Month: June 2022

Hellraisers Journal: Great Anthracite Strike Continues in Pennsylvania; Mitchell Awaits Word from Virginia and West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, UMWC, Indianapolis, July 19, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 10, 1902
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – Great Anthracite Strike Likely to be Long Siege

From the New York Tribune of June 9, 1902:

Anthracite Strike Scenes, Scab Sign Parsons PA, NY Tb p1, June 9, 1902

Top: Section of Mine Stockade and Guards’ Shanty.
Coal and Iron Police Lined Along the Stockade.
Bottom: Crowd of Strikers with “SCAB” Banner at Parsons.

———-

CAN KEEP MOST MINES DRY
———-

ANTHRACITE SITUATION INDICATES THAT
BOTH SIDES EXPECT LONG SIEGE.

(BY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUNE.)

Wilkesbarre, Penn., June 8.-News of the strike in Virginia, and West Virginia, is coming slowly to President Mitchell at his headquarters here, and to-night he said: “I cannot yet give out a statement, because I do not know enough of the situation. My reports are arriving slowly. Probably I shall have them completed late to-night, and will make a statement to-morrow. As to the situation in the districts I have heard from, I do not now desire to say anything.” There is much anxiety among the officers at the headquarters on account of this new strike [in the Virginias], because it is understood the response is not as large as was expected. Even President Mitchell’s conservative estimate of eighteen thousand may be too high when all the districts are in. In charge of the strike on the scene are National Treasurer W. B. Wilson and a force of twenty organizers and national officers. The success of this strike means much toward the success of the anthracite strike, and Mitchell is anxious to make certain that there is a chance of it succeeding. The operators here say that the strike is a fizzle, and that it will be all over in a couple of weeks.

To-morrow will begin the fifth week of the [Pennsylvania anthracite] strike, and there is not the slightest sign of the operators or the miners weakening. President Mitchell believed that by the end of May he could have the entire region tied up and nearly all the engineers, firemen and pumpmen out on strike with the miners. He has succeeded, except in the Lackawanna district. The operators, despite their sanguine statements, knew a month ago what the situation would be at the end of the month, and everything is as planned except the outbreaks……

It is estimated to-night that since the strike began forty-eight thousand mine workers have left this region, or about one-third of the number who went on strike. If the mines were to resume work to-morrow there would be only enough men in the region to get out about half the normal output.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May 1902: Found Organizing Coal Miners for the UMWA in West Virginia, Part III

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote John Mitchell to Mother Jones re WV Fairmont Field, May 10, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 9, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May 1902, Part III
Found Organizing Coal Miners of West Virginia, Date Set for Strike

From The Indianapolis Journal of May 24, 1902:

West Virginia Miners May Strike.

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

HUNTINGTON, W. Va.. May 23.-Fifty or more organizers of the United Mine Workers of America are in session here to-day. Secretary-treasurer [William B.] Wilson, of the national organization. Mother Jones and others are present. It is believed the session forebodes a strike in the West Virginia fields. Secretary Wilson refuses to be interviewed on the subject.

The most important question considered was that of a suspension of work by the miners of West Virginia, the discussion lasting until after midnight. When a vote was taken unanimous sentiment in favor of suspension was shown. The time for suspension was set for Saturday, June 7. Resolutions were adopted asking the operators for better treatment of miners and a higher scale of wages, no reference whatever being made for a recognition of the union. If the demands of the resolution are acceded to by the operators the strike will be called off.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May 1902: Found Organizing Coal Miners for the UMWA in West Virginia, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote John Mitchell to Mother Jones re WV Fairmont Field, May 10, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 8, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May 1902, Part II
Found Organizing Coal Miners of West Virginia, Describes Terrible Conditions

From The Minneapolis Tribune of May 9, 1902:

THE COAL MINER

-BY CHARLOTTE TELLER
(Copyright, 1902)

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

Hundreds of thousands are indebted to the coal miners for their light and heat during the winter months. Much of the comfort of the world depends upon the labor of men who work ten hours a day in the midst of darkness.

It is a strange life. And few there are who ever give it a thought unless a strike be announced and the price of coal goes up in consequence.

Those upon whom many communities are dependent for the means of running factories, manufacturing gas and heating houses are scarcely considered in the course of a year’s thought. Men are bound together by the very strands of smoke sweeping up into the air from engines and chimneys, but they do not know it, and live thousands of miles apart in thought.

