The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1907-11-14
BIG ISSUE FOR
UNITED MINERS
SUCCESSOR TO PRES. MITCHELL
SOON TO BE VOTED FOR.
WHITE OF IOWA MENTIONED.
Sharp Contest, However, Will Be Be,
tween the Two Notable candi-
dates, tom" Lewis and
William B. Wilson.

indianapolis. Nov. 11.-Miners and
mine owners are said to be looking
forward with much interest to the
coming election of a president of the
United Mine Workers of America to
succeed John Mitchell. The nominal
tons will be made in few days and
the candidate will be chosen this
month by a referendum vote. Tom
Lewis, vice president, and William b.
Wilson, secretary-treasurer, are the
leading aspirants for the presidency,
and both are certain of nomination.
Several others, including ]. p. White
OF the Iowa organization, and Ryan
of Illinois, win be put forward, but
at present it is conceded that Lewis
and Wilson are the leading contestants
for the honor, with the chances of sue.
cess almost evenly divided between
them.
Wilson, who was elected to congress
last year from a Pennsylvania district,
has long been the confidential adviser
OF John Mitchell and consistent sup
porter of his policies. For this reason
he is regarded as the administers
TONS" candidate, and he will be sup
ported by the class which Mitchell
controlled in the days when the organ
ization was seemingly facing crisis.
Cites Lewis Record.
Lewis, on the other hand, has been
anite as consistent in his opposition to
Mitchells plans, and at times has
been so bitter in his opposition that
an open rupture between him and
Mitchell was prevented only by the
intervention of mutual friends. One
such occasion existed here at the last
Joint conference of the miners and
operators, when Lewis, backed by the
Ohio delegation and a large part OF
the Illinois delegation, favored a gen
eral strike. Mitchell and Wilson, more
conservative, wanted TO preserve the
Joint conferences and favored the pol.
icy, afterward adopted, of settling the
wage question with individual mem
bers just as fast as they would agree
to the advance to which the miners
had finally come in conference.
I wo men, growing up to influential
positions under the same policies and
in the same organization, could hardly
be more unlike than Lewis and viii
son. The latter is cautious, method
zeal and always conservative, but very
determined when a course of action
has been decided upon. At all the ma
tional conventions of the organization
he was the ready seconder of every
thing that Mitchell proposed, and in
the debates, when the passions of men
were aroused, he was always calm and
spoke only after seemingly weighing
every word that he was about to ut
ter Mitchell came to rely upon him
even more than he relied upon him
self, and it could be seen, when the
miners themselves were divided re-
speeding a policy to be pursued, that
Wilson's position soon became the pc.
sltion of the conservatives in the con.
yention.
Said to Be ExcitabIe.
Lewis. on the other hand, is impetu-
Gus, often vindictive, in debate, and
always excitable. On many occasions
he has appeared to have the conven-
tions with him, for his eloquence is i'm
pressiye, and never fails to elicit gen
efous applause from the younger mem
bers of the organization. He was the
leader of the strike sentiment in the
last Joint conference here, and was
bitterly opposed to any settlements
that did not include every mine own
er employing union labor. The young
men were with him to a man, and it
was only by constant appeals on the
convention floor and in the Hobbies Of
the hotels that the conservatives won
over a sufficient number of delegates
TO carry the day against him. So
popular is he with this class of min
ers that he received more votes for
vice president at the last election than
were cast for Mitchell for president,
and for several years his followers
have insisted that he stand for the
presidency of the organization against
Mitchell himself.
But Lewis never was willing to test
his strength with that of the mine
workers president He did not be
lieye that Mitchell could bear up I'M
der the strain a great while longer.
and he did not care to embitter Mitch
ellis friends by contest that would
be sure to arouse enmities, no matter
how It should end
His friends believe he is now strong
er than he would have been after such
q contest, and they are using the fact
as an evidence Of his conservatism in
matters where the best interest of the
organization is involved.
Amount over-Estimated.
A thorough examination OF the