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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 17, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1909, Part II:
-Found Speaking at Convention of United Mine Workers of America
From The Indianapolis Star of January 29, 1909:
Tag: January 1909
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1909, Part I; Found in Girard, Kansas, and in Springfield, Illinois
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 15, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1909, Part I:
-Found Writing and Speaking on Behalf of Mexican Patriots
During the month of January 1909, we first find Mother Jones in the pages of the Appeal to Reason advocating on behalf of the Mexican Patriots imprisoned in the United States and facing deportation to Mexico where certain death awaits them at the hands of the Tyrant, Porfirio Díaz.
Hellraisers Journal of January 10th republished an article from the Appeal to Reason of January 9, 1909, in which Mother was quoted:
The Appeal can and will arouse the American People. Its voice rings like a clarion over all the nation. How the hearts of the refugees must be cheered when they hear the Appeal’s ringing challenge to the czar of Russia and the dictator of Mexico! More power to the Appeal! May every one of its more than three hundred thousand readers resolve this very hour to double its circulation, that a million more American people can be shaken from their lethargy and swell the mighty protest against Russian bastiles and Mexican dungeons on American soil.
[Photograph added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Mothers Jones Thanks United Mine Workers for $1,000 Donation to Defense of Mexican Revolutionaries
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 31, 1909
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Thanks Mine Workers’ Convention
From Proceedings of United Mine Workers Convention
-Wednesday January 29, 1909
President Lewis—…..Mother Jones would like the floor for a few minutes to express her appreciation of the action of the convention in donating $1,000 for the defense of the Mexican refugees.
Mother Jones—In behalf of our brothers who are lying in the bastile of capitalism because they dared to raise their voices in behalf of their oppressed and murdered brothers in Mexico, I tender to you my deepest and most heartfelt appreciation of the resolution and donation to them. It is not charity; it is our duty even to go with them and give our lives for a cause so great. Never in human history before were men and women called upon to link hands in the mighty battle for the emancipation of the working class from the robbing class. Our brothers are behind the bars, and it lies with you and with me to do our part to free them. I extend to you my deep appreciation for the generous donation you gave to them. And when your turn comes they will be on deck to do their part for you. They will never surrender the rights of labor to the ruling class, even if they die in its defense.
Now, my brothers, you and I are not going to part. We have fought many battles together, and we have marched the highways together. Brave hearts marched with us then. Lying in lonely graves are some of the men who laid the foundation for this great and magnificent organization that you represent here to-day.
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Convention of United Mine Workers on Behalf of Mexican Revolutionaries, Part II
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 30, 1909
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Speaks at U. M. W. Convention, Part II
From Proceedings of United Mine Workers Convention
-Wednesday January 27, 1909
Speech of Mother Jones, Part II:
Now, I will tell you what I am here today for. I am not here to beg. I hate beggars; I don’t want any begging machines; I want to do away with every begging parasite in the world. I want to fight and take what belongs to us. What I want here today with you is this: We have got to get those boys out of jail. We have got to let them live in this land; we have got to let them fight Mexico from here. And I am with those boys because Diaz and Harriman and Rockefeller and the whole push are together down there. They were down there wining and dining, and we paid for it.
And while I am on this wining and dining subject I am going to say something about the board member from Pennsylvania, Miles Dougherty. I want to talk to you Pennsylvania fellows. You had an awful fight there. I was out West and took up a paper and read of Mr. Miles Dougherty sitting down with his feet under the table looking Mrs. Harriman square in the eye and putting a bowl of champagne inside of his stomach— “Here’s a health to you, Mr. Belmont; here’s a health to you, Miss Morgan, and here’s a health to you, Mrs. Harriman.” And then, when Mrs. Harriman and Miss Morgan walked down the street with Miles Dougherty the fellows over home in Pennsylvania said, “Don’t you see how labor is getting recognized?” How labor is getting recognized! That’s true, Mr. Lewis, as sure as you sit there, they said that about labor getting recognized! I want to tell you here the trouble with you is this: your skull hasn’t developed only to the third degree. You would consider it an honor to go down the street with Miss Morgan, who never worked a day in her life. You would consider it an honor to dine with those fellows that skinned you and your children and murdered you in the mines, and while they were filling you with champagne they murdered us poor devils with bullets.
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Convention of United Mine Workers on Behalf of Mexican Revolutionaries
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 29, 1909
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Speaks at U. M. W. Convention, Part I
From Proceedings of United Mine Workers Convention
-Wednesday January 27, 1909
Speech of Mother Jones, Part I:
President Lewis—If there are no objections we will have a short intermission at this time and hear from a visitor we have present.
