Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 8, 1914
Columbus, Kansas – Mother Jones Speaks at Labor Day Celebration
From The Pittsburg Daily Headlight of September 7, 1914:
Mother Jones at Columbus.
Columbus, Sept. 7-“Mother” Jones, the aged woman who has figured in the mine troubles of West Virginia and Colorado, and who has spent a large part of the past few years in military prisons and jails as a result of her activity among the miners, was the principal speaker at the Labor Day celebration in this city today. She spoke to an immense audience in the City park. L. F. Fuller of Girard, Socialist candidate for Congress, was the other speaker. It is estimated 5,000 persons came to Columbus to participate in the celebration today. There was a parade in the morning and outdoor exercises in the afternoon.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 5, 1914 Excerpts from “Class War in Colorado” by Max Eastman
From The Masses of June 1914:
CLASS WAR IN COLORADO
Max Eastman
[Illustrated by M. H. Pancoast, John Sloan, and Art Young]
“FOR EIGHT DAYS it was a reign of terror. Armed miners swarmed into the city like soldiers of a revolution. They tramped the streets with rifles, and the red handkerchiefs around their necks, singing their war-songs. The Mayor and the sheriff fled, and we simply cowered in our houses waiting No one was injured here-they policed the streets day and night. But destruction swept like a flame over the mines.” These are the words of a Catholic priest of Trinidad.
“But, father” I said, “where is it all going to end?”
He sat forward with a radiant smile.”War!” he answered. “Civil war between labor and capital!” His gesture was beatific.
“And the church-will the church do nothing to save us from this?”
“Yes, this is Colorado,” he said. “Colorado is ‘disgraced in the eyes of the nation’-but soon it will be the Nation!“
I have thought often of that opinion. And I have felt that soon it will, indeed, unless men of strength and understanding, seeing this fight is to be fought, determine it shall be fought by the principals with economic and political arms, and not by professional gunmen and detectives.
Many reproaches will fall on the heads of the Rockefeller interests for acts of tyranny, exploitation, and contempt of the labor laws of Colorado-acts which are only human at human’s worst. They have gone out to drive back their cattle with a lash. For them that is natural. But I think the cool collecting for this purpose of hundreds of degenerate adventurers in blood from all the slums and vice camps of the earth, arming them with high power rifles, explosive and soft-nosed bullets, and putting them beyond the law in uniforms of the national army, is not natural. It is not human. It is lower, because colder, than the blood-lust of the gunmen themselves.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 18, 1914 Mother Jones Deported Out of Southern Colorado Strike Zone by Gen. Chase
From The Winnipeg Tribune of March 16, 1914:
“MOTHER JONES” DEPARTS
Trinidad, Colo., March 16.-“Mother” Mary Jones, noted woman strike leader, who has been a military prisoner in San Rafael hospital here since January 12, was put aboard a train quietly last night and sent out of the coal strike district. Her departure became known today. It was said this action was taken at her request and on orders of General John Chase.
“Mother” Jones was taken to Denver.
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[Drawing and emphasis added.]
From El Paso Herald of March 16, 1914:
WOMAN LEADER IS DEPORTED; IS STILL ANGRY ———-
DECLARES SHE IS SURE TO RETURN ———- “Mother” Jones Now in Denver, Says She Was Deported Late at Night by Military Authorities and Sent Away on a Ticket Paid For by the State; Goes to Call on the Governor. ———-
Trinidad. Colo., March 16-“Mother” Mary Jones, noted woman strike leader, who has been a military prisoner in San Rafael hospital here since January 12, was put aboard a train quietly last night [March 15th] and sent out of the coal strike district. Her departure became known today.
She went to Denver. The military authorities proceeded with the utmost secrecy to remove “Mother” Jones. She was arrested at a local hotel here January 12, after having been deported from the district the week previous and told not to return. Since her confinement several efforts have been made to secure her release.
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Denver, Colo., March 16-That she was deported from Trinidad; that she was accompanied by Denver militia officers, taken to a hotel and was not told she had been released; that she expects to return to the strike zone soon, was the substance of a statement made today by “Mother” Mary Jones, noted strike leader, who has been a military prisoner at San Rafael hospital in Trinidad since January 12.
Her statement was given to a group of newspaper men at the conclusion of a conference with Horace N. Hawkins, attorney for the United Mine Workers of America, Immediately thereafter she left for the state house to call upon Governor E. M. Ammons.
Rearrest Threatened.
General Chase stated “Mother” Jones will be arrested whenever she returns to Trinidad.
“Mother” Jones was put upon an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe train last night [Sunday March 15th], arriving in Denver early today. She was accompanied by Col. W. A. Davis, of the Colorado National Guard.
“Mother” Jones declared that the state bought the ticket on which she came to Denver. She declared she intended returning to Trinidad to demand her mail, explaining that no mail had been delivered to her during her detention. She stated that she had received considerate treatment at the hospital, but had suffered somewhat from the confinement.
Confers With Governor
In the conference with the governor were his secretary, Claude W. Fairchild, “Mother” Jones, John Lawson, John McLennan, union officials, and Horace N. Hawkins.
