Hellraisers Journal: Charles Moyer, President of Western Federation of Miners, Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers; House Committee to Investigate Miners’ Strikes in Michigan and Colorado

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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 1, 1914
Indianapolis, Indiana – President Moyer Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention

From The Indianapolis News of January 26, 1914:

Charles Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners gave a long speech at the Convention of the United Mine Workers now in progress in Indianapolis. In his speech, President Moyer described the ongoing violations of Constitutional Rights in both the Colorado and the Michigan strikes:

…..What is being done in the state of Colorado in the miners’ strike, is being done in the state of Michigan. I don’t think it is any worse. In the state of Colorado men and women have been mistreated by the military, by the armed thugs of the mine owners’ association; they have been arrested without warrant; they have been sent to jail; they have been deprived of all of those rights that are supposed to belong to an American citizen, or one living under this government, the same as they have in Colorado.

Mother Jones has been deprived of her liberty by the military, and is now confined in the custody of the military of that state, without any warrant, absolutely deprived of her constitutional rights.

In the state of Michigan representatives of organized labor have been assaulted, ordered from the state, deprived of every right that we are supposed to enjoy under this great Constitution of ours, and yet, after months of effort we are at this time uncertain as to whether our national government, our representatives down at Washington, are going to make an investigation: are going to inquire into the facts as whether or not these things that we claim and that we believe we furnished them a preponderance of evidence of, are in violation of our American citizenship. They say, I believe, as an excuse for their hesitancy in acting, that they do not want to interfere with state rights, and in answer to that we say that the Constitution of the United States gives the right to every American citizen to meet in peaceable assembly, to freely express himself in speech…..

[Photograph added emphasis added.]

From the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin of January 28, 1914:

TO INVESTIGATE INDUSTRIAL WARS
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Government to Make Probe Into Strike Districts
of Colorado and Michigan
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Washington, Jan. 23-By a vote of 149 to 17, the Democratic caucus of the house last night adopted the MacDonald and Keating resolutions for investigations of the industrial wars now raging in Michigan and Colorado.

This signal victory for labor was won only after a bitter fight in which the reactionaries tried to defeat the resolutions in the name of “reassuring the business interests,” and “by letting things take care of themselves.”

Although the proceedings of the caucus are secret, it is learned that Representatives Henry, Texas, a so-called “radical” Representative of North Carolina, and Representative Hardwick, Georgia, not only spoke against, but voted against the investigation.

The investigation will be made by the committee on mines and mining of which Representative Martin D. Foster, Illinois, is chairman. Foster is also on the rules committee and was the sole Democrat to vote for the investigation when that committee debated.…

The committee will probably get to work within a week. The first hearings probably will be held in Michigan so that the congressional investigators can get the facts on the grounds.

Everybody conceded that the victory of last night is in great measure due to the energy of Representative MacDonald, backed by the united protests of Socialists and union men from all parts of the country.

The executive committee, American Federation of Labor, last night voted to appoint a committee to investigate the question of ownership of the land whose mineral resources the Calumet and Hecla corporations are exploiting.

The government is in possession of evidence going to show that the title to these lands has never passed to the present holders and that the government can legally institute a suit for its recovery to the people.

Will Ask U. S. Action

When this investigation is finished, President Wilson and congress will be asked to take the necessary action for the recovery of these lands.

Bills will shortly be introduced into congress for government ownership of copper lands, similar to the proposal made yesterday by Senator Kenyon, Ia., for the government ownership of West Virginia coal mines.

Evidence has developed here for presentation to the mines and mining committee which will show that Michigan state officials have been playing into the hands of corporations from the start.

In its instructions to the rules committee the [House Democratic] caucus prescribed the form of resolution which it shall report to the house. Its principal provisions follow:

The committee on mine and mining shall make a thorough and complete investigation of the conditions existing in the strike afflicted mining regions in Michigan and Colorado, and of the causes of the trouble.

Probe Peonage Charge.

The committee shall report whether a system of peonage is or, has been maintained in those mining regions, whether access to post offices has been prevented, whether the immigration laws have been violated, whether the secretary of labor or other officials of government may be of service in adjusting the differences between the strikers and the operators, and whether or not persons have been persecuted and convicted in violation of the laws of the United States. The last clause of the resolution confers broad powers upon the committee to require the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents, and provides that persons refusing to answer questions propounded by the investigators may be punished by fine and imprisonment.

The resolution embodies the salient features of the measure offered by Representatives MacDonald and Keating and is cast in the form of the Kern resolution under which the Senate investigated the West Virginia strike.

The inquiry was committed to the mining instead of the labor committee, as at first proposed, because of the possible criticism of an investigation by the latter body, the membership of which is composed largely of union labor sympathizers.

The overwhelming sentiment in favor of an investigation became apparent as soon as the caucus convened.

The debate was opened by Representative Keating who, in a speech lasting nearly an hour, described conditions existing in the Colorado strike.

[Emphasis added.]

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SOURCES

Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913
-copy in possession of Janet Raye

The Indianapolis News
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Jan 26, 1914
-Speech of Charles Moyer (Pres WFM) to United Mine Workers Convention
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-news-jan-26-1914-indi/140027012/

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