New River Field WV – WE NEVER FORGET

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday August 18, 1917
Mother Jones News for July, Part II: Organizing West Virginia

From the United Mine Workers Journal of July 12, 1917:

The following was published as an advertisement in the The Beckley (West Virginia) Messenger of July 10, 1917, but without the final paragraph.

“Mother” Jones’ Refreshing Experience

“Mother” Jones had a most refreshing experience at a great meeting of the miners at Quinnimont, West Virginia, on the 14th day of June. The Layland mines, where the meeting was held, is owned by the Berwin-White Coal Company, and a large number of men are employed at this place. It is in the very heart of the mountainous New River coal fields. In the years gone by this section has been a veritable Gibraltar of the foes of unionism, and armed guards have patrolled the works of the companies looking for those who were trying to carry the message of unionism to the miners of this section. Happily, this condition has passed away in many parts of this field, and the private gunman is being driven farther and farther back into the remote mountain fastnesses.

The refreshing part of the Layland meeting was the manner and spirit in which Mr. O. A. Kneer, the superintendent of the Berwin-White Coal Company received the visit of “Mother” Jones. Instead of following the tactics of some of the less enlightened companies and forbidding “Mother” holding a meeting at the mines, he told the miners to go to the meeting, and was present himself. After the meeting was over he said it was one of the best addresses he had ever heard. Having an open mind and the spirit of fair play, he was ready to meet the miners half way and deal with them as men with rights.

If all the coal companies were enlightened enough to show the same spirit, the coal fields of the country would not so often be the scene of bitter industrial struggles. Mr. O. A. Kneer, by his fairness and good will, has done much to bring peace between the miners and operators in that section. His attitude is commended to the companies who think to crush the miners by private armies of gunmen. There is nothing that appeals to the average miner so much as fair play.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1917, Part II: Found in West Virginia & Washington, DC” →

What the lawmakers give you
they can take away.
The only thing you are sure of
is what you win for yourself.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday May 10, 1917
Mother Jones News for April: Mother Jones Returns to West Virginia

Mother Jones, WV with children of striking miners, ISR 1913

Who could ever forget the story of Mother Jones in West Virginia during the Paint and Cabin Creek Strike of 1912 and 1913 when she was held prisoner and court-martialed by the military forces of the that state?

Mother Jones has recently returned to the state of West Virginia, along with Peggy Dwyer, as an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America. This is where we find her during most of the month of April 1917.

First, however, we find her mentioned in and article in the New York Tribune of April 1, 1917, written by John J. Leary, Jr., and entitled “How Old Is The Eight-Hour Movement?”

“How old is the eight-hour movement,” asked the city editor, when the attention of the country was focussed on the labor question by the decision of the Supreme Court upholding the Adamson eight-hour act….

As a matter of cold fact, the first law fixing the hours of labor at eight was enacted in New York fifty years ago, in 1857, to be exact. A joker in the law, however, prevented its being much more than a dead letter, for it was also provided that the law should apply only “where there is no contract or agreement to the contrary.” [With the bosses, of course, writing the contracts.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1917: Found in West Virginia as Organizer for UMWA” →