Month: August 2021

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part III: Found with Miners of West Virginia; Sends Greetings to Socialist Convention

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Stormy Paths, UMWC Ipl IN, Jan 25, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 11, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1901, Part III
Found Organizing Coal Miners in West Virginia

From the Baltimore Sun of  July 24, 1901:

APPEALING TO MINERS
———-
“Mother” Jones Arrives In The West Virginia Field.

(Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.)

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

Morgantown, W. Va., July 23.-The organization known as the United Mine Workers of America will make a desperate effort this summer to bring all the West Virginia miners now outside of their organization into it.

Thomas Burker [Burke], Edward Cahill, John H. Walker and Mary Jones, known as “Mother” Jones, arrived from Indianapolis yesterday and will begin their work here……

—————

[Photograph added.]

From West Virginia’s Shepherdstown Register of July 25, 1901:

John Jay Jackson Jr., Injunction Judge

At Charleston Tuesday Judge Jackson made perpetual a temporary injunction that he had granted restraining the striking coal miners in the Flat Top region [Pocahontas Coalfield] from interfering with the operation of the mines, and he held for the action of the grand jury certain miners who are said to have fired on United States officers. The Judge severely denounced the miners.

The United Mine Workers will get “Mother Jones” to come to West Virginia to help the cause of the strikers.

It will soon be demonstrated, however, that Judge Jackson is a bigger man than “Mother Jones.”

From The Indianapolis Journal of July 30, 1901:

Mother Jones and Eugene Debs Send Greetings
to Socialist Unity Convention

Numerous telegrams were received from sympathizers of the party throughout the country, among them being one from Eugene V. Debs, the leader of the Socialists [those Socialists associated with the Social Democratic Party of America], and “Mother” Jones, the stanch supported of organized labor.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part III: Found with Miners of West Virginia; Sends Greetings to Socialist Convention” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part II: Reportedly Visited Chicago as Freind of Servant Girls; Organizing Efforts Ongoing

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones, None too low or high, Ipl Jr p3, Jan 21, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 10, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1901, Part II
Reportedly Visited Chicago as Friend of Servant Girls

From the Washington Evening Star of July 6, 1901:

SERVANT GIRLS TO FORM A UNION.
———-
“Mother” Jones of Miners’ Strike Fame
the Organizer.

MJ in Chg, Montpelier Vt Argus Patriot p4, July 10, 1901

CHICAGO, July 6.-The Record-Herald says:

“Mother” Jones, who did so much to encourage the coal miners in their strike in Pennsylvania a year ago, holding meetings and addressing them wherever a few could be got together, and who since has assisted the striking silk workers in New Jersey and the carpet weavers in Philadelphia to stand out for their demands, has been in Chicago the past few weeks assisting the committee of the Women’s Trade Union Label League to organize the servant girls. As a result of the work done by the committee with the aid of “Mother” Jones, several hundred servant girls have signified their intention of becoming charter members of the first servant girls’ union of Chicago, which will be formed on Thursday night.

[Photograph added.]

From The Chicago Daily News of July 11, 1901:

COMES TO HELP DOMESTICS
———-
“Mother” Jones Will Lend a Hand
in Forming a Union.

Promoters of the Chicago Domestics’ union are surrounding their actions with an air of secrecy. “Mother” Jones, a union worker with a national reputation, who arrived in Chicago a short time ago, it is said, has rendered valuable assistance to the local organizers, and a meeting has been scheduled for tonight at the Masonic temple.

The promoters of the union, however, refuse to say just where the meeting will be held, and it is rumored it will not be at the temple, but at some secluded spot on the west side.

———-

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part II: Reportedly Visited Chicago as Freind of Servant Girls; Organizing Efforts Ongoing” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part I: Found Returning to Scranton and Hazleton from St. Louis, Missouri

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Contented Slave, St Louis Pst Dsp p3, June 17, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 9, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1901, Part I
Found at Scranton and Hazleton, Pennsylvania

FromThe Scranton Times of July 1, 1901:

“MOTHER” JONES IN TOWN.
—-

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

Mother Mary Jones, one of the national organizers of the United Mine Workers of America, is again in the city. She arrived this morning from St. Louis. She intends to remain here only a few days.

