Tag: Mother Mary Harris Jones

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part II: Speaks at Wheeling, West Virginia, Thrills Thousands, Grown Men Weep

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Get Rid of Mine Guards, Charleston WV, Aug 15, 1912, Steel Speeches p95—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 22, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part II
Found Speaking at Wheeling, West Virginia, Thrills Thousands

From the New York Sun of September 11, 1912:

MINERS TO BESIEGE GLASSCOCK.
———-
Will Bring Wives and Children
to West Virginia Capital.
———-

Mother Jones and WV Gov Glasscock, Wilmington DE Eve Jr p6, Sept 13, 1912

CHARLESTON, W. Va., Sept. 10.-Mother Jones announced to-day that the striking miners of the Kanawha district would make another effort to see Gov. Glasscock. Within a week they are to march into the capital again and make a demand for the use of the State House grounds as a meeting place.

[Said Mother Jones:]

The Governor must hear us this time. We want him to hear our story, we want him to see us. The very looks of the men who are fighting for freedom is a tremendous argument for their cause.

We are coming back to our capital again and twice as strong as last week. The men are going to bring their children along and their wives.

—————

[Photograph added.]

From The Wheeling Intelligencer of September 16, 1912:

MOTHER JONES MAKES ADDRESS
———-

TO OVER 1,500 AT FIFTH WARD MARKET HOUSE.
———-
Paints Horrible Picture of Conditions in Strike District
and Flays Coal Barons.

Owing to the rain the mass protest meeting that was to have been held at the wharf yesterday afternoon [Sunday September 15th] was held at the Fifth ward market house, where over 1,500 people assembled to hear Mother Jones, the lady of the mines, and other prominent speakers.

As the old lady with white hair mounted the platform she was greeted with cheers that lasted for over five minutes. She started right in to business, and did not mince words or names when it came down to condemning the conditions in the southern part of the state. Before the meeting closed, Governor William Glasscock and Senators Watson and Chilton came in for their share of flaying, as well as Senators Scott and Elkins. They were classed by her as leeches and blood suckers, and the detective force and mine guards as human blood hounds. She said that right here in the little Mountain State, peonage of the most horrible kind was being practiced, and that Russia and Bulgaria were a paradise compared to it. She said that slavery was nothing compared to it, and that only last Thursday she was forced to cross streams in the strike district in the middle of the night by wading in the water up to her waist.

She claimed that women, children and sick men were thrown out of doors by these hired toughs and compelled to find shelter in the open, and that women were hauled about by the hair if they resisted these insults.

A collection was taken up to be sent to the relief committee which amounted to over $50. It will be used for the purpose of buying food and clothes for the strikers. A large donation was also received from the miners in Cripple Creek, Colo.

Want Legislation.

By unanimous vote it was decided to send a petition to Governor Glasscock demanding him to call a special session of the state legislature to make laws to help the miners. The following legislation is wanted: To do away with the guard system; that all coal dug by the miners shall be paid for by weight; the enforcement of an employer’s liability law; the abolition of the company store; and the payment of the miners every two weeks. She said that the miners would never go back to work until these wishes were complied with, and that the guard system would have to go, and if the governor would not give the citizens their rights, they would be compelled to take the law in their own hands or starve.

Raps Watson.

She also took a rap at the Fairmont district and hit Senator Watson hard. She scorned him as a blot on the state that would take years to wipe off. As she concluded her speech she was madly cheered.

Other speakers were F. C. Harter, also from the southern part of the state, a Confederate soldier, and a well-to-do farmer over 80 years old. He condemned the tactics used by the coal barons as a disgrace to humanity, and a thing that every citizen in the state should be ashamed to tolerate.  “Mother Jones left last evening for Charleston and will stay with the boys, she says, until they get their rights.

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part II: Speaks at Wheeling, West Virginia, Thrills Thousands, Grown Men Weep” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part I: Found Speaking at Mass Meeting of Striking Miners at Charleston, W. Va.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Rather sleep in guard house, Day Book p2, Sept 9, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 21, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part I
Found Speaking at Mass Meeting of Striking Miners at Charleston, W. Va.

From the Baltimore Sun of September 1, 1912:

TROUBLE AT CABIN CREEK.

Mother Jones, Rock Isl Argus p8, Sept 12, 1912

Trouble broke out afresh tonight at Cabin Creek Junction. Just what caused it cannot be learned at this time, but it is said it was started by the miners, who opened fire on the mine guards, seriously wounding two of them. If any or the miners were killed or wounded it is not known at this time. The wounded guards were hurried off to the hospital and their names are kept secret. Several of the guards who have been here for a long time have been marked by the miners, and it is possible that the injured men are of that number.

MILITIA RUSHED TO SCENE.

