Powers Hapgood

Powers Hapgood (1899–1949) was an American trade union organizer and Socialist Party leader known for his involvement with the United Mine Workers in the 1920s.

Powers Hapgood was born December 28, 1899, the son of William Powers Hapgood, a Progressive canning factory owner in Indianapolis, and his wife, the former Eleanor Page. Hapgood graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts in 1917 and enrolled in Harvard University, from which he earned his Bachelor's Degree in 1921.

Even prior to graduation, Hapgood had spent time experiencing the life of the working class first hand. During the fall and early winter of 1920, he spent nearly four months working his way across the western United States. Hapgood worked as a miner at Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Northern Pacific Railroad and in a Montana sugar beet factory. Upon graduation, Hapgood decided to dedicate his life to mobilizing the working-class.

Hapgood went to work as an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in 1922. Hapgood was instrumental in organizing non-union coal mines in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, during the Somerset Coal Strike of 1922–23, especially mines at Jerome, Boswell and Gray. Hapgood later aided John Brophy in his challenge to John L. Lewis for the leadership of the UMWA, a failed attempt which ultimately led to the ouster of both Hapgood and Brophy from the Union.

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