Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May and June 1921: Found in Mexico Standing for Organization of Mexican Workers

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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921————–

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 21, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May and June 1921
Found in Mexico City, Standing for Organization of Mexican Workers

From the Tucson Citizen of May 11, 1921:

MOTHER JONES WILL RESIDE IN MEXICO. 

Mother Jones, ed WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920

In January Mother Jones, the noted socialistic agitator who has been in the public eye throughout the United States through many years, went to the City of Mexico to attend an international congress of workingmen and women.

It is announced now that Mrs. Jones has decided to make her permanent residence in Mexico. She is quoted as saying that after many years of story experience in the United States including six penitentiary sentences served she finds Mexico “the only country where she can live la tranquility.”

[Photograph added.]

—————

Note: Mother has been taken into custody many times during her long life of standing with working people, but has never served a sentence in any penitentiary sentence that we know of.

From the Cleveland Toiler of June 4, 1921
-excerpt from article by Geo. N. Falconer:

MOTHER JONES. 

Seemed as if she had been imported specially to boost the Workers’ Mexican Government. “Workers,” she shouted during her several addresses during the Pan-American Congress, “stand by your government and it will stand by you.” 

“The pulse of the world is throbbing today,” declared ‘Mother’ Jones. “Humanity is watching the new Mexico. I want to tell you that there will be no intervention by the capitalist robbers of the United States in the affairs of Mexico. We won’t stand for it. We are going back to the United States and appeal to the workers there to stand by the workers here.”

When she shouted, “You are going to bring the new day in this country and center the eyes of the world on Mexico as well as Russia,” the applause was tremendous. 

Didn’t Mother Jones boost for Woodrow Wilson in 1916? And Mother Jones paid many compliments to that “grand old man of labor,” King Gompers. Why? Is she so ignorant of Samuels’ labor history?

—————

From Proceedings of the Convention of American Federation of Labor at Denver, Colorado, June 13-25, 1921:

…..Ernest Greenwood representing the International Labor Office at Geneva, Frank Bohn, publicist, together with Mother Jones as the invited guest of General Villarreal, minister of agriculture of Mexico, accompanied the party [of representatives of the American Federation of Labor] from St. Louis to Mexico City. Mother Jones attended the meetings of the convention and spoke on two occasions.

On arrival at Nuevo Laredo we learned that that the government of Mexico had sent a reception committee representing the government and labor to the boundary line to meet and greet us…..

Note: emphasis added throughout.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May and June 1921: Found in Mexico Standing for Organization of Mexican Workers”

Hellraisers Journal: Governor of West Virginia Orders Draft to Raise Army to Enforce Martial Law in Mingo County

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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p227—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 30, 1921
Mingo County – Governor Orders Army to Enforce Martial Law on Union Miners

From The West Virginian of June 28, 1921:

Army for Mingo County, W Vgn p1, June 28, 1921Draft Army for Mingo County, W Vgn p1, June 28, 1921

CHARLESTON, June 28.-Governor E. F. Morgan by proclamation here today reaffirmed his declaration of martial law in Mingo county and commanded the assessor to enroll all persons liable under the law for military duty.

He also ordered the sheriff to draft 130 men or to accept 130 volunteers who are to be mustered into the service of the state for 60 days to enforce all orders promulgated by the Governor.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Probe in Mingo by Senate Now Certain” -Sam Montgomery in Washington, D. C. Insists on Inquiry

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 28, 1921
Washington, District of Columbia – Senate Committee to Investigate Mingo

From the Martinsburg Journal of June 25, 1921:

Senate Investigation of Mingo Now Certain, Martinsburg Jr p1, June 25, 1921

Washington, June 24.—Tho Senate is to investigate the situation in the coal fields of Mingo county, and to probe the causes leading up to the shooting which broke out in that community several weeks ago. The senate resolution directing the investigation to be made by a special committee of the senate was adopted by the senate Wednesday afternoon by a viva voce vote, and without opposition. Senator King immediately moved a reconsideration of the vote and the motion to reconsider went over. But the resolution was adopted by such a substantial vote that there would seem to be no more chance for its defeat on reconsideration.

Sam B. Montgomery, former state labor commissioner of West Virginia has been here for several days insisting upon the investigation being made by the senate. Senator Hiram W. Johnson, of California, was the author of the resolution which was adopted, and he also insisted upon its passage.

Thinks It Will Help.

