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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 8, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1902, Part II
Found in Huntington, West Virginia, and Terre Haute, Indiana
From the Baltimore Sun of March 20, 1902:
MINE WORKERS ARE STRONG
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Half The Miners In The Virginias
Said To Belong To Union.(Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.)
HUNTINGTON, W. Va., March 19.-Reports today made to the United Mine Workers of Virginia and West Virginia, in session here, showed a membership of more than 14,000. This is said to be more than half the number employed in the two States.
The election of officers this evening resulted as follows:
President, John Richards, of Loup Creek; vice-president, L. H. Jackson, of Norwood; secretary, Clark Johnson, of Montgomery; member of national executive committee, J. W. Carroll, of Glen Jean.
Headed by the famous Temperance Brass Band, of Sewell, W. Va., the miners, together with all organized labor of the city, gave a street parade, after which a big labor mass-meeting was held. “Mother” Mary Jones, of national fame, was chief speechmaker.
The sessions of the convention will probably close tomorrow.
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[Photograph added.]
From The Richmond Dispatch (Virginia) of March 22, 1902:
THE SITUATION AT BLUEFIELD.
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Indications Are That 30,000 Miners Will Strike
—Many Agitators.BLUEFIELD, W. VA., March 21.— (Special.)— It has been said by the operators throughout this field for the past week that the grievances of the miners would be settled soon, and that all indications of the strike were fast passing away. This is a mistake. The strike is coming. It is expected that before April 10th, from 20,000 to 30,000 miners will lay down their picks and walk out to wage a relentless war for smaller cars and recognition of the union.
This the operators will probably never grant. The development of this field since the great strike of 1895 has been so great that the operators have all grown immensely wealthy, and they say they will never accede to such demands.
On the other hand, the miners have all laid away a snug sum of money to fight for what they say is justly due them.
Besides this, the United Mine Workers Union has a million or more dollars, which the agitators say will be freely and systematically spent to back the miners of the Flat Top region in their demands.
Your correspondent has visited numerous operations in the field during the last month, and talked with the most influential miners, and judging from their expressions, there is no possible power that can prevent the strike.
They have been worked to a frenzy by the agitators, who have labored unceasingly for months to unionize the mines, and their efforts have been crowned with success.
When winter leaves the strike will come, and both operator and miner will put forth every effort to hold out the longest.
It will be a strong fight of labor to down capital, and no one is willing to say what will be the result.
THERE ARE MANY AGITATORS.
The entire region is now filled to overflowing with agitators. “Mother” Jones is here now, and is working the field from east to west, and by her cunning, smooth disposition the finishing touch will be put to all hope of settling the differences without a strike.
If the strike comes and is carried on with the zeal that is anticipated, the cost to this section will be immense. Railroad traffic will be brought to a standstill, and this will necessitate the throwing out of employment of probably 500 or 1,000 railroad men for an indefinite period. The merchants of this section realize what such an uprising means, as they have passed through the trouble once before, and refuse to buy goods with which to replenish their stocks.
Every family of a miner will be provided with a tent, and they will go into camp and vacate the company houses. They are jubilant over the action of the United Mine Workers endorsing the Toms creek strike in Wise county, Va., which is now on.
The coming of this strike can be more forcibly felt as the days go by, and with the opening of spring will come one of the most stubborn contests in mining history.
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From the Indianapolis Sunday Journal of March 23, 1902:
NOT SO LARGE AS EXPECTED.
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Labor Demonstration for the Terre Haute
Traction Strikers.Special to the Indianapolis Journal.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind., March 22.–The labor demonstration to-day to show the sympathy of labor in this part of the State for the striking street-railway men brought several thousand men to the city, but the parade was not so large as had been expected. As the visiting delegations arrived at Central Labor Hall they blocked Main street and did not make room for the street cars until policemen asked them to do so. There was no attempt at violence, but the laboring men enjoyed the dilemma of the trainmen.
At the afternoon mass meeting President Van Horn, of the Indiana miners, presided and “Mother” Jones, who had come from West Virginia to attend the meeting, was the principal speaker. To-night meetings were held at the courthouse and speeches were made by “Mother” Jones and others.
Last night trainmen on the interurban line reported that shots were fired as three cars were passing Laughner’s grove, near Seeleyville. The midnight car was stopped and trainmen made a search for the men who were doing the shooting, but did not get sight of them. None of the shots hit the car, and it is believed the shooting was done to intimidate passengers. The interurban line for more than a year preceding the strike had been the company’s money maker, and since the boycott began, nine weeks ago to-morrow, it has suffered in loss of traffic to a larger degree than the city line. In the past week traffic on the interurban improved somewhat, and it is supposed that this fact being noted caused the strikers or strikers or their sympathizers to resort to the shooting as the cars passed, to deter people from riding.
The miners delegates held a convention of their own this morning behind closed doors, and talked over the situation arising from last night’s disagreement with the operators. At the first of the week many of the delegates said their constituents had sent them back to the third week of the conference with the understanding that it was not to be carried into a fourth week, but that should there be no agreement this week the delegates were to notify the operators that they were going home to stay until the operators should be ready to sign the scale as presented by the miners. Most of the hitch of the past few days has been over the number of men and their proportionate pay at machine mines. The operators complain that the men divide the total amount paid by the operator in such manner that sufficient help at the machine is not always on hand.
Note: emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones Mine Supe Bulldog of Capitalism
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v02n08-feb-1902-ISR-gog-Princ.pdf
The Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland)
-Mar 20, 1902, p10
https://www.newspapers.com/image/365323203/
The Richmond Dispatch
(Richmond, Virginia)
-Mar 22, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038614/1902-03-22/ed-1/seq-2/
The Sunday Journal
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Mar 23, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015679/1902-03-23/ed-1/seq-3/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/37784565/
See also:
Tag: UMW West Virginia Organizing Campaign of 1900-1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/umw-west-virginia-organizing-campaign-of-1900-1902/
Eugene V. Debs
Citizen and Socialist
-Nick Salvatore
University of Illinois Press, 1982
(search: 1902 terre haute streetcar strike)
https://books.google.com/books?id=uJzZDbmFASkC
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Mother Jones-No More Deaths for Dollars – Jim Sharp
Lyrics by Ed Pickford