Tag: Indianapolis IN

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

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Special Convention of the United Mine Workers of America, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 21, 1902
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks to Miners’ Convention, Part II

From the Minutes of U. M. W. A. Special Convention, Called to Consider the Anthracite Strike, Indianapolis, Indiana, July 17-19, 1902:

Mother Jones Addresses Convention
Saturday Morning, July 19, 1902

[Part II of II]

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

Let me warn you right here and now that any fellow who is not willing to go up against all these forces [company gunthugs, injunctions, U. S. Marshals, courts and jails] had better stay out of West Virginia; don’t go over there, for we don’t want you unless you are willing. We want fighters, although we are conducting our business on peaceful lines and according to the Constitution of the United States.

I have wondered many times recently what Patrick Henry would say, Patrick Henry who said, “Give me liberty or give me death,” and who also said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” if he could witness the things that are done in West Virginia in this day and age, in a state that is supposed to be under the Constitution of the United States? I say with him, “Give me liberty or give me death, for for liberty I shall die, even if they riddle my body with bullets after I am dead.”

My friends, you must emancipate the miners of West Virginia; they should be the barometer for you in the future. You have a task; go bravely home and take it up like men. Each one of you should constitute himself a missionary, each one should do his duty as a miner and as a member of this organization. Do your duty also as citizens of the United States, do your duty as men who feel a responsibility upon you, and remember, friends, that it is better to die an uncrowned free man than a crowned slave. You and I must protest against this injustice to the American people that we are suffering under in West Virginia and in Pennsylvania, and in other fields.

In West Virginia the attorney for the company in his argument said, when my case was up, “In strikes of the past we got the deputies, the marshals and the Federal troops out, and still the strikers won the strikes; but the moment the court came out with an injunction, then the strikers were whipped.” He said further that the injunction was the barricade behind which the operators can stand.

There is an acknowledgement that we have no show; that the injunction is used for the benefit of the ruling classes. Now remember when your candidates get up and tell you what good friends they are to the laboring class, you ask them to sit right down and take an oath that the first thing they will do when they get to Congress is to introduce a bill entitled, “No government by injunction.”

Now I want to say a word about the West Virginia comrades. A great deal has been said for and against them. Perhaps no one there knows them better than I do. No one has mingled with them more than I have, and no one has heard more of their tales of sorrow and their tales of hope. I have sat with them on the sides of the mountains and the banks of the rivers and listened to their tales.

One night a comrade from Illinois [John H. Walker] was going with me up the mountain side. I said, “John, I believe it is going to be very dark tonight,” and he said he thought it was, for only the stars were shining to guide us. When we got to the top of the mountain, besides the stars in the sky we saw other little stars, the miners’ lamps, coming from all sides of the mountains. The miners were coming there to attend a meeting in a schoolhouse where we had promised to meet them, and I said to John, “There comes the star of hope, the star of the future, the star that the astronomer will tell nothing about in his great works for the future ages; but that is the star that is lighting up the ages yet to come; there is the star of the true miner laying the foundation for a higher civilization, and that star will shine when all other stars will grow dim.”

We held a meeting there that night, and a braver band does not live on the face of this earth today than that band of men up there on the mountain top that night. And in their behalf I stand pleading with you here today. They have their faults, I admit, but no state ever produced nobler, truer, better men under the appalling circumstances and conditions under which they work. It matters not whether a miner is robbed in Illinois or in Virginia, in Indiana or in the anthracite region; they are all ours, and we must fight the battle for all of them. I think we will come out victorious in this fight, but it will only be for a while. Both sides will line up for the final conflict, and you must be ready for the fray. We have no time to lose.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Special Convention of the United Mine Workers of America, Part I

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 20, 1902
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks to Miners’ Convention, Part I

From the Minutes of U. M. W. A. Special Convention, Called to Consider the Anthracite Strike, Indianapolis, Indiana, July 17-19, 1902:

Mother Jones Addresses Convention
Saturday Morning, July 19, 1902

[Part I of II]

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

President Mitchell: The first order of business, under a motion made at the last session yesterday, is an address by Mother Jones. The work of Mother Jones in the interests of the miners, the sacrifices she has made in their behalf, are so well known to the miners of the United States as to require no repetition from me. I therefore take great great pleasure in introducing to you our friend, Mother Jones.

