at least of permitting all their activities to be known to the public." They thus approved of the action of Congress in creating the Federal Trade Commission "to gather and compile information concerning, and to investigate from time to time the organization, business, conduct, practices, and management of any corporation engaged in commerce ... and to make public from time to time such portions of the information obtained by it, except trade secrets and names of customers, as it shall deem expedient in the public interest." The coal operators went further than Congress since they made no reservations with respect to trade secrets. But after the armistice, the organized operators of the nation, through one of their members, secured an injunction restraining the Federal Trade Commission from prosecuting its work of investigation and publicity, the effect of which was to render the Federal Trade Commission Act null and void so far as the education of the public with respect to the coal industry was concerned. In the language of a senator, this action "tied the Government's hands and poked out its eyes."