A dangerous brew
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.
