Tag: November 1909

Hellraisers Journal: From Duluth Labor World: Jury Verdict Says Mining Laws Were Broken at Cherry Mine Disaster

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Wake fr Slumber, AtR p2, Oct 23, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 28, 1910
Princeton, Illinois – Jury Reaches Verdict in Great Cherry Mine Disaster

From the Duluth Labor World of May 28, 1910:

Cherry MnDs of Nov 13, 1909, Jury Verdict, LW p1, May 28, 1910

Cherry MnDs Murders by JO Bentall, Orphans, ed ISR p585, Jan 1910

PRINCETON, Ill, May 27.-The coroner’s jury, which began last November to investigate the cause of the Cherry mine disaster, which resulted in the death of 265 miners in the St. Paul Coal company’s mine, has reached an agreement, and 250 separate verdicts have been returned.

The jury says the mining laws were broken with the knowledge and consent of the mine inspector.

The verdicts were in three sets, one set fixing the cause of the death of the twelve men in the rescue party who perished on the cage in the mine shaft, another set for the 187 men who were suffocated in the second vein and the third for the 51 men who were trapped in the third vein and died of exposure and suffocation.

The verdict of the coroner’s jury is a vindication of John Cowley, the engineer who was in charge of the cage on which the twelve rescuers lost their lives. The verdict says the twelve rescuers lost their lives “indirectly by a confusion of signals regulating the movements of the cage.”

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Duluth Labor World: Jury Verdict Says Mining Laws Were Broken at Cherry Mine Disaster” →

Hellraisers Journal: “The Cherry Mine Murders” -Men and Boys Burned and Suffocated in Criminal Fire Trap, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Life Cheaper Than Props, Trinidad CO, Sept 16, 1913, Hse Com p2630———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 8, 1910
Cherry, Illinois – Scene of Mass Murder of Men and Boys, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:

The Cherry Mine Murders.
—–

Why Four Hundred Workers Were Burned and Suffocated
in a Criminal Fire Trap.
—–

By J. O. Bentall.
—–

[Part II of II.]

Cherry MnDs Murders by JO Bentall, Despair, ISR p582, Jan 1920

Little Albert Buckle, 15 years old November 28, who escaped on the last car up, and his mother and sister stood at the ropes all day watching for “Rich,” who was 16 years the 21st of last June, and who had worked in the mine ever since his father was killed three years ago, but poor Richard was not brought up that day. On Monday I went to see the broken-hearted mother but I could not comfort her.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Cherry Mine Murders” -Men and Boys Burned and Suffocated in Criminal Fire Trap, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: “The Cherry Mine Murders” -Men and Boys Burned and Suffocated in Criminal Fire Trap, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Life Cheaper Than Props, Trinidad CO, Sept 16, 1913, Hse Com p2630———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 7, 1910
Cherry, Illinois – Scene of Mass Murder of Men and Boys, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:

Cherry MnDs Murders by JO Bentall, ISR p577, Jan 1920

[Part I of II.]

Letter W, ISR p577, Jan 1920AS your brother one of the four hundred who perished in the Cherry coal mine November 13th? Or was it your father? Your husband? Your son? My brother was there. My father. My son. I helped carry them out. They were cold in death. They were covered with coal dust and swollen from black damp.

I am telling you this story from what I have seen with my own eyes. Not from hearsay.

I went from Chicago right to Cherry. With thousands of others I stood and looked from the outside. Then I broke through the line and joined the volunteer rescuers. I put on overalls, jacket, cap and lamp and went down into the tomb that contained over four hundred victims—a few living, most of them dead.

I helped plug the entries to prevent the fire from spreading. I had a hand in timbering where the roof was loose, or where collars were breaking. I cut legs off the dead mules so we could get them through the passageways and clear the track for bringing out the men. I was with the gang that found nineteen dead in one pile and twenty-one in another, thirty-seven in a third and one hundred and sixty-two in a fourth.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Cherry Mine Murders” -Men and Boys Burned and Suffocated in Criminal Fire Trap, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1909, Part II: Found Speaking in New York City on Behalf of Carlo de Fornaro

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Mex Rev Fornaro, NYT p15, Nov 29, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 22, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1909, Part II:
-Found Speaking in New York City on Behalf of Carlo de Fornaro

From the New York Sun of November 29, 1909:

DEMAND DE FORNARO’S PARDON
—–
Protest Against the Cartoonist’s Imprisonment
Voiced at the Berkeley Theatre.

Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909

A meeting to protest against the imprisonment of Carlo de Fornaro, a cartoonist, for libeling a Mexican editor was held at the Berkeley Theatre last night. This resolution was adopted:

We the citizens of New York city in mass meeting assembled, herewith resolve that we regard the conviction of Carlo de Fornaro of libel and his sentence of one year’s imprisonment at hard labor as an unprecedented and unconstitutional attack upon free speech and the freedom of the press. We demand that our Legislature repeal that part of the libel laws which gave an excuse for the action of the court and we call upon the governor of New York for the immediate and unconditional pardon of Carlo de Fornaro.

First of all reporters were introduced to Heriberto Barrow, who says he’s the Democratic candidate for President of Mexico, running against President Dias. He was a member of the House of Representatives, he said, and about a year ago introduced to Mexico to the New Idea party of young men, or Democratic party. In September he fled, fearing persecution. He says posters announcing his candidacy in big red letters are being torn down by the police in Mexico and any one that dares to indorse him openly is being thrown into prison by Diaz.

[Then followed, as speakers, Gaylord Wilshire, chairman of the meeting, and George Edwin Joseph, attorney for De Fornaro.]

Mother Jones, the Socialist propagandist, then took the centre of the stage and scanning the audience shouted that she had no fear of any Pinkerton dogs who were present and worked for Diaz. She was as ready to die to-night as any time in her fight for liberty.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1909, Part II: Found Speaking in New York City on Behalf of Carlo de Fornaro” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1909, Part I: Found Speaking for Socialism in the Lone Star State

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, For the Wage Workers, ISR p462, Nov 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 21, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1909, Part I:
-Found Speaking for the Socialist Party in the Lone Star State

From the International Socialist Review of November 1909:

Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909

MOTHER JONES was in to see us a few days ago. We asked if she had any message to send the readers of the Review and she replied:

FIRST, last and ALWAYS, of, for and BY the wage-workers.

Paste this motto in your hat. There never was any other one-half so good as this. Mother Jones infused this office with enough courage and ginger to keep us going till the next time she comes to see us.

[Photograph added.]

From the Appeal to Reason of November 13, 1909:

From page 4:

SHALL HE BE MURDERED?
—–

BY LUELLA TWINING.
—–

While in Los Angeles, Calif., I visited Comrade L. Guterrez DeLara, and his wife, Hattie Elliot DeLara. Comrade DeLara is charged with being an alien, an anarchist. He can prove by hundreds of witnesses that he is neither, but his trial before the Immigration Official Ridgway is to be secret, and as an official in Tucson inadvertently said, “Diaz has a long arm.” Our officials have too long been ready to do the bidding of that murderer, Porfirio Diaz, for us to trust them.

I learned to love the DeLaras dearly, and my heart bleeds for them. Every spare moment while I was with them we talked of the social questions and conditions in Mexico and America. With his black eyes blazing with the fire of the revolution DeLara said many, many times: “I must work and work and work to educate my people. That is our only hope. Diaz has stolen the money that should be used for schools and my people are in ignorance. I can not tell you in a few days of the suffering of the Mexican workers. They must be taught that Socialism is the remedy. They learn very easily if given an opportunity.”

It is this man who is charged with being an anarchist.

[…..]

Comrade DeLara said of the Appeal to Reason: “The Mexican workers appreciate the work the Appeal to Reason has done for them. They love Eugene V. Debs and Mother Jones, too.”

From page 5:

SW Edition Tx, AtR p5, Nov 13, 1909

—–

Lone Star Notes.

[…..]

