It was quietly regalvanized into activity,
however, by Theodore Schaffer, who has displayed adroitness in
managing its affairs in the face of tremendous opposition from
the great steel manufacturers who refuse to permit their shops to
be unionized.
The International Typographical Union, composed of an unusually
intelligent body of men, owes its singular success in collective
contracting largely to James M. Lynch, its national president.
The great newspapers did not give in to the demands of the union
without a series of struggles in which Lynch manipulated his
forces with skill and tact. Today this is one of the most
powerful unions in the country.
Entirely different was the material out of which D.J. Keefe
formed his Union of Longshoremen, Marine and Transport Workers.
His was a mass of unskilled workers, composed of many
nationalities accustomed to rough conditions, and not easily led.
Keefe, as president of their International Union, has had more
difficulty in restraining his men and in teaching them the
obligations of a contract than any other leader. At least on one
occasion he employed non-union men to carry out the agreement
which his recalcitrant following had made and broken.
The evolution of an American labor leader is shown at its best in
the career of John Mitchell, easily the most influential trade
unionist of this generation. He was born on February 4, 1870, on
an Illinois farm, but at two years of age he lost his mother and
at four his father.
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