Month: August 2024

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones urges the striking meat cutters of New York City to “squelch” both Roosevelt (R) and Parker (D).

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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MJ Quote Solidarity————————-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 21, 1904
New York, New York – Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Meat Cutters

From the Raleigh, North Carolina, Morning Post of August 19, 1904:

MOTHER JONES ON HAND

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

New York, Aug. 18.-Homer D. Call, National secretary of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters of America, arrived here today to take charge of the local beef strike, or what is left of it. He denied statements that men had been brought here to work in the plants in violation of the contract labor law.

“These people,” he said, “are cattle tenders who look after the cattle on the voyage and who return to Europe upon the next steamer.”

Mother Jones, who is always to be found where there is labor troubles, and is therefore in New York now, will address a meeting of the strikers tomorrow.

Mr. Call said that National President Donnelly, who had thought of coming to New York, had decided that it is not necessary to come here now.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones urges the striking meat cutters of New York City to “squelch” both Roosevelt (R) and Parker (D).” →

Hellraisers Journal: Western Federation of Miners Honors Michael O’Connell: “The soul of honor, a brave and generous man”

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III————————–

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 20, 1904
The Western Federation of Miners Remembers Michael O’Connell

Cripple Creek District Striking Miners Deported to KS State Line, Rastall p88, 1908

Brother O’Connell died in Denver on the evening of August 6th after a fall from a fourth story window of the Markham hotel. The deposed Marshal of Victor had only recently been released on bond from the bullpen, and was then driven from his home and family, and forced to seek refuge in Denver with other deported Miners. The Miners’ Magazine, official voice of the Western Federation of Miners, remembered him as a “good, brave and generous man” who was “the soul of honor,” and “a prince among men.”
From the Miners’ Magazine of August 18, 1904:

Michael O’Connell, the deposed marshal of the city of Victor, is now numbered with the silent majority, who are wrapped in the somnus of death. The good, brave and generous man who came to Colorado with the blush of boyhood on his cheek, is now numbered with the thousands who sleep in Evergreen cemetery, in the City of the Clouds. For sixty days he suffered all the humiliation which a Mine Owners’ Association and a Citizens’ Alliance could heap upon him in a bull pen, and when his friends secured the bonds which liberated him from persecution and imprisonment, he was forced to leave his home and family under threats from a hired, blood thirsty mob. He was even denied the right of an American citizen, to remain at his home. We are told that a man’s home is his castle, and that no man or party of men, has the right to invade or trespass upon the sacred precincts of the home. But the Mine Owners’ Association and a Citizens’ Alliance have no reverence for the sanctuary of a home, no sympathy for the breaking heart-strings of a woman’s holy love for her husband and no pang of pity for the flowers of childhood that bloomed in the once happy home of Michael O’Connell.

We have known the dead man for fifteen long years. We are proud of the honor of having been numbered among his friends. The Great Ruler of human destiny and Creator of human life only ushers into existence in a generation a few men like the departed Michael O’Connell.

He was the soul of honor, a prince among men—one of those grand characters, whose every act in life soared in an atmosphere of moral grandeur where dishonor could not live. In his death, another sacrifice of human life lies indirectly at the door of the governor of this state. There was no protection for the brave and heroic marshal of Victor. He had sinned against the governor, because his heart beat in sympathy with the cause of the striking miners. He was a law-breaker and an insurrectionist, because his honor and his manhood scorned to bow in submission to the Mafia, that has been backed and supported by the armed power of the state. In the years that are to come, if a conscience returns to the chief executive of Colorado, the memory of Michael O’Connell’s death will rise up like a ghost, to haunt him in his midnight dreams.

In the Cloud City the brave man has been laid to rest. All over the jurisdiction of the Western Federation of Miners the untimely death of Michael O’Connell will be mourned, and the keenest sympathy and sorrow will be felt for his bereaved wife and fatherless children.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Western Federation of Miners Honors Michael O’Connell: “The soul of honor, a brave and generous man”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado, Refers to Mother Jones, Miners’ Angel, as “that old hag.”

