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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 19, 1914
List of Martyrs of Colorado Coalfield Strike by U. M. W. of A.
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of September 12, 1914:
“Blanket Arrest of Union Miners”
Author: Janet Raye
Hellraisers Journal: Ludlow Tent Colony Disenfranchised as JDR Jr’s Company Gunthugs Direct Arrests of Union Men
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 18, 1914
Las Animas County, Colorado – Gunthug Walter Belk Active in Arrests of Union Men
From the Appeal to Reason of September 12, 1914:
Ludlow Is Disfranchised
Ludlow, the strikers’ tent colony of nearly a thousand souls, is to be barred from the ballot box.
Ludlow’s citizens must go to Hastings two miles away to register, and Hastings is surrounded by company land, guarded by the armed thugs of the Baldwin-Felts Detective agency, armed while the union men are gunless.
No union man is permitted on company land and so the ballot box is in the grip of the coal operators.
A committee of citizens went to Colonel Lockett’s office in the city hall of Trinidad, Tuesday morning, to ask for protection at the polls and the colonel refused to see them. In his place stood Captain Rockwell with this message from the colonel:
“If the operators desire they can prohibit voters from going to the polls when the polls are on company land-the military will furnish no protection to any person on election day.”
The voice was that of Captain Rockwell, but the command was that of Colonel Lockett, Lockett of the United States army under whose protecting arm scabs have been flooding to the struck mines and digging coal for Rockefeller.
[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Miss Helen Schloss, The Red Nurse, Arrested for Picketing, Now in Trinidad Jail
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 17, 1914
Colorado Socialists Now Lodged in the Foul Trinidad Jail
Colorado Socialists, Helen Schloss and A. Marians, are now imprisoned in the Trinidad Jail, a jail where conditions are so vile that it stands condemned by the State Board of Health. Also a guest of that foul lodging establishment is John Murray, Appeal correspondent.
No Stranger to Jail, Helen Schloss behind bars during Little Falls Strike:
From the Appeal to Reason of September 12, 1914:
Federals Imprison Trained Nurse
By telegraph to Appeal to Reason.
Trinidad, Colo.-Helen Schloss, Socialist, trained nurse in charge of hospital tents of the striking miners at Ludlow, was arrested while picketing with a number of miners’ wives at the railroad station. The gallant Southern Major Cabell of the United States army had on of his soldiers swear to the complaint, and a company just imported from Tellerville held court in the railroad station, sentencing Miss Schloss to 15 days in Trinidad’s jail.
It was this same Major Cabell and his soldiers that man-handled Miss Schloss and a score of miners’ wives a few days ago at Ludlow, the brutal attacks of the federals leaving black and blue marks upon the women. The jail in which Miss Schloss is confined has been condemned by the state board of health, and is at this time crowded with striking miners just indicted by a hand-picked grand jury, on which were a number of notorious gunmen.
Miss Schloss nursed the wounded miners in the hospital tents, and cared for their children. Her arrest has shocked the entire community.
JOHN MURRAY
[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: The women answered: they had to take a part in the strike; their husbands’ fight was their fight, and side by side they would struggle with the men.
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 16, 1914
Women on Picket Duty at Ludlow, Colorado, Face Federal Soldiers
Helen Schloss tells a stirring story of the courageous women of the Southern Colorado Coalfield Strike who have now taken up picket duty and are meeting the scabs as they arrive at the Trinidad depot. Bearing the insignia of the “Women’s Union Picket Squad,” the women face arrest by federal soldiers. When they were advised by Major Rockwell to cease picketing:
The women answered that they had to take a part in the strike, that their husbands’ fight was their fight, and that side by side they would struggle with the men.
From The Labor World of September 12, 1914:
LUDLOW, Colo., Sept 11.-Women in the strikers’ colony have become pickets. They are already doing valuable work. One Sunday evening recently as the train was pulling in, a group of women appeared at the station to meet it. They had sashes across their chests bearing the insignia, “Women’s Union Pickett Squad.”The soldiers at the station were dumbfounded, and did not know what to make of us. We were not molested that evening, and we called a scab a scab. We pleaded with the scabs not to go into the mines, and take their brothers’ jobs. We informed them of the danger in the mines with unskilled hands. WOMEN ON PICKET DUTY IN COLORADO
———-
Wear Sashes Bearing Insignia That all
May See When Leaving Trains.
———-
FEDERAL SOLDIERS IGNORE INSTRUCTIONS
———-
Charged That Outsiders Are Permitted
to Take Jobs of Striking Miners.
———-
BY HELEN SCHLOSS.We kept up our arrogant picketing for two trains but when the third train arrived, we were informed that we would not be allowed at the depot.
