Category: Hellraisers Journal

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1900, Part II: Found in Pennsylvania Supporting Great Anthracite Strike

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Not Afraid in PA, SF Exmr p2, Sept 22, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 13, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1900, Part II
Found in Pennsylvania Supporting Great Anthracite Strike

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 21, 1900:

POLISH WOMEN ATTACK POLICE

—————



From a Staff Correspondent.

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900

HAZLETON, Pa., Sept. 20.-Outside of a little flurry this morning at Shaft 40, the property of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, between a half dozen coal and iron police and a crowd of two hundred Hungarians and Polish women, the most startling thing up to noon was the arrival in Hazleton of Wharton Barker, Jr., and Mother Mary Jones. The former came up for a day’s trip only, to study the situation from the standpoint of a student, of social economics and in its political bearing; the latter will remain over until Saturday to rest up after her speech-making of the last week or so, which has worn down her voice to a whisper.

The trouble at Shaft 40, was directly due to the over officiousness of the coal and iron police in going from house to house to collect boys to work in the breakers. They had gathered in about fifty, and were returning to the shaft by way of East Diamond avenue, when a couple of hundred Hungarian women made a dash to rescue the lads. They were repulsed but made another sortie. There was some torn clothing, but nothing worse. The women got the better end of the conflict, as the discomfited officers were not able to corral more than a dozen of the lads, for duty at the colliery.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1900, Part I: Found in Pennsylvania Working with Mine Workers’ Union

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, If war Shamokin Sep 8, Phl Iq p2, Sept 9, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 12, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1900, Part I
Found Working with Pennsylvania Miners Ready to Strike

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 5, 1900:

Mother Jones n Father Phillips w Miners in PA, Phl Iq p4, Sept 5, 1900

A WOMAN’S WILL SWAYS THOUSANDS
——-
“Mother” Mary Jones, of Chicago, Now Working
Hand in Hand With Mine Workers’ Union,
at Wilkes-Barre
——-

Mother Jones Speaks to Miners in PA, Phl Iq p4, Sept 5, 1900

Special to The Inquirer.

WILKES-BARRE, Sept. 4.-The United Mine Workers’ Union here seems to be dominated by “Mother” Mary Jones, of Chicago, and she has full sway in dictating the policy of the union in the labor situation here.

She has not only every member of the United Mine Workers’ Union ready to strike, but her eloquent presentation of the wrongs suffered at the hands of the operator has made many new members, while an equal number are ready to follow the union men out without formally joining the organization.

Mrs. Jones has been working among the soft coal miners of the Meyersdale (Md.) and Central Pennsylvania districts since helping those in Tioga county to win their strike last winter.

Fifty-six years of age, she is bright and active. Her white hair commands respect, while her cheery face and manner hearten up the most morose assemblage.

[She said:]

The condition of the miner is most deplorable. He is the butt of a system of robbery. Of course, there are some good operators-men who would correct the grievances if they dared, but who are governed by others. In New Zealand the operators urge the men to organize, but in this country they shoot them down or get out an injunction and throw them into jail.

In this crisis if the operators don’t make concessions I believe that a strike is inevitable. The law says 2240 pounds make a ton. The operator expects 3300 from the miner. The miners are publicly robbed.

The company doctor is an imposition and ought to be driven out. The company store should not be tolerated. I don’t believe the men want to strike, but if it is their only alternative, I say strike.

I do not approve of strikes, but at times they are necessary and if the operators do not grant the just and equitable demands of the men there is but one thing for them to do-strike, and continue to strike until they gain fair treatment.

—————

[Drawing detail added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “Cry of Toil…We Have Fed You All For a Thousand Years”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Cry of Toil, We Have Fed You All, IW p2, Oct 8, 1910———–

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 11, 1910
“We have fed you all for thousand years, and you hail us still unfed…”

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 8, 1910:

Cry of Toil, We Have Fed You All, IW p2, Oct 8 1910

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Hellraisers Journal: Frank Little Reports from Fresno Free Speech Fight; Why He Preferred Dark Cell to Forced Labor

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little re Work Prisoners Scabs, IW p1, Oct 8, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 10, 1910
Fresno, California – Frank Little Preferred Dark Cell to Forced Labor

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 8, 1910:

Fresno FSF, IW Masthead p1, Oct 8, 1910

FIRST ROUND GOES TO I. W. W.