As a result of the battle tonight, five companies of militia which had been ordered home were rushed to the scene of the trouble.

Before they could arrive, however, a company from headquarters at Camp Pratt, on Paint creek, was rushed to Cabin Creek Junction…

Unless the situation improves materially within the next 48 hours martial law probably will be declared….It is admitted in official circles that the situation is more critical now than at any time since the miners went on strike in the Kanawha field last April. In case martial law is declared more troops will be needed.

MORE OUTBREAKS EXPECTED.

Further outbreaks between strikers and guards are expected at any or all of a dozen places on Paint and Cabin creeks as a result of the tense feeling which exists. In every instance the arrival of the militia has been sufficient to restore order.

Up to the present the strikers have been friendly to the militia, although a change may occur at any time.

“Mother” Jones has sent out word that the militia provost must be removed from the trains on the two creeks, but this guard will not be abandoned. As a result an attack on the passenger trains on either creek would cause little surprise. Close watch is being kept on the railway tracks to prevent the dynamiting of trains.

“Mother” Jones is scheduled to speak at Kingston tomorrow and orders have been issued to the militia to prevent such meeting. 

[…..]

Dogged Mother Jones’ Footsteps.

[T]he statement that the operators, or their agents, the mine guards, would prevent one individual from visiting another may seem to be overdrawn. It is not. Here is a case to illustrate:

About 10 days ago Mother Jones went to Kayford to hold a meeting. An account of that meeting was given in THE SUN of last Sunday [Aug 25th]. It was held after considerable trouble. She arrived at Kayford in the early afternoon and had tramped a good distance up the road before she reached the place. At every step she took she was followed by mine guards. She had had nothing to eat from the time she had an early breakfast and she was hungry. One of the miners, Lawrence Dwyer, the man who had arranged the meeting, asked her and the correspondent of THE SUN to go to his cabin for a cup of tea and a bite to eat. The invitation was accepted and we started to Dwyer’s house. No sooner had we stepped off the road and started up the lane leading to the cabin than Mayfield, the chief of the guards, ordered us off with an oath, threatening to arrest us if we took another step. His manner was rough in the extreme, especially to the white-haired old woman who really needed her cup of tea.

Dwyer remonstrated, saying he thought he had the right to take anyone he pleased to his house. He was told, with an oath, that he thought too much. Perhaps that is true. He is not fat. Like Cassius, “he hath a lean and hungry look,” and be certainly “thinks too much” for the peace of mind of the guards. However, Mother Jones went without her tea and she kept off private property.

Felts Blames Her For Trouble.

Later she came to a place where the road ran through the bed of the creek and she attempted to leave the county road on which she had been trudging and walk along the railroad track. Again she was ordered off. Even the railroad track was private property. This time the correspondent of THE SUN protested to Detective Felts. Felts was pleasant enough, but he was firm.

“That woman is old enough to be your grandmother,” he was told, “and no matter how much you may be opposed to her, remember that she is an old woman.”

“That makes no difference,” was the reply. “She is responsible for all the agitation and trouble that is taking place in these mines, and even though she is an old woman we do not propose to allow her any privileges here, or to show her any courtesies. She has got to keep to the public road, and keep off private property.“

That is the point. It would have been a “privilege” if she had been permitted to walk on the railroad track; it would have been a “courtesy” to have permitted her to go to Dwyer’s for her cup of tea. She might have done either, or both, by the grace and the favor of the company, but she could do neither as a matter of right.

[Photograph added.]

From the Baltimore Evening Sun of September 5, 1912:

3,000 MINERS TO MARCH IN
PROTEST TO CHARLESTON
———-
“Mother” Jones Will Lead Delegation
Before Governor Glasscock.
———-

MAYOR OF ESKDALE PLACED UNDER ARREST
———-
Court-Martial Disposing Of Cases Rapidly
-All Civil laws Suspended.
———-

Charleston, W. Va., Sept. 5.-Three thousand miners of that part of the Kanawha coal district which is not under martial law are coming to the State House at Charleston tomorrow to make a demonstration against the guard system in behalf of the men who are striking.

They will march through the streets of Charleston led by “Mother” Jones.

“Martial law is all right, but what after martial law?” is the legend to be displayed on a banner in the parade.

Governor Glasscock will be urged to come out and answer that question. “Mother” Jones will make a direct appeal to Glasscock.

Could Have Been Settled Long Ago.

[Said Mother Jones:]

The guard system will come back as soon as the soldiers are withdrawn. Months ago Governor Glasscock could have settled all difficulties by declaring that there shall be no guards. He did nothing at all; now the State and the miners are paying heavily.

Mayor And Miners Looked Up.