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Quote Mother Jones re Walsenburg Cellar Cell, Mar 22, 1914 x26 days, Ab Chp 21, 1925————————-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 19, 1914
Governor Ammons Refers to Mother Jones as “That Old Hag”

CRTN Copy w Gray Border, Mother Jones Silence by Gen Chase and Colorado Gov Ammons, SUR p3, Feb 21, 1914

Yesterday’s edition of The Lincoln Star noted the visit to that Nebraska city of the Democratic Governor of Colorado, Elias M. Ammons. Ammons came to the state on business, but gave an interview in which he expressed his opinion that the mine owners of Colorado had been unfairly treated by the newspapers of the land. He referred to Mother Jones as “that old hag” and asserted that she was a “professional trouble-maker.” He admits that she was held incommunicado in a Trinidad hospital, but appears to forget her further incarceration of nearly a month’s duration in the cold cellar cell which had already claimed the life of a much younger miner.

While complaining that “a great deal of sympathy has been wasted on that old hag,” the Governor wasted none of his sympathy on the the men, women and children who were murdered at Ludlow. Not a word did he speak of the Ludlow Massacre committed by soldiers who were sent into the strike zone at his command. Not one word of compassion or sorrow did we hear from the Governor for those who lost husbands, wives, and children at the hands of Colorado National Guard whom he had allowed to be infiltrated by the coal company’s hired gunthugs.

From The Lincoln Star of August 18, 1914:

GOV. AMMONS, A LINCOLN VISITOR
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Colorado Executive Talks of Mine Troubles in That State
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Asserts Only the Miners’ Side Was Given by Newspapers
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Nothing has been settled in the Colorado coal miners’ strike, and 2,200 federal troops are still on duty in the region affected, according to the statement of Gov. E. M. Ammons while in Lincoln today. Governor Ammons, who is president of the Farmers Life Insurance company of Denver, was in Lincoln conferring with Insurance Commissioner L. G. Brian over the status of the company in Nebraska. Mr. Brian some time ago refused it a license on the ground that it was engaged more actively in selling stock than in conducting an insurance business.

Governor Ammons said he went to the capitol to call on Governor Morehead, but the latter had gone home to Falls City for the primary election. Not finding Governor Morehead in, he decided to pay Insurance Commissioner Brian a visit. It just happened that Governor Ammons had brought with him a Denver attorney, J. A. O’Shaughnessy, and he also took part in the interview with Mr. Brian.

The Colorado executive showed some feeling when he discussed with a Star reporter the Colorado strike. He declared that the situation had been greatly misrepresented, and only the miners’ side had received publicity. He criticised the newspapers of Denver for not printing all the facts. Three of the four newspapers there, he said, are owned outside of Colorado.

“One of them is a Scripps-MacRae sheet, and it is so rank that I cut it off my list a long time ago.” said Mr Ammons. “I not only don’t read it, but I don’t allow any body to talk to me about what it says.”

The governor asserted that “Mother” Jones is a professional trouble-maker in labor disputes, and that she had not been mistreated by the militia. He said she was told before she went into the strike district that she would be placed under arrest. She refused to stay out and was accordingly taken into custody, being placed in a hospital and not a jail, Governor Ammons declared. He admitted that she was held “incommunicado,” but justified this by saying it would have been just as well to leave her at liberty in the first place as to let her confer with her followers from the hospital.

“She understood, however, that she could leave the strike district whenever she wanted to,” he continued “but she would not agree to go. So we just had to keep her shut up.”

The governor expressed his opinion that “a good deal of sympathy has been wasted on that old hag.”

Governor Ammons is not a candidate for re-election. He has served one term, and says that is enough. He expects to go back to his ranch when he gets through.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado, Refers to Mother Jones, Miners’ Angel, as “that old hag.”” →