A woman who has for years worked among the grimy men and hopeless women of the coal districts-“Mother Jones”-writes that the life in the coal regions of West Virginia amounts to slavery. They are unorganized miners who live at [Kanawha?], because if they dare to make a protest or a move to help themselves, they are quickly discharged and their names put on the black list.

Nearly all the houses and stores at this place belong to the corporation, and this proprietorship adds to the troubles of the miners. “Mother Jones” writes: “Every rainstorm pours through the roofs of the corporation shacks and wets the miners and their families.” And she says she has seen the miners “drop down exhausted and unconscious from the effects of the poisonous gases amid which they were forced to work.”

The corporations do not seem to believe in “free competition,” for they make it impossible for any storekeeper or smithy to get a start near the mines. “Ten tons of coal go to the company each year for house rent; two tons to the company doctor. * * * Two tons must go to the blacksmith for sharpening tools, two tons more for the water which they use and which they must carry from a spring half way up the mountain side, and ten tons more for the powder and oil.“

“And this,” she says, “must be paid before a penny comes with which to buy things to eat and wear. When one hears their sad tales, looks upon the faces of their disheartened wives and children and learns of their blasted hopes and lives with no ray sunshine, one is not surprised that they have a disheartened appearance as if there was nothing on earth to live for.”

[….]

——————-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May 1902: Found Organizing Coal Miners for the UMWA in West Virginia, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May 1902: Found Organizing Coal Miners for the UMWA in West Virginia, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote John Mitchell to Mother Jones re WV Fairmont Field, May 10, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 7, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May 1902, Part I
Found Organizing Coal Miners of West Virginia and Advocating General Strike

From the Morgantown (W. V.) Daily New Dominion of May 3, 1902:

 

STRIKING DEMONSTRATION.
———-
All Union Men of the Country to Cease Work.
———-
Nothing will be Done by a Member of a Union on That Day
-Object Lesson of the Strength of the Unions
-Plans are all Perfected for the Movement.

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

CHARLESTON. May 3—On May 17th every union workingman in the country, no matter of what trade, will lay down his tools and refuse to work for one day. So exclaimed “Mother” Jones today on her return from an extended “missionary” trip up the Kanawha and New river valleys where she has been working in behalf of the labor organizations in order to perfect a union among the miners who so far have failed to join the ranks of the many who use the pick in the bituminous coal fields of West Virginia.

“Mother” Jones tells that it is no secret. She says that at a meeting of all the labor organizations all over the entire country this question has been presented and discussed and that so far all reports received have been favorable.

The purpose is merely to give an object lesson of the power of labor if it sees fit to assert itself.

The assertions of the great labor agitator coming at this time when it appears on the surface that times are good and labor is receiving wages that are considered the best, has caused a sensation among the capitalists cf the State, especially those who are in line of control among the mines and lumber industries of West Virginia. She makes no bones of telling why labor is dissatisfied with its present condition. Trusts and the consequent advancement of all supplies, materials and articles of food are the causes for the unrest that is manifest and she says the people who live by the use of their hands are becoming so tired of the imposition that they have decided to give capital an object lesson that will be remembered for years to come.

There has been little heralding of the purpose of the labor organizations says “Mother” Jones. In fact it has been kept extremely quiet for a purpose, but there is no question according to her, but that they mean business and the country will see a general strike such as never was recorded before. Every member of all the organizations of labor and their sympathizers will stop work and unless concessions come from the magnates who rule the various trusts of the country without delay, there will be a cessation of activity along all the lines of commerce, both state, national and foreign.

The recent action of the beef trust in placing the product that is most used among the working class beyond the reach of the working man has so infuriated the masses that nothing short of a general strike is thought of by them.

“Mother” Jones stated that she herself had visited hundreds of the various lodges of the country and with one acclaim all are in favor of the measures herein outlined. The railroads have pooled their issues in such a manner and have so discriminated in freights that none except the very wealthy are in a position to receive any benefits from them. So it is with the great iron and steel industries and in the sections formerly benefited by them, there is now nothing for the independent producer to do but to submit to the inevitable.

—————

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May 1902: Found Organizing Coal Miners for the UMWA in West Virginia, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Butte Labor World: Report on Conventions of Western Labor Union and Western Federation of Miners

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Socialist Ripe Trade Unionist, WLUC p45, May 31, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 6, 1902
Denver, Colorado – W. L. U. and W. F. of M. Hold Conventions at Odd Fellows Hall

From the Butte Labor World of June 2, 1902, Convention Number:

HdLn WLU Convention, Btt Lbr Wld p1, June 2, 1902

—–

HdLn WFM Convention, Btt Lbr Wld p1, June 2, 1902

The annual convention of the Western Labor Union, and Western Federation of miners and the United Association of Hotel and Restaurant Employes, opened at Denver last week. These gatherings of men who represent the real producers of wealth showed in a measure the strength of the great organizations of labor. Denver received them with outstretched arms. The reception committees were busy looking to the comfort of the visitors and everything possible was done to make their stay in the queen city of the West a pleasant one. The hospitality was warm and well appreciated by the delegates….

There were nearly one hundred in attendance at the Western Labor Union convention and fully one hundred and fifty at the federation of miners.….

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Ends Western Tour on Behalf of Shopmen’s Strike, Plans to Leave for West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Better to Die Fighting, Sac Str p1, June 3, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 5, 1912
Mother Jones Preparing to Leave Montana, Heading for West Virginia

From The Sacramento Star of June 3, 1912:

Mother Jones on Train, Sac Str p1, June 3, 1912

Mother Jones has forwarded $800 from Montana to the Harriman shop strikers. Seven hundred of this was donated, in response to her earnest appeal, by unions of coal miners, and the remainder came from mill and smeltermen, machinists and other crafts. How persistent has been her work tor the System Federation is seen in her statement that she refused to accept less than $250 from the union of miners at Roundup, and their $100 donation was sent through their international office. Butte metal miners gave $300 some time ago.

[She writes in a characteristic letter to President E. L. Reguin and Secretary John Scott of the System Federation:]

If the men had been working regularly in the coal mines, I could have gathered up very much more. However, the whole thing shows the disposition of the men to aid each other in the struggle, which counts to me very much more than the finances,

I shall leave in a few days for West Virginia, to take up the battle there. It is a dangerous field, and many of us who go in there are more than likely never to come out, but what difference does that make so long as we are carrying on the industrial battle, and flaunting in the face of the foe the red flag of industrial freedom? There must be sacrifices made, and there must be martyrs. That state and Alabama must be organized within the next few years.

Tell my boys of the Federation it matters not where I go, I shall keep up the fight against oppression and wrong. Men, women and children must be free, and sentiment will never free them. Those who are grounded in the philosophy of the class struggle must go forth and give battle to the well-entrenched foe.

Tell the boys to keep up the fight. It is far better to die fighting and suffering than to remain slaves.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: Photograph of Miners’ Baseball Team at Charles Town, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote West Virginia Miner re Gunthugs, LW p1, Sept 24, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 4, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – U. M. W. A. Baseball Team, Bill Blizzard with Bat

From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 1, 1922:

WV Treason Trial Baseball Team w Blizzard, UMWJ p17, June 1, 1922

From the Duluth Labor World of June 3, 1922:

COSSACKS ACT JUST LIKE
PRUSSIAN OFFICERS DID

West Virginia state police, known as the Cossacks, have made a mess of things since their arrival at Charles Town to attend the miners’ trial. They do not realize that they are not in Logan county where the coal barons rule by force and might.

The Cossacks have clashed with Charles Town police officials and have assumed the attitude of a Prussian army officer toward private citizens.

The miners insist that there would be no trouble in Logan and other counties but for the Cossacks, who are now sustaining the miners’ claim.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Local Boise, of Socialist Party, Defends Comrade Bill Haywood Against Charges Made by Local Yuma

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH, IU Socialism w Working Clothes On, NYC Cooper Union Debate w Hillquit, Jan 11, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 3, 1912
Local Boise (S. P. A.) Defends Big Bill Haywood

