Tag: Indianapolis IN

Hellraisers Journal: Charles Moyer, President of Western Federation of Miners, Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers; House Committee to Investigate Miners’ Strikes in Michigan and Colorado

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Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 1, 1914
Indianapolis, Indiana – President Moyer Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention

From The Indianapolis News of January 26, 1914:

Charles Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners gave a long speech at the Convention of the United Mine Workers now in progress in Indianapolis. In his speech, President Moyer described the ongoing violations of Constitutional Rights in both the Colorado and the Michigan strikes:

Charles Moyer, Pres WFM, Survey p433, Jan 10, 1914

…..What is being done in the state of Colorado in the miners’ strike, is being done in the state of Michigan. I don’t think it is any worse. In the state of Colorado men and women have been mistreated by the military, by the armed thugs of the mine owners’ association; they have been arrested without warrant; they have been sent to jail; they have been deprived of all of those rights that are supposed to belong to an American citizen, or one living under this government, the same as they have in Colorado.

Mother Jones has been deprived of her liberty by the military, and is now confined in the custody of the military of that state, without any warrant, absolutely deprived of her constitutional rights.

In the state of Michigan representatives of organized labor have been assaulted, ordered from the state, deprived of every right that we are supposed to enjoy under this great Constitution of ours, and yet, after months of effort we are at this time uncertain as to whether our national government, our representatives down at Washington, are going to make an investigation: are going to inquire into the facts as whether or not these things that we claim and that we believe we furnished them a preponderance of evidence of, are in violation of our American citizenship. They say, I believe, as an excuse for their hesitancy in acting, that they do not want to interfere with state rights, and in answer to that we say that the Constitution of the United States gives the right to every American citizen to meet in peaceable assembly, to freely express himself in speech…..

[Photograph added emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: UMWA Declares Strike of District 15’s Coal Miners Will Begin November 9th. Order Signed by President Mitchell So Instructs President Howells.

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

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:

CO etc District 15 Strike Declared by UMWA, Mother Jones Prominent, RMN p1, 9, Oct 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).

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: UMWA Declares Strike of District 15’s Coal Miners Will Begin November 9th. Order Signed by President Mitchell So Instructs President Howells.” →

Hellraisers Journal: Chris Evans Reports from West Virginia on Massacre of Striking Miners Near Stanaford in Raleigh County

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 10, 1903
Indianapolis, Indiana – United Mine Workers Receives Report from Chris Evans

From the Baltimore Sun of March 9, 1903:

WERE MINERS KILLED IN BED?

Evans Describes Atkinsville Affair
As A Massacre By Officers.

Chris Evans 1890, Secretary of AFL
Chris Evans, 1890

INDIANAPOLIS, March 8.-The official report of Chris. E. Evans, who was sent to the West Virginia coalfields to investigate the killing of the colored miners at Atkinsville [near Stanaford City, Raleigh County] has been received at the headquarters of the United Mine Workers.

The report states that General St. Clair, attorney for the coal companies, created an agitation to have the men arrested and taken to Charleston, and that immediately afterward arrangements were made with the United States Marshal by the Mine Workers’ officials to give bond for all who were arrested. Later, on account of the agitation created by Deputy Marshal Cunningham, he says, the agreement with the Marshal was broken and Cunningham was sent to arrest the men. 

According to the report, there was a great feeling against Cunningham, and the men decided not to allow him to arrest them and he was driven away. Mr. Evans says that he, as a miners’ official, sent a telegram to the men to submit quietly, but the local coal companies, who own all the telegraph and telephone lines into the town, refused to deliver it. Before he could get any message to the men Cunningham and his deputies. Evans alleges, went to the town a second time and killed the miners in their beds at night.

Mr. Evans says that he went to the scene of the trouble the next morning and that 48 men had been arrested for conspiracy to kill Cunningham. He found in a house occupied by a colored man named “Stonewall” Jackson the dead bodies of William Dodson, William Clark and Richard Clayton, all negroes.

