Category: Hellraisers Journal

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part II

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 23, 1910
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania – Cossacks Terrorize Irwin Coalfield Strike

From the International Socialist Review of September 1910:

PA Miners Strike, HdLn Class War by TF Kennedy, ISR p141, Sept 1910

Cossacks vs. “Black Hundreds.”

Brutal as the state constabulary have shown themselves on numerous occasions the testimony on all sides is overwhelming that compared with the thugs and bums engaged as deputies by the coal companies the State Police are gentlemen.

One of the odd developments is the cordial dislike of the State Police for the deputies. The State Police are not backward about declaring that practically all of the rioting and killing has been caused by the deputies. You must understand that economic interests are at the bottom of this feeling of these two forces for each other. The rank and file of the Police get $60.00 a month and board, no matter what is doing. When all is quiet they get their pay for patroling some country road on a well groomed saddle horse. If there must be a strike they would much rather see a nice quiet orderly one where there are no riots.

But the deputies are in a different boat. If all were quiet they would have no occupation. So to make their jobs secure they must keep something doing all the time. They explode a charge of dynamite under the corner of an unoccupied house, fire a lot of shots some night or when they meet an unarmed striker on the highway slug him or arrest him. When there is any real duty to perform, when there is a batch of strike breakers expected who must be prevented from talking to the strikers the first thing they do is fill up with whiskey. At one hotel where a bunch of them stopped, six drinks of whiskey in their stomachs and a half pint in their pockets was the regular ration, before going out on any special duty.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part I

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 22, 1910
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania – Class War Continues in Irwin Coal Field

From the International Socialist Review of September 1910:

PA Miners Strike, Class War by TF Kennedy, ISR p141, Sept 1910

[Part I of II.]

Letter T, ISR p828, Mar 1910

HE Strike” are the words most appropriate to designate an article dealing with the situation in the Irwin coal field, because it is the strike of the year if not of the decade. There was nothing out of the ordinary about any of the other strikes that have occurred so far this year. The biggest strike in point of numbers and duration is that of the Illinois miners. It has been since its inception strictly orthodox, including the conflict of authority between the district organizations and the National Board and President Lewis. In Illinois both sides were, and had for years, been organized. All of the arts of diplomacy and bargaining were exhausted before the strike was declared. It is warm, pulsing stomachs against steel safes full of gold. 

The Irwin strike is rashly unorthodox. Excepting the formal declaration it has all of the characteristics of a violent revolution.

More persons have been killed, injured and taken prisoners than in many of the bloody uprisings in the Balkans or South America which are so regularly exploited on the front pages of the “Joinals.”

Fifteen persons, two of them women, have met violent bloody deaths. Some of these were killed in open conflict, others in skirmishes, but most of them were brutal, cold-blooded murder of men who dared to tell a prospective scab that there was a strike on.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Pennsylvania: Great Strike Was Forced on Miners by Conditions of Actual Starvation

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 21, 1900
Mother Jones in Pennsylvania: Great Strike Forced by Starvation Conditions

From the Philadelphia Times of September 17, 1900:

NO “FULL DINNER PAIL” FOR ANTHRACITE MINERS
——-
Mother Jones Says the Great Strike Was Forced on
the Workmen by Actual Starvation and Suffering.
——-

Written for The Times by “MOTHER” MARY JONES,
the Woman Labor Leader

CARBONDALE, September 16.

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

Questions have been asked by hundreds, who are not familiar with the matter, why the miners have struck. After visiting nearly every mine in the anthracite region I think I am enabled to write intelligently on the subject, and I can say truthfully that they were forced to act by starvation.

For years the wages of the men have been falling lower and lower, while the combinations of capital have been forcing the prices of the necessities of life upwards, until, taking these two facts jointly, the mine worker to-day does not get more than one-half of what he did a few years ago for his labor. In fact, the trusts and combinations have made the conditions such that the miner had to strike or starve.

In every town I have visited I found that it is with only an economy so rigid that it is unknown outside of the coal fields, that the majority of the families manage to exist at all. The “full dinner pail” is something that is unknown in this region. The term “full dinner pail” suggests plenty of meat and bread and vegetables. It suggests thorough and robust living, but as are many other things related of the mine workers, the assertion that they have such food is miserably false. The “full dinner pail” means that, though the tin may shine throughout the furnishing of a tidy house wife, inside, instead of roast beef and vegetables and other things, there are usually a couple of slices of dry bread and a small piece of ham or pork. The whole would make a poor sandwich. The wife has to strive hard to make even this meagre fare last through the month. With flour fifteen per cent. higher than four years ago, beef ten per cent. higher, sugar two and three cents a pound more, pork ten per cent. higher, and all other food as costly, and with average wages down to less than one dollar a day for the year around, the readers of The Times have the real cause of the strike.

