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Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 31, 1921
“What’s It to You? -Poem by Luke North
From the Appeal to Reason of January 29, 1921:
Month: January 2021
Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: Cartoon by Fellow Worker J. Hill, “Two Victims of Society”
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 30, 1911
“Two Victims of Society” -Cartoon by FW J. Hill
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of January 26, 1911:
[“He can’t afford to have a home. She never had a chance. That’s why they are both selling themselves to the highest bidder.” -Joe Hill]
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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers: We must learn to bear each other’s burdens.
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 29, 1901
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks to Miners, Part II
January 25, 1901-Convention of United Mine Workers of America:
In New York they are going to give a charity ball. I suppose it is a kind of restitution to the people they have been robbing for years. They will spend thousands and thousands of dollars for decorating their old carcasses, and they go into a hall and admire one another; and if we were to sit up in the gallery and venture to look at them they would wonder what such a lot of Wops wanted in the world anyhow. Then some smart newspaper man will take his gilt pen and sit down and write of the beautiful Mr. So and So who was there, and of the beautiful Mrs. So and So who was there, and how they were dressed, and how splendid it all was.
Splendid! Yes, my friends, but they are dancing on the minds and hearts of the men and women they have robbed, dancing on the hearts of the little children who are working in their factories and of the boys and girls working everywhere.
In Freeland [Pennsylvania] I held a meeting for the boys and girls from the silk mills. They were on a strike and one morning they tried to keep the scab children from working. The children went into the factory to work, and the poor little outside ones entered a protest and called them “Blackleg,” and “scab,” and a burly policeman took one girl by the hair of the head and dragged her to the police station and she was put under three hundred dollars bond. The bond was furnished and they took her home, but the fright and ill treatment had made her ill, and she had three hemorrhages of the lungs. There was not a dollar in the house to get food or medicine or a doctor for her. Think of that.
When the children stood on the platform of a hall we had hired for them to expose the corporations one little boy of twelve came to the front and told us that he worked thirteen hours at night, that they paid him one cent an hour; but that these same people had gone to the church and put in a magnificent stained glass window in it. Did you ever hear a minister say one word about the condition of these children? We did not find one minister to defend these children.
In the Scriptures they can see where the Master said, “Suffer little children to come unto me.” My friends, I believe we should clasp our hands and come out together in defense of these little children. I can see an appeal in their eyes which seems to ask what they have done that they should be battered and knocked about as they are. There are children under age in those factories.
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers: “You have traveled over stormy paths.”
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 28, 1901
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks to Miners, Part I
January 25, 1901-Convention of United Mine Workers of America:
President Mitchell: Ladies and gentlemen: There are few persons in the Industrial movement who have impressed themselves upon the toilers as has the one who will address you this afternoon. During the long years of struggle in which the miners engaged they have had no more staunch supporter, no more able defender than the one we all love to call Mother. I don’t believe there is a Mine Worker from one end of the country to the other who does not know her name. It gives me great pleasure to pre- sent to you this afternoon Mother Jones.
Mrs. Mary Jones: Fellow toilers, it seems strange that you should have selected the month of January for your conventions. It has a lesson by which you may well profit, and no craft needs more to profit by that lesson than the miners. The month of January represents two seasons, a part of the dead winter and a part of the beautiful coming spring. I realize as well as you do that you have traveled over stormy paths, that you have rubbed up against the conflict of the age, but I am here to say that you have come out victorious, and in the future you will stand as the grand banner organization. My brothers, we are entering on a new age. We are confronted by conditions such as the world perhaps has never met before in her history.
We have in the last century solved one great problem that has confronted the ages in the mighty past. It had ever been the riddle of the people of the world. The problem of production has been solved for the human race; the problem of this country will lie with the workers to solve, that great and mighty and important problem, the problem of possession. You have in your wisdom, in your quiet way, with a little uprising here and a little uprising there solved the problem of the age. You have done your work magnificently and well; but we have before us yet the grandest and greatest work of civilization.
