Frank Hayes

Frank J. Hayes (May 4, 1882 – June 10, 1948) was an American miner and president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) from 1917 to 1919. A Democrat, he also served as Lieutenant Governor of Colorado in 1937–39. He was born in the coal mining town of What Cheer, Iowa, in 1882, but moved with his family as a boy to Illinois. At the age of 13, he began working in the coal mines. His father was active in the unions. UMWA involvement 1904–1919 He joined the United Mine Workers and held a number of local union offices before being elected secretary-treasurer of District 13 in 1904. A socialist, he allied himself with the radical left-wing of the miners' union and agitated for greater militancy and adoption of socialism as the union's only economic and political philosophy. He was elected an international vice president in 1911. While a vice president, he helped strategize and organize the Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912 in West Virginia and the Colorado Coal Strike of 1913–1914 (during which the Ludlow Massacre occurred).