Tag: American Federation of Labor

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part III

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 5, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part III of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

ONE BIG UNION WINS

By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD

DRWG Sturges Lawrence Endless Chain Picket Line, ISR p622, Apr 1912

5,000 to 20,000 Strikers Formed the Endless Chain Picket Line
Every Morning from 5 to 7:30 A. M., Rain or Shine.-Boston Globe

Brute force was not, however, the only weapon used by the bosses to try to crush the workers. They had allied with them the A. F. of L., the Catholic church and the Civic Federation a very holy trinity!

Two days after the strike was called John Golden, a member of the Militia of Christ, wired Mayor Scanlon, who had called for militia, asking whether he could be of any assistance to the authorities in suppressing the “rabble,” which he described as anarchistic. Golden and the Lawrence Central Labor Union, affiliated with the A. F. of L., joined in praising the authorities for importing soldiers, and declared that their presence was necessary for “the preservation of order.”

Neither by word nor deed did Golden or the C. L. U. condemn the authorities or their tools for the barbarities and atrocities committed. Vice President Ramsden of the C. L. U., whose two daughters were scabbing in the Arlington mill, when interviewed by the writer was loud in his praises of the militia and the authorities, referred to the I. W. W. as an anarchistic organization that fomented violence and lawlessness, and declared it should be suppressed. He asserted that there was no strike and no organization-only a rabble. When he was asked about the dynamite plot engineered by the bosses through their tool John J. Breen, he naturally refused to comment.

Golden publicly declared that the program of the I. W. W. had acted very much to the advantage of the Textile Workers Union, as it was bringing the latter in closer touch with the mill owners, who understood that it would be more to their interests to deal with the organization, he, Golden, represented rather than with the revolutionary and uncompromising I. W. W.

After having wired, proffering his assistance to the chief of police, Golden got busy in other directions. The mule spinners, numbering according to their own officials, some 180 men, were the only body organized in Lawrence that was affiliated with the A. F. of L. Golden’s union did not have a single member in the whole city. Nevertheless he, in conjunction with Joe R. Menzie, president of the C. L. U., issued circulars to all C. L. U. bodies asking for funds to aid the strike and expressly asking them not to send assistance to the I. W. W.

Then the C. L. U. opened a separate fund. So, too, did Father Melasino, and a man by the name of Shepherd appeared on the scene with some sort of free lunch counter, also appealing for funds.

These various appeals for financial assistance, all made in the name of the strikers of Lawrence, and all calculated to injure the I. W. W. succeeded in diverting large sums of money, the C. L. U. benefiting largely at the expense of the I. W. W. Several times committees from the I. W. W. went to the C. L. U. with evidence that money had been misdirected, but restitution was invariably refused.

Here it may be said that in the seventh week of the strike the C. L. U. strike relief station was practically suspended, applicants being told that the strike was off and that they should return to the mills.

Golden’s next move was to endeavor to organize rival labor unions based on the many crafts in the mills. For several days strenuous attempts were made to divide the workers in the old, old way. Meetings were called by Golden and Menzie, a great deal of money was spent on so-called organizing which had been contributed to the relief funds, and every effort was made to break the solidarity of the workers and get them to return piecemeal.

These efforts failed, the only result being that when the bosses made an offer of five per cent increase over the cut rates—equivalent to an increase of one and one-eighth per cent—a handfull of double-dyed scabs whom Golden had secured to do his work went into the mills.

Golden has shown himself in this fight in his true light, and all the world knows him for a traitor to the working class, and his craft unions are a thing of the past. What Golden did was merely in accord with the policy and doings of the official A. F. of L., and many of the rank and file of the Federation have already woke up to the game of their alleged leaders.

The Ironmolders’ Union that was affiliated with the Lawrence C. L. U. denounced in a resolution the doings of Golden and his gang and withdrew their affiliation. A motion denouncing Golden and his tactics was lost in the Boston Central Labor Union by a vote of 18 to 16. The Central Federated Union of New York City, one of the slimiest haunts of the professional labor crooks in America, even passed a resolution virtually telling Golden to keep his hands off. The Philadelphia Textile Workers’ Union, which had received the Golden appeal, reprinted the I. W. W. appeal for funds and sent several thousand dollars to the I. W. W. war chest.

