Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Held in Cellar Cell “Surrounded with Sewer Rats, Tin-Horn Soldiers, and Other Vermin.”

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Mother Jones Quote, Let My Friend Villa Know, Cold Cellar Cell, Walsenburg CO, Mar 31, 1914, AtR p2, Apr 18, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 5, 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – Mother Jones Smuggles out Letter from Cold Cellar Cell

From the Chicago Day Book of April 3, 1914:

Letter from Mother Jones to Public, Cold Cellar Cell, Let Pancho Villa Know, Day Book Last p3, Apr 3, 1914

March 31, 1914-from the Cold Cellar Cell, Walsenburg, Colorado,
Letter to Friends of Mother Jones and to the Public Generally:

                                                                                            Military Bastile
Walsenburg, Colo.
.                                                                                           March 31, 1914
To My Friends and the Public Generally:
     I am being held a prisoner incommunicado in a damp, underground cell, in the basement of a military bullpen at Walsenburg, Colorado. Have been here since 5:30 a.m. of the 23rd of March, when I was taken from the train by armed soldiers as I was passing through Walsenburg. I have discovered what appears to be an opportunity to smuggle a letter out of prison, and shall attempt to get this communication by the armed guards which day and night surround me (me, a white-haired old woman eighty-two years of age).
     I want to say to the public that I am an American citizen. I have never broken a law in my life, and I claim the right of an American citizen to go where I please so long as I do not violate the law. The courts of Las Animas and Huerfano are open and unobstructed in the transaction of business, yet Governor Ammons and his Peabody appointee, General Chase, refuse to carry me before any court, and refuse to make any charge against me.
     I ask the press to let the nation know of my treatment, and to say to my friends, whom, thank God, I number by the thousands, throughout the United States and Mexico, that not even my incarceration in a damp, underground dungeon will make me give up the fight in which I am engaged for liberty and for the rights of the working people.
     Of course, I long to be out of prison. To be shut from the sunlight is not pleasant, but John Bunyan, John Brown and others were kept in Jail quite a while, and I shall stand firm. To be in prison is no disgrace. In all my strike experiences I have seen no horrors equal to those perpetrated by General Chase and his corps of Baldwin-Feltz detectives that are now enlisted in the militia.
     My God–when is it to stop? I have only to close my eyes to see the mourning of the broken hearts and the wailing of the funeral dirge, while the cringing politicians whose sworn duty is to protect the lives and liberty of the people crawl subserviently before the national burglars of Wall Street who are today plundering and devastating the State of Colorado economically, financially, politically and morally.
     Let the nation know, and especially let my friend General Francisco Villa know, that the great United States of America, which is demanding of him that he release the traitors he has placed under arrest, is now holding Mother Jones incommunicado in an under ground cell surrounded with sewer rats, tinhorn soldiers and other vermin.
Mother Jones
[As written, without correction; paragraph break added.]
Mother Jones is not forgotten in her cold cellar cell, the same damp cell which led to the death of striking miner Kostas Marcos. 

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Held in Cellar Cell “Surrounded with Sewer Rats, Tin-Horn Soldiers, and Other Vermin.””

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Silenced in Trinidad, Colorado, by Mailed Fist of Czar Chase and Governor Ammons

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Quote Mother Jones, Chase No Own State, RMN p3, Jan 12, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 23, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Mother Jones Gagged and Silenced by Ammons and Chase

From the Seattle Union Record of February 21, 1914:

CRTN Mother Jones Silence by Gen Chase and Colorado Gov Ammons, SUR p3, Feb 21, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Surrounded by 150 Soldiers, Seized and Taken to Military Bastile at San Rafael Hospital, Held Incommunicado

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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 8, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Mother Jones Seized by Soldiers, Held Incommunicado

From the International Socialist Review of February 1914:

Cartoon Mother Jones Surrounded by Soldiers Trinidad, ISR p462, Feb 1914Nine Sharpshooters Colorado, ISR p462, Feb 1914Nine Sharpshooters Colorado, ISR p463, Feb 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Day Book: B. F. Gurley on the “Daredevil Soldiers” of Colorado Who Obeyed the Order of General Chase to “Ride Down the Women”

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Quote Mother Jones, Ladies Women, NYT p3, May 23, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 31, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – “Women Victims Tell of Shameful Charge”

From The Day Book of January 30, 1914
-“Rose Slater” is incorrect; Sarah Slator is age 16:

HdLn CO Women Tell of Charge by Chase, Day Book p1, Jan 30, 1914HdLn CO Women Tell of Charge by Chase, Day Book p2, 3, Jan 30, 1914CO Victims of Chase Charge Hammond n Slater, Day Book p2, Jan 30, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: The Day Book: Mother Jones Says, “More Christianity Practiced by Labor Unions Than All the Churches”

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 5, 1913
Mother Jones Opines on Churches, Labor Unions and Christianity

From the Chicago Day Book of December 1, 1913
-Mother Jones  Interviewed by Jane Whitaker:

