This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday August 18, 1917
Mother Jones News for July, Part II: Organizing West Virginia
From the United Mine Workers Journal of July 12, 1917:
The following was published as an advertisement in the The Beckley (West Virginia) Messenger of July 10, 1917, but without the final paragraph.
“Mother” Jones’ Refreshing Experience
“Mother” Jones had a most refreshing experience at a great meeting of the miners at Quinnimont, West Virginia, on the 14th day of June. The Layland mines, where the meeting was held, is owned by the Berwin-White Coal Company, and a large number of men are employed at this place. It is in the very heart of the mountainous New River coal fields. In the years gone by this section has been a veritable Gibraltar of the foes of unionism, and armed guards have patrolled the works of the companies looking for those who were trying to carry the message of unionism to the miners of this section. Happily, this condition has passed away in many parts of this field, and the private gunman is being driven farther and farther back into the remote mountain fastnesses.
The refreshing part of the Layland meeting was the manner and spirit in which Mr. O. A. Kneer, the superintendent of the Berwin-White Coal Company received the visit of “Mother” Jones. Instead of following the tactics of some of the less enlightened companies and forbidding “Mother” holding a meeting at the mines, he told the miners to go to the meeting, and was present himself. After the meeting was over he said it was one of the best addresses he had ever heard. Having an open mind and the spirit of fair play, he was ready to meet the miners half way and deal with them as men with rights.
If all the coal companies were enlightened enough to show the same spirit, the coal fields of the country would not so often be the scene of bitter industrial struggles. Mr. O. A. Kneer, by his fairness and good will, has done much to bring peace between the miners and operators in that section. His attitude is commended to the companies who think to crush the miners by private armies of gunmen. There is nothing that appeals to the average miner so much as fair play.
Incidentally, we may say, that while the above was a case beyond the ordinary, resistance to the expressed intent of the miners to help themselves through organization has broken down in the New River field of West Virginia and in many other sections of that state that were once recognized as completely closed to any bearing the message of unionism. And, in places where this medieval, “feudal lord” spirit still persists, the organizers of the miners, and especially the miners’ “Grand Old Woman,” absolutely refuse to recognize the attempted arbitrary bars. They will only take no from the miners themselves, and those who do not see the advantages to be gained through organization are few indeed today. Complete organization of West Virginia is certain in the very near future, and in the meantime, even those miners who have not become affiliated with our union recognize that their improved wages and working conditions are due to the intelligent, beneficial agitation of the representatives of the United Mine Workers of America.
[Photograph added.]
More from the Journal of July 12, 1917:
FROM WEST VIRGINIA
A Message of ComfortRamage, W. Va., July 2.—Not seeing anything from this part of the field in our paper, I will try to give our readers an outline of the conditions as they are here on Spruce River.
Ramage is the best organized place in this field. We have a 100 per cent local union and good conditions—the first time in the history of Ramage. The men are waking up to realize the benefit of solidarity, and we feel proud of the success of our district and national officials in bringing about the good feeling that exists between employer and employe.
It will be some time before the majority of miners here can be made to understand the fundamental principles of the trade union movement; they are just ten years behind the west, both politically and otherwise. They saw fit in the last election to elect representatives and senators that have put on the statute books of West Virginia a law known as the 36-hour week law. And the first people to be tried under this law are the striking miners of Ottawa, about two miles up the river from here. Men that are striking for better conditions and safety of their lives and men that are working for a scab concern that won’t come into the operators’ association. This law is a disgrace to the intelligent citizens of the state of West Virginia—a law the deposed Czar Nicholas of Russia would repeal if in power today. We understand our unfortunate brothers, victims of this law, are going to be tried next Tuesday, July 3, on the eve of that glorious Independence Day, and we understand President Keeney and the angel of emancipation of the working slaves, Mother Jones, will be on the scene, and we understand President Keeney is taking the district [17] treasurer [Fred Mooney] with him. Do your best, Frank. We are with you with our last dollar.
JOHN R. SMITH,
President Local Union 2901.
From the Phoenix Arizona Republican of July 17, 1917:
Mother is mentioned in connection with news regarding the I. W. W. miners deported from Bisbee to New Mexico.
ARIZONA EXILES GIVEN MILITARY TRAINING
(Republican A. P. Leased Wire)
COLUMBUS. N. M., July 16.-All Arizona exiles in the detention camp here who are under forty years of age will be given military training in the camp, it was announced tonight by Attorney W. B. Cleary at a mass meeting of the deported men in camp. The announcement was received with cheers by the men.
