E. Clark, the head of the Brotherhood of Railway
Conductors. He called him, however, an "eminent sociologist," adding in
his announcement of the appointment this explanation: "For the purposes
of such a Commission, the term sociologist means a man who has thought
and studied deeply on social questions and has practically applied his
knowledge."

The Commission as finally constituted was an admirable one. Its report,
which removed every menace to peace in the coal industry, was an
outstanding event in the history of the relations of labor and capital
in the United States.

But the most interesting and significant part of Roosevelt's relation
to the great coal strike concerned something that did not happen. It
illustrates his habit of seeing clearly through a situation to the end
and knowing far in advance just what action he was prepared to take in
any contingency that might possibly arise. He was determined that work
should be resumed in the mines and that the country should have coal. He
did not propose to allow the operators to maintain the deadlock by sheer
refusal to make any compromise. In case he could not succeed in making
them reconsider their position, he had prepared a definite and drastic
course of action. The facts in regard to this plan did not become
public until many years after the strike was settled, and then only when
Roosevelt described it in his "Autobiography".

The method of action which Roosevelt had determined upon in the last
resort was to get the Governor of Pennsylvania to appeal to him as
President to restore order. He had then determined to put Federal troops
into the coal fields under the command of some first-rate general,
with instructions not only to preserve order but to dispossess the mine
operators and to run the mines as a receiver, until such time as the
Commission should make its report and the President should issue further
orders in view of that report. Roosevelt found an army officer with the
requisite good sense, judgment, and nerve to act in such a crisis in the
person of Major General Schofield. Roosevelt sent for the General and
explained the seriousness of the crisis. "He was a fine fellow," says
Roosevelt in his "Autobiography", "a most respectable-looking old boy,
with side whiskers and a black skull-cap, without any of the outward
aspect of the conventional military dictator; but in both nerve and
judgment he was all right." Schofield quietly assured the President that