The latest development in Philadelphia is that 2,000 textile workers have requested I. W. W. organizers to go there and organize a local. All over the country local A. F. of L. unions have denounced Golden and his official friends, and the rank and file of the A. F. of L. has gone on record solidly in favor of their class and against their officials.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part II

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 4, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part II of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

ONE BIG UNION WINS

By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD

Lawrence General Strike Com, ISR p617, Apr 1912

On January 11, anticipating some difficulty on pay day, the Secretary of Local 20, I. W. W. wired to Joseph J. Ettor, member of the National Executive Board, who was then in New York City, to go to Lawrence. He left the next afternoon, and arrived on the night of January 12.

Plans were then laid for the conduct of the strike. A general strike committee was formed that met daily, each nationality on strike being represented on it by three delegates. In addition there were three representatives each from the perchers, menders and burlers, the warp dressers, Kunhardt’s mill, the Oswoco mill, the paper mill, the workers in which had struck in sympathy with the textile workers and presented similar demands, and from time to time other sections were represented that were gradually merged as occasion demanded. The general strike committee thus numbered 56 men and women, all of them mill workers.

The first work of the committee was to devise means for carrying on the fight and caring for the strikers. There were no funds when the strike was declared, but in a week or ten days money began to dribble in from surrounding New England towns, and as the strike continued contributions came in from every State in the Union, from all parts of Canada and even from England.

Lawrence Relief Station, ISR p618, Apr 1912

The money in the shape of strike pay would not have lasted a week, but this battle was conducted on a different basis from former fights. Each nationality opened relief stations and soup kitchens, and was responsible for the care of its own people. The Franco-Belgians had had a co-operative in operation long before the strike, and food purchases were made through its machinery. Money was paid over to the various national committees as it became necessary by the general finance committee, with Joseph Bedard as Financial Secretary. With this money the purchasing committee bought goods, and the national committees took their portion.

Meals were provided twice a day at the various stations for the strikers who needed them, and in this manner the Franco-Belgian station at the Mason street headquarters provided 1,850 meals twice daily, the Italians 3,500, the Syrians 1,200, Lithuanians 1,200, the Poles 1,000, and soon, the Germans took care of 150 families and several hundred single workers.

Lawrence Children w Bread, ISR p618, Apr 1912

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part I

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 3, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part I of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

HdLn BBH n re Lawrence Victory, ISR p613, Apr 1912

THE greatest victory in American labor history has been won by the Industrial Workers of the World in Lawrence, Mass., in a pitched battle of nine weeks’ duration against the most powerful cotton and woolen corporations in the world.

For fifty years the great textile corporations had reigned in New England practically unchallenged, save when ten years ago Tom Powers of Providence, R. I.. led a fierce battle against the American Woolen Company.

During the nine weeks of the fight in Lawrence every barbarity known to modern civilization had been perpetrated by police, military, courts and detectives, the willing tools of the bosses. Pregnant women were clubbed and their children delivered prematurely. Children were beaten in the streets and jails. Men were shot and bayonetted, the jail cells were filled, three year sentences were imposed for comparatively trivial offences, and machine guns were brought into the city.

And despite the abrogation without a shadow of legality of every constitutional right, including those of free speech and free assemblage, and despite the provocation offered by the presence of the bosses tools, twenty-two thousand strikers preserved, under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World, a self possession and a self-restraint that was little short of marvelous. Not one overt act was committed by the strikers. Not one desperate deed of an infuriated individual was proved against a striker.

For the first time in America’s labor history it has been demonstrated that a bitterly-fought battle between capitalists and workers can he conducted without the workers resorting to any form of violence. If any triumph is to be claimed for the I. W. W. this is one of the foremost of many.

Soldiers v Lawrence Strikers, ISR p 614, Apr 1912

The strike took its rise in hunger and was fought against hunger in the first place, and against excessive exploitation in the second. Sixty years ago, when Lawrence was little more than a village, and the mills were few and small, the daughters of New England farmers came from the farm to the mill to earn pin money. But as the years passed and the mills grew larger and more powerful there came into the city around the mills a class of people who depended entirely upon the mill for a living. They were first English, Irish and Scotch.

