Miners--Labor unions

Cartoon depicting Sam Davis’s support of the Goldfield miners’ strike and lockout. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04-04

Newspaper article explaining Thomas F. Walsh’s desire to see more conservative leadership take over the mine unions so that the labor situation in Colorado can come under control. Walsh also pledges his support to President Roosevelt, Senator Fairbanks, and the entire Republican Party ticket in the upcoming election.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-26

The Portland mine has had to close, after the military arrested many of the workers. Those arrested are union members who have refused to take working cards in the mine owners’ association.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-07-20

The union organizer (known in the day as a “walking delegate”) for the Pennsylvania coal miners does a song and dance on a stage for the benefit of striking coal miners. Lurking in the shadows is a man labeled “Manager Jones.” Caption: The walking delegate in his latest popular song, — “No matter what happens, I’m always on top.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Mary “Mother” Jones and her husband George had been active in labor organizing and radical politics when, in 1900, they became active in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. She was employed for a time by the United Mine Workers, who were leaders two years subsequent to this cartoon, in the crippling strikes where President Theodore Roosevelt broke precedent and intervened, mediating between mine owners and workers. A feature of the nascent labor movement since the 1880s was the “Walking Delegate,” either a union organizer or union representative — frequently portrayed by opponents (and many cartoonists) as a corrupt, selfish, and arrogant provocateur who bilked laborers as much as fighting corporate forces. 

President Roosevelt agrees with S. S. McClure’s opinions about the Western Federation of Miners and the Big Bill Haywood case, but can only handle troops within the limits of the law.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-20

President Roosevelt informs Commissioner of Labor Wright that John H. Murphy, counsel for the Western Federation of Miners, alleges that by mob violence the miners are prevented from taking advantage of mineral land laws. Roosevelt asks Wright to have his representative in Colorado investigate the charge and report to the United States District Attorney at Denver.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-06

President Roosevelt appreciates the work that Ervin Wardman is doing and thinks his editorial on Colorado Governor James Hamilton Peabody was fine. Roosevelt insists that the World has done him a favor in publishing extracts from his speeches.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-25

President Roosevelt asks Commissioner of Labor Wright to have his agent provide a full account of the latest “mob action” in his report about the Colorado labor unrest.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-22

If President Roosevelt had the power, he would intervene in the labor disputes in Colorado and “with an iron hand put down lawlessness by the Federation of Miners on one hand, or by this Citizens Alliance on the other.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-24

President Roosevelt writes that Governor James Hamilton Peabody has “sanctioned the criminal usurpation of state sovereignty by an irresponsible mob” and asks Attorney General Moody what the best course of action is. Roosevelt asks Moody to write to Secretary of the Navy Morton about the situation with C. H. Davis.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-24

President Roosevelt encloses copies of his presidential speeches and addresses. He reminds Daniel Edgar Sickles how he has handled previous instances of labor unrest.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-17

Lyman Abbott reviewed the documents from President Roosevelt and would like to publish the letter by Assistant Attorney General Charles Henry Robb in The Outlook. Abbott explains that The Outlook published an article by a representative of the Western Federation of Miners that expressed the miners’ position in order to present both sides of the issue. The Outlook’s staff also published an editorial expressing their opinion of the Western Federation of Miners, which closely aligns with Roosevelt’s views.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-20

James H. Hawley sends Assistant Attorney General Robb a summary of the confessions given by Harry Orchard and Stephen W. Adams in relation to the murder of Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. Hawley also provides a background history of the Western Federation of Miners, claiming that its leadership has been responsible for numerous acts of violence.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-13

J. Max Barber writes to President Roosevelt in response to a letter that was published in the Miners Magazine purporting to be from Roosevelt and opposing labor unions. Barber writes that he saw the same letter published in the New York Evening Post previously, and while it was not presented as being from Roosevelt, it was “well calculated to lead the ignorant people to think that you were the author of the letter.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-28

Ray Stannard Baker writes President Roosevelt to see if the President would be willing to be interviewed, as part of a guide to the presidential candidates, about how he made his decisions in the various labor cases that have come before him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-26

Governor Peabody reports on the situation in Colorado. He tells President Roosevelt that he has the situation under control and that Roosevelt does not need to worry about political fallout or sending federal aid. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-06-09

President Roosevelt and 80,000 miners listen to Union President John Mitchell in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1905

President Roosevelt would like the Department of Justice to investigate the labor unrest in Colorado.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-08-25

Print shows an Irish American miner returning home to his wife who asks why he is later than usual, suspecting that the miners are on strike again.

Caption: Mrs. Dolan (as her husband returns at an unusual hour)–An’ yez bees on anither stroike, eh? Phat’s the’ cause this toime? Mr. Dolan (grimly)–Oh! Oi guess th’ Walkin’ Dilegate’s behoind in his rint ag’in!

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs