Category: Hellraisers Journal

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in Cleveland to Delegates of Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Strikes are not peace Clv UMWC p537, Sept 16, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 17, 1919
Cleveland, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks at U. M. W. A. Convention, Part I

During the afternoon session of the sixth day of the Convention, Tuesday, September 16th, Mother Jones was introduced by Acting President John L. Lewis. The entire delegation arose to applaud Mother Jones as she was escorted to the platform.

From Stenographic Report by Mary Burke East:

Mother Jones Crpd Women in Industry, Eve Ns Hburg PA p2, Jan 6, 1919

Acting President Lewis: The chair will ask the delegates who are seated on either side of Mother Jones to escort her to the platform.

The entire delegation arose and applauded as Mother Jones was escorted to the platform.

Acting President Lewis:…This is one great assemblage of men where Mother Jones needs no introduction. She comes today from somewhere, I know not where, but from wherever she hails we know she has been on an errand of assistance and mercy to the down-trodden toilers, and she merely stops for a moment to come into her own union, there to greet her own boys. Her life has been devoted to the cause for which she has given her years and her wisdom and her ability. She has come to be loved by every man who has ever attended our conventions and by all the mine workers of the United States. We claim her as our own.

ADDRESS OF MOTHER JONES.

I didn’t come into the convention this afternoon to speak, but they took me by surprise—like the police did. I am not going to take up much of your time. There has been too much time spent in oratory. For the last four weeks I have been with the steel workers. If you want to see brutal autocracy, come with me to the steel centers and I will show it to you. The world does not dream of the conditions that exist there.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1909, Part II: Found in San Antonio, Fighting for Imprisoned Mexican Revolutionaries

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Save Our Mexican Comrades, AtR p3, Feb 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 13, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1909, Part II:
-Found in San Antonio, Fighting for Mexican Revolutionaries

From the Beaumont Daily Enterprise of August 20, 1909:

“MOTHER” JONES GETTING BUSY
—–
She Will Actively Enter Fight For
“Liberty in Old Mexico.”

Special to the Enterprise.

Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909

San Antonio, Texas, Aug. 19-Much interest has been aroused in the case of Thomas [Tomás] Sarabia and Jose [José] M. Rangel, who are in the county jail charged with violation of the United States neutrality laws, by the arrival of “Mother Jones,” who will hold a series of mass meetings, protesting against the imprisonment of the men and the coming of Andrea Villareal [Villarreal], sister of Antonio Villareal an alleged revolutionist, now in prison in Los Angeles, Cal. The first of these meetings will be held Saturday night [August 21st] in a large tent on East Houston street and will be addressed by “Mother Jones.” Andrea Villareal is expected to arrive Monday.

It is a noteworthy fact that the Mexican population of the city are taking a great interest in the matter pertaining to the imprisoned men. This is particularly noticeable among the laboring class of the Mexicans and the matter is being discussed in all quarters. The wealthy class and also Americans who have financial interests in Mexico are trying to belittle the matter and say it is the work of sensation mongers. They feel confident that the United States will uphold the Mexican government and extradite the men now being held. It is expected that these meetings will do much to encourage the cause of the revolutionists in the proposed overthrow of the Diaz government and will tend to arouse feelings against Diaz. “Mother Jones” says she will have much of interest to say at the protest meeting. “Mother Jones” figured prominently in the strikes in the anthracite regions and the Western Federation of Miners and is accountable for the release of Manuel Sarabia from prison. When Manuel Sarabia, brother of Thomas Sarabia, now in the Bexar county jail was arrested in Douglas, Ariz, two years ago, he was taken into Mexico. It was charged that he was taken across the line without the due process of law, and “Mother Jones” started the first meeting of protest. It resulted in a movement which ended only with a decision by the United States supreme court and Sarabia was returned to the United Sates from a Mexican prison. He met a wealthy Boston girl while in Arizona and married her several months ago. “Mother Jones” will tell the story of the rescue of Manuel Sarabia.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1909, Part I: Found in Texas, Missouri, & Kansas

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, We Will Rest, UMWC Jan 27, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 12, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1909, Part I:
-Found Speaking in Texas, Missouri, and Kansas

Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909

From The Houston Post
-of August 1, 1909:

Socialist Meeting at Tyler.

