Tag: American Federation of Labor

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1921: Journalist Claims Mother Jones Helping to Make Mexico Safe for American Business

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 25, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1921
-C. H. Newell Claims Mother Jones is Helping to Make Mexico Safe

From the Salt Lake Telegram of February 1, 1921:

MAKING MEXICO SAFE PLACE FOR ALL
———-
Obregon, Villareal, Gompers and
“Mother Jones” Fight Bolshevism
———

By C. H. NEWELL

Mother Jones, ed WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 1.-Mexico’s “big four” are Obregon, Gompers, Villareal and Mother Jones.

They’re making Mexico safe for Americans and American business.

The great American drive to capture the immensely rich Mexican trade is on full blast…..

“MOTHER” IS HELPING.

Mother Jones, America’s 90-year-young labor leader, is helping to put the skids under bolshevism in Mexico.

Her visit to Mexico, at first hailed with glee by Communist party organizers, has resolved itself into a characteristic crusade for trade union organization.

This means, employers and government officials say, a better chance for the Obregon administration to get the country back on a productive basis.

[Mother Jones says:]

Education is the fundamental need of Mexico. I’m down here to preach the gospel of education for workers.

When they get education they will know how to act to achieve full industrial as well as political rights. And the agency through which they will make the most rapid, peaceful progress is the Pan-America Labor federation, backed as it is by the American Federation of Labor.

This is what Mother Jones told the communists at the labor convention:

SAYS IT IS BEST.

Uncle Sam’s government may not be perfect, but it is the best one on earth today. So you rats may just as well understand that if you open your mouths against my country, I will grab you by the collar, drag you out of your hole, and shake hell out of you.

Mother Jones is the personal guest of General Antonio Villareal, who, as secretary of agriculture, is trying to restore farming and ranching pursuits, with real success.

Several years ago an effort was being made by mining and timber interests of northern Mexico have Villareal deported from the United States. His deportation would have meant his death.

Mother Jones made a trip to Washington in his behalf and he was not deported.

Villareal has been one of the foremost in restoring mail, wire, railway and ship service, so all important lines of communication are now open in the country.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1901, Part I: Found Writing for The Review and Marching with Striking Silk Mill Workers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Child Labor AL 1896, ISR p539, Mar 1901———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 10, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1901, Part I
Found Writing for The Review and Marching with Striking Silk Workers

From the International Socialist Review of March 1901:

ISR Mar 1901

Civilization in Southern Mills
———-

T Graphic, ISR p539, Mar 1901

The miners and railroad boys of Birmingham, Ala., entertained me one evening some months ago with a graphic description of the conditions among the slaves of the Southern cotton mills. While I imagined that these must be something of a modern Siberia, I concluded that the boys were overdrawing the picture and made up my mind to see for myself the conditions described. Accordingly I got a job and mingled with the workers in the mill and in their homes. I found that children of six and seven years of age were dragged out of bed at half-past 4 in the morning when the task-master’s whistle blew. They eat their scanty meal of black coffee and corn bread mixed with cottonseed oil in place of butter, and then off trots the whole army of serfs, big and little. By 5:30 they are all behind the factory walls, where amid the whir of machinery they grind their young lives out for fourteen long hours each day. As one looks on this brood of helpless human souls one could almost hear their voices cry out, “Be still a moment, O you iron wheels or capitalistic greed, and let us hear each other’s voices, and let us feel for a moment that this is not all of life.”

We stopped at 12 for a scanty lunch and a half-hour’s rest. At 12:30 we were at it again with never a stop until 7. Then a dreary march home, where we swallowed our scanty supper, talked for a few minutes of our misery and then dropped down upon a pallet of straw, to lie until the whistle should once more awaken us, summoning babes and all alike to another round of toil and misery.