We have before us the emancipation of the children of this nation. In the days gone by we found the parents filled with love and affection. As the mother looked upon her new-born boy, as she pressed him to her bosom, she thought, “Some day, he will be the man of this nation; some day I shall sacrifice myself for the education, the developing of his brain, the bringing out of his grander, nobler qualities. But, oh, my brothers, that is past, that has been killed! Today, my friends, we look into the eyes of the child of the Proletariat as it enters into the conflict of this life, and we see the eyes of the poor, helpless little creature appealing to those who have inhabited the world before it. Now when the father comes home the first question he asks is “Mary, is it a boy or a girl?” When she answers, “It is a boy, John,” he says, “Well, thank God! he will soon be able to go to the breakers and help earn a living with me.” If it is a girl there is no loving kiss, no caress for her for she cannot be put to the breakers to satisfy capitalistic greed.
But my friends, the capitalistic class has met you face to face today to take the girls as well as the boys out of the cradle. Wherever you are in mighty numbers they have brought their factories to take your daughters and slaughter them on the altar of capitalistic greed. They have built their mines and breakers to take your boys out of the cradle; they have built their factories to take your girls; they have built on the bleeding, quivering hearts of yourselves and your children their palaces. They have built their magnificent yachts and palaces; they have brought the sea from mid-ocean up to their homes where they can take their baths—and they don’t give you a chance to go to the muddy Missouri and take a bath in it.
Hellraisers Journal: “The One We All Love to Call Mother” Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 27, 1901
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention
From The Indianapolis Journal of January 26, 1901:
“Mother” Jones Heard
[U. M. W. of A. Convention, January 25th]
The review of experiences of the past should be applied to preparations for the future, and the work of the miners should not be entirely for the present, but foundation should be laid for coming generations. Her pointed and witty expressions caused many outbursts of laughter and her ability to appeal to the deeper feelings was equally as effective with the delegates. When “Mother” Jones wished to say something she said it and spared none, but even members of the organization to whom she said: “if the shoe fits you must wear it.” Mrs. Jones is a Socialist and an ardent admirer of Eugene V. Debs, and she could not refrain from paying a tribute to both.
PATRICK DOLAN’S REMARKS.
At the close of her speech Patrick Dolan, of Pennsylvania, sought the floor to take objections to what Mrs. Jones had said about Debs. He said while he had the highest respect for “Mother” Jones, he did not think Debs was the only man who ever did anything for labor. So slow was he in making his point that many delegates arose to a point of order and tried to have him seated, but President Mitchell was lenient and gave him further time to express himself. The convention became noisy in an attempt to force him to his seat, but it was some time before it could be accomplished……
By vote an invitation was extended to Eugene V. Debs to address the miners while in session here, and it was later announced he will speak Monday afternoon.
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[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph break added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Sid Hatfield, Matewan Police Chief, and 19 Citizens on Trial in Mingo County for Killing of Gunthugs
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 26, 1921
Williamson, West Virginia – Trial of Sid Hatfield and 19 Matewan Men Set to Start
From Indiana’s Logansport Pharos-Tribune of January 25, 1921:
TWENTY MEN GOING ON TRIAL FOR THE KILLING
OF MINE GUARDS AT MATEWAN
—–FRIENDS AND FOES MEET IN WILLIAMSON, W. VA.,
AS POLICE CHIEF AND 19 CITIZENS FACE COURT
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(N. E. A. Staff Special.)
WILLIAMSON, W. Va., Jan. 26.-Friend and foe rub elbows here, as miners and Baldwin-Felt guards assemble for the trial of Sid Hatfield, chief of police at Matewan, and 19 of his fellow citizens charged with killing seven Baldwins in a street battle.
Five Baldwin-Felts detectives engaged in the same battle will be tried under change of venue at Lewisburg, Greenbrier county, in April.
Hellraisers Journal: Agnes Nestor Speaks on Behalf of Chicago Garment Strikers at United Mine Workers’ Convention
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 25, 1911
Miss Agnes Nestor Speaks on Behalf of Chicago Garment Strikers
Columbus, Ohio-Convention of United Mine Workers of America
-Monday January 23, 1911, Sixth Day-Afternoon Session
President Lewis stated that Miss Agnes Nestor of Chicago was in the convention and desired to address the delegates in behalf of the striking garment workers in that city.
President Lewis stated that Miss Nestor had credentials from the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Woman’s Trade Union League.
Delegate Walker, District 12—
I move that an invitation be extended to Miss Agnes Nestor to address the convention. (Seconded and carried by unanimous vote.)