Later Germans and French Canadians began to enter and take their place in the mills. and for years these were the only nationalities to be found. Because the labor market was comparatively restricted and the mill owners were greedy for profits they sent lying emissaries through Europe, particularly to Italy, telling of the wealth of America. These men scattered literature broadcast, and showed pictures of the pleasant homes to be gained in the new land. One picture in particular showed a mill worker leaving the mill and on the way to a bank opposite.

Thus the Italian workers were lured to New England, and after them came in quick succession representatives of almost every nationality in Europe and Asia Minor, until today among others there are Syrians, Armenians, Russians, Portugese, Poles, Greeks, Franco-Belgians, Lithuanians, Letts [Latvians], Jews, Turks and Bohemians.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1912, Part I: Found in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Master Class Creates Violence, LA Rec p4, Dec 21, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 27, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1912, Part I
Found in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana

From the Appeal to Reason of February 3, 1912:

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912The California Building Trades convention [of late January] unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a conference between the Socialist Party, the state A. F. of L. and the State Building Trades, with a view to united political action for the working class. Job Harriman, Mother Jones and Alexander Irvine were among the speakers at the convention.

—————

[Photograph added.]

From the Denver Rocky Mountain News of February 7, 1912:

 

ROOSEVELT ‘MONKEY CHASER,’
DECLARES ‘MOTHER’ JONES
———-

“WALL STREET WILL ELECT HIM NEXT PRESIDENT,”
SAYS WOMAN LABOR LEADER.
———-

That Theodore Roosevelt is a “monkey chaser,” but will be elected the next president of the United States despite the fact, is the opinion of “Mother” Jones, who arrived in Denver yesterday to investigate labor conditions.

“I have no doubt that Roosevelt will be the next president,” she says. “Of course, I have no use for him, but he plays to the galleries, and a Wall street will elect him.

“He is the fellow who sent guns to murder the working men in the strike of 1904 [Telluride, November 1903].

“Taft is right in with him, but I think that Taft is more of a gentleman than Roosevelt is.”

“Mother” Jones will make an address at Eagle hall tomorrow night, under the auspices of the Western Federation of Miners.

———-

From Denver’s United Labor Bulletin of February 8, 1912:

 

“MOTHER” JONES SPEAKS TO
FEDERATED SHOPMEN

Strike Is Already Won, Says “Mother”
Many Entertainments for Benefit of Strikers

“Mother” Jones spoke to a large crowd at Eagles’ hall Wednesday night, and during her address but one man left the hall. She spoke to the striking Federated Shopmen, and her discourse covered a period of two and one-half hours. “Mother” Jones has passed through the entire life of the labor movement in the United States. The daughter of a miner and later a miner’s wife, she was reared and spent her life in the labor movement. She has a wonderful memory, and in her address she followed the evolution of the labor movement in the United States, and told of how labor has been exploited by capital to the detriment of the human race.

“Mother” Jones has been traveling over the Harriman system, and said that the strike of the shopmen was won now, and it was only a matter of time until the roads will sign up. She said that on one occasion where a train on which she was riding had a nine-hour schedule it took the train thirty-six hours to make the trip.

From Rawlins Republican (Wyoming) of February 8, 1912:

 

MOTHER JONES HERE

Last Thursday evening in the Danish hall Mother Jones spoke to the striking shopmen and several of their friends. The crowd was very enthusiastic and frequently applauded the speaker.

Mother Jones is a strong and vigorous speaker and does not hesitate to call a spade a spade. She assured the strikers that she was confident that a settlement of their troubles would be made in the near future, advised them to remain firm in their demands and not desert the cause for which they had been fighting for so long. She urged the men strongly to remain away from the saloons and gambling houses and prophesied that if this was not done much discredit would be thrown upon the cause they represent.

As is usual in labor leaders, she strongly denounced the capitalist class and even took a shot at several of she religious organizations.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1912, Part I: Found in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1902, Part II: Found Returning to West Virginia as Organizer for United Mine Workers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Mine Supe Bulldog of Capitalism—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 19, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1902, Part II
Found Returning to West Virginia as Organizer for U. M. W. A.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of February 16, 1902:

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

Mother Jones stopped over in the city yesterday on her way to the Southern coal fields, to the organization of which region she has been assigned by President Mitchell, of the United Mine Workers.

[Photograph added.]