Telegrams were sent to M. D. Foster, chairman of the house committee on mines and mining, and representative Edward Keating of Colorado by John Lawson, relating the incident of “Mother ” Jones being brought to Denver.
Didn’t Consent to Trip, She Says
In her statement to newspaper men, “Mother” Jones said:
I never asked to talk with governor Ammons and I never gave my consent to the trip to Denver. Sunday night a military officer came to me and told me to pack my clothes quick, as it was almost train time. He took pains to tell me I was not being deported.
Boarded Train a Crossing.
We did not board the train at the depot, but it was stopped at a crossing. We arrived in Denver early today, and I was taken to a hotel. They did not even tell me whether or not I was free.
Mr Hawkins then took up the narrative.
“I telephoned to Gen. Chase,” he said, “and he told me that ‘Mother’ Jones was released. I then called up Governor Ammons and he said that he had not been advised that ‘Mother’ Jones wanted to see him. I informed him that she had no desire to talk with him, but would call at his office if he invited her to do so.
“He said: ’Well, then I invite her to call.’”
She Complains of Detention.
“Mother” Jones complained vigorously of the manner in which she had been arrested and detained. “If I have done any thing wrong why have they not charged me with a crime in court?” she demanded of the assembled newspaper men. “Why have they resorted to this trick to release me just before the supreme court was to pass upon my habeas corpus suit?”
“Mother” Jones gave her vision of the events preceding her arrest. She said the day before the Forbes battle a man came to her room at a Trinidad hotel and told her the guards were preparing to raid the tent colonies.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 7, 1913 New York, New York – John Reed Recalls Time Spent in Passaic County Jail
From The Masses of June 1913:
“Speaking of Anarchy” by Art Young
[Part I of II]
There’s war in Paterson. But it’s a curious kind of war. All the violence is the work of one side—the Mill Owners. Their servants, the Police, club unresisting men and women and ride down law-abiding crowds on horseback. Their paid mercenaries, the armed Detectives, shoot and kill innocent people. Their newspapers, the Paterson Press and the Paterson Call, publish incendiary and crime-inciting appeals to mob-violence against the strike leaders. Their tool, Recorder Carroll, deals out heavy sentences to peaceful pickets that the police-net gathers up. They control absolutely the Police, the Press, the Courts.
Opposing them are about twenty-five thousand striking silk-workers, of whom perhaps ten thousand are active, and their weapon is the picket-line. Let me tell you what I saw in Paterson and then you will say which side of this struggle is “anarchistic” and “contrary to American ideals.”
At six o’clock in the morning a light rain was falling. Slate-grey and cold, the streets of Paterson were deserted. But soon came the Cops-twenty of them—strolling along with their nightsticks under their arms. We went ahead of them toward the mill district. Now we began to see workmen going in the same direction, coat collars turned up, hands in their pockets. We came into a long street, one side of which was lined with silk mills, the other side with the wooden tenement houses. In every doorway, at every window of the houses clustered foreign-faced men and women, laughing and chatting as if after breakfast on a holiday. There seemed no sense of expectancy, no strain or feeling of fear. The sidewalks were almost empty, only over in front of the mills a few couples—there couldn’t have been more than fifty-marched slowly up and down, dripping with the rain. Some were men, with here and there a man and woman together, or two young boys. As the warmer light of full day came the people drifted out of their houses and began to pace back and forth, gathering in little knots on the corners. They were quick with gesticulating hands, and low-voiced conversation. They looked often toward the corners of side streets.
Suddenly appeared a policeman, swinging his club. “Ah-h-h!” said the crowd softly.
Six men had taken shelter from the rain under the canopy of a saloon. “Come on! Get out of that!” yelled the policeman, advancing. The men quietly obeyed. “Get off this street! Go home, now! Don’t be standing here!” They gave way before him in silence, drifting back again when he turned away. Other policemen materialized, hustling, cursing, brutal, ineffectual. No one answered back. Nervous, bleary-eyed, unshaven, these officers were worn out with nine weeks’ incessant strike duty.
On the mill side of the street the picket-line had grown to about four hundred. Several policemen shouldered roughly among them, looking for trouble. A workman appeared, with a tin pail, escorted by two detectives. “Boo! Boo!” shouted a few scattered voices. Two Italian boys leaned against the mill fence and shouted a merry Irish threat, “Scab! Come outa here I knocka you’ head off!” A policeman grabbed the boys roughly by the shoulder. “Get to hell out of here!” he cried, jerking and pushing them violently to the corner, where he kicked them. Not a voice, not a movement from the crowd.
A little further along the street we saw a young woman with an umbrella, who had been picketing, suddenly confronted by a big policeman.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he roared. “God damn you, you go home!” and he jammed his club against her mouth. “I no go home!” she shrilled passionately, with blazing eyes. “You bigga stiff !”
Silently, steadfastly, solidly the picket-line grew. In groups or in couples the strikers patrolled the sidewalk. There was no more laughing. They looked on with eyes full of hate. These were fiery-blooded Italians, and the police were the same brutal thugs that had beaten them and insulted them for nine weeks. I wondered how long they could stand it.
