Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in Pittsburgh, Raps Pennsylvanians, Calls West Virginia Officials “Pack of Anarchists”

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Quote Mother Jones, WV Court Martial, No Plea to Make, Ptt Pst p3, Mar 8, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 20, 1913
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Speaks at Lyceum Theater

From The Pittsburg Press of May 19, 1913:

“MOTHER” JONES MAKES ROUSING
ADDRESS HERE
———-
Says West Virginia Officials Form
“Pack of Anarchists.”
Takes Vigorous Rap at Pennsylvanians
———-

AGED LABOR LEADER CRITICISES CONGRESS
———-

Mother Jones in Rocker, Survey p41, Apr 5, 1913

Arraigning Pennsylvanians as moral cowards for permitting the present state of affairs to exist in the West Virginia mining country; scoring the West Virginia authorities bitterly, and never dropping her high note of enthusiasm for a single instant, “Mother” Jones,  the noted woman leader yesterday,  in the Lyceum theater talked to a crowded house which applauded almost every sentence. She was presented with a huge bunch of flowers by the Slavonic Associated Press.

The world-renowned labor organizer, who confessed yesterday to being aged 81, made an imposing figure as, white-haired, erect, nervous and virile, she completely possessed the stage during her speech, and, incidentally her audience as well. Among other things, she said:

[The speaker declared:]

If one were to go to the West Virginia strike region and see the indescribable conditions I have seen there, he would say that America is darker than even Russia was; darker than even barbarous Mexico was. The harrowing stories I could tell as I have seen them there would paralyze the heart of the Nation-if it had a heart. But we’re so hypnotized by our ruling class.

THREATS BROUGHT DEFIANCE.

When I went to Cabin Creek last May they told me that if I went up there at an organizer I would come back on a stretcher, but I defied them.

[She almost screamed:]

You people in Pennsylvania are moral cowards. The nation never gave you so great an opportunity to show yourselves as when it gave you the story of the drum-head court by military despots such as we were brought before. And you sat idly by and did nothing! If you can get a bigger pack of anarchists than the public officials of West Virginia I want to find them!

“Mother” Jones spent her eighty-first birthday in jail. She had the locals of the miners’ union elect delegates to lay their grievances before the governor, W. E. Glasscock, of West Virginia and went with these delegates to Charleston. It was then, she says, that the governor became alarmed, fearing from her reputation as an agitator that she meant trouble. A warrant was issued for her arrest and she spent some time under guard, some of the delegates being imprisoned also.

Harold W. Houston, secretary of the Socialist party of West Virginia, closed the meeting by referring to conditions in the strike zone of his state. He urged co-operation on the part of the party here to aid in righting the wrongs which he claims have been done organized labor in the “Mountain State.”

Mother Jones made a great appeal for the protection of the home and didn’t neglect to inject a smart rap at congress occupying “a whole session talking about the navy and how much money to spend on it, but not a dollar to protect the childhood of the nation.”

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Excerpt from The New York Times of  May 19, 1913:

We’re going to organize the state of West Virginia if every one of us dies in the battle…I’m going back to West Virginia. If I can’t go on a train, I’ll walk in…[Before going into the trouble zone] one of the boys told me: “If you go up there, Mother, you’ll come back on a stretcher, no organizer can speak there!” I spoke there. I didn’t come out on a stretcher. I raised hell.

I organized the women because the women can lick a non-union man better than you fellows here can

Labor must stand together. You trades unions must stop wrangling with the I.W.W., and the I.W.W. must stop wrangling with the trades unions I know industrial unionism is coming, and you can’t stop it.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in Pittsburgh, Raps Pennsylvanians, Calls West Virginia Officials “Pack of Anarchists””

Hellraisers Journal: “The Last Day of the Paint Creek Court Martial” by Cora Older, Part II: Wives and Children Stand Outside

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Quote Mother Jones fr Military Bastile, Cant Shut Me Up, AtR p1, May 10, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 19, 1913
“The Last Day of the Paint Creek Court Martial” by Cora Older, Part II