From the Birmingham Labor Advocate of February 22, 1902:

 

HdLn Textile Workers Union Growing, Bmghm Lbr Adv p1, Feb 22, 1902

It is interesting to note the progress being made by the organization of Textile Workers for the betterment of the workers in the textile industries, both North and South.

A national organization of these workers with affiliation with the American Federation of Labor was only formed last year, and delegates were accepted at the last convention at Scranton. The organization consists of the workers in cotton factories and knitting mills and their strides forward have been rapid and well taken. Quite a foothold has been secured in the Carolinas, particularly North Carolina, the Charlotte district being compactly organized.

[…..]

The condition of the textile workers are little understood, and if told in cold black type would probably create a furore….They are first robbed of all independence, planted in company houses, often fed from company stores and worked at the company’s will. The result is that the spirit of organization has hard ground to work over, but the Textile Workers’ organization is making headway.

Mother Jones, that noted woman who has devoted her life to the interest of the organization of labor and to the betterment of the conditions of the workers, and whose penchant seems to be the factory workers, came to Birmingham a few years ago and spent considerable time in the Avondale mills working as a weaver and trying to lay ground plans for an organization, but the time was not ripe; yet many of the facts that she made known have been most useful in the work now progressing…..

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Hellraisers Journal: Harper’s Weekly: “The Trouble at Lawrence” by Mary Heaton Vorse-Men, Women, Children v Bayonets

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 17, 1912
“The Trouble at Lawrence” by Mary Heaton Vorse

From Harper’s Weekly of March 16, 1912:

Lawrence Trouble by MHV, Harpers Wkly p10, Mar 16, 1912

A few weeks ago a company of about forty children of the Lawrence strikers, bound for Philadelphia, were forcibly prevented from leaving Lawrence by the order of City Marshal John J. Sullivan. He was led to this act by the belief that some of those children were leaving town without the consent of their parents. Before this, several groups of children, to the total of nearly three hundred, had been sent out of town to the strike sympathizers in various cities, and public opinion against the departure of the children had been aroused. As Congressman Ames said: “The people here feel that the sending away of these children has hurt the fair name of Lawrence since it is a rich town and capable of caring for all its needy children without the help of outsiders.”

Lawrence Trouble w Bayonets by MHV, Harpers Wkly p10, Mar 16, 1912

The forcible detention of these children had an extraordinary response throughout the country. It was one of those things that cannot be done in America without stirring up public opinion from north to south and east to west. There had been earlier aggressive moves on the part of the authorities: Joseph J. Ettor, one of the first to take charge of the strike on behalf of the Industrial Workers of the World, and Arturo Giovannitti, his chief lieutenant, were arrested and committed to jail without bail, as accessories to the murder of a woman [Anna LoPizzo], shot by a deflected bullet during a clash between the strikers and the police. Both men were two miles away during the conflict. Their imprisonment caused comment in the press, as did other episodes of the strike- for instance, the railroading of twenty-three men to prison for one year each, during a single morning’s police-court session, on the charge of inciting to riot; but in the minds of the country at large these things have been simply incidents. The abridgment of the right of people to move from one place to another freely was at once a matter of national importance. It had for its immediate sequel the sending of that touching little band of thirteen children of various nationalities to Washington to state their grievances and to testify as to what occurred at the railway station on that Saturday morning.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Muckrakers” at Lawrence Include Cora Older, Charles Edward Russell, and Mary Heaton Vorse

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 1, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Prominent Magazine Writers Visit Strike Zone

From Boston Evening Transcript of February 29, 1912:

MUCKRAKERS ON THE SCENT
———-
Party Including Russell, White, Baker, and Others
Spends Day Gathering Material at Lawrence
———-

HdLn Lawrence Revolution Unbroken, IW p1, Feb 29, 1912
Industrial Worker
February 29, 1912

A group of prominent magazine writers visited Lawrence yesterday for the purpose of gathering material. Among those in the party were Charles Edward Russell and Mrs. Russell, William Allen White, Ray Stannard Baker, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mrs. Freemont [Cora] Older, wife of the San Francisco publisher, and Miss Frances Jolliffe, also of San Francisco. The party came in on the midnight train from New York and left last night after spending a busy day going over the city. They first visited the county jail, where Ettor and Giovannitti are confined, and though they tried hard to see the two men they were unsuccessful. They were however allowed to talk to the Polish women pickets who refused to pay their fines and are serving out their sentence.

