bered less than eleven thousand members, one hundred and ten thousand men employed in the states named above threw down their tools, and the first great successful struggle for higher wages began. The contest continued until September 10, at which time a conference between the representatives of the United Mine Workers of America and the owners of coal properties was held which resulted in a partial settlement advancing the earnings of the mine workers an average of twelve per cent. The following January, the miners and mine owners of the central competitive coal fields, which embraces Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania, met in delegate convention in the city of Chicago and agreed that thereafter all disputes as to wages and conditions of employment should be adjusted by joint conference and conciliation rather than by resorting to the arbitrament of industrial war. The result was that an agreement was reached increasing the earnings of mine workers eighteen per cent, and reducing the hours of labor from ten to eight in the states just mentioned.

The Chicago conference of 1898 was followed by conventions in Pittsburg in 1899, Indianapolis in 1900, and Columbus in 1901. At the first two, further advances in wages and improved conditions of employment were secured for the mine workers; and it is a pleasure to record the cordial relations which now exist between these two forces, which were formerly so antagonistic. Both operators and miners concede that the adoption of this humane and business like method of adjusting all differences affecting conditions of employment is preferable to the old method of strikes and lockouts, with the consequent bitter suffering and loss of profits.

During the period in which the bituminous coal miners and operators were working out a solution of the labor problem, the anthracite, or hard coal miners of Pennsylvania, one hundred and forty two thousand in number, were suffering and chafing under the most humiliating conditions of employment conceivable. Wages were so low and employment was so irregular that parents were compelled to take their boys from school, sometimes when they were less than ten years of age, and put them to work in the breakers and the mines; and this, too, in spite of the fact that the laws of the state of Pennsyl

vania prohibit the employment of children at the mines until they have reached the age of twelve. For many years efforts had been made to organize the mine workers of the anthracite field, but owing to the struggle to establish equitable conditions of employment in the bituminous region, the miners' union was unable to concentrate a sufficient force in the anthracite district to bring about this result. During the years 1899 and 1900 further efforts were made in this direction, but the application of the blacklist, and the extreme poverty of the mine workers (which made it impossible for them to move to other fields should they be discharged), rendered the work discouragingly slow.

About this time it became obvious to the officers of the United Mine Workers of America that it would be necessary to inaugurate an aggressive movement in order to arouse from their lethargy the thoroughly subdued workers in the anthracite coal fields. With this object in view a large force of organizers was assigned to work among the anthracite miners; and by constantly mingling with them and addressing meetings, sought to revive their hopes and rekindle in their hearts the spirit of resistance which we feared would be put to the severest test before the close of the year 1900. While this agitation among the workers was in progress, efforts were also being put forth, through the United Mine Workers, to bring about a conference of representatives of the miners and the companies which operated the railroads and the coal mines of that field. But, to our dismay, the operators, feeling sanguine that their employees would not engage in a strike should one be attempted, received our overtures with ridicule and disdain. Having no alternative but to abandon the field or engage in a strike which, if participated in by all of the producers of anthracite coal, would seriously affect the industry and commerce of the eastern and New England states-provided it should be prolonged for a period of time sufficient to consume the several million tons of coal then held in reserve by the anthracite operators-we decided upon the latter course; and on September 17, the very eve of a presidential election, the most memorable struggle between capital and labor in the industrial history of our nation began,

With an organization of only eight thousand members in that field who were obligated to cease work upon the order of the miners' union; with a people the counterpart of which it would be difficult to find in any other section of this broad land-people differing widely in religious customs and observances, with racial characteristics and old world feuds dividing them-speaking so many languages and dialects that one half scarcely knew what the other half said; yet one hundred and twelve thousand men and boys responded on the first day to the call for the strike; and this number increased day by day until, when the call for resumption of work was issued, one hundred and forty thousand were idle. These men, heretofore, had never known what it was to strike in unison; one section always working while the other fought, thus making victory improbable because those remaining at work produced enough coal to supply the market and their idle brothers were ultimately starved into submission. But in this strike they seemed to be imbued with the single idea that in the struggle they must stand or fall together, and their devotion and loyalty to the organization and the principles it espoused were almost without a parallel.

No other industrial conflict of any magnitude has been characterized by such absence of rioting; it being a fact attested by the sheriffs of the several counties that fewer arrests for lawlessness were made during the weeks from September 17 to October 29, the day on which work was resumed, than for many months previous.

The successful prosecution and happy termination of this strike the first ever won by the anthracite mine workers— secured for them an advance of ten per cent in wages; a reduction in the price of powder and other supplies; the semimonthly payment of wages in cash, and tacit recognition of their right to organize. Since the resumption of work, many further concessions have been obtained and the conditions of employment materially improved through the instrumentality of their organization, which now embraces within its fold practically every man and boy employed in the mining industry in the anthracite region. And-what is, possibly, of greater concern and interest to the general public-hope