The Washington herald., 1913-03-30
Rx LANES b. MORROW.

The Scotch constables could not know
when they moved the personal belongings
of the Wilson family into the highway
that the little blond-haired boy who
watched them through his tears would
some day be a member of the President
Cabinet in the United States. Have q
care, constables. Scottish and all other
kinds, and show some gentleness when
You show your writs.
Nor did William Bauchop Wilson, the
same small boy. now a man in middle
life, suspect when, as chairman Of a COM
mittee. he wrote his recommendation on
a bill creating the office Of Secretary OF
Labor, that he would be the first Ameri-
can to f1II the place.
The trunks and cedar boxes of Mr..
Wilson were packed. He had served six
years in Congress, only to be defeated In
his fourth campaign. and was going back
to PENNSYLVANIA and his dairy farm At
Blossburg. Samuel Gompers and several
generals of labor had journeyed twice to
Trenton with arguments and long praises.
But the listening man of silence spoke
not. 1t looked like a clear case OF COM
pulsory and reluctant retirement. Then,
at the last hurried moment. woodrow.
the other Wilson, called William into his
Cabinet. Trunks and cedar boxes were
joyfuIIy unlocked.
Though William B. Wilson never went
to school a year in his life, he is neither
uncouth nor ignorant He will sit with
dignity, intelligence, and ability at the
long table of the Presidents counselors.
His English is excellent AS matter
of fact he is a rattling good amateur
n
of Representatives show that he is logical
and argumentative. Coal mining is his
trade. Into it he was born, and by IL
he lived for many years. Poverty has
been his portion, but empty pockets have
not made him a hero in his own estima-
ton.
Strong-jawed, but Low-spoken.
Instead. he is modest and low-spoken.
as is John Mitchell, whom he resembles
in manner and in the measured quality
OF his statements. His eyes are gray. his
jaw is strong and his face is at once
determined and delicate. He is fifty-one
years old, and the father of nine children.
One of his daughters has helped him on
the stump during his campaigns. He
stands we'll at Blossburg and the neigh
boring country, having been elected as
Democrat to Congress in a district that
gave Mckinley a plurality of 1900
Roosevelt a plurality of 5000, and Taft
in 1905 a plurality of 5000. 1t is said that
imperfect ballots, intended for him, but
thrown out under the law. brought about
his defeat last year.
In his youth William B. Wilson was a
militant trade unionist His name was on
had to look for work away from home.
He organized the miners in his district,
and afterward was conspicuous in the
American Federation of Labor. Through
the influence of John Mitchell he was
elected secretary and treasurer of the
United Mine Workers of America, an
office he held from 1900 to 1905. 1t was
then that he printed his volume of poems.
Rhymes" he called them, for circula-
tion," as he explained, amongst those
intimate friends of mine who can bury
poetical grammatical, and structural de-
fects beneath their personal respect for
the author.
The verses were dedicated to my
father and mother. whose hopes that
their son might follow literary career
have not been realized" But how could
the hopes of the parents be fulfilled when
their son began working in the mines of
Pennsylvania before he was nine years
old? The poems, written principally un-
der the influence of youthful exhuber-
ance," deal with a variety of subjects.
There is one picturing an explosion deep
beneath the rolling prairies." Another
tells of an old log cabin, and still an
other of the death of John Welsh's dog.