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types. Samuel Gompers was not interested definitely.

I had met Mitchell after he came to New York. I don't know now why he came to New York because he must have lived most of his life in Scranton, Pennsylvania. After he came to New York to settle he was around a good deal at groups who were interested in anything that had to do with labor. John Mitchell would be there at the meeting and he would rise to say a few well-chosen words. He was an attractive figure. He spoke well and with conviction. He had something interesting and human to say on any occasion. He would be at meetings where eight or ten people said a few words about things in general.

John Mitchell in those days before the Factory Investigating Commission was one of the very few labor men who had anything to say in favor of what we called labor legislation - social legislation, workmen's compensation, tenement house legislation, widows' pensions. I seem to think he was not a citizen of New York State and didn't vote there so that he couldn't take an aggressive part before the Legislature. I don't think that he ever did come up before the Legislature, but I'm very sure that he came to large mass meetings and other things. Anyhow we counted on him as being favorable to what we called modern social legislation.

He didn't reveal himself very much. I had no idea