Hellraisers Journal: Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Tours Mesabi Iron Range, Speaks on Industrial Unionism

15th December 2017 Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn

It’s great to fight for freedom
with a Rebel Girl.
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 15, 1907
Northern Minnesota – Miss Flynn Tours and Speaks

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of Dec 14, 1907:

Miss Flynn’s Tour a Success

I arrived in Duluth, Minn., on Friday, November 14th, and on Sunday afternoon, November 16th, the first meeting was held in Superior, Wis., with an audience of 300 people. The second was held the same evening in Duluth, Minn., with an attendance of from 600 to 700 people. At the two meetings the people were enthusiastic in demonstrating their appreciation of industrial unionism. The capitalist papers gave us extended write-ups, copies of which have been forwarded to headquarters, carefully omitting the portions of the talks which dealt with themselves and “the panic.” The chairman of both meetings was Fellow Worker Zollner, a fighter of ability in this vicinity.

The first range town we visited was Proctor, Minn., the home of the “Duluth, Mesaba and Northern” transportation workers. The round-houses and yards of this ore-carrying road are located here, all of it being stock-trust property. The company very generously gave their employers a special train into Duluth to see the “Land of Nod,” which was playing there that night, which had the effect of diminishing the size of our audience. “The Land of Nod” is better for the proletarians than an industrial awakening. Miss Flynn promised to come again, however-one hundred times, if necessary-to get the doctrines of industrial unionism before the workers. Let the company take notice.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1907, Found Lauded in the Appeal to Reason

14th December 2017 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

EVD Quote re Mother Jones, AtR, Nov 23, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 14, 1907
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November:
-Found Covered with Fond Tributes in the Appeal to Reason

From the Appeal to Reason of November 2, 1907

Texas SP Sec Bell, AtR, Nov 2, 1907

The Typewriter Fund.

As correspondents will have noticed, the state office is now in possessions of a typewriter as a result of the movement in that direction started by Mother Jones.

The entire fund for that purpose, however, has never been raise.

Seeing the great need for a typewriter, Comrade N. B. Hunt, unsolicited, tendered a loan of $20 for the purpose of getting the much-needed machine without delay.

A machine was purchased from Comrade C. L. Vincent for $35; $2 of the fund has been contributed by Comrade Vincent…

Amount to be raised to cancel loan…$16.25.

Let us have your contribution to this fund and wipe out the debt.

—–

[Photograph & emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: MONONGAH: Rescuers Worn Out; Women & Children Wait in Silent Grief in Driving Rain

12th December 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday December 12, 1907
Monongah, West Virginia – Grim Work Continues in Driving Rain

From The Pittsburgh Press of December 10, 1907:

Women at Mouth of the Monongah Mine

Rescuers Worn Out

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: MONONGAH: Rescuers Worn Out; Women & Children Wait in Silent Grief in Driving Rain” →

Hellraisers Journal: Little Girls, Orphans of Monongah, Beg for Work: “Please letta me work lady; gotta getta money.”

11th December 201711th December 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

“Oh, damn it, dagos are cheaper than props.”
-Mother Jones quoting a mine manager.

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday December 11, 1907
Monongah, West Virginia – Little Orphan Girls Beg for Work

Journalist Dorothy Dale reports from the devastated town:

Please letta me work, lady; gotta getta money…Please you get something for me, I can do.

A little hand touched my arm. The curl-framed face of a girl of 10 years looked into mine.

[She said pitifully:]

You know mans all dead. Boys all dead. Only girls left to work.

From The Pittsburgh Press of Dec 10, 1907:

Fairmont, W. Va., December 10.-“Please letta me work, lady; gotta getta money.”

It was the appeal on every side in Monongah on Tuesday and it came from little girls, many of them not 10 years old. It is the newest development in the mine horror. Girls-mind you-not boys!

The boys of Monongah lie sleeping under the coal-weighted hills. Early Tuesday the corpse of a slender child form was brought out of No. 6. It was identified as Johnny Yaconis, and taken to the tumble down shack up in Red Row, over the mine, where a stony faced little woman kissed it until her face was black from the charred flesh. Another body, that of the boy’s father, Franco Yaconis, is still concealed in one of those underground rooms.

Dominic, her boy of 15, lies in the company hospital, where his crushed leg was amputated. Only her Johnny had been brought to her. “Devil Johnny,” they called him, but there was nothing devilish about him. At the age of 12 years the stunted little overalled figure trudged every morning to the mines, where he was a trapper. At 13 years of age he died in those mines.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Little Girls, Orphans of Monongah, Beg for Work: “Please letta me work lady; gotta getta money.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Orphans and Widows Wait and Weep as Monongah Mine Gives Up Its Dead

10th December 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday December 10, 1907
Monongah, West Virginia – No Hope Remains as Rescue Work Continues

From The Fairmont West Virginian of December 9, 1907:

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Hellraisers Journal: Rescue at Monongah Mine Disaster Hampered by Another Fire; Agonizing Scenes of Grief as Hope Fades

9th December 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

How can God forgive you, you do know what you’ve done.
You’ve killed my husband, now you want my son.
-Hazel Dickens

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 9, 1917
Monongah, West Virginia – Agonizing Scenes of Grief and Despair

From The Pittsburgh Press of December 7, 1907:

James Cain, an inspector, was overcome while working in the mine this afternoon and is in a precarious condition.

Many women are rallying to aid in giving temporary relief wherever possible. Across the street from the mine quarters have been arranged where the distracted widows of the dead miners are cared for…..

