Show i THE SALT SALT LAKE TEk TELEGRAM Ri M FORMER FORMER COAL OAL MINER I ASSUMES CHARGE OF I U. U S. S WIRE SYSTEMS SY STEMS By United Press W WASHINGTON July 31 nine Forty nine Forty years old unusually small In stature energetic optimistic unschooled former coal miner lawyer and politician cian that's clan that's David J. J Lewis who at midnight tonight assumes the responsibility responsibility of administering the great wire systems of the country under government control Ills His life now crowned with one of the greatest tasks of our our government has been for the most part one of toll toil He learned the point of view of labor when for fourteen years he mined coal He lie learned the wire business business business busi busi- ness from the ground up by studying study study- ing lug it for many years Today he Is charged with applying his knowledge knowledg of the worker to his views views' on wire operation operation operation op op- op- op to develop an efficient system that will bring a about out the realization of his government wire control dreams WAS CHILD SLAVE Lewis at the age of 7 went to work in a coal mine in Clearfield county Pennsylvania his birthplace His parents Welsh immigrants were poor and needed his help fP so he shouldered pick and shovel shovel Tittle little Tittle ones his father made for him him and and marched to work with l his hid ig father After four years at this he be ran aw away y from home his mother having died He became breaker boy at anthracite anthracite anthracite an an- mines and at the Ithe age of 16 a contract miner the youngest In th the district When he was 20 he was working in fire clay lay mines at Mount Savage Md lid NEWSPAPER MAN HELPS It was a a. newspaper man who then stepped In and changed his career Lewis was a fluent speaker a a thing he learned from his father who had 1 been a Welsh Baptist Ba preacher He went to Cumberland as a labor delegate and after speaking there a newspaper man said to him You should b be a lawyer and not a coal miner The idea appealed to the young man and he was introduced to B. B A. A I Richmond a lawyer who gave him hima a copy of Blackstone lie Ile read th the 6 O pages s in a week But It t took ok only a minute to convince him he knew little He could read but not write and of Latin he knew nothing So he started the study of Latin and of law and kept at it day day and and night I for tor four years Then ho he Was vas vas ad ad- admitted admitted to the bar and with little money and tow few friends began practice practice pra tice at Cumberland I FIGHT ON RAILWAYS RAILWAYS iUs Ills His studies led Him liim into the th field of economics and he read every book he could lay hands On n. n When the fight against the railroads was Und under underway underway l way in the nineties he- he prepared he prepared pr pared a brief brier in favor of nationalization which I went through three thirty editions Lewis was a Republican but changed his his' views and joined the Democrats then in a minority In 1908 he was nominated for congress congress congress con con- gress as a forlorn hope and ran I against his law la partner He Ifo put up such a spirited campaign that his election followed In ll the next e next campaign cam- cam I VOne V j One of the biggest jobs he did In congress was In In- connection with the J parcel post flaw Fri Friends rids say he read every bit of literature b e languages Finding fundamental theories the rIes lackIng lacking lack lack- Ing he evolved his own from the mass of of data he collected STUDY OF WIRES Then Tl iI fie he started intensive intensive- study tudy of ot wires wire's s a subject that had previously Interested him and arid for two years read and st studied th the experience of Europe A At the end of or th that t time he believed he had learn learned d all he could of the subject and began his fight tight In congress for federal control Wires Vires I he said and still believes believes are natI I and are a natural natural natural nat nat- ural mon monopoly polY and and should not be in private hands hands hands' The the house was was' willing to to adopt his Ideas so ran for the the h hope pe that he might convert that body But he was defeated and later was vas appointed to the tariff commission by President President President dent Wilson When the government recently government recently assumed assumed assumed as as- control Lewis loomed as the theman theman theman man best acquainted with the question question question ques ques- tion which arose and his hIs hIs' selection was Inevitable ble |