Tag: Frank Hayes

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Mine Workers “We haven’t taken any backwater yet and we don’t intend to.”

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Quote Mother Jones, Last Great Battle, UMWC p420, Jan 26, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 30, 1910
Indianpolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention

From Stenographic Report of Convention by Mary Burke East:

[Eighth Day-Wednesday, January 26th, Morning Session]

Mother Jones, Ipl Str p3, Jan 25, 1910 copy

President [Thomas L.] Lewis—We have with us this morning a person who has visited our convention for a number of years, and who is probably known to a great number of the delegates present. To those who have worked in the non-union districts Mother Jones needs no introduction. To those who have attended our conventions for a number of years she needs no introduction. To the new delegates who are here I may say she has done a great deal of work for this organization, especially during strike periods. I take pleasure in presenting to you Mother Jones.

[Mother Jones]-Mr. President and Fellow Workers—The struggle of the workers down the ages has been that of blood; it has been that of hunger. Today the struggle is reaching its final crisis. The forces are lined up against us. Today we are waiting for the last great battle of man with man, and when this battle is over humanity will be free, there will be no robber class and no working class. I heard a speaker who represented the steel industry portray the conditions of the workers in his organization. It is well to consider where we stand today. We are up against a condition unknown to the industrial bodies of this nation in its past history. Go over to China and you will find 20,000 men working in one mill alone, and for his work each one receives 7 cents a day. You can see they have almost crushed out the organization of steel workers, and they are reaching out to crush other organizations. Therefore it is necessary for us to unite our forces. I agree with the Vice-President of this organization and with the president of Illinois that the time is here when the steel workers, the mine workers and the railroad men must join hands and say to the pirates of the human race that they can no longer rob us and murder us.

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Hellraisers Journal: Luella Twining Reports for Appeal to Reason from the Scene of Cherry Mine-Fire Disaster

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Quote Mother Jones, Wake fr Slumber, AtR p2, Oct 23, 1909———-

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 MnDs, Thanksgiving Day, Spk Prs p1, Nov 25, 1909

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?

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1919-Found Messaging Mooney Convention from Los Angeles

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Quote Mother Jones, Courts n Justice, ES2 p190, to Mooney Conv, Jan 14, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 22, 1919
Mother Jones News for January 1919
-Found in Los Angeles, California

On January 14th, Mother Jones sent a message from Los Angeles to the National Labor Convention for the defense of Tom Mooney which opened in Chicago on that date.

Telegram from Mother Jones:

Mother Jones, Eve Rv E Liverpool OH p2, Jan 4, 1919

January 14, 1919

To Ed Knockels,
166 Washington St.,
Chicago, Illinois

To the delegates in Convention greeting. May your resolutions be tempered with reason. Courts of our country must be exonerated. Convention must demand courts be cleansed of corporation judges. Place men on bench who will consider justice before dollars. Blot must be removed from courts. If the workers lose faith in courts then where are they to turn for justice.

Mother Jones.

———-

[Photograph added from The Evening Review (East Liverpool, Ohio) of January 4, 1919.]

From Nebraska’s Lincoln Daily Star of January 15, 1919:

LABOR RADICALS BADLY DEFEATED IN FIRST CLASH
—–

CHICAGO, Jan. 15.-After a fight which occupied the entire morning session the conservatives defeated the radicals by a vote or 2 to 1 today in organizing the national labor congress, called to consider plans for obtaining a new trial for Thomas J. Mooney, serving a life term for murder growing out of the San Francisco preparedness day parade bomb out rage.

[…..]

At the opening of today’s session Chairman Nolan made a plea for harmony and urged the delegates to speedily get to the consideration of the business for which the convention was called.

A message of greeting from “Mother” Jones at Los Angeles was read, in which she expressed the opinion that a rehabilitation of the country’s judicial system was necessary. “If labor loses confidence in the courts where can we turn for justice,” the message read.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1918, Part III-Found in California Organizing Oil Field Workers

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Quote Mother Jones, Charity Justice, Stt Str p1, Dec 27, 1918———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 22, 1919
Mother Jones News for December 1918, Part III
-Mother Found in Taft, California, Organizing Oil Field Workers

Mother Jones, Bff Enq p14, Dec 26, 1918

Following her audience with the Governor of California on behalf of Tom Mooney, Mother Jones spoke in and around the San Francisco area urging working men and woman to take action to free Mooney and all other political and class-war prisoners. Mother then traveled to Taft, near Bakersfield, at the request of the oil field workers there with the intention of organizing them into the United Mine Workers of America.

We next find her in the pages of the The Kalamazoo Gazette as the author of  a “Message to Women in Industry.” Here she states that the organization of women into “men’s” unions will strengthen organized labor for both working women as well as for working men:

Women ought to join men’s unions-not organize separate unions of their own. The battle against unpatriotic greed, the struggle for a free America, is no sex matter.

