The Curzon Line is usually identified as the line of 8 December 1919 (similar to the current eastern border of Poland), running to the east of the Daugavpils-Vilnius-Hrodna railway. Typical historiographical texts state that the Soviet government decided to ignore the Curzon Line after 17 July 1920. But in fact, the Red Army crossed the Curzon Line on 13–14 July and continued to occupy Vilna (Vilnius). Another inaccuracy follows from this one. The prevailing trend is to interpret the Lithuanian state's situation in 1920 as facing one of two ideology-based alternatives: either Lithuania is sovietised, or it is 'saved' by Poland, which occupies Vilnius and separates Lithuania from contact with Soviet Russia. But this raises a whole swathe of questions: how should the Lithuanians' struggle for Vilnius dur-ing the whole interwar period be viewed? How should assistance to Lithuanians from other countries, such as Germany, the USSR and Great Britain, be assessed? Finally, how should the return of Vilnius to Lithuania in 1939 be viewed? There is no answer to these questions, but the possibility of Lithuania as a buffer zone thanks to the Curzon Line, is ignored or hardly analysed at all. Using historical documents from Lithuania, Great Britain and Russia, and referring to the studies by Alfred Erich Senn, this article aims to find an answer to the question, why was the idea of Lithuania as a buffer state not realised in the summer of 1920? The idea that it would be more appropriate to call the line alongside Lithuania established at the Spa Conference 'the Lloyd George Line' is also discussed.
The Curzon Line is usually identified as the line of 8 December 1919 (similar to the current eastern border of Poland), running to the east of the Daugavpils-Vilnius-Hrodna railway. Typical historiographical texts state that the Soviet government decided to ignore the Curzon Line after 17 July 1920. But in fact, the Red Army crossed the Curzon Line on 13–14 July and continued to occupy Vilna (Vilnius). Another inaccuracy follows from this one. The prevailing trend is to interpret the Lithuanian state's situation in 1920 as facing one of two ideology-based alternatives: either Lithuania is sovietised, or it is 'saved' by Poland, which occupies Vilnius and separates Lithuania from contact with Soviet Russia. But this raises a whole swathe of questions: how should the Lithuanians' struggle for Vilnius dur-ing the whole interwar period be viewed? How should assistance to Lithuanians from other countries, such as Germany, the USSR and Great Britain, be assessed? Finally, how should the return of Vilnius to Lithuania in 1939 be viewed? There is no answer to these questions, but the possibility of Lithuania as a buffer zone thanks to the Curzon Line, is ignored or hardly analysed at all. Using historical documents from Lithuania, Great Britain and Russia, and referring to the studies by Alfred Erich Senn, this article aims to find an answer to the question, why was the idea of Lithuania as a buffer state not realised in the summer of 1920? The idea that it would be more appropriate to call the line alongside Lithuania established at the Spa Conference 'the Lloyd George Line' is also discussed.
The article analyses the Jordanian foreign policy with a primary focus on Jordan's status as a buffer state. This characteristic can be regarded as a key determinant of the foreign policy, which not only defines vital interests of the monarchy, but also shapes its behaviour in the international arena and impacts on its domestic scene. Consequently, main trends in the Jordanian foreign policy are explored: moderation, quest for regional modus vivendi and long-standing alliance with the West. The author also indicates that with a relative scarcity of natural resources and weak economy, foreign policy becomes a strategic national asset of Jordan, a tool of domestic legitimacy for the political regime, and evidence of interlinked state interests and dynastic ambitions of the Hashemite family. The article concludes that despite regional turmoil in the wake of the Arab revolts, Jordan remains relatively stable and is skillfully playing its diplomatic card in order to gain leeway on the domestic front. ; Artur Malantowicz
We analyze the effect of land reform legislation on labor market dynamics in the Romanian economy. We show that the agricultural sector, a source of precarious employment, has become an absorbing state for certain categories of workers who lost their jobs in the nonagricultural sector. A random utility model is used to represent individuals? sequential labor market decisions. The resulting multivariate probit model is estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods.
Advocates of Job Guarantee (JG) or Employer of Last Resort (ELR) schemes have suggested that if the state provides "buffer stock" employment to workers displaced from private employment, then full employment can be maintained over the course of the business cycle. Kalecki was sceptical about the prospects for maintaining full employment in capitalist economies, without fundamental institutional change that would alleviate certain political constraints on the maintenance of full employment. We argue that in and of themselves, JG/ELR schemes do not create the fundamental institutional change required to address Kalecki's concerns and so ensure that full employment becomes achievable as a permanent state.
