Tag: Dot Smith

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1911, Part II: Found Pleading Cause of Striking Miners of Westmoreland County

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Greensburg PA Cmas 1910, Steel 2, p83—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 20, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1911, Part II
Found Pleading Cause of Striking Miners of Westmoreland County 

From The Indianapolis Star of June 28, 1911:

WOMAN PLEADS FOR MINERS
———-

“MOTHER JONES TELLS TALE
———-
Describes Hardships of Pennsylvania Strikers,
but Urges Board to Encourage Men
to Continue Fight.

Mother Jones crpd ed, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

Following an address by “Mother” Jones, known to all miners of the country, members of the executive board of the United Mine Workers of America yesterday adopted resolutions relative to the strike in the Irwin district in western Pennsylvania, where about 6 000 mine workers have been out for a year and a half.

Mrs. Jones, who is 79 years old, has spent most of her time in the strike region during the past year and is thoroughly familiar with conditions there. She told the members of the executive board of the hardships which the miners and their families have endured during the strike and urged the board to adopt resolutions commending the strikers and advising them to continue the fight.

Her address had the desired effect upon the members of the board, and a committee was appointed to draw up resolutions.

PLEDGES CONTINUED SPPORT.

The resolutions provide that the executive board indorse the strikers and urge them to continue their fight, and the board pledges its continued support to the miners. It is also provided that a general meeting be held in the region, at which a vote is to be taken to ascertain if a majority of the miners favor the continuance of the strike

The miners organization is spending about $90,000 a month to support the families of the strikers. It is said that the operators refuse to recognize the organization in the district and will not consider any compromise.

Francis Feehan president of the Pittsburg district and a number of organizers also appeared before the board yesterday to present their views on the strike.

“Mother” Jones expects to return to the Irwin district soon to continue her work among the families of the strikers.

—————

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Writes to Peter Powers; Tells of Women and Children Thrown into Rat-Infested Jail

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, PA Strike Greensburg Women Sing Jail, Ab p146, 1925—————–

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 29, 1911
Mother Jones Tells of Women and Children in Rat-Infested Jail 

From the Evansville Press of June 29, 1911:

PETER POWERS TALK
-WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIGHT JAIL RATS.

PA Miners Strike Westmoreland Sadie Baker in Jail crpd by G Gardner, Ark Dem p6, June 20, 1911

Gilson Gardner’s story of women and girls thrown into a vermin-infested rat-hole called a jail because they “disturbed the peace” by beating a tin can and singing at a strikebreaker in Westmoreland-co, Pa., is not overdrawn.

I have just received a letter from Mother Jones, “the angel of the miners,” who has gone into Westmoreland-co, Pa., to lead in the unequal fight of the impoverished men, women and children against the gigantic corporations.

[Writes Mother:]

There were three generations in jail because they could not pay $10 apiece in fines to a corporation ‘squire, who might as well have demanded $10,000 as $10. There was a mother, her three months’ old baby and a grandmother besides two little children who could not walk, huddled together in a foul prison fighting off rats. Can such conditions prevail in Russia? I doubt it. I know they would not be tolerated in monarchial England or Germany. The men of this nation who permit such outrages are cowards.

The so-called judge who sentenced the women and children to jail without mercy is an ardent church-goer. Last Sunday 2,000 miners and their wives and children marched-it’s an old custom and second nature of miners to hold processions. The church people sent the Cossacs to tell us not to play the band or do any singing, as they were praying. Perhaps if we had disobeyed we would nave been in contempt or court.

PA Miners Strike Westmoreland Women n Babies in Jail by G Gardner, Ark Dem p6, June 20, 1911
Mrs. Dot Smith, Aged 19, and Her Three-
Months-Old Baby, Sentenced to 20 Days
in County Jail For Beating a Tomato Can
and Making Sarcastic Remarks While
a Scab Was Passing Her House.

