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Show The Man Mitchell. ONE of the most significant events in history indeed, we doubt if there is any parallel came off at Wilkesbarre one day this week. Over 600 delegates, representing more than 100,000 mine workers, when it came to a vote declaring the great strike off, made that vote decisive with a unanimous unani-mous yes, not one man voting no. Of course, there were objections to some of the features proposed in the scheme of arbitration, and this found expression ex-pression in debate before the vote was taken. It would be strange to find in such a large gathering everybody of the same mind. But when the final test came, all were of one mind, and the greatest strike in history was practically" won for the miners. The wonder does not end here. It is continued in the reflection that some great p6wer must have produced such a singular result, some magnetism attracting at-tracting and controlling such an army of untutored workers, endowed with all the bitter passions and resentments which their environments fed. The man Mitchell may content himself with being a leader of such men, may even feel that he is God's servant in repressing re-pressing their inclinations to visit vengeance ven-geance on their oppressors. His honest hon-est face' carries . out such a thought. But if Mitchell should decide upon a life of politics, who is to say that he could not reach anything for which he stretched out his hand? He is not so lowly born as was Abraham Lincoln; his opportunities for acquiring knowledge knowl-edge exceeded those of the emancipator. Circumstance made Lincoln, and circumstance cir-cumstance is making Mitchell. Will he take advantage of that tide which, taken at the flood, leads on to fame and fortune? He" may not, and we hope not, because be-cause one misstep would plunge him into the grave of the labor politician. Oblivion is written in the footsteps of Powderly and. others who abandoned the cause of labor for one of profit and expediency. We could love Mitchell Mitch-ell more as the emancipator of the miner and the idol of his class than we could venerate Mitchell as the president pres-ident of the United States. And yet, in all respects, he has the stuff in him to be a president. |
