their wages and conditions-in the city of Scranton. Then they adjourned to Philadelphia, where was heard the final testimony of the non-union mine workers, that adduced by the operators, and the rebutting testimony of the mine workers. The proceedings were concluded February 5, and adjournment was taken until February 9, to enable the counsel to prepare arguments, to the hearing of which a week was devoted.

The Commission examined five hundred and fiftyeight witnesses,-for striking anthracite workers, two hundred and forty; for non-union men, one hundred and fifty-three; for the operators, one hundred and fifty-four; and those called by the Commission, eleven. An immense mass of testimony and statistics was compiled, including a long list of alleged riots, assaults, etc., especially among Hungarians in the Lehigh Coal and Navigation territory. At the close of the hearing in Philadelphia the Commission adjourned to Washington, to consider the testimony and deliberate regarding its findings and awards.

Summed up briefly, the result of the Strike Commission was as follows:

"They awarded an increase of ten per cent. above the rate paid before the inauguration of the strike; the right to employ check-weighmen when a majority of miners wished to have them placed on the tipples; that their wages should be deducted and paid through the office of the company; that no person should be discriminated against who is not a member of the miners' union, and made provision for a sliding scale of prices to be governed by the selling price of the coal. The awards were to continue in force until the first of April, 1906."

CHAPTER XIII

RUNNING FOR CONGRESS

IT WAS one Saturday night in August, 1918. I had invited a number of leading Wellsboro citizens to meet me at the Coles Hotel, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. There were present Mr. Walter Sherwood, a leading attorney; Mr. N. R. White, Deputy Internal Revenue Collector; Postmaster O. H. Davis, Mr. H. H. Button, Mr. Harry N. Sherwood, Mr. John C. Bradley, and several others whom I cannot at this moment recall. I told the group that I was writing the story of Mr. Wilson's life, and had invited them to the hotel so that I might get from them some facts and suggestions. Of course they told me many pathetic stories about the struggles of Mr. Wilson during many, many years, and also of his most unselfish and kindly disposition through it all. But, having heard these stories before, I pushed along to more recent history.

Suddenly Walter Sherwood exclaimed:

"Well, Mr. Babson, I think we can best serve you by telling how William B. Wilson came to go to Congress. This, to my mind, is the great romance of his life. In this, he accomplished a feat which never was accomplished before, nor has it been since, the only other Democratic Representative in Congress selected from this district since the Civil War being my father, who was elected and served one term during Grant's Administration. Men, let us tell Mr. Babson that whole story about W. B. Wilson's campaign."

The group seemed much delighted with the idea, and the rest of the evening was spent in telling me facts and incidents of that campaign which still stands out as the great event of the Fifteenth Congressional District of Pennsylvania.

The Fifteenth Congressional District consisted of four counties, Lycoming, Clinton, Potter, and Tioga, the last being the county in which Mr. Wilson lived. These counties had always been Republican, and the Fifteenth Congressional District was looked upon by the Republican leaders of Pennsylvania as one of their strongholds. Moreover, the Congressmen from this district had always been men of means. They had money to spend not only in being elected, but in taking care of their constituents after the election. They had been men who continually spent more than their salaries. To run against them was something that even men of wealth dared not do. Hence, for W. B. Wilson, without a penny and with all the great corporations in the district against him, to attempt this was beyond comprehension.

The Congressman from the Fifteenth District at that time was Elias Deemer. He was then serving a third term and was a candidate for a fourth. He was a millionaire lumberman, residing in Williamsport, the largest city in the district, and owned a great deal of property and had many working for him in his lumbering operations. It was said that it would be impossible to beat him. Certainly it seemed so. Deemer had a well developed organization in every one of the four counties in the district; in fact, he had two or three strong men in each of the voting precincts in the district, and had another

corps of men traveling continuously during the campaign.

Mr. Wilson virtually faced the impossible, but he went at it with a will. He went from town to town, holding meetings and telling the people frankly what he stood for and what he would do if they selected him as their representative. He held many outdoor meetings and many meetings in grange halls and school houses. His simplicity of manner, honesty of purpose, and undaunted courage attracted many independent voters to his side, and notwithstanding that he had no funds to build up an organization or hire workers, he was elected. Truly it is a romantic story, how Wilson, a Democrat and a poor man, with everything against him, was able to defeat Deemer, a rich man and a Republican, in a strong Republican district. He was the first Democrat, as already said, with one exception, elected to Congress from that district since the Civil War.

Certainly it was a strong Republican district, for the Republicans not only controlled their own machine, but in some of the counties had a working agreement with a part of the Democratic machine as well. In fact, the Republicans of the district not only selected the man to run upon the Republican ticket against Mr. Wilson, but also attempted to select the Democratic candidate, who was defeated for the nomination by Mr. Wilson. In this way, Wilson not only had to fight for election, but also had a hard struggle to secure the nomination.

Notwithstanding the money and influence used against him, W. B. Wilson put up one of the greatest fights in the history of American politics. He never

made a promise which he could not fulfill, nor a statement which he could not prove. He never spoke an unkind word regarding his rival, nor said a mean thing about any member of either party. He ran on a straight clear promise that if he got to Congress he would work for certain labor legislation, which, although thought radical in those days, is now taken as a matter of course. Looking back upon his speeches made during that campaign, it is most interesting to see how the opinions of a nation change. He was called then a dangerous, wild-eyed radical for asking for things for which the most conservative are enthusiastic today. Still, even in those days Wilson was preferred by the rich interests of the Fifteenth Congressional District to any other labor leader of whom they knew. This was very forcibly illustrated by a statement made during the campaign by Mr. W. S. Nearing, a prominent employer of labor, who said:

"Wilson is a constructive man, a friend of capital as well as of labor, and one whom no just man need fear."

At that same conference another big business man of Tioga County said:

"I will go one better than Nearing by voting for Wilson, although I am a Republican. For when all is said and done, Wilson has done more to keep conditions peaceful in these counties than any other man in the district. It is impossible to estimate the millions of dollars in time and property which he has saved by his conciliatory methods. Had it not been for him, this district would have been so honey-combed with trouble that the mines would have been shut