Month: January 2019

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1918, Part II-Found in San Francisco on Behalf of Tom Mooney

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Mission for Mooney, SF EXmr p7, Dec 12, 1918

———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 21, 1919
Mother Jones News for December 1918, Part II
-Mother Found in San Francisco on Behalf of Tom Mooney

From the San Francisco Examiner of December 12, 1918:

‘Mother’ Jones to Aid Mooney
in His Fight for Liberty
—–

Labor Leader Represents 500,000 Workers
in Appeal for Man’s Release.
—–

Mother Jones, Ft Wy Jr Gz p3, Dec 17, 1917

“Mother” (Mary) Jones, labor leader, arrived in San Francisco last night from Chicago to urge a new trial for Thomas J. Mooney, serving a life sentence for the Preparedness Day bomb murders.

Armed with credentials from the Illinois State Federation of Labor and the Chicago Federation of Labor and a letter from Governor Lowden of Illinois, “Mother” Jones said her first errand will be to obtain an audience with Governor William D. Stephens, who recently commuted Mooney’s death sentence.

“Mother” Jones declared her dissatisfaction with the imprisonment of Mooney, who, she said, was innocent and so held by the great mass of the labor organizations that had sent her here. She said:

I believe this is an issue that goes to the very heart of the judicial system, not only of California, but of the entire nation. That is what I shall try to present to Governor Stephens.

The organizations that sent me to San Francisco number many hundreds of thousands of workers and behind them are 500,000 more, the mineworkers, who are with me on this mission.

The visitor was met by San Francisco and Oakland members of the International Workers’ Defense League at the Ferry building. She went to the Hotel Clark. “Mother” Jones will address some of the labor bodies during her stay in California.

———-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1918, Part II-Found in San Francisco on Behalf of Tom Mooney” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1918, Part I-Found Speaking at Convention of Illinois Federation of Labor

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Kaisers at Home, Speech Bloomington IL FoL, Dec 4, 1918———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 20, 1919
Mother Jones News for December 1918, Part I
-Mother Found Speaking before Illinois Federation of Labor Convention

Mother Jones, Ft Wy Jr Gz p3, Dec 17, 1917

On Wednesday December 4, 1918, Mother Jones was introduced at the Convention by John H. Walker, President of the Illinois State Federation of Labor. She stood before the delegates gathered together in Bloomington for the 36th Annual Convention of the Illinois F. of L. and gave a long and spirited address in which she said, in part:

Your President is not a member of the high class burglars’ association—he wouldn’t welcome me here if he was.

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Workers, we are passing through the greatest change the world’s history has ever undertaken to bring man through. The world is making over, it is making into a new world, and it is up to the workers to say how that world will be shaped for the future destiny of the race. If we are indifferent to the change that is coming the future generations will pay the penalty.

I want to make a statement to you. I don’t live in your club rooms, I don’t belong to your parasitical type of woman, I am not a Sunday School teacher, I don’t work for Jesus—He don’t need me. I want to open the eyes of the workers…..

You and your organizations are up against a stone wall, and the most insidious machine that was ever organized in the human history is organized to break you. Are you going to let them do it? Or will you rise like men and tell them you are at the threshold of a new civilization, the map of the world is changing and you are going to change, too? You went abroad and cleaned up the kaiser, now let us clean up the kaisers at home!….

You know what the women did in New York. I went there to talk to the women. The women came to hear me. The commissioner of police sent a woman there who did not belong to my class. I spotted her immediately. She was one of Mrs. Belmont’s little lapdogs and when I began to talk she said I must be careful. She said she was the president of a number of organizations. One of them was a school decorating organization. I got the women worked up anyhow and they went out and cleaned up the scabs. The cops ran and the women with babies in their arms took the clubs and beat the cops. They were not Sunday School women, they were fighters. If the men had the fight in them those women had we would have won the battle in New York…..

Tom Mooney has been sentenced by order of the capitalists, the chamber of crooks, of California, to life imprisonment. I know Mooney, I know his wife, I know his mother. He has been a good fighter. He may have made a great noise at times, just as I have, but I know he had no more hand in the crime he is charged with, nor did any other working man, than I had, and I was a thousand miles away from San Francisco at that time. I am going to tour the nation and arouse the people to the injustice of that trial…..

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Hellraisers Journal: National Labor Convention for Mooney: Debs Invited, W. F. Dunn of Butte Speaks for Radicals

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD re General Strike, Journal Paper Mill Workers p7, Mar 1919

———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 18, 1919
Chicago, Illinois – National Labor Convention for Mooney Hears from Radicals

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of January 16, 1919:

National Labor Mooney Conference, HdLn, Btt Dly Bltn p1, Jan 16, 1919 National Labor Mooney Conference, Radicals, Btt Dly Bltn p1, Jan 16, 1919

—–

(Special Dispatch to The Bulletin.)

