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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 22, 1914
Mother Jones and Eugene Debs Blast Insurgents of Butte WFM Local 1
From the Miners’ Magazine of August 20, 1914:
Mother Jones Opposes Insurgents’ Union in Butte
In a letter to the editor written August 13th and published in the August 20th edition of Miners’ Magazine, Mother Jones opposes, in no uncertain terms, the admission of the insurgent Butte Mine Workers’ Union into the United Mine Workers of America. Mother refers to this union, formed by the large majority of members who seceded from the W. F. of M.’s Butte Miners’ Union No. 1, as a “dual union.” Perhaps Mother has forgotten that the United Mine Workers of America itself was formed largely by members of the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 who had seceded from the parent organization.
Denver, Colorado
August 13, 1914To the Editor of the Miners’ Magazine:
I have received a few letters from Butte, Montana, from parties who were formerly identified with Butte Miners’ Union No. 1 of the Western Federation of Miners, but who are now members of Butte Mine Workers’ Union. I have not answered these letters owing to the fact that I cannot give my approval to the lawlessness that disgraced the greatest metal mining city of America-a city that has been lauded as the best organized mining camp in America.
Two of the parties who have written letters to me have stated that the Butte Mine Workers’ Union would seek affiliation with the United Mine Workers of America. It seems to me that the time has come when it is imperative that every man and woman who is interested in the cause of labor should speak in in no uncertain language relative to the situation that presents itself in Butte, Montana. I feel positive that the United Mine Workers of America will not court the admission of a local union that was born in dissension and promoted by disrupters who seem to have no scruples, as they destroyed with explosives a temple that stood as a monument to the pioneers who laid the foundation of Butte Miners’ Union. The United Mine Workers of America has never given its sanction or recognition to dual unions, and the coal miners of this continent, believing in the strength and power of labor solidified, will scorn to accept an organization that came into the world heralded by explosions of dynamite.
The Butte Mine Workers’ Union can have no standing with the bona fide labor movement of this country. The members of the Butte Mine Workers’ Union can only come into, or become a part of the United Mine Workers of America through the Western Federation of Miners, and if any members of this dual union are laboring under the delusion that they can become affiliated or become a part of the United Mine Workers of America, they should get rid of the deception immediately for the United Mine Workers believe with all their hearts and souls that solidarity of the working class that will one day be able to grapple with the hosts of greed. If the Butte Mine Workers’ Union ever becomes a part of the United Mine Workers of America, it must come under the flag of the U. M. W. of A. as members of Butte Miners’ Union No. 1, W. F. M. , or remain outside the pale of the labor movement. The United Mine Workers of America will demand that those seeking affiliation or amalgamation shall come in with clean hands, not as secessionists, but standing under the banner of the Western Federation of Miners-an organization that for more than twenty-one years has fought the battles of labor in Western America, and though defeated in a number of battles has never been conquered.
I have fought for the men of the coal mines for many long years. I have helped to establish the United Mine Workers, and my voice shall be raised in protest against the taking into its folds men who have seceded from the metal miners’ organization. I know the Western Federation of Miners. I have also fought its battles, and shall continue to do so, and I now serve warning on all who would seek its destruction that it will find no place in the United Mine Workers of America, unless it be as members of the Western Federation of Miners. If they have grievances against the management of their local affairs, let them go to work like men and adjust them, and not spend their time in an effort to destroy an organization such as the Western Federation of Miners, which will go down in history as second to none in fighting the battles for the emancipation of the toiling masses.
Mother Jones
[Emphasis added.]
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