(Houston Post Special.)

TYLER, Texas, July 31.-About fifteen campers with outfits from Van Zandt and Henderson counties arrived this evening to attend the socialist encampment which commences Monday and lasts until Saturday of next week. The speakers for the encampment are prominent in the socialist party and includes Colonel Dick Maples, “Mother” Jones and Rev. Mr. Andrews.

———-

From The Kansas City Star
-of August 4, 1909:

“Mother Jones,” the well known Socialist lecturer, is announced for a lecture Friday night in the circuit court room at Independence under the auspices of the Independence Socialist club.

From Appeal to Reason of August 7, 1909:

WESTERN FEDERATION
—–

The convention of the Western Federation of Miners which recently adjourned was the most progressive in the history of that organization. There were some exciting debates and there were some minor elements with extreme tendencies, but on the whole the convention was composed of the clear-eyed, honest and progressive workers whose highest purpose it was to place their organization in the van of the working class movement…..

Mother Jones and Emma F. Langdon were the honored guests of the convention and made rousing speeches to the delegates. Mother is called “The Uncrowned Queen” by the rugged miners of the mountain states who have reason to know her for her fearless and faithful devotion to their interests at a time when it was at the peril of her life…..

From the Kansas City, Kansas, Labor Record of August 13, 1909:

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Hellraisers Journal: Winthrop D. Lane for The Survey: “Uncle Sam: Jailer” – IWWs in Kansas Hell Holes-Insanity & Death

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, When we claim our Mother Earth, Leaves 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 11, 1919
I. W. W.’s Languish in Kansas Hell Holes, Part V & VI of Series by W. D. Lane

From The Survey of September 6, 1919:

IWW KS, Uncle Sam Jailer by WD Lane, Survey p806, Sept 6, 1919
—–
IWW KS, Investigation by WD Lane, Survey p806, Sept 6, 1919
—–

[Parts V & VI of VI.]

V

Several times in this account I have referred to the jails described as having been “chosen” by the United States government for the confinement of prisoners awaiting trial. Let us see what justification there is for the use of this word.

The thirty-four men held under the Wichita indictment were originally taken into custody November 21, 1917. These men were all engaged in the oil industry in Kansas. They were, for the most part, young men, some of them married, some not. Judging from their names-Anderson, Boyd, Gordon, Forbes, Stark, Sapper, Barr, Poe, Gossard, Davis, etc.—many of them were of American or Allied extraction; some foreign names were among them, but only five, so far as I learned, were accused of being enemy aliens. The indictment against them charged violation of the espionage law, the food control law and the selective service law.

On March 10, 1918, a motion to quash this indictment was filed by their attorneys. No ruling on this motion was ever made. The attorneys stood ready, therefore, to go to trial on September 24, the day set. To their surprise, a new indictment was returned on that very day. This was drawn on lines similar to the previous Chicago indictment, which had resulted in sending nearly a hundred I. W. W.’s to prison for terms varying from a few days to twenty years. The attorneys could not at once accept trial on this new indictment, and so they were granted until March 10, 1919, in which to plead.

The men who, in September, had already spent ten months in jail awaiting trial, thus faced another five and a half months of confinement. Miss Lowe, their attorney, undertook to find as comfortable jails as possible, in which, she hoped, they might be allowed to spend the winter. They were then in the Sedgwick county jail, having been transferred to it for the trial. Sheriff Sprout, at Hutchinson, agreed to take twelve of the men, and the sheriff in Winfield, where there was a modern, sanitary jail, agreed to take sixteen. Thinking that she had thus arranged accommodations for twenty-eight, Miss Lowe reported her action to the United States district attorney, Fred Robertson, who was prosecuting the case. Mr. Robertson turned a deaf ear to her plea. In vain did she dwell upon the physical condition of the men and the consequences of spending another five months amid overcrowding and filth. Mr. Robertson said that prisoners had no voice in choosing their places of incarceration, and declared.that he intended to ask Judge John C. Pollock, judge of the United States district court for Kansas, to have all of the men placed in the Wyandotte county jail in Kansas City. This was one of the worst in the state.