Few speakers can awaken the workers as can Mother Jones. Her meeting at Troupe, where dense prejudice has existed, will be of great and lasting benefit to the movement. Some of the most prejudiced opponents of the movement there came to her at the close of the meeting and assured her that they were Socialists henceforth and contributed liberally for the expense of the meeting. Comrade Butler writes: “God bless Mother Jones; her memory will be enshrined in the hearts of the people long after Taft, Roosevelt and company are forgotten.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1909, Part I: Found Speaking for Socialism in the Lone Star State” →

WE NEVER FORGET-James Kelly Cole Who Lost Life on November 17, 1909, En Route to the Spokane Free Speech Fight

Janet RayeWe Never Forget
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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, Ab Chp 6, 1925———-

WNF, James Kelly Cole, IWW Spk FSF, Nov 17, 1909, Rev Writings Poems p12, 1910 ———-

WE NEVER FORGET
James Kelly Cole Who Lost His Life in Freedom’s Cause,
November 17, 1909, at Tomah, Wisconsin
———-

James Kelly Cole, Poems Cover, 1910
“It was on a pilgrimage to help others
who believed in the rights of men
that James Kelly Cole was halted suddenly by death.
A railroad accident at Tomah, Wis., November 17th, 1909,
ended only too untimely his brief, young, hopeful life.
He lived well and bravely and thus did he die.”

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in New York City on Behalf of Carlo de Fornaro, Artist Convicted of Libel

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Mex Rev Fornaro, NYT p15, Nov 29, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 30, 1909
New York, New York – Mother Jones Speaks for Convicted Mexican Revolutionary

From The New York Times of November 29, 1909:

‘MOTHER’ JONES HITS OUT AT THE COURTS
—–
They’d Pronounce the Ten Commandments
Unconstitutional, She Says.
—–

THIS AT A FORNARO MEETING
—–
Woman Agitator and Gaylord Wilshire Ask
Berkeley Theatre Audience to Help Free
Artist Convicted of Libel.
—–

Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909

Mother Jones, who goes about fighting the battles of the downtrodden, turned up again in New York last night as a speaker. She joined with Gaylord Wilshire, Joshua Wanhope and others at a meeting held in the Berkeley Theatre to protest against the conviction of Carlo de Fornaro, the caricaturist, who has been sentenced to one year’s hard labor on Blackwell’s Island on the charge of libeling Rafael Reyes Espindola, an editor and politician of Mexico, in his book on Mexico published last year.

Resolutions were adopted protesting against the conviction, calling for the repeal of the law under which the conviction was obtained, and asking that Gov. Hughes immediately pardon Mr. de Fornaro. Moreover, a collection was taken up to help fight the case in the courts, if that is found necessary.

Mother Jones, though she said last night that she was 74 years old, is still marvelously vigorous, at least in speech. She said she had been spending a lot of her time of late down in the Southwest, where she had learned some horrible things about Mexican rule. She is going back there immediately, she declared. Assuming that the Berkeley Theatre was almost filled with spies of the Mexican and United States Governments, she hurled defiance at them, and spoke a good deal more cruelly about Mexico and big Mexicans than Fornaro did in his book.

[She said:]

In 1861 they used to say, “all is quiet along the Potomac.” Now the black press is saying that all is quiet along the Rio Grande. But in 1861, while all that talk was going on, there was the glint of bayonets on both sides of the Potomac and to-day United States officers are arresting all along the Rio Grande hundreds of Mexicans for no other crime than that they have denounced the tyrannical Government in their own country.

In Kansas to-day three young men are lying in prison for doing just exactly what Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry did for their country. Our judges and officers are doing scavenger work for the Mexican pirate. Let the Mexican bloodhounds here to-night take that to Taft if they want to.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in New York City on Behalf of Carlo de Fornaro, Artist Convicted of Libel” →

Hellraisers Journal: Luella Twining Reports for Appeal to Reason from the Scene of Cherry Mine-Fire Disaster

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Wake fr Slumber, AtR p2, Oct 23, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 29, 1909
Cherry, Illinois – Heartbreaking Scenes Described by Luella Twining

From the Appeal to Reason of November 27, 1909:

From page 5:

MINERS MURDERED.
—–
Owners of St. Paul Mine Guilty of Manslaughter.
-Cherry Under Martial Law.
—–

BY [LUELLA] TWINING
Special Correspondence to the Appeal.

