I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth,
and I am a citizen of the world.
– Eugene V. Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday October 17, 1917
From The Masses: “Physically Fit” by Henry J. Glintenkamp
This is a show of solidarity
that would make our masters tremble
could they but see it.
-Luella Twining
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday October 16, 1907
Eastern Conferences Stand Firm in Support of Pettibone
In case anyone believes that, with the acquittal of Bill Haywood, the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone Conferences have gone slack in their defense work, the following report from Luella Twining should disabuse them of that idea.
From the Appeal to Reason of October 12, 1907:
THE EASTERN CONFERENCES
—–
Progress of the Defence Work
Among Unions in the East.
—–BY LUELLA TWINING.
Representative Western Federation of Miners.
—–
THE Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone conferences in the east are continuing with the characteristic vigor they evidenced from the start. I attended two meetings of the Philadelphia Conference three weeks ago. The hall was filled. I have been out of the city visiting unions in nearby cities and have not attended the New York Conference for some time. I was surprised and touched to see what a fine meeting they had Sunday night, after these months and months in which they have met regularly each week. The unions of the city were well represented. When I stepped into the room and saw the crowd I thought to myself: “This is a show of solidarity that would make our masters tremble could they but see it.” They are all moved by the spirit expressed by Brother P. Schaefer of the national executive board of the Brewers, who said: “We shall never rest till Pettibone is liberated from that prison cell and the Western Federation of Miners is safe. We will not allow the mine owners to break this fine organization by hanging its officials or destroying it financially.”
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday October 13, 1907
Remembering Mother Jones in West Virginia in 1902
With the recent passing of Judge John Jay Jackson, the Old Injunction Judge, who was the bane of the United Mine Workers of America during their struggles in West Virginia back in 1902, we recall how Mother Jones earned her reputation as a “dangerous woman.” Dangerous she was then, and is yet today, to those seeking to keep the miners beat down and their union broken, but in the coal camps across the nation, where men labor for long hours at low pay, she is known as “The Miners’ Angel.”
According to some accounts, during the closing arguments, July 11th and 12th, of that year, the United States Attorney pointed his finger at her and declared:
There sits the most dangerous woman in America. She comes into a State where peace and prosperity reign. She crooks her finger-twenty thousand contented working men lay down their tools and walk out.
The Worker of July 27, 1902 reported the story:
THE TRIAL OF MOTHER JONES.
—–
Federal District Attorney Declares Her
a Dangerous Woman.
—–Decision Not Yet Given as The Worker goes to Press–
Vigorous Effort to Imprison or Banish
Brave Woman from West Virginia.Tuesday, July 24, was the day set for Judge Jackson of the United State court at Parkersburg, W. Va., to give his decision in the cases of Mother Jones, Thos. Haggerty, and eleven other organizers of the United Mine Workers, under arrest for having violated an infamous injunction which forbids them to hold miners’ meetings anywhere within sight of the mine properties, to march on the public roads in the vicinity, or, as a correspondent of The Worker put it, to do anything except eat and drink-and the West Virginia miners don’t get a chance to eat too much, with or with-[out?] injunctions.
Reese Blizzard, United States District Attorney, conducted the prosecution. He is counted a very able lawyer and he used all his powers to carry his point-or, rather, to carry the point for the mine owners. His closing speech occupied four hours.
Cannot Understand Her.
Mother Jones is obviously considered the most dangerous offender. The “Operators” and their tools cannot understand this wonderful little woman, who is content to labor incessantly, to go hungry and cold sometimes, to endure all manner of hardships and insults and dangers, to go to prison, if need be, in order to carry on her work of organizing and educating and inspiring the miners, and whom the strongest men among the mine workers treat with such confidence and such perfect respect.
“A Dangerous Woman.”
The press reports say that Blizzard called attention to the fact that Mother Jones was especially dangerous owing to the fact that her influence among the miners is almost unlimited and that, also by reason of her powerful intellect she is an instrument of great harm. The miners, he said, are receiving good wages and their condition is satisfactory, but, according to the testimony of this woman, she has come into this state with the express intention of getting eight or nine thousand miners to throw down their tools and quit work that they may help the two or three hundred who were dissatisfied with their condition and had quit the service of their employers.
I saw militiamen level their rifles
at a crowd of workingmen…
-Carl Sandburg
Hellraisers Journal, Friday October 12, 1917
“The Government-…I went out to find it.” -Carl Sandburg
From the International Socialist Review of October 1917:
Hellraisers Journal, Friday October 11, 1907
Old Injunction Judge, John J. Jackson, Passed Away on Labor Day
From the Lincoln, Nebraska, Commoner of September 13, 1907:
THE DEATH of Judge John J. Jackson on Labor Day was a coincidence that was noted by thousands of the older members of American trades unions. Judge Jackson earned the sobriquet of “the iron judge” by reason of his many drastic injunctions against union men. In his anxiety to protect property rights Judge Jackson often lost sight of human rights. It was he who sent “Mother” Jones to jail for daring to make a public address in violation of his injunction, and he enjoined a Methodist preacher from conducting a prayer meeting of striking coal miners in Pennsylvania. At another time he enjoined striking miners from walking the public highways to and from meetings of their local union. The abuse of the injunction writ was forcibly demonstrated by Judge Jackson on many occasions. He was the last of the federal judges appointed by President Lincoln. He resigned a few years ago on account of ill health and advancing age.
———-
[Photograph added.]