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Hellraisers Journal: Winthrop D. Lane for The Survey: “Uncle Sam: Jailer” – IWWs in Kansas Hell Holes-Sedgwick County Jail

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, When we claim our Mother Earth, Leaves 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 10, 1919
I. W. W.’s Languish in Kansas Hell Holes, Part III & IV of Series by W. D. Lane

From The Survey of September 6, 1919:

IWW KS, Uncle Sam Jailer by WD Lane, Survey p806, Sept 6, 1919
—–
IWW KS, Investigation by WD Lane, Survey p806, Sept 6, 1919
—–

[Parts III & IV of VI.]

III

Another jail chosen by the United States for the confinement of its prisoners awaiting trial is the Wyandotte county jail at Kansas City, Kan. I shall not go into detail about this. As at Topeka, the men are kept in an inside stockade or “tank;” this has fourteen or sixteen cells and a somewhat larger bull pen than the other. The pen is artificially lighted. Little attention is paid to ventilation. Although there were upwards of thirty men in the jail at the time of my visit, only one of the thirty-six windows was opened wide and another was opened about two inches. The men complained bitterly of the cold nights, a complaint that I could readily understand when I saw what was provided them for covering. For two nights I had been cold underneath three thicknesses of blanket and a spread, and on one of these nights had got up and placed my overcoat over me. Yet these men had a single blanket apiece, which they could fold at most into two thicknesses.

The toilets, located in an end cell, were dirty and had broken seats. The men ate their meals in their cells, after wards washing their own pans and dishes. The only places where they could wash these were in the bathtub or in the tub in which they washed their clothes. The smell of garbage was almost constantly in their nostrils, since the can for the refuse from their meals was kept inside the tank and was emptied only two or three times a week. It was full when I saw it and gave off a strong odor.

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Hellraisers Journal: Winthrop D. Lane for The Survey: “Uncle Sam: Jailer” – IWWs in Kansas Hell Holes-Shawnee County Jail

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, When we claim our Mother Earth, Leaves 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 9, 1919
I. W. W.’s Languish in Kansas Hell Holes, Part II of Series by W. D. Lane

From The Survey of September 6, 1919:

IWW KS, Uncle Sam Jailer by WD Lane, Survey p806, Sept 6, 1919
—–
IWW KS, Investigation by WD Lane, Survey p806, Sept 6, 1919
—–

[Part II of VI.]

II

To begin with the Shawnee county jail at the state capital of Kansas, Topeka. Ten members of the I. W. W. were confined there at the time of my visit. These were held under what has come to be known as the Wichita indictment. Their original arrest had occurred in November, 1917, so that they had been continuously confined in one jail or another for a year and two months. All of this time they were awaiting trial.

The Shawnee jail is a typical county lock-up in structure. Its outer walls are of brick. Men are confined in a sort of room within a room, formed by constructing a rectangular stockade inside the brick walls. The walls of this stockade are of steel lattice work, the bars of the lattice being about two inches wide and the holes about two inches square. It is through these holes that light and air enter. The cells are built in two facing rows inside the stockade. Their rear walls are the walls of the stockade itself and they open toward its center. In length the stockade is about thirty-five feet, in width twenty-six.