MARY JONES

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Pennsylvania: Women Ready for Strike; Wives and Daughters Stand with Miners

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 20, 1900
Mother Jones in Pennsylvania: Women Stand Ready for the Strike

From the Philadelphia Times of September 15, 1900:

WOMEN IN FAVOR OF THE STRIKE
—————
Wives, Daughters and Sweethearts of Miners
Are as Much in Earnest as the Men.
——-

Dictated for The Times by MOTHER MARY JONES,
the Great Woman Labor Leader.
——-

Mahanoy City, September 14.

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

Since my departure from Hazleton I have made a point of visiting every coal mining village in the whole coal mining district from Shamokin to Pittston, and I have found that the spirit of the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of the men who are going to quit work on Monday [September 17th]  is Spartan in steadfastness. All who know the effect of strikes are aware that families suffer just the same as do the men themselves, and when the women of the coal fields are willing for a strike to take place one can decide that the struggle will be one that a great money power will have hard work to win.

I have found that the 200,000 women and girls who will be involved in the strike were just as much determined as were the men folks. They advised that the strike take place, a fact that certainly is unusual, and one on which I base my belief that this strike is bound to be a success. As a rule long established, women have been found against anything that might tend to create disturbances between the men and coal operators, but this time they are behind the mine workers, heart and soul, and will stand out to the last. They will put courage into the hearts of the weaklings and will sustain the determination of the more dogged.

The support of a wife or mother is a great factor in any contest. When women of the household have reproach in their eyes, when they continually din into the ears of the men on strike that they had no right to quit work, it is safe to say that the strike will not last long.

Another thing that I have seen is that the women have been quietly preparing for the strike as well as the men. The flour barrel in every little home is filled, and in the more prosperous households an extra barrel has been laid away. Provision chests and closets are well stored. Winter clothing is ready. Stout feminine hearts have prepared as well as they have been able.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in Locust Gap, Pennsylvania, as Miners Prepare for Great Anthracite Strike

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 19, 1900
Locust Gap, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Speaks to Determined Miners

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 14, 1900:

MINERS WAITING AND HOPING
——-
In the Shamokin Region They Do Not Want to Strike
——-

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

From a Staff Correspondent.

SHAMOKIN, Pa., Sept. 13.-“We are waiting now-waiting and hoping that the mine operators will change their minds and hold a conference with the mine workers.”

If John Fahy, president of the Ninth district of the United Mine Workers, had spent hours in thinking it over he could not have put into more epigrammatic form the sentiment of his fellow-officials and the men they represent. The hardest fighter is ever the man who is pushed into a corner and forced to fight against his will. He will fight to a finish. He will fight so long as he can stand. That is the condition of affairs in the anthracite coal region to-day. The men do not want to strike, and no one is more anxious to avoid a strike than President John Mitchell. But the silent determination written in large letters upon the faces of the men as they answer the query: “Will you go out on Monday if no settlement is arrived at?” tells the truth more plainly than any words…..

This evening Mother Jones was one of the speakers at a mass meeting at Locust Gap, about seven miles from here, where it is said the men are not so well organized as in other sections…..

T. L. R.

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1910, Part II: Found Speaking to Miners at Shenandoah, Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Union Card n Pious Christian, Shenandoah Eve Hld p1, Aug 27, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 18, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1910, Part II:
-Found Speaking to Mine Workers at Shenandoah, Pennsylvania

From the Shenandoah Evening Herald of August 27, 1910:

MOTHER JONES WAS IN SCOLDING MOOD
—————

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

“Mother” Jones was the big noise at the open air mass meeting of mine workers at Main and Centre streets last night, and despite her seventy-five years of terrestrial pilgrimage she was in excellent physical trim.

“Never felt better In my life,” she said to a friend who commented upon her fine appearance, and added,

You know I’m good for seventy-five more years. I don’t think I’ll ever die, so long as I want to live.

“Mother” Jones was in fine voice and the verbal lambasting she administered to John Mitchell, former head of the United Mine Workers of America, ex-President Roosevelt and President Taft caused her hearers “to sit up and take notice,” as the phrase goes when something surprising and unexpected is sprung on an unsuspecting audience. There were other speakers, but “Mother” Jones was the attraction, and she certainly furnished the necessary entertainment, but her denunciation of John Mitchell as a traitor to the cause of labor did not gain her many sympathizers. She excoriated Mitchell for hobnobbing with Roosevelt and declared that both Mitchell and Roosevelt were the “two biggest bluffs at large.” She found fault with Bishop Hobin, of Scranton, for a humorous reference of the Bishop’s at a dinner to Roosevelt and Mitchell that it was the first time he had the honor of sitting between two presidents. She was quite emphatic in utterance and her oratory was attended by the usual gesticulations so familiar during the troublous times of some years ago.

