Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part I: Found Speaking at Mass Meeting of Striking Miners at Charleston, W. Va.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 21, 1912 Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part I Found Speaking at Mass Meeting of Striking Miners at Charleston, W. Va.
From the Baltimore Sun of September 1, 1912:
TROUBLE AT CABIN CREEK.
Trouble broke out afresh tonight at Cabin Creek Junction. Just what caused it cannot be learned at this time, but it is said it was started by the miners, who opened fire on the mine guards, seriously wounding two of them.If any or the miners were killed or wounded it is not known at this time. The wounded guards were hurried off to the hospital and their names are kept secret. Several of the guards who have been here for a long time have been marked by the miners, and it is possible that the injured men are of that number.
MILITIA RUSHED TO SCENE.
As a result of the battle tonight, five companies of militia which had been ordered home were rushed to the scene of the trouble.
Before they could arrive, however, a company from headquarters at Camp Pratt, on Paint creek, was rushed to Cabin Creek Junction…
Unless the situation improves materially within the next 48 hours martial law probably will be declared….It is admitted in official circles that the situation is more critical now than at any time since the miners went on strike in the Kanawha field last April. In case martial law is declared more troops will be needed.
MORE OUTBREAKS EXPECTED.
Further outbreaks between strikers and guards are expected at any or all of a dozen places on Paint and Cabin creeks as a result of the tense feeling which exists. In every instance the arrival of the militia has been sufficient to restore order.
Up to the present the strikers have been friendly to the militia, although a change may occur at any time.
“Mother” Jones has sent out word that the militia provost must be removed from the trains on the two creeks,but this guard will not be abandoned. As a result an attack on the passenger trains on either creek would cause little surprise. Close watch is being kept on the railway tracks to prevent the dynamiting of trains.
“Mother” Jones is scheduled to speak at Kingston tomorrow and orders have been issued to the militia to prevent such meeting.
[…..]
Dogged Mother Jones’ Footsteps.
[T]he statement that the operators, or their agents, the mine guards, would prevent one individual from visiting another may seem to be overdrawn. It is not. Here is a case to illustrate:
About 10 days ago Mother Jones went to Kayford to hold a meeting. An account of that meeting was given in THE SUN of last Sunday [Aug 25th]. It was held after considerable trouble. She arrived at Kayford in the early afternoon and had tramped a good distance up the road before she reached the place. At every step she took she was followed by mine guards. She had had nothing to eat from the time she had an early breakfast and she was hungry. One of the miners, Lawrence Dwyer,the man who had arranged the meeting, asked her and the correspondent of THE SUN to go to his cabin for a cup of tea and a bite to eat. The invitation was accepted and we started to Dwyer’s house. No sooner had we stepped off the road and started up the lane leading to the cabin than Mayfield, the chief of the guards, ordered us off with an oath, threatening to arrest us if we took another step. His manner was rough in the extreme, especially to the white-haired old woman who really needed her cup of tea.
Dwyer remonstrated, saying he thought he had the right to take anyone he pleased to his house. He was told, with an oath, that he thought too much. Perhaps that is true. He is not fat. Like Cassius, “he hath a lean and hungry look,” and be certainly “thinks too much” for the peace of mind of the guards. However, Mother Jones went without her tea and she kept off private property.
Felts Blames Her For Trouble.
Later she came to a place where the road ran through the bed of the creek and she attempted to leave the county road on which she had been trudging and walk along the railroad track. Again she was ordered off. Even the railroad track was private property. This time the correspondent of THE SUN protested to Detective Felts. Felts was pleasant enough, but he was firm.
“That woman is old enough to be your grandmother,” he was told, “and no matter how much you may be opposed to her, remember that she is an old woman.”