From The Independent of May 15, 1913:

Title Paint Creek Trial, Court Martial of Mother Jones, by Cora Older, Idpd p1045

[Part II of II]

Mother Jones, Cora Older, at Military Bastile WV, Colliers p26, Apr 1913

During the recess I had a few minutes’ conversation with Mother Jones. Her eighty years were as nothing—she became a rollicking, irrepressible girl. She liked everyone, even the military court. She told me she was not against the judges, but their jobs. As for the young officer appointed against her wishes her counsel, like an affectionate mother she said, “He’s a nice fellow, only, you know, he’s not my attorney.” She turned to one of the judges who was passing: “Don’t dare find against me. If you do, I’ll——” she shook her fist with a touch revealing coquetry.

When I returned for the evening session, already a crowd had gathered in the street before the court room. Prisoners’ wives with shawls over their heads, leading children, had walked a mile or more. They knew there was no chance to enter the court room, but they stood in the streets, hoping to catch echoes of speeches thru the open windows. One woman flung at a soldier: “Scabs at a dollar and a half a day.” In West Virginia, women fight side by side with men.

Eight or ten sympathizers of the prisoners had already filled the benches in the gas-lit hall. “Everybody’s Dearest Friend” had preceded me. Again he gave me water and a newspaper. The prisoners filed into the room.

“A bad-looking lot of fellows,” he offered.

“Badly dressed,” I answered.

“No, bad men. You ought to know what these miners are. If you had seen and heard what I have.”

A sympathizer with the strikers seated on a bench behind me touched my arm. “Do you know you are talking with Smith, a Burns detective?”

Mr. Smith conferred with the provost marshal, also Associated Press correspondent. Word was sent to the judges’ table. The judge advocate rose and advised all women except me to leave the court room. The women obeyed. A smile played round the lips of Mr. Smith, flirted in the provost marshal’s eyes, and lighted up the table where the judges sat.

The smile died when M. F. Matheny, an attorney for the defendants, rose and said: “These women are friends of the prisoners. They are as much interested in the trial as the men themselves. This man Smith has no right in the court room. He should be excluded if the women are. The court has ruled that no witness after testifying shall remain.”

The court blithely overruled itself and then went on dealing out justice to “criminals.” I was proud to know Mr. Smith. He had invented a new misdemeanor; to mention his name was lèseSmith. This great court he dominated. William J. Burns was his visible employer. I speculated much about his invisible employer.

I was not to speculate long. An attorney’s speech disclosed that Smith, the gentle overlord of the room, was in the employ of the mine operators. The attorney also revealed that Smith was an excellent detective. He had gone to the strikers, pretended to be in need, had eaten their bread when they had only strike rations. On one occasion his life had been saved by one of the prisoners. The detective had recorded the many violent words uttered and had become chief witness for the state.

While the first speeches were being made, Mr. Smith, the mine operators’ representative, unrebuked by the court, noisily used the telephone. Apparently the judges and Mr. Smith agreed that it was a noble duty to interrupt a dull speech. The prisoners watched Smith with more perturbation than they followed the judges. As the hour grew late, they moistened their lips; their eyes were glassy; even Mother Jones seemed about to faint. Back of Smith was the specter, the guard system, peonage, gatling guns.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Last Day of the Paint Creek Court Martial” by Cora Older, Part II: Wives and Children Stand Outside”

Hellraisers Journal: “The Last Day of the Paint Creek Court Martial” by Cora Older, Part I: Mother Jones and Rebel Prisoners

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Quote Mother Jones fr Military Bastile, Cant Shut Me Up, AtR p1, May 10, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 18, 1913
“The Last Day of the Paint Creek Court Martial” by Cora Older, Part I

From The Independent of May 15, 1913:

Title Paint Creek Trial, Court Martial of Mother Jones, by Cora Older, Idpd p1045

[Part I of II]

