The Washington herald., 1913-11-16

DAVID 10
the Postoffice Consumers in cities will be
brought in direct relations with producers
in the country. barrel Of potatoes viii
| go by parcel post from the farmers front
i gate to the city mans kitchen door. The
parcel post is q proved success, though II
was started but short time ago. ! am
certain the Postofice organization will
run the telegraph and telephone business
cheaper and better than it was ever run
before. Then, too, ii b a waste OF energy
to make two bites of cherry. The gov
| ernment is now transmitting the written
and printed communications of the people.
/ It should send their kilograms and give
them telephones for their oral messages.
1t will not do to regard David John
| Lewis lightly. He is an able man. Few
Americans in or out OF Washington can
excel him as a writer of interesting docu-
ments or as a public speaker. His Eng
| lish is strong and clear. He is forceful,
studious and thoughtful 1t is said that
he has been working fourteen hours
| day for nearly a year. He is about i've
feet and two inches tall, but he has the
shoulders and back of burly six-footer.
After serving in the Senate Of Maryland
he came to Congress and is now chairman
of the Committee on Labor. He practiced
law at Cumberland for twenty-one years.
In his youth he was a coal miner.
THE Lewis family. or the branch to
| which belong" he told me, have been
digging coal ever since the industry start
ed. My grandfather begsns working in
the mines OF Wales when he was five
and one-half years of age. In those
days slack was left in the mine. He.
though but a child, picked the small
Jumps Of coal out of the slack. His
, hands were big enough for that particu-
lar task.
But civilization was marching on and
my father did not go into the mines un-
tn he was six years old. In my case.
civilization had gone forward by leaps
and bounds because l didn't begin work
until I was nine years old. My father
bought me a small shovel and pick and
between us. when the mines were busy,
we pulled down about four tons of coal
every day. That was in Pennsylvania,
where 1 was born in 1853.
Was to Get Ten Cents n Month.
But such work as We had was very
| irregular. Four tons a day at forty
cents a ton would have made us COM
Portable had our employment been con-
tinuous. My father agreed to pay me
ten cents a month in cash, but the COM
pany store got all that was coming to
him and never received the money
or any part OF It. When the price of
mining went to half a dollar a ton he
promised to pay me twenty-five cents a
month The company store, however,
was still running him a neck and neck
race and he couldn't even carry out that
contract. -.--r-
When did 1 go to school? Well, L
took my books to the school house the
day we went out on one Of our customary
strikes. When the strike was over, I
went after my books. Between the first
day and the last day hung around the
edges of the strikers and listened while
they discussed the case. In short Il
never attended school a day in my
life.
Strangely enough, 1 can not remem-
Der when i learned to read. must
have been reading short words when 4
was four years old. My mother was
the daughter of a cabinet-maker in
Wales. Her family, therefore, was in
better circumstances than was the fam
lily of my father. / suppose she taught
me to read, but am inclined to think
that took to reading instinctively Ny
father tried to improve himself but
each time that he collected a few books
our house would burn down.
Every Lewis 1 have known, or heard
about could speak two languages but a.
good many OF them were unable to read
or write. My parents were BaptistsI
and my advanced lessons in reading
were taken at Sunday school learned
to write when 1 was seventeen Two
years later 1 mastered long division.
Banishcd from the Mines.
II was seized with an attack of wan
deriust when 1 was sixteen and left
home one morning without breakfast or
a penny in my pocket and made my way
to the anthracite coal country in the
eastern part of the State My maternal
grandfather ran away from home. So
did my mother when she was only a
girl. She came to the United States.
where she first met my father, and was
married. Running away seems to be in
our blood.
'T Joined the miners union and be-
came check weigher while stiIi very
young. The miners station a man ar
the scales to see that the operators don't
cheat them when the coal Is weighed
That. as I say, was my Job. Naturally,
wasn't popular with the operators. And
then, was rather elocutionary, in those
days. ASH look back. / am free to say
that I talked too much for my. own good.
Miners in my boyhood. however. had
many just grounds for complaint Pow
der was deas-ss keg-waEes were low
and prices ut company stores were ex-
tortiopate. There were numerous strikes
and there was much distress in the coal
regions. i suppose 1 was an agitator.
At an events. ! became a marked boy.
/ drifted back home by and by but
was denied employment and had to 70
over into Maryland and workM clay
mine. A young man with whom be- |
came acquainted learned that / wanted |
to study law. That ambition had been