Category: Mother Mary Harris Jones

Hellraisers Journal: Harold E. West on Mother Jones and the Civil War in the Coalfields of Kanawha County, W. V.

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Quote Harold West re Mother Jones, Safely in Jail, Survey p50, Apr 5, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 10, 1913
Mother Jones and the Civil War in the Kanawha County Coalfields

From The Survey of April 5, 1913:

Mother Jones

[-by Harold West]

Mother Jones in Rocker, Survey p41, Apr 5, 1913

The developments of the winter have been under the regime of a third governor, who came to the state house at  season when part of the commonwealth was under martial law. In March came the trials of a number of the strikers their sympathizers-approximately fifty-by a military court on charges of inciting to riot, conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to destroy property. Among those in prison is Mother Jones, the “Stormy Petrel of Labor” who is always present in big labor disturbances, especially those of the miners and the railroad men. She has given the best part of her life to the cause of laboring men and they adore he.

This old woman, more than 80 years of age, was in the mines when I went there and I got to know her well. She passed the word along to the men that I was “all right” and reticent as they are to strangers, they told me their side of the case without reservation.

I have been with Mother Jones when she was compelled “to walk the creek,” having been forbidden to go upon the footpaths that happened to be upon the property of the companies and denied even the privilege of walking along the railroad track although hundreds of miners and others were walking on it at the time. She was compelled to keep to the county road although it was in the bed of the creek and the water was over her ankles. I protested to the chief of the guards saying that no matter what her attitude might be, no matter how much she might be hated, that she was an old woman and common humanity would dictate that she be not ill treated. I was told that she was an old “she-devil” and that she would receive no “courtesies” there, that she was responsible for all the trouble that had occurred and that she would receive no consideration from the companies.

I was with her when she was denied “the privilege” of going up the footway to the house of one of the miners in order to get a cup of tea. It was then afternoon, she had walked several miles and was faint, having had nothing to eat since an early breakfast. But that did not shut her mouth. She made the speech she had arranged to make to the men who had gathered to hear her although they had to line up on each side of the roadway to avoid “obstructing the highway,” a highway that was almost impassable to wheeled vehicle and which there was no travel. And in that speech she counseled moderation, told the men to keep strictly within the law and to protect the company’s property instead of doing anything to injure it.

I had several long talks with her. When she speaks to the miners she talks in their own vernacular and occasionally swears. She was a normal school teacher in her early days, and in her talks with me in the home of one of her friends in the “free town” of Eskdale, she used the language of the cultured woman. And this is the old woman whom nearly all the operators in the non-union fields fear, and whose coming among their workers they dread more than the coming of a pestilence. They now have her safely in jail.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: The Rights of West Virginians Must Be Restored Peacefully Or…..!

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Quote WB Hilton re Mother Jones Courage, ed Wlg Maj p10, Mar 6, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 6, 1913
Kanawha County, West Virginia – Rights of West Virginians Must Be Restored

From The Wheeling Majority of April 3, 1913:

Article WV Restore Rights, Wlg Maj p1, Apr 3, 1913Article WV Restore Rights Part 2, Wlg Maj p1, Apr 3, 1913WV Troops v Strikers Families, Wlg Maj p1, Apr 3, 1913Cartoon Save WV Miners, Wlg Maj p1, Apr 3, 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Anthracite Coal Strike Commission Renders Its Verdict; UMWA Not Recognized

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Labor walked into the House of Victory
through the back door.
-Mother Jones
—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 5, 1903
Union Recognition Not Granted by Anthracite Coal Strike Commission

From the Appeal to Reason of April 4, 1903:

Drwg Anthracite Coal Comm, Denison Rv IA p3, Oct 21, 1902

The strike commission has at last rendered its verdict in the matter of the anthracite  miners strike. The miners are to receive a 10% increase-they had demanded 20%-the hours are to be reduced to nine instead of eight, as demanded-but only for those who are paid by the day or week. The capitalist press makes a great adoo about the $3,000,000 which are to be paid to the miners. There were about 150,000 of them, so that each man gets about $20. The increase of wages per man per year will be about $40. On the other hand, the union has not been recognized, the coal is not to be paid by weight, and an arbitration court is to be nominated, consisting of three miners and three operators. If this arbitration court cannot agree, a special arbitrator is to be nominated by a federal judge. In other words, the capitalists have gotten the best of the miners, as usual.

[Photograph and emphasis added.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Ralph Chaplin on Military Violence Against Striking Miners, Part III

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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 3, 1913
Ralph Chaplin Travels with Comrade Rumbaugh to West Virginia Strike Zone

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

WV Paint Creek Strike by Ralph Chaplin, ISR p729, Apr 1913

[Part III of III.]

When the Leaves Come Out by Ralph Chaplin, ISR p736, Apr 1913

A brief account of a trip made by Comrade Rumbaugh, of Hurricane, W. Va., and myself to the danger zone, might be of interest to readers of the REVIEW. We rode into Charleston “on the front end” and found that city to have the appearance of a place preparing for a siege. Martial law had been declared but a short time previously and the streets were full of soldiers. Yellow-legged sentries were stationed in front of the state house and the governor’s residence. It was rumored that machine guns were mounted in the upper windows of the former building, commanding both entrances to the capitol grounds.

A sentry was also stationed in front of the office of the Labor Argus to guard Comrade W. H. Thompson, who is editing that paper while Comrade Boswell is being “detained” in the bull pen. Comrade Thompson is an ex-Kanawha county coal miner and is unblushingly ”red.” He is the editor of the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star and he has put up as staunch a fight for the cause of the miners as any man in the state. At the city jail we witnessed the interesting spectacle of a bunch of “tin horns” bringing a prisoner from the military district to the city lockup. As the great iron gates swung open to receive them, the spectators commenced hissing the soldiers, calling them “scab herders” and other expressive names. Some of the “yellow legs” glared at these people brazenly but, may they be given due credit, others of the soldiers hung their heads with shame, as if such condemnation from members of their own class was more deadly to them than bullets.

From Charleston we took the labor train that was to carry us into the martial law zone. At Cabin Creek we were almost arrested with a bunch of miners in the car who were poking fun at the grave and ludicrous antics cut by some of the would-be man-killers in khaki. At the Paint Creek junction we remained for several hours, ostensibly to visit some soldier boys of our acquaintance, but in reality to secure information and photographs for the REVIEW and the Labor Star. Comrade Rumbaugh was afterwards arrested and relieved of his camera for attempting to take photographs to illustrate this article. We spoke with dozens of the soldiers, and one of them, an ex-mine guard, admitted that the guards use dum-dum bullets against the miners. He told of two miners who had been killed with these proscribed missiles, one man who had the top of his head completely shot off and another who received a death wound in the breast large enough to “stick your fist into.”

The freight house at Paint Creek has been converted into a bull pen, and over fifty men are now incarcerated there, only three of whom are not native West Virginains. The interior of this place would make a Siberian prison pen look like a haven of refuge. The sleeping accommodations are inadequate, ventilation poor and the floors filthy beyond description. Even with two or three men sleeping in the coal-bin there is no room for the others. The only papers the prisoners are permitted to read are the reactionary local rags and the National Socialist. Mother Jones, Charles Boswell and John Brown have somewhat better quarters elsewhere in town. A sentinel is constantly measuring his paces before the door of each. Dear old Mother Jones in the bull-pen and guarded by armed mercenaries of the Mine Owners! The very thought of it makes blood boil, here in West Virginia.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Ralph Chaplin on Military Violence Against Striking Miners, Part II

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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 2, 1913
Ralph Chaplin on the Attack by the Bull Moose Special Upon Strikers’ Colony

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

WV Paint Creek Strike by Ralph Chaplin, ISR p729, Apr 1913

[Part II of III.]

The operators, realizing that violence has always been their big trump, thought they would have everything their own sweet way when trouble started. Everything was in their favor-armed guards and regiments of militiamen-so why should they not feel confident? But it is evident that the miners have fooled them. The miner knew the hills better than the blood-hounds that were sent to track them down. After a few months of it, the odds are just about even, and the fight is not half over. Soldiers in the strike zone are becoming uneasy and are using the slightest excuse to make a getaway. Many of the guards have deserted their posts of duty in a panic. One hundred and fifty of them have paid for treason to their class with their lives! They are in mortal fear of the time when the bleak hillsides will be covered with greenery-when “the leaves come out!“

The miners have been hounded into the using of violence. Just an instance in which the above-mentioned armored train figures conspicuously: This train is called, for some reason or other, the Bull Moose Special. Needless to state, it is thoroughly hated by the miners. The engineer and fireman and others of the train crew are reported to be extremely proud of the union cards they carry. This hellish contraption was a lovely plaything to put into the hands of the cut-throat, coyote-hearted guards and, like children with a new pop-gun, they were simply aching for an opportunity to use it against the strikers. The opportunity soon presented itself. Just how it came about nobody seems to know. The guards claim that some of the miners had fired into an ambulance carrying wounded mine-guards to the hospital. The strikers claim that the train was first used to avenge the death of a couple of guards who had been held to account for insulting some of the girls in the tent village. I, myself, have spoken with miners who claim to have been eye-witnesses to the insulting of these girls.

Mine guards are noted for their inhuman and brutal treatment of the women of the miners. Their authoritative positions often gave them advantages over the helpless women, especially in the absence of the men, and the full record of their unrestrained animal viciousness will never be written. Between the miners and the guards there is an open war to the knife. More than once these Kanawha cossacks have evicted mothers, in the pangs of childbirth, from company houses, and children have been born in the tents of the strikers while the murderous bullets of the guards were whistling and zipping through the canvas. At all events these cut-throats of the coal operators had the long wished for chance to use the Bull Moose special. They would have their revenge.

So in the dead of night, and with all lights extinguished, the Death Train drew up over the sleeping tent village at Holly Grove and opened fire with machine gun and rifle. Miners’ huts were torn to splinters and tents were riddled with bullets. One woman had both legs broken by the murderous rain of lead; and a miner, holding an infant child in his arms and running from his tent to the shelter of a dugout, fell, seriously wounded. The baby was, by some miracle, unhurt, but three bullet holes had tattered the edge of its tiny dress. Men, women and children ran hastily through the dark night seeking the cold security of the woods. The miners, as could be expected, were desperate enough to do most anything and returned the fire as best they could. Bonner Hill, sheriff of Kanawha county, who was only elected by a small and suspicious majority over Tincher the Socialist, candidate, was on the train, and it is claimed by the train crew that it was he who gave the order to fire the first murderous volley.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Ralph Chaplin on Military Violence Against Striking Miners, Part I

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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 1, 1913
Ralph Chaplin on Striking Miners and Military Despotism in West Virginia

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

WV Paint Creek Strike by Ralph Chaplin, ISR p729, Apr 1913

[Part I of III.]

“THEY got my gun when they run me out of the creek, but I done borried my buddy’s, and I’m goin’ back.” This is what a slender, grimy lad of sixteen told me one night in the freight yards of a town not far from the martial law zone. He was picking coal for his mother and sisters at “home” in the tent. His father was in the bull-pen at Pratt. The boy had a bullet wound on his shoulder and numerous bayonet holes in the seat of his ragged breeches. “Took seven of them to run me out,” he boasted, with a grin.

“What are they doing to you all down there?” I asked.

“It isn’t what they’re doin’; it’s what they’re trying to do. If they had their way about it, they’d give us hell-but we won’t let ’em. It’s a whole lot better living in a tent than in a company shack, and we’re just goin’ to stick there until we win. Just wait till the leaves come out, so they cain’t see us. Buddy, we’ll show ’em!”

After spending four or five days in the strike region and talking with hundreds of miners, I can say that the boy summed up the entire situation in his few words. The strikers have “kicked over the traces” and have made up their minds to win at all costs. They are determined to do this all by themselves, if necessary-and in their own way.

In spite of the “heart throb” articles in some of the daily papers, these people are not objects of pity. They are doing pretty well in their tents. There is no atmosphere of martyrdom about these fighting West Virginians-nothing but a grim good humor and an iron determination. There is no pretense about them-no display. They are in deadly earnest, and they mean business. Lots of kind-hearted people who would shed tears for the “poor miners” living in tents would probably think these same miners in their right places if they were picking away at a coal bank in some black pit. The fact that many of the strikers seem to rather enjoy the situation and rest from the mines makes some of the local respectables furious with rage. It isn’t just what one would expect of a striker to see him holding his head high and walking around as if he owned the whole valley.

Of course, there are sufferings and hardships. Many men wear mourning on their hats and many women have husbands, brothers or fathers in the bullpens-but they are going to win this strike; they are sure of it, and this fact makes them feel equal to anything.

It is true that they have tasted of hell since the strike began, but before that time they lived in hell all the time. Conditions in West Virginia are and have been without parallel in the United States. Peonage and serfdom have flourished under the most brutal forms. West Virginia is the one state that has tried to make abject slaves of its miners-that has herded them in peon pens without a vestige of “constitution” liberty, with cut-throat mine guards to protect them from the contaminating influence of organizers and agitators.

For many years the grisly vampire of Greed has fluttered its condor wings and fattened on the very heart’s blood of these men-helpless for want of effective organization. Miners are working in company towns who seldom see money-nothing but paper script-men who dare not speak a word of criticism of the intolerable conditions under which they labor, or even hint that organization is desirable. The blacklist and the brutal mine guards are every ready to punish such indiscretions.

Women have been beaten on the breasts and kicked into convulsions while in a state of pregnancy-men have been shot up and man-handled, all because they had dared to raise their voices in protest. Indignity after indignity has been heaped upon the workers in the hell-holes of this state,  until they have united into one big Brotherhood of Revolt. They are standing shoulder to shoulder with the only weapons available in their hands, fighting to overthrow the dismal industrial despotism that is crushing them. These miners are remarkable in many ways. In spite of all they have endured, their spirits have not been broken. They have been hoarding their hate for many years and biding their time. At present they are waiting for the leaves to come out.

WV Tent Colony, ISR p730, Apr 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Mother Jones Railroaded by West Virginia’s Military Commission

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Quote WB Hilton re Mother Jones Courage, ed Wlg Maj p10, Mar 6, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 31, 1913
Mother Jones and Comrades Railroaded by Military Commission of West Virginia

From the Appeal to Reason of March 29, 1913:

Mother Jones Railroaded
———-

Mother Jones in WV w Children of Striking Miners 2, ISR Mar 1913

IN the writ of habeas corpus, sworn to and filed with the supreme court of West Virginia, the military commission, by James I. Pratt, its president, says relative to Mother Jones and her co-defendants: “Defendants deny that the petitioners are innocent of the charges against them, but on the contrary believe and so aver that the PETITIONERS ARE GUILTY thereof.”

———-

The supreme court, after having this evidence before them, remanded the cases of Mother Jones, Boswell, Parsons, John Brown and others to THIS SAME MILITARY COMMISSION TO BE TRIED BY THEM.

In other words, the military commission expressed in print and under oath its belief in the guilt of the parties to be tried, and the supreme court of West Virginia then authorized this commission, that had expressed its belief before trial, to hear the case. Never was such an unfair thing done in the history of America.

It was to be expected that the defendants would have been convicted. The case was tried under circumstances that were peculiarly brutal. It was not a trial, but a cruel farce. Mother Jones, over eighty years old, but a fighter from the word “go,” who has seen all sorts of injustice and every kind of suffering, was so overcome by the horror of the situation that she fainted three times and was finally borne from the court room in a helpless condition.

This isn’t all. The court was preparing to try the accused without them being present, and when objection was made to this outrage, the judge advocate of the commission explained that they did not think the presence of the petitioners was necessary and if the court would “imagine they were present” it would do just as well. Such vigorous protest was made that finally the prisoners were brought into court under armed guard.

The cases grew out of a strike that has been on in West Virginia for a year. The mining companies refused to recognize the union and a strike followed. An appeal by the mine owners was made to the governor and troops were sent into the territory and martial law declared. The brutality of the troops has been almost unbelievable. Miners by the hundreds were evicted from their house and during the cold whiter months had to carry in frail tents on the hillsides. Many deaths have occurred because of exposure.

A military commission was appointed to try all who interfered in any way with the operation of the scabs sent to run the mines. The methods of this commission were flagrant in the highest degree. Finally Mother Jones, Boswell, Parsons, John Brown and others were arrested. At first Mother Jones was thrown into prison. Afterward when the workers of the United States became vehement against such treatment of an aged woman, she was kept under armed guard at a private house.

The accused were found guilty. Then a peculiar thing happened. The case was held up a number of days, the idea evidently being to get them into the penitentiary before the people were aware of what had occurred.

During all this time a campaign of vilification was waged in certain classes of papers throughout the United States. Mother Jones, who his sacrificed more in the interest of the toiler than any woman of America, Mother Jones, known as the angel of the mines, was heralded over the country as a prostitute. The whole agitation was charged to the Socialists in violent and incendiary language, the APPEAL, which was circulated in the strike district being denounced as a paper “so vile in blasphemy and treason that it seems the very ink that prints it would blush for shame.” While this vilification and this campaign of lying was in progress, the capitalist press kept very quiet about the civil war and the murdering that was being done in West Virginia-things as bad as have occurred in Mexico.

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Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason: Rescue Mother Jones and Her Comrades Held in West Virginia’s Military Bull-Pen!

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Quote WB Hilton re Mother Jones Courage, ed Wlg Maj p10, Mar 6, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 30, 1913
“To the Rescue of Mother Jones and Her Comrades!”

From the Appeal to Reason of March 29, 1913:

War in West Virginia

WV Militia v Miners n Mother Jones, Missoulian p6, Feb 21, 1913

Keep both eyes on West Virginia!

The war that is on there is of the most vital concern to the whole working class of this republic.

West Virginia at this hour presents the most critical situation and the most important battle-ground on American soil.

The result there means a great victory or a crushing defeat for the working class and all it stands for in the tremendous struggle that is shaking this nation from one end to the other.

The plutocracy are making a desperate stand in West Virginia. They have sworn the slaves there shall not be unionized and that West Virginia shall remain as in the past a running ulcer of scabism to menace and pollute the whole surrounding country.

It is highly significant, however, that the plutocracy is no longer in complete control in West Virginia. The civil authority is in conflict with the military power, attempting to check its brutal sway.

It is of immediate and vital importance that Mother Jones and the comrades who are in the military bull-pen with her shall be rescued, and to this end the APPEAL pledges itself, with all there is behind it, to go the limit.

Mother Jones and her comrades, leaders of the striking miners, whose battle has been fought with brave red blood, spilled freely on many a field, were not tried in a court of law, but in a military tribunal.

A LA RUSSIA!

The pirates who own West Virginia and control it as their own private preserves, with the workers as their “n—— and slaves,” take no chances with juries. They declare martial law and make short work of those who tamper with their slaves as the slave owners of Virginia with John Brown and his liberators fifty years ago.

TO THE RESCUE OF MOTHER JONES AND HER COMRADES!

Let this be the fighting shibboleth of the aroused working class of the United States!

The military court has not yet rendered its verdict, but we must be prepared for it when it comes and if Mother Jones is railroaded by a bunch of military hirelings there will be something doing very speedily in this country.

The United Mine Workers have just sent a dozen organizers into West Virginia and voted four hundred thousand dollars to back up the fight.

The Socialist party should also send a dozen Socialist organizers there and back up the fight with all the resources at its command.

If the brigands who have West Virginian by the throat insist upon war they shall have it to a finish!