This is the first visit of “Mother” Jones to this city since the settlement of the silk mill strike, which was brought about through her untiring efforts. She appears to be in the very best of health. 

—————

[Photograph added.]

From the Hazleton Plain Speaker of July 3, 1901:

Celebration at Nuremburg.

One of the biggest Fourth of July celebrations in the region will be held at Nuremburg, where the United Mine Workers, who are at the head of the affair, have left nothing undone to make it an occasion long to be remembered by the citizens of the town. National Secretary Wilson, of the United Mine Workers, and “Mother” Jones, the lady organizer who is known to every miner in the anthracite coal fields, will be the speakers. Large delegations of Mine Workers from this city and the surrounding towns will attend.

“Mother” Jones in Town. 

“Mother” Jones, who will be among the speakers at the Nuremburg demonstration tomorrow arrived in town today. 

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part I: Found Returning to Scranton and Hazleton from St. Louis, Missouri” →

Hellraisers Journal: The Rebel of Hallettsville, Texas, Argues for Term Limits for Officers of Socialist Party

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD, Socialists n IU, Chg Sept 18, ISR p258, Nov 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 8, 1911
The Rebel of Hallettsville, Texas, Fights Against Referendum B

From the International Socialist Review of August 1911:

Tom Hickey, ed, Texas Socialist, 1911
Tom Hickey

Defeat Referendum B.—-The Rebel, a bright little Socialist weekly just started by Comrade T. A. Hickey, at Hallettsville, Texas, contains an able editorial argument against “Referendum B,” which we would gladly reprint in full but for the pressure on our space. He calls attention to a remarkable thing that has happened in the Socialist party this year. A little Texas local initiated a national referendum that carried triumphantly. It provides that all national party officers shall be elected annually and shall not serve more than two terms. The party officials and their friends fought it bitterly but failed to defeat it. Now, although no election has yet been held under its provisions, they have started a new referendum [National Referendum B, 1911] to reverse it. On this action The Rebel comments:

It is a piece of unparalleled impudence on the part of these officials who started this latest referendum. They should realize that the motion when it carried should have been given a fair trial. Why plunge the party into turmoil now? We are on the eve of the most important campaign in the party’s history. Shall we go into it with new officers and unbroken ranks and a spirit of growing solidarity, or shall we be torn with dissension by those who have refused to bow to the party’s will? Vote NO on Referendum B. Get out a full vote and let our grand party take advanced ground on the way to a Social Democracy.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Rebel of Hallettsville, Texas, Argues for Term Limits for Officers of Socialist Party” →

Hellraisers Journal: C. E. Lively, Baldwin-Felts Gunthug and Confessed Labor Spy, Held for the Murder of Sid Hatfield

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Sallie Chambers re Murder of Sid Hatfield n Ed, Blt Sun p2, Aug 5, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 7, 1921
West Virginia Gunthug, C. E. Lively, Held for Murder of Sid Hatfield

From the Duluth Labor World of August 6, 1921:

HdLn Spy Lively Held for Murder of Sid Hatfield, LW p1, Aug 6, 1921

Matewan Defendants Sid Hatfield n Ed Chambers, WV Hx Center, see also UMWJ p14, June 15, 1921

Sid Hatfield, former chief-of police of Matewan, W. Va., who made such a heroic struggle in behalf of law and order when Baldwin-Felts private detectives attempted to evict striking miners from their homes 14 months ago, was assassinated in cold blood on the steps of the court house at Welch Tuesday morning last, where Hatfield was going to face trial on an alleged shooting charge. Ed. Chambers, Hatfield’s companion, was also killed. Neither was armed.

C. E. Lively, a private detective, and George “Buster” Penice, a deputy sheriff, are being held for the shooting. A coroner’s jury “could not” be obtained. The Baldwin-Felts men threatened to “get” Hatfield. They hold it was his gun that put five of their number out of business in the Matewan affair.

