Tag: April 1909

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1909, Part II: Found in Western New York

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Quote Mother Jones, Injunction Shroud, Bff Exp p7, Apr 24, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 10, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1909, Part II:
-Found in Speaking and Touring in Western New York

After being disappointed by her missed visit last February, the working men and women of Olean, New York, were pleased to welcome Mother Jones into their midst for a speech given Tuesday evening, April 20th.

From the Olean Evening Times of April 19, 1909:

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

Reception Tonight-This evening Mother Jones will arrive in Olean, and will be given a reception in the Trades and Labor Council hall at 8 o’clock, at which time those who desire will be given an opportunity to meet her. Tomorrow evening she will deliver an address in the opera house on “Peonage in Mexico, and what it means to the American workingman.” The meeting will be called to order by Elmer E. Evans and August Klenke will act as chairman. An invitation has been extended to the officers of all the local labor organizations to take seats on the platform. Music for the occasion will be furnished by the Red Mens’ band. It is anticipated that the opera house will be filled, and those desiring seats are advised to be early.

[…..]

Peon Labor and Its Effects on American Workmen, will be the subject of Mother Jones’ lecture at the opera house Tuesday night.

When miners were evicted because they dared to strike for more wages it was Mother Jones, who will speak at the opera house Tuesday night, took the wives and children to the woods and sheltered them in tents and secured food for them until the strike was won.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1909, Part I: Found Speaking in Dayton, Ohio

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Child Labor Man of Six Snuff Sniffer———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 9, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1909, Part I:
-Found in Dayton, Ohio, Speaking to Socialists

From The Dayton Herald of April 19, 1909:

SPECULATION SCORED BY “MOTHER” JONES

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

It is doubtful if the Auditorium ever held a more interested audience than that which filled it to the doors Sunday afternoon to hear “Mother” Jones’ address. Miss Gertrude Rodgers presided and in her introductory remarks said the Socialists were the only party which today recognized the equality of the sexes politically and economically and was pledged to lift womankind in the world’s affairs.

“Mother” Jones’ appearance on the stage at the conclusion of Miss Rodgers’ introductory remarks, called for a long continued welcome that clearly indicated the pleasure of those who came to hear her.

[Mother Jones stated:]

The unrest of today threatens the peace, not only of this nation, but of the world and upon the working class fails the problem of establishing peace that shall be world-wide and permanent.

[She further said:]

Were Lincoln alive today, and in power, he would, as in 1863, order the doors of prisons now holding the Mexican political prisoners thrown open and set them free, as he did the chattel slave.

“Mother” Jones jabbed working class voters for being responsible for present conditions, saying that in last November they had gone to the polls and instead of voting for their own interests, had endorsed the “ruining class” candidate.

CHILD LABOR.

The child labor question received scathing arraignment. She declared the present industrial machine had entered the sacred precincts of the home reached down into the cradle and caught the babe, had torn its hands and arms from its body, caused it to have shrunken forms and sunken lifeless eyes, in order that profits might flow to those who controlled the machinery of production. Then she denounced society for its indifference to these daily occurrences, and pointed out that in the near future it would dearly pay for these atrocious wrongs.

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Hellraisers Journal: Southern Child Labor Conference, Held in New Orleans, to be Maintained as Permanent Organization

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Quote Mother Jones, Alabama Child Labor, AtR p2, Oct 24, 1908————————-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 26, 1909
New Orleans, Louisiana – Southern Child Labor Conference Deemed a Success

From Louisiana’s Reserve Le Meschacébé of April 17, 1909:

A PERMANENT ORGANIZATION
—–

CHILD LABOR CONFERENCE WILL BE
MAINTAINED AS A FIXTURE.
—–
Successful Opening Meeting Renders Members
Enthusiastic For Future.
—–

Child Labor, Lewis Hine, Doffer Boys 10 n 12, Gastonia NC, Nov 1908
Doffer boys, ages 12 and 10.
Gastonia, North Carolina
—–

New Orleans.-The child labor conference of the Southern states, called by Governor J. Y. Sanders of Louisiana, came to a close after a three-days’ session, in which great things were accomplished, resolutions being adopted fixing age limit, working hours, etc., and permanent organization effected.