Mrs. Mary Jones: Mr. Chairman and Fellow Delegates: I have been wondering whether this great gathering of wealth producers thoroughly comprehended the importance of their mission here today; whether they were really clear as to what their real mission was.

I realize, my friends, that the eyes of the people of the United States, from one end to the other, are watching you; but you have again given a lesson to the world and a lesson to the statesmen that a general uprising is the last thing you called for; that you will resort to all peaceful, conservative methods before you rise and enter the final protest. I realize, my friends, what your mission is; but I am one of those who, taking all the conditions into consideration, had I been here would have voted for a gigantic protest. I wanted the powers that be to understand who the miners were; to understand that when they laid down their picks they tied up all other industries, and then the operators would learn what an important factor the miner is toward his support. But, my friends, I believe you have taken the wisest action, that action which the world at large will commend, and which I now commend, believing it is right. I think, my friends, when you go home from this convention it is not the promise you have made here that will be the important thing, but the carrying out of that promise, the doing of your duty in the matter, the fulfillment of your duty as man to man, that is of the greatest importance.

These fights must be won if it costs the whole country to win them. These fights against the oppressor and the capitalists, the ruling classes, must be won if it takes us all to do it. The President said I had made sacrifices. In that I disagree with him, though I do not usually do that, for I hold him very dear. None of us make sacrifices when we do our duty to humanity, and when we neglect that duty to humanity we deserve the greatest condemnation.

There is before you one question, my friends, and you must keep that question before your eyes this fall when you send representatives to the legislative halls. Your instructions to these representatives must be: “Down forever with government by injunction in the American nation.” This generation may sleep its slumber quietly, not feeling its mighty duty and responsibility, and may quietly surrender their liberties. And it looks very much as though they were doing so. These liberties are the liberties for which our forefathers fought and bled. Things are happening today that would have aroused our Revolutionary fathers in their graves. People sleep quietly, but it is the sleep of the slave chained closely to his master. If this generation surrenders its liberties, then the work of our forefathers, which we will lose by doing this, will not be resurrected for two generations to come. Then perhaps the people will wake up and say to their feudal lords “We protest,” and they will inaugurate one of those revolutions that sometimes come when the slave feels there is no hope, and then proceed to tear society to pieces.

My friends, it is solidarity of labor we want. We do not want to find fault with each other, but to solidify our forces and say to each other: “We must be together; our masters are joined together and we must do the same thing.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Special Convention of the United Mine Workers of America, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Eugene Debs and Emil Seidel Nominated to Head Socialist Party Ticket

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Law ag Working Class, AtR p1, Apr 29, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 1, 1912
Socialist Party of America Nominates Eugene Debs and Emil Seidel

From the International Socialist Review of June 1912:

EVD and Emil Seidel, ISR Cv, June 1912

Note: This issue of the Review covers the National Convention of the Socialist Party of America extensively, devoting 25 pages to that coverage and including many drawings and photographs of delegates and visitors. The convention was held at Indianapolis, Indiana, beginning Sunday, May 12th and ending Saturday, May 18th. Debs and Seidel were nominated late in the day on May 17th.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1912, Part I: Found in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Master Class Creates Violence, LA Rec p4, Dec 21, 1911—————

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:

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912The 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.

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[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.

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From Denver’s United Labor Bulletin of February 8, 1912:

 

“MOTHER” JONES SPEAKS TO
FEDERATED SHOPMEN

Strike 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.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1912, Part I: Found in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1902, Part I: Found in Indianapolis, Cleveland and Pennsylvania Towns of Erie and Arnot

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones WV Miners Conditions, ISR p179 , Sept 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 18, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1902, Part I
Found in Indianapolis, Cleveland, Erie and Arnot, Pennsylvania

From Indiana’s Muncie Daily Herald of February 3, 1902:

Our Indianapolis Correspondent Has to
Do With Several Points.

Mother Jones DRWG Reading, Ipl Ns p9, Jan 22, 1902

Indianapolis, Feb. 3.-The members of the delegation of the Illinois miners to the joint conference here told an amusing story today in which a woman’s hat was a prominent part. One of the most picturesque characters at the great convention is Mother Jones, who has a national reputation among organized laborers. She has been prominent in their trials and triumphs and the miners would be lonesome at their convention without her. Today she appeared among them with a handsome new hat and thereby hangs the tale. She attended one of their meetings last week, and during the discussion a husky Illinois delegate sat down on her hat, mashing it flat. Mother Jones didn’t say much about it, as she is with the miners first and last, but the Illinois men were determined to make good, so they took up a collection and purchased a beautiful and costly bit of millinery that was the talk of all the miners.