Telegrams from labor leaders and labor bodies were also read at this outdoor meeting by Cleary, who stood on a cracker box. One message was from E. E. Moffitt, chairman of a mass meeting of working men and women in San Francisco, pledging support to the Arizona miners. It ended with the comment, “it takes miners to dig copper.” Another was from Thomas Quinnin, former secretary of the American Federation of Labor, asking if “Mother Jones,” the aged labor leader, was wanted here.
The men were urged to obey the orders of their company captains and told by Cleary that a grumbler was “a man not of you.” The Bisbee attorney said he had information that three men had been sent into the camp by the corporations to cause dissension. Some grumbling was heard in camp today and one man made a revolutionary speech to his tent mates.
All received vaccinations and typhoid prophylaxis. Only one man objected to being vaccinated.
A purse was made up in camp to send Spiro Vukovich back to Bisbee to attend the funeral of his brother Sara, a fireman who was killed there today, but the brother was advised not to go.
The men are short of money and many said today they were now without funds, having spent what they brought with them. They say they have been unable to get any money from the Bisbee banks where they had deposits.
A field meeting will be held tomorrow in camp.
From The Beckley Messenger of July 17, 1917:
“Mother” Jones was a business visitor here on Monday.
[Emphasis added.]
From The Bisbee Daily Review of July 19, 1917:
Mother Jones is to blame for the troubles in Arizona, even while more than 1000 miles away from the scene!
Public Opinion Both Commends and Praises Bisbee’s Act
In Driving I.W.W. Agitators Out of the Warren DistrictEditorials From Leading Dailies All Over United States Are Unanimous in Denouncing the Agitators as Public Enemies-Only Admiration for Bisbee’s Bold Stroke and Predict That It Has Broken Back of I. W. W. Forever-Federal Government Had Been Too Lenient With Traitors-Laws Inadequate-Sentiment will Force Action Now.
—–
[…..]
PRESIDENT WILL FIND A WAY
—–
(Phoenix Gazette)It is a fact the president is doing everything in his power for Arizona in this crisis; as soon as asked he sent troops to Globe. Now the president is taking care of the deported I. W. W.’s so they cannot go back and bother the city of Bisbee, best of all the president is detaining in that camp one Bill Cleary. It is safe to say the president is doing just as much as any other man could do under the circumstances. Most people know the president has considerable outside of Arizona to look after and direct these days. The matter of preparing a few million men for the battlefield in France is no small matter. Not having any particular law with which to handle all of the strikes, made possible by such people as Haywood, Mother Jones, Emma Goldman, [Governor] Hunt and Moyer, he is simply doing the very best which can possibly be done. In our opinion the president will find a way to take care of the undesirables as fast as they are run out of the different mining camps and other places where trouble is started. The people of Arizona owe the president a great debt of gratitude for his prompt action in these matters.
The Loyalty league of Phoenix should round up a few I. W. W.’s and their particular friends and deport them to the camp near Columbus, N. M.
[…..]
From the United Mine Workers Journal of July 19, 1917:
Forward the Union
The organization is marching on triumphantly in every part of what was once recognized as the “impregnable fortresses of non-unionism.”
[…..]
In the New River field of West Virginia, Mother Jones is making a clean sweep of all the camps and all the men that are in the camps. Union men insure union conditions; the contracts for that field have been materially improved, but greater than all contract changes is the recognition of the fact that the miners have placed themselves in position to demand every favorable provision of the contract.
[…..]
More from the Journal of July 19, 1917:
BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS, STREET
RAILROAD MEN WIN STRIKEThe street railway and power house employes of the McKinley system at Bloomington, Illinois, who came out on strike on May 28, recently settled their dispute by agreement with their employer on the 9th day of July. The power house employes by this agreement will start in on an eight-hour workday, where formerly it was a ten, and continue to receive the same pay they used to get for the ten-hour day, during the life of the agreement. The motormen and conductors will get an average increase of 45 cents a day. Although the settlement was not reached until July 9, the men started on the pay roll on the 7th. The company makes this concession for the sake of creating good feeling on the part of the men. The men get complete recognition of their union. Much of the credit for this victory is due to Jerry Burnette, organizer for the Amalgamated Street Railway Workers, who organized the men on May 17, and who was in charge of the strike up until the settlement was made. The central body at Bloomington also rendered substantial assistance, as did also the Peoria local union of the amalgamated association. Amongst other speakers who assisted them from time to time, Mother Jones rendered them notable service.
