Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1921: Found in Washington DC with Gompers, Protesting West Virginia’s Jury Bill

Share

Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 25, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1921
-Found in Washington, D. C., Protesting West Virginia’s Jury Bill

From the Washington Evening Star of April 1, 1921:

PROTEST WEST VIRGINIA JURY LEGISLATION
———-
Samuel Gompers and ”Mother” Jones Speak
at Central Labor Meeting.

Mother Jones IN Dly Tx p1 crpd, July 15, 1920

President Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor and “Mother” Jones of the United Mine Workers led the local protest against enactment of the proposed jury legislation for West Virginia at a special mass meeting of Central Labor Union, in Musicians’ Hall, last night.

President Gompers denounced the proposed law as an abrogation of the right guaranteed to a defendant under the Constitution of the United States providing trial by jury and change of venue. He said that a premeditated conspiracy for the destruction of trades unionism was at the basis of the move for the law which will allow a judge to select a jury from any county in the state no matter in which county the trial was being held. He charged that the judiciary, consciously or unconsciously, were aiding in the fight against organized labor.

Mother Jones was vehement in her expressions against the proposed legislation. She flayed local labor for its seemingly supine attitude.

[She said:]

You haven’t any fire in you at all, sitting here with your comfortable air, while tyranny is being wrought in West Virginia, where babes of murdered fathers are starving for their very bread.

At the conclusion of the meeting a resolution was adopted unanimously denouncing the proposed legislation.

The resolution declared that “the legislature of West Virginia has passed a bill which would place the power in the hands of a trial judge in that state to select a jury from counties outside of that in which the trial is being held,” and that if enacted the proposal would mean “the abrogation of the intent of the jury system.”

———-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1921: Found in Washington DC with Gompers, Protesting West Virginia’s Jury Bill”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1920: Found in Nation’s Capital Pleading for Release of Eugene V. Debs

Share

EVD Quote re Mother Jones, AtR, Nov 23, 1907———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 26, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1920:
–Found in Washington, D. C., Pleading for Release of Debs

From Virginia’s Richmond Times-Dispatch of December 15, 1920:

DEBS MUST SERVE TERM,
SAYS PRESIDENT WILSON
———-
Socialist Leader Not Included in Christmas
Pardons in List From White House.
—–

THREE RECEIVE CLEMENCY
———-
Executive’s Refusal Is Blow to Aspirations of Liberals,
Who Have Been Working to That End.
“Mother Jones” Visits Capital.

(By United News.]

Mother Jones, UMWJ p11, July 15, 1920

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24.-Two men convicted of murder and one man convicted of selling drugs unlawfully, received Christmas pardons today from President Wilson. Eugene V. Debs, choice of a million citizens for President in the recent election, did not. His ten-year term, under conviction of violating the espionage act, still stands, subject only to abbreviation through good behavior….

The President’s refusal to extend mercy to Debs is a blow in the face for Socialists and liberals all over the country. The Socialist party, as such, has not interceded in his behalf, but individual members of the party have been campaigning consistently ever since the signing of the peace treaty eighteen months ago to obtain Debs’ release. The Bureau of Civil liberties has been the center of activity of others working for pardon for him.

Mother Jones, aged friend of the miners, spent some time in Washington last week working in Debs’ behalf….

It became known recently that Attorney-General Palmer, who has been considered opposed to clemency for Debs, actually had recommended to the President that the grant the pardon. Partly because this fact was rumored among those working for Debs’ release and because of the frequent revival of the report that the President planned to grant the pardon at Christmas time, the general feeling In this city had been that the Socialist leader would be a free man Christmas Day. The statement that this would not be the case, made Thursday by the United News, was a profound shock, and many still clung to hope until the issuance of the pardon list by the Attorney-General’s office Friday revealed only the three names given above.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1920: Found in Nation’s Capital Pleading for Release of Eugene V. Debs”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1920, Part II: Found Opining on Women, the Ballot, and “the Stormy Course of Labor”

Share

Quote Mother Jones, Suffrage, Ballot, Labor, WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 26, 1920
-Mother Jones News for August 1920, Part II
Found in Washington, D. C., Opining on Women, the Ballot, and Labor Struggles

From The Washington Times of August 29, 1920:

BNR HdLn Women n Ballot per Mother Jones, WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920

SEES CURE IN RIGHT VOTING
——-
Victory Futile, Says 90-Year-Old Leader,
If “Ownership of Bread” is Lost.
——-

“No nation can ever grow greater or more human than its womanhood and I am not expecting the millennium as a result of woman’s privilege to vote,” said Mother Jones, noted woman leader, here today.