The report continues:

We found that the wife of Jackson and her four children, with eight negroes, were in the house, and that about daybreak all were awakened by shots, fired into the house from the outside. This shooting took place without warning, and the three colored men were found dead on the floor. Two were in their night clothes and the other one was partly dressed.

We visited another house, where Joseph Hizer lay in bed mortally wounded, having been shot as he was dressing. Hizer lived with his sister, and she made the statement at the inquest that she pleaded with those shooting not to kill her children, and in reply Cunningham said: “Women and children must take care of themselves.” In no instance could we find where these people had been asked to surrender until after the deputies had commenced shooting at the occupants of the house.

We next went to the house of Lucian Lawson, who was considered mortally wounded. I understand that after the shooting referred to this man, with others, returned the fire of the posse, and this is the only instance where any attempt of resistance was made by the miners.

During the shooting in many instances the men and women pleaded with the men outside to have mercy on them, but their cries were met with derision and curses. Our investigation proves conclusively that no effort was made to shoot or resist except in the one case mentioned, but that all would have been glad to surrender if they had been allowed the opportunity.

Mr. Evans says that the coroner’s jury has returned a verdict of felonious killing against Cunningham for the killing of William Dodson.

[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part III: Speaks at Meeting of Indianapolis Central Labor Union Against Stag Banquets

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Quote Mother Jones, God s Cause, Scranton Tb p1, Aug 7, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 16, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part III
-Speaks at Meeting of Indianapolis Central Labor Union

From The Los Angeles Record of January 27, 1903:

“MOTHER JONES” TO THE MINERS

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

Mother Jones, the woman champion of the United Mine Workers, stirred their convention in Indianapolis by a speech denouncing the use of the pistol in labor disputes. She said:

You old gray beards are going to see a new epoch. You have been crying that we are in a country without liberty, but you have not gone out and fought to get it. That you are going to do and you won’t use pistol to get it either. We will shoot such men as Judge Jackson off the bench, and it won’t be with a gun.

Good for “Mother Jones.”

She is talking Americanism straight from the shoulder. No one can charge this white-haired old woman with incendiarism when she sticks to the ballot box.

The pistol is a relic of barbarism-a barbarism from which the Anglo-Saxon has not yet emerged.

Capital is shrewd. Sometimes it employes “private detectives,” not so much to guard property, as to provoke violence. The strikers oppose pistol to pistol. They lose public sympathy and the strike.

“Mother Jones” knows this and the miners are coming to know it, as is attested by their applause at the utterance.

Two so-called gospels have distinguished the last decade or so, each diametrically opposed to the other:

Nietache’s gospel is the gospel of brute force.
Tolstoi’s gospel is comprehended in “Resist not evil.”

So long as men and women are as they are either of these doctrines run to its legitimate extreme is absurd.

We must resist evil, not by brute force, but by education, agitation and finally, and forcefully, at the ballot box.

That is civilization.

That is the evolution of society.

[Photograph added.]

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 27, 1903:

CENTRAL LABOR UNION
———-

RESOLUTION FAVORING SUNDAY
BASEBALL ADOPTED.
———-
Women Object to Being Excluded
from the Banquet to Miners
To-Morrow Night.
———-

The Central Labor Union at a meeting held last night, adopted a resolution favoring the passage of the bill now before the Legislature legalizing Sunday baseball. The resolution was introduced by John L. Feltman, who spoke briefly in explanation of it.

President George A. Custer was absent last night and the chair was occupied by Vice President Edgar A. Perkins.

[…..]

