New-York tribune., 1919-09-10
John Mitchell
DiesThougghSon g
CaveHinn Blood
Labor Leader Victim of
Pneumonia; TRANSMISSION
From Roberts Right Arm
Failed 10 Aid Patient
Family at His Bedside
Governor Smith Visited the
Hospital just After the
Union Man Passed Away

| Union Man Passed Away
/ John Mitchell, chairman of the State
Industrial Commission labor leader and
| trade unlonist, died at o'clock yester-
day afternoon in the Post-Graduate
I Hospital of pneumonia after an opera
tion for gallstones performed week
ago Governor Alfred f. Smith visited
the hospital to inquire concerning Mr..
| Altcheli3 condition a few minutes after
the labor leader died. At his bedside
were his wife, a son and a daughter.
| 1t was said at the hospital last night
that on Monday, when DR.. John +.
Erdmann and DR.. Arthur f. Chase, his
attending physicians, noticed a change
/ for the worse, they decided, after a
| hurried consultation, that blood trans
| fusion was necessary. Mr.. Mitchell's
1 two sons, Robert, twenty-five years
old, and James Mitchell, twenty-four,
hurried to the hospital and offered
their blood. The doctors decided that
Robert, being the younger, would be
TRANSMISSION was performed from Rob-
ert Mltchells left arm and thirty-fve
cubic centimetrcs of blood extracted.
The physicians had contemplated a
second TRANSMISSION yesterday morning,
but abandoned the idea.
The body Of Mr.. Mitchell was re-
moved to the Campbell Funeral
Church, 1870 Broadway.
Governor Smith said of John Mitch
ell last night:
"Thc State of New York loses
great citizen in the death of Mr. Mitch
ell. He had q wonderful personality
that Impressed itself upon every one
with whom he came in contact. He was
a hard and earnest worker, sclf-edu-
n n tod il,~x,
natural ability. lie will be greatly
missed in the government of this
state"
Thomas J. Curtis and William c.
archer of the State Industrial Com
mission, were at the hospital two hours
before Mr.. Mitchell died.
| Ernest Rohm, secretary of the Cen
/ tral Federated Union of Greater New
York, said:
II am extremely grievcd at the death
I Il John Mitchell, whom | knew for
| twenty years as an active exponent of
labor's rights and fearless in his de-
termination for iustice'
viii BE Buried in Scranton
Burial of Mr.. Mitchell will take
place in Scranton, Penn, as Mr.. Mitch
ell requested Of his wife
Next to Samuel Gompers John
Mitchell was the most important labor
leader in The United States. He was
identified with the United Mine Work
CTS OF America for many years and one
Of the active workers of the American
Federation of Labor. Besides his many
state and national union positions he
was active in the campaign against the
high cost Of living, and was closely
| identified with state and national in
dustrial welfare commissions.
John Mitchell WIS born in Braid
y years ago. His father, Robert Mitchell,
] was native Of Ireland, 4 miner. d
soldier in the Civil War and farmer
The boys mother died when he was
! two years old, and two years later his
/ father married again. ROBERT Mitchell
] died in 1875, and his son was left in
the care Of his stcpmother. He at
! tended school islegularly for four
years, in the winters, only when he
could be spared from farm work. At
the age of ten he ran away from home
4 and hired out to farmer. He was
] only thirteen years old when he went
70 work as d door boy" in the mines
al BraidWoOd
! Joined Union at Sixteen
I In 1885 John Mitchell went to the
] mines at Braceville, Ill.,, where he came
4 into first contact with the labor move
! ment which at that time was directed
I by the knights Of Labor. and he joined
! that organization at the age of sixteen.
! lie had studied at night to repair the
! defects OF his education. Restlessness
! led him TO travel from place to place,
4 mining coal in Colorado, New Mexico
] and elsewhere in the West and South
! est. Returning to Illinois in 1890 he
! became mine worker in Spring Val
ley and at once became active in the
trade union movement When the
Z United Mine Workers of America was
! organized. in 1890, he was one Of the
3 first to be enrolled as a member of his
Z district and he also served as the
! president of the knights of Labor To-
! cal in that district
) Mitchell was a great reader, espc-
I cially on economic subjects, and Her
! bert Spencer's Social States" and
bcllamy's "Looking Backward' made
! profound impression on him, in
nuenclng his views on the position of
d labor in tho community.
! At the Columbus Convention of the
United Mine Workers in January. 1898,
9 Mr. Mitchell was elected national vice
: president, and upon the resignation OF
President uatchiord The same year
: became acting president. At Pittsburgh
! in the following January he was elected
! president and reelected unanimously y
8 every year thereafter until 1908. when
i he resigned because of ill-health
: Conducted Anthracite Strike
Z Mr.. Mitchell was vice president of
s the Anne ricNn Federation Of Labor from
I 1898 to 1914 He WAS for many years a
: member Of the cAecative committee of
) the industrial department of the Ma
: tional Civic Federation end was elected
8 vice president of that body in 1905.
: When the United Nine Workers in
: convention in 1902 declared general
9 strike in the anthracite coal fields the
4