Mr. Montgomery, in the last two days, has called upon the president, the attorney general and George Christian, secretary to the president and impressed on each of them the views of organized labor in West Virginia, to the effect that the investigation should be made.

In the opinion of Mr. Montgomery, the investigation by the senate will end all the trouble and prevent farther shooting in Mingo county. He pointed to the good results which followed the senate’s investigation of conditions on Cabin creek, and predicted that good will follow this investigation also, both for the operators and the miners.

While the motion for reconsideration is pending, the final adoption of the resolution will be delayed, and until its adoption the personnel of the investigating committee will not be announced. But it is the intention of the senate to have the committee appointed and the investigation started at the earliest possible moment.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Federationist: Governor’s Sworn Duty is to Remove Coal Operators’ Private Army

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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 27, 1921
West Virginia Federationist Demands Removal of Gunthug Army

From the Duluth Labor World of June 18, 1921:

Thugs Promote Mingo Mine War, Lbr Wld p1, June 18, 1921

CHARLESTON, W. Va., June 16.—In an address to business men in this city Governor Morgan said: “Thank God, the awakening is coming in Mingo county.”

To this statement the West Virginia Federationist replies:

Yes, it is coming, but through no effort of you, the coal masters or any of the state officials.

The awakening will arrive when the federal investigation committee makes public their findings and expose the vicious system of the industrial overlords who have ruled with brute force and crushed a liberty loving people under the iron heel of greed by the usurpation of the constitution and the enforcement of a law of the gun and club in the hands of their thug army, aided and abetted by the public officials whom they own and control.

Governor Morgan was absolutely right when he stated that “the people of West Virginia don’t understand the situation as it exists today.” If they did there would be a mighty roar throughout the entire state demanding that he perform his sworn duty to uphold law and order by removing the private army of coal company thugs from Mingo, Logan and McDowell counties and restore constitutional rights to the citizenship thereof.

If he wanted to acquaint the people with conditions he could have quoted an editorial from the Charleston Mail in openly advocating mob law, said: “What is needed to settle that trouble on Tug river is a few tugs by the sheriff’s assistants at a stout rope.”

In other words, the Mail advocates that the thugs and bums recruited by agents of the coal masters to break the miners’ strike should string up the citizens of Mingo county who are struggling for their American rights and more bread and butter for their families.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Federationist: Governor’s Sworn Duty is to Remove Coal Operators’ Private Army”

Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: Photograph of Miners Acquitted of Murder in Battle of Matewan

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Quote Sid Hatfield, Matewan Friends, NYT p6, Mar 22, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 26, 1921
“Miners Who Were Acquitted of Murder” -Photograph by Henry Koop

From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 15, 1921:

Matewan Defendants Acquitted, UMWJ p14, June 15, 1921

[Photograph cropped:]

Matewan Defendants Acquitted, WV Hx Center, see UMWJ p14, June 15, 1921

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: Photograph of Miners Acquitted of Murder in Battle of Matewan”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: “The Conflict on the Tug” by Winthrop D. Lane, Miners’ Battle for Union Rights

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Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 21, 1921
Miners’ of Mingo County, West Virginia, Fight for Right to Organize

From The Survey of June 18, 1921:

The Conflict on the Tug

[-by Winthrop D. Lane]

Review, Civil War in WV by WD Lane, KS City Str MO p4, June 18, 1921
Kansas City Star of June 18, 1921

THE gunfire that has been awakening echoes in West Virginia Hills as well as in the United States Senate chamber, where a resolution calling for a Senate investigation of the industrial trouble in that state has been under discussion, is neither a new nor an unexpected feature of the conflict over unionism in the coal fields there. No doubt some of the pictures recently drawn of the reign of feudism in that country have been too vividly colored; private families are not now engaged in the planned extermination of each other as they once were. But if the feud is no longer an active and malignant eruption in the life of the region, the tradition of feudism remains. The men who shot their personal enemies from ambush or in the open did not die without issue; their descendants still tramp the West Virginia and Kentucky hills in large numbers, sit at clerk’s desks in stores and village banks and even occupy the sheriff’s and county clerk’s offices.

The fact is that in the mines and mining communities of those regions there are today men who saw their fathers or grandfathers take their guns down from the wall, go a hundred yards from the house and lie in wait for prospective victims. Life is not held as dearly in such a civilization as in some others. The traditional method of settling disputes is too much by the gun; and when two men cannot agree, the courts are likely to find that the arbitrament of  the law has been superseded by the arbitrament of the levelled pistol barrel. 