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[Photograph added.]

From The Cleveland Leader of February 6, 1902:

“MOTHER JONES”
———-
Famous Woman Agitator Delivers Address
Before Central Labor Union.

“Mother” Jones, the famous agitator made a stirring address at the meeting of the Central Labor Union last night on the subject of her organizing work for unions in the Virginias. She was bitter in her denunciation of capital and many of her remarks were warmly applauded. She stated that the toilers were in no better condition than the prisoners in Siberia. She urged the workingmen present to elect men from among their own numbers to the lawmaking bodies, as their only means of salvation…..

From Pennsylvania’s Erie Daily Times of February 7, 1902:

“MOTHER” JONES
———-
The Miner’s Valued Friend, 
Is in Erie Today.
———-

Mother Jones stopped over in Erie today on her way from the miners’ convention in Indianapolis. By request she will remain in the city for a few days. She will give an address tomorrow evening at the Labor Carnival, and on Sunday afternoon at 2 o’clock, will speak at the Central Labor Union hall, corner of Fifth and State streets. Mother Jones scarcely needs an introduction to the people of Erie, as by reputation she is well known here as the woman who for many years has been a conspicuous figure during he strikes of the coal miners.

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Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1902, Part I: Found in Indianapolis, Cleveland and Pennsylvania Towns of Erie and Arnot” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1902, Part II: Found Speaking at Convention of the United Mine Workers of America

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 17, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1902, Part II
Found Speaking at Indianapolis United Mine Workers Convention

From The Indianapolis News of January 21, 1902:

MOTHER JONES TALKED.
———-
A Speech to the Convention While
Waiting for Miss Meredith.

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

While the convention awaited the coming of Miss Meredith to make charges against the national officers, this forenoon, the committee called for “Mother Jones” and she responded in a stirring speech.

She said it was a critical time for the miners’ organization, and she urged cautious and intelligent action on the part of the organisation in order to accomplish its purposes. She related, in an interesting way, her experiences in strikes and in the mining districts in the East.

One characteristic incident was of a time when a strike was on and the mining company’s policeman called on her to keep her from taking the miners’ part.

“Who are you?” she asked the policeman.

“The company’s watchman,” the officer replied.

“Well,” replied “Mother” Jones, “the company doesn’t own me. I’m responsible to God Almighty and He and I stand in on this question.”

This met with vigorous applause from the miners.

She urged greater respect for the Mine Workers’ organization, and censured the man who refused to pay dues to the national organization.

[She exclaimed:]

You poor, benighted, brainless creature that you are. You poor, ignorant, slaving serf. If the company offered you a barrel of beer, you would take it and fill your stomach; but won’t pay 25 cents to help the national organization.

She said the miners must be intelligent enough to emancipate themselves.

You have emancipated the mules that work with you and demanded that they shall be turned out to grass, but you nave not emancipated yourselves. The mule enjoys the air and grass, while you still toil down in the bad air of the mine working more than eight hours a day.

In a pathetic way she told of miners’ children, and in conclusion she said:

I plead with you men to go home and do your duty as men. Young men miners who work in the mines all day long and come out at night and never read a book. You don’t seem to study your coal trade only over men whom you have to deal with. Study your work and be prepared to take your post. You must be ready to go to jail, and must be willing to face bullets or even be hanged for your principles.

[Note: Miss Meredith charged that President John Mitchell and Secretary-Treasure William B. Wilson had minimized embezzlement committed by ex-Secretary W. C. Pearce, which charges were unanimously rejected by the Convention]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1902, Part I: Found Describing United Mine Workers Organizing Drive in Old Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 16, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1902, Part I
Found Describing Organizing Efforts in Old Virginia

From the New York Worker of January 5, 1902:

CAPITALIST TOOLS IN OLD VIRGINIA.

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

Mother Jones is at present in old Virginia, organizing for the United Mine Workers. As usual she finds labor conditions in that state as deplorable as else where, more so perhaps, because modern industrial methods are comparatively new there and the capitalist exploiter has unrestricted sway. That Mother Jones has anything but a “soft snap” is shown in a private letter, recently received. She says:

This is an American Siberia if one exists anywhere on the continent. Let me tell you what happened to me yesterday. I had a meeting scheduled several miles from here. The federal judge located here got on the train and went down ahead of me. I had the meeting billed for the colored church, but before I arrived the company served notice on the trustees that if they allowed me to speak they would annul their deed. The poor negroes got scared and begged me not to talk. When I arrived the federal judge was waiting to arrest me if I spoke.

