Tag: January 1902

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: From the Social Democratic Herald: Eugene Debs Recalls Labor’s Battles in the “War for Freedom”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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SDH p2, Jan 11, 1902———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 12, 1902
Eugene Victor Debs Recalls Bloody Scenes of Battle in Class War

From the Social Democratic Herald of January 11, 1902:

The War for Freedom.

By Eugene V. Debs.

EVD crpd Nw Orln Tx Dem p3, Jan 26, 1900

The country we inhabit is generally supposed to have been in a state of peace since the close of the Civil War, excepting the brief period required to push the Spaniards off the western continent. And yet during this reign of so-called peace more than a score of bloody battles have been fought on American soil, in every one of which the working class were beaten to the earth, notwithstanding they outnumber their conquerors and despoilers at least ten to one, and notwithstanding in each case they asked but a modest concession that represented but a tithe of what they were justly entitled to.

To recall the bloody scenes in the Tennessee mountains, the horrors of Idaho, the tragedies of Virden, Pana, Buffalo, Chicago, Homestead, Lattimer, Leadville, and many others, is quite enough to chill the heart of a man who has such an organ, and yet above the cloud and smoke of battle there shines forever the bow of promise, and however fierce the struggle and gloomy the outlook, it is never obscured to the brave, self-reliant soul who knows that victory at last must crown the cause of labor.

Thousands have fallen before the fire of the enemy and thousands more are doubtless doomed to share the same fate, but

“Freedom’s battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, Is ever won.”

The struggle in this and other lands by the children of toil is a struggle between classes which in some form or other has been waged since primitive man first captured and enslaved his weaker fellow-being. Through the long, dark night of history the man who toiled has been in fetters, and though today they are invisible, yet they bind him as securely in wage slavery as if they were forged of steel.

How the millions toil and produce! How they suffer and are despised! Is the earth forever to be a dungeon to them? Are their offspring always to be food for misery? These are questions that confront the workingmen of our day and a few of them at least understand the nature of the struggle, are conscious of their class interests, and are striving with all their energy to close up the ranks and conquer their freedom by the solidarity of labor.

In this war for freedom the organized men in the Western states have borne a conspicuous and honorable part. They have, in fact, maintained better conditions on the whole than generally prevail, and this they have done under fire that would have reduced less courageous and determined men. But, notwithstanding their organized resistance, they must perceive that in common with all others who work for wages they are losing ground before the march of capitalism.

It requires no specially sensitive nature to feel the tightening of the coils, nor prophetic vision to see the doom of labor if the government is suffered to continue in control of the capitalist class. In every crisis the shotted guns of the government are aimed at the working class. They point in but one direction. In no other way could the capitalists maintain their class supremacy. Court injunctions paralyze but one class. In fact, the government of the ruling class today has but one vital function, and that is to keep the exploited class in subjection.

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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
———-
Call for Annual Convention Next Month.
———-

NEARLY A THOUSAND DELEGATES WILL ATTEND.
———-
GREAT LABOR ORGANIZATION
———-
PRESIDENT MITCHELL ON CIVIC FEDERATION PLAN.
———-
He Sees Great Promise in the Proposed
Meeting of Capital and Labor.
———-

[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.]

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Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1901, Part I: Found in Virginia Organizing Miners for the UMWA

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 7, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1901, Part I
Found in Old Virginia Organizing Miners for U. M. W. of A.

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of December 2, 1901:

NONE WILL GO.

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

One of the agents who has been endeavoring to secure miners to go to Stonege [Stonega, near Norton] , Va., told a reporter Saturday that his mission was unsuccessful. Not one miner of ability consented to go.

Mother Jones is now at Stonege organizing the miners. She is not meeting with much success, but the fiery little woman never knew defeat. 

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[Photograph added.]

From the Reynoldsville [Pennsylvania] Star of December 4, 1901:

Mother” Jones Friday Night.

