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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 27, 1913
A Poem for Mother Jones Held in the Grasp of the “Beast, Made Mad With Greed.”
“Mother Jones” by J. A. Bradley of Lancaster, Ohio:
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: A Poem by J. A. Bradley: “Sons of Mother Mary Jones Awake!””
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 31, 1913
Mother Jones and Comrades Railroaded by Military Commission of West Virginia
From the Appeal to Reason of March 29, 1913:
Mother Jones Railroaded
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IN the writ of habeas corpus, sworn to and filed with the supreme court of West Virginia, the military commission, by James I. Pratt, its president, says relative to Mother Jones and her co-defendants: “Defendants deny that the petitioners are innocent of the charges against them, but on the contrary believe and so aver that the PETITIONERS ARE GUILTY thereof.”
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The supreme court, after having this evidence before them, remanded the cases of Mother Jones, Boswell, Parsons, John Brown and others to THIS SAME MILITARY COMMISSION TO BE TRIED BY THEM.
In other words, the military commission expressed in print and under oath its belief in the guilt of the parties to be tried, and the supreme court of West Virginia then authorized this commission, that had expressed its belief before trial, to hear the case. Never was such an unfair thing done in the history of America.
It was to be expected that the defendants would have been convicted. The case was tried under circumstances that were peculiarly brutal. It was not a trial, but a cruel farce. Mother Jones, over eighty years old, but a fighter from the word “go,” who has seen all sorts of injustice and every kind of suffering, was so overcome by the horror of the situation that she fainted three times and was finally borne from the court room in a helpless condition.
This isn’t all. The court was preparing to try the accused without them being present, and when objection was made to this outrage, the judge advocate of the commission explained that they did not think the presence of the petitioners was necessary and if the court would “imagine they were present” it would do just as well. Such vigorous protest was made that finally the prisoners were brought into court under armed guard.
The cases grew out of a strike that has been on in West Virginia for a year. The mining companies refused to recognize the union and a strike followed. An appeal by the mine owners was made to the governor and troops were sent into the territory and martial law declared. The brutality of the troops has been almost unbelievable. Miners by the hundreds were evicted from their house and during the cold whiter months had to carry in frail tents on the hillsides. Many deaths have occurred because of exposure.
A military commission was appointed to try all who interfered in any way with the operation of the scabs sent to run the mines. The methods of this commission were flagrant in the highest degree. Finally Mother Jones, Boswell, Parsons, John Brown and others were arrested. At first Mother Jones was thrown into prison. Afterward when the workers of the United States became vehement against such treatment of an aged woman, she was kept under armed guard at a private house.
The accused were found guilty. Then a peculiar thing happened. The case was held up a number of days, the idea evidently being to get them into the penitentiary before the people were aware of what had occurred.
During all this time a campaign of vilification was waged in certain classes of papers throughout the United States. Mother Jones, who his sacrificed more in the interest of the toiler than any woman of America, Mother Jones, known as the angel of the mines, was heralded over the country as a prostitute. The whole agitation was charged to the Socialists in violent and incendiary language, the APPEAL, which was circulated in the strike district being denounced as a paper “so vile in blasphemy and treason that it seems the very ink that prints it would blush for shame.” While this vilification and this campaign of lying was in progress, the capitalist press kept very quiet about the civil war and the murdering that was being done in West Virginia-things as bad as have occurred in Mexico.
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 30, 1913
“To the Rescue of Mother Jones and Her Comrades!”
From the Appeal to Reason of March 29, 1913:
War in West Virginia
Keep both eyes on West Virginia!
The war that is on there is of the most vital concern to the whole working class of this republic.
West Virginia at this hour presents the most critical situation and the most important battle-ground on American soil.
The result there means a great victory or a crushing defeat for the working class and all it stands for in the tremendous struggle that is shaking this nation from one end to the other.
The plutocracy are making a desperate stand in West Virginia. They have sworn the slaves there shall not be unionized and that West Virginia shall remain as in the past a running ulcer of scabism to menace and pollute the whole surrounding country.
It is highly significant, however, that the plutocracy is no longer in complete control in West Virginia. The civil authority is in conflict with the military power, attempting to check its brutal sway.
