American labor leader and one of his era's most notorious radicals, William Dudley Haywood (1869-1928) led the Industrial Workers of the World during that union's heyday.

William Haywood was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, into a working-class family. His father died when Haywood was 3 years old. After a few years of school he took his first job as a miner in Nevada about 1884. He married, then floated from job to job, working as cowboy and construction worker but mostly as a miner.

In 1896, working in Silver City, Idaho, Haywood became a charter member of the local Western Federation of Miners (WFM). Demonically energetic, he held every office in the local union and was largely responsible for its success, helping administer its hospital and maintaining virtually unanimous organization of the miners. Also active in the WFM's central office, in 1899 Haywood was elected to its executive board. In 1900, elected...