Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1908-04-09
JOHN MITCH
ELLIS WORK.
AS LEADER AND ORGANIZER
HIS WORK is FINISHED


place as head of the greatest
organization in the United
States. For many years he has
been the head of this organiza-
ton, and as it stands today it is
largely the creation of his or
ganizing and executive powers.
Ill health compelled him to give
up the arduous task of shaping
the policies and directing the
forces in an organization the
most heterogeneous in character
and the most numerous in mem
bership in any civilized country
today. Whether his successor
will be able to manage this body
as we'll as he has managed it re-
mains to be seen.
John Mitchell came to this
country as an emigrant lad
years ago. By his own efforts he
raised himself to the position
in the body which he held, really
created the place by creating
the organization as it now eX-
lists. To do such a work argues
ability of a most unusual order.
In fact, few men OF that stamp
are produced in a generation.
Possibly if he had not done it
some other man would, but the
very fact that a man creates
something really great and real
ly difficult, giving it the stamp
of his own genius, argues that
no other man could have done
the work.
Those living away from the
mines and the mining towns and
the great manufacturing cities
that have grown up about the
coal and iron mines have little
conception of the class of peo-
pie from the various countries
of Europe that make up the
great body of mine workers.
Those who work in the mines
for the precious metals in the
West are a high class of intel
igent people. The wages paid
are good, and the conditions of
life are by no means bad. Not
so with the other miners. Life
has little of hope for them. Even
when they are not bowed down
in ignorance of language and
customs and are at the complete
mercy of the mine operators.
Men and boys are but machines
to bring coal and iron from the
bowels of the earth to be used
by mankind. No further con-
sideration is had of them than
to see that the greatest results
are obtained at the least cost.
Humanity does not count. The
bright eyed lad goes into the
mines to break coal; he grows
in strength and gains in ex-
perience and becomes a miner !;
for a few years he labors in his
strength and with hope; the
years go by and he goes back to
the tasks that he engaged in as
a boy, and takes his place, this
time with only death and re-
lease from the breakers pile to
look forward to. Such is the
life of the coal or iron miner.
To bring these men together
into a self conscious body, to
teach them that they have real
existence in the industrial
world, to give them a class spir-
it, class strength, was the
great work of John Mitchell. In
so doing he created great force
of organized labor. He made
this body of men a force which
has been felt for good in rails
ing the condition of living and
in bringing about greater
sense of the responsibilities and
the gains of American citizen
ship. Along with this comes
necessarily a wider outlook, a
more hopeful life. The whole
standard of living is raised for
the miners and for their fami-
lies. To upift such a body of
men composed of such varied ell
ements was task for one man
to do, for one man to take the
lead in doing. John Mitchell
did it. Few men in this genera
ton have made greater contri-
button to the welfare of the peo-
pie, directly or indirectly than
has he