Month: January 2021

Hellraisers Journal: 90 Fellow Workers Now in Unsanitary Fresno Jail; County Refusing to Pay for Expense of Fight

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 21, 1911
Fresno, California – 90 Fellow Workers Now Lodged in Unsanitary Jail

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of January 19, 1911:

FRESNO WEAKENING, WE MUST WIN
———-

HELP IS NEEDED IN FRESNO-FIGHT TO WIN
-ON TO FRESNO-SEND MEN AND MONEY.
———-

With 90 I. W. W. men in jail worrying the pin-headed city officials, the county officials are now refusing to pay any part of the expense of the fight.

“Der Chief” is bravely pushing his vagrancy charges and the noble “business juries” find all “GUILTY,” regardless of fact or condition. Any I. W. W. man is a ‘vag,” but that will last but a short time, as the tax payers are getting tired.

The last circular was widely read and is having quite an effect, for every word is known to be a fact.

A new sheriff and a new jail crew took charge on the second inst., and from all news to be had the boys are getting as good treatment as it is possible for men to get in jail.

The “FLOWER” of the I. W. W. is in jail here and you must not let them lose the fight; so do your best.

But few men are coming at present , and many of them are being deterred from going to jail by a few slimy “knockers,” who will not do anything themselves and seem to wish to keep others from doing anything.

Some of the locals are doing well with financial assistance, but so far the greater part goes for postage and for tobacco for the boys in jail. Fellow workers, boost hard and help all you can.

FREE SPEECH COMMITTEE.

———-

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Issues Notice of Assessment for Support of West Virginia and Alabama Miners

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 20, 1921
U.M.W. of A. Supports Fighting Miners of  West Virginia and Alabama 

From the United Mine Workers Journal of January 15, 1921:

Official Notice of Assessment Indianapolis

Indianapolis, January 4, 1921.

To the Officers and Members, United Mine Workers of America:

Brothers—For many months about three thousand miners in the Mingo county coal section of West Virginia have been locked out by their employers. In Alabama twelve thousand miners have been on strike for many months because the coal operators, who employed them, refused to negotiate an agreement based upon the award of the Bituminous Coal Commission. The locked-out and striking miners in these two fields, together with their families, who are dependent upon them, have been cared for and supported by the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America. All together about fifty thousand men, women and children have been and are now being clothed, fed and cared for by the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America.

Mingo Co WV, Red Jacket Tent Colony, WDC Tx p12, Dec 12, 1920
Evicted Miners and Families Live in Tents in Mingo County, W. V.

Since the beginning of the lock-out in West Virginia and the strike in Alabama the International Union has supplied $ 1,345,000 out of the International treasury, for the support of our striking brothers and their families. The suffering which the men, women and children living in both these coal fields have undergone challenges the admiration of every member of our union. They have been thrown out of their homes; have been denied the right of free assemblage; have been subjected to the brutal treatment of a private army of gunmen, guards and thugs employed by the coal operators, and to the repressive military regulations which have been established by state and federal troops ordered into these mining communities.

The fact that thousands of men, women and children are living in tents during these bitter cold wintry days and nights, fighting and struggling for recognition, the right to bargain collectively and for justice, excites our most profound sympathy. Such heroic action calls for our full support in the struggle these brave men and women are making against the forces of corporate greed and corporate power.

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Hellraisers Journal: Arkansas Supreme Court Reverses Death Sentences of Six Men Convicted for Elaine “Riots”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ed Ware, Song fr AR Prison, Fall 1919, Elaine Massacre, Ida B p6

———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 18, 1921
Arkansas State Supreme Court Reverses Death Sentences for “Massacre Plot” 

From The Crisis of January 1921:

ANOTHER VICTORY IN ARKANSAS

Arkansas Elaine Massacre, 12 Union Men Condemned to Die, IB Wells Barnett p2, 1920

THE Supreme Court of Arkansas has held that discrimination against Negroes in the selection of both grand and petit juries is in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment and of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, and it has consequently reversed the decision of the lower court in condemning to death for the Elaine riots Ed Ware, Will Wordlow, Albert Giles, John [Joe] Fox, John Martin and Alfred Banks. This is the second time that the court has reversed the sentences of death passed on these Negroes.

Death sentences on six other Negroes which have been affirmed by the State Supreme Court will now probably be held up by the Governor until the present cases are decided.

