by trade and a Commissioner of Labor under former Governor Altgeld of Illinois, rose and said: "There is no more radical Democrat on this committee than I am. I move that Daniel R. Hanna be made a member of it. I know from what Keefe said he is all right." The invitation to join the Committee was issued and accepted. The firm of M. A. Hanna & Co. had remained true to its traditional policy of dealing fairly and generously with its employees, and for that reason one of the partners was naturally suggested as a member of a general committee on conciliation and arbitration.

Early in 1901 the Industrial Department found itself very much in need of Senator Hanna's help in order to deal with a difficult dispute in the anthracite coal trade. We have already remarked that during the campaign of 1900 Mr. Hanna used his influence with the coal operators to settle a strike which was hurting the chances of Republican success. An agreement had been made which expired on March 31, 1901, but this agreement was a temporary compromise which satisfied neither side. The Union had voted to strike on April 1, unless a more satisfactory arrangement could be made with its employers. The Conciliation Committee could not get in touch with the operators in order to make an attempt at adjustment; and remembering Senator Hanna's contribution to the former agreement, they decided to ask his assistance. They were warned that the Senator's interest in the matter might not be as keen as it was during the campaign, but they decided to take the chance. Mr. D. R. Hanna arranged a meeting with his father. Senator Hanna responded immediately. He went to New York, had a conference with Messrs. Mitchell and Keefe and decided to place the matter before Mr. J. P. Morgan. The latter turned it over to President Thomas of the Erie Railroad. Senator Hanna arranged a meeting between Mr. Thomas and Mitchell, and as a result of this conference, an agreement was reached which was to run until April 1, 1902.

During his visit to New York on this business, the plans and purposes of the Conciliation Committee of the Civic Federation were explained to Senator Hanna and immediately aroused his interest. Its program was based upon the idea that the great majority of strikes might be averted, provided conferences

could be arranged, grievances and demands fully discussed and a fair compromise embodied in some kind of a trade agreement. Such a program could not but appeal to the Senator. They were proposing to adapt to a larger field the methods of personal intercourse, which he had used in his own business and which had proved to be thoroughly practicable. Moreover, he could see an opportunity for effective work on his own part. The basis of his power was personal confidence and influence. Could not his own influence be effectively used in order to bring about these necessary and fruitful conferences between employer and employee? Later, after he had gone to Cleveland, Messrs. Mitchell and Keefe followed him thither, and spent some little time in explaining more in detail the ideas and hopes of the Committee. If there had been any hesitation left in the Senator's mind, it vanished. He not only approved, but would actively and cordially coöperate. "Boys," he said, "this looks right to me. I'll do anything you want."

During the summer of 1901 a strike occurred in some of the plants of the newly organized United States Steel Corporation. The dispute was serious, and involved both fundamental issues and a large number of men. The Conciliation Committee of the Civic Federation made several attempts to secure conferences and bring about an agreement. Mr. Hanna was intensely interested. Throughout the summer the strike and the means taken to end it bulked larger than any single subject in his correspondence. After many failures a conference was finally arranged between President Schwab and his associates and a labor committee, consisting of Gompers, Mitchell, Sargeant and others, which reached an agreement. Mr. Hanna had much to do with the arrangements for this decisive consultation, and its successful result convinced him, finally, that the Committee of the Federation was working with immediately fruitful methods. During the fall he publicly associated himself with the work.

As soon as Senator Hanna publicly identified himself with the Federation and its work, certain influential members of it, particularly Messrs. Mitchell and Keefe, proposed to make him Chairman of the Industrial Department. The suggestion provoked lively opposition. Many members of the association

were by way of being reformers, and did not approve of Mr. Hanna's political purposes or methods. They and others who personally liked the Senator were afraid that the Federation would be injured by the political prominence of the proposed Chairman, and would begin to look like an annex to the Republican National Committee. The late Bishop Potter, who had recently joined the Federation, was particularly vigorous in his opposition. Nevertheless, Mr. Hanna was chosen, and no injurious results to the Federation followed. Public opinion was coming to place a fairer estimate on Mr. Hanna's motives. The tendency of editorial comment was to consider the Senator sincere and disinterested in assuming responsibility for the most important branch of the Federation's work. In the end opponents, such as the late Bishop Potter, admitted their error. He said: "Mr. Hanna has grown up to the size of the job."