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in Toledo at Memorial Hall: This Commercial Cannibalism Reaches into the Cradle and Pulls Little Children into the Factory

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Quote Mother Jones, Blood of Children n Christian Society Women, Toledo Mar 24, 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal -Saturday March 28, 1903
Toledo, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks at Memorial Hall, Part II

From The Toledo Bee of March 25, 1903:

[Mother Jones Speaks at Memorial Hall, Part II]
———-

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

A Challenge.

[Mother Jones continued:]

I hate your political parties, you Republicans and Democrats. I want you to deny if you can what I am going to say. You want an office and must necessarily get into the ring. You must do what that ring says and if you don’t you won’t be elected. There you are. Each time you do that you are voting for a capitalistic bullet and you get it. I want you to know that this man Jones who is running for mayor of your beautiful city is no relative of mine; no, sir. He belongs to that school of reformers who say capital and labor must join hands. He may be all right. He prays a good deal. But, I wonder if you would shake hands with me if I robbed you. He builds parks to make his workmen contented. But a contented workman is no good. All progress stops in the contented man. I’m for agitation. It’s the greater factor for progress.

[Society Women.]

Here the speaker changed her attention to the society woman.

I see a lot of society women in this audience, attracted here out of a mere curiosity to see “that old Mother Jones.” I know you better than you do yourselves. I can walk down the aisle and pick every one of you out. You probably think I am crazy but I know you. And you society dudes—poor creatures. You wear high collars to support your jaw and keep your befuddled brains from oozing out of your mouths. While this commercial cannibalism is reaching into the cradle; pulling girls into the factory to be ruined; pulling children into the factory to be destroyed; you, who are doing all in the name of Christianity, you are at home nursing your poodle dogs. It’s high time you got out and worked for humanity. Christianity will take care of itself. I started in a factory. I have traveled through miles and miles of factories and there is not an inch of ground under that flag that is not stained with the blood of children.

Mother Jones then returned to the subject of the miners. She said they were not drunkards. They had neither enough food or enough clothing and the amount they spent for drink would not clothe them. It was no wonder they drank. Their misery was such as to cause them to drown their sorrows for an hour or so. In conclusion, she said:

You may think, as people sometimes do, that my pictures are overdrawn. But if you would come with me I could show you that I have not the power to describe in words the awful conditions existing in some districts and especially in West Virginia. I have not told the half. And until you labor fellows wake up those conditions will grow from bad to worse.

[Photograph and emphasis added]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in Toledo at Memorial Hall: Organizing for United Mine Workers in West Virginia

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Quote John Mitchell to Mother Jones re WV Fairmont Field, May 10, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal -Friday March 27, 1903
Toledo, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks at Memorial Hall, Part I

From The Toledo Bee of March 25, 1903:

[Mother Jones Speaks at Memorial Hall, Part I]
———-

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

“Mother” Jones, known throughout the country and in fact throughout the world as “The Miners’ Angel,” addressed a motley gathering of about 1,200 persons in Memorial hall last night. The lower hall was packed. The gallery was full to overflowing and some even crowded the steps leading to the building.

It was truly a motley gathering. The society woman, attracted by mere curiosity to see and hear the woman who has won such fame as the guardian spirit of the miners; the factory girl, the wealthy man and his less fortunate brothers, the black man and the white man, old and young, sat side by side and each came in for a share of criticism.

“Mother” Jones is an eloquent speaker. There is just enough of the down-east accent to her words to make it attractive and she has the faculty of framing pathetic and beautiful word pictures. Despite her sixty years and her gray hairs, she is hale and hearty; has a voice that reaches to the furthermost corner of almost any hall but it is nevertheless anything but harsh.

Her force of character was displayed with her every word spoken. She spared none. She condemned the trades unionist for casting his ballot as he does each year for that system.

Mother Jones was introduced by Chairman Charles Martin. She began deliberately and her address of an hour and a half, interrupted with frequent bursts of applause, was some of the most remarkable heard by local trades unionists in many months.

Wage Slavery.