[…..]

The assassination of Hatfield and Chambers will bring to a head the charges union labor have made against the private police-ridden methods employed by the coal owners of West Virginia, such as surpass the most brazen of feudalism just before the French revolution. Every right guaranteed by the constitution has been ignored. King Coal rules with a rod of iron. His ukases supersede federal, state and local laws. The courts and state officials are his puppets, except in rare cases. Those who refuse to obey his edicts are removed from office, and the fearless, like Sid Hatfield, are put to death.

West Virginia is the shame of America. Its governor has boldly defended the reign of capitalistic lawlessness with which the state is festered. Its legislature has enacted laws against labor and justice that would make a czar tremble in his boots out of fear that they would hasten his downfall. Its courts have accepted the mandates of the coal barons, just as they did of old when they were the mere tools of kings and princes.

Innocent men, dangerous to the mine owners, have been wrongfully convicted, merely to be gotten out of the way. Lively “killed this man” in Colorado, where conditions were once equally as bad, but his employers were influential enough to save his neck, so he might continue his nefarious work. He has lived to kill another, a brave, young mountaineer whose independent spirit was a challenge to outlawry in West Virginia, the pocket state of “wealth gone mad.” It will be interesting to observe developments in the case. 

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: C. E. Lively, Baldwin-Felts Gunthug and Confessed Labor Spy, Held for the Murder of Sid Hatfield” →

Hellraisers Journal: Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Were Unarmed When Murdered on Steps of McDowell County Courthouse

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Sallie Chambers re Murder of Sid Hatfield n Ed, Blt Sun p2, Aug 5, 1921————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 6, 1921
Matewan, West Virginia – Widows of Hatfield and Chambers Speak Out

From the Baltimore Sun of August 5, 1921:

Hatfield Was Unarmed, His Widow Asserts
———-

Mrs. Chambers Declares That Her Husband
Also Was Without Weapon.

Sid and Jessie Testerman Hatfield, Stt Str p14, Sept 15, 1920
Sid Hatfield (inset) and
Jessie Testerman Hatfield
—–

Matewan, W. Va., Aug. 4.-Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers, Mingo mountaineers, who were killed on the steps of the Courthouse at Welch, McDowell county, in a gun fight last Monday, were unarmed, their widow told newspaper men here today. Both Mrs. Hatfield and Mrs. Chambers accompanied their husbands to the court last Monday, where Sid, former chief of police at Matewan, was to have answered a charge of being the instigator of the “shooting up” of Mohawk, McDowell county, last year.

The widows said that they or their husbands did not anticipate trouble in Welch and that Hatfield locked his pistols in a traveling bag and Chambers laid aside his arms before starting for the Courthouse.

The women declared that C. E. Lively, Baldwin-Felts detective, charged with being implicated in the killings, boarded the train on which they were going to Welch early in the morning and followed them about the town until it was almost time for them to appear at the court. Mrs. Chambers, describing how she and her husband and Sid and his wife went to the Courthouse and started for the entrance, said:

I heard a shot fired. I turned and looked at Sid and he was falling. Then I looked at my husband and he was falling loose from my arm. The shooting then became general. I saw only two men shooting and they were C. E. Lively and a short, heavy-set man who wore glasses.

Mrs. Hatfield said that she lost consciousness while the shooting was going on. She charged Sheriff Bill Hatfield with negligence in not protecting her husband.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Were Unarmed When Murdered on Steps of McDowell County Courthouse” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Nation: Letter from James Rowan, Class War Prisoner 13113 at Leavenworth, Kansas

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH IWW w Drops of Blood, BDB, Sept 27, 1919—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 5, 1921
Letter from Fellow Worker James Rowan, Class War Prisoner

Leavenworth Prisoner #13113:

James Rowan, Chg IWW Class War Prisoner, Lv Sept 7, 1918

From The Nation of August 3, 1921:

The Imprisoned I. W. W. at Leavenworth

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATION:

SIR: May I call your attention, as well as that of your readers, to the cases of the I. W. W. prisoners at present doing time at Leavenworth? There are about one hundred and twenty of these men, all told. They are serving sentences varying from five to twenty years. I happen to be one of those serving a twenty-year sentence, so I can speak from first-hand knowledge.