Mother Jones, Cora Older, at Military Bastile WV, Colliers p26, Apr 1913

(The coal-mine strikes in Western Virginia are among the most serious known in American history; and yet the public has known very little about them, because the sources of information have been in the hands of the operators. It has been also notable for the fact that a woman eighty years old, Mother Jones, has been the most prominent leader. There has been violence on both sides, and as a matter of course the militia were called in. One man having been killed by strikers, fifty strikers and their leaders were arrested or convicted by court martial. Governor Hatfield liberated all but eight leaders, including Mother Jones, who are still imprisoned. The strikes have been called off and the miners have gained the recognition of their union. The latest news is of the suppression of the leading Socialist paper and the arrest of the editors. The quick impressions of this article are those of the wife of Fremont Older, the fighting editor of the San Francisco Bulletin. They are the impressions of a woman who comes from a state where popular government has been adopted to one where, without a jury, a military court can jeopardize the lives of its citizens. These are the impressions of a California woman–a radical-of a day in West Virginia.-EDITOR.)

Mother Jones and forty-eight men were on trial before the Military Court at Paint Creek Junction, W. Va. They were charged with conspiracy to murder Fred Bobbitt, the bookkeeper of a mining company, in the “battle of Mucklow,” which occurred on February 10.

On February 7 Quin Morton, the largest operator in the Kanawha Valley, the sheriff and some guards drove the Chesapeake and Ohio armored special train carrying gatling guns thru Holly Grove, where strikers with their families lived. The men on the train opened fire with rifles and gatling guns, killing one striker, Francesco Estop [Estep], and wounding a woman. No one has as yet been arrested for what in West Virginia is called the “shooting-up of Holly Grove.” Three days later fifty or sixty strikers set out to capture a gatling gun from the guards near Mucklow. The strikers and guards fought. Fred Bobbitt was killed and another man, Vance, wounded. After the battle of Mucklow scores of strikers and sympathizers were arrested. Martial law was declared. Mother Jones and forty-eight men were brought before the military commission charged with murder.

I reached Paint Creek Junction the last day of the trial. The moment I arrived I realized that the strike was no longer a strike; it was war. Soldiers guarding bull pens carried Winchesters on their shoulders. Gatling guns thrust their noses out of doors. A bright flag floated over all. It was civilized civil war.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Last Day of the Paint Creek Court Martial” by Cora Older, Part I: Mother Jones and Rebel Prisoners”

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Writes from the West Virginia Military Bastile to Tom Hickey, Editor of the Texas Rebel

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Quote Mother Jones, Letter to Hickey from Military Bastile, OK Sc Dem p1, May 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 17, 1913
Mother Jones Writes from West Virginia Bastile to Tom Hickey, Editor of The Rebel

From the Oklahoma City Social Democrat of May 14, 1913:

OK Sc Dem p1, May 14, 1913Mother Jones to Tom Hickey, OK Sc Dem p1, May 14, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Writes from the West Virginia Military Bastile to Tom Hickey, Editor of the Texas Rebel”

Hellraisers Journal: Patrick Quinlan Found Guilty of Inciting to Riot at Paterson, New Jersey; Silk Strikers Plan Mass Protests

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Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 16, 1913
Paterson, New Jersey – Patrick Quinlan Found Guilty of Inciting to Riot

From The Paterson Evening News of May 15, 1913:

Patrick Quinlan, Pine Bluff AR  Dly Grp p1, May 13, 1913

I. W. W. Leader is Confident That Upper Court Will Reverse Finding of  Local Jury-He Is First I. W. W. Leader in the County of Importance to be Convicted on Inciting to Riot Charge-Will be Prepared to Give Bail Tomorrow After Judge Klenert Passes Sentence Which Ensure His Liberty Pending Decision on the Appeal.

—–

“Guilty as charged in the indictment,” was the verdict rendered by the jury that sat in the second trial of Patrick Quinlan, the I. W. W. leader. The case closed at at 3:15 yesterday afternoon, when Judge Klenert had finished his charge to the jury, and at 5:10 o’clock the talesmen filed out of the ante-room and announced the result of their short deliberation to Deputy County Clerk Mort Tower, who was waiting to receive the verdict.

