The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-03-23
By JAMES A. BAUBIE

PITTSBURGH, March 23.-A tall lean youth fresh from Scotland lost his temper one day in 1904 and knocked down the check -weighman at coal mine in Westmoreland county. Pennsylvania. N
 The miners strike that followed was ended by hunger four weeks later and young Philip Murray was railroaded out of town.
 When he got off the train at Pittsburgh, he had determined on his career as a labor leader ..is Like a School Teacher That career has made him ace or ganizer for the Committee for In- dustrial Organization--it was .Mur- ray who was able to announce un- ion recognition by the giant Car negie Illinois Steel Company. And ahead lie such huge objectives as the. coal miners wage conference and the organization of the na- tion's. industrial workers. His ambition, he says, is to see every worker in mass production industry organized into industrial unions; that is, one big union for all workers of each industry. He has approached his task by methods directly opposite from those of his chief, John L. Lewis. Lewis charges at capital bellig- |erently. Murray, resembling quiet, gray-haired school teacher, pre- Ivails with calm logic. .a.f,a.
 Took Correspondence Course
 Born in banarkshire, Scotland, he recalls the day in his sixth year that his father came home from the mine and announced a strike had been settled. The men had been granted a l2 cents a day increase which brought their daily wage to $1.65
 Ten years later William Francis Murray brought his family of 10 children to America, to begin a new life in a coal inlng community near Irwin, Pa.
 While young Phil worked in the mines, he took a correspondence course, cramming his head with mathematics, economics, mining, grammar and labor relations.
 Then came the fight.
 Murray talks about these things in careful English, his soft voice made richer by a scottish burr.
 Escapes Workers Wrath
 He started work again in Brough- ton and within year was elected President of the United Mine Workers local union in Washing ton county.
 In 1912 he was elected member of the unions international execu- tive board and turned down an of fer of $5,000 a year to become as- sistant manager of coal com pany.
 While thus definitely casting his lot with organized labor, he man. aged to escape the condemnation of the miners when his efforts on their part ended disastrously. He explains it in this way:
 Maybe it's because I don't push so hard If the union men want to know why I have acted in a certain way, just tell them what it was possible to do and what it was impossible to do. Then they can make up their own minds about me"
 Summoned by Presidents
 Lewis has not escaped the work CTS enmity so successfully.
 Loyal to Lewis, Murray has won the UMWA Presidents confidence increasingly since his own election in 1920 as vice president of the international union.
 Murray's activity has not been confined to his union President Wilson summoned him to Washing ton as a member of the National Coal Production committee in 19l7- 1918, when he also served on the National War Labor Board
 President Harding asked him to intercede in 1921 when West Vir- ginia was embattled over a coal dispute. He invited representatives of opposing sides to meet across his desk and few hours later left the meeting with peace settlement. Declined Pay Raise Murray also assisted in the prep aration of the original Davis Kelly coal bill in 1880 (for regulation of the bituminous coal industry and in the MIRA legislation and Guffey- Snyder coal bill of 1884.
 He has been on the Pittsburgh Board of Education continuously since 1919. He lives quietly with his wife and one son in a comfort able middle class home in Pitts burghs South Hills section.
 He works because he likes his job and turned down the mine un- ions recent vote to double his S9.- 900 yearly salary.