There are five cells in each row. Each cell is seven feet wide, seven feet long and seven feet high. Ordinarily two men are placed in each of these, but when the jail is crowded additional bunks are slung from the sides and four men sleep in this space. The central part of the stockade, that not occupied by cells, is thirty-five feet long and twelve feet wide. This is the prisoners’ livingroom, the only area besides their cells to which they have access. Light enters the jail proper through windows in the outer brick walls. These windows are frosted. The light must, therefore, pass through these frosted windows, through the steel lattice work and travel the length of the cells before it reaches this inner space. The result is that no daylight ever reaches this part of the stockade. The sun was shining brightly on the day of my visit, but its rays did not penetrate to this central area. A single electric bulb burned in the ceiling and shed a ghostly glimmer over the faces of the men; this bulb is kept lighted day and night. It was possible to read in only three of the cells and then only by standing close to the latticework. On cloudy days the men light candles.

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Hellraisers Journal: Winthrop D. Lane for The Survey: “Uncle Sam: Jailer” – IWWs Locked Up in the Hell Holes of Kansas

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, When we claim our Mother Earth, Leaves 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 8, 1919
I. W. W.’s Languish in Kansas Hell Holes, Part I of Series by W. D. Lane

From The Survey of September 6, 1919:

IWW KS, Uncle Sam Jailer by WD Lane, Survey p806, Sept 6, 1919
—–
IWW KS, Investigation by WD Lane, Survey p806, Sept 6, 1919
—–

[Part I of VI.]

I

EARLY this summer, a dozen lines in an eastern news paper conveyed the news that a hundred members of the I. W. W., migratory workers in the oil fields and wheat belt of Kansas, had been locked up in the jails of that state, and that more would be locked up as soon as they came out of the “jungle” into the towns and cities. This information was significant for reasons not appearing on the surface. It meant, if the experience of other members of the I. W. W. during the two years preceding was any guide, that these men faced an indefinite confinement in Kansas jails awaiting trial; that they would be kept in semi-dark and disease-breeding cells; that they would be fed insufficiently; that they would live with rats and vermin; that they would be crowded into quarters too small for them and would spend their days within smell of their own excreta; that they would be kept absolutely idle and that their faculties would suffer from disuse; that at times their only protection against physical abuse would be the strength of their own numbers; that for months at a stretch they would not see the real light of day, much less be allowed out-of-doors; and that some of their number would in all probability go insane or attempt suicide or die.

That is what it is to live in many Kansas jails today.

The evidence for these statements is to be found in the conditions under which other members of the I. W. W. have lived in Kansas jails for two years past. I went to these jails last January and saw the conditions under which these men lived with my own eyes. My purpose was not to befriend the I. W. W., with the philosophy or tactics of which I had no personal concern, but to answer the question: What kind of jailer is Uncle Sam?

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Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Miners Declare They Will March on Logan County to Help Their Brothers Organize

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Kaisers here at home, Peoria IL Apr 6, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 7, 1919
4,000 Armed Miners Gather Near Marmet to March on Logan County

From the The West Virginian of September 6, 1919:

WV UMW, Armed Miners March, WVgn p1, Sept 6, 1919WV UMW, Armed Miners March Logan ed, WVgn p1, Sept 6, 1919

(By Associated Press)

CHARLESTON, Sept. 6-According to information received from a local operator who refused to be quoted the coal operators of the Guyan field yesterday unloaded a car load of machine guns at different places in Logan county as a means of preparation to meet the hosts of invading miners from the Kanawha and Coal river fields.

The five hundred armed miners who left Oak Grove this morning on the march across the hills to Coal river with the Guyan field of Logan county their object was to be joined at Racine and Little Coal River by about 3,000 more armed men according to information received here by coal operators.

The additional armed forces were said to be assembled at Racine and on Little Coal river early this forenoon awaiting the crowd from Oak Grove.

W. M. Petry, vice president of District No. 17 United Mine Workers of America said there were 4,000 armed miners on the march this morning to the Guyan fields, but disclosed no information regarding their whereabouts at that time.

