You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Tuesday December 15, 1903
From The Hutchinson News: Frick Coke Company to cut wages by 17%.
H. C. Frick Company leads the Movement and Others Follow suit.
First Big Cut Since the Big Strike of Ten Years or More Ago
Connelsville, Pa., Dec. 15-A reduction in wages averaging 17 per cent and affecting 30,000 men in the Connelsville coke regions was announced today. The H. C. Frick Coke Company took the initiative in this, the first reduction since the great strike of the early '90s, and today posted polices at all their plants announcing the reductions.
The new rate is somewhat above the basis of the former coke scales and indicates that Frick intends to make a stand for something like a $2 minimum price for furnace coke, notwithstanding the fact that many sales have been reported below that figure. Simultaneously all company stores of the Frick and allied companies announced a general cut in the price of goods.
SOURCE
The Hutchinson News
(Hutchinson, Kansas)
-of Dec 15, 1903
More on Henry Clay Frick
http://explorepahistory.com/...
See also: Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
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Monday December 15, 1913
From the El Paso Herald: Colorado Federation of Labor Convention Begins Tomorrow.
COLORADO LABOR UNIONS TO CONSIDER SYMPATHETIC STRIKE
Denver, Colo., Dec, 15.-Labor delegates from all over Colorado were arriving in Denver today for the state labor convention which opens tomorrow. The convention was called by the executive committee of the Colorado state federation of labor, and its purpose is to discuss a proposal to call a state wide labor strike, in sympathy with the striking United Mine Workers of America.
John P White, Pres
UMWA
International president White and international secretary Green, of the United Mine Workers, arrived in Denver today from Indianapolis.
Louis Tikas, alias "Louie, the Greek," alleged leader of the Ludlow striking coal miners in attacks made upon nearby camps, was released from custody at Trinidad by the military authorities today. Tikas was examined by the military commission who recommended that he be detained indefinitely. Tikas left at once for Ludlow.
SOURCE
El Paso Herald
(El Paso, Texas)
-of Dec 15, 1913
Photo: John P White
http://www.umwa.org/...
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Sunday December 15, 2013
More on John P White, UMWA President, 1911-1917:
John Phillip White (February 28, 1870-September 21, 1934) was a miner and president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) from 1911 to 1917.
He was born in Coal Valley,Rock Island county, Illinois, in 1870 and went to work in the mines as a teenager before moving with his family to Iowa. He joined the United Mine Workers and was eventually elected District 13 secretary-treasurer in 1899. He became the district president from 1904 to 1907 and again from 1909 to 1912. He was elected an UMWA international vice president in 1909, serving for two years.
He was elected president of UMWA in 1911 after pledging to unite the union's warring factions. It is generally concluded that he was successful.
SOURCE John White (unionist)
http://en.wikipedia.org/..._(unionist)
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Hold the Fort-One of Labor's Oldest Songs
Hold the fort for we are coming-
Union men, be strong.
Side by side we battle onward,
Victory will come.