Mother Jones re Christianity, Day Book p21, Dec 1 1913Mother Jones re Christianity, Day Book p22, Dec 1 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Coal Miners Fight to Win in Colorado by Robert M. Knight, Part I

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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 3, 1913
Coal Miners of Southern Colorado Are Fighting to Win, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of December 1913:

Mother Jones Marches with Boys in Trinidad, ISR p330, Dec 1913

[Part I of II]

THE fight is on. We would have avoided it; we still stand ready at any time to meet representatives of the other side with hopes of effecting a settlement. We hold out the olive branch continually. But because we wish for peace must not be construed as a sign that we are not able to fight. Our past record should dispel such idle dreams. We will aid our brothers in the Colorado fields with all of our resources; with the advice of men of experience; with the hearty good will and sympathy of the vast army of sturdy workers that make up our membership. And these will give a good account of themselves against all the powers of darkness the operators may bring against us.”-Mine Workers Journal.

For months the leading newspapers (?) of Denver and all the capitalist sheets throughout the state, both daily and weekly have been repeating the same rigmarole in regard to the coal strike. While they insult the union men, they anxiously defend themselves against any suspicious of sympathy with the Standard Oil crowd. Their excuses are: A strike is an industrial war for more wages and not one of principle, it does not in their opinion affect the question of morality; finally, even if right and justice is on the side of the miner it is a vain attempt to subjugate by force of a strike, the peaceful relations of No. 26 Broadway [Rockefeller’s HQ in New York City]. Would not open shop conditions free the miner of all his trouble? Therefore, should not the miners welcome the open shop as a happy event instead of seeking a recognition of the union through a “bloody and ruinous strike”?

Let us look a little into the real cause of this strike that dates, back to April 1, 1910, a time when there were not over three thousand organized miners in the state. Our contract expired then and the operators knew we would never be any weaker and perhaps they never more powerful. Therefore they sought to force an open shop by refusing to recognize the miner’s right to organize and sell his labor-power collectively. A strike resulted, one that history will perhaps record as the hardest fought mile of the miner’s road to industrial freedom.

There were but few of us and after several months the busy world outside forgot all about the strike in northern Colorado. Strikes were fought and won in various parts of the country; all the while the miners stood firm, fighting injunctions, suffering jail sentences and other hardships without complaining, yet knowing all the time our only hope for victory was an organized strike in the southern part of the state, as we were unable to seriously affect the market. National organizers were sent south and at once began the task of secretly organizing the slaves in John D.’s hell-holes of Colorado. This work was slow and dangerous requiring three and one-half years’ time (and “God knows” how much cash).

When the civil war was ended in West Virginia the militant workers of the union, including Frank J. Hayes and “Mother Jones” were sent to Colorado to assist in the organization work and with their arrival things began to move apace. Hayes soon asked the operators for a conference and demanded recognition of the union in the name of 15,000 newly organized slaves. The operators ignored all invitations to arbitrate boasting they had five millions of dollars for defense. They began preparing for a strike by importing gun men and thugs from West Virginia through the Baldwin Feltz detective agency. W. H. Reno, chief detective for C. F. & I., also opened a recruiting station in the Dover Hotel, 1744 Glenarm place, and succeeded in sending out of Denver some of the most notorious characters from the red light district and barrel house bums. Upon the arrival of these criminals in the strike zone Sheriffs Gresham and Farr (appointed by the coal companies), gave them deputy sheriff commissions.

The State Federation of Labor held its annual convention at Trinidad August 18 and when the U. M. W. of A. delegates began to arrive in town late Saturday afternoon G. W. Beltcher and Walter Belk, two Baldwin-Feltz heroes, shot and instantly killed Gerald Lippiatt, a district organizer on the main street of Trinidad. A coroner’s jury, composed of “good” business men, rendered a verdict of “justifiable homicide”; District Attorney Hendricks later preferred a charge of murder against them but the courts of Colorado do not value a coal miner’s life very high and Lippiatt’s murderers were promptly released on bond because such human hyenas are needed by the operators to maintain law and order during a strike.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Coal Miners Fight to Win in Colorado by Robert M. Knight, Part I”

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Machine Guns and the Striking Coal Miners of Southern Colorado

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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 2, 1913
Machine Guns Used to Wage War Against Striking Miners of Southern Colorado

From the International Socialist Review of December 1913:

Machine Guns n Coal Miners of So Colorado, ISR p327, Dec 1913

MILITARISM is the heavy fist of the Capitalist class to beat the worker into abject submission. So well do they know the value of machine guns and soldiers that the utmost endeavor is constantly put forth by the Government-the ever-ready Servant of Vested interests, to seduce boys into the ranks of patriotic hirelings. Militiamen and soldiers are working men, hired for a consideration, to shoot and kill other workingmen in the name· of “law and order.”

