JOHN MITCHELL 319 upon the changing of economic conditions as upon the direct struggle with employers for higher wages. These earlier ideas of the situation broadened and deepened with his in- creasing years. At twenty, Mitchell was back in Illinois, at work in the mines at Spring Valley. Here the Labor Union was begin- ning to be a force, and the interest begun in the West devel- oped into a controlling motive in his life. He was made a Master Workman in the Knights of Labor. Already, how- ever, the miners felt the need of a special organization to care for their special problems. The United Mine Workers had hardly been placed in working condition before we find Mitch- ell as secretary-treasurer of a sub-district of the organization. Constant study and earnest work in behalf of the miners was recognized by them by official advancement, until in Septem- ber, 1898, he was made acting president of the organization, and the next year was made president, which office he held till 1908. Those who are active students of contemporary history will recall that the years 1900 to 1903 were years of tremen- dous import in the mining affairs of this country. In the great anthracite districts of the mining world, lying in the midst of our greatest manufacturing district and our densest population, the forces of capital and labor, as represented by mine owners and miners, were locked in what appeared to each side as a death struggle. With perfect honesty each side in the struggle believed that defeat meant total destruc- tion. The mine owners believed that defeat meant the sur- render of the control of their business. The miners believed that defeat meant a return to conditions bordering upon, if not actually similar to, slavery. Because of these somewhat exaggerated beliefs the struggle was most bitter. Gradually the public passed from the position of spectators to one of active and radical partisans. All forms of radical schemes for stopping the struggle were suggested. These ranged from a proposition to send United States troops into the coal fields to compel the miners to return to work, on the one hand.