Mother Jones re Women n Ballot, WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920

I am anxious to see women stand aide by side with men in developing the human family, but all of the ballots in the world will not change conditions for the people’s welfare unless attention is focused upon the disease causing the trouble.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1920, Part II: Found Opining on Women, the Ballot, and “the Stormy Course of Labor””

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1920, Part II: Speech at Williamson WV Described, Found in Indianapolis, Indiana

Share

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 22, 1920
-Mother Jones News for July 1920, Part II
Speech at Williamson, W. Va., Described; Found in 
Indianapolis

From the Buffalo Labor Journal of July 8, 1920:

MOUNTAIN MEN AROUSED
—–

Mother Jones, Williamson WV Conv, UMWJ p8, July 1, 1920

Williamson, W. Va. [June 20, 1920]-“The motto of West Virginia, ‘Mountainers are always free,’ will be made effective,” declared Mother Jones in an address to over 5,000 miners of Mingo county. A drenching rain did not deter the workers from coming out of the mountains, the tent colonies of evicted strikers and neighboring towns. Mayor Porter of this place assured the meeting that he was in perfect sympathy with their efforts to rid the state of Baldwin-Feltz detective thugs, employed by the coal owners.

Secretary Pauley of the West Virginia Federation of Labor told the miners that trade unionists through out the state are behind them in this fight for law and order.

The recent murder of the mayor of Matewan and other citizens by the Baldwin-Feltz detective thugs, who were attempting to evict miners without due process of law, has aroused organized labor to greater activity against these private armies of the coal owners. The same condition prevails in Logan and McDowell counties. Governor Cornwell ignores these outlaws while delivering lectures and issuing statements on the need for “100 per cent. Americanism.”

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1920, Part II: Speech at Williamson WV Described, Found in Indianapolis, Indiana”

Hellraisers Journal: UMW District 17 Sends Letter to West Virginia Governor in Defense of Mingo County Sheriff

Share

Mingo Co Sprigg Local Sec E Jude re Gunthugs, UMWJ p14, Aug 15, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 20, 1920
Mingo County, West Virginia – District 17 Defends Sheriff Blankenship

From the United Mine Workers Journal of August 15, 1920:

-from page 7:

Pointed Letter Sent
to West Virginia Governor

UMW D17, Mooney Keeney, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

The reconvened scale convention of District 17, which was held at Charleston, W. Va., July 15, 16 and 17, for the purpose of dealing with certain differentials, voted unanimously to send the following communication to Governor Cornwell, of that state:

Charleston, W. Va., July 19, 1920.

Hon. John J. Cornwell, Governor of West Virginia,
Charleston, W. Va.

Dear Sir—In its issue of July 17, 1920, The Charleston Gazette carries copies of a telegram and letter alleged to have been sent by you to Sheriff Blankenship of Mingo county, West Virginia, relating to disorders along the Tug River in that county.

These letters do an injustice to our officials and membership by carrying the imputation that they have failed to co-operate with the civil authorities in the preservation of law and order. They also carry the inference that the officials of this district have appealed to the federal government for federal troops to be sent into Mingo county and other sections of this state. You must certainly know that neither of these imputations is true.

Sheriff Blankenship and the other peace officers of Mingo county will no doubt gladly testify to the fact that the officials of our district have at all times consulted and cooperated with him in an effort to protect the citizens of that county from the lawless gang of gunmen and thugs turned loose upon them by the coal operators, who have endeavored to supersede the civil authorities by the introduction of a private army of their own. In marked contrast to your attitude toward the lawless invasion of that county by private gunmen of the operators, Sheriff Blankenship and his deputies have attempted to uphold the law and to throw its protecting folds around the peaceful and law-abiding citizens of that section. In all of his efforts he has the earnest and whole-hearted support of our officials and membership.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: UMW District 17 Sends Letter to West Virginia Governor in Defense of Mingo County Sheriff”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1920, Part II: Found Described by John D. Barry and Speaking in Streator, Illinois

Share

Quote Labor Unions for Humanity, Streator Dly Free Prs p3, May 24, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 20, 1920
-Mother Jones News for May 1920, Part II
Found Described by John D. Barry and Speaking in Streator, Illinois

From The Pacific Commercial Advertiser of May 15, 1920:

Ways of the World by John D Barry, Pacific Com Adv p4, May 15, 1920

AN EVENING WITH MOTHER JONES

BY JOHN D. BARRY

Mother Jones, NYC Dly Ns p12, May 7, 1920
The News
“New York’s Picture Newspaper”
May 7, 1920

A few months ago I heard someone say: “I wonder where Mother Jones is now. I suppose that, like many an other she has pulled in her horns and gone into retirement.”