Governor Brough has made every effort to hang these Negroes, even attempting to influence the court by newspaper articles in which he cited the various Arkansas organizations which were demanding their death.

[Photograph and emphasis added. Italic type removed.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Fred Warren, the Fighting Editor of the Appeal to Reason, Must Go to Jail for Six Months

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Fred Warren, Justice Will Triumph, ISR p166, Aug 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 16, 1911
Girard, Kansas – Fred Warren, Editor of Appeal Reason, Must Go to Jail

From the International Socialist Review of January 1911:

EDITORIAL

Fred Warren Goes to Jail.

Fred Warren Fighting Editor of Appeal, ISR p427, Jan 1911

On December 30, 1905, Frank Steunenberg was killed by the explosion of a dynamite bomb at Caldwell, Idaho. Several weeks later Charles H. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners; William D. Haywood, Secretary, and George E. Pettibone, an honorary member of the organization, were kidnapped from their home in Colorado and secretly carried off to Idaho on a special train to be tried for the murder of Steunenberg. Requisition papers were issued by the Governor of Colorado on an affidavit signed by the County Attorney in Idaho, setting forth that the men were present in Idaho when the crime was committed and had fled from the state, although every one concerned knew perfectly well that they had not been in Idaho for months. The Western Federation of Miners was at that time engaged in a death struggle with the mine owners, and it is a fair inference that this kidnapping was a preconceived plan to discredit and crush this organization.

The capitalist press of the whole country united to fasten the charge of conspiracy to commit murder upon these men, while the Socialist press, with scarcely an exception, defended them. They were held for nearly a year and a half without trial, while strenuous efforts were made by both accusers and defendants to arouse public opinion on one side or the other. In this situation Fred D. Warren, editor of the Appeal to Reason at Girard, Kans., conceived the idea of giving the American people a striking object lesson. With this in view, he had postal cards printed offering a reward for the kidnapping of ex-Governor Taylor of Kentucky, who was at that time under indictment for murder in his own state and was safe in Indiana, because the Republican governor of that state refused to sign extradition papers.

This object lesson was an important factor in arousing public sentiment for the imprisoned miners, and when Haywood was finally put on trial he was acquitted; the other men were finally discharged. But the government officials and their capitalist masters did not forget the part Fred Warren played in their defeat, and an indictment was brought against him for having “sent scurrilous, defamatory and threatening matter through the mails.” After long delay he was tried and convicted by a packed jury, every member of which was a Republican. From this decision he appealed. Again long delays, and finally, after election is over, the Appellate Court has sustained the decision of the District Court, and Fred Warren must go to jail for six months. On the 21st of January, he is to begin serving his sentence.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1910: Found Standing with Striking Miners and Their Families in Pennsylvania

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Greensburg PA Cmas 1910, Steel 2, p83———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 15, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1910:
–Praised by Max Hayes and Eugene Debs for Work in Pennsylvania

From the International Socialist Review of December 1910:

THE WORLD OF LABOR 

BY MAX S. HAYES.

[…..]

Mother Jones, Latest Picture, Ft Wayne Dly Ns p9, Apr 9, 1910

MOTHER JONES has been busying herself during the past few weeks in trying to bring cheer and comfort to the poor miners in the Irwin-Greensburg soft coal district of Pennsylvania [Westmoreland County], and assisting those unfortunate victims of one of the most heartless lockouts in American industrial history (as has been shown in THE REVIEW) to gain a semblance of humane working and living conditions. Mother is never so happy as when helping “the boys” in the mining fields, and, as every officer and member of the U. M. W. knows, she has gone into districts in Colorado, Alabama, West Virginia and other places where many of the bravest of men have feared to tread. She has faced injunction judges, served time in jail, lived on bread and water and has undergone a thousand hardships where others have hesitated or flunked, and never a word of complaint as to her own sufferings escape her lips. In fact she is as jolly and happy-go-lucky as a girl of sixteen and always refers to her direful experiences as humorous escapades.

