Labor walked into the House of Victory
through the back door.
-Mother Jones
—————
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 5, 1903
Union Recognition Not Granted by Anthracite Coal Strike Commission
From the Appeal to Reason of April 4, 1903:
The strike commission has at last rendered its verdict in the matter of the anthracite miners strike. The miners are to receive a 10% increase-they had demanded 20%-the hours are to be reduced to nine instead of eight, as demanded-but only for those who are paid by the day or week. The capitalist press makes a great adoo about the $3,000,000 which are to be paid to the miners. There were about 150,000 of them, so that each man gets about $20. The increase of wages per man per year will be about $40. On the other hand, the union has not been recognized, the coal is not to be paid by weight, and an arbitration court is to be nominated, consisting of three miners and three operators. If this arbitration court cannot agree, a special arbitrator is to be nominated by a federal judge. In other words, the capitalists have gotten the best of the miners, as usual.
[Photograph and emphasis added.
From The Minneapolis Journal of October 28, 1902:
[Thomas H. Watkins, Former Mine Owner of Scranton, Pa.
Right Rev. John L. Spalding, Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Ill.
Carroll D. Wright, United States Commissioner of Labor
Gen. John M. Wilson, Washington, Late Chief of Engineers, U. S. A
Former Senator George Gray, U. S. Judge, District of East Pennsylvania
E. E. Clark, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Grand Chief Order of Railway Conductors
E. W. Parker, Mining Engineer]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, re Anthracite Strike & Settle 1902-1903
Autobiography, Chp 8
https://archive.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/8/
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Apr 4, 1903, page 3
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/030404-appealtoreason-w383.pdf
The Minneapolis Journal
(Minneapolis, Minnesota)
-Oct 28, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045366/1902-10-28/ed-1/seq-2/
IMAGE
Drwg Anthracite Coal Comm, Denison Rv IA p3, Oct 21, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038095/1902-10-21/ed-1/seq-3/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 4, 1903
Editorial by Algie M. Simons: “The United Mine Workers’ Victory”
Tag: Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-anthracite-coal-strike-of-1902/
Tag: Anthracite Coal Strike Commission of 1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/anthracite-coal-strike-commission-of-1902/
Autobiography of Mother Jones
Kerr, 1925
Chapter 8 – Roosevelt Sent for John Mitchell
https://archive.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/8/
…..The strike was won. Absolutely no anthracite coal was being dug. The operators could have been made to deal with the unions if Mr. Mitchell had stood firm. A moral victory would have been won for the principle of unionism. This to my mind was more important than the material gains which the miners received through the later decision of the president’s board…..
I attended the hearings of the board of inquiry, appointed by President Roosevelt. Never shall I forget the words of John Mitchell as he appeared before the commission:
“For more than twenty years the anthracite miners have groaned under most intolerable and inhuman conditions. In a brotherhood of labor they seek to remedy their wrongs.”
Never shall I forget the words of President Baer, speaking for the operators:
“The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected not by the labor agitator but by the Christian men and women to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of this country.”
Never shall I forget the words of labor’s great pleader, Clarence Darrow:
“These agents of the Almighty have seen men killed daily; have seen men crippled, blinded and maimed and turned out to alms-houses and on the roadsides with no compensation. They have seen the anthracite region dotted with silk mills because the wages of the miner makes it necessary for him to send his little girls to work twelve hours a day, a night, in the factory . . . at a child’s wage. President Baer sheds tears because boys are taken into the union but he has no tears because they are taken into the breakers.”
Never, never shall I forget his closing words, words which I shall hear when my own life draws to its close: “This contest is one of the important contests that have marked the progress of human liberty “since the world began. Every advantage that the human race has won has been at fearful cost. Some men must die that others may live. It has come to these poor miners to bear this cross not for themselves alone but that the human race may be lifted up to a higher and broader plane.”
The commission found in favor of the miners in every one of their demands. The operators gracefully bowed to their findings. Labor walked into the House of Victory through the back door.
For more on the Anthracite Commission, see links below with photos:
Drwg Anthracite Coal Comm, Denison Rv IA p3, Oct 21, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84038095/1902-10-21/ed-1/seq-3/
Anthracite Coal Commission, NY Tb p1, Oct 25, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1902-10-25/ed-1/seq-1/
Anthracite Coal Commission, Deseret Eve Ns p1, Oct 27, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045555/1902-10-27/ed-1/seq-1/
Anthracite Coal Comm, Individual Photos, Names, Descriptions, Mpl Jr p2, Oct 28, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045366/1902-10-28/ed-1/seq-2/
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Working Man-The Men Of The Deeps
Lyrics by Rita MacNeil