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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 1, 1903
Indianapolis, Indiana – United Mine Workers Issues Strike Call for District 15
From The Rocky Mountain News of October 30, 1903:
Note error above: District 15 coal miners are members of the United Mine Workers of America, not the Western Federation of Miners (metal miners).
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 15, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1912, Part I
Found in Illinois, Denver, Colorado and Tacoma, Washington
From The Sibley Journal of March 1, 1912:
Walker to Head Miners.
The closing day of the Illinois Mine Workers’ state convention was featured by the announcement of election from the vote held December 14, 1911.
It was generally thought at that time that all the officers would be re-elected. There was but one exception in this, Paul Smith defeating Adolph Germer for the vice presidency. President Walker and Secretary Treasurer McDonald were re-elected by large majorities…..
Aside from the announcement of the election results, a two-hour address by ”Mother” Jones, a woman, eighty years old, who is a Socialist lecturer of national prominence and called the “Miners’ Mascot,” in which she denounced woman suffrage, was the feature. She declared that women are not mentally equipped to acquire a proper knowledge of politics, and she attributed the defeat of the recall in Colorado to the women voters. In closing her address, “Mother” Jones detailed the conditions brought about by the railroad strike in Colorado and asked the miners of Illinois to donate a benefit fund of $1,000 to the strikers. A committee was named to investigate the matter…..
[Photograph added.]
From The Illinois State Journal of March 2, 1912:
From the Denver Rocky Mountain News of March 5, 1912:
NORTHERN COLORADO COAL
STRIKE ENDS IN 8 MINES
———-6 KILLED, 10 MAIMED 100 BEATEN,
BLOODY RECORD OF WAR
———-
Strikebreakers’ Refusals to Quit Fields Cause
of Most Serious Outbreaks.
———-“Six men killed, ten maimed for life and more than 100 waylaid and beaten.” This is the record of bitterness between the opposing forces of the labor war in the Northern coal were from the ranks of both strikers and strike breakers…..
One of the striking features of the struggle occurred a few months ago, when “Mother Jones,” a well known national figure in the labor world, went into the district to organize the wives and sisters of the striking miners. She received an enthusiastic reception, but when the women attempted to carry out their ideas the strikers objected so strenuously that they were forced to abandon their militant plans for a campaign.
———-
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of March 21, 1912:
“MOTHER” JONES LEAVES DENVER.
———-“Mother” Jones, who has been in Denver for several days, addressed the Federated Shopmen in their convention in Machinists’ hall this week. She is preparing to tour the northwest in the interests of the shopmen. She will go to Tacoma and then travel East as far as St. Paul.
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 27, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1912, Part I
Found in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana
From the Appeal to Reason of February 3, 1912:
The California Building Trades convention [of late January] unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a conference between the Socialist Party, the state A. F. of L. and the State Building Trades, with a view to united political action for the working class. Job Harriman, Mother Jones and Alexander Irvine were among the speakers at the convention.
—————
[Photograph added.]
From the Denver Rocky Mountain News of February 7, 1912:
ROOSEVELT ‘MONKEY CHASER,’
DECLARES ‘MOTHER’ JONES
———-“WALL STREET WILL ELECT HIM NEXT PRESIDENT,”
SAYS WOMAN LABOR LEADER.
———-That Theodore Roosevelt is a “monkey chaser,” but will be elected the next president of the United States despite the fact, is the opinion of “Mother” Jones, who arrived in Denver yesterday to investigate labor conditions.
“I have no doubt that Roosevelt will be the next president,” she says. “Of course, I have no use for him, but he plays to the galleries, and a Wall street will elect him.
“He is the fellow who sent guns to murder the working men in the strike of 1904 [Telluride, November 1903].
“Taft is right in with him, but I think that Taft is more of a gentleman than Roosevelt is.”
“Mother” Jones will make an address at Eagle hall tomorrow night, under the auspices of the Western Federation of Miners.
———-
From Denver’s United Labor Bulletin of February 8, 1912:
“MOTHER” JONES SPEAKS TO
FEDERATED SHOPMENStrike Is Already Won, Says “Mother”
Many Entertainments for Benefit of Strikers“Mother” Jones spoke to a large crowd at Eagles’ hall Wednesday night, and during her address but one man left the hall. She spoke to the striking Federated Shopmen, and her discourse covered a period of two and one-half hours. “Mother” Jones has passed through the entire life of the labor movement in the United States. The daughter of a miner and later a miner’s wife, she was reared and spent her life in the labor movement. She has a wonderful memory, and in her address she followed the evolution of the labor movement in the United States, and told of how labor has been exploited by capital to the detriment of the human race.
“Mother” Jones has been traveling over the Harriman system, and said that the strike of the shopmen was won now, and it was only a matter of time until the roads will sign up. She said that on one occasion where a train on which she was riding had a nine-hour schedule it took the train thirty-six hours to make the trip.
From Rawlins Republican (Wyoming) of February 8, 1912:
MOTHER JONES HERE
Last Thursday evening in the Danish hall Mother Jones spoke to the striking shopmen and several of their friends. The crowd was very enthusiastic and frequently applauded the speaker.
Mother Jones is a strong and vigorous speaker and does not hesitate to call a spade a spade. She assured the strikers that she was confident that a settlement of their troubles would be made in the near future, advised them to remain firm in their demands and not desert the cause for which they had been fighting for so long. She urged the men strongly to remain away from the saloons and gambling houses and prophesied that if this was not done much discredit would be thrown upon the cause they represent.