The members of the party were held up by the military guard in their attempt to go to the mills through Canal street, as they were wearing the strikers card, “Don’t be a scab.” Then they visited some of tho homes of the strikers, and later dined at a Syrian restaurant as the guests of William D. Haywood. There were also present other strike leaders, several newspaper reporters, Miss Emma Goulain and two more Franco-Belgians.

Just as they reached the restaurant the guide happened to catch sight of patrolman Michael Moore, the Syrian policeman who was prominent in the Saturday morning incident at the station [see Hellraisers Journal of Feb. 26th]. He was pointed out to the visitors as the policeman who clubbed a woman. He was still nearby when the party cams out from the restaurant and stood for a moment on the sidewalk before starting downtown. They stopped, and Moore came up and ordered them to move.

“All right, well go,” said one man, but the women were not so complacent. Mrs. Older said to the patrolman: “So you’re the man who clubbed a woman, are you?”

“Now don’t stand talking to me,” replied the patrolman. “You’ve got to go along.”

Some of the men tried to argue that they were under no compulsion to move, and in the end the policeman all but arrested one of the young Franco-Belgians who was in the party.

———-

[Newsclip, emphasis and paragraph break added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From New York Call’s Lawrence Strike Edition: Articles, Poetry, Letter from Eugene Debs to Joseph Ettor

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote EVD, Starve Quietly, Phl GS Speech IA, Mar 19, 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 18, 1912
The Lawrence Strike Edition of The New York Call

From The New York Call of February 14, 1912:

re Lawrence Strike Edition of Feb 15, NY Call p1, Feb 14, 1912

From The New York Call of February 15, 1912:

THE LAWRENCE STRIKE EDITION

New York Call Masthead, Lawrence Edition, Feb 15, 1912—–
HdLn Lawrence OBU, NY Call p1, Feb 15, 1912HdLn Lawrence Strikers Unyielding, NY Call p1, Feb 15, 1912

[From page 2-Letter from Debs to Ettor:]

Debs Letter to Ettor, NY Call p2, Feb 15, 1912

[From page 5-“The Children” by Adelbert Truando:]

Poem Lawrence Children Poem by A Truando, NY Call p5, Feb 15, 1912

[From page 6-“The Coming of the Children” by Jane A. Roulston:]

Lawrence Coming of Children Poem by Jane A Roulston, NY Call p6, Feb 15, 1912

Note: also included in The New York Call‘s Lawrence Strike Edition are articles by Joshua Wanhope, Charles Edward Russell, Margaret H. Sanger, a story by Theresa Malkiel, “My Experience as a Lawrence Mill Worker” by A. I. Wolftraub, poems by Sydney Greenbie and M. J. Connolly, and more!

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1902, Part II: Found Speaking at Convention of the United Mine Workers of America

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 17, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1902, Part II
Found Speaking at Indianapolis United Mine Workers Convention

From The Indianapolis News of January 21, 1902:

MOTHER JONES TALKED.
———-
A Speech to the Convention While
Waiting for Miss Meredith.

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

While the convention awaited the coming of Miss Meredith to make charges against the national officers, this forenoon, the committee called for “Mother Jones” and she responded in a stirring speech.

She said it was a critical time for the miners’ organization, and she urged cautious and intelligent action on the part of the organisation in order to accomplish its purposes. She related, in an interesting way, her experiences in strikes and in the mining districts in the East.

One characteristic incident was of a time when a strike was on and the mining company’s policeman called on her to keep her from taking the miners’ part.

“Who are you?” she asked the policeman.

“The company’s watchman,” the officer replied.

“Well,” replied “Mother” Jones, “the company doesn’t own me. I’m responsible to God Almighty and He and I stand in on this question.”

This met with vigorous applause from the miners.

She urged greater respect for the Mine Workers’ organization, and censured the man who refused to pay dues to the national organization.

[She exclaimed:]

You poor, benighted, brainless creature that you are. You poor, ignorant, slaving serf. If the company offered you a barrel of beer, you would take it and fill your stomach; but won’t pay 25 cents to help the national organization.

She said the miners must be intelligent enough to emancipate themselves.

You have emancipated the mules that work with you and demanded that they shall be turned out to grass, but you nave not emancipated yourselves. The mule enjoys the air and grass, while you still toil down in the bad air of the mine working more than eight hours a day.