[She began:]

Fellow workers, ’tis well for us to be here. Over a hundred years ago men gathered to discuss the vital questions and later fought together for a principle that won for us our civil liberty. Forty years ago men gathered to discuss a growing evil under the old flag and later fought side by side until chattel slavery was abolished. But, by the wiping out of this black stain upon our country another great crime—wage slavery—was fastened upon our people. I stand on this platform ashamed of the conditions existing in this country. I refused to go to England and lecture only a few days ago because I was ashamed, first of all, to make the conditions existing here known to the world and second, because my services were needed here. I have just come from a God-cursed country, known as West Virginia; from a state which has produced some of our best and brightest statesmen; a state where conditions are too awful for your imagination.

I shall tell you some things tonight that are awful to contemplate; but, perhaps, it is best that you know of them. They may arouse you from your lethargy if there is any manhood, womanhood or love of country left in you. I have just come from a state which has an injunction on every other foot of ground. Some months ago the president of the United Mine Workers asked me to take a look into the condition of the men in the mines of West Virginia. I went. I would get a gathering of miners in the darkness of the night up on the mountain side. Here I would listen to their tale of woe; here I would try to encourage them. I did not dare to sleep in one of those miner’s houses. If I did the poor man would be called to the office in the morning and would be discharged for sheltering old Mother Jones.

Oppression.

I did my best to drive into the down-trodden men a little spirit, but it was a task. They had been driven so long that they were afraid. I used to sit through the night by a stream of water. I could not go to the miners’ hovels so in the morning I would call the ferryman and he would take me across the river to a hotel not owned by the mine operators.

The men in the anthracite district finally asked for more wages. They were refused. A strike was called. I stayed in West Virginia, held meetings and one day as I stood talking to some break-boys two injunctions were served upon me. I asked the deputy if he had more. We were arrested but we were freed in the morning. I objected to the food in the jail and to my arrest. When I was called up before the judge I called him a czar and he let me go. The other fellows were afraid and they went to jail. I violated injunction after injunction but I wasn’t re-arrested. Why? The courts themselves force you to have no respect for that court.

A few days later that awful wholesale murdering in the quiet little mining camp of Stamford [Stanaford] took place. I know those people were law-abiding citizens. I had been there. And their shooting by United States deputy marshals was an atrocious and cold-blooded murder. After the crimes had been committed the marshals— the murderers—were banqueted by the operators in the swellest hotel in Pennsylvania. You have no idea of the awfulness of that wholesale murder. Before daylight broke in the morning in that quiet little mining camp deputies and special officers went into the homes, shot the men down in their beds, and all because the miners wanted to try to induce “black-legs” to leave the mines.

How It Started.

I’ll tell you how the trouble started. The deputies were bringing these strikebreakers to the mines. The men wanted to talk with them and at last stepped on ground loaded down with an injunction. There were thirty-six or seven in the party of miners. They resisted arrest. They went home finally without being arrested. One of the officials of the miners’ unions [Chris Evans] telegraphed to the men. “Don’t resist. Go to jail. We will bail you out.” A United States marshal stood in the [telegraph office?] that message was received [by the operators’ deputized gunthugs?] [Evans?] sent back word that the operators would not let them [the organizers] use the telephone to send the message to the little mining camp and that he [Chris Evans] could not get there before hours had passed. The miners’ officials secured the names of the men and gave their representatives authority to bail them out of jail the next morning. But when the next morning arrived they were murdered in cold blood.

These federal judges, who continue granting injunctions, are appointed by men who have their political standing through the votes of you labor union fellows! You get down on your knees like a lot of Yahoos when you want something. At the same time you haven’t sense enough to take peaceably what belongs to you through the ballot. You are chasing a will-o-the-wisp, you measly things, and the bullets which should be sent into your own measly, miserable, dirty carcasses, shoot down innocent men. Women are not responsible because they have no vote. You’d all better put on petticoats. If you like those bullets vote to put them into your own bodies. Don’t you think it’s about time you began to shoot ballots instead of voting for capitalistic bullets.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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