From the Washington, D. C. Sunday Star of July 22, 1917:
ADDRESSES TERMINAL MEN.
—–
“Mother Jones” Talks to Striking
Railway Employes.“Mother Jones” who lends her exhortations to the continuance of many strikes yesterday addressed several hundred men from the car shops and electrical departments of the Washington Terminal Company who walked out several weeks ago when Supt. W. W. Wilson refused them a ten-cent-an-hour increase in pay, time and a half overtime and an improved working schedule.
She was introduced to the strikers by George A. Nolte, the international vice president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Carmen, who stated that he had secured employment elsewhere for about 300 of the men and that this will show the terminal management that it was not an idle boast that there is work for the men waiting.
The strikers and their families had an enjoyable outing to Marshal Hall on Wednesday.
———-
From the Decatur Review of July 28, 1917:
TWO SHOT RESULT CAPITAL CAR STRIKE
—–
Five Persons Under Arrest for Disturbance.
—–Springfield, July 28.-Four men and one woman are under arrest this morning as the result of street car strike disturbances last night in which two were shot and a number of others beaten and bruised. A woman was wounded in the shoulder by a stray bullet as she sat on her porch last night, and a deputy sheriff received a bullet in the abdomen. Neither was seriously injured.
Cars were running irregularly this morning after being ordered to the barns at 10 o’clock last night when disorders suddenly broke out in several sections of the city…
The Springfield Federation of Labor, which did not adjourn its session until early this morning, voted to support the strikers, and gave warning that any member of the central body who rode on the street cars during the strike would be penalized.
SAYS STRIKERS WILL WIN.
In a statement today, John H. Walker, acting president of the Illinois State Federation of Labor, branded as unpatriotic the position of employers who refused to arbitrate differences with their men in time of war, and prophesied that the striking street car men here would win their demands.
It is reported unauthoritatively that “Mother” Jones, a strike agitator, will come here to speak.
—–
From The Rockford Republic of July 28, 1917:
Sheriff Seeking “Mother” Jones
in Car Strike
—–International News Service.
Springfield, Ill., July 28.-Sheriff Wheeler this morning was scouring the city to learn if there is any basis for a report that “Mother” Jones is in Springfield to aid the striking street car motormen and conductors. Labor men admitted that they had been told “Mother” Jones was in the city and was to address a mass meeting.
—–
SOURCES
The United Mine Workers Journal, Volume 28
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-May 3, 1917 to Oct 25, 1917
https://books.google.com/books?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ
UMWJ July 12, 1917
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT198
“Refreshing Experience”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT202
“Message of Comfort”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT207
-July 19, 1917
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT230
“Forward the Union”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT233
Re: Bloomington IL Street Car Strike
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT243
The Arizona Republican
(Phoenix, Arizona)
-July 17, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020558/1917-07-17/ed-1/seq-1/
The Beckley Messenger
(Beckley, West Virginia)
-July 17, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/6829180/
The Bisbee Daily Review
(Bisbee, Arizona)
-July 19, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024827/1917-07-19/ed-1/seq-5/
The Sunday Star
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-July 22, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1917-07-22/ed-1/seq-22/
Decatur Review
(Decatur, Illinois)
-July 28, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/6872429/
The Rockford Republic
(Rockford, Illinois)
-July 28, 1917, page 1
http://www.genealogybank.com/
IMAGE
Mother Mary Harris Jones, Decatur Herald IL, May 14, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/87746467/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1917, Part I: Found in Illinois
The Railroad Trainman, Volume 34
The Brotherhood, 1917
(search: “west virginia” “36 hour law”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=hNsdAAAAYAAJ
UMWA District 17:
President C. F. (Frank) Keeney
Secretary-Treasurer Fred Mooney
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT200
Fred Mooney
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=22378725
Charles Franklin Keeney
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10456248
Do You Know Where the Word “Redneck” Comes From?
Mine Wars Museum Opens, Revives Lost Labor History
http://wvpublic.org/post/do-you-know-where-word-redneck-comes-mine-wars-museum-opens-revives-lost-labor-history#stream/0
Note: I have been unable to fine a Thomas Quinnin as Secretary of the American Federation of Labor prior to 1917. More research needed.
On July 12th and July 19th, 1917
John H. Walker wrote letters to Mother Jones,
addressed to her at Beckley, West Virginia.
The letters can be read here:
(Click on book title at bottom left,
choose pages 176 & 177 at upper left.)
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/text-idx?c=pittpress;cc=pittpress;view=toc;idno=31735057897435