Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-17

until i'll health compelled him to
resign. For ten years he was at
the head of the miners organiza-
ton. During that ten years he in
creased its membership from 10000
members to $4,000; brought about
an increase in wages amounting to
almost 100 per cent; improved the
living conditions of the miners;
drove out the company stores; took
the children of tender age out of
the mines and placed them in
schools; and inculcated a policy of
keeping contracts inviolable that
won for his organization the respect
of the operators and the confidence
of the public.
What was the secret of Mitchell's
success as a leader? That he was
honest, that he was a man who
valued high his own personal in
tegrity, that he had faith in him
self and in his cause-these things
throw some light upon his success.
But perhaps the elements that con-
tributed most to his ability to con-
troll men and events are to be found
largely in the sanity of his vision
and the equability of his tempera-
ment. He was a man who had a
broad view of the other mans phil
his composition. He realized clear
ly that the actions of men are de-
termined largely by their environ
ment and the economic conditions
under which they have been train
ed.
Trade Unionism His Gospel.
The great object of his diplo-
macy as leader was to get other
men to understand his point of
view-not to disparage the points
of view of those who might be op-
posed to him. He was not a
dreamer of Utopias. He had no i'll
lusions or panaceaS. One will
search his utterances in vain for
the agitator's catchwords. He was
no builder for future social up
heavals. Like Carlyle, he believed
that "our grand business undoubt-
edly is not to see what lies dimly
at a distance, but to do what. lies
clearly at hand"
His only gospel was trade union
ism-in that he believed with the
sincerity of a religionist. 1t was
sufficient to solve all the problems
he saw confronting him. Only two
economic elements appealed to him,
the buyers of labor and the sellers
I of labor, and he sought for a COM
mon ground upon which they might
trade. The demand of the work
ingman as formulated by Mitchell,
was for IAN American standard of
living" a wage that would enable
him to maintain a comfortable,
sanitary home. with books and pic
lures, an ample supply of comfort
able clothing, sufficient quantity
of good wholesome food and extra
| money enough to send his children
to school and to lay by enough to
keep his family in time of illness
| or at the close of his industrial life.
remain wage earners, he figured,
and the aim of trade unionism was
! to obtain for them this American
standard of living"
Capital and labor, Mitchell said
once, will both be sorely tried be-
| fore they work out their proper re-
lations. I am not a Socialist and
do not believe in Socialism. I do
| not believe it would be best for
the State to own and operate its coal
mines. I am strict trade union
list. believe in progress made
slowly-by evolution rather than by
revolution.
"a Little at Time"
|
store for the American working
man, but it has to come through
no radical change in the organiza-
ton of human society. It must
come one step at a time and
through a slow, upward movement
by his own efforts. One thing al
a time and not all things at once
Is the way a better state will be
ushered in. I know there are those
who believe in an early realization
| of a new social state, where al
men are to be economically equal
But the principle that governs ouI
organization is that of trade union.
ism, pure and simple-of labor's
joint bargaining with capital fol
a fair share of that which labor
helps to produce. We believe in Sc.
curing this by peaceable means
through arbitration If possible
and, If not in this way. then by the
only remaining way left to u.s.
John Mitchell held the respec
and confidence Of the employers o.
labor as perhaps no other nationa
leader of labor has ever done. on'