We have with us this morning a friend with whom many of the delegates are acquainted. The Mine Workers of the country generally know of the work of this friend. In many of the districts in the turbulent times when our men were engaged in a struggle, when men, women and children were suffering all the hardships incident to industrial warfare, she spent her time helping them. This morning she is here in the interest of men who have been persecuted in other countries and have come to this country in the belief that they were coming to the land of the free. We understand that the men in whose interest she is here have not committed any crime, but rather are regarded as political criminals because they believed that all men have certain rights that all other men should respect. She has encouraged our men, women and children, not alone in the mountains of West Virginia and the valleys of Pennsylvania, but on the prairies of some of our states where words of encouragement were needed by those whose spirits were drooping because of surrounding conditions. I therefore take great pleasure in introducing to this convention Mother Jones, who has lost none of her vigor, none of her interest in the cause of organized labor and in the cause of humanity because of her age or her white hair.
Mrs. Mary Jones (Mother Jones)—Permit me to extend to your worthy President my appreciation for his introduction. In the days of old when the revolutionists fought against the conditions that King George III was about to fasten upon them, could he have reached his claws in and have put them around Washington he would no doubt have hung him. Today, after a century or more of history in this nation, we find two diabolically tyrannous governments reaching their hands into this country and asking us to deliver men who have taken refuge here and surrender our rights to the czar of Russia and the military despot of Mexico. You will realize, my friends, that international economic interests are back of all this; you must realize that for this change in our nation’s history there is a cause. Economic interests, both in Mexico and Russia, are dictating the policy of our government today—I mean the other fellow’s government. As the method of production changes, the policy of the government must change to fit into it. Newspapers, magazines, churches, all must fit into the changed order. It governs home life, it governs national life, it governs the newspapers, it governs all avenues of educating the people.
Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “Oh! Ye Lovers of Liberty,” Mother Jones Pleads for Our Mexican Comrades
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Hellraisers Journal: Monday January 25, 1909
Los Angeles, California – Mexican Revolutionaries Languish in Jail
From the Appeal to Reason of January 23, 1909:
BROTHERS AND COMRADES: From the bastile of capitalism in Los Angeles comes the cry of our brave brothers, calling on you to stand for freedom, right and justice. I know and feel that the cries will not be in vain. You responded cheerfully to the needs of our comrades of the industrial revolution as they were voiced from Idaho, and I know you will be none the less responsive now, in behalf of our Mexican comrades.
If ever there was a time in history when it was imperative that men and women should promptly rally to the banner of freedom and justice, that time is now. Before, it was the power of the state and the nation that the capitalists were using for the destruction of the working class. Now, it is the United States government seconding the murderous despotism of Russia and the irresponsible dictatorship of Mexico. The fight has become international; yet it centers in the United States. If these foreign vultures of oppression win now, then our liberty goes.
For Diaz and American capitalism are partners, even as American capitalism and the Russian czar are partners. Pierpont Morgan goes to Russia and shakes hands with the czar; and now the czar comes to America demanding the surrender of political refugees. Mrs. Diaz, when visiting in Texas is entertained by members of the Copper Queen syndicate whose headquarters are at 95 John street, New York, and Elihu Root, of New York, is wined and dined by the tyrant dictator, Diaz, when in Mexico.
This tyrant, this fiend, beside whom King George was a gentleman and lover of the poor, has given to American capitalists concessions that are worth millions of dollars, and guarantees them peon labor that dare not ask higher wages under penalty of being shot for violating the law; and in return he asks that if political refugees escape to America, or if a Mexican dare to come to America and criticise him, they must be returned to him, that they may be shot.
Hellraisers Journal: U. S. Supreme Court Legalizes the Bullpen & Preventative Arrest in Case of Moyer v Peabody
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 23, 1909
Washington, District of Columbia – U. S. Supreme Court Rules Against Moyer
From the Socialist Montana News of January 21, 1909:
Highest Court in the Land
Legalizes Bull Pen.
—–Washington, Jan. 18.-The supreme court of the United States today decided against President Moyer, of the Western Federation of Miners, in the damage suit brought by him against former Governor Peabody, of Colorado, on account of Moyer’s imprisonment on the governor’s orders because of his alleged connection with riots at Telluride, Col., in 1904.
In the course of his opinion Justice Holmes said:
Right to Call Troops.