It is of immediate and vital importance that Mother Jones and the comrades who are in the military bull-pen with her shall be rescued, and to this end the APPEAL pledges itself, with all there is behind it, to go the limit.
Mother Jones and her comrades, leaders of the striking miners, whose battle has been fought with brave red blood, spilled freely on many a field, were not tried in a court of law, but in a military tribunal.
A LA RUSSIA!
The pirates who own West Virginia and control it as their own private preserves, with the workers as their “n—— and slaves,” take no chances with juries. They declare martial law and make short work of those who tamper with their slaves as the slave owners of Virginia with John Brown and his liberators fifty years ago.
TO THE RESCUE OF MOTHER JONES AND HER COMRADES!
Let this be the fighting shibboleth of the aroused working class of the United States!
The military court has not yet rendered its verdict, but we must be prepared for it when it comes and if Mother Jones is railroaded by a bunch of military hirelings there will be something doing very speedily in this country.
The United Mine Workers have just sent a dozen organizers into West Virginia and voted four hundred thousand dollars to back up the fight.
The Socialist party should also send a dozen Socialist organizers there and back up the fight with all the resources at its command.
If the brigands who have West Virginian by the throat insist upon war they shall have it to a finish!
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 29, 1913
From Bakersfield, California – FWs March on Denver to Fight for Free Speech
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of March 27, 1913:
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Hellraisers Journal -Tuesday March 25, 1913
Akron, Ohio – Jack Whyte and Fellow Workers Collect Funds to Aid Rubber Strike
From Solidarity of March 22, 1913:
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Hellraisers Journal -Monday March 24, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – State Supreme Court Upholds Martial Law
From The New York Times of March 22, 1913:
COURT AFFIRMS MARTIAL LAW
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West Virginia Judge Reject Miners’
Plea Against Gov. Hatfield.
CHARLESTON, West Va., March 21.-In an opinion handed down late to-day the Supreme Court of Appeals affirms the right of the Governor to declare martial law and appoint a military commission.
The opinion was rendered in the case of “Mother” Mary Jones, Charles H. Boswell, Paul J. Paulson [Paulsen], and Charles Bartley [Batley] against Gov. Hatfield and members of the military commission, asking for a writ of habeas corpus to compel the Governor and military authorities to turn the petitioners over to the civil authorities. The petitioners denied the right of the Governor and the military commission to try persons apprehended outside the military zone of the Kanawha County coal fields.
The opinion, which was written by Judge Poffenbarger, President of the court, holds that the Governor has the right to arrest out of military district all persons who shall give aid, support, or information to persons within the zone who break the laws. It further states that the Governor and military commission have the right to detain or imprison persons apprehended outside the martial law section. The court does not think the declaration of martial law or the creation of a military commission contravenes the Constitution of the Stale or of the United States.
Martial law will be continued indefinitely in the Kanawha coal field. Gov. Hatfield so announced to-day at the close of his personal investigation of conditions in the district.
He intimated that a rebellious spirit was being fomented by persons outside the district and threatened to arrest the agitators. He said:
“I am satisfied that by doing this I shall be well within the limits of the executive power and authority, and at the same time I will in this way obtain a further knowledge of the purpose of those who are rebellious for use in the determination of the question of the wisdom of resort to more extreme measures as a means of restoring the supremacy and due administration of civil laws…..”
Gov. Hatfield late to-day released four prisoners held by the military authorities in connection with the strike troubles. This makes a total of twenty-nine prisoners held by the military authorities who have been freed by the Executive within two days. Most of these, it is said, have never been tried, but several have important evidence against other prisoners.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal -Sunday March 23, 1913
From the Bull Pen at Pratt, West Virginia: J. W. Brown Writes to His Wife
From The Wheeling Majority of March 20, 1913:
From The Bull Pen
(John W. Brown Writes to His Wife.)