I thought of those words as I listened to the old lady in Los Angeles recently, on her way to San Francisco, and heard her declare in that deep, strong voice of hers, the highly developed voice of the practiced orator, that she had passed her ninetieth milestone.

“You’ve got a lot of fight in you yet,” said a man who had himself long been a fighter for good cause.

[Mother Jones announced:]

Whenever there’s a fight for labor, I want to be there. I’m still in the ring.

I wondered if those fights hadn’t been the means of keeping her so well and young. She fulfilled the law emphasized by the psychologists, that life, to be a success, must mean persistent devotion to the ideals of the mind and the spirit. Her ideals had been high. They had exacted hard service. She had lived up to them devotedly.

* * *

She knew that a group of us had come to hear her talk and it was characteristic of her good humor to talk freely for our entertainment and enlightenment. She was evidently a born story teller. She had a dramatic quality that, under different circumstances, might have made her a great actress or a great playwright. Her memory was like a series of brilliant slides. Now she would give us one picture, now another.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1920, Part II: Found Described by John D. Barry and Speaking in Streator, Illinois”

Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Deadly Battle Fought by Company Gunmen and Miners at Matewan

Share

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 8, 1920
Matewan, West Virginia – Miners and Citizens Battle Company Gunthugs

From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 1, 1920:

Matewan v Gunthugs, HdLn UMWJ p5, June 1, 1920

Ten or twelve men were killed in a battle between Baldwin-Felts gunmen and citizens of the town of Matewan, W. Va., on May 19. The exact number of deaths has not been learned, because it is said that one or more bodies were lost in the Tug river when some of the men attempted to swim across. The battle was the result of activities of the gunmen who were in the employ of the Stone Mountain Coal Company. It has been impossible also to obtain a correct list of the names of the dead.

Matewan is in the very heart of the Tug river field, one of the most notorious hotbeds of nonunionism in West Virginia. Coal operators in that field have for years resisted with all of their power the efforts of the miners to organize and join the United Mine Workers of America. They have employed all of the bloody tactics that have prevailed in such fields for many years, including the use of gunmen and thugs, the blackjack and other methods of repression.

A short time ago the miners employed at a mine owned by the Stone Mountain Company undertook to form an organization. The company immediately applied the usual remedy. It discharged the men from its employ. Then the company decided to evict the men and their families from the houses in which they lived and which were owned by the company. It was the thought of the company that this would help to break up the movement for the organization of a local union.

A large force of “detectives” was hired from the Baldwin-Felts agency at Bluefield, W. Va., and sent to Matewan to evict the miners and their families. An Associated Press dispatch from Matewan told the story of the battle as follows:

The shooting, in which Baldwin-Felts detectives clashed with citizens and the police, followed the eviction of a number of miners from Stone Mountain Coal Company houses yesterday, according to the authorities. Two mines were closed recently when it became known that an effort was being made to unionize them. The miners claim that the detectives were sent to dispossess families of workers who had been discharged.

A shot, said by the authorities to have been fired from the coat pocket of Albert Felts, a detective, and which ended the life of Mayor Cabell Testerman, started the battle. An instant later Felts, according to authorities, was killed by “Sid” Hatfield, chief of police. The shooting then became general, and when the battle ended seven detectives, the mayor, and four miners were dead and three other persons badly wounded. Felts, it is said, had a warrant for the arrest of Chief Hatfield on a charge that he had taken a prisoner from detectives some time ago. The mayor was reading the warrant when he was killed.

It was said that the gunmen wore badges as deputy sheriff’s of Harlan county, Ky., and that they had been imported from there to Matewan.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Deadly Battle Fought by Company Gunmen and Miners at Matewan”

Hellraisers Journal: Arthur Gleason on Logan County, West Virginia: “Private Ownership of Public Officials” -Part II

Share

Quote Mother Jones, Organize Logan Co, Nation p724, May 29, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 31, 1920
Logan County, West Virginia – Coal Operators Own Public Officials, Part II

From The Nation of May 29, 1920:

Private Ownership Of Public Officials

By ARTHUR GLEASON

[Part II of II.]