In a pathetic way she told of miners’ children, and in conclusion she said:

I plead with you men to go home and do your duty as men. Young men miners who work in the mines all day long and come out at night and never read a book. You don’t seem to study your coal trade only over men whom you have to deal with. Study your work and be prepared to take your post. You must be ready to go to jail, and must be willing to face bullets or even be hanged for your principles.

[Note: Miss Meredith charged that President John Mitchell and Secretary-Treasure William B. Wilson had minimized embezzlement committed by ex-Secretary W. C. Pearce, which charges were unanimously rejected by the Convention]

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1921: Found Advocating for Workers of Mexico and Standing with West Virginia Miners

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921————————-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 24, 1922
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1921
Found Advocating for Mexican Workers and Standing with West Virginia Miners

From the Salina Kansas Leader of August 4, 1921
-from The New Majority (Chicago Federation of Labor):

U. S. LABOR ASKED TO ASSIST MEXICO
———-
Mother Jones Brings Request for Alliance in
Fight for New Civilization

The Republican administration under President Harding is beating the tom-toms to arouse the country to stand for a war against Mexico to bind and gag that country while the oil profiteers continue to pick its pockets. Excuse has been made of a strike of oil workers to send United States gunboats to Mexican waters in an effort to cow the Mexican workers back to work for their “American” employers.

Only the labor movement of the United States can prevent war with Mexico. The Denver convention of the A. F. of L., adopted a policy of resisting such a war. The time seems to be at hand for the American unions to start their protest, if it is to become effective.

Mother Jones has just returned from her second trip to Mexico within the year. She was in Chicago last week and brought with her a message from the Mexican organized workers. Just before she left, she attended a meeting of the presidents and secretaries of the unions affiliated with the Mexican Federation of Labor. They asked her to bear this greeting to organized labor of the United States : 

We send greetings to our brother workers in America and we want you, Mother Jones, to carry the message to them that the world is in the birth throes of a new civilization and that we in Mexico are coming to her aid to relieve her pain. We also wish you would ask our brothers in the United States to join us and we will stand shoulder to shoulder with them to usher in the new day and the civilization.

Now is Time to Help

If the workers of the United States are to stand shoulder to shoulder with the workers of Mexico, the job has got to begin with making impossible a war by our oil kings against the Mexican people.

Mother Jones reports that labor is making great strides in Mexico. She says that the newspaper reports that President Obregon is giving in to American demands that article 27 of the Mexican constitution be repealed are false. Article 27 vests ownership of the underground wealth of Mexico in the Mexican people.

She says that recently the Mexican government provided 300 striking miners with agricultural implements and placed them on farm lands so they could support themselves during their struggle and that in another case when the workers of a factory were locked out, the employer was compelled to reinstate them and pay their back wages.

[Said Mother Jones:]

Mothers who are employed are now retired on full pay for three months before childbirth and three months thereafter. Then for another three they bring their babies to work and have them cared for during working hours in nurseries provided by the employers. Whereas Mexican workers heretofore never knew when starvation and death would overtake them, their condition has improved so that now their children are going to school and are assured of their breakfast every morning before they go.

-New Majority.

[Photograph added.]

From North Carolina’s Wilson Times of August 5, 1921:

UNION MINERS GO TO COAL
FIELDS N MINGO COUNTY
———-

MOTHER JONES IS GOING
———-
Union Official Sates if the Organizers Were Arrested
He Would Send More Until the Jails Were Full.
Coal Fields in Mingo County Are Under Martial Law
———-

Charleston, W. V., July 29.-100 members of the United Mine workers of America from Cabin Creek and Paint Creek fields will start for Mingo county according to C. F. Keeney, president of district No. 17.

Mother Jones, organizer, is expected to arrive here tonight and also will go to the coal fields.

The decision to send the union men into the district which is under martial law was made the miners president said after C. F. Workman an organizer was reported arrested. Keeney claimed Workman had permission from the state authorities to return to the fields to wind up his personal business.

Keeney stated if organizers were arrested he would send more until every jail was filled, and if they were not arrested it would prove “organizers can go into a strike zone unmolested.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1921: Found Advocating for Workers of Mexico and Standing with West Virginia Miners” →