Tag: Death Special

Hellraisers Journal: Coal Strike is On in Southern Colorado Coalfields; Mass Exodus from Company Towns into Tent Colonies

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Rise Up and Strike, UMW D15 Conv Sept 16 Trinidad CO, Dnv Exp Sept 17, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal- Wednesday September 24, 1913
Southern Colorado-Thousands of Striking Miners and Families Exit Company Towns

From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of September 23, 1913:

HdLn Coal Strike Begins in Southern Colorado, CNs p1, Sept 23, 1913

A meeting was held at Sopris this morning and talks were made by Frank J. Hayes and “Mother” Jones. A meeting will be held at Ludlow this afternoon. These meetings will continue from day to day at differenct camps to “keep the enthusiasm going”, as Vice President Hayes intimated last night.

Mother Jones worked up to a high pitch bordering on frenzey deliverd an impassioned address to more than three hundred coal miners at Sopris this morning. The meeting was held under canvass and the venerable labor leader sought to stir up the fires of revolet in the breast of every miner. While the speaking was going on scores of miners were receiving union cards. International vice president Frank J. Hayes also spoke. There was a good deal of enthusiasm manifested.

[Statement of Vice-President Frank Hayes to C-N reporter:]

We have conducted a quiet, dignified campaign. We feel confident the operators will accede to our demands in the near future. The miners by their action today have proved that they desire to enjoy better working conditions and work as union men and enjoy the same rights and privileges as the miners of Wyoming and neighboring states.

This is an age of co-operation and we demand the same right as the mine owners assert to band ourselves together for the purpose of promoting social and economic welfare. The statutes of Colorado concede us this right and the right to sell our labor collectively. We cannot surrender this legal right.

In view of the prosperity of this particular company [C. F. & I.] which also reflects the prosperity of other big corporations, we see no good reason why the miners should not enjoy more of the comforts and refinements of modern civilization. We have repeatedly sought to secure a joint conference but without success. We are still waiting for a conference to adjust the present controversy. If working conditions are as good as the operators say they are, then the operators ought not to fear to meet the miners in joint conference.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “Fog” by John Reed; Editor Max Eastman Honors a Life Sacrificed to Revolution

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote John Reed, Weak Gov Rebellious People, 10 Days Chp III, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 8, 1920
Max Eastman: “John Reed sacrificed a life to the revolution…”

From The Liberator of December 1920
 -“Fog” by John Reed:

POEM by John Reed, Fog re Death, Liberator p4, Dec 1920

———-

JOHN REED

[-from Speech by Max Eastman.]

John Reed smaller, Liberator p9, Nov 1920

WE have been reading in the great newspapers of this city the last few days very appreciative accounts of the life and character of John Reed. They have permitted themselves to admire his courage and honesty and the great spirit of humorous adventure that was in him. They permit themselves to admire him in spite of the fact that he died an outlaw and a man wanted by the police as a criminal. They admire him because he is dead. But we speak to a dIfferent purpose. We pay our tribute to John Reed because he was an outlaw. We do not have to examine the indictment, or find out what special poison the hounds of the Attorney-General had on their teeth against John Reed. We know what his crime was-it is the oldest in all the codes of history, the crime of fighting loyalty to the slaves. And we pay our tribute to him now that he lies dead, only exactly as we used to pay it when he stood here making us laugh and feel brave, because he was so full of brave laughter. Our tribute to John Reed is a pledge that the cause he died for shall live.

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Hellraisers Journal: Butte Daily Bulletin: At Matewan, W. V: Baldwin-Felts Gunmen “have at last met their just deserts.”

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 23, 1920
Matewan, West Virginia – Gunthug Brothers Invade the Wrong Town

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of May 22, 1920:

Matewan, Felts Bros Got What Needed, BDB p1, May 22, 1920———-

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Butte Daily Bulletin: At Matewan, W. V: Baldwin-Felts Gunmen “have at last met their just deserts.”” →

WE NEVER FORGET the Men, Women and Little Children Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925———-

WE NEVER FORGET WNF List of Ludlow Martyrs ed———

Sept 15, 1913 – Trinidad, Colorado
Convention of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America

The delegates opened their convention by singing The Battle Cry of Union:

We will win the fight today, boys,
We’ll win the fight today,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union;
We will rally from the coal mines,
We’ll fight them to the end,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.

The Union forever, hurrah boys, hurrah!
Down with the Baldwins and up with the law;
For we’re coming, Colorado, we’re coming all the way,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.

The miners faced the grim prospect of going out on strike against the powerful southern coalfield companies, chief among them, John D Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. The coal operators had steadfastly refused to recognize the Union and had ignored all attempts at negotiation.

The miners had had their fill of dangerous working conditions, crooked checkweighmen, long hours, and low pay. They lived in peonage in company towns, were paid in company scrip, and were forced to shop for their daily needs in high-priced company stores which kept them always in debt. But, mostly they hated the notorious company guard system. Every attempt to organize had been met with brutality on the part of the coal operators.

Mother Jones addressed the convention for over an hour, urging the men to:

Rise up and strike! …Strike and stay with it as we did in West Virginia. We are going to stay here in Southern Colorado until the banner of industrial freedom floats over every coal mine. We are going to stand together and never surrender…

Pledge to yourselves in this convention to stand as one solid army against the foes of human labor. Think of the thousands who are killed every year and there is no redress for it. We will fight until the mines are made secure and human life valued more than props. Look things in the face. Don’t fear a governor; don’t fear anybody…You are the biggest part of the population in the state. You create its wealth, so I say, “Let the fight go on; if nobody else will keep on, I will.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Explosion at CF&I’s Primero Mine Kills 79 Miners in Colorado; Company Continues to Withhold News

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Life Cheaper Than Props, Trinidad CO, Sept 16, 1913, Hse Com p2630
Mother Quotes CF&I Mine Manager
———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 5, 1910
Trinidad, Colorado – Primero Mine Disaster Leaves 300-400 Children Fatherless

From The Fort Collins Express of February 3, 1910:

Primero MnDs, HdLn 79 Dead Explosion, Fort Collins Exp p1, Feb 3, 1910—–

THE REPORT OF THE EXPLOSION REACHED HERE AT SIX O’CLOCK TONIGHT BY A MESSENGER AND TELEPHONE THE WIRES WERE PURPOSELY CUT OR WERE BROKEN BY SOME UNKNOWN CAUSE BETWEEN HERE AND THE SCENE OF THE DISASTER, FOR JUST AFTER THE EXPLOSION THE WIRES PUT OUT OF COMMISSION AND ONLY MEAGER NEWS HAS BEEN RECEIVED FROM THE MINE.

At 11:30 tonight a messenger reported from a point about half way between here and Primero that fifteen bodies bad been recovered and that 135 more were in the mine with no hope of being rescued alive.

The cause of the explosion is unknown. A rescue party that left this city is expected back about 2 o’clock in the morning with complete reports of the disaster.

The criticism being directed against the company owning the mine is very severe as there is an apparent attempt to prevent the details from being made public. A large number of men who worked in the mine live in Trinidad, going back and forth on miners’ trains each morning and evening. Great excitement prevails in this city among the wives and children of the entombed men.

———-

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