India's economic standing and its policy landscape have come a long way since the 1943 Bengal famine. History saw buffer stocking of food grains as a famine-combating tool. Today, apart from serving as an effective hedge in times of famines, such grain stocks are a conduit deployed by the government to foster the country's agriculture development and food security. The buffer stocking policy of food grains has become the one tool with the government used to fulfil the interlinked objectives of supporting food-producers and food-consumers, and of ensuring food availability at the national level. The policy of widespread government intervention in the food management of the country has been successful in many ways. From a food-scarce, food-importing country, India has emerged as a grain-surplus and a net grain-exporting country. The production base is strong and growing. Food security, in terms of ample grain supplies, has been attained at the national level. However, an evaluation of the country's buffer stock policy reveals gaps and inefficiencies. Large quantities of food grains have accumulated in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and its nominated state agencies, raising questions about the economic efficiency of the entire operation. At the same time, there is high incidence of malnutrition and rising food grain prices across the country. The level of government intervention in grain markets is straining government finances because of the increasing burden of food subsidy. There are increasing concerns regarding the imbalances being created in the national production basket, of alienation of market forces and its players, of quality of grain, and the sustainability and relevance of such operations.
The growth of world trade, the activity of transnational companies, the global world financial system, global production and the regional trading blocs such as the European Community and NAFTA, all point toward an emerging global world order in which states must adjust. For decades the constraints of small size, a common history and certain cultural affinities have combined with external pressures to push Caribbean countries towards even closer regional integration (Mc Kinney and Gardner 2008). The recent Economic Partnership Agreement premised on trade liberalization has plunged Caribbean countries into a global economic system where regional integration is now a necessity for survival as advocated by the EU (Assembly of European Regions 2001). The goals for CARlCOM integration include accelerated and sustained economic development through increased productivity, higher levels of international competitiveness and expansion of economic relations with third countries, and more efficient operations of health, education and other social services. However, present trends indicate that more sustained efforts to deepen the existing integration arrangements are integral to making CARICOM a truly effective instrument of global integration, competitiveness and economic growth for its member states. CARICOM is constrained in terms of its capacity to ensure Caribbean development because of its limitations in terms of political unity and cooperation among the leaders of the region. However, CARICOM is the engine of growth which the Caribbean countries must utilize in order to ensure sustained growth and development in the region and keep up with world trends.
This article employs the theory of buffer zone trade to understand archaeological data related to trade in Wiman Chosŏn (195–108 b.c. ), one of the earliest states in Korean history. Buffer zone trade is performed by an entity (B) placed between a fully developed state with a centralized government (C), and an underdeveloped polity in a periphery (P). B creates a route to convey C's advanced products, and exports imported goods from C as well as its own products to neighboring polities in the periphery, while controlling the flow of luxury materials. Significantly, in this process B moderates the impact of more powerful and regionally dominant civilizations on the polities in the periphery, therefore preventing these peripheral polities from losing their indigenous cultures entirely or experiencing structural collapse. Furthermore, B exercises authority over the polities in the periphery, controlling the flow of advanced materials. Wiman Chosŏn imported Han's monetary currency, iron products, weapons, farming tools, high-fired pottery, horse trappings, bronze mirrors, and bronze vessels, while exporting a few simple iron tools like hand knives, bronze mirrors, slender daggers, and fine-lined mirrors to Chin. Interestingly, the discrepancy of both the quality and quantity of the imported Han products takes place in the Korean Peninsula. Additionally, there was no influx of Han currencies and iron weaponry in the southern Korean Peninsula before the second century b.c. I believe that this phenomenon represents a result of trade conducted by Wiman Chosŏn and that Wiman Chosŏn functioned in this way as a semi-core.