Martial law reached out last night and caught 20 miners and guards, including the Mayor of Eskdale, in the strike zone. The men were charged with disorderly conduct. They occupy joint jail quarters in the railroad station at Paint Creek Junction, which, has been turned into a prison.

Court-Martial Working Quickly.

The court-martial is working as quickly as a city court. In two days the military judges have tried 15 men. The verdicts were sealed and sent to Governor Glasscock for approval. The court can fix any penalty within its discretion. All statutory penalties are suspended.

The military authorities today ordered a Socialist paper that has been circulating in the “war” district suppressed as inflammatory. Free speech is one of the constitutional guarantees suspended by martial law.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part I: Found Speaking at Mass Meeting of Striking Miners at Charleston, W. Va.” →

Hellraisers Journal: John W. Brown on Coal Miners’ Strike in West Virginia: “This Is War and War Is Hell”-Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Get Rid of Mine Guards, Charleston WV, Aug 15, 1912, Steel Speeches p95—————

Hellraisers Journal –Wednesday October 16, 1912
“This Is War and War Is Hell” by John W. Brown, Part II

From The Coming Nation of October 12, 1912:

WV Mine War by JW Brown, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912

[Part II of III]

Making and Breaking Contracts

On May 1st [1912], a compromise was reached in which the miners agreed to accept one-half of the Cleveland scale and the recognition of their union. This was accepted by a joint commission composed of representatives of the operators and the miners’ union.

On May 2d, the Paint Creek Collier Co., one of the parties to the contract, repudiated the agreement, thereby forcing their men either to scab or go on strike. The men chose the latter and on the 8th of May the first detatchment of “Baldwin guards” was sent to Paint Creek and following their arrival there, a reign of terror was established which has no parallel outside of barbarous Mexico or darkest Russia.

A chronicle of the crimes committed by these licensed and merciless cutthroats would fill a volume in itself. On June the 5th, eight of them were indicted before a grand jury and held for murder in the first degree, and were released on a bond of $3,000 each. A wholesale merchant and beneficiary of the coal barons acted as their bondsman.

The miners at Mucklow, Burnwell and several other camps were dispossessed under the “master and servant” decision of Judge Burdett. The miners made application for an injunction to restrain the operators from evicting them but Judge Burdett after a week or more of judicial jugglery refused to issue the order, notwithstanding such an order had been granted in Fayette county which is in the same mining district.

Battle for Tented “Homes”

WV Mine War, Miners Homes National, Cmg Ntn p6, Oct 12, 1912

The dispossessed miners secured tents and settled at Holly Grove at the mouth of Paint Creek. The coal barons and their hired assassins determined to break the union spirit and to drive the union men out of the district and opened fire on the tents at Holly Grove, July 25th. This was more than human endurance could stand and to this last outrage the miners retaliated and fought back with such weapons as they had and for two days the battle raged in and around Mucklow and just how many lives were lost will never be known.

About this time “Mother Jones,” the avenging Nemesis of the miners, appeared on the scene and with her came a new hope, a new courage and a new consciousness to the coal miners. There is something powerful about this old gray haired woman. When the coal barons hear her name they tremble. Barehanded and alone, Mother Jones walked up to the mouth of the gattling guns on Cabin Creek and demanded of the hireling that turned the crank that she be allowed to see her boys. Mother saw her boys and held a mass meeting in the Cabin Creek district and organized the miners and on August 7th the miners of Cabin Creek walked out on strike with their brothers of Paint Creek.

On August 29th a Baldwin guard drunk and disorderly shot a man by the name of Hodge at Dry Branch. This precipitated a general fight in which Hines, the instigator, was killed and several others wounded. On September 1st, Governor Glasscock ordered out the militia and declared martial law and just what the end will be it is hard to say at this time.

Governor Glasscock, in an interview with the newspaper reporters a few days ago admitted that he is not the governor of West Virginia, that the government of the state is controlled by an “infernal legislative lobby” and an “invisible power.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: John W. Brown on Coal Miners’ Strike in West Virginia: “This Is War and War Is Hell”-Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: John W. Brown on Miners’ Strike in Paint Creek/Cabin Creek, West Virginia: “This Is War and War Is Hell”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Get Rid of Mine Guards, Charleston WV, Aug 15, 1912, Steel Speeches p95—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 15, 1912
“This Is War and War Is Hell” by John W. Brown, Socialist and U. M. W. Organizer

From The Coming Nation of October 12, 1912:

WV Mine War by JW Brown, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912

[Part I of III]

WV Mine War, Text Coal Miners Story, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912—–

“COD walks on sea and land, but the devil reigns in the coal fields of West Virginia.” This was uttered by Gen. C. D. Elliott and the reference was to the civil war now going on in the Kanawha valley where the coal miners and the coal barons have grappled in a life and death struggle which can only end in the surrender of either one of the contending forces. “And the devil is greed,” says General Elliott. Greed personified in a handful of mercenary plutocrats who know no more, care no more for the rights of humanity than do the lean dogs who lick their grimy hands.

