JOHN MITCHELL (1869 THE COAL MINER'S ADVOCATE F the representatives of the workingmen at the opening of the twentieth century none was more zealous for the advancement of his fellow-artisans, or more widely known to the people alike of America and Europe, than John Mitchell, President of the United Mine Workers, and leader in the great strike of the anthracite coal miners in 1902, the most famous event of the new century in the world of industry. A miner himself-he entered the mines of Illinois at the age of thirteen-Mitchell early joined the Knights of Labor, studied at night to gain what education he could, read all the books he could find on sociological subjects and, in every way available, fitted himself for his future career. His native powers and genius for organization told. Joining the United Mine Workers in 1890, when twenty-one years of age, he was made vice-president of the organization in January, 1892, and president in the following January. This presidency which he has held for so many years is of an organization of over 300,000 members. He led the soft coal miners successfully through the great strike of 1897, and the hard coal miners through that of 1902, and is looked upon by working men and capitalists alike as a genius in organization and a Napoleon in the management of an industrial convulsion. As an orator, Mr. Mitchell is not given to the passionate declamation so commonly indulged in by popular leaders, but confines himself to logical treatment of the question at issue, expressed in language so simple that even the breaker boys of the mine can follow him with interest and understanding. He is always cool and self-possessed, never permits himself to become flustered or thrown into a passion, and in all the difficult situations arising from the great coal strike, conducted himself in a manner to win the respect and admiration of his adversaries. Mr. Mitchell's oratory scarcely appertains to the present section of our work, but as the youngest of American public speakers who has won a reputation, we deem it advisable to place him here at the end of the American section of our work. AN APPEAL FOR THE MINERS [On Labor Day, September 1, 1902, John Mitchell addressed an immense audience of workingmen at Washington Park, a place of public resort near Philadelphia. As a favorable example of his oratorical manner, we append his address on that occasion.] This day has been decreed as labor's special holiday, and from one end of the country to the other the great hosts of labor have assembled and are reviewing the struggles of the past and preparing for the struggles of the future. The year just closed has been unprecedented in the growth of the trades union movement, and of independent thought and action. But new problems have arisen which will tax our greatest strength to solve. We have this year government by injunction and ownership by Divine right in the most accentuated form. If one of the most conspicuous among the capitalists properly represents the sentiment of his associates, then we must take it for granted that they believe that God in His infinite wisdom has given into their hands all the resources of our country. As a boy I was taught to believe that God loved all His people alike; that He conferred no more power or privileges on one than on another. And, notwithstanding the declaration of the controllers of the trusts, I am not prepared to abandon the teachings of my mother and my Sunday-school teacher. Every year sees some struggle of the workers that stands out conspicuously. This year it happens that the coal miners of Pennsylvania are engaged in a life and death struggle for the right to live. The struggle of the miners is the greatest contest between labor and capital in the history of the world, not only because of its magnitude, but because of the issues involved. The miners are fighting for rights guaranteed by our country and exercised by their employers. They are engaged in a life and death struggle, trying to gain sufficient to enable them to take their children of tender years from the mines and the mills and send them to school, where, as American children, they belong. I want to repeat to you what I said in a speech in Wilmington: Had the Coal Trust known that it had to fight the American people to beat the miners, they would never have engaged in this fight. I have an abiding faith in the American people. Once they believe that a wrong has been perpetrated the heart of the people goes out in sympathy, and they see that the wrong is righted. If my reception in Philadelphia and here represents the sentiment throughout this country, and I believe it does, then, my friends, the coal miners cannot lose. I am not one of those who believe that the loss of the miners' strike will destroy the trades union movement; but I do believe it would give to unionism the most severe shock it has had in many years. The history of the inception and progress of the strike is known to all of you. It is indelibly impressed upon the hearts of the workingmen of the country. It is unnecessary to review that now, but I want to say that this struggle was not started until we had exhausted every conceivable means of settlement. The struggle would not have been inaugurated or continued if the operators had consented to conciliation, mediation or arbitration. They have turned a deaf ear to all. Now we must win or be crushed. To win this strike we must have the assistance of our fellow-workers and of all generous citizens. It is much more pleasant to give than to receive. I should be much happier if I could come here and say that the miners' union had hundreds of thousands of dollars to give away, rather than ask you to help feed the families of the men. As it is, we are compelled to appeal to workingmen and to the public to give us a small portion of their earnings to keep our people from starving. I believe the time is not far distant when workingmen will know how to solve this problem. I am free to say that my own views have been somewhat changed since this strike started. Workmen know that I have been identified with every peace movement that might help the workers. I am not prepared to say that they always will be failures, but they will be failures as long as employers will not listen to reason and the truth. I look forward to the time when the wage earners will take their proper place; when those who build the mansions will not live in hovels; when the men who build the lightning express and the parlor cars will not walk from station to station looking for work; when those whose labor erects the buildings whose spires reach heavenward will not have to pass by the doors because they are too ragged to enter. I stand for the solidarity of the trades union movement. I hope to see the time when no man who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow will be outside of his trade union, when the workers of our country will take possession of their own. EUROPEAN ORATORS BOOK I. ORATORS OF GREECE AND ROME BOOK II. PULPIT ORATORS OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE BOOK III. ENGLISH ORATORS OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD BOOK VI. THE PULPIT ORATORS OF GREAT BRITAIN BOOK VII. ORATORS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION BOOK VIII. NINETEENTH CENTURY ORATORS OF FRANCE BOOK IX. ORATORS OF SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE BOOK I. Orators of Greece and Rome HE history of oratory is as old as the written THE of actual discourses we must come down to the literature of the classic age, the period of Greece and Rome. And of the orators of this age, the public utterances of very few have been preserved in their original form. Of the speeches of Pericles, the earliest famous orator of Athens, we have only the version to be found in the works of Thucydides; while the dying speech of Socrates, as given by Plato, was probably invented by Plato himself. It is the same in Roman literature, most of the speeches we possess being the versions given in historical works, such as those of Livy, Sallust and Tacitus, who either invented or modified them to suit their own tastes. Those were not the days of stenographic reporters, and only those orations had a fair chance of future existence which were written out carefully by the orators themselves. Of extemporaneous speakers, the historical recorders may have given the burden of what they said, but scarcely the verbal form. In the case of the most famous orators, however, including Lysias, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Æschines, and some others of Greece, and Cicero of Rome, the orations were written before they were spoken, and were heedfully preserved as part of the literary productions of their authors. Many of these have come down, in their original form to the present time, and translations of them have been made which closely preserve the spirit of the original. Our selections are made from these translations. 394 |