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Gilson Gardner: Mothers and Babes Locked Up in Rat Infested Jail at Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, PA Strike Greensburg Women Sing Jail, Ab p146, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 22, 1911
Greensburg, Pennsylvania – Mothers and Babes Locked Up in Rat-Infested Jail

From the Arkansas Democrat of June 20, 1911:

MOTHERS AND BABES TO JAIL
———-
In Famous Westmoreland Coal Strike,
Which Has Been in Progress Nearly
18 Months, Company is Said to be
Taking Severe Steps to End Trouble.
———-

(By Gilson Gardner.)

PA Miners Strike Westmoreland Women n Babies in Jail crpd by G Gardner, Ark Dem p6, June 20, 1911

Greensburg, Pa.-(Staff Special.)-The famous Westmoreland coal strike, which has been in progress nearly a year and a half, has reached a new stage. To win, the coal companies now find it necessary to send mothers with babes and little girls to the county bastile.

A little crippled girl, 14 years old, was sitting on the front porch of her home when the village scab went by on his way from work. The little girl began to laugh at the scab and to sing, “Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown?” For this the town constable, Pat McDonough, in behalf of the Westmoreland Coal Company, swore out a warrant and had it served by the deputy constable. The little crippled girl was arrested, taken to Irwin, a village two miles away, where she was brought up before the local justice of the peace-“Squire” H. L. Meeroff. Tho squire found the cripple girl guilty of “breaking the peace” and sentenced her to the county jail for 20 days. So the prisoner was taken 10 miles to Greensburg, where she was locked up in a jail provided for hardened criminals.

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Hellraisers Journal: Miners’ Wives, with Babes in Arms, Arrested for Serenading Scabs, Sing on Their Way to Jail

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, PA Strike Greensburg Women Sing Jail, Ab p146, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 4, 1911
Greensburg, Pennsylvania – Miners’ Wives Sing on Their Way to Jail

From the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader of June 2, 1911:

MINERS’ WIVES ARE JAILED WHEN
THEY SHOUT AT WORKERS
———-
Eleven Torn from Families on Complaint of
Coal Company Officials at Greensburg. 
———-

TWO WERE CARRYING BABES 
—–
Prisoners Will Have to Spend Thirty Days
in Jail Unless Judge Changes Mind.
—–

PA Miners Strike Westmoreland Irwin Greensburg, Women Sing Jail, Ptt Dly Pst p4, June 2, 1911

GREENSBURG, Pa., June 2.-With tearful faces, but defiant in their stand for their husbands, who are striking miners in the Irwin coal fields, eleven women were torn from their husbands and children, who had accompanied them to the Westmoreland county jail, and locked up to serve thirty-day sentences, imposed for disorderly conduct.

The women are from Westmoreland City, and it was alleged by the prosecutors, who are officers of the coal company, that the women had made the night hideous for the inhabitants with their shouting and had been a menace to the men who were working for the company [scabs].

They were arrested on warrants issued before Squire H. A. Meerhoff, of Irwin, who sentenced them.

Two of the prisoners, Mrs. Margaret Means and Mrs. Dot Smith, carried babies in their arms. A crowd gathered around the jail when it became known that a band of strikers wives were being locked up.

Judge A. D. McConnell ordered twenty strikers who were brought before him from Latrobe and Bradenville, charged by the Latrobe Connellsville Coke Company with violating the court’s injunction, to pay the costs or stand committed. They were also ordered to remove their camp at Superior No. 2 within the next five days or be sent to jail.

This is the second bunch of strikers who were ordered to pay the costs for violating the court’s injunction issued a year ago restraining them from marching “by or near” company property. There is some talk among the United Mine Workers of making an appeal from the court’s decision, especially in the matter of ordering them to remove their camp, which is located on private property which they have leased.

—————

[Newsclip added from Pittsburg Post of June 2, 1911]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Miners’ Wives, with Babes in Arms, Arrested for Serenading Scabs, Sing on Their Way to Jail” →