Brute force, it is evident, is never entirely discarded by the capitalist robber class in their self-assumed right to exploit the worker of the product of his toil. Behind the courts, judges and injunctions, political machinery, class education and superstition, there always lurks the shadow of the big mit and the heavy club-the Military.

The velvet glove only covets the mailed hand.

Where the barons of the middle ages hired his knights and handmen to prey upon and keep in suppression the serfs of the surrounding territory, the coal barons of Colorado, New York and West Virginia maintain their teachers and editors, their preachers and professors, their lawyers, judges and political heelers for the same identical purpose-the robbing of the working class. When these forces fail to work expeditiously then-the honorable Governor is beseeched to call out the National Guard to preserve “law and order.”

The difference between the first exploiter of labor-the man with the knotted club-and John D. Rockefeller the holy, oily Christian philanthropist, is one of degree only. The robbery of the worker is equally complete. The spoils of the idle robber of today is greater than ever. Only the methods have changed.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Trinidad Chronicle News: Zancanelli Confesses to Assassination of Baldwin-Felts Detective George Belcher, Implicates Union Officials

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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 26, 1913
City Jail, Trinidad, Colorado – Striking Miner Zancanelli Confesses

From the Trinidad Chronicle News of November 25, 1913:

Zancanelli Confesses, TCN p1, 2, Nov 25, 1913

Wednesday November 26, 1913 – Trinidad City Jail, Colorado
-Louis Zancanelli Confesses to Killing Baldwin-Felts Gunthug George Belcher

Louis Zancanelli, who was arrested at the scene the night that George Belcher was shot and killed, has confessed. Also, according to General Chase, Zancanelli has named several union officers and organizers as part of a conspiracy to assassinate Belcher. Organizers Anthony B. McGarry and Sam Carter were named as having offered payment to Zancanelli, as well as Adolph Germer, who, it is claimed, arranged the assassination.

Arrest warrants have been issued for McGarry and Carter, but the two men cannot be found. Germer, who is in charge of U. M. W. operations in Walsenburg, has not yet been arrested, but scores of other striking miners have been arrested without warrants and are being held, many of them, incommunicado. Ed Doyle, Secretary-Treasurer of District 15, was seized by the militia on Monday, and Bob Uhlich, head of the miners’ office in Trinidad, was arrested on Tuesday. Uhlich was charged with being a “dangerous agitator,” and was ordered held indefinitely.

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Trinidad Chronicle News: Zancanelli Confesses to Assassination of Baldwin-Felts Detective George Belcher, Implicates Union Officials”

Hellraisers Journal: Baldwin-Felts Gunthug Shot and Killed on Streets of Trinidad; Striking Miner Louis Zancanelli Arrested

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Quote Coming Colorado Strike Song, Dnv ULB p1, Sept 27, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 22, 1913
Trinidad, Colorado – Baldwin-Felts Gunthug Belcher Shot and Killed

Headline from the Trinidad Chronicle News of November 21, 1913:

HdLn BF Gunthug Belcher Killed, TCN p1, Nov 21, 1913

Friday November 21, 1913-Trinidad, Colorado
-Baldwin-Felts Gunthug George W. Belcher Shot and Killed

At about 7:30 last evening the notorious Baldwin-Felts gunthug, George W. Belcher, 26, of West Virginia, was shot and killed as he left the Hausman Drugstore across from the Columbian Hotel in Trinidad. Belcher died at the scene. A striking miner, Louis Zancanelli, was arrested shortly after the shooting by city policemen. Belcher was well known throughout the strike zone for his role in the killing of Brother Gerald Lippiatt in Trinidad in August. He was deputized by Huerfano Sheriff Jefferson Farr in June. He played a part in the attack on the Ludlow Tent Colony in October in which Brother Mack Powell was shot off his horse and killed. Later in October, he was found in the Death Special, lurking about Forbes, by John Lawson and Louie Tikas the morning after the attack on the Forbes Tent Colony which left Brother Luca Varhernick dead. At that time, Belcher was found in the Death Special along with his fellow gunthug Walter Beck and Judge Northcutt [publisher of the Trinidad Chronicle News], attorney for the mine operators.

Along with Belcher, Belk was also sworn in as a Huerfano County deputy which gave them both a license to kill striking miners. Northcutt signed on as defense attorney for Belcher and Belk soon after the murder of Brother Lippiatt. Northcutt is also the attorney for the mine operators, and works with District Attorney Hendrick in the prosecution of striking miners.

Any chance of a fair trial for Louis Zancanelli seems slim.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Baldwin-Felts Gunthug Shot and Killed on Streets of Trinidad; Striking Miner Louis Zancanelli Arrested”

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks on Colorado Coalfield Strike at Washington [D. C.] Central Labor Union Meeting

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Quote Mother Jones, Coming of the Lord, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 10, 1913
Mother Jones Speaks at Meeting of Washington, D. C., Central Labor Union

From The Washington Herald of November 6, 1913:

Mother Jones Speaks at WDC CLU re CO Strike, WDC Hld p2, Nov 6, 1913

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