The M. H. Ross Papers contain information pertaining to labor, politics, social issues of the twentieth century, coal mining and its resulting lifestyle, as well as photographs and audio materials. The collection is made up of five different accessions; L2001-05, which is contained in boxes one through 104, L2002-09 in boxes 106 through 120, L2006-16 in boxes 105 and 120, L2001-01 in boxes 120-121, and L2012-20 in boxes 122-125. The campaign materials consist of items from the 1940 and 1948 political campaigns in which Ross participated. These items include campaign cards, posters, speech transcripts, news clippings, rally materials, letters to voters, and fliers. Organizing and arbitration materials covers labor organizing events from "Operation Dixie" in Georgia, the furniture workers in North Carolina, and the Mine-Mill workers in the Western United States. Organizing materials include fliers, correspondence, news articles, radio transcripts, and some related photos. Arbitration files consist of agreements, decisions, and agreement booklets. The social and political research files cover a wide time period (1930's to the late 1970's/early 1980's). The topics include mainly the Ku Klux Klan, racism, Communism, Red Scare, red baiting, United States history, and literature. These files consist mostly of news and journal articles. Ross interacted with coal miners while doing work for the United Mine Workers Association (UMWA) and while working at the Fairmont Clinic in West Virginia. Included in these related files are books, news articles, journals, UMWA reports, and coal miner oral histories conducted by Ross. Tying in to all of the activities Ross participated in during his life were his research and manuscript files. He wrote numerous newspaper and journal articles on history and labor. Later, as he worked for the UMWA and at the Fairmont Clinic, he wrote more in-depth articles about coal miners, their lifestyle, and medical problems they faced (while the Southern Labor Archives has many of Ross's coal mining and lifestyle articles, it does not have any of his medical articles). Along with these articles are the research files Ross collected to write them, which consist of notes, books, and newspaper and journal articles. In additional to his professional career, Ross was adamant about documenting his and his wife's family history in the oral history format. Of particular interest are the recordings of his interviews with his wife's family - they were workers, musicians, and singers of labor and folk songs. Finally, in this collection are a number of photographs and slides, which include images of organizing, coal mining (from the late 19th through 20th centuries), and Appalachia. Of note is a small photo album from the 1930s which contains images from the Summer School for Workers, and more labor organizing. A few audio items are available as well, such as Ross political speeches and an oral history in which Ross was interviewed by his daughter, Jane Ross Davis in 1986. All photographic and audio-visual materials are at the end of their respective series. ; Myron Howard "Mike" Ross was born November 9, 1919 in New York City. He dropped out of school when he was seventeen and moved to Texas, where he worked on a farm. From 1936 until 1939, Ross worked in a bakery in North Carolina. In the summer of 1938, he attended the Southern School for Workers in Asheville, North Carolina. During the fall of 1938, Ross would attend the first Southern Conference on Human Welfare in Birmingham, Alabama. He would attend this conference again in 1940 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. From 1939 to 1940, Ross worked for the United Mine Workers Non-Partisan League in North Carolina, working under John L. Lewis. He was hired as a union organizer by the United Mine Workers of America, and sent to Saltville, Virginia and Rockwood, Tennessee. In 1940, Ross ran for a seat on city council on the People's Platform in Charlotte, North Carolina. During this time, he also married Anne "Buddie" West of Kennesaw, Georgia. From 1941 until 1945, Ross served as an infantryman for the United States Army. He sustained injuries near the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944. From 1945 until 1949, Ross worked for the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, then part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), as a union organizer. He was sent to Macon, Georgia, Savannah, Georgia and to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he worked with the United Furniture Workers Union. He began handling arbitration for the unions. In 1948, Ross ran for United States Congress on the Progressive Party ticket in North Carolina. He also served as the secretary for the North Carolina Progressive Party. Ross attended the University of North Carolina law school from 1949 to 1952. He graduated with honors but was denied the bar on the grounds of "character." From 1952 until 1955, he worked for the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers as a union organizer, first in New Mexico (potash mines) and then in Arizona (copper mines). From 1955 to 1957, Ross attended the Columbia University School of Public Health. He worked for the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund from 1957 to 1958, where he represented the union in expenditure of health care for mining workers. By 1958, Ross began plans for what would become the Fairmont Clinic, a prepaid group practice in Fairmont, West Virginia, which had the mission of providing high quality medical care for miners and their families. From 1958 until 1978, Ross served as administrator of the Fairmont Clinic. As a result of this work, Ross began researching coal mining, especially coal mining lifestyle, heritage and history of coal mining and disasters. He would interview over one hundred miners (coal miners). Eventually, Ross began writing a manuscript about the history of coal mining. Working for the Rural Practice Program of the University of North Carolina from 1980 until 1987, Ross taught in the medical school. M. H. Ross died on January 31, 1987 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. ; Personally identifiable information has been redacted from this item. ; Digitization of the M. H. Ross Papers was funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
This article discusses the province of Ingria, part of Sweden from 1617 until 1704, and its position in the Swedish Kingdom in the late 17th century. The main purpose is to examine how Sweden implemented its centralization and unification policy in Ingria and what reactions it triggered at the local level. Court records and other administrative documents have been used as source material. Ingria was a borderland that was primarily of military importance for Sweden as a buffer zone against Russia. A strong defence was also essential in order to secure the profitable Russian transit trade, in which the Ingrian towns of Narva and Nyen played a pivotal role. Sweden's centralization and unification policy, which peaked in the middle of the 1680s, aimed particularly at strengthening its military presence in Ingria. Resources were obtained by confiscating fiefs and later privatizing the administration of manors, to be handled by leaseholders. Tax farming resulted in peasant unrest, and eventually the Crown had to regulate the taxation. Ultimately, the Crown was not strong enough to carry out a coherent integration policy. Ingria remained a borderland province that formed a link between the core areas of Sweden and the Baltic provinces. ; Peer reviewed
In recent years, governmental pressure on reducing the cost of drugs, together with the growth in the number of generic manufacturers, have given a considerable boost to competition in the pharmaceutical sector. Such relevant market change has highlighted the necessity of controlling and improving performance in order to reduce costs while maintaining high quality-levels, both enhancing working capital management and increasing overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of production lines (activities that had previously been somewhat neglected in the pharmaceutical sector). In this paper, the paradigm of buffer design for availability (BDFA) - an approach developed to conciliate these apparently conflicting strategies to achieve performance improvement and cost reduction - is briefly recalled and discussed, being contextualized in the state-of-the-art of buffer design research. Its valuable practical applicability and effectiveness is then demonstrated by the means of a real case study application, and future developments are eventually presented.
Buffer zones, calculated by flight-initiation distance (FID), are often used to reduce anthropogenic disturbances to wildlife, but FID can vary significantly across life-history stages. We examined the behavioral effect of potential natural (gulls and shorebirds) and anthropogenic (pedestrians) disturbance sources to staging roseate (Sterna dougallii) and common tern (S. hirundo) flocks from July to September in 2014 and 2015 at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. We estimated the proportion of the flock exhibiting different responses to potential disturbance sources as a function of distance, flock size, percent roseate terns, and local disturbance rates, using Bayesian zero-and-one inflated beta regression. The proportion of tern flocks responding to the presence of shorebirds by flying was low (0.01 +/- 0.001 [SE]) and did not vary by distance or other covariates, whereas the proportion flying in response to gulls increased as distance decreased, with smaller flocks, and with flocks with a larger proportion of roseate terns being more sensitive to gull presence. Prolonged flight response rapidly increased in probability from 0.0 to as much as 1.0 as distance from pedestrians to the flock decreased from 100 m and was much more likely with smaller flocks. Pedestrian activity levels also had an effect on flock responses; those engaged in active behaviors such as jogging were more likely to cause flushing than those engaged in passive behaviors. Terns seemed to view pedestrians as more of a threat than shorebirds and gulls, even though gulls are frequent kleptoparasites of terns. Pedestrians >120 m from a tern flock generally elicited the same probability of flight response as shorebirds and gulls. We recommend managers maintain anthropogenic disturbance levels at or below the intensity of those from natural sources at sites where recreation and