—————
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 13, 1921
Charleston, West Virginia – Mother Jones and Frank Keeney Speak at Miners Rally
From the Martinsburg Journal of August 9, 1921:
MINERS ASK MORGAN TO SETTLE WARFARE
They Submit Basis for Settlement.
[Mother Jones Speaks]
———-
Charleston, Aug. 7-Governor Morgan tonight asked for time in which to consider the demands submitted by the miners in a ten-hour mass meeting here today. The chief executive promised to send his answer to Frank Keeney, president of District 17, United Mine Workers, within the next few days. Keeney will convey the governor’s answer to local unions by mail.
The miners and their sympathizers began arriving in Charleston early this morning and by noon a throng variously estimated from 1,500 to 2,500 had gathered on the old capitol lawn. Mother Jones and other speakers addressed the crowd. The meeting disbanded at 10 o’clock…..
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920,
Steel Speeches, p230
https://books.google.com/books?id=vI-xAAAAIAAJ
Martinsburg Journal
(Martinsburg, West Virginia)
-Aug 9, 1921
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85059587/1921-08-09/ed-1/seq-8/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, ed WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1920-08-29/ed-1/seq-2/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 12, 1921
Charleston, West Virginia – Miners Mass Rally Sends Resolutions to Governor
Tag: Mingo County Coal Miners Strike of 1920-1922
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mingo-county-coal-miners-strike-of-1920-1922/
Struggle in the Coal Fields
The Autobiography of Fred Mooney
-ed by J. W. Hess
West Virginia University Library, 1967
-see pages 89-90
https://books.google.com/books?id=nE3tAAAAMAAJ
The killing of Hatfield and Chambers occurred on August 1, 1921. Two or three days later Mother Jones came to Keeney and me and asked us to call a mass meeting for her somewhere in the Kanawha Valley. We advised against such a move owing to the tense conditions that prevailed following the death of Chambers and Hatfield. When she insisted that a meeting be called, we flatly refused to comply with her request. Following our refusal she became abusive, and going into the assembly room where 25 or 30 miners were congregated, she proceeded to read our pedigrees in true Mother Jones style. She told them that “Keeney and Mooney have lost their nerve; they are spineless and someone must do something to protect these miners.”
Our idea of protection at that time was to let sentiment cool down and reach a normal state. On August 7, a mass meeting of 700 or 800 miners did congregate on the old Capitol site at Charleston, Mother Jones, S. B. [Sam] Montgomery and myself spoke to them for short intervals. But we talked in a conciliatory strain, advising them to go home, keep at work, and let the law take its course. The meeting disbanded and the next day Mother jumped all over William Blizzard and accused him of calling that mass meeting. Hot words ensued between the two and Mother went away…..
Notes re quotes from speeches of Mother Jones and Frank Keeney,
at Charleston WV, on Aug 7, 1921:
Mother Jones Speaks
Collected Writings and Speeches
-ed by Philip S Foner
Monad Press, 1983
(see pages 331 & 346, note 11)
https://books.google.com/books?id=T_m5AAAAIAAJ
Source given is Charleston Gazette of Aug 8 1921:
Mother Jones assailed the recently-elected Governor Ephraim F. Morgan as a “tool of the god-damned coal operators.”
Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields
The Southern West Virginia Miners, 1880-1922
-by David Corbin
University of Illinois Press, 1981
(see pages 217 & 233, note 106)
https://books.google.com/books?id=vFXtAAAAMAAJ
Sources given are Charleston Gazette of Aug 8 & 9, 1921, and American Coal Miner of Aug 15, 1921:
On August 7, six days after the murder of Hatfield and Chambers 5,000 coal diggers met in Charleston, ostensibly to present a list of demands to the governor. During the ten-hour meeting, they listened to speeches from Mother Jones, Bill Blizzard, and then Keeney, who reportedly told them. “You have nor recourse except to fight. The only way you can get your rights is with a high-powered rifle, and the man who does not have this equipment is not a good union man.”
Note: Neither Charleston Gazette nor American Coal Miner can be found online, but holdings for Charleston Gazette can by found here:
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045151/
Controversy re Quote from Frank Keeney
During Murder Trial of William Blizzard, Keeney, as well as three Charleston police officers, denied that he had made the above statement.
For more on this statement, see:
May 30, 1923-“Tales of Violence” pages 11+26
-re testimony at hearing for coal ops request for injunction
Coal Review, Volume 6, Issues 1-26
National Coal Association, 1923
https://books.google.com/books?id=o-xWNzrG4coC
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=o-xWNzrG4coC&pg=GBS.RA22-PA11
Earl E. Hager told of…Frank Keeney’s speech [Aug 7, 1921] in the capitol grounds at Charleston. He said that Mr. Keeney, president of District 17, at that time told the crowd that no one was really a union man unless he had a high-powered rifle and sack of ammunition.
July 1923
-re testimony of Hagar at Blizzard trial:
July 8, 1923– Washington Evening Star p8
-Hagar re FK order to miners
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1923-07-08/ed-1/seq-8
[On July 7th] Earl E. Hager, financial secretary of the local union at Dobra, a mining camp on Big Coal River, testified to seeing a typewritten order signed by Keeney and bearing the union seal which, Hager said, instructed the men to go on with the march as the only method of keeping out of jail.
July 21, 1923–The Scranton Republican p1
-re Keeney testimony at Blizzard trial at Lewisburg WV on July 20, 1923
-also re testimony of three Charleston policemen
https://www.newspapers.com/image/49849779/
After resolutions had been adopted at the Charleston meeting [Aug 7, 1921] and presented to Governor Morgan, Keeney said he addressed those who had remained and “asked them to abandon the purpose and go home and put the mines in operation.” Keeney’s examination had not been concluded when court adjourned. Defense counsel announce tonight that Blizzard and his wife would be called to testify tomorrow.
Earlier in the day three Charleston Policemen denied testimony by a state witness that Keeney had declared at the meeting that a union man should be equipped with a rifle and ammunition.
Submitted Aug 1923 by Bituminous Operators’ Special Committee
-p 1979 “United Mine Workers in West Virginia”
-p2005 re FK quote re rifles
Reprinted in 1928-Conditions in the Coal Fields of Pennsylvania, Volumes 7-10
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interstate Commerce
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1928
https://books.google.com/books?id=LLnGAAAAMAAJ
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=LLnGAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA1979
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=LLnGAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA2005
On Sunday, August 7, 1921, a mass meeting was called in the capitol grounds at Charleston in Kanawha County, by the United Mine Workers for the purpose of discussing the Mingo situation. This meeting was addressed by C. F. Keeney, president of district 17; by Mother Jones, an organizer in the employ of the international organization, and by others. It has been testified that Keeney said at this meeting: “The only way you can get your rights is with a high-powered rifle, and the man who has not got this equipment is not a union man.” (Testimony of Earl Hager in Blizzard murder trial just completed.) Keeney, in testifying at the same trial, denied having made this speech. А committee was appointed to draft resolutions to be submitted to Governor Morgan. The resolutions in effect called upon the governor to rescind his martial-law proclamation in Mingo County. This he refused to do.
Note emphasis added to block quotes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Which Side Are You On – Dropkick Murphys