Chicago, Jan. 16.-At this morning’s session of the Mooney Labor Congress Ed Nolan scored the capitalist press on its criticism of the invitation of Debs and its attempt to give a sense of dissension among the delegates. Debs’ name was again greeted with tumultuous applause. It was moved that the Nonpartisan league be given the floor. The motion was defeated. Dunn of Butte moved to give the Detroit delegate the floor. The Detroit leader clearly outlined the program before the convention as follows:

No political begging, a general strike to free Tom Mooney and also to take a stand to free political prisoners and recognize Russia; reorganize the American Federation of Labor on an industrial basis.

The radicals are satisfied with the moves so far.

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: National Labor Convention at Chicago Plans Country-Wide General Strike on Behalf of Mooney

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Edward D Nolan, re General Strike for Mooney, Stt Str p1, Jan 14, 1919

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 17, 1919:
Chicago, Illinois – National Labor Convention Convenes on Behalf of Mooney

From The Seattle Star of January 14, 1919:

National Labor Mooney Conference, HdLn, Stt Str p1, Jan 14, 1919 National Labor Mooney Conference, re Nolan, Stt Str p1, Jan 14, 1919

CHICAGO, Jan. 14.-Nation-wide strikes and boycotts will be the weapons used by labor to secure the release of Thomas J. Mooney, according to Edward B. Nolan, San Francisco, secretary of the International Workers’ Defense league who made the keynote speech at the opening session of the labor congress in the Mooney case here today.

Nolan asked the congress to set a definite date for the strikes.

[Declared Nolan:]

Legislation is not forthcoming for Mooney’s benefit. Labor must use its last resort, its powerful economic weapon-the strike and the boycott-to win Mooney his justice. The case has become the greatest question of the nation. We must use the final expression of labor and lay our cards on the table.

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Hellraisers Journal: IWW Attorney Moore and Miss Caroline Lowe Report on Brutal Conditions at Leavenworth, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 16, 1919
Leavenworth Penitentiary – Report on Brutal Treatment of Prisoners, Part II

From The New Appeal of January 11, 1919:

AtR HdLn re IWW SPA in Leavenworth, p1, Jan 11, 1919

[Part 2 of 2.]

Summing up the results of his inquiry, Mr. Moore [Attorney for the Industrial Workers of the World] says:

Extremely fragmentary as is the above, I believe that the following points may be considered as fully established:

1. That negro convicts armed with clubs were used under the direction of Mr. Fletcher [Deputy Warden] to beat up white men. That among those so beaten up were Stratton, Murphy and Floyd Ramp.

2. That many prisoners, whose physical condition was extremely bad, were placed on bread and water diet and deprived of their blankets and compelled to sleep on the cement floor at a time when this would seriously endanger their health.

3. That many prisoners were chained by their wrists to the sides of their cells and so compelled to stand for a period in excess of twenty-four hours.

Visits Husband in Cell.

In an affidavit, of which The New Appeal has been furnished a copy, Mrs. Floyd Ramp, wife of one of the solitary prisoners, states that she was allowed a brief visit with her husband on December 15, having come to Leavenworth in response to a report from friends that her husband had been seriously injured. Mrs. Ramp states that she was not permitted to question her husband regarding his injuries, but that his right eye was badly discolored and he was in an emaciated condition. Owing to the presence of the guard she could elicit no information of what had occurred beyond the most vague and unsatisfactory references. Ramp did say that Stratton was “pretty badly hurt.” Mrs. Ramp states “that Jack Phelan, who was released from the Leavenworth prison on December 18 because declared by the Appellate Court to have been illegally incarcerated on a charge of violating the Espionage Act, told her he had seen Floyd Ramp’s body and that it was a mass of bruises which led him to believe that he had been beaten, kicked and trampled upon.”

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Hellraisers Journal: IWW Attorney Fred Moore and Miss Caroline Lowe Report on Brutal Conditions at Leavenworth

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 15, 1919
Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas – Brutal Treatment of Prisoners Reported

From The New Appeal of January 11, 1919:

AtR HdLn re IWW SPA in Leavenworth, p1, Jan 11, 1919

[Part 1 of 2.]

In its issue of last week The New Appeal reproduced a report of conscientious objectors at Camp Funston, Kans., detailing the brutal treatment to which they were subjected at the command of certain officers, contrary to the express directions of the war department in Washington. This report was published primarily as a matter of record, the guilty officers having been dismissed from the service and the conditions complained of corrected.