I fooled both him and the company, however, for I called the meeting in a secret place, and had a fine crowd of the boys. The company officials are trying to find out where the meeting was held, but none of the boys will give it away, and so they cannot arrest me.

Nevertheless, they tied to bluff me and sent a company policeman up to serve notice on me not to speak or they would put me in jail. I sent back word, “Jail be hanged. I am going to hold that meeting.”

The company policemen have no bondsmen, are responsible to no one but the company, and they can put you in jail without a cause, and there is no redress. This fellow who spoke to me was a dandy.

He said the company hired him for $35 a month, twelve hours a day, and night work besides. He boasted of working seven years for one man for $3.50 a week, took care of a wife, paid house rent, bought fuel and clothes and fed themselves, and when he quit he had $37.67 saved up. He thought I should not come in there and “bother the company.” In our conversation it developed that he did not know who Thomas Jefferson was. He asked me if Jefferson was a minter. When I spoke of George Washington he asked me if I meant the company doctor. And this fellow is an officer of the law in the state of Virginia!

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1921, Part III: Found Speaking at Indianapolis Convention of United Mine Workers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Hang That Old Woman, UMWC p733, Sept 26, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 10, 1922
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1921, Part III
Found Speaking to Delegates at Convention of United Mine Workers 

Indianapolis, Convention of the United Mine Workers of America
Sixth Day, Afternoon Session,  Monday September 26, 1921

“I can fight…”

Mother Jones, Still w Miners, Speaks at UMWC, IN Dly Tx p9, Sept 27, 1921
Indiana Daily Times
September 27, 1921

Vice-President Murray: I understand that Mother Jones has just arrived in the convention and I am going to request Brother David Fowler to escort her to the platform. It isn’t necessary that I should introduce Mother Jones to you at this time; it isn’t necessary that I should eulogize the work she has performed for the coal diggers of America, and I will simply present to the convention at this time our good friend, Mother Jones.

ADDRESS OF MOTHER JONES

Mr. Chairman and Delegates: I have been watching you from a distance, and you have been wasting a whole lot of time and money. I want you to stop it.

All along the ages, away back in the dusty past, the miners started their revolt. It didn’t come in this century, it came along in the cradle of the race when they were ground by superstition and wrong. Out of that they have moved onward and upward all the ages against all the courts, against all the guns, in every nation they have moved onward and upward to where they are today, and their effort has always been to get better homes for their children and for those who were to follow them.

I have just come up from West Virginia. I left Williamson last Friday and came into Charleston. I was doing a little business around there looking after things. We have never gotten down to the core of the trouble that exists there today. Newspapers have flashed it, magazines have contained articles, but they were by people who did not understand the background of the great struggle…..

I walked nine miles one night with John H. Walker in the New River field after we had organized an army of slaves who were afraid to call their souls their own. We didn’t dare sleep in a miner’s house; if we did the family would be thrown out in the morning and would have no place to go. We walked nine miles before we got shelter. When we began to organize we had to pay the men’s dues, they had no money.

At one time some of the organizers came down from Charleston, went up to New Hope and held a meeting. They had about fourteen people at the meeting. The next morning the conductor on the train told me the organizers went up on a train to Charleston. I told Walker to bill a meeting at New Hope for the next night and I would come up myself. He said we could not bill meetings unless the national told us to. I said: “I am the national now and I tell you to bill that meeting.” He did.

When we got to the meeting there was a handful of miners there and the general manager, clerks and all the pencil pushers they could get. I don’t know but there were a few organizers for Jesus there, too. We talked but said nothing about organizing. Later that night a knock came on the door where I was staying and a bunch of the boys were outside. They asked if I would organize them. I said I would. They told me they hadn’t any money. Walker said the national was not in favor of organizing, they wanted us only to agitate. I said: “John, I am running the business here, not the national; they are up in Indianapolis and I am in New Hope. I am going to organize those fellows and if the national finds any fault with you, put it on me—I can fight the national as well as I can the company if they are not doing right.”

[…..]

