forceful and effective, but it was applied to the wrong part of my anatomy to be permanently convincing.... It helped impress upon my mind the fact that until working men were as strong, collectively, as their employers, they would be forced...to accept whatever conditions were imposed upon them. In 1876, when Wilson was just 14 years old, there was declining membership in the local Miners' and Laborers' Benevolent Association. They selected Wilson, the energetic youngster, as the organization's Secretary. He began to correspond with other labor activists around the country, laying the groundwork for his career as a trade union organizer and leader. United Mine Workers official He served as international secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America from 1900 to 1908. House of Representatives He was elected as a Democrat from Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district to the Sixtieth, Sixty-first, and Sixty-second Congresses. He served as chairman of the United States House Committee on Labor during the Sixty-second Congress. Wilson was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1912 and for election in 1914. Secretary of Labor He was appointed United States Secretary of Labor in the Cabinet of President Woodrow Wilson and served from March 5, 1913, to March 5, 1921. During the First World War, he was a member of the Council of National Defense. The administration was working to encourage African-American support for the war effort, both among men who served and those who were working in war industries. Among his special assistants was George Edmund Haynes, 1918 to 1921, who was the first African American to earn a doctorate from Columbia University. Haynes served as Director of Negro Economics in the United States Department of Labor. Competition was fierce for the higher-paying jobs in the defense industries, and during Red Summer of 1919, whites attacked blacks in numerous cities. Haynes tried to mitigate racial conflict in employment, housing, and recreation. He also continued his earlier work in studying how blacks were excluded from certain trade unions, interracial conditions in the workplace, and issues in child labor. Wilson was a member of the Federal Board for Vocational Education from 1914 to 1921 and served as chairman of the board in 1920 and 1921. He was appointed on March 4, 1921, a member of the International Joint Commission, created to prevent disputes regarding the use of the boundary waters between the United States and Canada, and served until