John
Mitchell was
born in Birdwood, Illinois, on 4th February, 1870. Orphaned at the
age of six he was brought up by a strict Presbyterian stepmother.
The family were poor and at the age of fifteen Mitchell was working
as a coal miner in Colorado. He joined the Knights
of Labor in 1885 before leaving for the United
Mine Workers of America (UMWA) five years later.
After marrying Katherine O'Rourke, a miner's daughter, in 1891, Mitchell
used the local library to teach himself history, law and economics.
He became increasingly active in the UMWA
and in September, 1898, became its president.
Mitchell led the Anthracite Coal Miners strike in 1902 and was successful
in uniting immigrants from various
different European countries during the struggle for improved
pay and conditions. He received much praise in the way he conducted
the strike and President Theodore Roosevelt,
who became involved in the negotiations, described him as a "real
gentleman".
In 1903 Mitchell published his book, Organized
Labor, where he argued that the prosperity of the
capitalist and the worker was linked and it was possible to develop
a harmonious relationship between the two groups. Some union members
criticised Mitchell for his lack of radicalism and in 1908 he resign
as president of UMWA.
The author of The Wage
Earner and His Problems (1913),
Mitchell served as chairman of the New York
State Industrial Commission (1915-19).
John Mitchell died on 9th September,
1919.
(1)
John Mitchell, Organized Labor (1903)
No one can understand the true nature
of trade unionism without understanding the industrial revolution
and what it is accomplished. The history of mankind has been more
virtually affected by changes in its machines and its methods of doing
business than by any action or counsel of statesmen or philosophers.
What we call the modern world, with its huge populations, its giant
cities, its political democracy, its growing intensity of life, its
contrasts of wealth and poverty - this great, whirling, restless civilization,
with all its vexing problems, is the offspring merely of changed methods
of producing wealth.
The condition of workmen in the textile and other factories was incredibly
bad. The day's work was constantly lengthened, in some cases to fourteen,
sixteen, and more hours, and while not difficult, the labor was confining
and nerve-wearing. There was little provision for the safety of the
workman, and terrible accidents were a matter of daily occurrence
in the crowded mills and factories. Periods of feverish activity,
during which men were worked beyond the limit of human endurance,
were succeeded by still more harassing periods of depression, when
thousands of men were thrown into the street.
The labor organization as it exists today is the product of a long
evolution. The constitution of the trade union, its by-laws, its customs
and traditions, its practices and policies have all been the result
of a gradual working out of particular remedies for particular problems.
The constitution of the trade union, moreover, has been evolved by
and through the efforts of workingmen. The trade union is a government
of workingmen, by workingmen, for workingmen, and the framers of its
constitution have been workingmen.
(2)
John Mitchell, Immigration and the Living Wage (1913)
Formerly, the great majority of
immigrants came from England, Ireland, Germany, and the Scandinavian
countries, from countries, in other words, where conditions of life
and labour were, to some extent, comparable to those of the United
States. At the present time, the source of immigration shifted from
northern and western to eastern and southern Europe, and from men
with a higher to men with a lower standard of living. The illiteracy
of the immigrant has become more pronounced. This illiteracy, amounted
in some cases to sixty-five to seventy-five per cent, debars the newly
arrived immigrant from many trades, makes it more difficult for him
to adapt himself to American conditions and American manners of thought,
and renders it almost inevitable that he fall into the hands of the
sweater and exploiter. The practically unrestricted immigration of
the present day is an injustice both to the American workingman, whether
native or foreign-born, and to the newly landed immigrant himself.
As a result of this practically unrestricted and unregulated immigration,
the congestion of our large cities is so intense as to create abnormally
unhealthy conditions. The average immigrant from eastern and southern
Europe brings with him from eight to ten dollars, which is about the
railroad fare from New York to Pittsburg and is hardly sufficient
to support him for two weeks. It is inevitable, also, that he remain
where he lands and take the work offered him on the spot.
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