The convention was the second of its kind in the history of the new commercial South, but it will not be the last for already Memphis has been tacitly agreed upon as the next place of meeting, and in the twelve months which must elapse before that meeting the delegates are pledged to work mightily to create sentiment and mold opinion, so that even greater reforms than those suggested during the past few days may be gained for the “Child of the Man With the Hoe,” as Senator Colville so strikingly describes the work children. Eleven states were represented.

The chief work of the conference was the adoption of a resolution containing important provisions, to be embodied in a uniform child labor law to be proposed in the legislatures of all the states in the South…..

———-

[Photograph added is by Lewis Hine.]

From The Survey (formerly Charities and Commons) of April 17, 1909:

SOUTHERN CHILD LABOR CONFERENCE
—–

Child Labor, Lewis Hine, Smallest girl ab 10, Whitnel NC, Dec 1908
Smallest girl about 10 years old, has been in mill 2 years, 6 months at night.
—–

In the contest over a better child labor law in the Louisiana Legislature last summer, the issue most warmly debated was whether a working day of nine hours or ten should be adopted for children under eighteen years of age, and for women. The Legislature decided upon the ten-hour day and Governor Sanders promised Miss Jean Gordon, who had led the fight for child labor reform, to call a conference in New Orleans to recommend a uniform child labor law for the southern states.

Governor Sanders wrote to all the southern governors asking them to attend the conference personally if possible and to send interested delegates: manufacturers, representatives of labor unions, and of different associations pledged to child labor reform. Delegates to the conference were appointed by all the southern governors except Governor Comer of Alabama, and Governor Campbell of Texas. Governor Comer’s reason for not appointing delegates—that Alabama had already the best child labor law in the country with the possible exception of Massachusetts, was so ridiculous that his action focused attention upon the deficiencies of the Alabama law, it being generally believed that these rather than the excellence of the law furnished the reason why the governor, himself a cotton manufacturer, deplored any further discussion or agitation of the subject in Alabama.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: U. S. Supreme Court Legalizes Traffic in Daughters of the Working Class

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Quote Joe Hill, White Slave, Girls in this way, LRSB 1913———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 19, 1909
Chicago, Illinois – Crusade Against Traffic in Girls Halted by U. S Supreme Court

From the Appeal to Reason of April 17, 1909:

TRAFFIC IN GIRLS.
—–

White Slavery Ernest A Bell, War on White Slave Trade p194, 1909

When it comes to suppressing real crime the law, as administered under the present system, always proved a mockery and a farce. The decision is invariably in favor of the strong and against the weak; in favor of the class in power and against its subjects.

Recently there has been a federal investigation of the unspeakable white slave traffic in Chicago. District Attorney Edward W. Sims has been honestly trying, be it said to his credit, to suppress the revolting commerce in young girls which has blackened the centers of our so-called civilization. About the time the district attorney had his evidence complete and felt sure of his case the United States supreme court rendered a decision shattering the prosecution and in effect legalizing the shocking white slave traffic. It seems unbelievable and yet the facts stand forth beyond dispute. The decision in question has just been rendered and in referring to it District Attorney Sims says:

It will be necessary now to prove the actual importation in each case. I think the federal government will be able to do very little in obtaining convictions. The entire prosecution of such cases will be left to the state courts and to the police.

Which means that the white slave traffic will be left to the gamblers, blacklegs, hack-politicians and pimps, agents of the commercial pirates who established the traffic, and who are carrying it forward to the everlasting disgrace of the state and for their own private gain.

Under this odius and abhorrent traffic thousands of poor, innocent girls are lured to this country, ruined and placed in brothels under contract to end their blasted lives in nameless horror.

The point above all others to take into account is that these girls are uniformly the children of poverty, the daughters of the working class, and for this reason it is of grave significance and its lesson should be graven deeply upon the hearts of all the millions who toil.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1909, Part II: Found in Southeast Kansas

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Quote Mother Jones re Wall St Gov, Lbr Wld p4, Mar 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 13, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1909, Part II:
-Found in Pittsburg and Girard, Kansas

Mother praised by Appeal to Reason:

Mother Jones is in the field appealing to the workers with the eloquence and force for which she is noted. She has already raised by her own efforts over three thousand dollars for the defense of the Mexican comrades. Her meetings are uniformly crowded and at the close resolutions are adopted voicing the protest of the working class and demanding the liberation of the patriots.

[Emphasis added.]

From the Appeal to Reason of March 13, 1909:

….PREPARING FOR THE BATTLE….

Mother Jones w edit crpd ag, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909

The Mexican cases become more important hourly. Along the Rio Grande the pickets, sentinels and spies are posted and there is a state of actual war, although the capitalist press makes no report of it. The war is between the rising proletariat under the leadership of such patriots as Araujo and Magon, and the Mexican despotism with the tyrant Diaz at its head. Stripped of all collateral developments it is simply a war between labor and capital, between freedom and peon slavery.

The managing editor of the Appeal [Fred Warren] has for some days been at San Antonio, Waco and other points in southern Texas, making a personal investigation. He reports a far more serious and complicated situation than most of our readers imagine. He is convinced that these cases are but the beginnings of what is going to prove a serious and far-reaching conflict.

Efforts are being mede to appeal the case of Antonio Araujo to the supreme court, and at all events to fight the case to a finish. Additional evidence has accumulated to emphasize the infamy of the conviction. A number of other Mexican patriots have been arrested in secret in Texas and Arizona, waylaid, beaten jailed and held “incommunicado” by collusion of the American police in the employ of the Mexican government.

So powerful are the Mexican influences in those states that the papers are silenced and the courts are virtually Mexicanized in their treatment of the patriots who are fighting for liberty.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1909, Part I: Found Speaking in Denver

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p3, Mar 2, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 12, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1909, Part I:
-Found in Denver, Colorado, Speaking at Protest Meeting

On the evening of Thursday March 1st, Mother Jones spoke before trade unionists, assembled together at the People’s tabernacle, to protest against the jail sentences imposed upon Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and Frank Morrison by District Court Judge Daniel Thew Wright.

From The Denver Post of March 1, 1909:

MOTHER JONES TO ADDRESS DENVER
LABOR MEETING
—–
Protest Against Federal Judge Sending
Labor Leaders to Jail.
—–

3,000 ARE TO TAKE PART
—–
Resolutions to Be Adopted Strongly
Censuring Judge Wright.
—–

Mother Jones w edit crpd, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909

Tonight at the People’s Tabernacle, Twentieth and Lawrence, labor will enter its protest against the recent decision of Judge Wright of the district of Columbia, sentencing Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell and Frank Morrison to prison for alleged contempt of court. A monster massmeeting has been arranged for, to commence at 8 o’clock. State senators, representatives and many of the representative labor men of Colorado will take part.

[…..]

“Mother Jones,” one of the famous women advocates of the rights of labor, a woman who saw many of the early conflicts of labor when blood was shed in Easter miners’ strikes, and one of the most interesting orators among the women of the country today will be one of the principal speakers.

“Mother Jones” is known to every laboring men in the country. She attends many labor conventions, and last year delivered one of her characteristic speeches before the annual convention of the Western Federation of Miners. She has been travelling through the West seeking to raise funds for three Western men who are being held in Mexican prisons on the ground that they were seeking to overthrow the Mexican government.

“Mother Jones” is a guest at the home of John M. O’Neill, editor of the official organ of the Western Federation of Miners, 1229 Kalamath street.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: John Murray on the Prisons of Diaz, Part III

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Quote Freedom Ricardo Flores Magon, ed, Speech re Prisoners of Texas, May 31, 1914———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 6, 1909
John Murray on the Horrors of the Private Prisons of Diaz, Part III

From the International Socialist Review of April 1909:

Mex Rev, Diaz Prison by Murray, ISR p737, ISR Apr 1909

[Part III, Conclusion]

[John Murray’s interview with the escaped prisoner, Antonio, continues:]

The sick man’s pauses in this narrative were frequent. At times the old lady give him water to drink, and then again he would take two puffs at a cigarette rolled by the president, all of which kept him going to the end of his story.

We were accused of participating in the rebellion started in September, 1906, by the Junta Revolucionaria Mexicana in Jimenez, and in Acayucan. Chained in gangs with two hundred others, we were brought to the fortress and political prison of San Juan de Ulua.