wildlife values are both important. Because staging tern flocks may use a variety of areas within a site, we recommend instituting a 100-m buffer around areas potentially used by staging flocks at Cape Cod, where we studied every location roseate terns are known to use in large numbers. For other sites used by mixed-species tern flocks, we recommend the use of our field and analytical methods to develop appropriate buffer distances that will keep pedestrians far enough away to reduce the likelihood of flight and other non-locomotive anti-predator behaviors. These buffer zones will also benefit other species sensitive to human activity. (c) 2018 The Wildlife Society. ; Cape Cod National Seashore; United States Geological SurveyUnited States Geological Survey; CNY Wildfowlers Association; Edna Baily Sussman Foundation ; The use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the United States Government. The USFWS provided necessary resources to complete the study. M. E. Hake, R. P. Cook, J. J. Taylor, and K. E. Iaquinto provided logistical support and site access. J. L. Correia, J. C. May, S. S. Brady, and P. L. Gallo assisted with data collection. The Cape Cod National Seashore, United States Geological Survey, CNY Wildfowlers Association, and Edna Baily Sussman Foundation provided funding. ; Public domain authored by a U.S. government employee
For decades, the externalization of border control has been a central means of European border and migration policy. It is at the external border of the EU where the dynamism between the European center and the European peripheries manifests. The center of the EU externalizes border control tasks to the member states with European external borders, whereas the external border states and the EU as a whole externalize border control tasks to the periphery outside the Schengen borders. This principle is fragile, vulnerable and in large parts dysfunctional. Nevertheless, no alternative seems to be feasible for the EU. But a different way of dealing with those seeking protection, which would actually be in the EU's genuine interest, is certainly possible and is discussed in this article. Fragile Pufferzonen. Die Externalisierungsdynamik im europäischen Grenzschutz und mögliche Alternativen Die Externalisierung des Grenzschutzes ist seit Jahrzehnten ein zentraler Pfeiler der europäischen Grenz- und Migrationspolitik. An den Außengrenzen der EU manifestiert sich dabei die Dynamik zwischen dem europäischen Zentrum und den europäischen Peripherien. Das Zentrum der EU externalisiert Grenzkontrollaufgaben an die Mitgliedstaaten mit europäischen Außengrenzen, während die Außengrenzstaaten und die EU als Ganze Grenzkontrollaufgaben an die Peripherie außerhalb der Schengengrenzen externalisieren. Dieses Prinzip ist fragil, vulnerabel und in großen Teilen dysfunktional. Dennoch scheint für die EU keine Alternative dazu zu existieren. Ein anderer Umgang mit Schutzsuchenden, der letztlich auch im genuinen Interesse der EU wäre, ist aber durchaus möglich und wird in diesem Artikel diskutiert.
Civic, rather than ethnic, definition of the nation is typically associated with Western liberal democracies. Yet post-Soviet states Azerbaijan and Moldova have used laws bestowing citizenship on anyone born on their territories. Such policies, known as unconditional jus soli, are found mostly in the Americas. No such law exists in Georgia, the third "buffer zone" country between Russia and the West. Unresolved, or "frozen", separatist conflicts, perpetuated by Russia, prevent the buffer zone states from forging stronger links to the West and place them at the epicenter of a potentially explosive tension between Russia and the West. A theoretical proposition separating "territorial" from "civic" nationalism and almost 100 interviews reveal that nationalism in these brand-new states was conditioned by centuries-old history, namely a historical context that had thwarted or exacerbated ethnic collective identity. The resulting territorial (but not civic) concept of national identity was used by both authoritarian (Azerbaijan) and liberal (Moldova) regimes to combat ethnic separatism and interethnic strife. The resulting ethnic concept of national identity (Georgia) negatively influenced integration of national minorities and refugees. Moreover, when geopolitical fears of foreign interference via dual citizen "double agents" arose (Azerbaijan) in the post-Crimean panic, territorial nationalism was undermined breaking the sense of historical continuity and threatening to rekindle interethnic strife. The tension between ethnic and territorial definitions of the nation in Russia's "buffer zone" downplays the role of liberal development in defining the nation by placing it in a larger historical context. At the same time, it demonstrates the importance of geopolitics and thus provides another insight into Russia's own struggle to define its nation, which may help explain its actions in Ukraine and its ideological differences with Western-style civic nationalism. Beyond the post-Soviet space, the ethnic/territorial tension is also behind many other political developments in the globalized world, where millennia-old, but little-noticed, struggle to define collective identity by blood or territory continues.