“That makes no difference,” was the reply. “She is responsible for all the agitation and trouble that is taking place in these mines, and even though she is an old woman we do not propose to allow her any privileges here, or to show her any courtesies. She has got to keep to the public road, and keep off private property.“
That is the point. It would have been a “privilege” if she had been permitted to walk on the railroad track; it would have been a “courtesy” to have permitted her to go to Dwyer’s for her cup of tea. She might have done either, or both, by the grace and the favor of the company, but she could do neither as a matter of right.
[Photograph added.]
From the Baltimore EveningSun of September 5, 1912:
3,000 MINERS TO MARCH IN PROTEST TO CHARLESTON ———- “Mother” Jones Will Lead Delegation Before Governor Glasscock. ———-
MAYOR OF ESKDALE PLACED UNDER ARREST ———- Court-Martial Disposing Of Cases Rapidly -All Civil laws Suspended. ———-
Charleston, W. Va., Sept. 5.-Three thousand miners of that part of the Kanawha coal district which is not under martial law are coming to the State House at Charleston tomorrow to make a demonstration against the guard system in behalf of the men who are striking.
They will march through the streets of Charleston led by “Mother” Jones.
“Martial law is all right, but what after martial law?” is the legend to be displayed on a banner in the parade.
Governor Glasscock will be urged to come out and answer that question. “Mother” Jones will make a direct appeal to Glasscock.
Could Have Been Settled Long Ago.
[Said Mother Jones:]
The guard system will come back as soon as the soldiers are withdrawn. Months ago Governor Glasscock could have settled all difficulties by declaring that there shall be no guards. He did nothing at all; now the State and the miners are paying heavily.
Mayor And Miners Looked Up.
Martial law reached out last night and caught 20 miners and guards, including the Mayor of Eskdale, in the strike zone. The men were charged with disorderly conduct. They occupy joint jail quarters in the railroad station at Paint Creek Junction, which, has been turned into a prison.
Court-Martial Working Quickly.
The court-martial is working as quickly as a city court. In two days the military judges have tried 15 men. The verdicts were sealed and sent to Governor Glasscock for approval. The court can fix any penalty within its discretion. All statutory penalties are suspended.
The military authorities today ordered a Socialist paper that has been circulating in the “war” district suppressed as inflammatory. Free speech is one of the constitutional guarantees suspended by martial law.
September 6, 1912, Charleston, West Virginia -Excerpts from Speech of Mother Jones at Mass Meeting Held in Courthouse Square:
[Operators Get a Hearing, Miners Don’t]
This great gathering that is here tonight signals there is a disease in the State that must be wiped out. The people have suffered from that disease patiently; they have borne insults, oppression, outrages; they appealed to their chief executive, they appealed to the courts, they appealed to the attorney general, and in every case they were turned down. They were ignored. The people must not be listened to, the corporations must get a hearing.
When we were on the Capitol grounds the last time you came here, you had a petition to the Governor for a peaceful remedy and solution of this condition. The mine owners, the bankers, the plunderers of the State went in on the side door and got a hearing, and you didn’t. (Loud applause.)
Now, then, they offer to get a commission, suggested by the mine owners. The miners submitted a list of names to be selected from, and the mine owners said, “We will have no commission.” Then when they found out that Congress, the Federal Government was going to come down and examine your damnable peonage system, then they were ready for the commission. (Applause.)
Then they got together—the cunning brains of the operators got together. What kind of a commission have they got? A bishop, a sky pilot working for Jesus; a lawyer, and a member of the State Militia, from Fayette City. In the name of God, what do any of those men know about your troubles up on Cabin Creek, and Paint Creek? Do you see the direct insult offered by your officials to your intelligence? They look upon you as a lot of enemies instead of those who do the work. If they wanted to be fair they would have selected three miners, three operators and two citizens. (Cries of: “Right, right.”) And would have said, “Now, go to work and bring in an impartial decision.” But they went up on Cabin Creek-I wouldn’t have made those fellows walk in the water, but they made me. Because they knew I have something to tell you, and all Hell and all the governors on the earth couldn’t keep me from telling it. (Loud applause.)