Some of us were betrayed by that Judas, Captain Adolfo Jimenez Castro, an officer of the post at Cuidad Juarez, while others were betrayed by Trinidad Vasquez at Cananea.

Among the number were persons entirely innocent of any participation in the rebellion, but they received neither consideration nor mercy, and, like many of us, saw their homes burnt by the soldiery and their families left to starve.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: John Murray on the Prisons of Diaz, Part II

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Quote R Magon re John Murray, ISR p643, Mar 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 5, 1909
John Murray on the Horrors of the Private Prisons of Diaz, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of April 1909:

Mex Rev, Diaz Prison by Murray, ISR p737, ISR Apr 1909[Part II]

[John Murray at San Juan de Ulua Prison, continues speaking with the sympathetic soldier…]

Without a word the soldier turned and walked towards the archway. I followed at his heels and we made our way around outside the walls, entered the arsenal and climbed an inner staircase to the battlements of the fortress.

Pointing out to sea, my guide showed me a small man-of-war coming into the harbor.

“That’s the ‘General Bravo’—look at it. Keep looking at it, senor, and while we are here alone I will stand behind your back and tell you all I know of the martyrs imprisoned in Ulua.

“The friends of Magon in the army are many. Here, in Ulua, all would be glad to see a way out of this hell—but will it ever come?”

I answered as I believed, in all sincerity, “It will come,” and with a look of encouragement the young soldier went on:

Six months ago I came to Ulua from Sonora, and never once have I seen the political prisoners. But this I saw with my own eyes:

Late on a Sunday afternoon, a boat with two occupants came rowing towards the guardhouse of the west side landing. I saw it before the others, being far-sighted, and this my first day of guard duty on the island. As the boat touched the pier, a white-haired lady wrapped in a black shawl, and trembling with age, was just able to mount from the rocking gunnel to the first stone step, where she sank down, panting and exhausted. The oarsman was a small, black Indian from the mountain tribes near Orizaba. Martin Jose Pico, our hook-nosed, thief-of-a-sergeant—ration-robbing is his trade-roughly demanded her pass, but she had none.

This was such a strange occurrence—a white-haired woman of over eighty years trying to gain entrance to the prison without credentials—that the officer of the day was summoned.

Captain Garcia likes not old women, and to the black figure seated at his feet on the stone step, his words were short and sharp:

“Speak! What do you want?”

“To see a boy who is imprisoned here,” replied the trembling, low-toned voice of the old lady.

“A boy? We have no boys. Who is he?” testily demanded the officer.

“Juan Sarabia,” replied the white-haired woman.

At this name the captain took a sudden step back, for of all the prisoners most strictly kept “incommunicado” is this famous revolutionist, Juan Sarabia. Even to mention his name is forbidden the soldiers of Ulua.

White-faced, the officer gripped the old lady by her arm and stuttered a rasping question:

“Fool! who are you?”

“His mother,” came the answer.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: John Murray on the Prisons of Diaz, Part I

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Quote EVD Mex Revolutionairies, AtR p2, Oct 10, 1908———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 4, 1909
John Murray on the Horrors of the Private Prisons of Diaz, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of April 1909:

Mex Rev, Diaz Prison by Murray, ISR p737, ISR Apr 1909
—–

[Part I]

Mex Rev, Diaz Prison by Murray, A, ISR p737, ISR Apr 1909S soon as we were alone at the end of the pier breasting the Vera Cruz harbor, the little, pock-marked secretary of the revolutionary group pulled from his pockets a piece of grey stone and held up before my eyes.

“Look at that!”

I took the fragment from his slim, brown fingers and turned it over curiously. It was a piece of coarse, grey coral.

“See! It’s porous. Now do you understand? The whole prison’s built of it.”

With an upward jerk of his hand he leveled an accusing finger at the white-washed walls of the fortress-prison shining in the sun across the waters of the blue bay.

“There it stands! On that island, yonder! San Juan de Ulua! The foulest spot in all Mexico—Diaz’ private prison for his political enemies!”

The corners of the man’s mouth drew down into a snarl and his eyes narrowed to burning slits of hate as he gazed in the direction of the fortress.

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