From the International Socialist Review of June 1912

BBH w Tom Mann, ISR p882, June 1912

Approve Haywood.-Just because our Com. Wm. D. Haywood happens to lay some stress on the industrial field, we are told by Local Yuma, Arizona, that he is unfit for the executive committee. We, Local Boise, take exception to this and declare that if Haywood is unfit for the executive committee we had better disband the Socialist party and tell Carl Marx to turn over in his grave, since by such an act we would proclaim to the world that the bona fide workers were not able to be a directing head. Local Yuma, in the desert of Arizona, seems to have a spirit in its ranks. This spirit seems to be able to go thousands of miles to report the words of a man who, maybe, is little to its liking. If Com. Haywood transgressed the holy word, why doesn’t Local New York, in whose territory Com. Haywood is said to have desecrated the Socialist party [Cooper Union Speech of Dec. 21, 1911], we say, why doesn’t New York move to recall Com. Haywood? Perhaps Com. Hillquit and others, who are always in New York, have too much influence there, and as they love Com. Haywood the New York local overlooks whatever Com. Haywood says. We rather think that the gods of our party make the faith in New York, but only the rank and file of Yuma, Arizona, believe it. Comrades, we, Local Boise, have had the good fortune to know Com. Haywood at close quarters. We saw him suffer day by day in the damp jail in this city. We saw him heroically withstand the slaughter of bloodthirsty lawyers and all for our cause. Comrades, we know that Com. Haywood is a true Socialist. His dues are paid in the Socialist party, and above all he never flinches from his duty to the working class, our class. If the referendum proposed by Local Yuma should carry, a smile of pleasure would spread itself over the face of every enemy of Socialism. We, Local Boise, call on all true comrades to snow under the proposed recall and thereby keep Com. Haywood where he was duly elected by a big majority.

MICHELE CIMBALO.
SEWELL H. CHAPMAN,
Local Boise Press Committee.

[Note: re Tom Mann, the Review states:]

Tom Mann Sentenced.-Tom Mann, the industrial union labor leader who inspired over a million English miners to strike a few months ago, has been sentenced to serve six months in jail for calling upon the troups during the recent coal strike to refuse to shoot down strikers or their sympathizers. Comrade Mann defended himself and asked no mercy of the court. The charge against him was “inciting to mutiny.”…..

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Prosecution of Ettor and Giovannitti, Leaders of the Lawrence Strike

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote Giovannitti, The Walker, Rest My Brother—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 2, 1912
The Plot Against Ettor and Giovannitti, Leaders of the Lawrence Strike

From the International Socialist Review of June 1912:

BBH Walking w Ettor n Giovannitti, ISR p872, June 1912

EDITORIAL

A Plot to Murder Wage-Workers. Our readers already know that Ettor and Giovannitti, the I. W. W. organizers who directed the Lawrence strike in its earlier stages, were thrown into jail on charge of conspiracy to murder. At the time this seemed merely a move to cripple the strike, and it was expected that when work was resumed at the mills they would be released. Now, however, it seems that a desperate effort will be made to pack a jury with tools of the mill owners and send our comrades to the electric chair. No one claims that they had any part in the actual killing of any one. The victim was a woman striker [Anna LoPizzo], and the shot was fired by a policeman, as is fully explained in the New York Call of May 10. The real question is whether the prisoners were inciting the strikers to violence, and on this point there is an overwhelming array of testimony in the negative. The REVIEW had a representative on the scene all through the closing days of the strike, and from his personal knowledge we can say that the capitalists and police were eager to have the strikers resort to force, and in many ways did all they could to provoke violence. The strike committee on the other hand realized that any resort to force would give the police and the soldiers the pretext they were looking for to slaughter hundreds of strikers. Consequently they maintained such discipline and restraint among the strikers that the pretext never came, and finally the strike was won. Now in revenge, the jackals of the mill owners are seeking to murder Ettor and Giovannitti. Their trial has been postponed to the August term of court. Money for their defense is urgently needed. Send it direct to William Yates, Treas., 430 Bay State Building, Lawrence, Mass.

NYC May Day Parade w Banner for Ettor n Giovannitti, ISR p871, June 1912

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Eugene Debs and Emil Seidel Nominated to Head Socialist Party Ticket

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Law ag Working Class, AtR p1, Apr 29, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 1, 1912
Socialist Party of America Nominates Eugene Debs and Emil Seidel

From the International Socialist Review of June 1912:

EVD and Emil Seidel, ISR Cv, June 1912

Note: This issue of the Review covers the National Convention of the Socialist Party of America extensively, devoting 25 pages to that coverage and including many drawings and photographs of delegates and visitors. The convention was held at Indianapolis, Indiana, beginning Sunday, May 12th and ending Saturday, May 18th. Debs and Seidel were nominated late in the day on May 17th.

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