Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1917: Found Visiting “Her Boys” in Denver

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday February 8, 1917
Mother Jones Found in Denver During Month of January

From The Denver Post of January 1, 1917:

‘MOTHER’ JONES HERE TO SEE ‘HER BOYS’
OF THE MINERS’ UNION
—–

“Mother” Jones, leader of labor, is in Denver. She states that she came here to spend New Year with her “boys,” meaning the members of the United Mine Workers of America. She is fresh from active participation in the strike of garment workers and street car employes in New York, she stated that the returns of the recent national election showed that John P. White had been re-elected president of the miners over John H. Walker of Illinois.

“Mother” Jones says that she is not here to take any part in the factional differences of the officers of the Colorado district. She is of the opinion that there will be a satisfactory adjustment before long and that “everything will come out all right.” She is stopping at the Oxford hotel. She will leave Denver tomorrow night.

———-

[Photograph added.]

From the San Francisco Chronicle of January 2, 1917:

(Wherein Mother Jones is mentioned in connection with the Tom Mooney Case.)

MOONEY’S FILES WILL BE
OFFERED AT TRIAL

In addition to the documents commandeered in the office of the Blast, Thomas J. Mooney’s correspondence files are to be offered in evidence in the coming trial, according to the District Attorney. Mooneys letters, which were found by the police in the possession of Mrs. Mooney’s sister, include his missive to Mother Jones in which he asserted that hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage had been caused the corporations in the Pacific Gas and Electric strike.

Another letter, to an eastern agitator, said: “send me a few direct action reds.”

The trial of Mooney is to begin at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning before Superior Judge Franklin A. Griffin. It is to be handled for the people by District Attorney Charles M. Fickert and Assistant District Attorney Edward Cunha. Mooney is to be represented by Maxwell McNutt, John G. Lawlor and W. Bourke Cockran of New York, the former Congressman and Democratic orator, who is said to have been influenced to volunteer his services in the case by Mrs. Sergeant Cram of New York….

[Emphasis and photograph added.]

From The Parsons Daily Sun of January 10, 1917:

SOCIALISTS MIFFED WITH
THEIR LEADERS
—–

SOME OF THEM WENT OUT AND SUPPORTED
WILSON IN RECENT ELECTION.
—–
Threats Have Been Made to Expel John Reed,
“Mother” Jones, Max Eastman and
Eugene Wood-Causes Recited
—–

New York, Jan 9.-Instead of the 1,500,000 or 2,000,000 votes the Socialists predicted they would poll this year, their total is shown to be 750,000, with the votes of eight missing states estimated. Though in many respects, with particular reference of local campaigns the results were very gratifying to the leaders of the party, the fact remains that on the whole 1916 will rank as a black year in Socialist annals, for this is the first time that a gain was not recorded in a Presidential year.

In 1912 the Socialists polled 901,873 votes for Debs, their presidential candidate. In New York State he received 63,381 votes. Allan L. Benson this year obtained only 45,985 votes in the state and about 750,000 in the nation. Now the Socialists are trying to fix the blame for the falling off in votes.

Leaders declare President Wilson attracted many socialist votes and that Benson failed to measure up to the Debs tradition…

Not only did radicals like Ernest Poole, Ellis O. Jones, John Reed, and “Mother” Jones come out flat-footedly for President Wilson’s re-election, but others like Max Eastman, editor of The Masses, and William English Walling gave “aid and comfort to the enemy,” according to Eugene Wood, though they announced they would vote for Benson….

[Photograph added.]

Hellraisers Journal of January 22, 1917, republished a letter from Mother Jones to the Forum section of The New York Call, wherein Mother responded to the criticism of Socialist Edward Meyer for her support of President Wilson and Senator Kern during the election campaigns of 1916. Mother reminded Comrade Meyer that:

My life has not been, nor will it be, spent in the parlors of tea parties or of midnight diners and revellers, but in the trenches, with my boys, facing the machine guns. And I expect to close my eyes in these battles.