Mother Jones only grows sorrowful and indignant when she discusses the fool factionalism among the miners and the sufferings endured by “the boys” and their wives and children, whom she knows and loves and for whom she has done organizing work in past campaigns. She has little patience with the penny-ante politics of this or that alleged leader who aspires for place or power, and when in a reminiscent mood she can relate some wonderful stories.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1910: Found Standing with Striking Miners and Their Families in Pennsylvania” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Addresses Congress of Pan-American Federation of Labor at Mexico City

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921———-

Hellraisers  Journal – Friday January 14, 1921
Mexico City – Mother Jones Speaks at Pan-American Labor Congress

From the Washington Evening Star of January 13, 1921:

LABOR CONGRESS HEARS TALK
BY ‘MOTHER’ JONES
———-
Thirty More Questions Likely to Be
Brought Up in Mexico City.

By the Associated Press.

Mother Jones, NYC Dly Ns p12, May 7, 1920

MEXICO CITY, January  13.-Delegates to the Congress of the Pan-American Federation of Labor, in session here, listened today to an address by “Mother” Jones, the radical labor leader, who arrived here last week from the United States. She has been a regular attendant at sessions of the congress, although not a delegate, and yesterday was granted special permission to appear this morning before the federation.

The resolutions committee was busily engaged yesterday receiving motions to be brought before the congress, and when the committee adjourned, John P. Frey, its chairman, announced that a score of resolutions dealing with pan-American activity had been received and that the recommendations contained in the report of the executive committee would provide thirty more questions to be brought before the congress for final disposition.

The congress proper enjoyed a virtual holiday yesterday, the day’s session lasting only thirty minutes.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “Madre Juanita” in Mexico City, Greeted by Thousands of Workers and Shower of Flowers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Un-Christ-Like Greed, IN DlyT Ipls p1, July 15, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 13, 1921
Mexico City – Mother Jones Greeted by Shower of Flowers

Translated from Mexico City’s  El Universal of January 10, 1921:

Mother Jones Arrives in Mexico City

Mother Jones, UMWJ p11, July 15, 1920

Upon arriving at Buena Vista station in Mexico City [on the morning of January 9th], Mother Jones was met by 2,000 workers among whom were a large feminine contingent from the factories: El Recuerdo, El Buen Tono, Tabacelera, Cigarrera, La Estrella, Departmentos Fabules, and from the Trade Union of Waitresses, etc., all of whom carried, as did the male element, the banners of their respective groups…..

Mother Jones was the object of singular interest. With ninety years on her shoulders, she is one of the most indefatigable fighters for working-class organization in the United States.

Amidst a veritable shower of flowers, Mother Jones was brought in an auto from the platform of the station to the Glorieta Cuauhtémoc, where another contingent of trade union workers were awaiting her. They applauded her and threw fragrant sprays of roses. In the Glorieta, a demonstration was organized to honor Mother Jones, and was followed by a parade to the Hotel St. Francis where several Mexican workers spoke, and the guest of honor answered. She did so in virile and intrepid language, saying , in short, that when she first visited Mexico [in 1911], she never believed the workers’ movement in this country would have reached its present numbers and effectiveness; that she had been struggling in the field of ideas and action for years and years, a a struggle which would end only with her death; that she had dedicated her existence to seeking the economic, moral, and cultural development of the working class. She ended with a tribute to the Mexican workers affirming that only on the day when a single language and a single nation would exist on earth, would human happiness have been achieved.

Mother Jones is an elderly lady whose appearance is as modest as it its admirable, a woman with a very friendly behavior.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Progressive Woman: Socialist Women of Chicago Stand With Striking Garment Workers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Rose Schneiderman Quote, Stand Together to Resist Mar 20, NY Independent p938, Apr 1905———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 12, 1911
Chicago, Illinois – Socialist Women Stand with Striking Garment Workers

From The Progressive Woman of January 1911:

Chg Garment Workers Strike, Socialist Wmn Com, Prg Wmn Cv, Jan 1911Chg Garment Workers Strike, Socialist Wmn Com Names, Prg Wmn p2, Jan 1911

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The Chicago Garment Workers’ Strike

ANNA A. MALEY

Workers of the world, unite! This is in deed the golden rule of labor—a rule that in the fullest application will give us one day a united workers’ world

Working class need is the great unifier; and so in the Chicago garment makers’ strike there stand 41,000 workers, comprising nine nationalities. The branches of the trade included are cutters, trimmers, coat makers, pants makers, vest makers and buttonhole makers. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Progressive Woman: Socialist Women of Chicago Stand With Striking Garment Workers” →