When we began organizing in 1903 the battle royal began. The companies began to enlist gunmen. I went up the Stanaford Mountain and held a meeting with the men. There wasn’t a more law-abiding body of men in America than those men were. While they were on strike the court issued an injunction forbidding them to go near the mines. They didn’t. I held a meeting that night, went away and next morning a deputy sheriff went up to arrest those men. He had a warrant for them. The boys said: “We have broken no law; we have violated no rules; you can not arrest us.” They notified him to get out of town and he went away. They sent for me and I went up. I asked why they didn’t let him arrest the men. They said they hadn’t done anything and I told them that was the reason they should have surrendered to the law.

That very night in 1903, the 25th day of February, those boys went to bed in their peaceful mining town. They had built their own school house and were sending their children to school. They were law-abiding citizens. While they slept in their peaceful homes bullets went through the walls and several of them were murdered in their beds. I went up next morning on an early train. The agent said they had trouble on Standifer [Stanaford] Mountain, that he heard going over the wires news that some people were hurt. I turned in my ticket, went out and called a couple of the boys. We went up the mountain on the next train and found those men dead in their homes, lying on mattresses wet with their blood and the bullet holes through the walls.

I want to clear this thing up, for it has never been cleared up. I saw there a picture that will forever be a disgrace to American institutions. There were men who had been working fourteen hours a day, who had broken no law, murdered in their peaceful homes. Nobody was punished for those murders.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1921, Part III: Found Speaking at Indianapolis Convention of United Mine Workers” →

Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1901, Part II: Set to Take Part in Upcoming National Convention of UMWA

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Ab p241, 1925————————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 8, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1901, Part II
Found Ready to Answer Call for Annual Convention of Coal Miners

From The Indianapolis News of December 23, 1901:

TO MINE WORKERS
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Call for Annual Convention Next Month.
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NEARLY A THOUSAND DELEGATES WILL ATTEND.
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GREAT LABOR ORGANIZATION
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PRESIDENT MITCHELL ON CIVIC FEDERATION PLAN.
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He Sees Great Promise in the Proposed
Meeting of Capital and Labor.
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[Mother Jones to Take Part.]

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901The call for the annual convention of the United Mine Workers of America and the joint conference of the miners and bituminous operators of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, who are now represented in the interstate agreement, was issued to-day. The convention of the mine workers will be held in Tomlinson Hall. It will begin January 20, and will continue until January 30, when the miners and operators will begin their joint conference.

President Mitchell said to-day that the convention will be the largest that has ever represented any single body of organized labor. Numerically it will exceed the convention of the American Federation of Labor, held recently at Scranton, Pa., as there will be nearly one thousand delegates. Preparations are being made throughout every bituminous field in the United States now for the meeting. It is also expected that every operator of the four States concerned in the interstate agreement will be represented.

The operators of Virginia and West Virginia, who thus far have refused to meet the miners, have been invited and it is thought that a number of them will be present and will pave the way for a joint agreement between them and their men. Secretary [William B.] Wilson, of the miners, says that Ben Tillett, the famous English labor leader, will be present throughout the proceedings. “Mother” Jones, a national character among labor unions, will also take part in the convention…

At their convention, the miners will determine on the basis for their scale for the coming year and will also prepare other demands to which they will ask the operators to agree. All the proceedings except when the scale is fixed will open to the public. The operators also will probably meet in Indianapolis a few days before the date of the joint conference for the purpose of arranging for the presentation of their side. The night of January 30 at banquet will be given at Tomlinson Hall for the miners and operators.

The mine workers compose the largest labor organization in the world. The membership is now above 275,000.

President Mitchell, who has just returned from New York, where he attended the meeting of the National Civic Federation, says the work it contemplates is the greatest thing of the kind ever attempted, and that its magnitude can not be overestimated. He thinks that the fact that men like Senator Hanna and President Schwab, of the steel corporation attended the meeting is an acknowledgment of the fact that there is a labor problem to solve. He is also encouraged because men like Senator Hanna expressed a willingness to meet with representatives of organized labor in joint conference for the purpose of signing annual agreements. It is the opinion of President Mitchell that the Federation will try to work out a scheme whereby representatives of labor and capital everywhere may meet and perfect an annual agreement, “Whenever the representatives of capital and labor meet on an equality,” he declared, “then they will reach at agreement.”

President Mitchell thinks it probable that the Civic Federation will have another meeting in New York in February.

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[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1901, Part II: Set to Take Part in Upcoming National Convention of UMWA” →