She was more rabid of utterance last night than on any former occasion in this region, and she waved red-flag sentiments with defiance.

Speaking of the State Police she declared they were patterned after the Irish Constabulary.

[She fairly shrieked:]

I was six years old when I was driven from home at the bayonet point by the constabulary in Ireland, and I have never forgot it, and never shall.

I’d sooner go to heaven with a union card as a passport than as a pious Christian of the employer class who have accumulated their millions by grinding the lives out of the down trodden women and children.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1910, Part II: Found Speaking to Miners at Shenandoah, Pennsylvania” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1910, Part I: Found Speaking to Miners of Hazleton District, Pennsylvania

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

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 17, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1910, Part I:
-Found in Hazleton Coal District Addressing Miners’ Meetings

From the Pittston Gazette of August 3, 1910:

“Mother Jones.”

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

“Mother Jones,” the miners’ friend, is spending some time in the Hazleton district, recuperating from a severe illness, and nearly every evening addresses a meeting of mine workers.

—–

[Photograph added.]

From the Pottsville Republican of August 4, 1910:

Socialists to Observe Labor Day.

At a meeting of the Socialists of Pottsville held last evening in the barber shop of C. F. Foley arrangements were made to hold a big celebration here on Labor Day. Fred Warren, editor of the Appeal to Reason, will be the speaker of the occasion. Mother Jones will also be in attendance. The meeting will be held at Schuettler’s grove at the western end of Pottsville. Dancing will be one of the attractions of the day. Mr. Foley announced that his declination to run for lieutenant governor had been favorably acted. upon.

—————

From the Shenandoah Evening Herald of August 12, 1910:

Will Go to Dubois Next.

“Mother” Jones the United Mine Workers organizer, who is stopping at Hazleton with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gildea, will go from Hazleton to Dubois. She expects to stay at Hazleton for several weeks yet, part of which time she will spend in the Panther Creek sub-district.

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1910, Part I: Found Speaking to Miners of Hazleton District, Pennsylvania” →

Hellraisers Journal: Widow of Mayor Testerman, Now Mrs. Sid Hatfield, Center of Attraction at Williamson Courthouse

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Sid Hatfield, re Evictions per R Minor, Lbtr p11 , Aug 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 16, 1920
Williamson, West Virginia – Bride of Sid Hatfield Main Attraction at Court

From The Seattle Star of September 15, 1920:

Sid Hatfield Bride, Stt Str p14, Sept 15, 1920

Mrs. Sid Hatfield [Jessie Lee Maynard Testerman Hatfield], wife of Chief of Police Sid Hatfield, of Matewan, West Virginia, under indictment for the killing of Albert Felts, mine detective, in a street  battle last May, is said by many to be the prettiest woman in Mingo county. She was the widow of Mayor Testerman, shot, it is charged, by Felts. She married Hatfield shortly after Testerman’s death. It is said that this was the dying wish of the mayor. Mrs. Hatfield accompanied her husband to court at Williamson and was the center of attraction in the crowded court room during the preliminary hearings of Hatfield’s case.

———-

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Twenty-Three Miners and Citizens of Matewan Indicted for Murder of Baldwin-Felts Gunthugs

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 – Wednesday September 15, 1920
Williamson, Mingo County, West Virginia – Sid Hatfield Among Those Indicted

From The Bismarck Tribune of September 13, 1920:

Mingo County UMW, Sid Hatfield n 22 Indicted, -Bismarck Tb p2, Sept 13, 1920

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Hellraisers Journal: Industrial Worker: Boss’ Uniformed Clubbers (Thugs) on Labor Day and on Day After Labor Day

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Joe Hill, Murderers Slaughter Our Class, IW p3, Aug 27, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 14, 1910
Boss’ Uniformed Thugs on Labor Day and on the Day After

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of September 10, 1910:

Police AFL, Labor Day, Day After, IW p1, Sept 10, 1910

For years past it has been the habit of the A. F. of L. to allow the boss’ uniformed clubbers to lead the parade on Labor (?) Day. It is fitting that an institution of the boss, such as the A. F. of L., should be marshaled by the police, who are likewise of, for and by the boss. All nature is a paradox, but certainly none is more paradoxical than that men, presumably organized to fight the boss, organize to separate and to protect the boss’ property, and lastly be led in their line of march by the very force that is used to club them into submission when out on strike. It is a sign of the times that, through the efforts of a few militant members of the Cooks and Waiters, the police were eliminated from this year’s parade in Spokane. [Emphasis added.]

———-

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