The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1906-04-28
His Salary as President of the Miners Union
Satisfies Him and He Has Refused
Large Offers.
Heis Today Potent Factor in the Worlds
Progress, Enjoying the Respect of
Friend and Foe.

workman would be an enormous in
centive to industry, a vast increase in
the demand for goods and more
rapid march of the United States to-
ward industrial supremacy"
Mitchell was criticised by trade
lnionists and social reformers for
making SO low an estimate as $500
cover the cost of maintaining the
standard of living he had outlined,
but in his subsequent study of the
problem, "Organized Labor" he de-
clares that he had found no occasion
to change it. He states, however, that
his estimate does not apply to work.
ingmen in cities Of more than one hun
dred thousand inhabitants, where $500
would be insufficient to maintain the
standard he recommends, and that
this is more particularly true of New
York. where the idea of separate
house for each family must be given
up. On the other hand, he does not
include farm hands or men in rural
communities, where the cost of living
is less.
Having in mind Just what he wants,
Mitchell goes about getting it in a
businesslike way. His attitude ~tow;lrd
the operators is that of a business
man, whose business it is to sell labor
and who does not mingle sentiment
with business. II he has dreams of
does not permit them to cause any
haziness in his mind during his
negotiations on behalf of the toilers
whom he is endeavoring to serve
Obviously he believes with Carlyle
that ''our grand business undoubted-
ly is not to see what lies dimly at a
distance. but to do what lies clearly
at hand
John Mitchell holds the respect and
confidence of the employers of labor
as perhaps no other national labor
leader has ever DONE One point he
emphasizes above all others. that the
unions must abide by their contracts
"a little at time" was his advice al
crisis. Anything is better than
nothing. and the big thing is the main
thing--honor That is all a union
has" He believes that the strike
should never be resorted to until con-
ditions which are intolerable have
failed of adjustment by appeals to
reason, by mediation, by conciliatior
or arbitration.
Mitchell does not believe in the
sympathetic strike and he is intoleran1
of lawlessncss. At the special con-
vention held in Wilkesbarre in July
1902, to consider the calling out of the
bituminous miners to help the an
thracite workers in the fight already
begun. and in spite Of the fact thai
the sentiment of the most conscrvl-
tive was in favor Of it and with a full
consciousness of the contagiOn OF
strike fever, his counsel was against
it.
The expression of the views of the
leader of the most powerful labor or.
ganiZation in the world upon strike
lawlessness has had far reaching re.
suits. 1t was before the Strike Com.
mission. in January, 1903, that Mitchell
put himself on record thus:
Il want to say. too, as to the matter
Of lawlessness. that before being
| president of a union / am over ant
above everything else an American.
| believe that every miner should frs
be an American. There is no mar
connected with the organization who
| would condemn lawlessness NOR.
s\rongly than l would. If I did not d.
it because I was opposed to lawless
ness l would do it because it initiate!
| against the success of strike ant
| against the success and advancement
/ Ol tIle ofSdIlZdLlOIl. 10 not DelleV'
| lawlessness ever Won a strike. I d,
not believe lawlessness to any grea
| extent deters men from working. A
| have said many times, have al
abiding faith in the American people
believe that when they understand
cause to be right they will support II
and without the support Of the people n,
great movement can succeed. This i