Hellraisers Journal: High Union Officials, Leaders of Colorado Strikers, Accused by Grand Jury of Murder and Other Crimes

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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 18, 1914
Leaders of Colorado Coalfield Strike Accused by Grand Jury of Murder 

From The New York Times of May 15, 1914:

FIND MURDER INDICTMENTS
———-
High Union Officials Among Those
Accused by Grand Jury.

CO Strike 1913-14, UMWA Policy Com, ed, Ludlow Massacre Fink 1914Colorado Strikers’ Policy Committee, United Mine Workers of America
John McLennan, President District 15;
E. L. Doyle, Secretary-Treasurer District 15;
John R. Lawson, International Board Member from District 15;
Frank J. Hayes, International Vice-President

BOULDER, Col., May 14-Indictments charging first degree murder were returned here to-day against William [Hickey], Secretary of the Colorado State Federation of Labor; John O’Connor, President of the Louisville (Col.) local union of the United Mine Workers of America, and Jerry Carter and Joe Potestio, union leaders.

Indictments charging conspiracy to murder were returned against Edward L. Doyle, Treasure of District 15, United Mine Workers of America; John R Lawson, International Board Member of the American Federation of Labor [see note] and forty-eight others, including the four men named in the indictments charging first degree murder.

The action of the Grand Jury followed the return yesterday of fourteen true bills against strikers and sympathizers alleged to have been active in the attack on April 28 on the Hecla mine, near Louisville, in which one man, Peter Steinhoff, was killed and several were injured.

Gus Brack and William Knowles, strikers among those indicted for conspiracy to the murder, were arrested to-day.

[Note: John R. Lawson is International Board Member from District 15 to the United Mine Workers of America, not to the A. F. of L.]

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Colorado’s Northern Miners Vote to Resume Work; Mitchell Scores Victory Over Mother Jones

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Quote Mother Jones re North n South Coal Miners Separate Settle, Ab p99, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 30, 1903
Louisville, Colorado – Striking Coal Miners of Northern Colorado Vote to End Strike

From The Denver Post of November 29, 1903:

Mitchell Wins Over Northern Miners HdLn, Dnv Pst p1, Nov 29, 1903William Howells, CO Northern Miners Settlement Terms, Dnv Pst p1, Nov 29, 1903CO Northern Miners Settle, Mitchell Victory Over Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p1, Nov 29, 1903

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Defies John Mitchell at Louisville Meeting, Speaks Out Against Separate Settlement for the Striking Coal Miners of Northern Colorado

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Quote Mother Jones re North n South Coal Miners Separate Settle, Ab p99, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 23, 1903
Louisville, Colorado – Mother Jones Speaks Against Separate Settlement

Sunday November 22, 1903 – Louisville, Colorado
-Mother Jones Urges Northern Miners to Stand with Their Southern Brothers

Mother Jones Opposes Mt, DP p1, Nov 22, 1903

A meeting was held in Louisville yesterday, called by District 15 of the United Mine Workers, to consider an offer made by the operators of the northern coal fields to make a separate agreement with the miners of the northern Colorado, thereby calling on these miners to desert their brothers of the southern coalfields. President Mitchell is in favor of the separate settlement, while Mother Jones is adamantly opposed. Mother arrived at the meeting with William Howells, District 15 President, who also opposes the separate settlement. Howells spoke at the meeting and advised the northern miners not to make a separate agreement. The meeting then erupted with loud calls for Mother Jones. Mother Jones arose to speak, determined to stand up for the Italian miners of the southern Colorado whom Governor Peabody has lately been speaking of with great disdain and threats to deport. The speech made by Mother Jones, in defiance of her employer, John Mitchell, was a speech in favor of Solidarity:

Brothers, you English speaking miners of the northern fields promised your southern brothers, seventy percent of whom do not speak English, that you would support them to the end. Now you are asked to betray them, to make a separate settlement. You have a common enemy and it is your duty fight to a finish.

The enemy seeks to conquer by dividing your ranks, by making distinctions between North and South, between American and foreign. You are all miners, fighting a common cause, a common master. The iron heel feels the same to all flesh. Hunger and suffering and the cause of your children bind more closely than a common tongue.

I am accused of helping the Western Federation of Miners, as if that were a crime, by one of the National board members. I plead guilty. I know of no East or West, North nor South when it comes to my class fighting the battle for justice. If it is my fortune to live to see the industrial chain broken from every workingman’s child in America, and if then there is one black child in Africa in bondage, there I shall go.

[Emphasis added.]

Mother Jones received a standing ovation, and the miners voted 228 to 165 to stay out on strike with their Italian brothers of the southern coalfield.

Photograph added from Denver Post.

—————

From The Denver Post of November 22, 1903:

Mother Jones v John Mitchell re Northern CO Coal Miners separate settlement, DP p1, Nov 22, 1903

[…..]

“Mother” Jones the Factor.

…..There were loud calls for [Mother Jones], and she was not slow in coming to the front

[Mother acknowledged the telegram that had been sent by President Mitchell to this meeting endorsing a settlement, but stated nevertheless:] John Mitchell is in Boston, we are here in the field…A general cannot give orders unless he is in the field; unless he is at the battleground. Could a general in Washington give order to an army in Colorado?…

Are you brave men? Can you fight as well as you can work? I had rather fall fighting than working. If you go back to work here and your brothers fall in the south, you will be responsible for their defeat….

I don’t know what you will do, but I know very well what I would do if I were in one of your places. I would stand or fall with this question of eight hours for every worker in every mine in Colorado. I would say we will all go to glory together or we will die and go down together. We must stand together; if we don’t there will be no victory for any of us

I want the world to know, and all the papers to print, that I am going to Cripple Creek to speak there tomorrow for the Western Federation of Miners. I am not afraid to be classed as a friend of this organization and all criticism of me on that account falls flat upon my ears….

As “Mother” Jones walked off of the stage to many affectionate good-byes, she said:

I will see you again, boys after I have licked the C. F. & I.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks on Colorado Coalfield Strike at Washington [D. C.] Central Labor Union Meeting

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Quote Mother Jones, Coming of the Lord, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 10, 1913
Mother Jones Speaks at Meeting of Washington, D. C., Central Labor Union

From The Washington Herald of November 6, 1913:

Mother Jones Speaks at WDC CLU re CO Strike, WDC Hld p2, Nov 6, 1913

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