An infusion of women into men’s unions works for good to both men and women. Man has studied the disease longer than woman; he has a broader vision of society’s problems. Woman is less indifferent to suffering than man. She will contribute energy and inspire to action.

A woman will not see the hair torn from the scalp of a ten-year-old girl by unprotected cog-wheels, without wanting to do something about it.

Note: the photograph above is from The Buffalo Enquirer of December 26, 1918.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1918, Part II: Found in St. Louis, Missouri and Grafton, West Virginia

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Let me see you wake up and fight.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 23, 1918
Mother Jones News for May 1918, Part I: Gives Long Interview in St. Louis

From the St Louis Post-Dispatch of May 13, 1918:

Mother Jones Interview, St L Pst Dsp p3, May 13, 1918

Valiant Champion of the Workers Pink of Cheek
at 88 and Wears a Fussy Little Bonnet.
—–
Objects to Women Doing Heavy War Time Work;
Opposes Suffrage, Knitters Rile Her.
—–

BY MARGUERITE MARTYN.

Mother Jones Drawing St L Pst Dsp p3, May 13, 1918

I WOULD like to have had a union card to show. I was glad I was conversant with the after-the-war platform of the British Labor Party as voluminously printed in the Post-Dispatch, and that I could profess full faith in the justice of trade unionism, when I went to call on Mother Jones. As it was, I came out of the interview with the valiant little 88-year-old labor champion comparatively unscathed, though I sat meekly silent while her scorching tongue excoriated many institutions I have at least looked upon with toleration.

Women in war industries supplanting men, she had little patience with.

[She said:]

I see them climbing over engines with their oil cans. I see them pumping levers on street cars; I see them pushing heavy trucks of munitions, and I think, what of the future generation? Woman’s nervous organism is not equal to such work. One of the principles of trade unionism is that women shall work under conditions that will safeguard to the utmost their bodily welfare.

Woman suffrage she dismissed with equal scorn.

Women vote in Colorado and what have they done to improve industrial conditions? After the riots at Trinidad and 20 women and children were laid out in the morgue, committees of ladies came and looked over the scene, and they said, “Too bad, too bad!”

They knew the murder of these innocents, whose men were fighting only for the right to work and earn their bread, had been authorized by the [Democratic] Governor they had helped to put in power. They did not criticise the Governor and some of the women were in the militia that committed the crimes.

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Hellraisers Journal: From United Mine Workers Journal: Mary Petrucci Unveils Ludlow Monument on Memorial Day

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Quote Mary Petrucci, Joe's Little Hammer, NY Tb p7, Feb 4, 1915
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 7, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado – Magnificent Monument Unveiled on Memorial Day

The unveiling described:

Mary Petrucci, on tour, May 1914

Mrs. Mary Pertucci [Petrucci], who lost three of her children in the massacre, unveiled the monument while the great crowd of miners and sympathizers paid their silent respect to the memory of the dead.

On the barren plain where once stood the humble tent colony of the Ludlow strikers, the monument towers, an impressive landmark. Down through the years that are to come it will mark the scene of a dastardly crime. More eloquently than any spoken word it will tell the tragic story of the poor murdered women and the innocent babes of Ludlow who died for democracy.

[Photograph added.]

United Mine Workers Journal of June 6, 1918:

Ludlow Memorial Dedicated, UMWJ, June 6, 1918

Details:

Ludlow Memorial Dedicated, Detail, UMWJ, June 6, 1918

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: Ludlow Monument Will be Dedicated on Decoration Day by United Mine Workers of America

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday April 28, 1918
Ludlow, Colorado – Miners to Dedicate Monument to Honor Martyrs

From the United Mine Workers Journal of April 25, 1918:

DIST. NO. 15, COLORADO

Ludlow Massacre by Morris Hall Pancoast, Masses, June 1914

Frank Hayes, UMWJ p3, Jan 10, 1918

President Hayes has sent the following letter which is self-explanatory, to President Johnson of District No. 15:

Mr. Geo. O. Johnson, President,
District 15, U. M. W. of A.,
Pueblo, Colorado.
Dear Sir and Brother:

Just a few lines to advise that we expect to have the Ludlow Monument erected and in place by next Decoration Day, and we propose to hold dedication exercises at Ludlow on that date. In view of this fact, it might be well to postpone the anniversary demonstration until May 30th, at which time we expect to hold a great demonstration at Ludlow, which will be attended by all the members of the International Executive Board. I suggest that you notify your Local Unions as to our intention to hold dedication exercises on May 30th.

With all good wishes, I am,
Fraternally yours,
FRANK J. HAYES, President.

It may be stated here that owing to difficulties encountered in transporting material, the original arrangements to have the monument arrive at Ludlow in time to hold dedication services on the day of the anniversary of the Ludlow massacre, could not be carried out. The dedication and memorial exercises will be held on Decoration Day as set forth in the above communication.

