Tag: Industrial Feudalism

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January and February 1900, Found Receiving Fervent Ovation from Arnot Strikers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones at Arnot, Wellsboro PA Agitator p1, Jan 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 9, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January and February 1900
Found in Pennsylvania Receiving “Fervent Ovation” from Arnot Miners

From The Wellsboro Agitator of February 28, 1900:

Mother Jones, Arnot Strike ed, Elmira NY Dly Gz p5, Oct 7, 1899

LOCAL FACTS AND COMMENTS.
—–
Recent Haps and Mishaps in this County and Its Vicinity.

[…..]

–Arnot miners, who sought work elsewhere after the strike began, are now coming home.

[…..]

–Mrs. Mary Jones, of Pittsburg, the striking miners’ champion, left this county on the 19th instant to go to Toby valley whither she had been summoned. The night before her departure there was a fervent ovation in her honor at the opera-house in Blossburg. Mr. W. B. Wilson, of Blossburg, President of the 5th District United Mine Workers of America, presided and paid Mrs. Jones a glowing tribute. Mrs. Jones’s remarks were very affecting.

[…..]

———-

[Inset added from Elmira Gazette of October 7, 1899.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Arnot Miners’ Strike Ends in Victory; Mother Jones Given Rousing Farewell at Blossburg

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones at Arnot, Wellsboro PA Agitator p1, Jan 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 24, 1900
Blossburg, Pennsylvania – Arnot Miners and Families Bid Mother Jones Farewell

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of February 17, 1900:

Mother Jones ed, St L Rpb p2, Feb 5, 1898

STRIKE DECLARED OFF.

BLOSSBURG, Pa., Feb. 16.-The strike at the Arnot and the Landrus mines of the Blossburg Coal Company, which began eight months ago, was officially declared of to-day, when all the demands of the miners were conceded by the company. The men will be put to work as fast as places can be made for them. One thousand men are affected. During the strike forty families were evicted from company houses at Arnot. There were daily demonstrations and parades and many were arrested charged with riot, true bills being found against 35 persons, including several women.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

From the Mansfield Advertiser of February 21, 1900:

-Mrs. Jones, of Pittsburg, otherwise “Mother Jones,” was given a rousing farewell at Blossburg Opera House last Saturday by the miners, late on strike, among whom she has labored so unceasingly the past few months.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mary Heaton Vorse on Great Steel Strike: Strikers Killed, Beaten, Ridden Down Because of Gary’s Principles

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Fight for Righteousness n Justice, Gary IN Oct 23, 1919, Ab Chp 24———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 27, 1919
Mary Heaton Vorse Reports from the Front Lines of the Great Steal Strike:

People have died, people have been wounded, they have been beaten, ridden down by mounted police, and have suffered in great numbers, fine and imprisonment, because of Mr. Gary’s principles.

From the Kansas Trades Unionist of December 26, 1919:

CAMOUFLAGE IN INDUSTRIAL WARFARE
By Mary Heaton Vorse

GSS Dead n Wounded, Btt Dly Bltn p2, Oct 10, 1919
Butte Daily Bulletin of October 10, 1919

Do you know what the steel strike is about?It is about the right of free men to join freely in organizations which will deliver them from conditions which prevent them being men. It is a fight as to whether one man can coerce the men in the industries of five great states.

There are wars being fought now in Europe over territories not so large and involving the lives of fewer human beings.

This strike is a strike for democracy. It is a fight for the opportunity for wider citizenship.

People against profit. Feudalism against Americanism-a blacker feudalism than the world has known for a long time, for in the most autocratic monarchies the people had the right of petition.

If they had something they wanted to say to their king, they could say it. He would read their petition, he would reply to it.

Judge Gary is more autocratic than any monarch. He denies his men the right of petition. He throws their petitions into the waste basket.

For principles sake.
For principles sake Mr. Gary has let this strike go on.

People have died, people have been wounded, they have been beaten, ridden down by mounted police, and have suffered in great numbers, fine and imprisonment, because of Mr. Gary’s principles.