From The Fairmont West Virginian of September 6, 1907:
An interesting article, here reprinted from the Chicago Record-Herald of August 3, 1902, provides some insight into the background of the Old Injunction Judge who ruled over the miners of West Virginia with an iron fist from his seat on the Federal Bench in Parkersburg. The Judge came from a family who championed freedom and liberty (for themselves) yet held in bondage, on the family plantation in Old Virginia, human beings as chattel slaves. They loved their slaves, John Jackson had said in 1861, yet loved the Union more. We believe it was Slavery that they loved, not their slaves, for if they truly loved them, as people, they would not have kept them enslaved.
[Old Glory, Our Flag]
-with all its faults, I dearly love,
and under it I stand for international brotherhood,
government ownership and universal equality.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday October 10, 1907
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September, Found in Utah
From The Inter-Mountain Republican of September 2, 1907:
“MOTHER JONES” TO DELIVER ADDRESS
—–
Interesting Program Planned For
Labor Day at Park City.
—–Republican Special Service.
Park City, Sept. 1.-The Park City Miners’ union, which is in charge of the celebration of Labor day, has completed the arrangements for the event and provided amusement for young and old. The festivities will begin at 9 o’clock in the morning with a parade, in which the union will figure prominently. The fire department and school children, with the Park City military band, will lead the procession.
Prominent in the program will be an address by “Mother” Jones, who is known by all as an earnest worker in the cause of the laboring man. A stand has been erected on the Marsac ground for speakers . Various sports will follow the program….
[Photograph added.]
From The Salt Lake Tribune of September 3, 1907:
“MOTHER” JONES SPEAKS AT
PARK CITY CELEBRATION
—–Special to The Tribune.
PARK CITY. Sept. 2.-Labor day in Park City was fittingly celebrated. At 9:30 a. m. the parade formed on Main street, at the Miners’ Union hall.
The parade was headed by the Park City fire department, followed by Harry Weist as flag-bearer. Then came the Military band and tho city officers. The members of the Miners’ union, small boys and girls, and, lastly, the “Hoot, Hoot” band.
The line of march was north on Main street to Heber avenue, then south on Park avenue to First street, then north on Main street to the band stand, where in a short address Mr. Langford introduced the speaker of the day, “Mother” Jones, as she is known. “Mother” Jones spoke for one hour and thirty minutes on the “Wealth of the Nation,” and the amount contributed to it by the laboring classes….
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 9, 1917
Maryland Boss Has Heartache for Loss of Child Cannery Workers
From the Appeal to Reason of October 6, 1917:
“SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN–.”
—–
W. E. Robinson, a Belair, Md., canner, is heartbroken because the Keating-Owen child labor law has forced him to employ men and women instead of the little children who formerly did the work in his factory. In a recent letter to a local newspaper he says:
Since the first of September [when the Keating-Owen Law became effective] I have not permitted these boys and girls to work in my factory. They are healthful, industrious youngsters, and the work they have been doing was very beneficial to them, mentally and physically. But my heart aches for them now. Their parents are all at work in the factory. Where are these husky boys and girls; what are they doing?
These unfortunate youngsters, bereft of their beloved jobs, exiled from the kindly shelter of Robinson’s cannery, their plight is indeed pitiful. Deprived of the life-giving labor, which was so “very beneficial to them, mentally and physically” doubtless their muscular little bodies are wasting away, and the once eager young minds have crumbled into mental and moral ruin.
It is not enough to say that something good,
something beautiful is being born.
We must help it become a
reality-not a dream.
-Ella Reeve Bloor
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 8, 1907
Child Labor in America: An Army of Little Factory Children
From the Appeal to Reason of October 5, 1907:
Killing Children for Profits.
Mrs. Ella Reeve Bloor, of Philadelphia, writer and lecturer on industrial topics, who is investigating child labor conditions in the factories of western Pennsylvania, declares that hundreds of little children under the legal age are employed in a chimney factory at Charleroi, Pa.
[Said Mrs. Bloor:]
An army of little girls came flocking from all directions to the factories this morning. They work from 7 a. m. until 6 p. m., when little boys take their places and work until 2 a.m. The little fellows are afraid to go home at that hour and many boys of 10 and 11 years carry revolvers to and from their work. I believe the condition of child labor in Pennsylvania is as bad as it is in the south.
To show you how the glass manufacturers disobey the law, I will state that I have secured 6,300 convictions in six years of my office. One large factory covering 640 acres in Alton, Ill., has two gates for inspectors to get in and lots of holes for kids to get out.-Edgar T. Davies, Chief Factory Inspector of Illinois.
We women of America tell you that America
is not a democracy.
Twenty million women are denied
the right to vote.
-Alice Paul
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday October 7, 1917
Drawing by Boardman Robinson: Banner of Arrested Suffragists
From The Masses of October 1917:
Detail-The Offending Banner:
There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday October 6, 1907
The View from Girard, Kansas: Collier’s Licks the Velvet Hand
From the Appeal to Reason of October 5, 1907:
“Crucify Him!”
—–
Collier’s Weekly, in the face of all the antagonistic circumstances under which Haywood was tried and acquitted, says that it is privately informed by the best detectives in the country that Orchard told the truth. Well, the Appeal is informed by the best detectives in the country that Orchard maliciously lied, to save his craven neck, under the paid expert coaching of a man whose antecedent history in the “Mollie Maguire” period, and at Parsons, Kan., where good citizens made affidavits denouncing him, shows him to be a creature whose moral pulse beats lower than a snake’s. All the time Orchard was “telling the truth” he was telling stories of his own despicable treachery and double dealing for pay.