Major Cable, of the federal troops, who is a southern gentleman, told us that he hated to see women in the capacity of pickets, and that perhaps the scabs might insult us, and that he as a soldier would hate to see us insulted. The gentleman pleaded with us, but we stood on our grounds of constitutional rights.
We informed the major that we would return to the depot. He then informed us that we would be arrested and taken before the justice of the peace. After much argument and after we tried to show him what picketing meant, he said that we might return to the depot providing we did not call any names, such as scabs, which seemed to be very offensive to the gentleman.
One Saturday evening after the train pulled out and the scabs were waiting in the hacks for the soldiers to take their names, and while the pickets were standing near to listen, we were told to move.
We did move, but not enough to suit the major. “Soldiers,” he shouted, “remove the women.” The soldiers surrounded us like a pack of hounds, and tried to remove us from the platform. But alas, they were mistaken, they thought perhaps we would be so frightened that we would run back to the tent colony. But we did not move. One husky soldier grabbed me and dragged me from the plat form, and I had a toss and tumble with him. Mrs Dominiske took hold of a post and stuck to it with all her strength. Mrs Bartolotti had her face slapped. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The women answered: they had to take a part in the strike; their husbands’ fight was their fight, and side by side they would struggle with the men.”
Hellraisers Journal: Part III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 15, 1904
Part III of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Shines Among Workers
From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:
[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904
“MOTHER” JONES’ CONDUCT WITH FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
—————She Shines Among the Workers.
—
The mother nature which is so strong in this remarkable woman as to have given her her beautiful soubriquet is not revealed among the ordinary surroundings which come to her during her brief sojourns in Chicago, New York or Washington, but is at once ready to shine forth when she is among the workers whom she calls her children-the girls of the silk mills, the men in the coal fields, or in the humble homes among the mothers and children.
In the strike of 1900 in Pennsylvania she started out one evening from Hazleton to go to Macadoo [McAdoo], to address a local union of miners. On the electric car she sat by the writer quietly observant of the other passengers. No one was as yet aware of her personality. Looking across at a young man and young woman who were sitting closely together, comparing two much thumbed note books with their heads quite close together, Mrs. Jones said: “Look at the dear children; they are comparing their savings. They are lovers, wondering how long it may be before they will be able to marry.”
There was a smile of tenderness on her face which did not wane when at transfer station some noisy youngsters outside discovered her and set up a cry of “Mother Jones! Mother Jones!”
“That’s so, children,” she said, standing up and leaning out of the window to them. “This is old ‘Mother’ Jones going to talk to your fathers and mothers. Are you union boys and girls?”
“You bet we are; hurrah for Mother Jones! Hurrah for Mother Jones!”
The youngsters kept pace with the car, and when the old lady stepped off they made her an escort as she walked to the hall, crowding and pushing to get close to her, to touch her dress, to hold her hand, to look up into her face and to shout the tidings that she was coming. When she reached the hall it was filled with men, who respectfully made way for her, and she passed among them to the platform.
After talking to them for a short time about the progress of the strike, and about a particularly obstinate body of workers at the Coleraine colliery, she told them that she had a plan, and asked them to clear the hall and send the women of their families to her. The men immediately yielded to her suggestion without understanding her intention, for she had worked so long among them as an organizer that they had faith in her judgment.
In about half an hour a strange audience had assembled. there were old, bent women of 70 and young, fresh-faced girls of 16. There were young matrons with babes in their arms, and women faded before their time. The faces that looked up from the rude benches of the strikers’ hall were at first only curious, or somewhat shy and embarrassed.
Walking to the edge of the platform “Mother” Jones stretched out her arms to them, and in her thrillingly sweet voice said, “Sisters!” A perceptible wave of emotion like the breath of wind sweeping the long grasses of downs and meadows passed over her audience. Still the women waited, wondered, watched.
“In the old revolutionary days,” said “Mother” Jones, “your mothers were heroes, as well as your fathers.”
The faces awoke; the souls back of them kindled. For an hour the speaker walked to and fro telling the deeds of mothers of the past, of sisters and wives. The listeners drew nearer. They leaned their elbows on the platform and lifted their faces to drink in her words. Their bosoms heaved and the tears rolled unheeded down their cheeks, but quickly the smiles flashed out again at the will of the speaker. She was explaining to them a plan to march by night through the mountains to surprise at dawn the body of workmen who had refused to strike, and by soft words and cajoleries to woo them to make common cause with their fellows. For who would stop a body of women carrying flags and singing.
“To Colerain-ah!” they whispered among themselves, and then broke out tumultuously: “We’ll go; yes, tonight; to win the boys of Colerain.” Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Part III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald”
Hellraisers Journal: Part II: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 14, 1904
Part II of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Then and Now
From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:
(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904
Her Appearance and Her History
“Mother” Jones is an old woman, perhaps about 62 years of age. Her hair is white as snow, her eyes bright blue. She has a sweet, womanly mouth, and a pink flush in her cheeks. She is robust and healthy in appearance, with a good matronly figure. In dress she is quite plain, often almost shabby; though there is a neatness, almost a daintiness, about her which always gives her an agreeable appearance.
Her maiden name was Mary Harris. When she was a child of 10 she came to this country with her father and brother from Ireland. They lived for time in Provincetown, and afterward went to Canada. She was educated in the common and normal schools of Toronto, where her brother became a priest, and is now the dean of the archdiocese. She went to teach in a convent in Monroe, Mich., and later, going to Memphis, Tenn., to teach, she met an iron moulder, whom she married. They had two [four] children. She lost husband and children after a brief six years of married life in the yellow fever epidemic in the south.
After the war she went to Chicago, where she lived from 1867 until 1874, taking part in the relief work of the great fire as one of her first experiences in public work. She was a dressmaker in Chicago, as she was in San Francisco, where she lived for five years. In San Francisco she became interested in socialism, and took part in the anti-Chinese movement. When she returned East it was Mrs. George Pullman who secured her transportation. She had sewed for many women of wealth in Chicago, and had a large circle of friends among them.
Her life thus far had been comparatively simple. As a daughter she was obedient and studious, as a young woman a modest, retired teacher, as a wife, faithful and loving. She says of her married life that it was like that of most devoted wives. She wept if her husband drank a glass of beer after the day’s work or went to a union meeting at night. Yet she had enough intelligence to interest herself in his labor views, and imbibed her first notions of unionism from the protestations of her husband against her too devoted solicitude, and a great part of her effort in later years was to make women understand what she failed to understand in those early days, that the wife must care for what the husband cares for, and that every man loves freedom, even freedom from domestic tyranny.
Her remedy for lonely wives is a broader interest in the affairs of life. As a young widow she took pride in the trade she learned, and today she still loves to walk for an hour through the shops and look at beautiful silks and fine laces.
But though a good teacher and skillful dressmaker, it was not sufficient for this woman to provide for herself a good living and take no further thought of the world. She was aware that there were questions troubling the minds of men, and she wanted to help solve them. And somewhat later it came to her that she had the gift of eloquence. She discovered this in the old trades and labor assemblies in the West, where, when rising to take part in a discussion, a torrent of words would rise to her lips and her hearers would sit spellbound.
She belonged to the old Knights of Labor, and later took part in the organizing work of the American Railway Union, and became the friend of Eugene Debs. She was active in Chicago at the time of the Pullman strike, unmindful of the old-time friendliness of Mrs. George Pullman. Some years later she was able to secure a pardon for some of the men involved in the labor troubles of that great railroad strike by a personal interview with President McKinley at the White House.
Hellraisers Journal: Part I: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 13, 1904
Part I of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Her Power Proved
From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:
(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904
If there is a woman of these modern times worthy of being classed with the grand characters of history, the heroic women of the ages-Hypatia, Deborah, the Mother of the Gracchi, Veronica, Joan of Arc-that woman, in the minds of thousands of the common people of America, is the good, gray-haired woman affectionately known to them as “Mother” Jones. To the cultivated and conservative such an estimation of a woman whom they have commonly heard derided as a troublesome mischief-maker may seem an absurdity, yet history has a way of making fools of the critics.
Susan B. Anthony long ago rose above the clouds of derision and Mrs. Booth-Tucker has become a sainted memory. Frances Willard came to be called “America’s uncrowned queen” yet none of these noble and beautiful women ever possessed that large consciousness of the ebb and flow of human emotions, that sympathy with the sinful as well as the virtuous, with the drunkard as well as the ascetic, with man as with woman and with woman as with man, as does this woman labor agitator. The appeal of these other great women was limited, to sinners against faith, to drunkards and to helpless femininity. The appeal of “”Mother” Jones is avowedly to the soul of the race. She would have all men brothers, not under any especial creed or political system, but with the universal consciousness of one beating heart.
The world does not know this old woman of the people, and perhaps never will know her. Her personality may be obliterated on the pages of history. Even today she passes from place to place unheralded, makes a temporary sensation, and passes on. But her ideas quicken the ideas of others, what she makes her listeners feel is the truth which they knew before she came and which they unconsciously yearned to hear expressed. Through her lips brave notions of a higher life are set free in the thought void, and immediately become universal conceptions of humanity’s possible embodiment.
