John L. Lewis
John L. Lewis was born on Febuary 12, 1880 in Cleveland, Iowa. His parents Thomas Lewis and Ann Watkins Lewis originally immigrated from Wales. John only went to high school to get education for three years. Around the age of 17, John got a job at the Big Hill Mine at Lucas. While John was at Lucas working, he decided to run for mayor and start a feed and grain business. Sadly, both those great efforts to become something failed. In 1906, Lewis got a job at the United Mine Workers, where was located in Panama, Illinois. In 1909, he was elected president of the UMW business. Then in 1901 a man by the name of Samuel Gompers who ran the business AFL, hired Lewis as a full time union organizer. He traveled throughout Pennsylvania and the Midwest as the organizer and the troubleshooter for mining and steel districts.
Lewis helped Roosevelt win a landslide, but being an isolationist broke with Roosevelt in 1940. Lewis was a agressive and strong leader who won high wages by steamrolling over his opponments, which included the United States government. He built the Industrial Unions of the CIO into a political and economical powerhouse to rival AFL. For 40 years coal miners hailed him for being a dictator who brought high wages and benefits.
Sources:
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Lewis
http://http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/history/history/lewis.cfm
http://http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlewisJL.htm
The book "The Americans"
Comments
No personal thoughts.