I have seen mothers take their babes and slap cold water in their face to wake the poor little things. I have watched them all day long tending the dangerous machinery. I have seen their helpless limbs torn off, and then when they were disabled and of no more use to their master, thrown out to die. I must give the company credit for having hired a Sunday school teacher to tell the little things that “Jesus put it into the heart of Mr. – to build that factory so they would have work with which to earn a little money to enable them to put a nickel in the box for the poor little heathen Chinese babies.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for February 1901, Part I: Found Speaking in Cleveland, Ohio, and Headed to Scranton, Pennsylvania

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

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 9, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1901, Part I
Found Speaking in Cleveland, Ohio, at Labor Lyceum Meeting

From The Cleveland Leader of February 11, 1901:

SOCIALISTS AND SINGLE-TAXERS CLASH 
———-
They Talk Sharply at the Labor
Lyceum Meeting.
—–

“MOTHER” JONES PRESENT.  
—–  
She Starts the Ball Rolling by a Talk Favoring Socialism…
—–

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

The Socialists and the Single Taxers crossed swords yesterday afternoon at the meeting of the Labor Lyceum. Mrs. Jones, of Chicago, who took a hand in the coal miners’ strike last summer and became known a “Mother” Jones, was at the meeting and told how she helped settle the great strike and incidentally espoused the cause of Socialism. This did not suit the Single Taxers. They did not propose to see their pet theory trampled in the dust, just on the eve of a campaign in which an apostle of the single tax idea is to play a leading part.

After “Mother” Jones had spoken for nearly an hour, James Vining took the floor and said that while he did not think that the Socialists were on the right track, he

SYMPATHIZED WITH THEM

for the reason that they were working for the cause of humanity……

“Mother” Jones spoke at length about the coal strike, and among other things declared that men were not brave and had acted the part of cowards during that struggle.

[She said;]

It takes courage to win a fight like that and I was disgusted at the cowardice of the men. I never knew what fear was. Why, I remember one time when I said I would conduct a meeting, some of the leaders of the strike warned me that violence would be used against me. I said I wasn’t afraid and proceeded. The afternoon preceding the meeting I was told that the mine bosses were intending to 

SET DOGS ON ME.

That proved to be true, but I was prepared. I bought a pound of meat and cut it into small chunks. Every time I saw a dog approaching I threw a piece of meat at him, and he picked up the meat and ran away. By the time I commenced to speak the only dog present was one mining boss.

After the meeting, in an interview with a Leader reporter, Mrs. Jones said:

The miners are much better off than they were before the strike. They are earning more money, and don’t have to pay so much for powder.

They, moreover, have the privilege of buying their provisions where they choose. What is of more value than all this, however, is the fact that those unfortunates have been awakened to the fact that their souls are their own, and that they are not slaves.

They have learned that it lies in their power to better their conditions if they will only do so. Their condition is still pitiable, but I think that from now on their course will be upwards instead of sinking into deeper degradation.

Mrs. Jones left last evening for Scranton, Pa., where she has been taking a hand in the strike of the factory girls.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1921, Part II: Found Speaking in Mexico City at Pan-American Labor Congress

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 28, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1921, Part II:
-Found Speaking in Mexico City at Pan-American Labor Congress

Translated from Mexico City’s  El Universal of January 10, 1921:

Mother Jones Arrives in Mexico City

Mother Jones, NYC Dly Ns p12, May 7, 1920Upon arriving at Buena Vista station in Mexico City [on the morning of January 9th], Mother Jones was met by 2,000 workers among whom were a large feminine contingent from the factories: El Recuerdo, El Buen Tono, Tabacelera, Cigarrera, La Estrella, Departmentos Fabules, and from the Trade Union of Waitresses, etc., all of whom carried, as did the male element, the banners of their respective groups…..

Mother Jones was the object of singular interest. With ninety years on her shoulders, she is one of the most indefatigable fighters for working-class organization in the United States.