The details of this terrible struggle do not differ from that which could be written of all the other coal fields, and forms but another page in the development of American capitalism.

A Long Story of Stealing

First comes the usual questionable and fraudulent land titles, then corrupt legislation, then the usurpation of the courts and finally the general debauchery and degradation of the whole body politic. The Moloch of capitalism is never satisfied. It has no heart, no soul, no conscience. It has but one object, one purpose, and that is to make profit. It stands with open mouth crying, “give, give,” and the people of West Virginia have given, given and given again, first their lands, then their labor, and now the insatiable beast demands the half starved babes. The present strike in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek districts has a shadowy background reaching back some ten years or more.

In 1902 the coal miners of West Virginia organized under the auspices of the United Mine Workers of America. Immediately following, the coal barons began their present fight against the union and a general strike followed. During this strike of 1902, Judge Jackson and Judge Keller issued their nefarious injunctions which if obeyed by the miners would have been nothing short of wholesale suicide. Naturally, the miners refused to bow to these injunctions and there followed a reign of rapine and legalized murder such as is seldom found in the pages of human history. Among which is recorded what is now known as the Stanford city massacre [Stanaford Massacre.].

An American Pogrom

WV Mine War, Mother Jones Speaks at Mass Meeting, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912

Dan Cunningham, at that time a United States deputy marshall armed with injunction and eviction papers and preceded by an army of professional murderers went to Stanford city in the night and at daylight made a murderous attack upon the helpless and defenseless miners, murdering them as they slept. Unarmed, old age, fathers and mothers, youths and even suckling babes were shot down like wild beasts and not even the prayers of pregnant mothers could prevail against this thirst for human blood.

There is always a point beyond which lies desperation and revolt. This point was reached during the strike of 1902 and for the time being both the federal authorities and the coal barons were baffled. But not for long. The Baldwin-Felts detective agency, an organization composed of ex-convicts and professional strike-breakers entered the field and agreed by contract to break the strike and from that day until this there has existed in West Virginia, a state of guerrilla warfare that beggars either pen or tongue to portray.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: John W. Brown on Miners’ Strike in Paint Creek/Cabin Creek, West Virginia: “This Is War and War Is Hell”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part III: Found Supporting UMW Official, John P. Reese, Running for Congress

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Quote Mother Jones, Told the Court in WV to Stay, Ipl July 19, 1902, UMWC p86—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 12, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1902, Part III
Found in Hiteman, Iowa, Supporting John P. Reese for Congress

From the Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier of September 30, 1902:

SHE ASKS FOR REESE VOTES
———-
”Mother” Jones Tells Miners to Elect
One of Their Number to Congress.
———-

HER IMPASSIONED SPEECH AT HITEMAN
———-

SHE APPEALS TO THE TOILERS TO AWAKEN
AND SHOW THE WORLD THAT THEY ARE ABOUT TO
“ASSERT THEIR RIGHTS TO A FAIR SHARE OF EARTH’S RICHES.”
———-

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

In an impassioned address in which she sought to show the evils of the injunction, Mother Jones, the woman trades unionist and socialist, appealed to the miners and citizens of Hiteman Saturday afternoon to elect John P. Reese to congress, in order that he might introduce a bill taking from the federal courts the right to issue the injunction. She cited the effect the “one-man instrument,” as she called it, has had upon the strikers in the West Virginia coal fields, and stated that the strike would not have lasted more than two weeks if it had not been for the injunction. A short address was made by John P. Reese, who was chairman of the meeting, prior to Mother Jones’ speech.

In introducing Mother Jones to the audience Mr. Reese took occasion to thank the people of Hiteman and the members of the local miners’ union especially for the support they have given him during his term as president of the district miners’ organization, from which he is about to retire in order to commence his fight against Hon. John F. Lacey for the election to congress to represent the sixth district of Iowa.

Mother Jones is an avowed socialist. She points to the great day which she says is surely approaching, when the laboring millions shall rise in their might and claim a just share of the riches which they have produced and turned over to their employers. She says that conditions are leading up to a great climax. Her speech, which had much to do with the evils which she claimed were caused by the injunction, ended with a long appeal for support for Mr. Reese in his candidacy.

Mr. Reese Talks.

The meeting was to have been a part of the picnic planned by the people of Hiteman, to take the place of a Labor Day celebration, but owing to the inclement weather the big event was declared off. However, the people were not to be cheated out of an address by Mother Jones, and consequently they held a meeting at the opera house in Hiteman in the afternoon. The first address was by John P. White, of Oskaloosa, secretary-treasurer of the district organization of the United Mine Workers. During his speech Mr. Reese and Mother Jones arrived.