Fresno, Cal., Sept. 27, 1910.

Editor Industrial Worker,

Was released from jail Sunday. Served 25 days, 15 days in solitary confinement on bread and water, 10 days in the black hole. September 17 the officials surrendered and turned me out in the corridor with the other prisoners and fed me the same. It was a complete victory. Am going to Coalinga oil fields tomorrow. Think we can get a local there. The tank builders are out on strike (A. F. of L.), but the sentiment is strong for industrial unionism.

Yours for action,
F. H. Little.

Have received notice to vacate hall. Are trying to run us out of town. Will have a hard time to get another.

—————

LITTLE SAYS HE PREFERRED DARK CELL.

Frank Little, organizer of the Industrial Workers of the World, has been released from the city jail after serving a sentence of 25 days for disturbing the peace. While in jail he was kept in solitary confinement because he refused to work in the court house yard with other prisoners.

Little lost none of his faithfulness to the I. W. W. cause while in prison and will renew at once his agitations. He will go to Coalinga tomorrow to hold meetings.

Little said today that he had two reasons for refusing to work while in jail. First, he said the man who will work while a prisoner is just the same as one who will “scab” during a strike. He believe the park work should be done by paid workmen.

Secondly, he said he believed that the park authorities would compel him to work harder than the others and might antagonize him to the extent that he would lose his temper and do something to bring a heavier sentence upon himself.

Little declare that the prison fare was unfit for man to eat. He said he intended to send a booklet to every voter in the county informing him of this, and that ultimately he would compel the sheriff to feed the prisoners better. Little registered several other complaints, which, however, he admitted that he had no means of proving were true.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Olivia Howard Dunbar of New York Evening News Interviews Mother Jones in Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Rich Women v Miners' Wives, NY Eve Wld p2, Sept 25, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 9, 1900
Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Interviewed by Olivia Howard Dunbar

From the New York Evening World of September 25, 1900:

EVENING WORLD WOMAN INTERVIEWS
“MOTHER JONES.”
—————

Strikers Friend Tells Some Plain Truths About the
Great Struggle Between the Miners and Operators.
——-

NO. IX. OF THE SERIES.
BY OLIVIA HOWARD DUNBAR.

MOTHER JONES, THE STRIKERS’ FRIEND

(Special to The Evening World.)

Mother Jones, NY Eve Wld p2, Sept 25, 1900

MAHANOY CITY, Pa., Sept. 25.-“Please tell all the readers of The Evening World for me that we have succeeded in crippling the operators, that the situation is most encouraging, and that we expect an early victory.”

This was the message that “Mother” Jones intrusted to me to-day, and she smiled hopefully as she said it.
Ceaselessly vigilant, she had come to Mahanoy City to dull any possible echo of the carnival of strife and slaughter that has resounded so menacingly through Shenandoah.

The situation was tense when she arrived, but there had been no outbreak. Outwardly the little city was unruffled. Early in the morning I had found a group of swarthy, eager-eyed Hungarian women applauding an effigy of a non-union workman that had been bound to an electric-light pole on Eighth street.

Their voices were shrill, their gestures violent. The suggestive spectacle had aroused all their fury against the class that they consider selfishly retards the movement that means life or death to them.

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Hellraisers Journal: “There Is Only One Mother Jones” -Found at Wilkes-Barre Fighting for Striking Anthracite Miners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Company Store, St L Pst Dsp p32, Sept 23, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 8, 1900
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – “There Is Only One Mother Jones”

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of September 23, 1900:

Mother Jones PA Strike, MJ in WB, St L Dsp p32, Sept 23, 1900

WILKESBARRE, Pa., Sept. 20.

Special Correspondence of the Sunday Post-Dispatch.

THERE is only one Mother Jones. Her field is all her own.

