You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Friday November 20, 1914
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - A. F. of L. Gives Hefty Raises to Gompers and Morrison
Frank Morrison, A. F. of L. Secretary
Samuel Gompers, A. F. of L. President
While the striking miners of Colorado prepare to spend another cold winter living in their tent colonies, President Gompers and Secretary Morrison were awarded large salary increases by the American Federation of Labor, now meeting in convention in Philadelphia. From yesterday's
Indianapolis Star:
A. F. OF L. RAISES PAY OF OFFICERS
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President Gompers's salary Increased to $7,500 a Year Over His Protest-
Secretary to Receive $5,000.
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FEDERAL ACTION IS URGED
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Convention Asks Wilson to Insist on Acceptance
of Government Plan of Settlement by Colorado Operators.
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PHILADELPHIA Pa. Nov 18-The American Federation of Labor, in annual convention today, unanimously adopted a resolution calling upon the President of the United States to insist that the Colorado coal operators immediately comply with the Federal plan of settlement of the strike in that state, and
in the event they refuse that he take such steps as are necessary to have a receiver appointed for the purpose of taking over the mines affected and operate them in the interest of the people, under Federal supervision, until such time as the civil and political rights of the people are established.
The convention also adopted aa resolution raising the salary of the president of the federation from $5,000 to $7,500 a year and that of the secretary from $4,000 to $5,000. President Gompers before the matter was put to a vote asked the delegates not to vote the increase.
With regard to the trouble within the ranks of the organized mine workers in Montana, the convention instructed the executive council of the federation to use its efforts to bring about peace.
Retirement Law Favored.
Other resolutions advocated improvements in the Federal steamboat inspection service and favored a retirement law for superannuated Federal employes
In connection with the approval by the committee of the executive council's action in supporting the immigration bill before Congress containing the literacy test the committee submitted the following to the convention
Your committee desires to call your attention to and impress upon you the almost assured certainty that the cessation of the present war in Europe will be followed by a flood of immigration from these military dominated countries such as the world never witnessed in the change of a people from one home to another. The war itself has done away with the sophistries that were used for years to support the military establishments of the great nations of Europe and the people thereof can no longer be deceived by the fallacious arguments that have been now so thoroughly exploded.
It is the duty of the workers of America to see to it that they be protected in every possible way to the end that they will not be forced into competition with these bits of wreckage tossed on our shores or left stranded in Europe when the wave of war recedes.
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OFFICERS OF THE UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA
MEET WITH PRESIDENT WILSON AND HIS SECRETARY OF LABOR
From yesterday's Vancouver Daily World:
REPRESENTATIVES OF MINERS WAIT FEDERAL ACTION
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Mine Workers Officials at White House with Secretary of Labor
F. J. Hayes, James Lord, Secretary William B Wilson, J. P. White, William Greene, J. R. Lawson
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19.-Three officials of the United Mine Workers of America, fresh from the American Federation of Labor convention in Philadelphia, where a resolution was adopted calling on the federal government to put the Colorado mines into a receivership unless the operators accept the pending plan for settlement of the strike, conferred with President Wilson today at the White House.
The delegation, including John P. White, President; William Greene, secretary-treasurer; and F. J. Hayes, vice-president of the mineworkers, were accompanied by Secretary Wilson, of the department of labor, who has had charge of the negotiations to bring about a settlement.
Recently it was said the president was investigating the legality of a proposal of some labor leaders that their government close the mines. Protests against such action were received from the representatives of the operators and it was denied at the White House that such a plan was being considered.
The labor leaders presented the Colorado mine strike resolutions of the Philadelphia convention to president Wilson, but did not discuss them and it was said the president listened attentively while the officials gave their views on the situation.
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[photograph added]
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SOURCES
The Indianapolis Star
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Nov 19, 1914
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Vancouver Daily World
(Vancouver, British Columbia)
-Nov 19, 1914
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Frank Morrison & Samuel Gompers
http://explorepahistory.com/...
United Mine Workers Officials at White House
http://www.loc.gov/...
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More on Wages: Union Leaders and the Union Rank & File
Colorado Strikers Living in Tents
From "Historical Background for the 2003 Colorado Mock Trial Competition"
from Colorado Bar Association web site:
The miner’s wages were no different from wage scales elsewhere in the country. But, unlike other lines of work, mining was seasonal. Few miners worked more than 200 days a year. In 1913, the average gross wage for the state’s coal miners was no higher than $3.50 per working day. From this were deducted fixed charges for blacksmithing, explosive powder, and medical expenses, these levied at one dollar a month. The take-home pay ran about $1.68. And from that were deducted the bill at the company store for food and a few clothes and rent for his house. Caught in a never-ending circle of debt, the miners grew desperate.
Some thoughts on the subject from Mother Jones:
Mother Jones with Strikers' Child
The early days of the labor movement produced great men. They differed greatly from the modern labor leader. These early leaders sought no publicity, they were single minded, not interested in their own glory nor their own financial advancement. They did not serve labor for pay. They made great sacrifices that the future might be a bit brighter for their fellow workers...
Many of our modern leaders of labor have wandered far from the thorny path of these early crusaders. Never in the early days of the labor struggle would you find leaders wining and dining with the aristocracy; nor did their wives strut about like diamond-bedecked peacocks; nor were they attended by humiliated, cringing colored servants.
The wives of these early leaders took in washing to make ends meet. Their children picked and sold berries. The women shared the heroism, the privation of their husbands.
In those days labor's representatives did not sit on velvet chairs in conference with labor's oppressors; they did not dine in fashionable hotels with the representatives of the top capitalists, such as the Civic Federation. They did not ride in Pullmans nor make trips to Europe.
The rank and file have let their servants become their masters and dictators. The workers have now to fight not alone their exploiters but likewise their own leaders, who often betray them, who sell them out, who put their own advancement ahead of that of the working masses, who make of the rank and file political pawns.
Provision should be made in all union constitutions for the recall of leaders. Big salaries should not be paid. Career hunters should be driven out, as well as leaders who use labor for political ends. These types are menaces to the advancement of labor.
[photograph added]
SOURCES
"Historical Background for the 2003 Colorado Mock Trial Competition"
Colorado Bar Association
http://www.cobar.org/...
The Autobiography of Mother Jones
-ed by Mary Field Parton
Charles H Kerr, Chicago, 1925
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/...
IMAGES
Zanatell Family Living in Forbes Tent Colony
http://gazette.com/...
Read more at http://gazette.com/...
Mother Jones with Strikers Child
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/...
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A Miner's Life- Kilshannig
Stand up tall and stand together;
Victory for you prevails.
Keep your hand upon your wages
And your eye upon the scale.
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