At 5:15 the News extra was on the streets giving the first information of the verdict.

Quinlan was not present when the verdict was announced by foreman James Space, but the court room was nearly filled with faithful followers and strikers who anxiously awaited the fate of their leader……

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

From the Newark Evening Star of May 15, 1913:

EGF, Tresca, BBH, Nwk NJ Eve Str p3, May 15, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Patrick Quinlan Found Guilty of Inciting to Riot at Paterson, New Jersey; Silk Strikers Plan Mass Protests”

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn States: New Yorkers Will Care for the Children of the Paterson Silk Strikers

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Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 15, 1913
New York, New York – Detachment of Paterson Children Arrive in City

From the Paterson Evening News of May 13, 1913:

WILL CARE FOR MORE CHILDREN
———-

EGF w Paterson Children May Day NYC, Richmond IN Palladium p6, May 10, 1913

“New Yorkers are anxious to take  care of your children until the strike is over, and help you win your battle,” said Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in a recent address at Helvetia hall. This seems to be true if the following dispatch from New York is to be believed:

New York, May 13 [Tuesday].-Seven or eight hundred men and women pushed and shoved and almost came to blows on Saturday [May 10] for the possession of sixty-five frightened little boys and girls. They were the third detachment of children of the striking Paterson silk weavers sent here to be farmed out to board among strike sympathizer, and the men and women who almost mobbed them were fighting for one of them to care for.

Industrial Workers of the World followers, their friends and few curious people began to gather early yesterday afternoon at the Labor Temple. They came because the Paterson strike committee had sent out 250 postcards asking volunteers to board and lodge 150 children, who would be allotted to their temporary guardians at five o’clock. Twice before in the last ten days this appeal had been sent out, and already 175 children have found homes in New York. A special committee, of which F. Sumner Boyd is chairman, and Mrs. Anna M. Sloan director, has had charge of the distribution.

When children arrived by auto truck from Paterson at 5.30 o’clock there were only sixty-five of them. They ranged in age from four to fourteen years, and when Miss Jessie Ashley and Miss Ethel Byrne, Paterson nurse, the others who had brought here had seated them in rows at Labor Temple hall and announced that only sixty-five, instead of 150, would be assigned, trouble began…

[Mr. Boyd declared:]

We shall probably bring 100 or more over the middle of the week, and we already have more than twice as many applications for the children as we have children to be cared for. We will bring them all, though.

Like the 175 children that have already been brought here, those who came yesterday were all found on examination by physicians in Paterson to be below normal from malnutrition.

Paterson Strike Children NYC, NY TB p14, May 12, 1913

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn States: New Yorkers Will Care for the Children of the Paterson Silk Strikers”

Hellraisers Journal: Senator Kern Pushes for Investigation of West Virginia Situation, Meets with Mother Jones in Washington

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Quote Mother Jones to Kern re Sen Investigation, Wlg Int p1, May 6, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 14, 1913
Washington, D. C. – Senator Kern Pushes for West Virginia Investigation
-Meets with Mother Jones Who Reports on Brutal Conditions

From The Washington Times of May 13, 1913:

ARMED GUARDS KEPT MINERS FROM MAILS,
AGENTS INFORM KERN
—————
Indiana Senator Expected to Demand Immediate Investigation by
Postoffice Department. Resolution for Probe of West Virginia
Peonage Charges Comes Up Today.
———-

LABOR LEADERS ALSO TELL OF ALLEGED
ABUSES PRACTICED BY MINE OWNERS

Charging that armed guards in many of the West Virginia mining districts, acting on orders, either from the operators or the State officials, have prevented the miners from having access to the United States mails, men, backing the miners in their contentions, today laid before Senator Kern information startling in its nature.

Senator Kern thus far has given no inkling as to what course he now will pursue as a result of the data just placed in his hands. Whether the Federal law was violated by the operators when they prevented the miners from making use of the mails, is the serious question raised by the reports.

