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The Industrial Commission in 1919 had five members and I was only one of them. John Mitchell, formerly the head of the United Mine Workers, was the chairman of it. Henry D. Sayer, a Republican, was a member of it. He'd been appointed by Whitman. James M. Lynch, a Democrat who was a labor leader and was from Syracuse, was another member of it. Edward P. Lyon from Brooklyn was another. He was an elderly lawyer who was born middle-aged. He was a nice, kind man, but with no spark of understanding of social problems. It was just a job to him. They were the other four members.
I walked into that Commission with some trepidation. I remember discussing with Mr. Elkus just what my attitude should be and what I should do in connection with it - my first approaches to them. I had been the bitterest critic of the Industrial Commission. I had been the witness who stood on the stand before the Factory Investigating Commission and criticized the Industrial Commission, which was composed of those four men and one other named Louis Wiard, whose term had expired. It was his term that I was filling.
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