Amidst a veritable shower of flowers, Mother Jones was brought in an auto from the platform of the station to the Glorieta Cuauhtémoc, where another contingent of trade union workers were awaiting her. They applauded her and threw fragrant sprays of roses. In the Glorieta, a demonstration was organized to honor Mother Jones, and was followed by a parade to the Hotel St. Francis where several Mexican workers spoke, and the guest of honor answered. She did so in virile and intrepid language, saying , in short, that when she first visited Mexico [in 1911], she never believed the workers’ movement in this country would have reached its present numbers and effectiveness; that she had been struggling in the field of ideas and action for years and years, a a struggle which would end only with her death; that she had dedicated her existence to seeking the economic, moral, and cultural development of the working class. She ended with a tribute to the Mexican workers affirming that only on the day when a single language and a single nation would exist on earth, would human happiness have been achieved.

Mother Jones is an elderly lady whose appearance is as modest as it its admirable, a woman with a very friendly behavior.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Winthrop D. Lane for the Appeal to Reason: “West Virginia is today in a state of civil war.”

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 21, 1921
Winthrop D. Lane on Civil War in West Virginia

From the Appeal to Reason of February 19, 1921:

Coal Barons, Guns and Courts in Hand, Fight
Attempts of Miners to Organize Unions

Facts West Virginia, Mingo, AtR p2, Feb 19, 1921

(You have read endless dispatches about the troubles in the mining district of West Virginia. But the Associated Press true to its time-established policy has obscured the issues of the struggle. The daily press, as a rule, presents no clear account of the conflict. In fact, in the ordinary news dispatches the miners are given the worst of the account. But one daily paper—the New York Evening Post-has seen fit to send a special reporter to the scene of the conflict, with instructions to tell the truth. He tells it in the following story, which, coming from a capitalist daily, cannot be accused of bias in favor of the miners. Indeed, you will note that this reporter is exceedingly careful not to tread too severely upon the toes of the coal operators. But, with all his caution and moderation, he gives the facts. Winthrop D. Lane, the author of the following article, is well known in the labor movement as a writer for The Survey, a liberal magazine which has in the past published many exposures by Mr. Lane of the persecutions of the workers:)

—–

BY WINTHROP D. LANE.

Mr. Lane has just spent six weeks in the bituminous coal field of West Virginia for the New York Evening Post. He went there to try to get a picture not only of the industrial conflict going on in that state, but also of the civilization back of it. He talked to operators, sat by the fire in miners’ homes, visited many mining camps, entered mines, and discussed the struggle with officials of the union.

WEST VIRGINIA is today in a state of civil war. This civil war is of a peculiar kind. It is not being fought by armies in the field, led by military commanders and seeking military victory. It is more subtle and covert than that. It is being fought through many of the ordinary channels of civilization.

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Hellraisers Journal: Striking Silk Mill Girls of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Want Counsel and Good Advice of Mother Jones

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

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 16, 1901
Scranton, Pennsylvania – Striking Silk Mill Girls Await Mother Jones

From the Philadelphia Times of February 14, 1901:

HdLn Mother Jones to Help Scranton Silk Strikers, Phl Tx p4, Feb 14, 1901

Special Telegram to The Times.

Scranton, February 13.

“Mother” Jones did not arrive in the city to-day, contrary to expectations, but her presence is expected at almost any time, and the strikers are anxiously looking forward to the time when they will have her counsels and good advice.

While not admitting that the noted leader had been summoned to visit the city, they will not deny that she is coming here, and that she will assist them. One of the local papers to-night confirms the exclusive story published in The Times this morning to the effect that the woman would be here.

There is no sign of a break to-night, and several enthusiastic meetings of the girls from the various mills were held at different places this afternoon. There are no new developments in the strike, although the girls are feeling very good over the fact that they have won their first battle in preventing the manufacturers from having what raw material they had on hand woven at outside mills, and in that manner saving themselves from any material loss in having the mills shut down.

