Category: Hellraisers Journal

Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: “Westmoreland Strike Called Off” by Paul Kellogg; Long Struggle Ends in Defeat

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote fr Westmoreland Strike by James Cole, ab Aug1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 29, 1911
Paul Kellogg on the Defeat of the Westmoreland Miners’ Strike

From The Survey of July 29, 1911:

WESTMORELAND STRIKE CALLED OFF 

PAUL U. KELLOGG 

Westmoreland County Coal Strike, Camp of Evicted, ISR p101, Aug 1910

After sixteen months, during which their strike was kept up in the heat of summer and the cold of hillside camps in winter, the men have given in in the Irwin-Greensburg field of western Pennsylvania. The main causes underlying this remarkable struggle, which President Hutchinson of the Westmoreland Company called civil war, were described in The SURVEY for December 3, 1910. Since then articles have appeared in Grit, Collier’s, the Philadelphia North American, and elsewhere, and this spring a hearing was held before the rules committee of the House at the instigation of Congressman Wilson.

The hearing did not lead to a federal investigation as the labor men had hoped, and this may have had some influence on the action of the international executive board of the United Mine Workers of America at Indianapolis on June 27. The board voted that there were no longer funds to continue sending $20,000 each week to Greensburg. According to a correspondent, two factors decided this action: the slack coal market has cut down mine work all over the country, and the members have been slow in sending in the tax which supports the striking miners and their families; in the second place, “a million dollars has already been expended here, with no immediate hope of settlement, and by losing this strike they will not endanger the miners’ chances in other strike zones, in Colorado especially, where another expensive strike is on .”

Following the action of the international board, a meeting of leaders was held in Greensburg and the strike was declared off on July 5.

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Hellraisers Journal: Charleston, W. V.-Federal Judge Jackson Grants Permanent Injunction Against Striking Miners

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

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 27, 1901
Charleston, West Virginia – Is Judge Jackson a bigger man than Mother Jones?

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

John Jay Jackson Jr., Injunction Judge

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

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.”

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Arrives in West Virginia to Assist Organizing Drive of the United Mine Workers of America

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

Hellraisers Journal  – Friday July 26, 1901
Morgantown, West Virginia – Mother Jones Arrives with U. M. W. Organizers

From the Baltimore Sun of  July 24, 1901:

 

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

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

(Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.)

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 and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Judge Woods Is Dead, Sent Eugene Debs to Prison for Six Months in Connection with Pullman Strike of 1894

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD Brush the Dust, Saginaw Eve Ns p6, Feb 6, 1899—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 25, 1901
Pullman’s Injunction Judge, William Woods, Is Dead

From the Social Democratic Herald of July 20, 1901:

Debs and Judge Woods

EVD ARU Officers Sent to Woodstock Jail 1894 Pullman Strike, photo ab 1895

The death of Judge Wm. A. Woods of the United States circuit court naturally brings up a chain of thought which may be useful and instructive at this time. Woods was the judge who prostituted his high and exalted office to serve the railways and crush the laboring men who were struggling for enough of the products of their labor to keep their families from starving. He it was who sent Eugene Debs to prison [at Woodstock, Illinois] for six months [in 1895] without trial for “contempt” of his most contemptible court, simply because Debs opposed with manly firmness the usurpations of this judicial scoundrel. It was this same judge Woods who set free “Blocks of Five” Dudley and the other bribers and ballot-box stuffers at Indianapolis in 1880, and was promoted from the district to the circuit court by the republican administration for his rascality. In his charge to the jury Judge Woods said that “advising or counseling bribery is not punishable unless briery is committed.”

In the coming time when the co-operative commonwealth shall have been established, when each man shall receive the product of his toil and have time and leisure to think upon the various steps and acts which have led up to industrial emancipation, then these two men, Debs and Woods, will each be held in proper estimation by the world. Posterity alone can properly write epitaphs. The memory of Debs will then be revered as one willing to suffer for his fellow men, while Woods will rank with Judas Iscariot, Grover Cleveland and Benedict Arnold.

[…..]

All the robber elements of this country will pronounce encomiums upon Judge Woods, while they have and will continue to cast odium upon Debs. But posterity will pass just judgment upon these two men, and memory of Debs will be enshrined in glory, while that of Woods will be shrouded in eternal infamy.-Equality, Deadwood, S. D.

EVD Notice ARU Offices to Terre Haute, Officers Sentenced, Rw Tx, Jan 1, 1895

—————

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: C. E. Lively Testifies Before Senate Committee, Joined United Mine Workers as Baldwin-Felts Spy

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 – Friday July 22, 1921
Washington, D. C. – C. E. Lively Testifies Before Senate Investigating Committee

From the Baltimore Sun of July 21, 1921:

WVCF Sen Com, Testimony C. E. Lively, Blt Sun p3, July 21, 1921

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1911, Part II: Found Pleading Cause of Striking Miners of Westmoreland County

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Greensburg PA Cmas 1910, Steel 2, p83—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 20, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1911, Part II
Found Pleading Cause of Striking Miners of Westmoreland County 

From The Indianapolis Star of June 28, 1911:

WOMAN PLEADS FOR MINERS
———-

“MOTHER JONES TELLS TALE
———-
Describes Hardships of Pennsylvania Strikers,
but Urges Board to Encourage Men
to Continue Fight.

Mother Jones crpd ed, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

Following an address by “Mother” Jones, known to all miners of the country, members of the executive board of the United Mine Workers of America yesterday adopted resolutions relative to the strike in the Irwin district in western Pennsylvania, where about 6 000 mine workers have been out for a year and a half.

Mrs. Jones, who is 79 years old, has spent most of her time in the strike region during the past year and is thoroughly familiar with conditions there. She told the members of the executive board of the hardships which the miners and their families have endured during the strike and urged the board to adopt resolutions commending the strikers and advising them to continue the fight.

Her address had the desired effect upon the members of the board, and a committee was appointed to draw up resolutions.

PLEDGES CONTINUED SPPORT.

The resolutions provide that the executive board indorse the strikers and urge them to continue their fight, and the board pledges its continued support to the miners. It is also provided that a general meeting be held in the region, at which a vote is to be taken to ascertain if a majority of the miners favor the continuance of the strike

The miners organization is spending about $90,000 a month to support the families of the strikers. It is said that the operators refuse to recognize the organization in the district and will not consider any compromise.

Francis Feehan president of the Pittsburg district and a number of organizers also appeared before the board yesterday to present their views on the strike.

“Mother” Jones expects to return to the Irwin district soon to continue her work among the families of the strikers.

—————

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1911, Part II: Found Pleading Cause of Striking Miners of Westmoreland County” →