(Published by courtesy of Mrs. John W. Brown.)Pratt, W. Va., March 9, 1913
My Dear Eva:
The boys are all tucked away in their blankets and not feeling sleepy myself I thought I would drop you a line. I have had but one letter from you since you were up here, in which you stated you had an ill spell due to your long wait in the cold the last time you were up. I sincerely hope you have fully recovered by this time. You must not take any chances that will impair your health at this time, there is too much pending, and too great a responsibility resting upon you. At times I feel grieved and angry with myself for having forced such responsibilities upon you, and my only consolation rests in the fact that you, at least, are cognizant of the motive back of my every act. The big clumsy old world has never yet understood the motives that prompt men to deeds of high resolve. Our Christian (?) civilization is based upon the assumption that we should bear each other’s burdens, yet, at every epoch in human history when a man appears who is big enough and man enough to attempt to lift those burdens from off the backs of those who can no longer bear them, society raises its murderous quietus “Crucify Him,” and thus as Lowell sang:
“Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne;
Yet that scaffold sways the future;
And behind the dim unknown
Standeth God, within the shadow,
Keeping watch above his own.”With a due allowance of each man’s conception of “God” the sentiment quoted above expresses a great historical truth. As you have undoubtedly seen by the papers, Boswell, Batley, Parsons, “Mother” Jones, Paulson and myself have refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Military Court, and therefore are not putting up any defence. You, perhaps, with others, do not see at this time the wisdom in such tactics, seeing that we are wholly at the mercy of this tribunal, but time will tell and justify the positions we take. If it was only myself personally that was concerned I would, for the sake of gaining my liberty and being free to go to you and the children, go before this court and defend myself. Nor have I the least doubt in my mind that I would come clear. But my dear, there are principles involved in this case infinitely deeper than the fate of any one citizen, if the capitalist class get away with this then constitutional government is dead; liberty is dead; and justice for the working class is a thing of the past. Already have they scuttled the ship of state; they have strangled Justice; they have cut the throat of liberty; they have stolen the jewel of liberty from the crown of manhood and reduced the victims of the burglary to slavery and to prison, and I repeat, if we let them get away with it, then in the future, whenever and wherever the interests of the working class and the capitalist class reaches an acute stage out will come the militia, the courts will be set aside and the leaders railroaded to the military bull pens and thence to the penitentiaries.
Here lies the great danger. This case can not now be settled until it has reached the bar of the Nation’s conscience. In order to do this this sleepy old public must have another victim. We boys have made up our minds to go to the pen, this will give the lawyers a ground to test the case before the Supreme Court and we will trust to our comrades to keep up the agitation. The history of this case must go to the common people. It must be told o’er and o’er again until the deafest ear will hear, and the numbest brain will act.
The American people must see Holly Grove and Hansford as I saw them on February 8, 9, and 10. They must not only see, but they must hear the moaning of the broken hearts and the wailing of the funeral dirge; they must see the hot tears of orphans and widows falling on the glassy eyes and bullet mingled faces of dead husbands and fathers; they must see these tented dwellings in the dead of winter and the poor wretches that occupy them. Aye; they must not only see but they must know the cause.
Pardon me, my dear, if I let my sentiment get away with me, it is one of my failings I know, but there is a good reason. On the 8th, I went into the undertaker’s office at Hansford. I reviewed the body of Estep who was shot the night before by the hired assassins who, under the orders of Sheriff Hill, passed through the village of Holly Grove the night before on the “Bull Moose” and who deliberately shot the town to pieces. The next morning I went into a vacant store. It was litterally full of women and children and little babies. You know my soft spot. Well this got it. One poor little mother was trying to nurse a pair of twins and my mind brought back many of those fancy stunts we used to pull off when you were nursing the twins. But O, my God, what a contrast. I couldn’t stand for it, I ran out, but I couldn’t run away from my conscience and from deep down in the farthermost remote regions of thought there sprang up an unanswerable question. Do what I would I could not get away from the accusation, and ever anon the still small voice would say, “Is this your handiwork?” “Is this what you give back to the sires who bled and died to make you free?” “Is this poor mother, plundered, profaned and disinherited, the Goddess of Liberty, the Mother of the Race, the Queen of the home? Is this poor creature, defiled and degraded man’s moral uplifter and spiritual illuminator? Oh, God! Oh, God!”
Why is it that such men as Markham go to a piece of inanimate canvas for inspiration? Why do they the theologians shout about the hell in the hereafter while the whole forest of humanity is on fire? Here the question raised in Markham’s “Man with the Hoe” is real flesh and blood and the question raised, “Is this the thing the Lord God made and gave, to have dominion over sea and land, to trace the stars and search the heavens for power?
To feel the passions of eternity.
Is this the dream He dreamed who shaped the suns
And pillared the blue firmament with light?
Down all the stretch of hell to its last gulf
There is no shore more terrible than this;
More tongued with censure of the world’s blind greed
More filled with signs and portents for the soul,
More fraught with menace to the universe!”You will pardon these interrogatives, and if I have wandered too far away from my big old homely self forgive me for this time. You see it is so long since we had a talk together, and besides, my dear, we are on the brink of a precipice. No nation as yet has ever risen above the status of its womanhood. What woman is to man, man is to himself, and visa versa. This you and I understand but the great mass of the American people do not yet know that when a nation degrades and defiles its womanhood, and her children inherit her degradation and defilement, then, that nation is corrupt. Aside from the legal points and Constitutional rights, to say nothing of the economical right of the coal miner, here is a great moral side to this controversy which embraces the whole, but there, I will conclude for the present, if you are not ill yourself, and can get around to it, I wish you would send me by parcels post a change of underwear. Much as I would like to see you I would rather you would not come up here. I do not relish the thought of you having to wait in that tireless “Bull Pen” before the Military authorities condescend to allow you to see me.
Give my love to the children and kiss them all for me.
Lovingly and sincerely yours,
J. W. BROWN.[Photograph, paragraph breaks and emphasis added.]
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Hellraisers Journal -Saturday March 22, 1913
Mucklow, West Virginia – Striking Miner, Held in Bull Pen, Smuggles Out Letter
From The Wheeling Majority of March 20, 1913:
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 21, 1913
Cartoon by Ernest Riebe: Doctors and Nurses for Some, Not for Others
From the Alexandria Lumberjack (Louisiana) of March 13, 1913:
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 19, 1913
Paterson, New Jersey – General Strike Committee to Establish Relief Station
From The Paterson Evening News of March 18, 1913:
Realizing that the ultimatum of the manufacturers and their decision not to confer with the strikers in any way, means either a defeat for the present strike movement or a long fight, the General Strike Committee of the Textile Workers of Paterson has decided to begin at once raising funds for the purpose of caring for the needy workers and their families in order that those now on strike may be able to live until the manufacturers awake to a realization of the fact that the mills are going to remain closed until the strikers get some recognition of their demands.
The following circular is being mailed broadcast to labor organizations throughout the country and it is expected that by the beginning of the week funds will commence flowing in.
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“AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN JURY TO ALL.”
SILK STRIKERS STRIKE AND RELIEF FUND.
HEADQUARTERS, TURN HALL, PATERSON, N. J.
TO ALL WAGE EARNERS AND FRIENDS OF LABOR:
Over 25,000 silk workers in Paterson are out on strike today for better conditions and a living wage. We are struggling against the manufacturers in a fight for living conditions. Our fight that we must win if we are to be able to live and to provide for our wives and children.
The Manufacturers’ Association of Paterson is a wealthy organisation, stacked by wealthy interests. It is a fight of the workers against the bosses and against unlivable conditions.
We have no one to appeal to for help except our brother workers, and those outside interests who believe in fair play for the workingman and we now make that appeal,
Every dollar that is raised will feed some hungry mouth and strengthen some willing worker to keep up the fight against unfair conditions.
To all workingmen and to all lovers of the square deal we make this appeal. The time to answer it is NOW. We need your help, WILL YOU GIVE IT.
SIGNED,
RELIEF COMMITTEE.GENERAL STRIKE COMMITTEE
TEXTILE WORKERS OF PATERSON, N. J.———-
In addition to this a subscription will be taken locally and food and money will be gratefully received, donations may be made outright or subscriptions made to pay any desired amount a week during the progress of the strike.
The News will acknowledge receipt of all monies sent in and also other donations.
The General Relief Committee is headed by Frederick Jenny as chairman, and they have established permanent headquarters in Turn hall.
The announcement is made that the strikers expect to be able to take care of all those who are in immediate need.
[…..]