AGONIZING SCENES.

With the early dawn of day and rising of the sun, the beautiful little mining village of Monongah was found to be one of sorrow and despair. Throughout the night widows and orphans hovered close together at the mine entrance, despite the coldness of the night, hoping against hope that their loved ones would still be found alive who were entombed.

The concussion was felt all over the country, houses were wrecked, windows broken and many persons near the mines knocked down and injured.

Thousands of people have assembled at the mine entrances.

The scenes about the mine openings throughout the night were agonizing in the extreme. The anguish of wives and mothers who wrung their hands and cried hysterically out of their solicitude for bread winners who were locked up in their underground sepulchre, were painful in the extreme. Women fainted. Strong men gave way. Little children, only faintly realizing what happened, cried pitifully, not for absent fathers and brothers, but because of the distress round about them and their intuitive knowledge that it was an occasion that called for tears…

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Hellraisers Journal: Not One Miner Brought Out Alive after Explosion at Old Ben Mine, Christopher, Illinois

8th December 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 8, 1917
Christopher, Illinois – All Bodies Recovered from Old Ben Mine

From the United Mine Workers Journal of December 6, 1917:

Eighteen Men Die in Illinois Explosion

Christopher, Ill.—On the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day an explosion occurred at the Old Ben Mine, four miles north of this town, that wrecked both shifts and all the approaches to the workings.

Eighteen day hands were in the mine at the time of the explosion, and all of them were killed.

Rescue teams worked day and night in the hope that some of the trapped men might be found alive. Timbers had been blown out and all the entries were blocked with rock. It was necessary to establish a ventilating system as the rescuers advanced into the wrecked workings. The bodies of all the victims were recovered.

The immediate cause of the explosion is not determined. It is believed that a fall of rock drove a body of gas that had accumulated on the open lamps of some of the men; coal dust and gas together made for the terrible explosion that ensued. The first party of rescuers that entered the mine were driven back by afterdamp. Some members of this rescue party were overcome; pulmotors were used to revive them.

Some 700 men are employed in this mine. Had the explosion occurred on a working day, the loss of life would have been far greater.

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Hellraisers Journal: Heartrending Cries of Grief and Horror at Scene of Monongah Mine Explosion; 400 Miners Feared Lost

7th December 20177th December 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Monongah MnDs, Raging Sea of Fire, Ptt Prs, Dec 6, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 7, 1907
Monongah, West Virginia – Explosion Followed by Fire at Nos. 6 & 8

From The Pittsburg Press of December 6, 1907:

The Grim News from Monongah:

By United Press.

Monongah, W. Va., December 6.-An explosion of dust in the Nos. 6 and 8 mines of the Fairmont Coal Co. here at half past ten o’clock this morning, resulted in the death of probably four hundred men.

At 2 o’clock this afternoon eight dead bodies were found near the entrance of No. 6 and had been taken out, but at that time dense volumes of smoke from a fire in the heart of the mine drove the rescuers to the open air and they have not since been able to return, although every effort is being made to get in.

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Hellraisers Journal: Montana News: Pettibone Trial Begins; Adams Trial Ends; The “Big Stick” & the Goldfield Miners

6th December 201711th January 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday December 6, 1907
Idaho and Nevada – Western Federation of Miners on the Firing Line

Through their ownership of state and federal government power, the Mine Owners carry on their battle against the Western Federation of Miners. The Socialist Montana News of December 5th reports:

PETTIBONE TRIAL BEGINS

Boise, Idaho, Dec. 1.—Sheriff Shad Hodgins and force of deputies yesterday completed the serving of summons on the talesmen for the special venire of 100, to respond for service when the Pettibone trial is resumed Monday morning at 10 o’clock.

During the day yesterday the eleven talesmen now in the custody of the bailiffs awaiting the opening of court Monday, informally reported at the court house and to the court. They were given magazines, papers and reading matter, all of which had been censored relative to anything concerning the trial, after which they returned to the quarters at 612 Bannock street where they enjoyed a session of news, fiction and romantic. In the afternoon they took a long walk out beyond the Boise barracks returning just before the supper hour.

Attorney W. E. Stone of counsel for the state was appointed by the court to censor the reading matter that is to go to the jury during the trial and Leon Whitsell for the defense.

The defendant’s health is still very poor and he is barely able to climb the two flights of stairs to the court room. He continues to give assurances however, that he will be able to sit through the trial.

The elimination of testimony in regard to the Colorado labor war, which was stricken out by Judge Wood in the Haywood trial, will mean the saving of much time, and it is believed that the taking of testimony will not require over four weeks.

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Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Montana News: Pettibone Trial Begins; Adams Trial Ends; The “Big Stick” & the Goldfield Miners” →

Hellraisers Journal: Women and Children Gather at Scene of Naomi Mine Explosion at Fayette City, Pennsylvania

5th December 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

The women and children are crying continually,
and stare with hope at the
seemingly fruitless work of rescue.
–The Pittsburg Press
December 2, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday December 5, 1907
Fayette City, Pennsylvania – Many Dead in Naomi Mine Explosion

An explosion Sunday night at the Naomi Coal Mine, followed by fumes of poisonous gas which soon filled the mine, led to the death of at least 27 miners, with some saying that the death toll could reach as high as 68.

From The Pittsburg Press of December 2, 1907:

The death list will be at least 46. Their chance of ever getting out alive is hopelessly slim.

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