Cherry MnDs, Thanksgiving Day, Spk Prs p1, Nov 25, 1909

Cherry, Ill., Nov. 17.-To stay in Cherry, Ill., one half an hour is to be convinced that the miners entombed there were murdered as surely as though the mine owners had taken them into the road and shot them down one by one.

“Why were the miners kept at work two hours after the fire had broken out in the mine?” is the question asked by the bereaved widows. It is not put in that form. I heard it asked in many different ways. A German woman looked at me wildly and asked, “What for they no tell my man? He work two hours by the fire. Now he die. They murder my man.” These poor women do not wait for the mine owners to answer. “They care for mine and no for man,” a Lithuanian said to me and indeed one is forced to believe it. They do not state the question as clearly as Karl Marx’s exposition of the profit system, but it is equally as illuminating. If the United Mine Workers should murder 500 mine owners would they not be punished?

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Hellraisers Journal: Spokane Free Speech Fighters Celebrate Thanksgiving with Bread and Water, In and Out of Jail

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Spokane IWW re Bread n Water, Spk Prs p1, Nov 25, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 28, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Bread and Water Thanksgiving for I. W. W.

From The Spokane Press of November 25, 1909:

IWW SpkFSF Bread n Water Thanksgiving, Spk Prs p1, Nov 25, 1909

———-

PROCLAMATION BY THE I. W. W.

The following Thanksgiving proclamation was issued this morning by a committee of the I. W. W.:

We feel that we have reason to be thankful that we have an organization in which are enlisted men with moral courage to go to prison and fast and suffer hunger for the principle of free speech, on this day when the American people are feasting and offering thanks for the blessings they enjoy.

We feel that we have reasons to be thankful that there are men outside of jail willing to forego the pleasures of feasting today in sympathy with their fellows who have offered themselves as a sacrifice in a just cause.

We further see reasons for offering thanks because the movement of protest has grown and that progress has been made in the past year in the work of enlightening the wage earners as to the conditions confronting them in this republic, in which the people have long since ceased to rule.

All of these things make us thankful and give occasion to rejoice that through the gloom and shadows that now surround us a ray of light and hope begins to appear.

W. H. Douglas, C. M. Conner, J. Burns, Committee.

———-

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Clara Lemlich, Young Garment Worker, Calls for General Strike at Mass Meeting at Cooper Union Hall

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Clara Lemlich, Cooper Un Nov 22 re Uprising, NY Call p2, Nov 23, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 25, 1909
New York, New York – Clara Lemlich Calls for General Strike of Waist Makers

Clara Lemlich, ab 1910, Wiki
Clara Lemlich
“I want to say a few words.”

On Monday evening, November 22nd a mass meeting was held at Cooper Union Hall to consider the plight of New York’s waist makers, 70% of them young immigrant women. After listening through the long-winded speeches of the union leaders, a young garment worker arose from the crowd and demanded the opportunity to speak her mind. The New York Call of November 23rd describes the scene:

Clara Lemlich, who was badly beaten up by thugs during the strike in the shop of Louis Leiserson, interrupted Jacob Panken just as he started to speak, saying:

I want to say a few words.

Cries came from all parts of the hall, “Get up on the platform!” Wilting hands lifted the frail little girl, with flashing black eyes, to the stage, and she said simply:

I have listened to all the speakers. I would not have further patience for talk, as I am one of those who feels and suffers from the things pictured. I move that we go on a general strike!

As the tremulous voice of the girl died away, the audience rose en masse and cheered her to the echo. A grim sea of faces, with high purpose and resolve, they shouted and cheered the deliberation of war for living conditions hoarsely.

When Chairman Feigenbaum put Miss Lemlich’s motion to a vote there was a resounding roar of a yes throughout the hall, and once again the vast crowd broke into roars of applause. The demonstration lasted several minutes.

[Emphasis added.]

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