The report of the committee, which arranged the miners’ banquet to be given Thursday night, by William F. Ewald precipitated a storm. The report described the programme of entertainment and furnished the names of the men who will serve on the committees to entertain the miners and operators. It concluded with the statement that the banquet was to be for the men delegates only, and the women delegates to the body, as well as the women in the Label League, would be entertained subsequently in a little affair to be planned for them. Delegates immediately objected to this and declared that women ought to be admitted and they could see no reason for their exclusion. After a long discussion of the merits and demerits of the last banquet and the possibility of a recurrence of several unpleasant features, “Mother” Jones, who was a guest of the evening, made a talk which smoothed over the obstacles to peace, and the report of the committee was concurred in. The women were still unsatisfied, however, and several of them voiced their disapproval by saying that they thought it was a shame that they could not go to the banquet.

“Mother” Jones was given a chance to speak during the meeting, and quickly drifted into socialism……

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part III: Speaks at Meeting of Indianapolis Central Labor Union Against Stag Banquets” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part II: Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers, Meets with Socialists

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Quote Mother Jones, God s Cause, Scranton Tb p1, Aug 7, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 15, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part II
-Speaks at Miners’ Convention, Meets with Socialists

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 22, 1903:

TRIP LIGHT FANTASTIC
———-

MINERS’ DELEGATES ATTEND BALL
AT TOMLINSON HALL.
———-
Early Adjournment of the Convention
in Order that the Auditorium
Could Be Cleared.
———-

MOTHER JONES MAKES SPEECH
———-

[…..]

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

The dance of the Indianapolis garment workers in Tomlinson Hall last night interfered with the session of the mine workers’ convention that was to have been held during the afternoon. In order that the Janitors might prepare the floor of the hall for the dance the convention adjourned at noon until 9 o’clock this morning, after a motion to omit the afternoon session had carried.

The morning session was a busy one during the earlier hours, but toward noon had resolved itself into speech-making. Mother Jones, the woman friend of the miners, who was enjoined by Judge Jackson’s order prohibiting inflammatory speeches in the coal-mining district, was called on for an address. Her speech was typical of the woman and socialistic in tone. Her recommendation to the miners was that they use their votes as citizens to change conditions In the trade. Mother Jones was pessimistic in her views on the possibility of friendly relations between capital and labor. She thinks there is such a gulf between the two classes that it can never be bridged except by a change in government. The miners could adjust the conditions by their vote, she said, if they voted right. Now miners in America are existing as miserably as the serfs in Russia, and will continue so until all of the changes are made in the government which she suggests, she insinuated in her speech…..

[Photograph added.]

From The Indianapolis News of January 22, 1903:

SOCIALISM’S VOICE IN MINERS CONVENTION
———-

EXPRESSION ON GOVERNMENT
OWNERSHIP WANTED.
———-

INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM
———-
Miners Voted Unanimously Not to
Incorporate Their Organization
-Question of Co-Operative Stores
———-

At the opening of the United Workers’ convention this morning, there was the first clash of the year between the conservatives and the Socialistic factions. It originated in a resolution from an obscure local union, favoring an expression of Government ownership of coal mines and railroads.

A motion on the part of the conservatives to table it brought on a long discussion, and many leaders of the two factions were heard.

The socialistic faction based its arguments on the anthracite strike and the combination of coal companies and railroads and that a tendency not to treat with miners “according to the laws of man or God” made it necessary for the Government to take some such action.

Delegate Walker, of Illinois, in a long speech, said that the coal companies and railroads were now in a combination injurious to the interests of the people, and were holding back coal to boost prices.

Delegate Lusk, of West Virginia, also charged heartless attitude of coal operators and railroads not only to the miners, but to the people.

The controversy was finally ended for the time, on a motion of Chris Evans, of Ohio, to refer the matter back to the committee.

[…..]

William R. Fairley, executive committeeman for the Alabama district, in a speech of some length, laid before the convention a grievance of the Alabama miners on the speech made yesterday by Mother Jones, in which, he claimed, she held them responsible for the appalling child labor conditions in Alabama. Mother Jones made a reply in which she said she did not hold the miners responsible only in so far as they cast votes for and elected members of agricultural classes to the Legislature, who permitted the infants to be worked and murdered by mill and mine owners. She ripped the State of Alabama up and down. At the close of the discussion Patrick Dolan, president of the Pittsburg district, moved that Fairley and Mother Jones kiss and make up. There was a great deal of laughter but no vote was taken…..