The M. H. Ross Papers contain information pertaining to labor, politics, social issues of the twentieth century, coal mining and its resulting lifestyle, as well as photographs and audio materials. The collection is made up of five different accessions; L2001-05, which is contained in boxes one through 104, L2002-09 in boxes 106 through 120, L2006-16 in boxes 105 and 120, L2001-01 in boxes 120-121, and L2012-20 in boxes 122-125. The campaign materials consist of items from the 1940 and 1948 political campaigns in which Ross participated. These items include campaign cards, posters, speech transcripts, news clippings, rally materials, letters to voters, and fliers. Organizing and arbitration materials covers labor organizing events from "Operation Dixie" in Georgia, the furniture workers in North Carolina, and the Mine-Mill workers in the Western United States. Organizing materials include fliers, correspondence, news articles, radio transcripts, and some related photos. Arbitration files consist of agreements, decisions, and agreement booklets. The social and political research files cover a wide time period (1930's to the late 1970's/early 1980's). The topics include mainly the Ku Klux Klan, racism, Communism, Red Scare, red baiting, United States history, and literature. These files consist mostly of news and journal articles. Ross interacted with coal miners while doing work for the United Mine Workers Association (UMWA) and while working at the Fairmont Clinic in West Virginia. Included in these related files are books, news articles, journals, UMWA reports, and coal miner oral histories conducted by Ross. Tying in to all of the activities Ross participated in during his life were his research and manuscript files. He wrote numerous newspaper and journal articles on history and labor. Later, as he worked for the UMWA and at the Fairmont Clinic, he wrote more in-depth articles about coal miners, their lifestyle, and medical problems they faced (while the Southern Labor Archives has many of Ross's coal mining and lifestyle articles, it does not have any of his medical articles). Along with these articles are the research files Ross collected to write them, which consist of notes, books, and newspaper and journal articles. In additional to his professional career, Ross was adamant about documenting his and his wife's family history in the oral history format. Of particular interest are the recordings of his interviews with his wife's family - they were workers, musicians, and singers of labor and folk songs. Finally, in this collection are a number of photographs and slides, which include images of organizing, coal mining (from the late 19th through 20th centuries), and Appalachia. Of note is a small photo album from the 1930s which contains images from the Summer School for Workers, and more labor organizing. A few audio items are available as well, such as Ross political speeches and an oral history in which Ross was interviewed by his daughter, Jane Ross Davis in 1986. All photographic and audio-visual materials are at the end of their respective series. ; Myron Howard "Mike" Ross was born November 9, 1919 in New York City. He dropped out of school when he was seventeen and moved to Texas, where he worked on a farm. From 1936 until 1939, Ross worked in a bakery in North Carolina. In the summer of 1938, he attended the Southern School for Workers in Asheville, North Carolina. During the fall of 1938, Ross would attend the first Southern Conference on Human Welfare in Birmingham, Alabama. He would attend this conference again in 1940 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. From 1939 to 1940, Ross worked for the United Mine Workers Non-Partisan League in North Carolina, working under John L. Lewis. He was hired as a union organizer by the United Mine Workers of America, and sent to Saltville, Virginia and Rockwood, Tennessee. In 1940, Ross ran for a seat on city council on the People's Platform in Charlotte, North Carolina. During this time, he also married Anne "Buddie" West of Kennesaw, Georgia. From 1941 until 1945, Ross served as an infantryman for the United States Army. He sustained injuries near the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944. From 1945 until 1949, Ross worked for the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, then part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), as a union organizer. He was sent to Macon, Georgia, Savannah, Georgia and to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he worked with the United Furniture Workers Union. He began handling arbitration for the unions. In 1948, Ross ran for United States Congress on the Progressive Party ticket in North Carolina. He also served as the secretary for the North Carolina Progressive Party. Ross attended the University of North Carolina law school from 1949 to 1952. He graduated with honors but was denied the bar on the grounds of "character." From 1952 until 1955, he worked for the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers as a union organizer, first in New Mexico (potash mines) and then in Arizona (copper mines). From 1955 to 1957, Ross attended the Columbia University School of Public Health. He worked for the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund from 1957 to 1958, where he represented the union in expenditure of health care for mining workers. By 1958, Ross began plans for what would become the Fairmont Clinic, a prepaid group practice in Fairmont, West Virginia, which had the mission of providing high quality medical care for miners and their families. From 1958 until 1978, Ross served as administrator of the Fairmont Clinic. As a result of this work, Ross began researching coal mining, especially coal mining lifestyle, heritage and history of coal mining and disasters. He would interview over one hundred miners (coal miners). Eventually, Ross began writing a manuscript about the history of coal mining. Working for the Rural Practice Program of the University of North Carolina from 1980 until 1987, Ross taught in the medical school. M. H. Ross died on January 31, 1987 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. ; Digitization of the M. H. Ross Papers was funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.