Battlefields of France, The

DESCRIPTION: "I'm proud to say I'm from P. A. where the mining boys are loyal." They work hard in the mines and "love the flag of liberty." The singer recalled the work of John Mitchell, Hayes, and White. He cheers for Wilson, and says the boys are fighting in France.
AUTHOR: Patrick J. "Giant" O'Neill (1863-1936) (source: Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch)
KEYWORDS: war mining nonballad labor-movement
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1902 - Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 280-281, "The Battlefields of France" (1 text)
NOTES [554 words]: For another song by Patrick J. O'Neill, see "The Hard Working Miner."
For a song with even more about President Woodrow Wilson, see the notes to "President Wilson."
The three leaders mentioned in the song, John Mitchell, Hayes, and White, are all United Mine Workers of America presidents: John Mitchell (president 1899-1908), Frank Hayes (president 1917-1919), and John Phillip White (president 1911-1917).
Hayes and White were the immediate past and incoming presidents of the UMWA at the time the United States became active in World War I, so it's no surprise to see them listed. But why Mitchell? The mention of 1902 is the clue. Weir/Hanlan, pp. 318-319, report:
"At one time one of the most beloved leaders of the UMWA, Mitchell's popularity was rooted in his familiarity with the hard work and poverty that confronted coal miners. He was born in the tiny coal patch of Braidwood, Illinois... Mitchell was orphaned at age six and was raised by his stepmother. He had to work to support his siblings and stepmother, thus his schooling in Braidwood public schools was meager. He entered the coal mines when he was twelve, joined the Knights of Labor in 1885, and spent time as an itinerant miner in the Southwest and West before drifting back to Illinois."
He joined the UMWA in 1890 and proved an apt organizer. He even managed to reduce the ethnic tensions which had so afflicted coal miners in the past (many of the Molly Maguire conflicts, e.g., had been poor Irish mine workers attacking more senior Welsh miners). By 1895, he was an official of the Illinois UMWA, by 1897 he became an international Vice President. In 1898 he became acting UMWA president, and in 1899 he gained the official title. In the next nine years, he would increase UMWA membership roughly nine-fold, to about 300,000.
"Mitchell's greatest success came in the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, which lasted from May 12 until October 23. During his travels through the anthracite region, the thirty-two-year-old Mitchell earned the trust and respect of the miners, who referred to the labor leader as 'Johnny d,Mitch.' mining families placed Mitchell's photograph in their homes next to religious icons and prints. The labor dispute was highlighted by the intervention of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was forced to act in response to a developing coal shortage. Mitchell and the leading coal operators were summoned to the White House on October 3 for a negotiating session. Mitchell's courteous conduct during the sessions provide sharp contrast to the arrogance of the operators and disposed Roosevelt to favor the miners. While the miners did not get all the wanted, they achieved substantial gains that included wage increases and limited Union recognition." According to Lindermuth, p. 144, President Roosevelt's arbitrators more or less split the difference between the miners' demands (a 20% pay raise and an eight hour day) and the mine owners' refusal to grant any concessions at all: The miners got a 10% pay raise and a nine hour day. The owners did not recognize the union.
Mitchell never accomplished so much after that, and indeed got so involved in petty details that he was voted out of the UMWA presidency in 1908. But "Miners still celebrate the second Monday in April as John Mitchell day" (Weir/Hanlan, p. 319). - RBW
Bibliography

Lindermuth: John R. Lindermuth, Digging Dusky Diamonds: A History of the Pennsylvania Coal Region [N.B. this title is highly inaccurate; it's about Shamokin, Pennsylvania, and it's more a collection of anecdotes than a history], Sunbury Press, 2013
Weir/Hanlan: Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan, editors, Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, 2 volumes, Greenwood Press, 2004

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File: KMMP280

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