[1] James attended a local public school before beginning work as a coal miner in the Newcastle district.

He returned to New South Wales in 1916 and was an officeholder in the Australasian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation, representing the northern district on the union's central council.

He was a critic of both the conservative government of Stanley Bruce and the Labor government of James Scullin for not prosecuting mine-owners during the protracted miner lock-out in northern New South Wales (1929–30), which led to accusations of inciting mob violence; Smith's Weekly published his record of convictions, including drunkenness and assaulting police.

A supporter of Jack Lang's proposal that New South Wales should not repay interest to British bond-holders in the height of the Great Depression, James joined Jack Beasley's Lang Labor Party, along with six other New South Wales MPs, who voted in opposition to defeat the Scullin government.

He continued to be prominent in coal-mining affairs, and his support for Prime Minister Ben Chifley's stand on the 1949 coal strike prompted some to express a desire to expel him from the Miners' Federation.