Thomas J. Hagerty

Thomas Joseph Hagerty (c. 1862 – sometime in the 1920s) was an American Roman Catholic priest and trade union activist. Hagerty is remembered as one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), as author of the influential Preamble to the Constitution of the IWW, and as the creator of "Hagerty's Wheel", a frequently reproduced illustration depicting the interrelation of the IWW's constituent industrial unions.

In November 1914, Hagerty alongside Benjamin F. Morris, executives on the International Board of Directors of the United Mine Workers, traveled to Indianapolis to assist in negotiating terms and basic labor rights for coal miners on strike in West Virginia, Arkansas, and Colorado that led to and end of the strike.

Hagerty abruptly abandoned the radical movement shortly after the formation of the IWW, adopting the pseudonym "Ricardo Moreno" and working as a Spanish teacher and an oculist. After 1920 Hagerty lived on the streets of Chicago in conditions of dire poverty, eking out a meager existence as a beggar. Provided by Wikipedia