President Lewis-
I take pleasure in introducing the young lady spoken of in the credentials received from Chicago. Miss Nestor will address the convention in behalf of the striking garment workers in that city.
Miss Agnes Nestor—
Mr. Chairman and Delegates to this Convention: I am here to tell you something about the garment workers’ strike now going on in Chicago and to make an appeal for funds. This is an extraordinary strike. It is a wonderful strike, it is a strike of unorganized workers. It began with the unorganized workers in one of the shops of Hart, Schaffner & Marx and spread to every shop of that concern and every other unorganized garment factory in Chicago until it reached 40,000 garment workers. It began the latter part of September and spread to the greatest extent in October. These people have been on strike now nearly four months.
Hellraisers Journal: Miss Emmeline Pitt Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention, Requests Aid for Irwin Field Strikers
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 24, 1911
Miss Emmeline Pitt Pleads for Aid for Strikers of Irwin Field
Columbus, Ohio-Convention of United Mine Workers of America
-Monday January 23, 1911, Sixth Day-Afternoon Session
Miss [Emmeline] Pitt was escorted to the platform by Vice-President Hayes.
President Lewis–
By action of this convention last week a motion was adopted to extend an invitation to Miss Pitt to address the convention. Miss Pitt is an organizer of the American Federation of Labor and Secretary of the Labor Temple Association of Pittsburg. She has been doing a great deal of work in behalf of the miners in the Irwin Field district. I take pleasure at this time in presenting and introducing to you Miss Emmilinne Pitt.
Miss M. Emmilinne Pitt-
Mr. Chairman and Members of this Convention: It may seem strange to you that a woman would be so vitally interested in a miners’ convention. But in view of the fact that we are still in this endless struggle between capital and labor, it is little wonder that the women of the world today are becoming thoroughly aroused to the industrial situation. If I could bring before you this afternoon a vision of what I found in the Irwin Field a few days before Thanksgiving and a few days before Christmas on my visits to that region I believe your hearts would be sad today. Hundreds of helpless children and helpless women are suffering in that field. You all know of strikes, but I believe there is an exceptionally bad condition there. I want to ask you today as men of labor to extend your interests and your sympathy and your financial support to a continuation of one of the greatest battles, I believe, that was ever waged in the State of Pennsylvania.
Going over the field in the fall, amidst the countless golden harvest fields of plenty, in one of the wealthiest states of the Union, I found those women driven from their pitiful little homes into the highways and byways, and, like the lowly Nazarene, with no place to lay their heads. There have been extreme cases that occasioned many visits there. In one little cemetery on the hillside a Catholic priest has planted a cross above a lonely grave, which tells to us all that every man cannot be bought, body and soul, with a price. Out of the yoke of Egyptian bondage came the redemption of God’s people. Out from under the rod of Israel came a great power, and I believe organized labor will come out just as victorious.
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Held at Columbus, Ohio
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 23, 1911
Columbus, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks at Miners’ Convention
From the Washington Sunday Star of January 22, 1911:
LIE IS PASSED FREELY AT MINERS’ CONVENTION
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“Mother Jones” Makes Address Calling
Supreme Court Judges Real Anarchists.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio, January 21.-Control of the United Mine Workers’ convention came to a severe test in the contest for the seating of delegates from nine locals of district No. 2 of central Pennsylvania. Charges of falsehoods were made freely by each side and the convention finally adjourned to continue the fight Monday.
Expected contests over the seating of President Francis Feehan of the Pittsburg district did not materialize and he was seated without final objection.
“Mother” Jones spoke before the convention. She classes members of the United States Supreme Court and Gov. Harmon of Ohio among “the real anarchists of the country.”
[…..]
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Without Husband or Children, Mother Jones Chooses as Her Family the Toilers from Coast to Coast
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 22, 1911
Columbus, Ohio – Mother of the Toilers Speaks to Miners’ Convention
From Ohio’s Marion Daily Mirror of January 21, 1911:
Talks to Miners.
Columbus, O., Jan. 21.-“Mother” Jones, whose name and fame is known throughout the country as the friend of laborers, addressed the miners’ convention [United Mine Workers of America] this morning and was given a rousing ovation when she appeared on the stage. “Mother” Jones claims the United States as her only home and registers on the hotel registers accordingly. She is 67 years old, and her hair is as white as snow. Without husband or children, she has chosen as her family the thousands of toilers from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
