To Help The Miners Families

TO HELP THE MINERS FAMILIES 

Mass Meeting of Labor Unions Last Night.

Good Speeches Made

Collection Taken For Miners Families-Strike Ended But Suffering Still Continues.

  The mass-meeting at the armory Monday night did not bring out as large a crowd as the worthiness of the cause for which it was called warranted. There was, quite an attendance of the union men of the city, and it is evident that Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti will do their share towards relieving the destitution in the mining regions growing out of the prolonged strike and the consequent suffering in the families of the unemployed. Those who we not present  who have not been called upon their contribution to the committee through the Argus if they so desire.

   President Fay, of the Federated Labor Union stated the purpose of the meeting and called upon Mayor Copeland to preside. The mayor said he considered it an honor to preside over meeting called for such a purpose and lie only regretted that more were not present to add their mite to the good pause. He presumed that the reason there were not ignore present was that people looked upon the strike as ended and did not stop to think that the suffering from the long abstention from work was not much relieved by the ending of the strike. He called upon David A. Hammond to speak.

  Mr. Hammond stated his sympathy with the purpose of the meeting. He considered it fitting that our substantial sympathy should be expressed tot those who suffered for the cause of better living for the miners, and wives and children. In all great movements like this one those who suffered most were the wives and the children of whom the world hears the least.  But it is true in all great movements no important victories are won over any considerable advance made without this attendant suffering. But in this, the great victory organized labor has won over organized greed is worth to the cause labor all that it has cost. Labor is to be congratulated not only upon victory but also on the wisdom it displayed in placing at the head of the United Mine Workers of America such a great man as John Mitchell has proven himself to be. Though 15 of the best years of his life had been spent in the work of a common miner, and although he lacked the education and the training of the schools, John Mitchell is still an educated man and able to cope with the best intellects that the millions back of the coal mining concerns have been able. He has not only in all relations proved himself a gentleman, but also a man possessed of greater powers than any of those pitted against him. Chances of success or failure seemed to be even up to the time of the conference with the President but there the coal operators destroyed their chances by their arrogance and their insulting language to the President: This had aroused public sentiment which had become so insistent that the operators were forced to concede arbitration. He paid a tribute to President Roosevelt and his courage in stepping outside of established precedent to take the cause of suffering people. The victory was not only for the mine workers in general the great mass of the people. It meant that organized labor in the time to come would be a more important factor not only within its own sphere of activity  public affairs in general, that it is destined to be an important factor in bringing government back to the people.

     He spoke of the influence of the high paid employees of big corporations in influencing nominations and legislation. He spoke of the advocacy of the initiative and referendum by the labor organizations as a recognition of the necessity of such legislation in order that the people may n the direction of public affairs in their own hands.

  An important lesson that all labor organizations should learn from this successful battle for their rights is the absolute necessity of putting at the head of their organizations the ablest and most conservative men within their ranks and then following their leadership. He closed with an appeal to those present to aid to the extent of their ability the suffering mine workers and their families.

   Judge H. Wirt Newkirk commended President Roosevelt and also the miners for putting a man of such great ability as Mitchell at their head. He detailed the causes which led up to the strike.  He told of the miners lives, of their hardships and of what he himself had seen in the mine regions, and now the lives of the mine workers and their families were narrowed and dwarfed by conditions which surround them.  He told of the great loss of life and limb in this employment.

   In the course of his very interesting speech, Judge Newkirk said that it was not a crime to be a millionaire but some rich men think that the men who work with their hands have no rights they are bound to respect.

   Col. John P. Kirk said he was a firm believer in labor organizations and labor unions.  He said that he had recently been employed as arbitrator in several cases where if the men had gone to their employers as individuals their heads would have been chopped off before midnight.  The non-union man must fight his battles single handed.  Today the vast combinations of capital cab only be met by strong labor organizations.  He said that the great majority of the men enlisted in the recent war came from the labor classes.  They were not forgetful of their duty to their country in time of peril and they ought not now to be forgetful of members of this class when they are in need of aid.  He thought the miners ought to have wages enough for comfortable homes, to enable them to send their boys to school rather than out to work in knee britches and enough to keep their girls out of the factories until they were old enough to distinguish between right and wrong.  He told of the laws of Pennsylvania, made by the mine operators, under which the miners families could not recover for loss of life, or the miners for loss of limb.

   Rev. Henry Tatlock said the purpose of organization is the development of the individual, to help each one of you to develop the highest and best that is within you.  Are strikes caused because wages are not as high as formerly, or because the hours are longer?  No, they are caused because we want to live better live than formerly; we are not content to be mere machines; we want more freedom from the necessity of toil and labor.

   Rev. Mr. Neumann expressed his sympathy with the miners.

   Mayor Copeland announced that the Current Topics club of the Y.M.C.A. had postponed Prof. Thompson's lecture on the Legal Aspects of the Coal Strike until next Monday so as not to interfere with this meeting.  The mayor also said that an active committee was soliciting funds for the suffering families of the miners and a collection was taken up for that purpose.