James Baxter, of Hiteman, was temporary chairman of the meeting, and at the completion of Mr. White’s speech he introduced John P. Reese as the permanent chairman. Mr. Reese took charge of the meeting, [and addressed] his former associates, the residents of the town where he resided as a coal miner a few years ago; and from which he went to take his position as president of the district miners’ union…..

[Mr. Reese said, in part:]

I will say that whatever the future may hold in store for me, I assure the miners of Hiteman and the citizens of this town that you will find that I will continue to be one of you in reality, and that I will continue to hold my membership in your union as long as I am eligible.

Now I want to introduce to you the only miner who wears skirts; the only miner who is allowed to belong to every local in the country at one time; the only miner who does not wear a pit cap; a woman who has the respect and love of every miner in America; a woman who, before she has finished her speech, will convince you that the mission of labor is a holy one; that the labor organizations have accomplished more progress during their existence than has any other similar organization during the same length of time during the history of the world. Ladies and gentlemen, I take great pleasure in introducing to you “Our” Mother Jones.

Mother Jones’ Address.

A round of enthusiastic applause greeted Mother Jones as Mr. Reese closed his speech, and she bowed in acknowledgement. After a selection by the band, she advanced to the front of the stage. Her hearers were interested because of her statements, although the speech in itself is not connected throughout. She said:

Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Toilers: —This is my first visit among you. It is not my first nor my last visit among workers. Away back among the ages we find that from the time the human race left the cradle and began to learn to talk there was planted in the bosom of mankind a desire to advance, to march forward; a desire for greater, nobler things. That desire has followed us down the stairway of time and has each day pressed on until the toilers are awaking now in such a way as the world never knew. Today we are confronted with conditions never known before.

Class Separation.

The people are being separated. Events are bringing to the mind the deep thinker of today the realization that there is a great evolution, a great revolution, going on in the world. Society is divided. The lines are closely drawn. On one side is a handful of human beings with all the wealth the human race has created in ages in their hands. On the other side is a multitude of people, robbed, oppressed, downcast, but pleading for the time when the human race shall possess its own. We look back into history and as we realize what the conditions were, and we thank Providence for the light that is beginning to dawn upon civilization…..

[Mother Jones on Trial in West Virginia]

As soon as I entered the court room I told my comrades [fellow U. M. W. organizers] that we were all convicted and that we might as well stand up and be sentenced…

The judge [John J. Jackson] asked me what right I had to come among the miners of West Virginia and disturb them. I answered him that I was a citizen of the United States and as such that I had a right to go anywhere in the country that I pleased. That judge was cornered and he asked me nothing more. But in the closing argument of the prosecuting attorney the most dangerous statement was made. It meant more than he, or anyone else but myself, probably, realized.

Points Out Danger.

He said in his argument to the court: “Owing to the fact that this is the most dangerous woman in the United States today, and owing to the fact that she can go among the miners and commence a disturbance at any time, if she will consent to leave the state of West Virginia and stay away, I would suggest that the court should have mercy on her.” Leave the state never to return! Mind you what that meant. Think of a public official making a statement of that kind…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part III: Found Supporting UMW Official, John P. Reese, Running for Congress” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part II: Found Interviewed in Chicago, Illinois, Relates Woes of Miners

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Quote Mother Jones, Evicted Miners Baby Dies on Roadside, Evl Jr Ns p3, Sept 28, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 11, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1902, Part II
Found in Chicago, Illinois, Depicts the Misery of the Eastern Coal Region

From the Evansville Sunday Journal-News of September 28, 1902:

MISERY IS DEPICTED IN EASTERN COAL REGION
“Mother” Jones Relates Woes of Miners and
Declares a System of Slavery is Being
Practiced by the Operators.
———-

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

CHICAGO, Sept. 27.-“Mother” Jones, friend and organizer of the eastern miners, arrived in Chicago yesterday direct from the fields of action where the seeds of independence she has been sowing for years are bearing fruit as they never bore before. Confident that the miners will win the great strike in Pennsylvania and West Virginia because the operators cannot afford to win, “Mother” Jones, fearless and determined as ever, discussed the problems and conditions of the present grave situation in the East. In spite of her snowy hair and sixty summers “Mother” Jones declared that she was as young to-day as she ever was.

[She said:]

The miners can now see the dawning of a brighter day and a new civilization. They are as hopeful of success as we are. John Mitchell was never so hopeful. The bituminous miners of West Virginia will win and the anthracite miners in the Pennsylvania fields will win. But no one can prophesy how long the strike will last.

“Mother” Jones said that the system of slavery that America’s blood poured out to abolish was never worse than a slave system conducted by the mine operators of West Virginia. She declared that miners are bought and sold for money, that bloodhounds are kept to trail fugitive slave miners and to avenge assaults on the “blackleg” agents of the operator.

She said that the immigration laws were being broken by the operators, whose agents go to Europe and import released convicts to work in American mines.

She proposed a congress of American labor to be held in Washington next winter when Congress is in session to investigate the rights of workingmen and get an expression from the government concerning the injunction cases of West Virginia and to seek legislation against injunction.

Concerning Commissioner of Labor Carroll D. Wright, who spoke at Minneapolis the other day, “Mother” Jones said:

Mr. Wright does not know the conditions concerning which he speaks. In the first place, I want to ask why he delayed making his report from the anthracite region until a week or two ago. I think it would pay the people to demand an investigation of the agents Mr. Wright sends out to gather his statistics. I found that one of them in the New River District has been dead for forty years and does not know it. He is incapable absolutely for the work he is assigned to do.

[Mother Jones continued:]

Herman Justi said at the Minneapolis convention, that arbitration is a failure. Arbitration is not a failure. The miners believe in arbitration and are willing to arbitrate. If the operators would ask for arbitration or would submit to arbitration of the present troubles the miners would abide by the decision. The whole trouble in this strike is because the operators do not want their schemes of robbery exposed.

[She continued:]

The operators buy their powder for 90 cents a keg and they sell it to the miners for $2.50 a keg. Is that robbery? The operators, against the laws of Pennsylvania, do not weigh the coal at the mines at all. The law says they should have scales and check weighmen. The miners demand these provisions. The miners want a nine-hour workday and they refuse to submit to discrimination against their organization.

The miners demand a semimonthly payday, which five of the operators have already agreed to. As it is now they are paid every sixty days. If a miner goes to work now he must wait sixty days before he can get any money. Then at the end of that time he finds that $1 a week has been deducted from his wages for doctor bills whether he has had the services of a doctor or not. He can go to the “pluck me” stores and get food, the price of which is deducted from his earnings, and in many of the districts the miners are forced to pay for the water they drink.

The wretchedness and misery “Mother” Jones described in detail.

[She said:]

I tell you that there are no words capable of portraying the misery and woe. If Christ himself should come to earth and investigate the mining camps he could not find words to tell adequately what he saw. Along the mines of Loop Creek, West Virginia, “man-catchers” are regularly sent out by the operators to bring in mountaineers on some false pretense. These men are actually sold off at so much a head to the various mine operators. The “man catchers” are called “blacklegs” and are protected by trained bloodhounds. These bloodhounds are set on the trail of escaped slave miner.

“Mother” Jones declared that the miners and their families are living on the highways, forbidden to step onto mining grounds by injunction. Two thousand families have been driven into the streets in West Virginia.

[Mrs. Jones said:]

I saw one poor woman, her mother and her babe driven from their corporation shack into the street, and within four hours the starved, sickly babe died in its grandmother’s arms on the roadside. Such misery is apparent on every hand.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part II: Found Interviewed in Chicago, Illinois, Relates Woes of Miners” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part I: Predicts Victory for Striking Coal Miners of Pennsylvania and West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones Breaker Boys Bleeding Hands, LW p4, Sept27, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 10, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1902, Part I
Predicts Victory for Striking Coal Miners of Pennsylvania and West Virginia

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of September 3, 1902:

MITCHELL RETURNS
———-

MOTHER MARY JONES A VISITOR TO THIS CITY.

Mother Jones, Coal Miners, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902

President John Mitchell, of the United Mine Workers, arrived in this city yesterday afternoon, from Philadelphia, and immediately repaired to strike headquarters. He was accompanied by Louis Hammerling, of this city…..

Mother Jones, the labor advocate also arrived in town yesterday afternoon. She talked very interestingly to a News reporter about the prospects of the miners. She believes that no matter how long the struggle continues, there can be but one thing, and that is success for the miners.

[She continues:]

I hope the struggle will soon be over because there is no reason why the people of the anthracite regions should not be enjoying peace and prosperity, like the other workmen throughout the country. The operators if they have the proper conception of the exact conditions will end the disastrous strike, because no matter how long it continues, it will mean defeat for them in the end.

I do not not know when I shall return to West Virginia, but there is a probability that I may depart for those fields in a few days.

She also believes that the West Virginia miners will be successful in their efforts for better conditions.

[Photograph added.]

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 4, 1902:

HdLn Mother Jones Sure of Victory, Phl Iq p2, sept 4, 1902

“Mother” Mary Jones arrived here yesterday afternoon, confident that the mine workers would be victorious in their struggle.