We were arrested in 1917 under three indictments, known respectively as the Chicago, Sacramento, and Wichita indictments, charging us with conspiracy to hamper and obstruct the United States Government in the conduct of the war. After being held from one to two years under unspeakable conditions which caused the death of some, and others to go insane, in the county jails of Chicago, Sacramento, Wichita and other towns in Kansas, we were “tried,” convicted, and given sentences varying from one to twenty years. Fifteen received twenty-year sentences and the majority of the remainder are now serving ten year sentences.

Not one of us was proven guilty of any crime. We were convicted under the stress of war-time hysteria and public prejudice. Our real offense was that we all were, or had been, more or less active members of the I. W. W. We held, and still hold, certain opinions regarding the present system of society which are unfavorable to the ruling class and at variance with those held by the great majority of the people. Whether these opinions are right or wrong cuts no figure as far as the principle involved in these cases is concerned. If men can be imprisoned for their opinions then the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution no longer exist in the United States; free press and free speech are only empty phrases used to deceive the unthinking. If we are forced to serve out these sentences then no one is safe. Anyone holding opinions which the American plutocracy consider dangerous to their privileges can be thrown behind prison bars and forced to spend many years in a felon’s cell.

Our imprisonment not only means loss of liberty and all that makes life worth living to us. It is also a direct attack on the liberties of one hundred and ten million people. If the American people stand for these high-handed and savage judicial acts, unparalleled in any modern civilized country, it means that they have abandoned all claims to the rights and liberties for which our forefathers shed their blood. The lives of one hundred and twenty men are of little consequence. If forced to serve out our sentences we can do so, and I for one would rather stay in jail with a clear conscience than bow the knee to privilege on the outside. The real tragedy lies in the moral breakdown of a great people.

The only power that can free us is aroused public opinion. These cases must be investigated and the facts given wide publicity, and such a strong protest made to the officials at Washington that they may see their way clear to take action leading to the early release of all political prisoners in the State and Federal prisons of the United States. A small group of liberals and radicals are doing all in their power to bring about general amnesty for all political prisoners. Needless to say we thoroughly appreciate their efforts on our behalf. I ask you to add your voice to theirs, to the end that justice may be done and the voice of freedom, in unmistakable tones, may once more ring through the land.

JAMES ROWAN
Leavenworth, Kansas, July 13

[Emphasis and paragraph break added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Nation: Letter from James Rowan, Class War Prisoner 13113 at Leavenworth, Kansas” →

Hellraisers Journal: Double Funeral for Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Held in Drenching Rain, “Even the Heavens Weep”

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Sam Montgomery, Funeral of Sid and Ed, Aug 3, 1921, FM Ab p89,—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 4, 1921
Buskirk Cemetery, Kentucky – Sam Montgomery Speaks for Hatfield and Chambers

Double Funeral Held for Miners’ Heroes,
Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers

Matewan Defendants Sid Hatfield n Ed Chambers, WV Hx Center, see also UMWJ p14, June 15, 1921

August 3.-The double funeral for Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers was held today in a drenching rain, at Buskirk Cemetery, on the Kentucky side of the Tug river, just across the bridge from Matewan. Sam Montgomery delivered the funeral oration and said, in part:

We have gathered here today to perform the last sad rites for these two boys who fell victims to one of the most contemptible systems that has ever been known to exist in the history of the so-called civilized world. Deliberately shot down, murdered in cold blood, while they were entering a place which should have been a temple of justice, and by whom? Men who are working under the direction of and taking their orders from coal operators who live in Cincinnati, Chicago, New York City, and Boston.

Sleek, dignified, church-going gentlemen who would rather pay fabulous sums to their hired gunmen to kill and slay men for joining a union than to pay like or lesser amounts to the men who delve into the subterranean depths of the earth and produce their wealth for them. At the same time these same men prate of their charities, their donations to philanthropic movements, act as vestrymen and pillars of the churches to which they belong.