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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

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Praying Swearing, UMWC, Jan 17, 1918

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

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: Remembering Judge John Jay Jackson Who Famously Tangled with Mother Jones in 1902

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Plea for Justice, Not Charity, Quote Mother Jones


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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday October 11, 1907
Old Injunction Judge, John J. Jackson, Passed Away on Labor Day

From the Lincoln, Nebraska, Commoner of September 13, 1907:

Mother Jones by Bertha Howell (Mrs Mailly), ab 1902

THE DEATH of Judge John J. Jackson on Labor Day was a coincidence that was noted by thousands of the older members of American trades unions. Judge Jackson earned the sobriquet of “the iron judge” by reason of his many drastic injunctions against union men. In his anxiety to protect property rights Judge Jackson often lost sight of human rights. It was he who sent “Mother” Jones to jail for daring to make a public address in violation of his injunction, and he enjoined a Methodist preacher from conducting a prayer meeting of striking coal miners in Pennsylvania. At another time he enjoined striking miners from walking the public highways to and from meetings of their local union. The abuse of the injunction writ was forcibly demonstrated by Judge Jackson on many occasions. He was the last of the federal judges appointed by President Lincoln. He resigned a few years ago on account of ill health and advancing age.

———-

[Photograph added.]

From The Fairmont West Virginian of September 6, 1907:

An interesting article, here reprinted from the Chicago Record-Herald of August 3, 1902, provides some insight into the background of the Old Injunction Judge who ruled over the miners of West Virginia with an iron fist from his seat on the Federal Bench in Parkersburg. The Judge came from a family who championed freedom and liberty (for themselves) yet held in bondage, on the family plantation in Old Virginia, human beings as chattel slaves. They loved their slaves, John Jackson had said in 1861, yet loved the Union more. We believe it was Slavery that they loved, not their slaves, for if they truly loved them, as people, they would not have kept them enslaved.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for February 1917: Found in New York City & Chicago Fighting for Working-Class Women

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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When half a million mothers
in the richest city
in the richest country in the world
feel the pinch of hunger
as they are feeling it here now
nothing can prevent trouble.
-Mother Jones

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

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday March 8, 1917
Mother Jones News for February: Fighting for Working-Class Women

Mother Jones, Colorado Military Bastile, March 1914

During the month of February 1917, before she moved on to the struggles of the working-class women in the cities of New York and Chicago, we first found Mother Jones in Washington, D. C. Here she observed a women, one of them clad in a $7,000 coat, demonstrating for women’s suffrage. Now, Hellraisers does not agree with Mother on the issue of suffrage for women, but we acknowledge that, perhaps, her attitude is shaped by having been on the front lines of the Colorado Coal Miners’ Strike of 1913-1914. In Colorado, at that time, the vote for women did very little good for miners, their wives, or their children.

In that state, women had the right to vote, nevertheless, the miners and their families suffered greatly under the rule of Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado. Many of these coal-camp women were immigrants who could not vote. And those women who were citizens, and had the right to vote, had first to get past the company guards before they could exercise their franchise.

The duly elected Governor Ammons sent a brutal military general to rule over the striking miners and their families. It was this Military Despotism which then resulted in the Ludlow Massacre of April 20, 1914. Mother Jones was herself a guest of the Military Bastile established under General Chase who answered directly to the democratically elected Governor of the State of Colorado.

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Hellraisers Journal: Death in the Mines, “The Disgrace of West Virginia,” where “Catastrophe Follows Catastrophe.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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“Dagos are cheaper than props.”
-Mother Jone Quoting a Mine Manager

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

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday February 21, 1907
West Virginia Coal Mines: “Catastrophe Follows Catastrophe”

From Indiana’s Evansville Press:

Amazing Death List in West Virginia Coal
Mines Forces Sensational Inquiry
—–

West Virginia Miner, Evansville IN Press, Feb 20, 1907

Astounding revelations of the cheapness with which human life is held in the coal mining regions of the little state of West Virginia are here given to the world for the first time.

Catastrophe follows catastrophe, lives by the hundreds are snuffed out from year to year, man’s greed overshadows his sense of the value of his brother’s life and the frightful, pitiful conditions continue to exist unchanged. Here is the situation in West Virginia:

One hundred and twenty four dead in three accidents in the last seven weeks. Thirty more killed in single accidents.

In 1906 more than 250 men killed in mine accidents.

In the last six years 2563 killed or injured. In the last 10 years 1275 killed.

WHY WEST VIRGINIA IS A
STATE OF HORROR.

Unenforced laws, corporation disregard of the sacredness of human life, official indifference, inspection which does not inspect, inefficient laws.

There are 740 mines, and only one third of them are inspected every year. There are 55,000 miners. To safeguard them only $15,000 is spent every year by the state.

GRINDING EXISTENCE OF A
WEST VIRGINIA MINER.

Low wages, long hours and prohibition against even discussing unionism and better conditions.

Children compelled to work at an early age.

Compelled to live in company houses, rent company furniture and buy groceries from the mine company.

Then death-sudden, terrible-a prospect.

Shabby, forgotten-maybe unknown graves-on the hillside.

Hundreds of widows and orphans mourning in the midst of privation.

_____________________________________________

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