A strike ordered by the United Mine Workers began May 12, 1902, when one hundred and forty-seven thousand miners went out. Though the record was marred at places, they behaved well and retained to a large degree public sympathy. When the price of anthracite rose from about $5 a ton to $28 and $30, the parts of the country using hard coal were threatened with a fuel famine and had begun to realize it. For the five months ending October 12th, the strike was estimated to have cost over $126,000,000. The operators stubbornly refused to arbitrate or to recognize the union, and the miners, with equal constancy, held their ranks intact. [Illustration: Three men is suits sitting on a large log.] Coal strike at Shenandoah, Pa., 1902. A strikers' picket. [Illustration: Seven men around a large desk.] Copyright, 1902, by George Grantham Bain. The coal strike arbitrators chosen by the President. Carroll D. Wright, Recorder; T. H. Watkins, General J. M. Wilson, Judge Gray, Presiding Officer; E, W. Parker, E. E. Clark. and Bishop Spalding. The problem of protecting the public pressed for solution as never before. The only suggestion at first discussed was arbitration. Enforced arbitration could not be effected in the absence of contract without infringing the workingman's right to labor or to decline to do so; in other words, without reducing him, in case of adverse decision by arbitration, to a condition of involuntary servitude. It looked as though no solution would be reached unless State or nation should condemn and acquire ample portions of the mining lands to be worked under its own auspices and in a just manner. This course was suggested, but nearly all deemed it dangerously radical; nor was it as yet likely to be adopted by Congress or by the Pennsylvania legislature, should these powers be called to deal with the problem. On October 3 President Roosevelt called the coal operators and President Mitchell of the United Mine Workers to a conference at the White House, urging them to agree. His effort, at first seeming unsuccessful, was much criticised, but very few failed to praise it when, a few days later, it was found to have succeeded completely. An able and impartial commission, satisfactory to both sides, was appointed by the President to act as arbitrator, both miners and operators agreeing to abide its decrees. The miners, the four hundred thousand women and children dependent on them, the poor beginning to suffer from cold, indeed the whole nation, including, no doubt, the operators, felt relief. "How much better," said the young President, once, addressing a fashionable assembly, "boldly to attempt remedying a bad situation than to sit quietly in one's retreat, sigh, and think how good it would be if the situation could be remedied!" CHAPTER II ROOSEVELT'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION, 1901-1905 [1902]