Even the Heavens weep with the grief-stricken relatives and the bereaved friends of these two boys.

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Hellraisers Journal: Bodies of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Brought Home to Matewan from Welch for Double Funeral

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote FK re Murders of Sid and Ed, Wlg Int p1, Aug 2, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 3, 1921
Matewan, West Virginia – Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Return Home

From The West Virginian of August 2, 1921:

Mingo WV, HdLn Sid and Ed Taken Home, WVgn p1, Aug 2, 1921

MATEWAN, W. Va., Aug 2.-Sid. Hatfield and Edward Chambers, who yesterday were shot to death on the court house steps at Welch, W. Va., as they were about to be tried for the part they were alleged to have played in a pistol attack on a mining town in the Mingo coal field were brought home last midnight. The open space around the little railroad station was filled with former friends and neighbors but there was no demonstration. State police and armed militiamen patrolled the streets and after the body had been taken to the little homes where the men had formerly lived the crowd quietly dispersed.

Mrs. Hatfield and Mrs. Chambers who were in Welch when the tragedy occurred arrived on the same train and were given sincere sympathy by their friends in the village.

 

Arrangements for the double funeral were not completed today but it was stated by friends of the family that services probably would be held tomorrow afternoon and interment made in the cemetery here.

Matewan was quiet this morning. At an early hour friends of the dead men called at their homes, looked for a moment upon the body and then passed out to their dally work or to discuss the tragedy as they walked along the streets. There were no better known men in all the Tug river country than Hatfield and Chambers and many incidents of their stormy lives in he narrow valley and out through the mountains were told and retold as the day advanced.

Armed militiamen and state policemen were here in force but from outward appearances they were not needed as the town was strangely quiet. Leading citizens who had sounded public sentiment in the fear that reprisals for the killing of the men might develop during the day expressed the opinion that there would be no disorder of any kind. Many persons from the surrounding country came in during the morning and it was expected that a great crowd would be here for the funeral.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Bodies of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers Brought Home to Matewan from Welch for Double Funeral” →

Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: West Virginia’s Militia Intent on Driving Miners’ Union From the State

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 2, 1921
West Virginia’s State Militia Serves Interest of Coal Operators

From the United Mine Workers Journal of August 1, 1921:

[-from pages 3 & 4]

Mingo Co WV, Lick Creek Tent Colony, UMWJ p3, Aug 1, 1921
General View of the Miners’ Tent Colony, Lick Creek, W. Va.

More complete details of the raid which was made upon the headquarters office of the United Mine Workers at Williamson, W. Va., by the so-called military authorities of that state have been received at the Journal office, and they are of even a more harrowing and outrageous character than was at first suspected or realized. The raid was a down-right act of brutal disregard for all of the constitutional rights that are supposed to be enjoyed by every American citizen, but which seem to belong only to coal operators in West virginia. More and more it becomes apparent that the military raid on the union headquarters was merely another part of the plan of the Williamson coal operators to run the United Mine Workers out of that field. Of course, they will not succeed in doing this, but their failure to accomplish this end will not be through any fault of the West Virginia military establishment.

The last issue of the Journal contained the bare facts of the raid on the office of the Union and the arrest of David B. Robb, International Fiscal Agent; Ed Dobbins, International Board Member, from District 12; International Organizers, John W. Brown, Robert Gilmour, Jasper Metzger and Herbert Halls; J. B. Wiggins and Henry Koop, local workers; Claude Mahoun, Charles Lee, Whetrell Hackney and J. H. Reed, striking miners. A squad of the improvised militia, led by Major Davis, invaded the office and ordered the men to line up on the sidewalk in front. Next they marched the twelve men to the Williamson City jail and locked them up. The twelve men suffered terribly from the intense heat and close confinement, but even this fact did not appear to satisfy the authorities, for two days later they handcuffed the men in pairs, loaded them on a train and took them to Welch, county seat of McDowell county, and placed them in the McDowell county jail.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: West Virginia’s Militia Intent on Driving Miners’ Union From the State” →