Tag: American Federation of Labor

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Travels to Mexico with Fred Mooney, Will Attend Pan-American Labor Conference

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Un-Christ-Like Greed, IN DlyT Ipls p1, July 15, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 11, 1921
Mexico City – Mother Jones Attends Pan-American Labor Conference

From The Pittsburg Press of January 9, 1921:

Mother Jones IN Dly Tx p1 crpd, July 15, 1920

“MOTHER” JONES WILL BE
OBREGON’S GUEST.
—–

Charleston, W. Va., Jan. 8.-Treasuring an invitation to be the guest of President Alvaro Obregon, of Mexico, during her stay in Mexico City, “Mother” Jones left here accompanied by Fred Mooney, secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of this district, to attend the Pan-American labor conference. She has been in West Virginia working among the miners for some time.

———-

UMW D17, Mooney Keeney, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1900: Found Leaving Pennsylvania on Her Way to Organize Miners of West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Fight n Keep On, Hzltn Pln Spkr p4, Nov 15, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 8, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1900
Found in Leaving Pennsylvania, Headed for Coal Fields of West Virginia

From the Hazleton Plain Speaker of December 1, 1900:

WITH THE MINE WORKERS.
———-
“Mother” Jones Leaves For Virginia
–Dilcher, Here Next Week.

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900

Fred Dilcher, who is at present doing missionary work in the Lackawanna region will arrive in this city on Monday. Mr. Dilcher’s visit is for the purpose of organizing the brewery employees and clerks in Hazleton. The latter have been organized but very little interest has been taken in the local and not a meeting has been held since the union was formed. Benjamin James was present at the meeting and it was decided by a unanimous vote that a charter be applied for.

Through the Lackawanna, upper Luzerne and the greater part of Schuylkill all tradesmen have been organized and every craft is represented in the great Federation of Labor.

“Mother” Jones who has been among the miners hereabouts for some time is organizing them, leaves tomorrow morning for Montgomery, Virginia, where she will do missionary work.

[She said today:]

Conditions are worse in Virginia than anywhere, and the days of chattel slavery are nothing compared to the methods employed by the mine owners there in forcing their employees into subjugation.

Mrs. Jones informed a reporter today that she would not return to this region for several months, but she leaves Hazleton glad in the knowledge that the miners are happy and contented and that better conditions exist in the anthracite region than for many years…..

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1910, Part I: Holds Roosevelt Responsible for Ruin of Mine Workers in Anthracite

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Oligarchy, Sops, Rise Up, Giants, Clv Oct 12, Lbr Arg p1, Oct 13, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 28, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1910, Part I:
–Blames Roosevelt for State of Miners Union in Anthracite Field

From the Muskegon News Chronicle of November 4, 1910:

Workers of the World Peter Power, Muskegon MI Chc p5, Nov 4, 1910

[Mother Jones] Holds T. R. Responsible
for Ruin of Coal Union.

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p7, Oct 24, 1910

That man Roosevelt is responsible for the wrecking of the once powerful union of anthracite miners; he turned John Mitchell’s head by flattery and did what Geo. F. Baer and the combined hard coal barons couldn’t do. I repeat, the overrated Roosevelt wrecked the anthracite miners union.

These startling words were uttered by Mother Jones in conversation with the writer a few days ago, while en route to the Irwin-Greensburg coal field to assist the 20,000 striking miners who have been locked out since last spring [Westmoreland County Coal Strike].

Mother Jones is unquestionably the most influential figure among the American miners today, and has been for a decade. If she were a man she would be the life president of the United Mine Workers of North America. It was Mother Jones more than any other human being who rallied the hard coal miners in their helpless slavery 10 years ago and cheered them on a fight their way out.

[Said Mother:]

Now, after ten years of open shoppery, the boys are back in the old rut, back on the treadmill, not daring to call their souls their own, thanks to the scheming and hypocrisy of Roosevelt. And then that bluffer had the audacity to go down into the Scranton district recently, accompanied by photographers and press agents, and gloat and grin at the poor miners and announce ostentatiously, “I am ex-President Roosevelt.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1910, Part II: Found in Akron, Ohio, Speaking on Socialism at Central Labor Union Hall

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 13, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1910, Part II:
–Found in Akron, Ohio, Speaking on Socialism at Central Labor Union Hall

From the Akron Beacon Journal of October 14, 1910:

“MOTHER JONES” A SPEAKER HERE
—————
Famous Character Addresses
Socialists and Others.

Mother Jones crpd, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

“Mother Jones,” well known among the laboring people as a speaker of ability and a woman who understands the conditions of the laboring man, spoke at the Central Labor Union hall in the Walsh block for an hour and a half Thursday evening, although she had declared she was here for a rest. Her talk was mostly devoted to socialism, and she told of reforms along the line that she considered would benefit the condition of the masses. “Mother” Jones has been called the “Stormy Petrel of the Industrial Revolution.”

