He had been a local preacher when the Knights of Labor began to organize the coal miners. One contemporary wrote, "A formidable figure with a high domed head, eyes that shone darkly under heavy brows, and whiskers that cascaded down his chest hiding the front of his stiff, white collar, [Rae] looked more like the minister of the gospel he had once been than the leader of the mudsill workers, when he thrust a hand into the bosom of his Prince Albert and exhorted his followers to stand fast."
Historians describe Rae as a cautious man who never "took a step forward until he was sure of the ground." When he took office, he inherited a strike of coke workers trying to achieve the eight-hour day. That strike, as well as others, failed because of the economic climate of the time, and the losses drained the new union's treasury. At the 1892 convention, reporting that the miners were not ready for a mass drive for shorter hours, Rae refused to run for reelection.
John McBride, from Ohio, was elected as the second president of the UMWA. Like Rae, McBride had been present at the organizational meeting of the United Mine Workers. His father had been an ardent trades unionist, and McBride followed in his footsteps, entering the mines when he was fifteen years old. He was a charter member of Lodge No. 15 of the Miners and Laborers Benevolent Association and was its secretary until the lodge was merged into the Miners' National Association. In 1882, he helped organize the Ohio Miners' Amalgamated Association and became its president. In 1889, he became president of the Miners' National Progressive Union.
McBride also was active in politics. Elected to the Ohio State Legislature in 1884 and 1886, he had been instrumental in shaping and passing legislation that helped workingmen in his state. In 1891, he was appointed State commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
