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John Mitchell (Advocate)

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Advocate

The Resume

    (February 4, 1870-September 9, 1919)
    Born in Braidwood, Illinois
    United States labor leader
    President of the United Mine Workers of America (1898-1908)
    Founding Member of the UFW (1890)
    Author of The Workingman's Conception of Industrial Liberty (1910)

Why he might be annoying:

    He said 'the coal you dig is not Slavish coal or Polish coal or Irish coal. It's just coal.'
    He is sometimes mistakenly listed as the first president of the UMW (he was the fifth).
    He worked with Mother Jones who quickly became disillusioned with him.
    In her autobiography, Jones wrote of him: 'He had tasted power, and it finally destroyed him.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was orphaned and went to work in the mines at the age of six.
    He joined the Knights of Labor when he was fifteen.
    He helped organize the National Civic Federation in 1900.
    He was vice president of the American Federation of Labor on two separate occasions.
    He engaged in contentious negotiations with mining companies, including one in 1902 which saw President Roosevelt intervene, resulting in an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage.
    With Samuel Gompers, he was sentenced to prison for leading a strike in St. Louis, but it was overturned in a landmark Supreme Court ruling (1911).
    He was credited with helping to incorporate new members from various ethnicities and races into the UMW.
    There is a statue in his likeness outside of the Lackawanna County Courthouse in Scranton - the site of the Great Anthracite Strike of of 114,700 workers in 1902 (it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying