Hellraisers Journal: Mine Workers’ Union Calls Off Strike in Mingo County, West Virginia; Tent Colonies to be Abandoned

28th October 202228th October 2022 Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921

Quote Mother Jones, WDC Tx p15, Aug 26, 1921 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 28, 1922
Mingo County, West Virginia – United Mine Workers Calls Off Strike

From The West Virginian of October 27, 1922:

END OF TWO-YEAR STRIKE IN MINGO
STOPS MINE WAR
—————
Big Factor in Labor Disturbances in State
Passes Out of Existence.
———-

CHARLESTON, W. Va., Oct. 27.-Mingo County, greatest single factor in the labor disturbances of the Southern West Virginia coal fields, was free from the last vestige of its “mine war” today with the announcement made last night that the two year strike there had been abandoned by the United Mine Workers.

The announcement was first made at Williamson by R. B. White International organizer, on receipt of a letter from International President John L. Lewis, and was confirmed at district headquarters here by District Secretary Fred Mooney. The principal visible effect will be abandonment of the tent colonies maintained since the strike began, July 1, 1920, and the possible return to work in the non-union mines of the county of some of the 200 occupants of the colonies and of the strikers, whose numbers are variously estimated by union and operator authorities.

The attempted unionizing of the Mingo County mines was the beginning of a long series of events reaching their high points in the declaration of martial law and the “miner’s march” that was halted after a week’s fighting on the Logan-Boone County border in 1921. Out of evictions of miners’ families before the strike was called grew the famous Matewan street battle, when Baldwin and Felts detectives and inhabitants clashed with a death toll of ten and from that time on a series of disorders, including much shooting across the Tug River, separating West Virginia and Kentucky, caused a number of deaths. Martial law was declared May 19, 1921, and this proclamation was followed by another and the establishment of a military force June 27 of the same year, after the courts had held military occupation was necessary to martial law.

Rumors that union men were being mistreated in Mingo, coupled with the killing at Welch in August, 1921, of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers, chief figures in the Matewan battle, were given by union miners in other fields as the causes of the march late in August on which are based the trials of union officials now being held at Charles Town.

The announcement that the union had abandoned the strike came close on the heels of the repeal on October 17, this year, by Governor Morgan of the martial law proclamations that had been in force for fifteen months.

Union officials have declared that relief work in the tent colonies at one time was costing $25,000 a week and more recently was being conducted at a cost of $11,000 a week. The tent colonies also figured in the suit now pending in federal courts, known as the Borderland case, in which an injunction against the colonies was sought but was denied by the Circuit Court after having been granted in the District Court.

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Miners’ Strike Non-Union Coke Region at Connellsville, Pennsylvania

16th July 202211th August 2022 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Un-Christ-Like Greed, IN DlyT Ipls p1, July 15, 1920 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 16, 1922
The Miners’ Strike in the Non-Union Coke Regions of Connellsville, Pennsylvania

From the United Mine Workers Journal of July 15, 1922:

Tent home of an evicted miner at Tower Hill, No. 2,
in the Connellsville Coke Region, Pennsylvania

———-

Miners’ Union Has Brought the Light of Freedom
to the Non-Union Coke Region around Connellsville

By VAN A. BITTNER, Personal Representative of President John L. Lewis
———-

July finds the 40,000 miners in the coke region of Pennsylvania more determined than ever to win the great industrial struggle in which they are engaged against the might coke corporations headed by Frick and Rainey. It is, indeed, the most stupendous struggle that has ever taken place in any non-union coal field in this country and is only over-shadowed by the gigantic national strike of the coal miners of America. After thirty years of industrial slavery, without a single attempt being made to free themselves from the yoke of bondage, these miners and their families have awakened to a realization of their hopes and dreams of engaging with the organized miners of America in their battle for industrial freedom. They have implicit faith in the United Mine Workers of America and are in this fight to do or die.

The real spirit of unionism is found here. These men and their families are not asking for any relief. They realize the fact that the men who made the United Mine workers of America did so by sacrificing their very lives for the principles upon which our great union stands, and these men are willing to and are going forward, realizing it is the opportunity of a lifetime and they are making the best of it…..

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: No Evidence of Treason in Trial of West Virginia Miners at Charles Town

17th May 202218th May 2022 Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921

Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 17, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – No Evidence of Treason at Trial of Miners

From the United Mine Workers Journal of May 15, 1922:

At the time that this article was written the trial of William Blizzard, at Charles Town, W. Va., on a charge of treason against the state of West Virginia had been in progress for two weeks, and there appeared to be no end in sight, Judging form the number of witnesses that had been summoned by both sides. Up to end of the second week there had been no evidence of any treasonable intent on the part of Blizzard or any of the other officers and members of the United Mine Workers of Ameria who are under indictment with him.

[…..]

The trial is attracting nation-wide attention. Many of the largest newspapers of the country have special correspondents in attendance, and all of the press associations also are represented. Citizens of Charles Town and vicinity have treated the indicted miners and the witnesses with every courtesy and kindness. The hotels in Charles Town were unable to care for all of the visitors, and practically every home in the town was thrown open to them. Scores of miners are rooming in many of the best homes in Charles Town. A fraternal feeling has sprung up between the miners and local people.

One of the interesting events was a baseball game between a team composed of miners and the local Charles Town team, which resulted in a victory for the miners. New uniforms were provided for the members of the miners team, and they were every inch a ball team. A large crowd attended the game, and the proceeds were given to the Charles Town hospital…

[Emphasis added.]

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: Charles Town, West Virginia, Stage Set for Trial of Miners; Nine Miners Marched Through Town in Chains

25th April 202225th April 2022 Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921

Quote Wm C Blizzard, Nine Miners in Chains Charles Town WV Apr 23, 1922, When Miners March p294 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 25, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Stage Set for Trial of Miners

From the Baltimore Sun of April 24, 1922:

(From a Staff Correspondent.)

Charles Town, W. Va., April 23.-Excited, nervous, confident here, depressed there, a small army of defendants, witnesses, attorneys and newspaper men has taken possession of Charles Town on the eve of the trials of more than 200 men on charges including treason, murder and conspiracy, growing out of the “armed march” from Marmet on Logan county last summer.

It is estimated that fully 1,000 persons are in the little county seat of Jefferson county in connection with the trials.

Trials Are Sole Topic.

All over town, in the lobbies of the hotels, on street corners, gathered in knots here and there, they are discussing one thing-the trials. They have been arriving since Friday. A grim incident this morning was the arrival of nine men in handcuffs from Logan county. They were those who are unable to get bail after being indicted in Logan last year. They were escorted to the Charles Town jail.

Central figures in the whole West Virginia industrial controversy already are in town and others are expected tomorrow and on succeeding days. There is C. Frank Keeney, president of District No. 17, United Mine Workers, and the man, who, it is believed, will be the target for the heaviest artillery of the prosecution. He faces a charge of treason and is alleged to have instigated and aided the alleged insurrection. With him are Mrs. Keeney and their son. He is at one of the hotels, smiling and high-spirited as usual.

There is Fred Mooney, secretary of District No. 17, also charged with treason. He is a bit more self-contained than Keeney, yet you would scarcely know he was to be tried on a charge that might bring his neck into a noose.

Scores Of Notables Present.

There is H. W. Houston, chief counsel for the defense, often called the “brains of the United Mine Workers in West Virginia.” There is William Blizzard, accused of being the “generalissimo of the insurrection.” There are a half-dozen special lawyers engaged by the prosecution, famous in the annals of West Virginia criminal procedure. There are scores of others of lesser prominence, though all are well enough known in their localities.

Before the week is out, Gov. E. F. Morgan will be here, having been subpoenaed by both sides. William M. Wiley, of Sharples, picturesque figure among the operators, around whose mines the fighting raged last summer, will be called. John L. Lewis, international president of the United Mine Workers, will be here Tuesday.

One big, outstanding figure, however, from all that can be learned, will not be here. He is not here tonight and it is reported he will not come. That is Don Chafin, Sheriff of Logan county. Chafin has been for years the bete noir of the United Mine Workers. He has worked against them, resisted two armed marches, and in general earned for himself the undying hatred of many connected with the big mine union…..

—————

[Emphasis added.]

From the Baltimore Sun of April 23, 1922:

In the center is C. Frank Keeney, president of District 17, United Mine Workers of America, and active leader of the union forces of Southern West Virginia. Mr. Keeney has been indicted in Logan county for treason and conspiracy. He has also been indicted in Kanawha county for alleged conspiracy and in Mingo county on charges of murder. At the left is Fred Mooney, secretary-treasurer of District 17, United Mine Workers, with headquarters at Charleston. Within 10 miles of the capital the armed march on Logan county started last fall. Mr. Mooney faces charges of treason and conspiracy. At the right is William M. Wiley. He lives in Sharples, W. Va., on the Boon-Logan county line, where the battle raged over a front of 25 miles in the wilderness. He is vice-president of the Kanawha Coal Operators’ Association and vice-president of the Boone County Coal Corporation, with five large operations on the organized edge of Logan county. He employs 1,500 union miners. He will be a principal witness in the trials at Charles Town. He gave sensational testimony before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor in Washington recently, which investigated the armed march, and of which committee former Senator Kenyon was chairman.

[Emphasis 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

10th February 202210th February 2022 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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…”

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” →

Hellraisers Journal: Art Shields Reports: “Amazon Army” on the March Against Scabs in the Mines of Southeastern Kansas

18th December 202118th December 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones Raising Hell, NYT p1, Oct 6, 1916 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 18, 1921
Southeastern Kansas – Art Shields Reports on the Miner’s “Amazon Army”

From the Oklahoma Leader of December 13, 1921:

PITTSBURG, Kan., Dec 13- There is joy and laughter in the coal fields of Kansas for the strikebreakers are on the run before the militant ladles of that Sunflower state.

The fun begun before daylight when the 120 men who have helped themselves to the vacant jobs in the big Jackson-Walker mine No. 17 near South Franklin began to get off the two interurban cars and to get into hot water all at once.

They say there used to be some excitement in the old Amazon days, but it was nothing to the action out there on the Kansas prairie. Seven hundred and fifty lively ladies gave the travelers the liveliest reception they had ever experienced. Young women, old women, blondes, brunettes and every kind began swarming into those wishers for unhallowed work and began ruffing their feelings.

Deputies Looked On.

In the midst of the charming host were the forces of the law, Sheriff Gould and his deputies, to see that nothing happened that ought not to happen, and all they could do was to look on while the cause of the trouble was all removed by the visitors rushing pell mell back into the cars and begging the motormen to drive on.

What could the sheriff do against such a crowd of lovely femininity, all in their best bibs and tuckers, flying the stars and strips from a dozen poles and laughing and singing? One stalwart woman wrapped her country’s banner around the sheriff and gave him three cheers, and they all joined in and gave him three cheers, and gave the inter-urban cars a salvo of hurrahs as they went on with the men who tried to break the strike for the release of Howat and Dorchy.

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Hellraisers Journal: Editorial from Pittsburg Workers Chronicle: Kansas Miners Condemn Suspension of District 14

30th November 20211st December 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 30, 1921
Miners of Kansas Condemn Suspension of District 14 U. M. W. A.

From The Workers Chronicle of Pittsburg, Kansas, November 25, 1921:

Truth Shall Win
—————

Alex Howat

Reports from all over the country are to the effect that organized labor everywhere is condemning the action of one man (John L. Lewis with the assistance of his hired gang of labor crooks) in suspending District 14 and expelling the officers from the U. M. W. of A., at a time when the, crisis is on in the fight against the infamous court of industrial relations law. This contemptible action was taken with controversies at two small strip pits as the basis. One was a lockout and the other a shutdown, and both companies refuse to let the men return to work in accordance with orders given the men by officials of District 14, and pursuant to instructions of the recent national convention of the U. M. W. of A.

But, President Lewis, with malice aforethought, waited until the miners’ leaders were practically isolated from the world-put there by Governor Allen and his infamous misfit legislation-and when 100 per cent of the rank and file of District 14 laid down their tools and resolved to dig no more coal until President Howat and Vice President Dorchy are released from jail, Lewis demands that ALL miners return to work if they want to remain in good grace with HIM. They are to forget all about their noble, self-sacrificing officials, who are cooped up in cold, damp cheerless cells in the Cherokee county jail. They are ALL TO RENIG the positive policy, unanimously declared, of their District Convention in Kansas City, March, 1920. They MUST give up all their personal honor manhood and self-respect, and return to work just because John L. Lewis-backed by a handful of paid stoolpigeons-demands it! Their published howls about, “contract” is rankest camouflage. The miners and officials here have violated no contract in the DEAN and RELIANCE shut-downs. The operators of those two small pits are the only ones violating the contract. And so Lewis himself says, “no condition enters into the expulsion of the officers and members of District 14 except that of the Dean and Reliance controversy.” However he wants not only the employees of those two strip mines to return to work, (in spite of the fact that the operators will not let them return under conditions required, not only by President Howat, but by the National Convention-and the almighty John L., himself) but all miners who are standing pat with the dictates of their District Convention must give up their only efficient weapon against the industrial court law by returning to work and let their leaders rot in jail (for all Snake Lewis cares) while HE fights the law in the courts. He knows, and the miners know, that Labor stands as much chance there as Christ did before Pontius Pilate. So, all his efforts in his publicity campaign in that direction is “grandstand,” pure and simple.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part IV: Rather Die Fighting