She has also been called the “Angel of the Coal Miners,” and has had many interesting experiences during her life of 76 years, and the fire of her eloquence seems to burn as brightly as ever. At one time she addressed a crowd of striking miners in West Virginia in defiance of the police force and state militia.

—————

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Many Fellow Workers in Jail in Fresno, Arrested for Fighting for Free Speech; More Men Arriving

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 21, 1910
Fresno, California – Many Fellow Workers Jailed, More Men Arrive Daily

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 19, 1910:

Fresno FSF, Masthead, IW p1, Oct 19, 1910

FRESNO FIGHT IS ON:
MANY MEN IN JAIL
—————

The fight for free speech in the State of California has opened in Fresno. The boys have been gathering for the last month and more are on the way to the front. Telegrams received by the WORKER informs us that 19 men were arrested on the streets up to the time of sending the message. Large crowds are on the streets and the populace is much excited. Men are arriving on every train and more are coming by boat from Portland and Seattle, according to the statements of letters just received from these cities.

The boys have been forced from their hall and cannot rent another, but are doing well in their camp in the jungles. There the incoming men are fed and prepared to go to the “can.” While there has been no news from the men already in jail, it is a safe bet that they are roaring the “Red Flag” and other working men’s songs.

The boys evidently took the police by surprise, as an editorial in the Fresno Herald of a few days ago asserts that November has been selected as the time for opening the fight. This same slimp street, a scurrilous sewer of degenerated conceptions that rivals the infamy of the “Morning Liar” (sometimes called the Spokane Spokesman-Review), states in its columns that the members of the I. W. W. are thugs, holdups, etc., and that one was killed in an attempted robbery on the way to Fresno. This monumental liar does not mention names, dates nor locations, but leaves it to the scurvy imagination of his own class of degenerates to fill in the missing items of mis-information.

He further advocates the use of the whipping post for men the insist on their privilege of free speech, and even suggests that to wash their wounds with salt water would increase the agony. Such a vicious apostle of a return to the methods of the Inquisition is a fitting herald for the ideas and intentions of the master class, and he only advocates the desires of them all. It is just such articles and just such tactics on the part of the ruling class and their tools that puts murder in the hearts of the helpless victim and breeds a psychology of violence it is to be hoped that no member of the I. W. W. will so far lose control of himself as to attempt to retaliate in kind, but should such articles inflame the minds of the weaker minded workers to the extent that violence is returned for violence, the boss and his prostitute lackeys have only themselves to blame. One thing is certain. Whatever the outcome of the fight, the workers will have been educated to a better understanding of their relationship to the boss and they will have learned to hate the condition of slavery to that extent.

—————

[Emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Frank Little Reports from Fresno Free Speech Fight; Why He Preferred Dark Cell to Forced Labor

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little re Work Prisoners Scabs, IW p1, Oct 8, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 10, 1910
Fresno, California – Frank Little Preferred Dark Cell to Forced Labor

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 8, 1910:

Fresno FSF, IW Masthead p1, Oct 8, 1910

FIRST ROUND GOES TO I. W. W.

Fresno, Cal., Sept. 27, 1910.

Editor Industrial Worker,

Was released from jail Sunday. Served 25 days, 15 days in solitary confinement on bread and water, 10 days in the black hole. September 17 the officials surrendered and turned me out in the corridor with the other prisoners and fed me the same. It was a complete victory. Am going to Coalinga oil fields tomorrow. Think we can get a local there. The tank builders are out on strike (A. F. of L.), but the sentiment is strong for industrial unionism.

Yours for action,
F. H. Little.

Have received notice to vacate hall. Are trying to run us out of town. Will have a hard time to get another.

—————

LITTLE SAYS HE PREFERRED DARK CELL.

Frank Little, organizer of the Industrial Workers of the World, has been released from the city jail after serving a sentence of 25 days for disturbing the peace. While in jail he was kept in solitary confinement because he refused to work in the court house yard with other prisoners.

Little lost none of his faithfulness to the I. W. W. cause while in prison and will renew at once his agitations. He will go to Coalinga tomorrow to hold meetings.

Little said today that he had two reasons for refusing to work while in jail. First, he said the man who will work while a prisoner is just the same as one who will “scab” during a strike. He believe the park work should be done by paid workmen.

Secondly, he said he believed that the park authorities would compel him to work harder than the others and might antagonize him to the extent that he would lose his temper and do something to bring a heavier sentence upon himself.