WV Coal Fields Witnesses on Gunthug Terror, Wlg Int p1, Oct 1, 1919
Wheeling Intelligencer
October 1, 1919

There is only one incorporated town in Logan County, and that is the town of Logan, with a population of 3,500. Unidentified strangers are not wanted in Logan. The train that carries you the three hours from the city of Huntington into Guyan Valley is used by men who make it their business to find out yours. Deputies meet the train, as you pull into Logan—Dow Butcher, Buck White, Squire White, and Pat Murphy. You are sized up. This affectionate interest is directed for one purpose—to detect organizers and to invite them to go home. Commercial travelers, social workers, business and professional men pass in and out. Order is well kept; all the decencies are observed. Logan is a prosperous, busy little city. I stayed over night, received a welcome, and met a group of excellent sincere local folks, nurses, teachers, health experts, coal magnates. They are busy in every good work. They draw the line in this one matter alone: Logan County is not to be unionized. This led to an amusing mistake some time previous to my own visit. Mr. J. L. Heizer told me of it; it was his own experience in Logan. Mr. Heizer is chief clerk of the Department of Mines for the State of West Virginia. He is also Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Pythias for the State. He went to Logan to induct certain brethren. Mr. Heizer said on the train to Mr. Wayne Chafin that he had heard a lot about Don Chafin, and wanted to meet him. In the middle of the night, Mr. Heizer said,

When I went to the hotel room, two men were standing at the door, and one of them stepped forward and said: “I understand you want to meet Don Chafin?”

I said “Yes.”

He said, “By God, you’ve met him now.”

A young man with me, E. R. Dalton of Huntington, tried to pacify Mr. Chafin, who stuck a gun into the stomach of Mr. Dalton and said, “Young man, you get to bed, and get there quick. I can kill both of you in this room.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Arthur Gleason on Logan County, West Virginia: “Private Ownership of Public Officials” -Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1920, Part I: Found Supporting Shipyard Strikers of San Francisco and Vicinity

Share

Quote Mother Jones, Home Good Fight Going On, Ptt Prs p17, Sept 24, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 7, 1920
-Mother Jones News for March 1920, Part I
Found Supporting Shipyard Strikers of San Francisco and Vicinity

From The Los Angeles Times of March 11, 1920:

Mother Jones Seeks Shipyard, LA Tx p23, Mar 11, 1920———-

Mother Jones, Crpd Lg, Chg Tb p120, Oct 26, 1919

“Mother”‘ Jones, one of the most widely known union labor agitator in the world, who has been resting in this city for the last week, will leave today for Oakland to lend her support to the shipyard strikers in the Bay cities, according to information given out yesterday at the oil workers headquarters, room 111, Central Labor Temple.

The aged agitator last night stated that she did not know whether she was going to Oakland today or not, and intimated that it was none of the newspaper’s business what she was going to do. But at the home of Frank Flaherty, 2759 Marengo street, where “Mother” is staying, it was announced that she would leave tonight.

A telegram also was sent to V. C. Doaslaugh, secretary of the Alameda county Metals Trade Council, yesterday, in which it was stated that “Mother” Jones would arrive there Friday. The message was signed by C. B. Harvey, vice-president of the local Oil Workers’ Union.

“Mother” Jones came to Los Angeles to recuperate from a nervous breakdown, it was said at the Central Labor Temple, yesterday. The elderly woman participated in the recent fiasco of the Pennsylvania Steel workers, and report indicate that the collapse of that strike brought on an attack of “nerves” which caused her to retire to this city.

During her stay in this city, “Mother” Jones has had only one opportunity to talk. Last Sunday [March 7th] she addressed a few union laborites at the Labor Temple.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1920, Part I: Found Supporting Shipyard Strikers of San Francisco and Vicinity”

Hellraisers Journal: Don Chafin, Logan County Deputy Sheriff, Shot by William Petry, Vice-President of District 17, UMWA

Share

“We’ll hang Don Chafin to sour apple tree…”
-Miners of West Virginia
———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 26, 1919
Charleston, West Virginia – Don Chafin Shot at District 17 Headquarters

From The West Virginian of September 24, 1919:

William Petry VP D17 UMW, WDC Hld p2, May 7, 1922
William Petry

LOGAN DEPUTY SHOT IN
MINE WORKERS’ OFFICES
—–

Vice President Petry, of United Mine Workers,
District Seventeen, Fatally Wounds Deputy
Sheriff Armed With Warrants.
—–

(By Associated Press)

CHARLESTON, Sept. 24Don Chafin, deputy sheriff of Logan county, here to make the arrest of a man wanted for trial in Logan county was shot and seriously wounded here today in the offices of the headquarters of district No. 17, United Mine Workers of America, by vice president Petry of the Mine Workers organization. Chafin who was shot over the heart, was taken to a local hospital where it is said his condition is critical. Petry was arrested and taken before a justice of the peace where he gave bond in the sum of $10,000 for his appearance before the Grand Jury.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Don Chafin, Logan County Deputy Sheriff, Shot by William Petry, Vice-President of District 17, UMWA”