The UMWA: Its Presidents in Historical Perspective - Part I
American labor history up to that time," marked a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers. "It was fought when the incubus of the panic was still in force, but was soon followed by a revival of business. . . . Thousands of mine workers who had withdrawn from the union, returned." As a result, Ratchford gained a national reputation as a "wise and able leader of men." At the 1898 convention, the cheering rank and file acclaimed him one of the great labor statesmen. Union membership had increased to 33,000, and the treasury contained $11,000.
Ratchford brought about other changes also. During his tenure, he called the first meeting of what later was known as the "annual joint conference of coal miners and operators of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Western Pennsylvania." One writer claims that the ongoing conference was "the main stabilizing factor in the industry for an almost unbroken period of thirty years. It was the first national agreement that any important industry in the country had made with its men."
Ratchford resigned in September 1898 to accept a position on the United States Industrial Commission. Later, he became Industrial Commissioner for the state of Ohio and held other minor political offices as well.
Ratchford's duties as president were taken over by John Mitchell, the young vice-president of the union, who carried the Union on into the twentieth century.
(To be continued)
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