We must assume that the governor had a right under the state constitution and laws to call out troops, as was held by the supreme court of the state. The constitution is supplemented by an act providing that when an invasion of or insurrection in the state is made or threatened, the governor shall order the national guard to repel or suppress the same.
That means that he will make the ordinary use of the soldiers to that end; that he my kill persons who resist, and of course that he my use the milder methods of seizing the bodies of those whom he considers to stand in the way of restoration of peace. Such arrests are not necessarily for punishment, but are by way of precaution to prevent the exercise of hostile power; so long as each arrests are made in good faith and in the honest belief that they are needed in order to hold the insurrection off, the governor is the final judge and cannot be subjected to an action after he is out of office on the ground that he had no reasonable ground for his belief.
Individuals Must Yield.
When it comes to a decision by the head of the state upon a matter involving its life, the ordinary rights of individuals must yield to what he deems the necessities of the movement. Public danger warrants the substitution of executive process for judicial process.
[Newsclip added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Horror Once More at Switchback, West Virginia, as Second Explosion Ravages Lick Branch Mine
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 14, 1909
Switchback, West Virginia – Second Disaster in Two Weeks Devastates Hamlet
From The Fairmont West Virginian of January 12, 1909:
WELCH, W. Va., Jan. 12.-One hundred miners were caught to-day in a second explosion in the Lick Branch Collieries. Hardly had the crape been taken from the door of many humble little homes than the explosions which now promises to be more direful than the one two weeks ago in which half a hundred lives were lost occurred and brought additional sorrow. Fathers and brothers of some of those killed in the last explosion are known to have been in the mine at 8:30 this morning when the second explosion occurred. The explosion occurred just half an hour after the full quota of men for the day shift had gone to work. It is known that 250 miners were on duty at the time. The details are meagre.
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[Emphasis added.]
From The Fairmont West Virginian of January 14, 1909:
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1908; Found in Springfield, Illinois, Speaking to UMW Locals
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 12, 1909
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1908
Found with Locals of U. M. W. in Springfield, Illinois
During the month of December 1908, we found Mother Jones in Springfield, Illinois, where it was reported by the December 17th edition of the Illinois State Register that:
“Mother” Jones, a noted leader among the miners’ organization of the country, addressed the Springfield sub-district quarterly meeting [U. M. W.] at Arion hall yesterday afternoon [December 16th], and in consequence the meeting was very largely attended. “Mother” Jones is engaged in soliciting assistance for Mexican workingmen who are engaged in a struggle against the despotism of the Mexican government, and who, when their plans became apparent to that government escaped to the United States, their extradition now being sought. The efforts of “Mother” Jones has the endorsement of the Illinois executive board of the United Mine Workers of America [John H. Walker, President], and it is her intention to make a tour of the state visiting the miners’ locals in behalf of these men.
Hellraisers Journal: Staff Writer for Appeal to Reason Interviews Mexican Revolutionaries in Los Angeles Jail
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 11, 1909
Los Angeles, California – Against All Odds, Shoaf Meets with Mexican Patriots
From the Appeal to Reason of January 9, 1909:
[by George H. Shoaf]
Los Angeles, Dec. 30.
SOCIALISTS and trade unionists with whom I talked relative to seeing the revolutionists, who were in jail “incommunicado,” declared emphatically that United States District Attorney Oscar Lawler would never let me see them. Only once in six months, they said, had the “incommunicado” rule been broken, and that was when Mrs. Librado Rivera was permitted to hold a few minutes’ conversation with her husband, in the presence of the jailer. Local newspaper men also who had been denied the usual privileges of the press in regard to interviewing prisoners stated that the matter of my seeing Magon and his comrades was entirely out of the question. Even Attorneys Harriman and Holstan, the only persons who were permitted to see the men, seriously doubted whether District Attorney Lawler would grant my request….
The surprise of the jailer, when the marshal ordered him to let me see Magon et al., can better be imagined than described, and when he learned that I was merely the correspondent of a Socialist paper-the Appeal to Reason-he nearly fell off his seat. Socialists are rare visitors at the county jail, except when they are locked up for some crime alleged to have been committed against the government, and I was the object of much curiosity on the part of the mailer and his assistants. So unusual was the order that even the jailer would not be convinced until he verified it by telephoning direct to the district attorney himself. I was invited into a room adjoining the jailer’s office, in which were a number of chairs and a table. Ten minutes later the door was thrown open and, accompanied by their guards, Magon, Villarreal and Rivera walked in…..
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