Petry said the men absolutely refused to listen to the appeal of Governor Cornwell and the orders of the union officials. They refused to listen to any of us, Mr. Petry said and declared their intention of marching into Logan county to help their brothers organize.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Social Democratic Herald: Eugene Debs on Current Events: The Bullpens of Idaho & Progress of Social Democratic Party

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, SDP Revolutionary, Sc Dem Hld p1, July 1, 1899———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 6, 1899
Eugene V. Debs on Current Events: Honest Workingmen Held in Idaho Bullpen

From the Social Democratic Herald of September 2, 1899:

CURRENT EVENTS PASSED IN REVIEW
—–

MINERS’ “VICTORIES” SO-CALLED
—–
Thirteen-Dollars-a-Month Patriotism
-“Bull Pens” and Socialism-Justice in France
in Spite of Hell and the French Army
-Cleveland Boycott
—–

By Eugene V. Debs, Terre Haute, Ind.

[Part II of II.]

Idaho.

EVD, Houston Daily Post p6, May 22, 1899

The “bullpen” of Idaho is the joint product of Republican, Democratic, and Populistic administration. The pictures drawn of this hellhole by reliable correspondents are enough to make decent devils blush with shame. The Democratic Populistic Governor Steunenberg and the Republican General Merriam, monsters of degeneracy, constitute the tsars of this domain. Here hundreds of honest workingmen, without a charge against them, are corralled like cattle, starved like outlaws, and shot like mad dogs, and while the outrages are being perpetrated in the name of “law and order” their wives are made victims of the lust of their brutal keepers.

We often hear that violent revolution is close upon us, but this is only bluster, for if there were but the faintest revolutionary spirit abroad, the Idaho “Bullpen” would fan it into flame like a cyclone and such fiends as Steunenberg, Merriam, and other degenerate tools of the Standard Oil Company would be hung higher than Haman.

Some of these miners may remember what I told them nearly three years ago about coming events, about voting with the old parties and about socialism. They were not ready for socialism then, but now that their unions are broken up, their homes desolate, and themselves prisoners or exiles, and all this by the capitalist system which they have supported by their own votes, they will be compelled to realize that through socialism alone is there escape from the tyranny of capitalist rule and the atrocities of the wage system.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Social Democratic Herald: Eugene Debs on Current Events: So-Called Miners’ Victories & Patriotism at $13 per Month

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, SDP Revolutionary, Sc Dem Hld p1, July 1, 1899———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 5, 1899
Eugene V. Debs on Current Events: Miners of Girard, Illinois, Appeal for Aid

From the Social Democratic Herald of September 2, 1899:

CURRENT EVENTS PASSED IN REVIEW
—–

MINERS’ “VICTORIES” SO-CALLED
—–
Thirteen-Dollars-a-Month Patriotism
-“Bull Pens” and Socialism-Justice in France
in Spite of Hell and the French Army
-Cleveland Boycott
—–

By Eugene V. Debs, Terre Haute, Ind.

[Part I of II.]

EVD, Houston Daily Post p6, May 22, 1899

We have heard a great deal about the “glorious victories” won for miners during the last two yeas. It is a ghastly lie. The only victory I know of is the $3,600.00 job snatched from the enemy by Ratchford [Michael D. Ratchford, former President of the United Mine Workers’ Union], the understudy of [U. S. Senator] Mark Hanna.

Here in Indiana hundreds of them are idle and suffering. In Illinois, according to the official report of [U. M. W. District 12] State Secretary Ryan, they are on strike at 14 different points. At Girard [Illinois] the other day they issued an appeal for charity, declaring that they were homeless and hungry. The “glorious victories” have reduced them to common beggars—and they belong to the union to a man.

Oh, miners, will you not open your eyes and will you not use your brains and see and think for yourselves?

You have won no victories worthy the name. You are slaves, every last one of you, the victims of the wage system, and as long as the mines you work in are privately owned you will be robbed while at work and clubbed and shot like dogs when you quit.

Arouse from your slavery, join the Social Democratic Party and vote with us to take possession of the mines of the country and operate them in the interest of the people, as well as the railroads, factories, and all the means of production and distribution, and then, and only then, will “glorious victories” have been achieved and you and your comrades be free and our families happy.

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