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part I: Arrives in Indianapolis for Convention of United Mine Workers

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Quote Mother Jones, God s Cause, Scranton Tb p1, Aug 7, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 14, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part I
-Arrives in Indianapolis for Convention of United Mine Workers

From The Clarksburg Telegram (West Virginia) of January 2, 1903:

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

“MOTHER” JONES VISITS CLARKSBURG

“Mother” Jones was in her usual splendid health and was quite talkative and courteous.

While in the city she was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. D. W. McGeorge in Glen Elk.

[Photograph added.]

From the Appeal to Reason of January 3, 1903:

From the Kingwood West Virginia Argus of January 8, 1903:

The election of Samuel B. Montgomery to the office of Mayor of Tunnelton for another term, is quite a compliment to this rising young orator who is called the “Patrick Henry of West Virginia,” by Mother Jones. Mayor Montgomery has a good strong ticket with him composed of the leading men of the Coal Center.

From the Bisbee Daily Review of January 9, 1903:

LABOR IS CAPITAL; CAPITAL IS LABOR

By “Mother” JONES. Friend of Striking Miners

WE are in a battle of class against class. Pierpont Morgan can go abroad-to Germany, to Russia, to England-and when he arrives he is entertained by his class, his own class, though you sometimes forget it in America-the class that oppressed you in Europe and that is growing more and more powerful and oppressive here. CAPITAL AND LABOR ARE THE SAME THING. LABOR IS CAPITAL, AND CAPITAL IS LABOR. WHAT WE’RE FIGHTING IS NOT CAPITAL, BUT CAPITALISTS. When the fight is won, this third element will be missing, and capital and labor will be joined without separation.

In the last 160 years there has been an economic revolution. What would you have thought years ago if some one had told you that all these coalfields would be held and operated by one combination. That sort of thing is what you must defend yourself against.

THERE IS A TREMENDOUS CHANGE GOING ON; AND YOU MUST CHANGE TO MEET IT.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1902, Part I: Speaks in Iowa, Takes Part in Anthracite Strike Conference in New York

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Quote Mother Jones, Coming of the Lord, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 15, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1902, Part I
Found in Colfax, Iowa, and at New York Anthracite Strike Conference

From the Des Moines Registrar and Leader of October 1, 1902:

Mother Jones HdLn Speaks at Colfax IA, DMns Reg Ldr p1, Oct 1, 1902

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

Colfax, Ia., Sept. 30.-(Special.)-Mother Jones, the famous organizer of the miners in the anthracite region, gave an address, tonight at the Methodist church, and urged the miners of the Sixth district to work for John P. Reese of Albia for congress. Mother Jones denounced the capitalists of the country in severe terms, and was bitter against the use of the injunction by the courts. Her address was listened to by a large audience, composed for the most part of miners. Immediately after her speech, Mother Jones started across the country to Prairie City and caught a night train for Albia, where she will speak. She will also deliver an address at Ottumwa and then return east.

Mother Jones is now over sixty years of age, her hair being white as snow. Yet she is vigorous and energetic, and speaks with wonderful feeling and eloquence when describing the sufferings of the miners in the anthracite regions. She urged the miners and workingmen to wake up and work for their rights.

[She said:]

You don’t need a gun. Let us bury the bullet and resurrect the ballot.

Wants Iowa to Act.

I want Iowa to be the first state to carry the banner of organized labor into congress and elect a workingman to that body. I want a worker to make laws for me and not a henchman. If ever an awakening comes in this country it must come now. The injunction must be stopped. I plead with you young men; shall you all be slaves or shall you be men? You have got to take hold of this government and run it for all the people. It is your duty to see that the next congressman from this district is a miner so that the next congress shall have a miner in it. When the last injunction bill was up before congress there was no one there to press it, because no one there had felt the sting of the injunction injustice.