It began to rain heavily. I asked a man’s permission to stand on the porch of his house. There was a policeman standing in front of it. His name, I afterwards discovered, was McCormack. I had to walk around him to mount the steps.
Suddenly he turned round, and shot at the owner: “Do all them fellows live in that house?” The man indicated the three other strikers and himself, and shook his head at me.
“Then you get to hell off of there!” said the cop, pointing his club at me.
“I have the permission of this gentleman to stand here,” I said. “He owns this house.”
“Never mind! Do what I tell you! Come off of there, and come off damn quick!”
“I’ll do nothing of the sort.”
With that he leaped up the steps, seized my arm, and violently jerked me to the sidewalk. Another cop took my arm and they gave me a shove.
“Now you get to hell off this street!” said Officer McCormack.
“I won’t get off this street or any other street. If I’m breaking any law, you arrest me!”
Officer McCormack, who is doubtless a good, stupid Irishman in time of peace, is almost helpless in a situation that requires thinking. He was dreadfully troubled by my request. He didn’t want to arrest me, and said so with a great deal of profanity.
“I’ve got your number,” said I sweetly. “Now will you tell me your name?”
“Yes,” he bellowed, “an’ I got your number! I’ll arrest you.” He took me by the arm and marched me up the street.
He was sorry he had arrested me. There was no charge he could lodge against me. I hadn’t been doing anything. He felt he must make me say something that could be construed as a violation of the Law. To which end he God damned me harshly, loading me with abuse and obscenity, and threatened me with his night-stick, saying, “You big — — lug, I’d like to beat the hell out of you with this club.”
I returned airy persiflage to his threats.
Other officers came to the rescue, two of them, and supplied fresh epithets. I soon found them repeating themselves, however, and told them so. “I had to come all the way to Paterson to put one over on a cop !” I said. Eureka! They had at last found a crime! When I was arraigned in the Recorder’s Court that remark of mine was the charge against me!
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 7, 1912 Charleston, West Virginia – Cossacks Rule Paint Creek, Mother Jones at Work
From The Wheeling Majority of July 4, 1912:
Hot Times In West Virginia ———-
[Mother Jones Working Night and Day]
(By G. H. Edmunds.)
Charleston, W. Va., July 3.—(Special.)—You talk about the cossacks of Russia and the state police of Pennsylvania, but the guard system of West Virginia has all these backed off the boards. The guards along Paint Creek have taken the law in their hands, and are openly defying the law in all its phases. They are evicting the miners in open violation of the law up to date, we have been unable to check them. The law firm of Littlepage, Matheney and Littlepage sought to enjoin the coal companies, and here is what happened.
District Judge Burdette did the “fade-away” act’ to perfection. When our attorney went to his court (after having a time set to hear the injunction), and there and then found that the judge had left the community and no one could say where he had gone or when he would return. So the coal companies are still evicting our people. If Kellar, the great magician, wants to learn a few new tricks along the “fade-away” line, he might do well to consult his honor, Judge Burdette.
Assaulting Children.
Assault after assault has been committed upon defenseless men, women and children. But the sheriff of Kanawha county has done absolutely nothing about it at all. We hope that the miners will not forget Judge Burdette when election day comes. If he is afraid to perform the duties of his office, then he is not competent to fill that high office. I know it is pretty hard to go up against such a proposition as issuing or refusing an injunction as the one prayed for, yet it was the plain duty of Judge Burdette to have stood his ground and decided this case on its merits. Judge Burdette stands indicted for rank cowardice before all the people of this county. Will they forget or condone this act? Lots could be said about Kanawha county justice, but we will save it for campaign dope. Board Member Watkins Reports a good meeting at McClannahan, just across the mountain from Raymond City. We are glad to see these men coming out of the kinks at last. There are scores of good men over there and now that they have started again we bid them God speed.
Boys, don’t stop until every man in your locality is a union man and a Socialist. The “man catchers” from Burnwell “caught” two colored brothers in their net of deception, but upon their arrival at Burnwell, they found out about the strike and they left, walking 17 miles, and they informed the guards they would spend a year in the penitentiary before they would work as strike breakers. Pretty good union men, these.
Mother Jones There.
Mother Jones is still here and well and working night and day. She bears her 80 years as if they were 50. We expect big things next week. At this time we have 21 guards on trial for entering the homes of the miners without leave or warrant.
The miners are still firm and there will be no break away from our ranks. Organizers Batley and Davis left for their homes to spend the 4th of July. Organizer G. H. Edmunds and Vice President Frank J. Hayes will speak at Buxton, Ia., on the Fourth. Great credit is due the Majority for the gallant advocacy of the miners’ cause during this strike. All miners should subscribe to this paper, because he is our friend, and we should stand by our friends. Editor Hilton, has been fearless in his defense of our cause.
All mine workers are requested to stay away from West Virginia until notified officially that the strike is ended.
[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]
—————Mother Jones at Columbus.
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