Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1917, Part II: Found in Illinois & Indiana

21st September 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 21, 1917
Mother Jones News for August, Part II: Plans for Labor Day

From the Evansville Press of August 29, 1917:

An advertisement indicates that Mother Jones will be the principle speaker at the Henderson, Kentucky, Labor Day Celebration on Monday September 3rd. The event is being sponsored by the Central Labor Unions of both Evansville, Indiana, and Henderson.

From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of August 27, 1917:

The death of Senator John Worth Kern is an opportunity to recall the role played by the good Senator in freeing Mother Jones from the grip of West Virginia’s Military Bastille during the Cabin Creek-Paint Creek Strike of 1912 & 1913.

JOHN WORTH KERN; AN APPRECIATION

Claude G. Bowers

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1917, Part I: Found in Illinois & Indiana

20th September 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

There can be no democracy in this world
so long as industrial workers have to beg to live.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday September 20, 1917
Mother Jones News for August, Part I: “Fire Eater” Speaks

From the The St. Louis Star of August 23, 1917:

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: 2,225 Coal Miners Killed on the Job in 1916, 988 in Pennsylvania

19th September 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

“Dagos are cheaper than props.”
-Mother Jone quoting a Mine Manager

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday September 19, 1917
Pennsylvania Leads Nation for Coal Mine Fatalities in 1916

From the Appeal to Reason of September 15, 1917:

Coal Mine Fatalities, 1916

Waiting for word.

The number of persons killed in and about coal mines during the calendar year 1916 was 2,225, as compared with 2,269 in 1915, 2,454 in 1914 and 2,785 in 1913. Pennsylvania led with 988, of which 433 were in bituminous mines. Fatalities in West Virginia numbered 372, in Illinois 128, and in Alabama 119, Alaska, California, Idaho, Nevada and South Dakota had no fatalities.

Those killed underground from falls of rock, coal, etc., numbered 961; from mine cars and locomotives 390; from exploding or burning gas, 170, and from explosives, 148. Those killed on the surface numbered 150, and in shafts 49.

The number killed per 1,000 employed was 3.22 in 1914 and 3.09 in 1915. The 1916 figures were not available when this report was published.

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[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1916: Aids New York Street Car Strike & Campaigns for Democrats in Illinois and Kentucky

9th November 20169th November 2016 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

You, the wives of the strikers,
ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 9, 1916
Mother Jones News Round-Up for month of October, 1916

UMWJ, Feb 10, 1916, Cover, Mother Jones, TVP, Pres White

During the month of October, Mother was first found in New York City advising the wives of the street car strikers to put on their fighting clothes and go out and raise hell. Her words greatly shocked the kept press, the same press which is never much shocked whenever workers are killed on the job, or beaten, shot, and otherwise brutalized on the picket line by the powers-that-be.

Mother was next found in Illinois and Kentucky campaigning for the re-election of President Wilson and Senator Kern. She was sent into the region by the United Mine Workers of America to speak to the miners and other working men.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones, Socialist Party Organizer, for June 1906

5th July 201619th July 2016 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Thursday July 5, 1906
Mother Jones on Tour in Missouri and Arkansas for Socialist Party

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

Today Hellraisers pauses to catch up with Mother Jones and to document her whereabouts and doings for the month of June 1906. We find Mother travelling and speaking from town to town in Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas as an organizer for the Socialist Party of America.

On the 15th of June, Mother encountered a bit of excitement while speaking in Webb City, Missouri. The following was reported by a local newspaper:

John Dermott, one of Webb City’s prominent citizens, was arrested last night upon a charge of peace disturbance. Dermott took exceptions to a statement made by Mother Jones, the Socialist lecturer, and forthwith commenced to argue the matter with her. Officer Herrin placed Dermott under arrest which was resisted by that gentleman, and for a few moments a lively scuffle ensued.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Body of Rebel Songwriter, Poet, & Artist Joe Hill Reduced to Ashes

29th November 20153rd November 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Through this aperture each of us, one at a time,
and each with feelings all his own,
viewed the flame-lashed casket.
-Ralph Chaplin

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday November 29, 1915
Chicago, Illinois-
The Body of Fellow Worker Joe Hill Reduced to Ashes

Joe Hill, charcoal, by L. Stanford Chumley, ISR, Dec 1915

In his Last Will, FW Joe Hill wrote:

My body? Oh! If I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow.

In accordance with the wishes of our Rebel Songwriter, Hill’s body was taken to the crematory at Graceland Cemetery on Friday, November 26th, and cremated. Ralph Chaplin has provided a moving description of the cremation procedure:

The coffin lid was raised for the last time to permit final identification. The attendants looked to me as committee spokesman for word to proceed. I bowed my head. The casket was wheeled to the doors of the blast chamber, which creaked open to receive it. The steel doors creaked together, and the tiny room was all white again. Only the roar of the fire blast could be heard, growing louder and louder. We could hardly bear it.

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Hellraisers Journal: Joe Hill’s Body Arrives in Chicago, Will Be Cremated According to His Wishes

24th November 20155th October 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

My body? Oh, if I could choose,
I would to ashes it reduce..
-Joe Hill

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Wednesday November 24, 1915
Chicago, Illinois-
Body of Fellow Worker Joe Hill Arrives on Train from Salt Lake City

Ralph Chaplin, Spartacus ed

The body of Joe Hill, accompanied by Fellow Worker Bert Lorton, arrived by train from Salt Lake City yesterday. On hand at the Northwestern Depot to take charge of the of the remains of the Rebel Songwriter was a committee from the national headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World, which included another rebel poet and songwriter, Ralph Chaplin. Chaplin states that arrangements are underway for the funeral of Joe Hill and that his body will cremated according to Hill’s wishes as expressed in his “Last and Final Will.”

The will was written by FW Hill in the form of a poem, now being published in newspapers across the nation. The following is from a Kansas newspaper, The Salina Evening Journal, edition of November 22nd:

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