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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 25, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1921
-Found in Washington, D. C., Protesting West Virginia’s Jury Bill
From the Washington Evening Star of April 1, 1921:
PROTEST WEST VIRGINIA JURY LEGISLATION
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Samuel Gompers and ”Mother” Jones Speak
at Central Labor Meeting.
President Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor and “Mother” Jones of the United Mine Workers led the local protest against enactment of the proposed jury legislation for West Virginia at a special mass meeting of Central Labor Union, in Musicians’ Hall, last night.
President Gompers denounced the proposed law as an abrogation of the right guaranteed to a defendant under the Constitution of the United States providing trial by jury and change of venue. He said that a premeditated conspiracy for the destruction of trades unionism was at the basis of the move for the law which will allow a judge to select a jury from any county in the state no matter in which county the trial was being held. He charged that the judiciary, consciously or unconsciously, were aiding in the fight against organized labor.
Mother Jones was vehement in her expressions against the proposed legislation. She flayed local labor for its seemingly supine attitude.
[She said:]
You haven’t any fire in you at all, sitting here with your comfortable air, while tyranny is being wrought in West Virginia, where babes of murdered fathers are starving for their very bread.
At the conclusion of the meeting a resolution was adopted unanimously denouncing the proposed legislation.
The resolution declared that “the legislature of West Virginia has passed a bill which would place the power in the hands of a trial judge in that state to select a jury from counties outside of that in which the trial is being held,” and that if enacted the proposal would mean “the abrogation of the intent of the jury system.”
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[Photograph added.]
From the Duluth Labor World of April 16, 1921:
FEUDAL BARONS GET DESPERATE
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Union Labor Asks W. Va. Governor to Veto
Packed Jury Law Enacted by Legislature.
———-WASHINGTON, April 14.—Resolutions asking the governor of West Virginia to veto a packed-jury bill recently passed by the legislature of that state were adopted at a mass meeting held at Washington, D. C., at which President Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, and “Mother” Jones, nationally known and loved by the workers, spoke.
The act provides for the selection of juries from any county in the state without regard to that in which a crime is committed. Its purpose, it is claimed by labor leaders, is to secure convictions of workers who are accused of crime by detectives of the coal companies which are opposed to the organization of their employes. Its presentation to the legislature followed the acquittal of miners accused of murdering Baldwin-Felts gunmen at Matewan.
The constitutionality of the law is questioned, but the resolutions expressed the hope that West Virginia “would be spared the shame and humiliation” involved in a law so “manifestly sinister in its concept and which if permitted to stand will be brutal in its execution.”
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Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Williamson WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel p213
https://books.google.com/books?id=vI-xAAAAIAAJ
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735035254105/viewer#page/1/mode/2up
The Evening Star
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Apr 1, 1921
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1921-04-01/ed-1/seq-18/
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-April 16, 1921
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1921-04-16/ed-1/seq-1/
IMAGE
Mother Jones IN Dly Tx p1, July 15, 1920
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047611/1920-07-15/ed-1/seq-1/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 22, 1921
Williamson, W. V. – Matewan Defendants Found Not Guilty
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 2, 1921
From the United Mine Workers Journal of April 1, 1921:
Secretary-Treasure Fred Mooney Reports on Trip to Mexico City
-Wherein Mooney describes traveling to Mexico with Mother Jones during January of 1921.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 26, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1921
-Found in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Will Swear as Needed
Correspondence, April 1921:
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ
April 1921—Pages 223-226 (274-277 of 416)
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735057897435/viewer#page/274/mode/2up
Good Friday, March 25, 1921
-to Mother Jones from Roberto Haberman, U. S. Citizen living in Mexico, founded Federacion de Trabajadores of Mexico.
This is Good Friday, I think. It is good because of the fact that I am sort of conversing with you, and because I know that soon you will be with us again…..Gen. Villarreal has a house ready for you, and a prettier place cannot be imagined…..
Arp 5, 1921
-from Mother Jones at Charleston WV to Terence V Powderly
Mother writes of impending to trip to Mexico.
Apr 5, 1921
-from Mother Jones at Charleston WV to John H Walker at Springfield IL.
Mother states she recently left Washington DC, that she will visit Mrs JHW on her way to Mexico.
Apr 9, 1921
-to Mother Jones from TVP:
…..By this time you will be ready to start for Mexico and I ask you to always bear in mind that there is only one Mother Jones. I doubt if the world has seen her like before and while I hope for the future, sadly feel the world will not see like like again. Be careful then of her health, remember that the covering of the soul you carry is frail, that time has not dealt too kindly with it and every precaution of yours should be taken to guard it carefully and well…..
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Mother Jones – Rob McNurlin