Clara Barton has her work of mercy, Susan B. Anthony has her equal suffrage. Mother Jones has her “boys”-the great, patient army that sweats and strives and suffers wherever there is labor to be done.

It is a big brood she mothers-a big, toilsome, troublesome brood, scattered all over the face of the land, delving in the earth and under the earth, swarming in mills and factories and sweatshops. There is seldom a time when some part of it is not on the ragged edge of hunger and in need of a mother’s help.

That is the time for Mother Jones. She has been called the stormy petrel of industry. Her appearance is a signal for those who grow rich by grinding the faces of the poor to “go slow,” and if they disregard the warning so much the worse for them and the better for organized labor.

For Mother Jones is the most successful organizer and sustainer of strikes in the country. That is why she is at Wilkes-barre now. That is why the miners expect to win. That is why the mine owners accompany her name with anathemas.

How does she do it? By the greatest of all powers-the power of love. She love her “boys”-be they Polish or Bohemian or Irish or American-and she teaches them to love her. The combination is irresistible. The ranks of the toilers stand firm at her bidding and the strategy dictated by her woman’s intuition does the rest.

It might be thought that she is an Amazon in physique and voice and gesture; that she sweeps her forces along with her by the sheer power of her vitality. Or else that she is endowed with the youth and beauty and mysterious spiritual influence of a Joan of Arc. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “There Is Only One Mother Jones” -Found at Wilkes-Barre Fighting for Striking Anthracite Miners” →

Hellraisers Journal: How West Virginia Mine Owners Maintain “Law and Order” against Mingo County Miners

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 – Thursday October 7, 1920
Mingo County, West Virginia – Mine Owners’ Gunthugs Maintain “Law and Order”

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of September 29, 1920:

CRTN BF Thugs Law n Order in WV, BDB p1, Sept 29, 1920

West Virginia Mine Owners Take Steps
to Get More U. S. Regulars
—————

By PAUL HANNA.
(Staff Writer, the Federated Press.)

Washington, Sept. 29.-West Virginia mine owners have acted quickly to overcome the complaint of Mingo county miners against the anti-labor conduct of federal troops in that district.

The detailed charges against federal troops made by Fred Mooney, district president [secretary-treasurer] of the United Mine Workers was printed in Federated Press newspapers on the morning of Sept. 24. That same afternoon the following “news” dispatch was sent out from Charleston, W. Va., and widely printed in the capitalist press:

A reign of terror and lawlessness still prevails in the Williamson and Pocahontas coal fields, according to reports sifting through from various sources and reaching here today.

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Hellraisers Journal: Spokane’s IWW Agitators Bound for Fresno Free Speech Fight; Frank Little Speaks in Coalinga

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 6, 1910
Fresno, California – Spokane Fellow Workers on Way to Free Speech Fight

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 1, 1910:

IW MastHd, p1, Oct 1, 1910

CRTN re Fresno FSF, IW p1, Oct 1, 1910

SPOKANE MEMBERS BOUND FOR FRESNO.

A letter from one of the Spokane bunches of free speech agitators states that they expect to be in Portland part of the current week. All who are bound for Fresno should call at the I. W. W. headquarters along the road and inquire as to where the different forces are. It is suggested that there be no Fourth of July fireworks, but that everything be done quietly and as unostentatiously as possible. This, of course, until all is ready for action. There is nothing to be gained by the spread-eagle style. Saw wood until all is ready for action.

—————

From The Fresno Morning Republican of October 4, 1910:

I. W. W. AGITOR IN WRONG AT COALINGA
——-
Little Makes Speech at Socialist Meeting…
——-

COALINGA, Oct. 3.— F. H. Little, the I. W. W. member, who recently served a jail sentence in Fresno for disturbing the peace, made a speech in Coalinga, Friday evening, on Front street, and made an address at a Socialist meeting at the city hall here Sunday afternoon. The authorities have intervened against his speeches on the streets, and Little says he has wired Seattle for other members of the organization to come to Coalinga. Little has made the statement that he will speak on the street here again and in that case, it is expected that he will at once be placed under arrest, for ignoring the altitude of the authorities…