She does not force upon you the creed of “Mother” Jones, for certainly as an individual she has a creed. But she cries aloud to a careless, indifferent world, that humanity has one destiny, one goal to which it is struggling; that one nation cannot go there and leave behind another; that one sex cannot stand upon the other; that one class may not live by the other’s misery; that the elect may not find heaven alone; that sinners may not be damned and forgotten; that we may not escape by death from the earth life’s travail; but that all together must conceive the race born into freedom with the one pulsating consciousness of a divine organization.
And this vision of “Mother” Jones as one of the great souls of the world summoning men and women to the “grand roads of the universe” can only be had by seeing her under many aspects, at many times and places, watching her at the tables of the rich, in the homes of the poor, on the highway under sun or falling rain, or in those rare moments when the “intellectuals” corner her for a love feast and beg from her a crumb of wisdom.
—–
Power of “Mother” Jones Proved.To be sure, this is extreme claim to make for any limited human life, for any individual however great its genius. And the mere thought of calling “Mother” Jones a genius will sound to the critical, fastidious, cultivated world as an absurdity or stupidity. But it is upon the testimony of events and incidents in a career that one may most safely rest a claim of this sort. One incident alone is sufficient to prove the power of “Mother” Jones to bring the sublime to the hearts of the lowliest, an incident which might thrill the comprehension of the most jeering of sceptics.
Hellraisers Journal: “Has any one ever told you, my children, about the lives you are living?”-Mother Jones, West Virginia, 1897
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 12, 1904
Traveling West Virginia with Mother Jones during the Great Coal Strike of 1897
From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:
In the Sunday Magazine Section of the Boston Herald, a reporter recalls traveling with Mother Jones into the hills of West Virginia during the “first great anthracite strike” [most likely the Bituminous Coal Strike of 1897]. The reporter describes how Mother beguiled a young mine owner into allowing her to speak to his employees “near the pit mouth on his own property.” As gleaned from the memory of the reporter, the result of the speech given by Mother Jones to those miners and their families was dramatic.
…..In West Virginia, during the first great anthracite strike , the United Mine Workers of America had placed some of its organizers. Among these was “Mother” Jones, the only woman organizer employed by the trades unions. On the way she had traveled through the mountain roads by night and day, toiling in the passes, tramping the railroad tracks, riding in farm wagons, or push carts, or in whatever way seemed easiest to get from camp to camp to preach the doctrine that working men must unite, the slogan of the trades unions.
She had a good measure of success, and the fame of her power as a trouble maker had spread among the mine owners. She was detested and feared by half the state, wondered about and gaped over by the other half. She was sleeping under any sort of shelter, eating the coarsest of food, stripping herself of clothing to give away right and left. Though she was earning a fair salary, she could not use it to make life easier for herself in this environment.
Reaching a town one morning which was practically dominated by the influence of a rich young mine owner, she applied for permission to the authorities to hold a mass meeting. She was refused the permit unless she could gain the consent of the mine owner himself, who held a position of local political authority. Two reporters, who had been sent out to watch the progress of events in this part of the state, believed that no speechmaking would occur in this town. “Mother” Jones thought differently. She sought the mine owner in his home. She told him that she had come to make a request which she saw in his face he would grant. He smiled and asked who she was and what she desired. With the benignity of the most gentle kindliness and simple dignity the old lady replied demurely that she was “Mother” Jones, and wished to have a talk with his employees.
“You, ‘Mother’ Jones,” said the rich man, astonished; “you are surely not in earnest?”
“Yes, I am ‘Mother’ Jones, the wicked old woman,” replied the supplicant with her steadfastly radiant expression and her almost subtle smile; so quiet, so gentle, so intelligent it made the words she uttered so whimsically of herself, a patent libel and insult upon her character. It was an irony that disturbed the judgment of the rich young man.
The mine owner studied the fact, the attitude, the folded hands of the woman before him, and then inquired what she would like him to do. “Mother” Jones said she would like him to send word through his mines that she was there, and grant her permission to talk on Sunday in an open space near the pit mouth on his own property. Though it seems incredible, the young mine owner consented. The inscrutable smile had been too much for his resistance.
The word was accordingly sent out through the mines that “Mother” Jones was to speak by permission of the operator. The foreman and bosses could scarcely believe their ears, and the ignorant miners, the foreign element that could scarcely speak English, did not believe. They feared it was some trap to compass their economic ruin, or more simply, to cost them their jobs. On Sunday morning only a few persons gathered at the meeting place designated, and “Mother” Jones seated on a rock, watched and waited.
