Mitchell, John, 1870-1919

D. Edwin Hawley shares his thoughts with Theodore Roosevelt regarding Roosevelt’s ability to be nominated for President at the Republican National Convention. Hawley has met Roosevelt before, has read everything Roosevelt has written, and has followed Roosevelt’s career from the beginning, so he feels confident in his assessment of Roosevelt’s ability to win the nomination if he remains calm and non-committal.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-16

President Roosevelt tells former Mayor Low that the idea he has suggested has already been raised by Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus and National Civic Federation founder John Mitchell. Roosevelt doubts the possibility of applying the semi-official gift from the Nobel Foundation and applying it to a private enterprise like the Civic Federation. He hopes a plan can be worked out, but notes that neither his name nor Alfred Nobel’s name should be “swallowed up in any private movement.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-20

Seth Low agrees to President Roosevelt’s arrangements to go over the plan with Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus and John Mitchell. He was also impressed by a man he met named Thomas G. Bush from Alabama, and recommends him to be a trustee of Roosevelt’s fund.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-24

John C. Delaney reports to President Roosevelt on election results in Pennsylvania. Delaney praises John Mitchell and Louis N. Hammerling for their work on the campaign.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-29

Senator Hanna had several meetings with leaders of the Anthracite Coal Strike and does not feel that there will be a settlement in the near future. He also reviews the political situation in Ohio. He hopes that President Roosevelt can attend the wedding.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-29

President Roosevelt writes to Joseph Bucklin Bishop about negotiations between the miners and operators in the Pennsylvania coal strike. He describes his plan to get the miners back to work and to set up a commission of inquiry. Roosevelt told John Mitchell to stop the violence, or he would do so. He encloses for Bishop a letter from former President Grover Cleveland.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1902-10-05

President Roosevelt thanks Joseph Bucklin Bishop for his telegram and editorial. Roosevelt discusses the commission created to look into the Pennsylvania Coal Strike and mentions John Mitchell’s acceptance as a positive action. 

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1902-10-16

A frenzy of activity is underway as many politicians and capitalists join the labor forces to construct the Panama Canal. Theodore P. Shonts, chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, is standing on the right, holding a whip, and directing the laborers. In the background, large groups of men labeled “Order of Walking Delegates, The Idle Rich, Amalgamated Aldermen, [and] Insurance Presidents Union No. 6” are waiting, with tools, to be called into action. Caption: Let our superfluous citizens do the work.

Comments and Context

S. D. Ehrhart’s expansive cartoon in Puck seized upon the news of labor challenges in the Culebra Cut portion of the Panama Canal construction, and built an elaborate cartoon-fantasy about people in politics, the social world, and finance being put to work at manual labor.

There are no political statements in the cartoon beyond the humorous juxtapositions: people doing work exactly opposite to their usual pursuits, condemned to perform duties contrary to their professions, join their enemies in everyday life back in the United States.

John Mitchell and Samuel Gompers, representing the United Mine Workers and the American Federation of Labor, are witches stirring a “dangerous brew” of labor violence in a cauldron labeled “Unionism” over flames labeled “Anti-Injunction Bill.” Steam rising from the pot is filled with threatening human figures and the words “Boycott, Mob Violence, Intimidation, Dynamite-Persuasion, Riot, Lawlessness, Anarchy, Parkism, Graft, [and] Incendiary Press.”

Comments and Context

Samuel Gompers, founder and president of the American Federation of Labor (AFofL), and John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers of America (the union was a constituent member of the AFofL), are portrayed in this famous cartoon by Samuel Ehrhart in Puck as fomenting union strikes and labor violence.

The immediate context was the labor movement’s concerted effort to oppose methods used by employers and compliant courts to end strikes by issuing injunctions. In 1904 the AFofL planned a campaign to persuade the public and lobby the federal government; in 1906 there would be important meetings with President Roosevelt, cabinet members, senators, and representatives on the issue.

John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers of America, grasps an angry bull labeled “Coal Operators’ Combine” by the horns. The cartoonist is suggesting that the bull might get the better of him.

Comments and Context

John Mitchell, a second-generation Irish immigrant, joined the fledgling United Mine Workers (UMW) in 1890 and by 1898 had risen to its presidency. He was in the forefront of the anthracite coal workers’ strike in Pennsylvania fields in 1902. The strike had national implications with winter approaching. The owners of the mines, largely consolidated under J. P. Morgan, stood firm again the miners’ demands for higher wages, a work week shorter than six days, and recognition of the UMW. Cartoonist Keppler’s perception was that of the public at large, and of history. President Theodore Roosevelt intervened in an unprecedented manner, acting as and appointing mediators. In the end, and largely due to Roosevelt’s intervention and resourcefulness, a general compromise was reached before winter; a 10 percent wage hike, a five-day work week, but not, for the time being, exclusive recognition of the UMW union.  

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Uncle Sam speaks to a destitute miner’s family as President Roosevelt can be seen lecturing John Mitchell and mine operators through the window.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-03

President Roosevelt stands between John Mitchell and various coal operators. The cartoon is regarding the presidential conference on the coal strike.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-05

Series of three cartoons covering the settlement of the Anthracite Coal Strike, from the Pittsburgh Dispatch, the Boston Herald, and the Minneapolis Journal. In the first, the “G.O.P.” elephant, with bandages on its head and leg, sits in a chair, smoking a cigar and drinking wine. Caption: Able to sit up and take a little light nourishment since the end of the coal strike. In the second, the “G.O.P.” elephant and team face “The 1904 National Campaign” with “Pres. Roosevelt’s Success in Coal Strike Settlement” in the background. Caption: Prospects not so gloomy. In the final cartoon, George F. “Baer” sits with John “Mitchell,” smoking the “Arbitration” pipe. Behind them are posters proclaiming “Coal to burn – the strike is over” and “Use the President’s arbitration brand.” Caption: His first smoke.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-26

George F. Baer and John Mitchell share a pipe labeled Arbitration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-26

President Roosevelt holds John Mitchell and a coal mine owner by their shirt collars as the crowd in the background demands coal.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-02

President Roosevelt informs Senator Quay that John Mitchell has no intention of calling off the strike and insists on a compromise.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-09-19

President Roosevelt informs Senator Quay that he has requested a meeting with the presidents of the anthracite coal companies and John Mitchell for October 3. He would like to meet with Quay at his earliest convenience.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-01

George B. Cortelyou tells Senator Hanna that President Roosevelt would appreciate his help influencing John Mitchell’s and Samuel Gompers’s cooperation and acceptance. Commissioner of Labor Carroll D. Wright thinks this would be helpful.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-06

George B. Cortelyou informs Henry Cabot Lodge, Marcus Alonzo Hanna, and Winthrop Murray Crane that Commissioner of Labor Carroll D. Wright, on behalf of President Roosevelt, presented an offer to John Mitchell that a commission of inquiry be appointed to investigate the issues between the operators and miners if the miners will return to work. Mitchell has taken the matter under consideration and no response has been received.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-07

George B. Cortelyou writes to Senator Quay to inform him that President Roosevelt has made an offer to John Mitchell and would like to meet with Quay.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-10-07