“Mother” Jones, of Chicago, organizer for the U. M. W. of A., will deliver an address in Centennial hall Friday evening of this week, December fifth, in the interests of the Trades Unions of Reynoldsvllle. Everybody is invited to attend this meeting, as it will be a public meeting.

From The Richmond Dispatch [Virginia] of December 4, 1901:

MINERS’ STRIKE AT NORTON.
———-
The Situation in Wise County…

WISE, VA. , December 2.-(Special.)-The strike at the mines of the Norton Coal, Company, Norton, Va., still continues. One hundred and fifty men are out.

The strike is said to have been caused by the action of the superintendent in discharging several employees who had joined the recently-organized union at that/mine.

A general strike in this section of the coal-fields is thought to be imminent. It is almost the sole topic of conversation around the mining towns. It is said that the operators at the other mines will dispute the right of  the miners to organize, as the Norton Coal Company has done.

On the other hand, the general meeting of the union at Huntington, W. Va., ratified the Norton strike, thus showing their determination to organize in these fields.

In view of these facts, it. is hardly probable that a strike can be avoided…

From the Reynoldsville [Pennsylvania] Star of December 11, 1901:

“Mother” Jones, the labor organizer, who was to have delivered an address in Centennial hall last Friday evening, was called to Old Virginia on account of labor troubles there and could not come to this place. Thomas Haggerty said to representative of THE STAR that he expected to arrange to have “Mother” Jones come to Reynoldsvllle the latter part of this month.

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Hellraisers Journal: Santiago Iglesias, Sent to Porto Rico as Organizer for A. F. of L., Arrested and Sentenced to Two Years

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD, Starve Quietly, Phl GS Speech IA, Mar 19, 1910———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 3, 1902
San Juan, Porto Rico – Organizer Santiago Iglesias Sentenced to Two Years in Prison

From the International Socialist Review of January 1902:

THE WORLD OF LABOR

By Max. S. Hayes.

[…..]

Santiago Iglesias, who was sent to Porto Rico on an organizing expedition by the A. F. of L., and who was arrested the moment he stepped on shore for having led a strike, was sentenced to three years imprisonment [two years, three months, eight days].

[Emphasis added.]

From The San Francisco Call of December 13, 1901:

SF Call p2, Dec 13, 1901

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Comrade: Mr. and Mrs. Lockwood, Socialists Propaganda with Aid of Lecture Wagon

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD, Own the Sun Meter On Every Sunbeam, AtR p4, Nov 3, 1900—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 2, 1902
Guy H. and Theodocia Lockwood Travel in Wagon, Lecture for Socialism

From The Comrade of January 1902:

The Comrade p89, Jan 1902

How to reach the vast population scattered in the towns and small cities-is certainly a problem worthy of any socialist consideration. To be sure, the Socialist  movement in the United States has not as yet assumed that proportion in the large, industrial centers to make propaganda in the country a matter of pressing necessity. But the movement, although small, must from the very start take cognizance of all kinds of conditions and lay the foundations accordingly.

It is in this light that recognition must be given to Guy H. Lockwood and wife, who are at the head of a movement to build and equip automobile lecture wagons, designed to travel from town to town in the service of the socialist movement. To spread Socialism is, of course, the aim. The Lockwoods are convinced that much propaganda can be carried on among the farmers, provided socialism is presented to them in an “acceptable” form. The automobile, it is claimed, is the cheapest and most attractive means to accomplish the work.

Guy H. Lockwood is very enthusiastic over his scheme. He feels quite sure that it will be a success, and his experience during the past few years ought to count for much. Since 1897 he has been travelling in a wagon drawn by a pair of horses and preaching Socialism under great diversity of circumstances.

The “van method” of reaching the masses is not by any means original with the Lockwoods. In California the socialists have tried it with much success. Previous to his going East, Job Harriman, Vice-Presidential candidate of the S. D. P. in 1900, was in full charge of a well-equipped wagon mission, and his splendid work as speaker and organizer was a great factor in giving the socialists of the Golden State a handsome increase of votes in 1898.

The Comrade p89, Jan 1902

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