The Connecticut labor press., 1919-09-13

when Mr.. Mitchell became national president of the United Mine Workers of America i'll 1899 he had mastered and it seemed to those who privately interviewed him, had well nigh mem orized the works of Bentham, Mill, Walter .Fagchot, Spencer, Ruskin and Carlyle and like writers.
 His mothers death, i'll 1871, was fol-
 lowed by that of his father miner and larrher, four years later. Until 1879 the lad lived with his step-nother and at that mature age started out on the winding and sometimes tortuous road that led him to eminenCes from which he declined the profered Governorship of Illinois and the Vice-Presidency of
 the United States.
 In 1882 he began working i'll the
 mines He~earried water and tools and worked on the diggins near Braidwood in all the capacities entrusted to juVen- i1es But even then he became active in the cause of the miners not only be- coming an active member of the union but installing himself as well as the spokesman for the boys. He moved to the Bracevi1le, Ill.,, mines, and in 1885
 joined the Knights of Labor.
 For five years he travelled around the country, gaining a liberal education in unionism and meanwhile identifying himself as future power i'll organiZa- tiors of mine workers. In that year he
 settled in Spring Valley and was elected almost immediately president of the
 local assembly of the Knights of Labor. In 1891 he married Miss Katherine O'Rourke of Spring alley. In the year I receding the United Mime Workers of America had been organized and Nit oI 0f an oracle in matters concerning the coal
 industry, became the leading spirit in
 his section of the country i'll U. M. w.
 A. business.
 Mitchell studied law ard economics in his spare time and in remarkably short period was known all over the country as a convincing, well informed orator and Conferee.
 In 1896 he was secretary-treasurer of
 the Northern Illinois sub-district and
 as legislative committee chairman of the mine workers was sent to Spring
 field to boost beneficial legislation. His
 success caused great rejoicing among his fellow miners and his methods pro-
 noted vast respect for his ability. Among the measures he succeeded Ill
 having placed upon the statute records were the run-of-the-m mine law and dlICl1ulIlCIIl u lIIC dlllI-II uSI 1dW"
 Elected a member of the Illinois State Executive Board in 1897, Mitchell was appointed general organizer when the year later the United Mine Workers of America elected him national vice president. In September, 1898, he was appointed acting president by the na- tional board to succeed M. D. Ratch- ford, who resigned to become mem Der of the United States Industrial Commission. Thfee months later he was elected fourth vice-president of the American Federation of Labor. In 1900 he became second vice-president of the A. F. of L.
 It was in Pittsburgh in 1899 that Mitchell was elected president of the United Mine Workers of America, and 1n the same year he was appointed a member of the advisory council of the National Civic Federation. The suc- the labor side of the anthracite strike of 1900 and 1902 added so much to his fame that he was urged by the trade expans1onists, of whom he was the leader, to oppose the indorsing of Sam ue1 Gompers for the presidency of the A. F. of L. Mitchell however, saw no value in an internal fight such as his candidacy would inaugurate, and sac rifced any personal ambition he may have cherished so as to keep harmony within the organization.
 Tn 1904 the Republicans went into na- tional convention booming John Mitchell for the- Vice-Presidency. Mitchell, a taciturn, studious looking man with small, whimsical smile, wrote to the Re publican campaign managers that he thought he could do more for his own people in the position he then occupied than he could as President of the ]