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Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 11, 1903
Chicago, Illinois – John Mitchell Expects Peace in Southern Colorado
From the Chicago Inter Ocean of December 9, 1903:
Speculation that John Mitchell would fire Mother Jones for her part in delaying the separate settlement of the northern coal miners has not yet been realized. The following is an interview published in the Inter Ocean:
John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers, is at McCoy’s hotel. He came directly from Colorado.
“I regard the situation there as hopeful,” he said. “I believe a settlement will be reached, and I do not expect to have to return there. ‘Mother’ Jones and some of our best organizers are on the spot.
“The public mind, I believe, is somewhat confused concerning the troubles in the silver mines in Colorado. Many think that the United Mine Workers are concerned with them. Our men are coal miners only, and have had nothing to do with bringing about martial law. We have secured satisfactory settlements in the northern part of the state, and expect solid peace soon in the southern.”
[Emphasis added.]
Mitchell’s lack of concern for the metal miners is stunning. This lack of concern by Mitchell for these striking metal miners, now oppressed under military despotism, is another bone of contention between Mother Jones and her boss. Mother has shown all the Solidarity possible with the metal miners; she advocates unceasingly for unity between the United Mine Workers of America and the Western Federation of Miners.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones re North and South Coal Miners’ Separate Settlement
Autobiography p99, Kerr, 1925
https://archive.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/13/
The Inter Ocean
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Dec 9, 1903
https://www.newspapers.com/image/34613995/
IMAGE
John Mitchell from “Organized Labor,” 1903
https://archive.org/details/organizedlaborit00mitciala/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater
See also:
Dec 9, 1903, Rocky Mountain News
“John Mitchell Looks for Settlement Soon”
https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2:12C601A5C4B97518@GB3NEWS-146DD703C39C7040@2416458-146BDD5084A39388@0-146BDD5084A39388
Tag: Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1903-1904
https://weneverforget.org/tag/colorado-coalfield-strike-of-1903-1904/
More on the Southern Coalfield Strike of 1903-04:
Mitchell’s expectation of an early settlement in the southern field was overly optimistic.
Mother Jones later remembered:
The strike in the southern fields dragged on and on. But from the moment the southern miners had been deserted by their northern brothers, I felt their strike was doomed. Bravely did those miners fight before giving in to the old peonage. The military had no regard for human life. They were sanctified cannibals. Is it any wonder that we have murders and holdups when the youth of the land is trained by the great industrialists to a belief in force; when they see that the possession of money puts one above law.
Men like President Howell [Howells] and Secretary Simpson [District 15 officers] will live in history. I was in close touch with them throughout this terrible strike. Their descendants should feel proud that the blood of such great men flows in their veins.
No more loyal, courageous men could be found than those southern miners, scornfully referred to by “Citizens’ Alliances” as “foreigners.” Italians and Mexicans endured to the end. They were defeated on the industrial field but theirs was the victory of the spirit.
[Emphasis added.]
The Autobiography of Mother Jones
CH Kerr, 1925
https://archive.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/
Chp 13
https://archive.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/13/
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Pocket Full of Dreams · Tom Breiding