As is usual in labor leaders, she strongly denounced the capitalist class and even took a shot at several of she religious organizations.
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 15, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1910:
-Found Visiting Girard, Kansas, and Speaking to Miners at Cincinnati
From The Pittsburg Daily Headlight of March 11, 1910:
Mother Jones the prominent Socialist lecturer has been in Girard this week.
From Hellraisers Journal of March 27, 1910:
Cincinnati, Ohio-Speech of Mother Jones at Miners’ Special Convention
From The Topeka State Journal of March 24, 1910:
SOUNDS CALL TO ARMS.
—–
“Mother Jones” Arouses Coal Miners
to Great Enthusiasm.
—–
Cincinnati. O., March 24.-Bituminous coal operators and miners of Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania, entered their subscale meeting this afternoon with almost certainty that a disagreement would be reported to the joint committee, that the joint conference would reach a like disagreement before tomorrow noon and that the International Convention of United Mine Workers would then be asked to say whether it should be industrial peace or war after April 1.
Operators of the three states immediately concerned, held a secret conference all morning and at the conclusion announced that the vote had been unanimous to resist all of the miners’ demand. The attitude of the miners in the international convention was shown during an address by “Mother” Jones when she declared:
If the operators force a fight we are all in trim to give them the hottest fight they ever had in their lives.
The convention was almost stampeded and the cheering did not cease for several minutes.
[She shouted:]
Line up, we are ready for war.
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 7, 1910
Cherry, Illinois – Scene of Mass Murder of Men and Boys, Part I
From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:
[Part I of II.]
AS your brother one of the four hundred who perished in the Cherry coal mine November 13th? Or was it your father? Your husband? Your son? My brother was there. My father. My son. I helped carry them out. They were cold in death. They were covered with coal dust and swollen from black damp.
I am telling you this story from what I have seen with my own eyes. Not from hearsay.
I went from Chicago right to Cherry. With thousands of others I stood and looked from the outside. Then I broke through the line and joined the volunteer rescuers. I put on overalls, jacket, cap and lamp and went down into the tomb that contained over four hundred victims—a few living, most of them dead.
I helped plug the entries to prevent the fire from spreading. I had a hand in timbering where the roof was loose, or where collars were breaking. I cut legs off the dead mules so we could get them through the passageways and clear the track for bringing out the men. I was with the gang that found nineteen dead in one pile and twenty-one in another, thirty-seven in a third and one hundred and sixty-two in a fourth.
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 29, 1909
Cherry, Illinois – Heartbreaking Scenes Described by Luella Twining
From the Appeal to Reason of November 27, 1909:
From page 5:
MINERS MURDERED.
—–
Owners of St. Paul Mine Guilty of Manslaughter.
-Cherry Under Martial Law.
—–BY [LUELLA] TWINING
Special Correspondence to the Appeal.
Cherry, Ill., Nov. 17.-To stay in Cherry, Ill., one half an hour is to be convinced that the miners entombed there were murdered as surely as though the mine owners had taken them into the road and shot them down one by one.
“Why were the miners kept at work two hours after the fire had broken out in the mine?” is the question asked by the bereaved widows. It is not put in that form. I heard it asked in many different ways. A German woman looked at me wildly and asked, “What for they no tell my man? He work two hours by the fire. Now he die. They murder my man.” These poor women do not wait for the mine owners to answer. “They care for mine and no for man,” a Lithuanian said to me and indeed one is forced to believe it. They do not state the question as clearly as Karl Marx’s exposition of the profit system, but it is equally as illuminating. If the United Mine Workers should murder 500 mine owners would they not be punished?
———-
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 17, 1919
Mother Jones News for April 1919, Part II
-Found Speaking in Peoria, Illinois
On Sunday April 6th, Mother Jones spoke at the Peoria Coliseum on behalf of Tom Mooney. She shared the stage with Duncan MacDonald and T. H. Tippett, both of whom also delivered addresses.
Sunday April 6, 1919, Peoria, IL
Mother Jones Speaks at “Mooney Day” Event
Friends, fellow workers, we are living today in the greatest age the world has ever passed through in human history. The whole world is ablaze with revolt. The uprising among the unfortunate workers is suppressed in the daily press. I took a clipping while in New York the other day, out the New York World, which said that the human race has never in human history passed through an age like this.
There was once back in Greece, a young man, two hundred years after the world’s greatest agitator was marred, crucified, hung, maligned, vilified, by the powers there. There arose in Carthage an agitation and the courts became uneasy. They sent down to Carthage in those days a force that arrested all those who were in the agitation movement which was eighteen hundred years ago. We have not changed the program very much since. We have talked a lot about Christianity, but we have never seen any Christianity yet. There has never been any Christianity on the earth and there is not going to be any for a while yet! They held them in slavery or sold them, if they did not need them, and so, they brought them into court.
Among those was a young man and the judge said to him “Who ar you?” He said, “I am a man,” a member of the human family. The judge asked, “Why do you carry on this agitation” The boy replied, “Because I belong to a class that in human history have always been crucified, robbed, murdered, jailed, maligned, vilified, starved and because I belong to that class, I feel it is my duty to awaken that class to their power and their duty.” He was sentenced, of course.