On Dec. 16 and 17, 1901, the second National Conference of the Federation was held in the rooms of the Board of Trade and Transportation in New York. It was addressed by a number of the most prominent and representative union officials in the country, and by the heads of a number of large corporations and employers' associations. In all of these speeches the program of the Federation was explicitly and cordially approved. Mr. Hanna himself made a short speech, proclaiming his confidence in organized labor, his complete approval of the methods of the Federation, and his readiness to place his own services at the disposal of the Industrial Department. The meeting was a great success, and increased the prestige of the Federation. Public comment was widespread, and approved almost without a dissenting voice. Senator Hanna was made Chairman of the Executive Committee, Samuel Gompers, first Vice-Chairman, Oscar Straus, second Vice-Chairman, Charles A. Moore, Treasurer, and Ralph M. Easley, Secretary. The membership of the general committee was enlarged to forty, one-third of whom represented the unions, another third the employers and their associations and a final third the "general public." Out of this general committee were to be selected special committees to help in the adjustment of disputes in particular trades.

From the moment this committee was organized under its

new leadership, it was involved in an effort to avoid the most serious and dangerous American industrial dispute since the Pullman strike of 1894-viz. a disagreement between the anthracite coal operators and the union of their employees, the United Mine Workers of America. As we have seen, Senator Hanna had already been personally interested in this quarrel. He had temporarily settled the strike of 1900, and had helped to prevent a strike from taking place in the spring of 1901. But the arrangement was limited to a year, and it was not to be made. permanent, unless the Union proved to the operators that it could control its members. In October, 1901, Mr. Mitchell and his district presidents had gone to New York in order to have an interview with President Thomas of the Erie Road. They wanted to discuss mutual grievances, and pave the way for a general conference at a later date. After waiting for several weeks, the committee was finally denied even a hearing by Mr. Thomas and were made indignant by being most effectually snubbed. Consequently, Mr. Hanna was called up in Cleveland and after learning the facts suggested an interview between Secretary Easley of the Industrial Committee and Mr. Thomas, which developed nothing but the expression of a determination on the part of Mr. Thomas and the other operators not to have anything to do with the Union. It was a question, they declared, whether they or the Union should control their business. Such was the situation at the time of the National Conference of the Federation.

While in New York Senator Hanna investigated the difficulty and found the operators unanimous and determined in their resolution to have nothing to do with the Union and fully prepared, if necessary, to accept the consequences of a fight to the finish. Two months later, although he could not secure a conference between the Union leaders and the operators, he did arrange a meeting between Mr. Mitchell and Mr. J. P. Morgan. The interview was inconclusive. Mr. Morgan was friendly and courteous. He promised, in case the matter ever reached him, to do "what was right," but he had not the power and he evidently had not the disposition to interfere at that stage of the controversy. Hence up to the time of the convention of the miners at Shamokin on March 18, every attempt at conciliation

made by Mr. Hanna and his association was thwarted by the attitude of the operators — which was dictated by a settled intention of ignoring the Union and breaking it. They did not want a strike. Apparently they believed that the miners would not carry hostilities that far. But the terms on which a strike was to be avoided were practically unconditional surrender on the part of the Union.

At the miner's convention Mr. Mitchell with difficulty prevented his followers from voting unequivocally for a strike. Finally it did declare for a suspension of work but upon a date to be decided by the district officers. On March 24, Mr. Mitchell telegraphed to Senator Hanna asking him, as Chairman of the Industrial Department of the Federation, to intervene on behalf of some settlement. A meeting was finally arranged between the miners, a committee of the operators, consisting of Presidents Baer, Truesdale, Thomas and Olyphant and the conciliation committee. At this conference the discussion was extremely bitter and the only result was a postponement of the threatened strike for thirty days from April 1, the operators promising in the meantime not to mine any more than the normal amount of coal.

Late in April another conference was held, the general tone of which was much more promising than that of the first interview. Both sides were still uncompromising, but an agreement was reached to continue the conference a few days later—the conferees being a committee of three operators and three representatives of the miners. This was the kind of a meeting which the operators had refused in the beginning. They even allowed Mr. Mitchell to attend the final conference, a proceeding to which they had formerly objected, because he was not one of their employees, but was a bituminous coal miner. They were beginning to understand that the national officers of a union may well be more experienced and reasonable men than the local officers.

The Committee of the Federation expected that a settlement would be reached at the new conference, and the disappointment was great when, on Wednesday afternoon, April 30, Mr. Mitchell in Reading telephoned to Mr. Hanna in Washington and reported a disagreement. The Senator refused to call the