And she further stated:

My whole life has been spent on the economic field fighting the battles of the workers, and it will close there. Inexperienced critics will not sway me from my work to help the needy and exploited wherever I can, and in this particular I have got to use my own judgment.

SOURCES

The Denver Post
(Denver, Colorado)
-Jan 1, 1917, page 1
http://www.genealogybank.com

San Francisco Chronicle
(San Francisco, California)
-Jan 2, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/27455196/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/27455229/

The Parsons Daily Sun
(Parsons, Kansas)
-Jan 10, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/63092698/

Hellraisers Journal of January 22, 1917:
Mother Jones Expects to Die Fighting “in the trenches, with my boys, facing the machine guns.”
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-mother-jones-expects-to-die-fighting-in-the-trenches-with-my-boys-facing-the-machine-guns/

IMAGES
Mother Jones, John P White, UMWJ, Feb 10, 1916
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=NQpQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.RA11-PA1
Tom and Rena Mooney, ISR, Dec 1916
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=SVRIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA363
Benson Kirkpatrick, SPA, 1916
http://retrocampaigns.tumblr.com/post/92733814488/great-poster-from-1916-depicting-allan-benson-and
Mother Jones, Colorado Military Bastile, March 1914
https://archive.org/stream/ludlowmassacrere00finkrich#page/84/mode/1up

See also:

For more on the Tom Mooney Case see:
Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1916: Found Visiting President Willson with UMWA President
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-whereabouts-doings-of-mother-jones-for-december-1916-found-visiting-president-willson-with-umwa-president/

For more on Eugene Wood:
The Masses, Volumes 1-4
-The Masses of New York City
-January 1911-September 1913
Kraus Reprint, 1980
(search with: “eugene wood”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=8N9OAQAAMAAJ

LETTERS To And From MOTHER JONES, January 1917

Mother Jones to Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr:

Denver, Colorado,
January 1, 1917.

Mr. & Mrs. John D. Rockefeller
26 Broadway,
New York City, New York.
My dear Mr. & Mrs. Rockefeller:

I wish to extend to you my best wishes for a peaceful and Happy New Year, 1917.

May the coming year bring all classes together for a greater nation and a more humane people.

With my sincere wishes that you may have a Peaceful and Happy year, I am

Sincerely Yours,
Mother Jones

From Assistant Attorney General Graham to Mother Jones:

Department of Justice
Washington, D. C.
January 2, 1917

Mother Jones,
Care of U. M. W. of A.,
Merchants Bank Building,
Indianapolis, Indiana.
Dear Madam:

Mr. Tumulty has referred to the Department applications for executive clemency in behalf of Eugene A. Clancy, Frank M. Ryan, Michael J. Young, Frank C. Webb, Phillip A. Cooley, and J. E. Munsey, which you sent to him, together with printed copies of the general applications for pardon, and a separate petition in the case of Frank C. Webb, and general statement regarding the cases by Martin J. Wade [all of the above were Structural Ironworkers imprisoned at Levenworth].

The pardon attorney informs me that when you were at the Department and secured forms of application, which were filled out, describing the petitioners as your boys, he did not understand that they were the present applicants whose petitions for pardon have already been considered by the President and denied by him. This being the case, and since the President has already passed [missing lines?] upon a statement of new and material facts. The applications are not entitled, therefore, to presentation to the President.

Respectfully,
For the Attorney General,
Samuel Graham
Assistant Attorney General

From John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to Mother Jones:

January sixth, 1917.

Mrs. Mary Jones,
Denver, Colorado.
Dear Mother Jones:

Mrs. Rockefeller and I greatly appreciate your New Year’s Greetings, which we warmly reciprocate, and thank you for your friendly remembrance.

Very sincerely,
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

SOURCE
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ

See also:

For more on the Case of the Structural Ironworkers see:
Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1916: Found Visiting President Willson with UMWA President
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-whereabouts-doings-of-mother-jones-for-december-1916-found-visiting-president-willson-with-umwa-president/

Colorado Strike Song – John McCutcheon