The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-03-25
LABOR MEMBER OF
THE NEW CABINET
SECRETARY WILSON HAS WORK
ED WITH, HIS HANDS AT AL
MOST EVERY TRADE.
AND SERVED LONG AS
A UNION OFFICIAL
Devoted to His Family and Not Averse
to Dropping Into Poetry in the
Light of a Friend.

to Dropping Into Poetry in the
Light of Friend.
The new secretary of labor. viii
liam Beuchop Wilson of Pennsylvania,
is a pretty interesting sort of q char
acter. For one thing he is the first
secretary of labor this country has ev-
er known. For another he has been
himself a laboring man, working long
hours in the Pennsylvania coal mines
But that didn't prevent Wilson from
laying by little money. He owns
a little coal mine of his own and sells
the coal to people near or about him
or at any rate he did until recently.
Also he is by way of being poet and
he's mighty fond of his family out at
his little farm in Blossburg. He ism
exactly the kind of a labor representa-
tive they have come to know in the
English government but, nevertheless,
he is distinctly a labor representative
even to having been a union official.
In a recent biography of Mr.. VIII
son published in the New York sun
it was related that he was born in
Scotland in 1862. When he came to
this country at the age Of he was an
unschooIed miners boy, who went
down with his invalid father into the
mines every day to help him shovel
the coal into the cars so that the little
exist. While engaged in this work he
received what education he could pick
up in somewhat helterskelter way.
The boy studied at night, though
after the arduous days work the ev-
ening's study was not usually long.
There were few books, but these were
thumbed over and over again. His
father would take him occasionally
to evening debates. In this way he
began to think as older men did and
he learned to talk. about things that
appealed to the miners as q class. Be-
ing society and took an active part
in the affairs of the people among
whom he lived.
In 1882 Wilson had to give up work
in. the coal fields. The operators for
babe his employment because he had
formed a miners union. They re-
garded him as a menace to their inter-
ests His union was the outgrowth of
the little debating society he had
formed.
Becomes a Railroad Fireman.
Unable to get employment at any OF
the mines of the east he went to Iowa,
where he worked as a fireman on the
Illinois Central railroad. A year la
ter he returned to Tiga county, Pa.
and married Miss Agnes Williamson
of Arnot. He then decided to devote
his life to the cause of union labor
as he felt that he could do much
which would result in better condi-
tons for the laboring men.
When the United Mine Workers of
America became an organization in
1890 it was partly due to Wilson's ne
gotiations that the union was formed.
AS member of the national execu-
tive board of the old Miners union he
knew SO much about the affairs of the
workmen that it was decided to adopt
his plan.
At times he in disguise would go
down into the mines and plead with
the men at their work. Had he been
caught summary punishment would
have been his portion, for the super
intendents had given orders that he
was to be treated as a trespasser if
caught in any of the mines.
He would hold meetings in the
woods where the members of the IN
ion were out of the range of spies.
So successful was he in the work OF
organizing that the union grew to be
one of the most powerful in the United
States. 1t is today great factor
in the largest industry in the United
States.
1t was in the great strike of 1894
that Wilson's loyalty was sorely tried
He had gone to West Virginia to or
ganize the bituminous miners of that
state. The operators had him arrest
ed on the charge of Contempt" and
then released him thinking that he
would leave the district. Instead he
began to work more yassfduous1y than
ever. He was again arrested. The
operators tried to keep him in jail I'M
til after the strike was over, but he
was released under heavy bail. He
held the miners together. A plan so.
the story goes, was devised whereby
he would be kidnapped but one of the
men selected for the deed went to vii
son, warned him of the plot and
thwarted the attempt.
Eventually Wilson was elected sec
rotary of the United Mine
Workers of America. In the six
years that he held the office 100000
was handled by him and accounted
for. He was not under bond.
While John Mitchell served as the
man at the throttle of this great en-
CINE of organization, Wilson was the
fireman that fed the fuel to the en-
CINE. So evenly did he adjust the
supply to the demand that at no time
were the financial interests of the or
ganization imperiled. He worked
day and night to have the machinery
of the union run as smoothly as that
of any great corporation
In the strikes of 1900 and 1902 he
furnished the funds for the feeding
and clothing of the miners, although
informed that Judge Keller had grant
ed an injunction restraining him from