30th September 20212nd September 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Rather Die Fighting, UMWC p739, Sept 26, 1921 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 30, 1921
Mother Jones Speaks at United Mine Workers Convention, Part IV

Indianapolis Convention of the United Mine Workers of America
Sixth Day, September 26, 1921, Mother Jones Speaks, Part IV of IV:

The day is gone in American history when judges can assume the role of lords above us. The pulse of the world is beating, my friends, as it never beat in human history. Not alone in America is it throbbing but the world over. Editors don’t know. They sit in the oﬂice using a pencil and stabbing us in the back sometimes. Ministers don’t know; statesmen don’t know; professors in the universities don’t know what is going on; but the pulse of the world is throbbing for the civilization that was started back in Jerusalem two thousand years ago. You can not crush a man today; you may put him in jail; you may ﬁll your jails, but the fight will go on. You are living in an electric age. The current is touching the human heart of man, and never again will the system of slavery that has prevailed in the past and that we are driving out now come into the world.

I want to warn that judge today that it is best to bring conciliation to bear than to drive us apart. America will live on, and we are going to march and we are going to bring back the old times of Patrick Henry and Jefferson and Lincoln. It is up to you to stop wasting time on technicalities and get down to business and save this money you are spending. You are going to need it. Put away your prejudice and let us fight. I spoke Labor Day in District 2. Then I went down into Mexico and New Mexico. I got a paper there in which I saw that President Brophy of District 2 was doing business. I wrote him a letter congratulating him. I am glad to know that District 2 has a good president, and, Brophy, I am with you. Whenever you want to raise hell with the other fellows, send for me!

I am going after this fellow (indicating Vice-President Murray) because he isn’t doing business in Pittsburgh as he ought to. That used to be the old fighting ground. Vice-President Murray, you do business there.

And now I am going to say something to the women. The destiny of nations depends upon the women. No nation had ever grown beyond its women. Whatever corruption, whatever brutal, ugly instincts the man has he hasn’t got from his mother. I have studied this for fifty years; I have studied every great man I have ever met and he has always had a great mother. Many times I walked fifteen miles to see a woman after I had met her son.

I want to say to John P. White before I close that I expressed appreciation of him for what he did for me when he was President. At no time did I go to him and explain to him what I wanted done but what he handed me money or endorsed what I had done, and we got results. I could have done a great deal more in West Virginia, but I think from all we can hear that we are going to go forward. Don’t blame the Governor of West Virginia. Don’t be so ready to knife him. There are things no statesman can override. This is a dangerous time. Presidents and Governors must move with care. There is no state in America that has better miners than West Virginia. Some of the noblest characters you have are there and you know it. They live up the creeks and the speakers who appear before them do not always use their language or appeal to them. You must know the life of those men. There isn’t another state in the Union like West Virginia, and the organizers that go out, Mr. Lewis, don’t understand the game. I have gone to Mr. White time and again and have told him to take them out because they didn’t fit into the situation. I don’t believe in giving the miners’ money to anyone who doesn’t bring results.

I asked Mr. Lewis to send a man into Mingo to handle the finance. He mentioned one or two and then said: “What do you think of Fowler?” “He is just the man,” I said, and he gave him to me and we got results. I am interested in the children and in those poor fellows who can’t be reached except by the capitalists’ papers that go in. That is all they know. You must educate them, and I want to say, Mr. Editor of the Journal, that you ought to cut out that picture “How to Dress.” We know how to dress when we get the money to dress with. What you want to tell us is how to pull that money out of the other fellow.

Up in Princeton the men were asking for years for organization. We sent a boy up to bill the meeting but didn’t tell them who was going to speak. The boy had to run away the minute he circulated the bills or he would be killed. I went up with Mr. Houston, the attorney for the miners. We were told the meeting would be in the park three miles and a half away. I said we wouldn’t hold it there, that we would start a riot out there, and then they would say: “Old Mother Jones went out in the park and started a riot.” I said: “See if the city authorities won’t give us a place in the town to meet.” We got it and seven thousand men came there, largely railroad men, machinists and farmers. Seven cars of Baldwin-Felts thugs came down, loaded with whiskey and guns. There was no prohibition men there that day. Houston got up to speak and I saw that something was being plotted. I got up and spoke, but I hadn’t talked more than ten minutes when they began to start the riot.

When I wound up my speech I said: “Mr. Baldwin-Felts guards, I am going to serve notice on you that I will take this thing up to Uncle Sam, explain the matter, and if Uncle Sam don’t protect the children of the nation Old Mother Jones will. They won’t be raised under the influence of murderers like you.” The railroad men were afraid I would be killed and asked policemen to take me away. I told them I was not afraid of being killed, that I would rather die fighting than die in my bed. I want to say to you mothers to quit buying pistols for your children. Train them to something better than a pistol and a gun. Almost every child today has a toy pistol. You began training them to use a pistol while they were in the cradles and the welfare workers never raise their voices about it. The legislature should pass a law that no mother should buy a pistol for a child.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part III: Warning for Gunthugs

29th September 20212nd September 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Fools Gunthugs re Miners in Hills w Guns, UMWC p735, Sept 26, 1921 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 29, 1921
Mother Jones Speaks at United Mine Workers Convention, Part III

Indianapolis Convention of the United Mine Workers of America
Sixth Day, September 26, 1921, Mother Jones Speaks, Part III of IV:

Muncie Morning Star
September 27, 1921

The gunmen were driven out of there [Cabin Creek, West Virginia] and there has been peace ever since. They were driven out of Paint Creek, where they had sent a death special with thirty deputy sheriffs on board. When they wanted that special car equipped to send up the mountain the painters at Huntington said they wouldn’t paint it. The machinists said they wouldn’t equip it. Some other men were asked to do it and they said: “We will talk about it tonight and ask the Lord”—they were Holy Rollers. Well, the Lord must have told them to do it because in the morning they equipped the train and later that armored car ﬁred into the tents of the strikers.

Here are the machine guns that were turned on us (exhibiting a picture). I went up to speak to the boys and the guns were turned on them. I didn’t see them until I got on the track. There were twenty-five of those gunmen who turned on those law-abiding citizens. I put my hands on the guns. One fellow told me to take my hands off the gun. I said: “No, sir; my class go into the bowels of the earth to get the materials to make these guns and I have a right to examine them. What do you want?” He said: “We want to clean out those fellows, every damn one of them.” I told him they were not doing anything wrong, that they were only trying to earn money for their wives and children. I told him if they shot one bullet out of that gun the creek would be red with blood and theirs would be the first to color it. They asked what I meant and I told them I had a lot of miners up above who were fully armed. There was nothing up the mountains but a few rabbits, but we scared hell out of them! We organized the men there. We have them solid to this day.

Those are the guns they sent across seven states to Colorado when the men there struck. The railroad men hauled them. Those are the guns that murdered the women and children at Ludlow, Colo. Here are the Baldwin thugs (showing several pictures). Here are some of the boys who were killed. Some young men joined the militia in Colorado, but when they found they were called out to turn their guns on the miners they went home. The mine owners said they would have to have an army. Here they are in this picture. They were not citizens of the state. The laws of Colorado said a man must be a citizen before he could put on the uniform, but these were the private armies of overlords and they kept committing crimes against the miners and their families until the horror of Ludlow shocked the country. Here is the picture of the children who were murdered.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part III: Warning for Gunthugs” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part II: “Hang that old woman…”

28th September 20212nd September 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 28, 1921
Mother Jones Speaks at United Mine Workers Convention, Part II

Indianapolis Convention of the United Mine Workers of America
Sixth Day, September 26, 1921, Mother Jones Speaks, Part II of IV:

Indianapolis Star
September 27, 1921

We then went into the Fairmont Field. One night while holding a meeting in New England I paid a fellow to go and circulate bills. We held a meeting on the sand lot. The United States marshal and the deputy marshal were there. When the meeting closed I went away. A little boy told me to get into a buggy and he would drive me to the interurban. When I was going over a dark bridge there were six or eight fellows at the company’s store. One fellow asked me where I was going. I said I was going into Fairmont and asked him to take care of the slaves because if he didn’t I would have to hunt a job for him next day.

Barney Rice, Joe Poggiani and another fellow from Indiana were there. I was hoping the boys would come, because those fellows could throw me into the river and say I committed suicide. Barney Rice came out calling: “Police! Police!” I asked what was the matter and he said they were killing Joe, that he was alone in the dark bridge and he had broken no law. The interurban turned the corner and I told those fellows to hurry. I ran into the bridge and the fellows who had attacked Joe had run away. He had a deep cut in his head. I dragged Joe out and bound his head up with a piece of my underskirt. I asked the interurban men to hurry him into Fairmont and they did.

Next day the boys came down to see Joe. There wasn’t a detective or a gunman that didn’t run out of the city that night. Every one of the cowards left. I had about 150 men at the hotel, and the general manager asked: “Mother, what can I do for the boys?” I said: “Send up a couple of drinks for the boys, because they need it.” There wasn’t a gunman stayed in town that night. Even the United States marshal got scared, but no- body was hurt except Joe.

That was the start of this thing. Later on I went into Wise County. Old Dad Haddow of Iowa was with me. The colored people gave us their church for the meeting. The gunmen told us we couldn’t hold a meeting there and we went out and held it at the corner of two roads. I said: “Dad, have you a pistol?” He said he had and I told him he had better show it. I told him the law said if the pistol was exposed, even a little bit, he would be safe, but if he had it concealed he might be arrested. Those hounds got around Dad and nearly tore him to pieces. They took him to the oﬂice and those fellows came, the general manager with them, and said: “Mother Jones, what is the matter? I am astonished, really astonished! The idea of you going into the house of God with a pistol!” “Don’t you know,” I said, “that I know God never comes around a place like this—he stays a damned long way from a place like this.”

The gunmen were there and I was arrested. The old man was nearly scared to death. They ﬁned him $25. He didn’t want to pay it, he wanted to appeal, but I said we would pay it. I paid the $25. That evening one of the men who had been in the crowd came to me and said: “Mother Jones, I want to pay my respects to you for paying that $25 as quick as you did. The scheme was to lock you up and burn you in the coke ovens.” And you women raised those brutes! It is horrible to think of.

We battled on and here and there we organized and got better conditions for the men. In 1902 a board member and your President, John L. Lewis, went up Kelly Creek. They chased him out. I was determined to organize that Creek. I went to the town at Eastbrook and in the morning went across by ferry, then walked six miles. The company was paying two deputies to keep me out but we got into the mining camp. I told a merchant my business and he said we could use a hall over his building. I rented that for four months. I took the men down and organized them that night. The company suspected there was something wrong and the next day discharged forty of the men. Then the drivers got restless and came out. I was determined to finish the job and on Sunday went through the camp with the boys marching. I told them to ask every fellow they saw sitting on the steps of the houses to be an American and come down. They came.

We told Jack Roan, the manager, who had come over from Columbus that day, to come out. He didn’t come out. In front of the hotel were two fellows and one said: “I would like to have a rope and hang that old woman to a tree.” Another one said: “And I would like to pull the rope.” After the meeting the boys pointed those men out. I stood with my back to a tree and said: “You said you would like to hang the old woman. Here is the old woman and the tree, where is your rope?” They ran away because there were more than a thousand men at the place. Since that day there has been no strike and no disturbance, but there is one thing we failed to do—we did not educate them thoroughly, because bringing them into the union was only the kindergarten; we should have educated them after they came in but we failed to do that.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part II: “Hang that old woman…”” →

Tag: John L Lewis

Hellraisers Journal: Mine Workers’ Union Calls Off Strike in Mingo County, West Virginia; Tent Colonies to be Abandoned

END OF TWO-YEAR STRIKE IN MINGO
STOPS MINE WAR
—————
Big Factor in Labor Disturbances in State
Passes Out of Existence.
———-

Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Miners’ Strike Non-Union Coke Region at Connellsville, Pennsylvania

Miners’ Union Has Brought the Light of Freedom
to the Non-Union Coke Region around Connellsville