The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-26
T1N ET9zD AaaNE WORKERS CEId4sRA9g1 s5TH BIRTH
 DAY OF UNION TO-DAY.

2
 Their faces are black with coal 9 dust, their hands are eanoused with tof1 their backs arc bent beneath the weight Of years of labor they are of many na11onazlt1es and speak diverse Iang11asz the great army of coal miners. hundreds of thousands strong, enrolled under the banner of the United 141ne Workers of Amer lea All over the Emitted States and Canada. the members of this power l11 labor or organization will celebrate today the twenfy-dfth birthday of it's founlIng
 coluz1b11s was the birthplace Of the great federation of those who : deIve in fhR bowels of the earth. It was on Jan 25, 1890. that delegates from number of the coa1-mining districts of America assembled in the aOh1o capital city and completed the organization of the United Mine lon started with only q few thousand members, but. thanks to the abors of John Mitchell, John McBr1de, and scores of other pioneers, 1t has ex- landed it's influence to nearly every coal district of the United States
 American coal miners had engaged in several futile attempts at organi- zatfon before the D- M ". A was launched. The United Mine Workers was an 1gaTnation of two such small bodies, the Progressive Union of Miners and the National Trades . Assembly No. 1855 The latter was fthe mining branch of the Knights of Labor.
 About half a century ago the min CTS made their first attempt at or gsAndzlatiso on The workers the mines of the BeIfviI1e, IT., district founded the American Miners As socfation- This movement was start ed in the early days of the civil war It spread rapidly. and organizations were effected in Missouri, Ohio, In in Illinois. This body was well and honestly organized, and it might have proved successful except that so many of the influential men of the union enlisted in the Union army. While the miners were fighting their
 Alter the war an attempt was made to revive the associati on, but there were so many unemployed men. and wages were so low, that success 5fuI organization was then ifnpossi b1e- for jobs in the coal mines, and were willing to accept any wage that was offered.
 About q decade after the close of the war the Miners and Laborers' Benevolent Association was launched by John Sfney It was largely con- fined to the anthracite fields. S1ney and other leaders were sent to pris- on for participation in strikes and fhe union was killed.
 In 1885 there was meeting of mine workers in Indiana polls. called by John MeBrfde, and the National Association of Miners and Mine La borers was formed. It was affiliated with the Knig hts of Labor, but the relation was not entirely satisfactory and the Knights organized Ma tiouaI Trade Assembly of miners The Progressive Union of Miners was a1- so in the field, and the miners were divided into three factions. Tn 1888 they held 2 joint convention in Co., It11nbus and out of this grew the meeting of Jan. 25. 1890, when the United Miner workers was born. The new international union started with only a few thousand members, but it gained rapidly and has survived many great strikes and bitter labor wars. It is now one of the most re- 1narkabIe bodies of labor Ioya1ists to be fpund anywhere in the world.