There is every reason to believe that the Indiana Senator will lay the charges before the Postoffice Department and demand immediate investigation.

Under the rules of the Senate, the Kern resolution, calling for a Congressional probe of alleged militarism, peonage, and denial of constitutional rights to the miners of West Virginia, will automatically come before the Senate at 4 o’clock this afternoon. Senator Kern is confident of its passage.

Many Features.

The disclosure of alleged undue interference with the right of the miners to get their mail was one of several important happenings of the day with respect to the West Virginia situation.

A delegation of nearly a dozen representatives of the West Virginia Federation of Labor and representatives of other labor organizations saw Senator Kern at his office this forenoon and laid before him affidavits telling of peonage in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek regions, and of the reign of terror which has prevailed there for a year.

The representatives of the State federation consisted of J. W. Swan, J. W. Holder, and Harry Wright. They went into detail in the audience with Senator Kern about the outrages of which they allege the mining interests have been guilty at the expense of the helpless miners, and told of the wrongs endured, as they charge, at the hands of the militia.

Tell of Abuses.

Destruction of property of miners, abuses of women and girls, the holding of miners in a condition bordering on vassalage-all these representations and others were made to the Indiana Senator.

[Mother Jones Meets with Senator Kern]

Moreover, Mother Jones, who addressed a labor meeting here last night, saw Senator Kern and related to him the substance of what she had already set forth in her letters to him. Mother Jones is temporarily released by the West Virginia authorities. She believes they would be glad if she would leave the State and not return, but she has no intention of doing this. She will go back to do what she can for the relief of the miners.

Mother Jones ascribes her temporary release to the introduction of the Kern resolution for an investigation. She has told Senator Kern of the conditions under which she was arrested and detained and she has a much different story to set forth about the brutality of her treatment than the one told by Governor Hatfield, which described her as detained in a comfortable private home.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Senator Kern Pushes for Investigation of West Virginia Situation, Meets with Mother Jones in Washington”

Hellraisers Journal: A Poem by Gerald Lively for Mother Jones and a Letter from the Military Bastile at Pratt, West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones fr Military Bastile, Cant Shut Me Up, AtR p1, May 10, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 13, 1913
Mother Jones Writes to Mrs. Jamison from the Military Bastile at Pratt, W. Va.

From Solidarity of May 10, 1913:

Mother Jones POEM n Letter, Sol p3, 4, May 10, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: A Poem by Gerald Lively for Mother Jones and a Letter from the Military Bastile at Pratt, West Virginia”

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Brought to Charleston, Confers with Governor Hatfield, Not Allowed to Speak in Public

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Quote Mother Jones, WV Court Martial, No Plea to Make, Ptt Pst p3, Mar 8, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 12, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – Mother Jones Meets with Governor Hatfield

From The Washington Times of May 8, 1913:

“Mother” Jones Out of Martial Law Zone
———-

WV Militia v Miners n Mother Jones, Missoulian p6, Feb 21, 1913

CHARLESTON. W. Va., May 8.-For the first time since her arrest last February in connection with the coal mine strike, “Mother” Mary Jones, known as the “Angel of the Mines,” was today outside the martial law zone, although technically under surveillance of the military authorities.

“Mother” Jones was brought to Charleston last night, and had an hour’s conversation with Governor Hatfield. She will talk with the governor again today. The aged woman said today her conversation with the chief executive was purely on economic questions. She is not under guard while here, and will not be placed under strict surveillance unless she attempts to make a speech.

—————-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

From the Duluth Labor World of May 10, 1913:

HATFIELD ADMITS HE’S AN AUTOCRAT
———-
Governor Of West Virginia Attempts to Deny
Charges of Peonage and Tyranny.
———-

MOTHER JONES STILL IN MILITARY PRISON
———-
Hatfield Makes Evasive Statement In Which
He Calls His Accusers Liars.