[She said:]

There are 16,000 soft coal miners who are out on strike in the New River, Kanawha and Loop Creek districts of West Virginia. They are out to a man. The conditions in that region are appalling. It is far worse than the situation in the Pennsylvania coal fields.

“What do you think of the recent injunctions issued in West Virginia?” she was asked.

We are approaching a very dangerous crisis in the American nation. The American people are patient, but there will come a time when they will not tolerate such rule.

Disregarded the Injunction

Only last Saturday I was served with an injunction to prevent my speaking in Ohio. But it didn’t work. I have been served with enough injunctions to make a comfortable shroud to bury me in. In West Virginia they issue injunctions against everything. Injunctions are not laws. They are the work of one man. He makes it, issues it, serves it on us, tries us and then he sentences us. We disregard all of them because we know that none of them will stand the test.

“What is your idea of the termination of the strike?”

The miners are not weakening in the slightest degree. We are sure of victory and will accept no compromise. We are determined to right it out to the finish. There will probably be a settlement made before long. I cannot say when that will be.  Public sentiment is growing. If it is necesary, I am sure that the American people will support the miners for another year, just as well as the operators have done. The public has never before realized what a big factor the miner is in civilization.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part I: Predicts Victory for Striking Coal Miners of Pennsylvania and West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Red Flag of Socialism, ISR p303, Oct 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 3, 1912
“The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of October 1912:

The Battling Miners of West Virginia

By EDWARD H. KINTZER
Socialist Candidate for State Auditor of West Virginia.

[Part II of II]

WV Miners State Courthouse, ISR p295, Oct 1912

———-

Send the Politicians Here.

In this situation the pure and simple politicians could learn a lesson in tactics. It is one of the unusual conditions in America’s industrial wars, in which are engaged men who understand the importance of political action, but who feel how hopelessly lost they would be to depend solely upon this in the present crisis. Many of these strikers are members of the Socialist party. To suggest to them that sabotage or other than political acts or taking a timely vacation from work would exclude them from the sacred circle where politics is crowned king, would cause them to question your sanity.

Nor are the miners alone in this fight. There is a bond of sympathy between workers in the region that is worthy of note. It is an example of the class consciousness that is permeating industry all over the world.

WV Mine Guards v Miners, ISR p301, Oct 1912

The railroaders who haul the mine guards understand that they (the mine guards) are not spying upon them; that it is the miners who are being hounded, but their hatred for the guards has precipitated several fatalities.

Dead bodies of two guards were found under a structural steel bridge, apparently having fallen while walking the ties. Yet it is the boast of train crews that they loathe these human bloodhounds. Numerous such circumstances have come to light.

The favorite position of the guards while traveling the coal region is to perch themselves on the pilot of the engine. On one occasion three guards boarded the pilot. The engineer of the freight train was particularly hostile to them. He opened wide the throttle and went at a speed that none of his crew knew the train to make before. But they understood. Anything that could happen was welcome. Sharp curves had no terrors for the engineer. What this mad race meant might only be guessed at. Whether or not what happened was by design or accident, all the miners and most of the railroaders considered it more than just. Rounding a curve, with the complacency of the guards taxed to the utmost, the strain upon the crew being unusual, a cow attempted to cross the track. The guards say there was plenty of time to slow down and allow her to cross. The engineer declared that it was impossible unless he unbuckled his train. Result: Before the bovine could wink her tranquil eye she was unrecognizable, with quantities of her blood, hair and what-not covering the three guardsmen, who were otherwise unharmed. A hasty bath in a nearby creek restored the appearance of the guards, and with knowing winks among the crew, the train moved on.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Sleep Guard House, ISR p295, Oct 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 2, 1912
“The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of October 1912:

HdLn WV Miners,ISR p295, Oct 1912———-

[Part I of II]

Mother Jones Sits by Table, ISR p294, Oct 1912

WEST VIRGINIA is living under martial law in the mining war that has been raging in that state for several years. Mother Jones, the veteran of many labor battles, is the central and inspiring figure. In her eightieth year she is today leading the fight in the strike, which started last April. In her characteristic way, she has has more than once defied the military authorities who are making and executing the mine-owner-made laws. When informed that the militia were endeavoring to arrest her for what they called inflammatory speeches, she said:

If they want the chance, I will give it to them. I’d just as soon sleep in a guard house as in a hotel.

At Pratt and Holly Grove Junction guard houses are being filled with miners for the slightest offenses. The militia has taken control, making and executing the laws without regard for the civil code, in all favor to the mine owners, just as have the judicial courts since Capitalism has ruled in the mining industry.

Martial Law Welcomed.

Fierce were the conflicts of 1897 when Eugene V. Debs led the striking miners in the Fairmont district and in 1902, when Mother Jones played a prominent part in that great strike. But never before has any part of the state been under martial law.