All local unions of Dist. No. 15 are advised to make suitable arrangements to be represented at Ludlow on the 30th day of May, when it is expected that the miners of Colorado will foregather in a mighty demonstration to pay tribute to those who died that the United Mine Workers might endure in Colorado.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1918: Found in Indianapolis at Convention of United Mine Workers of America

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Quote Mother Jones, Praying Swearing, UMWC, Jan 17, 1918

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday February 26, 1918
Mother Jones News for January 1918: Gives Speech at Miners’ Convention

Mother Jones Fire Eater, Lg Crpd, St L Str, Aug 23, 1917

On January 17th of this year, Mother Jones was found speaking in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the Convention of the United Mine Workers of America. She voice her support for President Wilson and for the war effort, declaring:

We must lick the Kaiser.

She also spoke regarding the ongoing attempt to organize West Virginia:

There is a system of industrial feudalism in the State of West Virginia but before another year ends the backbone of that damnable system will be broken and men will rise beneath those stars and stripes as they should rise, free, for the first time. We propose to put the infamous gunmen there out of business. We will make them find other occupations. You are robbed and plundered to pay these gunmen that are hired to keep you in industrial slavery. If it takes every man of the 500,000 miners in this country to march into West Virginia we propose to drive out that feudal system that survives there. It is an outrage and an insult to that flag. They may as well prepare for business, for we are going to do it. The president of the Winding Gulf gang said in Washington, “Don’t you know that Mother Jones swears?” I was asked, “Do you swear, Mother Jones?” I said, “You don’t think I’m hypocrite enough to pray when I’m talking to those thieves!”

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at United Mine Workers Convention, Indianapolis, Indiana, January 17, 1918

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Quote Mother Jones, Praying Swearing, UMWC, Jan 17, 1918

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday January 21, 1918
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks at U. M. W. Convention

The following is a transcript of the speech delivered by Mother Jones Thursday Afternoon, January 17th, to the Twenty-Sixth Convention of the United Mine Workers of America:

President Hayes:

I feel that the convention is very anxious to hear the distinguished visitor who has just come on the platform. She is a pioneer in our movement, a woman who has been with us for many years and has helped in all the great strikes that have occurred for years past. She needs no introduction to this convention of the United Mine Workers of America. I am now going to present the grandmother of the movement, a young lady of eighty-seven, Mother Jones.

ADDRESS OF MOTHER JONES.

I want to say, boys, that I am glad I have lived to see this gathering of the miners in this country in this hall today. Years ago no one ever dreamt that this great mass of producers would meet in the capital of a great state. I am not going to throw any bouquets at you—I am not driven to that at all. I did not expect to speak in this convention. I came here more to look it over until the officers of West Virginia came back. For the first time in the history of West Virginia we have good officers; that is, we have honest, clean, sober men. They don’t make any crooked deals with the high class burglars—and if I catch one of them doing it I will see that he is hung so he will not make another.

I want to call your attention, as I have often done, to a few illustrations of what is taking place the world over today. History tells us that away back in the days of the Roman Empire they were gathering in the blood of men who produced the wealth, just as they have been doing up to this time. Back in that time the Roman lords said, “Let us go down to Carthage and stop the agitation there.” They went down and all they arrested at that time they sold into slavery or held them. They do pretty much the same today, for the courts put you in jail, which is worse than any slavery.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones to United Mine Workers Convention: “We Must Lick the Kaiser.”

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You’ve been using your hands,
now I want you to use your heads.
We’ve got to do it,
because we must lick the Kaiser.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday January 20, 1918
Indianapolis, Indiana – Miners Greet Mother Jones with “Lusty Yell”

From The Scranton Republican of January 18, 1918:

MINERS HEAR MOTHER JONES
—–
Tells Delegates to Use Their Heads,
“Because We Must Lick the Kaiser.”
——

Mother Jones, Ft Wy Jr Gz p3, Dec 17, 1917

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., Jan. 17.-To permit federal investigations to have complete powers to interpret contracts existing between mine workers and operators, to investigate causes for layoffs and other mine troubles, who in all probability would possess no knowledge of the coal industry, would be a serious blunder and only complicate mine labor troubles, according to the viewpoints expressed in the mine workers’ convention today.

The proposal was contained in a resolution which sought to provide means to refute accusations by operators that the mine workers were deliberate slackers, and as a result coal production was reduced.

The resolution brought the first real fight of the convention. A remedy was suggested in the creation of a federal commission composed of an equal number of employers and employes, whose duty it would be to investigate charges made by employer and employes as to each others failure to observe contract conditions.

Might Invite Conscription.

White, Hayes, Greene, Walker and the committeemen, before whom the resolution was considered declared that such a step would possibly invite the conscription of labor. White and Hayes, denied that the charges made by few operators occasionally was given credence at Washington and assured the authors that the government knew of the truth or falsity of the reports charging miners in various localities with slacking.

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