I say down with the government that upholds injunctions. I repeat I want to see the next congress have a miner in it. When the corporations see the workingmen waking up and electing workingmen to office they will tremble. You have got to break up this corporate power. The only way to break it up is by legislation. If you men feel that you are too big cowards to do it, stand aside and let us women do it and we’ll show you how. Woman is the greater sufferer from the power of corporate wealth.

Mother Jones, at the outset of her address, spoke of the progress of the human race and the various inventions that have been made.

[She said:]

Yet the workers have not the benefit of these inventions. A few men who have never done anything in their lives have taken advantage of them all and the human race stands aghast and asks “What shall we do?” If these inventions have been produced by society, why should one band of thieves and robbers, and assassins, and plunderers possess them to the detriment of all the rest? That is the great question before the human race. There is no other question before you. You have the labor question to settle, and it will be settled in this century. The men who produce the wealth will have the wealth.

Who has built your magnificent homes and public buildings? Who have gone down into the depths of the earth and toiled sixteen hours a day? The workers. Who live in your palaces? The parasite. Why? Because he has plundered other men of what they produce. When he boasts of prosperity, what is it to 30,000 breaker boys in the anthracite region? That you can make money by scheming doesn’t make a nation prosperous. You can’t have a prosperous nation until the workers prosper. If you give to your nation an illiterate broken down body of workers, ruin will overtake your country.

Mother Jones paid her respects to Morgan for saying he had nothing to arbitrate, and to Baer, who says he owns the earth and is the “steward of the Almighty.”

[She said:]

I wish he would take care of these men and women down in West Virginia, if he is the Almighty’s steward, as he claims.

[And again:]

Every page of every book of every Carnegie library in the country is written with the blood of Homestead.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1902, Part I: Speaks in Iowa, Takes Part in Anthracite Strike Conference in New York” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part I: Predicts Victory for Striking Coal Miners of Pennsylvania and West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones Breaker Boys Bleeding Hands, LW p4, Sept27, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 10, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1902, Part I
Predicts Victory for Striking Coal Miners of Pennsylvania and West Virginia

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of September 3, 1902:

MITCHELL RETURNS
———-

MOTHER MARY JONES A VISITOR TO THIS CITY.

Mother Jones, Coal Miners, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902

President John Mitchell, of the United Mine Workers, arrived in this city yesterday afternoon, from Philadelphia, and immediately repaired to strike headquarters. He was accompanied by Louis Hammerling, of this city…..

Mother Jones, the labor advocate also arrived in town yesterday afternoon. She talked very interestingly to a News reporter about the prospects of the miners. She believes that no matter how long the struggle continues, there can be but one thing, and that is success for the miners.

[She continues:]

I hope the struggle will soon be over because there is no reason why the people of the anthracite regions should not be enjoying peace and prosperity, like the other workmen throughout the country. The operators if they have the proper conception of the exact conditions will end the disastrous strike, because no matter how long it continues, it will mean defeat for them in the end.

I do not not know when I shall return to West Virginia, but there is a probability that I may depart for those fields in a few days.

She also believes that the West Virginia miners will be successful in their efforts for better conditions.

[Photograph added.]

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 4, 1902:

HdLn Mother Jones Sure of Victory, Phl Iq p2, sept 4, 1902

“Mother” Mary Jones arrived here yesterday afternoon, confident that the mine workers would be victorious in their struggle.

[She said:]

There are 16,000 soft coal miners who are out on strike in the New River, Kanawha and Loop Creek districts of West Virginia. They are out to a man. The conditions in that region are appalling. It is far worse than the situation in the Pennsylvania coal fields.

“What do you think of the recent injunctions issued in West Virginia?” she was asked.

We are approaching a very dangerous crisis in the American nation. The American people are patient, but there will come a time when they will not tolerate such rule.

Disregarded the Injunction

Only last Saturday I was served with an injunction to prevent my speaking in Ohio. But it didn’t work. I have been served with enough injunctions to make a comfortable shroud to bury me in. In West Virginia they issue injunctions against everything. Injunctions are not laws. They are the work of one man. He makes it, issues it, serves it on us, tries us and then he sentences us. We disregard all of them because we know that none of them will stand the test.

“What is your idea of the termination of the strike?”

The miners are not weakening in the slightest degree. We are sure of victory and will accept no compromise. We are determined to right it out to the finish. There will probably be a settlement made before long. I cannot say when that will be.  Public sentiment is growing. If it is necesary, I am sure that the American people will support the miners for another year, just as well as the operators have done. The public has never before realized what a big factor the miner is in civilization.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1902, Part III: Found in Cincinnati on Her Way Back to West Virginia to Face Possible Jail Term

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Quote Mother Jones, Going to Jail, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 18, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1902, Part III
Found Speaking at Central Labor Council Meeting in Cincinnati

From The North Adams Transcript of July 21, 1902:

PATHETIC FAREWELL FOR “MOTHER” JONES
———-
On Leaving Indianapolis to Go
to Jail for Contempt

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

Indianapolis, Ind., July 21-An affecting scene was witnessed in the United Mine Workers’ headquarters last evening when “Mother” Jones bade the miners goodby and boarding a train for West Virginia.

“Mother” Jones was on trial early last week with several striking miners for contempt of court in holding public meetings in the face of an injunction, and she was found guilty. She now returns to receive sentence, and it is believed she will be sent to jail.

Many of the delegates to the recent convention are still here, and in the crowd gathered in the headquarters not a single dry eye was to be seen when “Mother” said goodby. Men whose faces were as hard as parchment with the work in the mines and with the hardship of their lives wiped the tears away with their rough hands and some of them left the room.

“Mother” Jones cheered them up and made little of the coming ordeal, but the miners knew she was doing it for them, and if she were their own mother they could not have a warmer love in their hearts for her.

[Photograph added.]

From the Baltimore Sun of July 22, 1902:

Charleston, W. Va., July 21.-Upon the application of the Collins Colliery, Federal Judge Keller today issued attachments for the arrest of John Richards, president of District No. 17, United Mine Workers of America, and 35 other members who took part in meetings near that mine. Special complaint was made against a meeting of July 17 as an alleged violation of the injunction issued against National Secretary Wilson, “Mother” Jones and others. After their arrest today Richards and 10 others were taken before the United States Commissioner at Hinton, where they gave bonds, and the hearing was set for next Friday in Charleston.

Judge Guthrie, of the State Court, issued an attachment for the arrest of 10 miners on complaint of the Kanawha and Hocking Coal Company, which held that they had violated an injunction of his court.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1902, Part III: Found in Cincinnati on Her Way Back to West Virginia to Face Possible Jail Term” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1902, Part II: Found in Court in West Virginia, Speaks at Miners’ Convention in Indianapolis

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Quote Mother Jones, Told the Court in WV to Stay, Ipl July 19, 1902, UMWC p86—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 17, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1902, Part II
Found in Court in West Virginia, Speaks at Miners’ Convention in Indianapolis

From the Baltimore Sun of July 12, 1902:

MOTHER JONES ARRAIGNED
—–
She Expects A Jail Sentence
From Judge Jackson.

Mother Jones of UMW, NY Tb p6, Image 20, July 6, 1902

(Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.)

PARKERSBURG, W. Va., July 11.-“Mother” Jones and 11 other strike leaders, who were arrested for alleged violation of an injunction issued by Judge Jackson, appeared in court today. The arguments in the case were begun and will be concluded tomorrow, when a decision is expected. “Mother” Jones expects a jail sentence for herself.

[Photograph added.]

From the Appeal to Reason of July 12, 1902:

In Darkest America.

Comrade McGeorge, of Clarksburg, W. Va., sends the following clipping from th Daily News of that place, regarding the arrest [June 20] and trial [June 24-27] of “Mother”‘ Jones for organizing the miners, who are more brutally treated and less paid than probably in any other section of the nation. The miners have been enjoined from talking to the non-union miners, from holding meetings in the vicinity, and from circulating literature! Great is the constitution-but not when federal judges don’t want it. The Dred Scot decisions are numerous nowadays. But the item will interest thousands of friends of that grand old woman-Mother Jones:

“You are not a citizen of West Virginia. Why do you not stay where you belong, instead of coming to our state to stir up trouble among the miners? What business have you the here? thundered Judge Jackson from bench.”

“Judge,” softly replied Mother Jones and every lawyer and each member of the crowd that thronged the court room, hung upon her every utterance, “I am a citizen of the United States, and as such I think I have the right to come to West Virginia or where ever my duty may call me.”

All day Thursday [June 26] “Mother” Jones was on the stand at United States court, and she was subjected to one of the most rigid examinations that has ever been heard here. But never for an instant did she lose her quiet and dignified demeanor, nor did the questions of the district attorney confuse her in the least. On the other hand, she was one of the shrewdest witnesses that ever took the stand at United States court and from the time she was called in the morning until late in the evening it was a veritable battle of brains, and “Mother” Jones was not always worsted. The court room was crowded and the old silver haired woman won many friends by her sweet, dignified manner and shrewdness with which she met every question of the attorneys. When the day was over she was visibly worn out and it was with a sigh of deep relief that she left the witness stand.

The examination of “Mother” Jones was in many ways a treat that those who heard it will not soon forget. Her story was straight forward but in many places her love for the miners brought out the pathetic side of the trouble, while again, on several occasions the court room was in a roar of laughter at some witty repartee between the witness and Judge Blizzard [District Attorney Reese Blizzard], or at some element of humor injected into the proceedings by Judge Jackson.

When asked if she had not said that the operators were the same sort of people that had crucified Christ, the witness replied that she had made such a remark.

“Well,” questioned Judge Blizzard, “do you not think the crucifixion of Christ was the worst crime ever committed?”

“No,” answered the witness in loud tones, “it was not nearly so bad as the crucifixion of little boys in the coal mines who are daily being robbed of their manhood and their intellect by what they are through necessity compelled to undergo. Christ could have saved himself, the boys cannot.”

“Mother” Jones, when first put on the stand, stated that she was sixty years old, having been born in Ireland, coming to this country at the age of six years. She had been, she said, working among the miners for the past thirty years.

She, in answer to questions, denied that she had ever counselled the violation of the law in any respect, but had always asked the miners, to stay sober, to obey the law, and to fight their battles by peaceable methods. She stated that she had no intention of violating the injunction when the meeting was held at Clarksburg on Friday, as the property on which the meeting was held was leased by the miners, and was thought to be far enough away from the property of the mine operators and the homes of the miners. She had come to this state on the invitation and was here to organize the miners. She denied the statement that more trouble occurs where strikers are organized than where they are not.

She stated that she had been at Paterson, N. J., on several occasions, and had lately had an invitation to go there, but denied that she knew that city was a hotbed of anarchists, or that she had ever met or worked with any of the anarchists.

Judge Jackson asked her if she had ever met Emma Goldman, she replied in negative.

To the Judge’s facetious question if she knew Carrie Nation she laughingly returned a similar answer.

The witness denied many of the statements that had been made with regard to her attempts to stir up trouble, or intentionally violating the injunctions, and she stated that she had the highest respect for the courts and sought always to obey the laws of hr country.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1902, Part II: Found in Court in West Virginia, Speaks at Miners’ Convention in Indianapolis” →