———-

CHARLESTON, W. Va., May 8.-Gov. Henry Hatfield of West Virginia, in a statement last night, attacked Senator John W. Kern of Indiana, who is expected to bring up a resolution which he introduced some time ago in the United States senate providing for federal investigation of conditions in the West Virginia coal fields. The governor declares the senator has been misinformed; that the coal strike is over; that he intends to arrest any person “aiding and abetting lawlessness, and that he courts a thorough investigation.” In his statement the governor says:

I am informed that Senator Kern has made a statement that peonage exists in West Virginia and that Mrs. Mary (Mother) Jones has been on trial before a drum-head military court for the last 30 days.

In reply to the senator’s statement relative to peonage, I wish to say that his allegation is a fabrication. Mrs. Jones is not now, nor has she at any time since her arrest been in prison. She is being detained (and is not in any way confined) at a pleasant boarding house with a private family on the banks of the Kanawha River at Pratt, W. Va.

Sure, He Is a Czar.

“I do not intend to permit Mrs. Jones or any other person to come into West Virginia and make speeches that have a tendency to produce riot and bloodshed, such as was evidenced under the administration of Governor Glasscock. We have evidence in abundance to prove that the kind of speeches made by Mrs. Jones and her co-workers did bring about a riotous state which resulted  in murder and the destruction of property. We have a dozen of the same class of people confined in different jails of the state, some of them guilty of murder, others guilty of aiding and abetting by furnishing the necessary firearms and ammunition with which to commit murder.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Brought to Charleston, Confers with Governor Hatfield, Not Allowed to Speak in Public”

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “A Stirring Letter from Mother Jones”-Pratt W. Va., Military Bastile

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Quote Mother Jones fr Military Bastile, Cant Shut Me Up, AtR p1, May 10, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 11, 1913
From Pratt, West Virginia, Military Bastile: “Stirring Letter from Mother Jones”

From the Appeal to Reason of May 10, 1913:

Letter fr Mother Jones fr WV Military Bastile, AtR p1, May 10, 1913

———-

A Stirring Letter from Mother Jones

(The following letter to Appeal readers from Mother Jones was sent to Mrs. Ryan Walker who is now in New York City, and by her forwarded to us. Had the letter been addressed to the Appeal to Reason it would never have reached its destination. This letter proves that prison bars, even death itself, has no terrors for this brave heroine of more than a hundred fiercely fought battles on the industrial field. Mother Jones is your mother, and I appeal to you to help us raise such a mighty protest that the outrages against the working class in barbarous West Virginia will cease. You have helped the Appeal win many a contest with plutocracy. We are now engaged in the biggest fight of all its career-a fight the outcome of which is of vital concern, not only to our imprisoned comrades in West Virginia, but to every man, woman and child in America. Read Mother Jones, letter-read it from the housetops, in the mines, in the shops, read it aloud wherever men congregate to work.)

Pratt, W. Va., Military Bastile, April 25, 1913.-This is a very serious situation we have here and is not grasped by the outside world and God knows when it will be. I have been in here about eleven weeks. There are twelve of we poor devils, eleven men and myself, one of them the editor of the Socialist paper in Charleston, and another one of our speakers, John Brown. His wife and three children are left to perish outside. We hear the cry of these little ones for their father; we hear the groans and sobs of his beautiful wife, but the dear, well-fed people don’t care for that. I don’t care much for myself, because my career is nearly ended, but I think of my brave boys who are incarcerated in Harrison county jail in Clarksburg and not a voice of protest raised in their behalf. They have been brave and true. They are now paying the penalty for having dared to fight for right and justice; but it matters not, this fight will go on, and the workers themselves will have to take hold of the machinery and pick out the skypilots and lawyers and quit feeding them and giving them jobs. I have been fighting this machine for years with scarcely any help. I am still in the fight and the pirates can’t shut me up even if I am in jail watched by the bloodhounds.

Mother Jones.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “A Stirring Letter from Mother Jones”-Pratt W. Va., Military Bastile”