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Widows of Union Men Massacred at Bogalusa Demand Justice; Murderers Have Not Been Arrested

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Messenger p2 editorial, Bogalusa Massacre, Feb 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 5, 1920
Bogalusa, Louisiana – Widows of Four Murdered Trade Unionists Demand Justice

From the Duluth Labor World of October 2, 1920:

WIDOWS OF FOUR DEAD UNION MEN
DEMAND JUSTICE
——-
Murderers of Timber Workers, Although Known,
Have Not Been Arrested.
——-

Bogalusa Massacre, NYT p1, Nov 23, 1919
The New York Times
November 23, 1919

BOGALUSA, La., Sept. 30.-Widows of four trade unionists who were murdered by a mob last November have asked Governor Parker to order the state attorney general to prosecute the murderers.

The petition states that the men were slain “without just cause or excuse by employes of the Great Southern Lumber company,” and that two grand juries have considered the killings without taking action, and that the district attorney has admitted under oath that he did not summon a state witness but did summon witnesses for the defendants, including the defendants themselves.

The murders, were the [result?] of attempts by the lumber company to destroy trade unionism. After failing to divide the workers on racial lines a lynching party started for the home of an estimable negro [Sol Dacus] who was influential among his fellows. The negro hid in the swamps and escaped. The mob then came to the headquarters of the trade unionists and demanded the negro. They were told that the man was not there, and they were invited to search the building. The lynchers replied with a volley from shotguns and revolvers, killing several workers .

[Note: four trade unionists were murdered by the mob: L. E. (Lum) Williams, President of Bogalusa Trades Council, and Carpenters Thomas Gaines, J. P. Bouchillon, and S. J. (Stanley) O’Rourke.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Correspondent for Duluth Labor World Describes “Starvation Camp” of Irwin Field Miners’ Strike

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Brutal Ruling Class, Cnc Pst p7, May 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 4, 1910
Irwin Coal Field, Pennsylvania – Report from Strikers’ “Starvation Camp”

From the Duluth Labor World of October 1, 1910:

Keystone State Awakens to Hunger-Driven Peonage
Practiced Within Its Confines

PA Miners Strike, Woman n Children Starving, LW p1, Oct 1, 1910

PITTSBURG, Pa., Sept. 30—Thousands of Pittsburg women, influential club women as well as the wives of storekeepers and mechanics, are signing a petition to Governor Edwin S. Steuart asking that he intervene and compel the coal companies to arbitrate the strike in the Erwin [Irwin] and Greensburg coal fields.

Piloted by the “Angel of the Camp,” Miss Emmeline Pitt, committees from various women’s clubs have visited the frail tents in which are huddled the thousands of miners’ wives and children, and, after hearing the stories of eviction and brutality committed by the deputies, have gone back to their organizations burning with indignation against the coal barons and determined to force action from the state authorities.

[Asserts Francis Feehan, president of district No. 5:]

The operators could settle this strike, settle it and give the miners all that they demand and then operate their mines at 20 per cent less than it is costing them now. It’s the strike-breakers that cost. They’re paying them $2.50 and $3 a day with rations—and that’s more than the skilled union miners ask.

Experienced miners say that the United Coal company is paying at the rate of $3 a ton to have its coal mined, while the market price is just half that amount.

Three things the striking miners want:
1. Recognition of the union.
2. Check-weighmen on the tipples.
3. Payment of the Pittsburg Scale.

And these three things the miners will win, coal barons or no coal barons, for the entire power of the United Mine Workers of America is gathering behind them.

————

GAUNT MOTHERS, THEIR BABES STARVING, HERE
——-

Special Correspondence of Labor World.

NEW ALEXANDRA, Pa., Sept. 30.—Three hundred puny babies, thinly clad and underfed by half-starved mothers who have nothing to give, live beneath canvas roofs and within canvas walls these chilly days and shivery nights in the Erwin coal regions of western Pennsylvania.

A thousand other little children, barefoot and almost barebacked, “live” on bread and water in that starvation camp among the foothills of the Alleghenies.

PA Miners Strike, Starvation Camp, LW p1, Oct 1, 1910

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