When it came it was welcomed by the strikers, for they had suffered such outrages at the hands of a private army in the employ of the coal barons that anything was preferable-even death-to a continuation of the horrors they had perpetrated.

Governor Glasscock appointed a commission to “examine” into the private army system and the wages and working conditions of the miners. The United Mine Workers demanded that the intense over-capitalization of the companies also be considered.

Later the governor issued a proclamation, ordering the mine guards and the strikers to lay down their arms. This was resented by the strikers who claimed that if they obeyed this order the guards would not and they would be helpless before armed thugs. In reply to this proclamation Mother Jones led 10,000 miners to Charleston, where they demanded that the governor order the mine guards out of the region. She declared that he would be to blame for any trouble that might follow if the guards were not sent away. So horrible had been the acts of the guards that the miners were ready to kill on sight.

America has no better example of the conflict between the two important economic classes than this one in the Kanawah coal mining district. Here Capitalism has mocked the sentiment of the founders of the state and by force of a private army abrogated the constitution this new state adopted. Born in the stress of a civil conflict over a question of bondage, the native coal miners of West Virginia have never learned to submit tamely to an interference with their liberties. .

And yet no people have been more thoroughly exploited than the workers of West Virginia. Mine workers that have been on strike since April are desperate over their frightful condition of starvation and disease. Yet every one is loyal and will die rather than submit to the mine guards.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Battling Miners of West Virginia” by Edward H. Kintzer, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: John P. White, President of U. M. W of A., Will Not Participate in Glasscock’s Sham Conference

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Howling Anarchy, Cton WV, Sept 6, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 30, 1912
Charleston, West Virginia – President White Issues Statement

From The Farmer and Mechanic (Raleigh, N. C.) of September 24, 1912:

MEETING TO PLAN PACIFIC OUTCOME
MET WITH REBUFF
———-
Mine-Workers’ Organization Officials
Refused to Participate In It
———-

CONFERENCE IS POSTPONED
———-
Excitement Attended Gathering to Settle
Mine Labor Dispute in West Virginia
———-

STATEMENT TO GOVERNOR

(By the Associated Press.)

John P White, Lake Co Tx IN p1, Sept 26, 1912
Lake County Times
Hammond, Indiana
September 26, 1912

Charleston, W. Va., Sept 21.-Excitement attended the meeting here today of representatives of the commercial and civic bodies of West Virginia, called by Gov. Glasscock, to consider the labor situation.

International President John P. White, of the United Mine-workers of America, with Vice-President Hayes, announced early in the day that they would have nothing to do with the conference because they had learned that it was not the purpose of those in charge of the meeting to permit a discussion of the strike situation in the Kanawha coal field, where 2,200 West Virginia militiamen are maintaining martial law.

Why It Was Twice Postponed.

The meeting was postponed in an effort to bring the leaders of the miners and the operators together, and later in the day it was postponed again, but when it finally convened there was nothing to indicate that an agreement had been reached by which a discussion of existing labor difficulties might be taken up.

President White’s Statement.

President White prepared a statement for presentation to the governor in which he said:

We were led to believe that the conference called by the governor was for the purpose of discussing the present strike, and to find some method by which it might be amicably adjusted, but in a preliminary conference in the governor’s office which brought to our attention by the parties who appealed to the governor to call the conference, that its purpose was solely for the discussion of an industrial dispute act to be submitted to the next legislature and it was not contemplated in any way to enter into a discussion of the real problem of the problem of the present hour, an honorable solution of the difference existing at this time between miners and operators. We are much disappointed that this conference does not contemplate such discussion and in view of this fact we have nothing to discuss at this time.

John P White, Lbr Wld p1, Sept 28, 1912

Hayes Addresses Strikers.

This statement did not change the situation so far as White was concerned and while efforts were being made to outline a course of action for the conference, Vice-President Hayes addressed a large number of striking miners and their sympathizers and Mother Jones talked to another audience almost with the shadow of the state capitol.

Belated Conference Short One.

When the governor called the conference to order late in the afternoon the house of delegates in the capitol building was crowded. The governor stated that the conference would consider the question of a minimum wage, high cost of living and settlement of future labor troubles by arbitration but the miners strike on Paint and Cabin Creeks would not be discussed.

Adjourned in Confusion.

C. Burgess Taylor of Wheeling, was introduced as chairman and the question of who had a right to sit in the meeting arose, it having been given out that only West Virginians could take part. A statement presented by coal operators of the State that their “presence in this conference is not to be taken as recognition of the United Mine Workers of America,” finally created such confusion that a motion to adjourn was put and carried.

(Newsclips clips and emphasis added.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: John P. White, President of U. M. W of A., Will Not Participate in Glasscock’s Sham Conference” →