Little declare that the prison fare was unfit for man to eat. He said he intended to send a booklet to every voter in the county informing him of this, and that ultimately he would compel the sheriff to feed the prisoners better. Little registered several other complaints, which, however, he admitted that he had no means of proving were true.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Industrial Worker: Boss’ Uniformed Clubbers (Thugs) on Labor Day and on Day After Labor Day

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Joe Hill, Murderers Slaughter Our Class, IW p3, Aug 27, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 14, 1910
Boss’ Uniformed Thugs on Labor Day and on the Day After

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of September 10, 1910:

Police AFL, Labor Day, Day After, IW p1, Sept 10, 1910

For years past it has been the habit of the A. F. of L. to allow the boss’ uniformed clubbers to lead the parade on Labor (?) Day. It is fitting that an institution of the boss, such as the A. F. of L., should be marshaled by the police, who are likewise of, for and by the boss. All nature is a paradox, but certainly none is more paradoxical than that men, presumably organized to fight the boss, organize to separate and to protect the boss’ property, and lastly be led in their line of march by the very force that is used to club them into submission when out on strike. It is a sign of the times that, through the efforts of a few militant members of the Cooks and Waiters, the police were eliminated from this year’s parade in Spokane. [Emphasis added.]

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1900, Part I: Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Shoulder to Shoulder, Blt Sun p10, July 26, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 9, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1900, Part I
Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of August 5, 1900:

STRIKE LEADER GOES TO PRISON
FOR SIX MONTHS
——-
Woman Sympathizer Creates a Sensation
in a Maryland Jail

Special to The Inquirer.

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

CUMBERLAND, Md., Aug. 4.-William Warner, the strike leader, was sentenced this afternoon to six months in the House of Correction, having been convicted of unlawful assembly during trouble which arose at an anti-strike meeting. Seventeen miners were also sentenced. They were visited at the jail this afternoon by Mother Jones, the woman labor organizer, who created a sensation by proposing three cheers in the jail for the strikers and three hisses “for the blacklegs.” She led the cheering, as well as the hissing. Warner, who is from Pittsburg, took an appeal.

—————

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1900: Found Speaking for Striking Miners of Georges Creek Coal District

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Shoulder to Shoulder, Blt Sun p10, July 26, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 8, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1900
Found Speaking in Baltimore for Striking Miners of Georges Creek Coal District

From the Baltimore Sun of July 26, 1900:

MOTHER JONES FOR MINERS
—————
She Denounces The Courts And
The Federation Gives $25.

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

The courts of Cumberland are God Almighty in the State of Maryland, and there is no justice for the laborer in them. They are dirty, contemptible courts, and a lot of “my boys” have been brought up before them for standing up for their rights. You know how much justice they will get. The poor man has no rights any more, and all we workers will get will be what we stand shoulder to shoulder and fight for, miners and all other workingmen included. The man or woman who will not fight for his or her rights is unworthy to be a father or mother.

With these words “Mother” Jones, the female labor agitator, opened a speech at the regular weekly meeting of the Federation of Labor last night. She had two young men, striking miners, with her, whom she called her “boys,” and said she had brought them along with her to appeal to the labor unions of Baltimore for financial aid for the strikers of the George’s Creek region. Every union in the city will be visited and asked to contribute. The Federation of Labor, at the suggestion of President Sullivan, headed a subscription for the striking mine workers with $25.

In describing the alleged deplorable condition of some of the mine workers in [West?] Virginia, where she had been endeavoring to organize unions, “Mother” Jones said:

If you could be there and see little children coming up out of the mines, you would not want to be missionaries to China, but would become missionaries to the coal fields. If those fellows over there in China had stayed at home and minded their own business they would be better off, and so would we. I don’t blame the Boxers a bit.

We had a visit from a sort of a missionary not long ago. He was looking after himself, though. This Roosevelt, the Rough Rider, comes down from New York, and, say, what happened? Why, every mine workman was made to turn out and cheer for him. Roosevelt wants a job.

The speaker made a stirring appeal for money to help the men now on strike, and alleged that the fight against the “money power” was just the same, whether conducted in Baltimore or in Cumberland.

Charles Dold, of Chicago, general organizer of the Piano Workers’ Union, stated that on Saturday he had organized a local union of 60 members. Union-made pianos are hereafter to have union labels upon them.

The nominations for officers, to be balloted for at a later meeting, were as follows:

For president, J. M. Sullivan; for first vice-president, William Biggins and George D. Simpson; for second vice-president, William H. O. Thompson and J. Pearson; recording secretary, H. L. Elchleberger; financial secretary, George Greisman; treasurer, John W. Ringrose.

—————

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “The Scab” by Frank Gould, “Like ghouls that rob the dead.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Gould Poem Scab, IW p3, Aug 6, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 11, 1910
“And the victory near, then the scabs sneak in…” The Scab” by Frank Gould

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of August 6, 1910:

IWW The Scab by Frank Gould of Waiters Alliance, IW p3, Aug 6, 1910

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