Introduce into such a community, now, an acute modern industrial conflict. Let capital enter and bring forth coal from the hills. Let the whole country become an industrial area. Let the trade union enter and try to persuade the workers to organize. Let the owners and managers of coal mines say: “You shall not organize. We will not let you.” The methods that have been used to settle other disputes will be resorted to in settling this. The nature of the trouble is different, but the way of meeting it is the same. There are in the mines of West Virginia many men who know nothing of this tradition, who were brought up in other environments. But there are also, both in the mines and among the general population, many to whom the tradition is a keen memory. They are familiar with the use of firearms; most of them possess guns. They regard a fight between capital and labor as no different, in the tactics evoked, from any family or domestic quarrel.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: “The Conflict on the Tug” by Winthrop D. Lane, Miners’ Battle for Union Rights”

Hellraisers Journal: Attorney Thomas West on Ruthless Acts of State Police in Raid Upon Miners’ Tent Colony at Lick Creek

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————–

Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 20, 1921
Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County – Attorney West Describes Raid

From The Wheeling Intelligencer of June 18, 1921:

MINE WORKERS’ LAWYER MAKES
ALLEGATIONS OF RUTHLESS ACTS
AT THE MINERS’ TENT COLONY
———-
Declares State Police and Volunteers
Were Disorderly and Destructive
When They Raided the Homes
of Union Miners
———-

Lick Creek Tents Slashed June 14, 1921 crpd, Current Hx NYT p963, Mar 1922
Lick Creek Tent Colony after Raid of June 14, 1921

Special to The Intelligencer.

Charleston, Va., June 17-Secretary-treasurer Fred Mooney, of District Seventeen, United Mine Workers of America, tonight made public the following report just received from the union’s lawyer, Thomas West, who was detailed to make an investigation of the activities of the state police in raiding tent colonies of union coal miners in Mingo county:

Williamson, W. Va., June 16.

H. W. Houston, Charleston, W. Va.

Dear Sir-On yesterday morning I visited the Lick Creek tent colony for the purpose of taking some statements regarding the outrage perpetrated there on the day before [June 14]. I found that the state police and their volunteer confederates [company gunthugs] had ripped up twenty or more tents. Some of them had probably a hundred slits up them, averaging about six feet each, and had knocked the legs out from under their cooking stoves and the stove pipes down, and where they found anything cooking on the stove they swiped it off into the coal box, as a rule found just back of the stove. They found some tables set for dinner and they turned these with the legs up and the dishes and food left on the under side.

They broke open every trunk and rifled every drawer. They dumped all the clothes they found out into the middle of the floor and kicked them all over the place. They dumped an organ out of one man’s tent over the hill and hit a phonograph with an axe or some other heavy tool.

They poured kerosene oil into a churn of milk found in one of the tents and in others they found such oil and poured it into the meal and flour. In one tent they found a considerable quantity of canned fruit and they put this on the bed clothes after turning them upside down on the bed and broke it up. They put the mattresses on the floor and ripped them open and put the springs on top of them.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Attorney Thomas West on Ruthless Acts of State Police in Raid Upon Miners’ Tent Colony at Lick Creek”

Hellraisers Journal: Striking Miner, Alex Breedlove, Shot Down in Cold Blood with Hands in the Air and a Prayer on His Lips

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 19, 1921
Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County – The Death Alex Breedlove

June 18, 1921, Affidavits of James Williams and Willie Hodge: 

STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA, County of Mingo, to wit:

Mingo Co WV, Tent Colony, Map, WVgn p1, May 19, 1921

James Williams, being duly sworn upon his oath, says that he is a resident of the Lick Creek tent colony and that he was there on the 14th day of June, 1921, when the same was raided by State police and their confederates and deputy sheriff, and when Alex Breedlove was murdered; that he was about 30 feet from Breedlove when he was shot and saw James Bowles, State policeman, shoot him; Bowles was about 6 or 7 feet from Breedlove, and Breedlove had his hands up above his head at the time he was shot; Bowles said to Breedlove, “Hold up your hands, God damn you, and if you have got anything to say, say it fast,” and Breedlove said, “Lord, have mercy,” and instantly the gun fired and Breedlove fell. They were standing facing each other and Breedlove just above him on the hill.

At the same time Victor Blackburn, a special State police, was shooting at Garfield More, who was behind a tree, the same tree that Breedlove had just been behind, and after Bowles had called Breedlove to come out from behind the tree and put up his hands and come to him and he had done so and then was shot, Bowles immediately turned his gun on Garfield Moore, but did not have time to fire until he was shot in the back by another State police who was lying flat down on the ground straight down the hill below Policeman Bowles; that at the crack of his rifle a half dozen or more women who were there screamed out, “Look out, man, you are shooting your own men,” and ask him to get away from there; that he would get them all killed.

Affiant thereupon said to the man who had shot Bowles, “Yes; you done shot this man up here now,” and at that he said to affiant, “You are a damn liar, you damn black———-, you get away from there.” And thereupon the said police who had shot Police Bowles fainted and was carried off the ground by Willie Ball and carried under a bridge across Lick Creek. He remained under this bridge 30 or 40 minutes, with a lot of union miners who had taken shelter under said bridge.

JAMES WILLIAMS.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this the 18th day of June, 1921.

THOMAS WEST, Notary Public.

Willie Hodge, being duly sworn, says that he was present when Alex Breed love was shot and that the statement made about his shooting by James Williams is correct.

WILLIE HODGE.

Sworn to before me this the 18th day of June, 1921.

THOMAS WEST, Notary Public.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Striking Miner, Alex Breedlove, Shot Down in Cold Blood with Hands in the Air and a Prayer on His Lips”

Hellraisers Journal: Striking Miner Alex Breedlove Shot Down in Raid on Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County, W. V.

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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 16, 1921
Lick Creek Tent Colony of Mingo County – Striker Alex Breedlove Shot Down

From The New York Herald of June 15, 1921:

ONE KILLED, TWO HURT IN NEW MINGO FIGHT
————— 
47 in Tent Colony of Idle Miners Are Arrested.
———-

Mingo Co WV, Tent Colony, Map, WVgn p1, May 19, 1921

WILLIAMSON, W. Va., June 14.-One men was killed, two others were wounded and forty-seven residents of the Lick Creek tent colony of idle miners near Williamson are held in the county jail as the result of the fight to-day at Lick Creek between authorities and the colonists.

Alex Breedlove is dead, while James A. Bowles, State trooper, was wounded and Martin Justice, in charge of the colony, received wounds in the cheek and leg.

The fight started after Major Tom Davis, commanding Mingo under martial law proclamation, had returned to Lick Creek with reinforcements of citizen State troopers to arrest about two-score of the idle miners, as his forces had been fired on in the vicinity earlier in the day. Trooper Bowles, in charge of a party of citizen State police [deputized company gunthugs], encountered several men near the colony. Orders from Bowles to throw up their hands brought shots, it was said, resulting in Breedlove’s death and in the wounding of Bowles.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Striking Miner Alex Breedlove Shot Down in Raid on Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County, W. V.”

Hellraisers Journal: Forty-Two Striking Miners Arrested in Raid on Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County, West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 10, 1921
Mingo County – Lick Creek Colony Raided; Striking Miners Arrested 

From The New York Times of June 6, 1921:

ARREST FORTY IN MINGO.
—–
Military Authorities Accuse Them of
Violating Martial Law.

Mingo County WV, Strikers n Families Lick Creek Tent Colony, Lt Dg p16, Dec 18, 1920

WILLIAMSON, W. V Va., June 5.-Forty-two men, residents of the Lick Creek Tent Colony of idle miners, near Williamson, were arrested today and locked up in the county jail charged with violating the proclamation of martial law recently imposed following disorders in the Mingo coal fields.

The purpose of the raid, said Captain U. R. Brockus of the State Police, was an attempt to bring to justice those who had fired upon motorists in the vicinity of the tent colony during the past few weeks. Decision to make the raid, it was said, followed when reports reached State Police Headquarters that an automobile in which five persons were riding was fired upon this morning. Five bullets struck the car, according to the reports, but no one was injured.

The arrests were made by State Police and deputy sheriffs, headed by Captain Brockus and Sheriff Pinson, and consisted of about forty men, all heavily armed. No resistance was offered, but the authorities declared that eight armed men fled into the mountains when the posse reached the camp. One was captured after an exciting chase. The prisoners will be examined tomorrow.

—————

[Emphasis added. Photograph added from Literary Digest of Dec. 18, 1920.]

[Note: “deputy sheriffs” often means deputized company gunthugs.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Forty-Two Striking Miners Arrested in Raid on Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County, West Virginia”