I want to put it up to the citizens, up to every honest man in this audience-let me ask you here, have your public officials any thought for the citizens of this State, or their condition?
Now, then, go with me up those creeks, and see the blood-hounds of the mine owners, approved of by your public officials. See them insulting women, see them coming up the track. I went up there and they followed me like hounds. But some day I will follow them. When I see them go to Hell, I will get the coal and pile it up on them.
I look at the little children born under such a horrible condition. I look at the little children that were thrown out here.
[“Howling Anarchy”]
Now then, let me ask you. When the miners-a miner that they have robbed him of one leg in the mines and never paid him a penny for it–when he entered a protest, they went into his house not quite a week ago, and threw out his whole earthly belongings, and he and his wife and six children slept on the roadside all night. Now, you can’t contradict that. Suppose we had taken a mine owner and his wife and children and threw them out on the road and made them sleep all night, the papers would be howling “anarchy.”
[…..]
Well, when I got off the train at Lively, I understood those men had to walk fourteen miles in the hot sun to keep me from talking. I want to tell you something. The mine owners nor Glasscock, haven’t got enough militia in the State of West Virginia to keep me from talking. (Loud applause.)
When I found those men I looked them over. I found out they were working men. If they had been some of the big guns, you bet your life I would make them walk. I would make the fat get off their rotten carcasses. But when I surveyed those boys I said, “Boys, I want to tell you, this is a fourteen miles walk, it is a bad rough road, and to keep you from walking that distance in the baking hot sun I will refrain from going.” They said the boys can go, the men can go, but an old woman with her head white eighty years old can scare hell out of the whole state, and she can’t go. (Loud applause.)
[…..]
Take possession of that state house, that ground is yours. (Some one interrupted, and the speaker said: “Shut your mouth.”)
You built that state house, didn’t you? You pay the public officials, don’t you? You paid for that ground, didn’t you? (Cries of: Yes, yes.”)
Then, who does it belong to? Then why did the militia chase you off? You have been hypnotized. The trouble has been that they wanted the slave system to continue. They have had a glass for you and your wives and children to look into. They have you hypnotized. They want the ministers to tell you when you die you will have a bed in heaven. The blamed chambermaids might be on a strike and we wouldn’t get a chance to get a bed. (Loud applause.)
Now, then, I will go to the tents and when those poor women-I have seen those little children-my heart bled for them-and I thought, “Oh, how brutish the corporations must be!” God Almighty, go down and look at those conditions!
[…..]
If you were men with a bit of revolutionary blood in you, you wouldn’t stand for the Baldwin guards, would you?
(Cries of: “No, no, no.”)
No, you wouldn’t. Or Glasscock either. When they saw you were going to clean up the guards they got the militia down and they don’t allow President Cairns, of the Miners, to go up Cabin Creek. They don’t allow Mr. Diamond [William Diamond, organizer] to go up.
[…..]
Now, every citizen will admit that when you rent a house the landlord has a right to give you a passageway to go to that house. You have a right to invite who you please to your table, haven’t you? The blood-hounds came along and you have got to get out.
Now then, is that something that the State must boast of? Is that something that you citizens will endorse?
(Cries of: “No, no.”)
Very good, then. They will come to you on election day. I will tell you when you can carry a bayonet and they can’t meddle with you. You can carry a bayonet on November 5th, and you can go to the ballot box and put a bayonet in there and stick it to their very heart.
[…..]
I am going to say to the police, the militia, the Adjutant General, and to every one in this audience, that we will carry on this fight, we will make war in the State until the Baldwins are removed.
(Loud applause, and cries of: “Right you are.”)
Vote for [Socialist Party Candidate, Thomas L. “Doc”] Tincher for Sheriff, I say this to all of you.
[…..]
[Journey Through Life]
Now, I want to say, my friends, I have only one journey to go through this life; you have only one journey to go through this life; let us all do the best we can for humanity, for mankind, while we are here.