The Local Labor Leader Surprised.
“This is going to be a frost,” said the local labor leader, one John Walker.
“Wait a little,” said “Mother” Jones.
Gradually it was apparent what the old lady was watching with her smiling eyes. Men were climbing up through the mountain passes and hiding behind huge boulders; they were peeping over the tops and around the sides of their hiding places, and women were lurking in the thickets.
“Come nearer, comrades; don’t be afraid, brothers,” said “Mother” Jones, standing up, and then she began to talk. In a few minutes about 100 men and women gathered in front of the rocky platform. The mine owner himself sat on a rock some paces away.
Has any one ever told you, my children, about the lives you are living, more so that you may understand how it is you pass your days on earth? Have you told each other about it and thought it over among yourselves, so that you might imagine a brighter day and begin to bring it to pass? If no one has done so, I will do it for you today. I want you to see yourselves as you are, Mothers and children, and to think if it is not time you look on yourselves, and upon each other. Let us consider this together, for I am one of you, and I know what it is to suffer.
Hellraisers Journal: Debs on the Capitalists’ Parties: “Differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.”
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 11, 1904
Indianapolis, Indiana – Debs Opens Campaign with Impassioned Address
From the Appeal to Reason of September 10, 1904:
Published in the Appeal we find the entire text of the speech made by Socialist Presidential Candidate, Eugene Debs, in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Thursday, September 1st. The article begins with a few notable quotes:
TOCSIN OF THE 1904 CAMPAIGN SOUNDED
———-In an Eloquent and Impassioned Address Before A Multitude of
Cheering People, Eugene V. Debs, Candidate for President of
the Socialist Ticket, Opened the Campaign at
Indianapolis, Indiana, Last Thursday.
SOME OF DEBS’ EPIGRAMS.
“Ignorance alone stands in the way of Socialist success.”
———-
“Capitalist parties stand for slavery and night; the Socialist party is the herald of Freedom and Light.”
———-
“The ballot of united labor expresses the people’s will, and the people’s will is the supreme law of a free nation.”
———-
“The divided vote of labor is the abuse at the ballot and the penalty is slavery and death.”
———-
“Labor has always been the mud-sill of the social fabric-is so now, and will be until the class struggle ends in class extinction and free society.”
———-
“These are stirring days for living man. The day of crisis is drawing near and Socialists are exerting all their power to prepare the people for it.”
———-
“The old order of society can survive but little longer. Socialism is next in order. The swelling minority sounds warning of the impending change. Soon that minority will be the majority, and then will come the Co-operative Commonwealth.”
———-
“The Socialist party comprehends the magnitude of its task and has the patience at preliminary defeat and the faith of ultimate victory.”
———-
“With faith and hope and courage we held our heads erect and with dauntless spirit marshal the working class for the search from capitalism to Socialism, from slavery to Freedom, from barbarism to Civilization.”
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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Meeting of Akron Central Labor Union, Describes Labor War in Colorado
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 10, 1904
Akron, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks to Members of Central Labor Union
From The Akron Beacon Journal of September 9, 1904:
MOTHER JONES ADDRESSES LABOR UNION
———-
Woman Leader Speaks Her Mind
on Colorado Trouble.
———-“COMMERCIAL CANNIBALS”
———-
Will Make a Public Address
in the City on Sunday.
———-
The principal feature of the regular meeting of the Central Labor union Thursday night was an address by “Mother” Jones.
Mrs. Jones spoke mainly upon the labor war in Colorado. She maintained that the money powers and employers of the state of Colorado were united in an effort to crush out all organized labor. She stated that the governor of Colorado said the fight was against the Western Federation of Miners and not the American Federation of Labor he was a liar. Mrs. Jones described many of the scenes of this bloody labor war which she saw while in Colorado before she was deported.
About the Philippines.
She paid her compliments to the Dick bill by which the guns were supplied to the state of Colorado as well as the others. These guns were used by the militia in service at the mines.
Mrs. Jones brought up a bugaboo when she said she actually believed that the next congress would pass a law to make the Philippines a penal institution and ship all union labor over there.
She referred to the wealthy manufacturers of the east as the “commercial cannibals.” Commercialism was declared to be the curse of the whole country and responsible for the Colorado trouble.
Mrs. Jones then distributed some of her literature bearing on the labor questions of the day.
[Will Speak to Public on Sunday]
She will remain in Akron for several days and on Sunday afternoon will again speak in public under the auspices of the Central Labor union. A committee was appointed by the Central union to secure a hall for the purpose. One of the opera houses will be secured…
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
