In the fall of 1902 he adopted a course of action in regard to labor
disputes that, at the time, called forth much criticism, but which from
the public standpoint was soon justified.
That spring a universal strike began in the anthracite coal regions.
It was continued through the summer and early fall. The feeling
between the mine operators and the miners was very bitter, and the big
operators had banded together and refused to yield a point in their
dispute with their workers.
As winter approached a coal famine menaced the nation. In the East,
where anthracite is the principal household fuel, soft coal proved to
be a very poor substitute.
The Governor of Massachusetts and the Mayor of New York were among
the conservative men who urged Roosevelt to take action. They pointed
out that if the coal famine continued the suffering throughout the
Northeast would be alarming and that disastrous riots were liable to
occur.
Roosevelt delayed interfering as long as possible, though he directed
Carroll Wright, head of the Labor Bureau, to report all of the facts of
the case to him.
The coal operators, knowing that the suffering among the miners was
great, felt confident that if the government did not interfere, the
miners would be forced to yield. Bent on winning, they refused to see
that the rights of the people were affected.
Roosevelt saw things from the people’s viewpoint and tried to get both
sides to submit to a commission of arbitration, with a promise to
accept its decision. Under this arrangement the miners were to go to
work as soon as the commission was appointed, at the old rate of wages.
The miners, headed by John Mitchell, agreed to this proposition. The
operators refused and Roosevelt confined his efforts to securing an
agreement between the operators and the miners.
On October 3 he called the representatives of both before him. This
time Roosevelt, by sheer force of will, secured his object. The
operators obstinately held out for the appointment of a commission of
five that did not include even one representative of labor. Roosevelt
insisted that labor be represented and carried his point. Human rights
had triumphed over property rights.
When the battle was over the President stood clearly before the people
as a man who would champion them against the so-called captains of
industry when it was necessary to do so.
The President let it be known early in his administration that in
the South he would appoint good Democrats to office rather than bad
Republicans.
It was while the President was making appointments of Democrats to
office in the South, winning praise from those who had never before
praised anything Republican, that the famous Booker T. Washington
incident took place.
It had been through the help of the South that Washington had been able
to accomplish his great work as a negro educator, but this section
of the country, with the negro as a social problem very close to it,
bitterly resented Roosevelt’s dining with the colored man.
The South took it as an affront, though evidently the President had
not thought one way or the other as to the possible consequences. The
criticisms heaped upon him he ignored.
Roosevelt did not long remain in the bad graces of the Southern
people. He did not permit the South to forget that his mother was a
Georgian woman, and that her brothers had fought in the Confederacy.
The following incident illustrates the fine diplomacy with which he won
back the regard of the Southern people:
On one of his Southern trips his train stopped at Charlotte. N. C. A
committee of women led by Mrs. Thomas J. Jackson, widow of General
Stonewall Jackson, was at the depot to meet Colonel Roosevelt. When he
was introduced he referred to himself as by right a Southerner, and
then being introduced to Mrs. Jackson, he added a remark which flashed
through the South:
“What! The widow of the great Stonewall Jackson? Why, it is worth the
whole trip down here to have a chance to shake your hand,” and he
reminded her that he had appointed her grandson to a cadetship at West
Point.
The South loved a fighter, and Roosevelt put his knowledge of this fact
to good use when he went on a campaigning tour of that territory. If
there had been anything timorous about him he would have attacked the
Democracy in Minnesota, where it would be safe to do so. Instead, he
picked out Atlanta, where his audience was composed almost entirely of
Democrats.
The audience tried to roar him down. For five minutes the tumult went
on. It seemed as if the meeting could not go on. Roosevelt then made a
characteristically audacious move. There was a table near him, and he
leaped upon it. The mob was startled into stillness. Before it could
recover from its surprise, he had poured forth a half-dozen striking
sentences, and by that time his opponents were interested enough to
give him a hearing.