the United Mine Workers of
America, under the leadership of John Mitchell. They gained concessions
in a strike in this year, partly because the strike threatened to
disturb political conditions and embarrass the Republican national
ticket. The mine-owners, most of whom were Republicans, were persuaded
by Hanna and others to end the quarrel.

In the spring of 1902 the strike broke out again, turning largely upon
the question of the formal recognition of the union. All through the
summer John Mitchell held his followers together, gaining an unusual
degree of public sympathy for his cause. In the autumn, with both sides
obstinate, a third party, the public, took an interest in the strike.
The prospect of a coalless winter alarmed political leaders and citizens
in general. It was felt that public interest was superior to the claims
of either contestant, but there was neither law nor recognized machinery
through which the public could protect itself. At this stage, in
October, 1902, President Roosevelt secretly reached the intention "to
send in the United States Army to take possession of the coal fields" if
necessary. He called the operators and Mitchell to a conference at the
White House, spoke to them as a citizen upon their duty to serve the
public, and with rising public opinion behind him and supporting him,
forced the owners to consent to an arbitration of the points at issue.
The men returned to work, pleased with the President, to whose
interference they and the public owed industrial peace.

In 1903 another miners' union, the Western Federation of Miners,
conducted a great strike in the mines of Cripple Creek. Public opinion
in Colorado knew no middle class. The miners and the operators
represented the two chief interests of the section. Hard feeling and
violence accompanied the strike. The malicious murder of non-union men
added to the bitterness, which the presence of the militia and a series
of arbitrary arrests could not allay. The strike was complicated by the
presence among the workers of a strong element of Socialists, whose ends
were political as well as economic. The leaders of the Federation, Moyer
and Haywood, were Socialists, and for them the strike was only a
beginning of political revolution. The strike lasted until the outraged
citizens of Cripple Creek formed a vigilance committee and deported the
chief agitators to Kansas.

Socialism played an increasing part in labor discussions after 1897. A
S