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Hellraisers Journal: Williamson, Mingo County, West Virginia: “Sid Hatfield and Tom Felts Size Each Other Up in Court”

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Sid Hatfield, re Gunthugs n Right to Organize, Altoona Tb Lbr Ns p10, Sept 3, 1920————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 8, 1921
Williamson, West Virginia – Hatfield and Felts Size Each Other Up in Court

From the Baltimore Sun of February 6, 1921:

Sid Hatfield And Tom Felts Size
Each Other Up In Court
———-

Principal In Mingo Trial Engages In Duel Of Eyes With
Head Of Detective Agency, As Process Of Securing
Jury Slowly Drags Along.
———-

(By a Staff Correspondent of The Sun.)

Sid Hatfield, ed Labor News, Altoona Tb PA p10, Sept 3, 1920Williamson, W. Va., Feb. 5.-This has been a day of speculation and rumors and of desperate struggle on the part of everyone, except Sid Hatfield and the 20 others on trial for the Matewan murders, to be reasonably cheerful and comfortable. Court adjourned before noon today without having added to the jury panel and left all of those in attendance upon the case with nothing to do except talk and wander about muddy streets in a dismal rain, with bare, scarred, cut-over hills rising at one’s elbows, it seemed, to press down the gloom.

Out of all that came to the front stories from quarters favorable to the defense that the prosecution is deliberately trying to prevent a jury being selected in this county. The theory is that there is little hope of any Mingo county jury convicting Hatfield and the others, while there may be some hope that a jury from another county will do so, if the West Virginia Legislature passes the bill permitting juries to be drawn in murder cases from other counties. Also the theory is that the desire of the prosecution to get the case before a jury where there would be more chance to convict is based upon more than the usual ardor of the prosecution for success, or even that ardor plus the anxiety of the Williamson coal operators for conviction.

Added to all of that is the blood feud created by the killing of Albert and Lee Felts in the Matewan battle. They were brothers of Tom Felts, manager of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. Tom Felts, known in these parts as “the man-hunter extraordinary,” a suave gracious-mannered man, and next to John J. Coniff, chief counsel for the defense, the most impressive and distinguished looking man connected with the case, is on the spot, surrounded by a large number of trusted operatives. He is supposed to be paying part of the large force of lawyers assisting Prosecuting Attorney Bronson, and he wants blood for the blood of his brothers.

Melodrama in life is had when he appears in court. Sid Hatfield occupies his consciousness, and he occupies that of Hatfield. After he had directed attention of the court to Hatfield’s possession of guns in court, and thereby led not merely to disarming the mountain fighter, but to the frisking of everyone entering the courtroom, including reporters, who do not know which end of a pistol goes off, the absorption of the two men in each other, when Felts is in court, became more pronounced. Each concentrated upon the other, is moved by an almost boyish craving to emphasize by physical proximity lack of fear.

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Hellraisers Journal: Miss Emmeline Pitt Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention, Requests Aid for Irwin Field Strikers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Greensburg PA Cmas 1910, Steel 2, p83———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 24, 1911
Miss Emmeline Pitt Pleads for Aid for Strikers of Irwin Field 

Columbus, Ohio-Convention of United Mine Workers of America
 -Monday January 23, 1911, Sixth Day-Afternoon Session

Emmeline Emmilinne Pitt, Ptt Pst Gz p13, July 4, 1909

Miss [Emmeline] Pitt was escorted to the platform by Vice-President Hayes.

President Lewis–

By action of this convention last week a motion was adopted to extend an invitation to Miss Pitt to address the convention. Miss Pitt is an organizer of the American Federation of Labor and Secretary of the Labor Temple Association of Pittsburg. She has been doing a great deal of work in behalf of the miners in the Irwin Field district. I take pleasure at this time in presenting and introducing to you Miss Emmilinne Pitt.

Miss M. Emmilinne Pitt-

Mr. Chairman and Members of this Convention: It may seem strange to you that a woman would be so vitally interested in a miners’ convention. But in view of the fact that we are still in this endless struggle between capital and labor, it is little wonder that the women of the world today are becoming thoroughly aroused to the industrial situation. If I could bring before you this afternoon a vision of what I found in the Irwin Field a few days before Thanksgiving and a few days before Christmas on my visits to that region I believe your hearts would be sad today. Hundreds of helpless children and helpless women are suffering in that field. You all know of strikes, but I believe there is an exceptionally bad condition there. I want to ask you today as men of labor to extend your interests and your sympathy and your financial support to a continuation of one of the greatest battles, I believe, that was ever waged in the State of Pennsylvania.