We are now in the way of making a more important exposure-an exposure of brutalities committed upon Socialists, I. W. W.s. and others imprisoned in the Federal penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., brutalities that we have reason to believe have not been brought to the notice of the higher authorities since the efforts of interested persons to investigate these brutalities have been baffled at every turn by prison officials. Enough evidence has been dragged into the light, however, to make it shamefully plain, to use the words of Mrs. Floyd Ramp, wife of a Socialist prisoner, “that things are occurring in this penitentiary which citizens of a democracy should not knowingly countenance.”

Could Not Question Prisoners.

On December 12, F. H. Moore, a Chicago attorney, went to Leavenworth to discuss certain legal steps with the group of prisoners sentenced under the Chicago indictment of the I. W. W. alleged anti-war agitators. He also desired to make personal inquiry of the treatment the prisoners were receiving, disquieting reports of which had reached him through “underground” channels. In company with Miss Caroline A. Lowe, who assisted in the defense of the prisoners at the trial, Mr. Moore called upon the warden. They were told by the warden that they could talk over legal matters connected with the case, but they were absolutely forbidden to question the prisoners as to conditions in the penitentiary.

Mr. Moore, in a somewhat lengthy communication sent to The New Appeal, repeatedly emphasizes this autocratic censorship of the warden. As they interviewed, separately, each one of twenty-two prisoners held in solitary confinement with unusual punishment, the deputy warden, who was present during the interviews, sternly suppressed every attempt to question the prisoners as to the manner in which they had been handled and as to their physical condition at the time. Nor were Mr. Moore and Miss Lowe, when they met and conferred with the majority of the prisoners in a body permitted to refer to the condition of their fellow prisoners who were “in solitary.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Horror Once More at Switchback, West Virginia, as Second Explosion Ravages Lick Branch Mine

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, Ab Chp 6, 1925

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 14, 1909
Switchback, West Virginia – Second Disaster in Two Weeks Devastates Hamlet

From The Fairmont West Virginian of January 12, 1909:

Lick Branch Mine Disaster 2, W Vgn p1, Jan 12, 1909

WELCH, W. Va., Jan. 12.-One hundred miners were caught to-day in a second explosion in the Lick Branch Collieries. Hardly had the crape been taken from the door of many humble little homes than the explosions which now promises to be more direful than the one two weeks ago in which half a hundred lives were lost occurred and brought additional sorrow. Fathers and brothers of some of those killed in the last explosion are known to have been in the mine at 8:30 this morning when the second explosion occurred. The explosion occurred just half an hour after the full quota of men for the day shift had gone to work. It is known that 250 miners were on duty at the time. The details are meagre.

———-

[Emphasis added.]

From The Fairmont West Virginian of January 14, 1909:

Lick Branch Mine Disaster 2, W Vgn p1, Jan 14, 1909

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Hellraisers Journal: Thomas H. West, Labor Poet, on Soldiers Gone Scabbing against the Kansas City Street Car Strikers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Any soldier who is guilty
Can be called a “Labor Hun.”
-Thomas H. West
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 13, 1919
Kansas City Labor Poet on Soldiers, in Uniform, Serving as Scabs

Thomas H. West, in his latest poem for working men and women, tells the sad story of soldiers gone scabbing against the street car strikers of Kansas City. The poem is entitled “Uniforms Disgraced” and was first published by the Labor Herald of Kansas City, Missouri.

From the Leavenworth Labor Chronicle of January 10, 1919:

KC Streetcar Strike, Poem by TH West, Lv KS Lbr Chc p4, Jan 10, 1919

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1908; Found in Springfield, Illinois, Speaking to UMW Locals

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Spgfld IL Jr, Dec 20, 1908

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 12, 1909
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1908
Found with Locals of U. M. W. in Springfield, Illinois

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

During the month of December 1908, we found Mother Jones in Springfield, Illinois, where it was reported by the December 17th edition of the Illinois State Register that:

“Mother” Jones, a noted leader among the miners’ organization of the country, addressed the Springfield sub-district quarterly meeting [U. M. W.] at Arion hall yesterday afternoon [December 16th], and in consequence the meeting was very largely attended. “Mother” Jones is engaged in soliciting assistance for Mexican workingmen who are engaged in a struggle against the despotism of the Mexican government, and who, when their plans became apparent to that government escaped to the United States, their extradition now being sought. The efforts of “Mother” Jones has the endorsement of the Illinois executive board of the United Mine Workers of America [John H. Walker, President], and it is her intention to make a tour of the state visiting the miners’ locals in behalf of these men.

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