That is my mission, to do what I can to raise mankind to break his chains. The miners are close to me. The steel workers are. I go among them all.
[…..]
I always show up to the workers how they are hypnotized, and I don’t care whether it is the Salvation Army or the church or the Bishop on this Commission [Donahue], or not.
The selection of this Commission was the three wings of capitalism. There is no wing of the workers on that Commission. From the questions they ask it is a plain truth that they understand nothing of your disease or trouble, and have never made it a study.
[Measured Steel]
Now, then, my brothers, I am not going to be muzzled by the [Charleston] Mail. I have been assassinated by the slimy pig before, but it never made me retreat. I have measured steel in the middle of the night with the blood- hounds, but it never made me give up the red flag. I tell them we are in the fight to a finish.
[…..]
This meeting tonight indicates a milestone of progress of the miners and workers of the State of West Virginia. I will be with you, and the Baldwin guards will go. You will not be serfs, you will march, march, march on from milestone to milestone of human freedom, you will rise like men in the new day and slavery will get its death blow. It has got to die. Good night.
(Applause.)
From The Wheeling Intelligencer of September 7, 1912:
MINERS HOLD BIG MEETING AT CAPITAL ———-
ADDRESSED BY SOCIALISTS MANY ARRESTS MADE ———- State Troops Camped on the Grounds to Prevent any Further Wild Disorders. ———-
CHARLESTON, W Va., Sept. 6.-Despite the understanding that no meeting of the miners were to be held in this city tonight, the city and county authorities permitted a meeting in front of the court house.Two addresses were made by Harold W. Houston, Socialist candidate for governor, and also prosecuting attorney of Kanawha county; “Mother” Jones, and other socialist leaders.
The crowd numbered about 4,000, of which more than 1,000 were miners from the Kanawha coal fields. The principal feature of the meeting was to protest against the mine guard system, the creation of the mine investigation committee, and the extent to which the martial law proclamation exists. The United Mine Workers’ officials, however, had nothing whatever to do with the meeting, and urged the miners to remain at work.
Fearing a repetition of the meeting held here several weeks ago, the out-growth of which was a censure of the governor for not dismissing mine guards employed by coal companies, a company of militia was stationed about the capitol grounds to prevent any meeting. The appointment of the mining commission was asked for by the United Mine Workers, but was opposed by the mine operators. Despite this attitude the governor named a committee and it is now at work.
From The Chicago DayBook of September 9, 1912:
Mother Jones, angel of the mining camps, left here [Charleston] for the State of War today [September 9th], to get the military, authorities to arrest her.
Mother Jones was told the militia was just waiting for a chance to arrest her on the charge of making inflammatory speeches.
[She said:]
I’ll give them the chance. I’d just as soon sleep in the guard house as in a hotel. I guess I’ll go down to Cabin Creek.
As soon as the military authorities heard she was coming the order that she be arrested on sight was given.
From The Chicago DayBook of September 10, 1912:
TO BEG FOR GOVERNOR
Charleston, W. Va., Sept. 10.-The striking miners of Kanawha district will make another effort to see the governor.
They will march down from the hills once more, 10,000 strong, and this time they will bring their wives and their children, and they will beg Gov. Glasscock to hear their side of the story.
[Said Mother Jones, angel of the camps:]
The governor must hear us this time. We want him to hear our story. We want him to see us. Why, the very looks of the men who are fighting for their liberty will be enough to win him over-if only he will see them.
Note: we have a stenographer, hired by the coal operators, to thank for the text of Mother’s speeches delivered in West Virginia during August and September of 1912. See Steel, page 57.
Note: -re Socialist paper suppressed: unable at this time to say which paper was suppressed in WV strike zone during Sept of 1912. Socialist papers were viciously attacked by militia during 1913 (stayed tuned to HJ).
Note: G. C. Williams was the Mayor of Eskdale during 1912, see:
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