Going over the field in the fall, amidst the countless golden harvest fields of plenty, in one of the wealthiest states of the Union, I found those women driven from their pitiful little homes into the highways and byways, and, like the lowly Nazarene, with no place to lay their heads. There have been extreme cases that occasioned many visits there. In one little cemetery on the hillside a Catholic priest has planted a cross above a lonely grave, which tells to us all that every man cannot be bought, body and soul, with a price. Out of the yoke of Egyptian bondage came the redemption of God’s people. Out from under the rod of Israel came a great power, and I believe organized labor will come out just as victorious.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Addresses Congress of Pan-American Federation of Labor at Mexico City

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921———-

Hellraisers  Journal – Friday January 14, 1921
Mexico City – Mother Jones Speaks at Pan-American Labor Congress

From the Washington Evening Star of January 13, 1921:

LABOR CONGRESS HEARS TALK
BY ‘MOTHER’ JONES
———-
Thirty More Questions Likely to Be
Brought Up in Mexico City.

By the Associated Press.

Mother Jones, NYC Dly Ns p12, May 7, 1920

MEXICO CITY, January  13.-Delegates to the Congress of the Pan-American Federation of Labor, in session here, listened today to an address by “Mother” Jones, the radical labor leader, who arrived here last week from the United States. She has been a regular attendant at sessions of the congress, although not a delegate, and yesterday was granted special permission to appear this morning before the federation.

The resolutions committee was busily engaged yesterday receiving motions to be brought before the congress, and when the committee adjourned, John P. Frey, its chairman, announced that a score of resolutions dealing with pan-American activity had been received and that the recommendations contained in the report of the executive committee would provide thirty more questions to be brought before the congress for final disposition.

The congress proper enjoyed a virtual holiday yesterday, the day’s session lasting only thirty minutes.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “Madre Juanita” in Mexico City, Greeted by Thousands of Workers and Shower of Flowers

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 13, 1921
Mexico City – Mother Jones Greeted by Shower of Flowers

Translated from Mexico City’s  El Universal of January 10, 1921:

Mother Jones Arrives in Mexico City

Mother Jones, UMWJ p11, July 15, 1920

Upon arriving at Buena Vista station in Mexico City [on the morning of January 9th], Mother Jones was met by 2,000 workers among whom were a large feminine contingent from the factories: El Recuerdo, El Buen Tono, Tabacelera, Cigarrera, La Estrella, Departmentos Fabules, and from the Trade Union of Waitresses, etc., all of whom carried, as did the male element, the banners of their respective groups…..

Mother Jones was the object of singular interest. With ninety years on her shoulders, she is one of the most indefatigable fighters for working-class organization in the United States.

Amidst a veritable shower of flowers, Mother Jones was brought in an auto from the platform of the station to the Glorieta Cuauhtémoc, where another contingent of trade union workers were awaiting her. They applauded her and threw fragrant sprays of roses. In the Glorieta, a demonstration was organized to honor Mother Jones, and was followed by a parade to the Hotel St. Francis where several Mexican workers spoke, and the guest of honor answered. She did so in virile and intrepid language, saying , in short, that when she first visited Mexico [in 1911], she never believed the workers’ movement in this country would have reached its present numbers and effectiveness; that she had been struggling in the field of ideas and action for years and years, a a struggle which would end only with her death; that she had dedicated her existence to seeking the economic, moral, and cultural development of the working class. She ended with a tribute to the Mexican workers affirming that only on the day when a single language and a single nation would exist on earth, would human happiness have been achieved.

Mother Jones is an elderly lady whose appearance is as modest as it its admirable, a woman with a very friendly behavior.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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