Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones 1898, Part II: June-December; Found in Kansas and Nebraska

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Quote Mother Jones, Get Evil at Its Root, St L Rpb p2, Feb 5, 1898———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 11, 1899
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for the Year 1898, Part II

Mother Jones Mrs AF Smith Preach Socialism, KC Str p9, Oct 91898
Kansas City Star
October 9, 1898

In the pages of the Appeal to Reason of July 2, 1898, Mother Jones was found as “Mary G. Jones” on the list of delegates who bolted the Convention of the Social Democracy, held in Chicago during June of 1898. The disgruntled delegates immediately set about to establish a rival organization called the “Social Democratic Party of America,” and are now calling for “every loyal supporter of socialist principles” to “promptly come to the front and join” the new party. Mother Jones finds herself in good company as Eugene V. Debs and his brother, Theodore, are among the prominent Socialists who have joined the newly founded S. D. P.

July 1898 also found Mother Jones speaking in Omaha to packing house strikers. It was reported that she was speaking as “a traveling representative of the paper known as the “Appeal to Reason.”

In October 1898, Mother Jones was found in the “two Kansas Citys” preaching socialism along with Mrs. Anna Ferry Smith of San Diego. It was reported that the two women had traveled by a horse-drawn wagon from Chicago, speaking on street corners along the way.

In December 1898, Mother Jones was found leaving Kansas City and heading towards Texas “in a prairie schooner drawn by one white horse.” She was next found in Fort Scott and Mound City, Kansas. The Mound City Torch reported:

She is on her road to Texas, traveling in a private carriage alone. She is distributing literature and lecturing on needed reforms as she goes.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones 1898, Part II: June-December; Found in Kansas and Nebraska”

Hellraisers Journal: Mine Operators Meet Demands of Virden Miners; Formal Agreement Ends Bitter Coal Strike

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Quote Mother Jones re Virden Martyrs, Daily Worker, Oct 22, 1925~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 18, 1898
Bitter Strike of Miners at Virden Ends in Victory

From the Chicago Daily Inter Ocean of November 16, 1898:

VIRDEN STRIKE ENDS
—–
Mine Operators Agree to
Meet Demands of Men.
—–

TO PAY UNION WAGES
—–
Conference Is Held at Company’s
Chicago Offices.
—–

Leaders of Coal Miner’s Organization
Rejoice at the Outcome of
the Bitter Fight.
—–

WNF Virden, O'Neill House, Chg Intr Ocn p2, Oct 15, 1898
Striking Miners Gather at O’Neill House after Battle of Virden

The conference between the representatives of the Chicago-Virden Coal company and the striking miners, held yesterday, resulted in an agreement which ends the Virden strike. The demands to the miners have been acceded to in full. The scale agreed upon is 40 cents per ton for hand mining and 33 cents for machine mining.

A formal agreement will be drawn up this morning, which will be signed by President Loucks of the coal company and President Hunter of the Illinois Mine-Workers’ union. The men who have been idle at Virden since April will return to work immediately.

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WE NEVER FORGET: The Martyrs of the Battle of Virden, October 12, 1898

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See that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters
the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden…
I hope it will be my consolation when I pass away
to feel I sleep under the clay with those brave boys.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WNF Virden Oct 12, 1898
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Martyrs of Virden, October 12, 1898

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Hellraisers Journal: “To-day was the saddest in Mount Olive’s history.”

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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 16, 1898
Mount Olive, Illinois – Funerals Held for Virden Martyrs

From the Springfield Illinois State Journal of October 15, 1898:

Mount Olive Mourns
—–

Schools and Stores Closed on the
Day of Miners’ Funerals.

Virden Martyr ernst Kaemmerer, Keiser Union Miners Cemetery at Mt Olive
Ernst Kaemmerer

Carlinville, Ill., Oct. 14-To-day was the saddest in Mount Olive’s history. Every business house in the town and the public schools were closed by proclamation of Mayor Fuchs. Not a shaft in the district was operated. The funeral services over the remains of Ellis Smith, Joseph Gitterle and Ernest Kamerer, the Mount Olive miners killed at Virden, were held in the opera house at 2 o’clock. Private services had been held earlier by the pastor of each denomination to which the dead miners belonged. The opera house was thronged. Services were conducted by W. D. Ryan, state secretary of the United Mine Workers. Attorney Thomas Williamson delivered the funeral oration. The line of march was taken up, headed by the Mount Olive band, followed by hearses with the three corpses. Two thousand visiting union men from Staunton, Gillespie, Hornsby, Litchfield, Sorrento, Worden and Glean Carbon, city officials, school children bearing flowers, and citizens. It was the largest procession of the kind ever known in Mount Olive and grief manifested was heart-rending.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Strikebreakers Brought to Virden and Pana from Alabama Were Threatened by Company Guards

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Men in a locked car are not free men, but prisoners.
These men were prisoners without authority of law.
They were under no criminal charge, had not been tried,
and were entitled to go and come at their pleasure.
-Governor John Riley Tanner
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 15, 1898
Birmingham, Alabama – Miners Recruited as Scabs Were Deceived

Virden Massacre, Wanted Colored Miners, Poster ab Sept 19, 1898

That the miners recruited in Birmingham, Alabama, to mine coal in Virden and Pana, Illinois, were deceived by the coal operators into becoming strikebreakers is made plain by the fact that the men were transported into Illinois in locked cattle cars, many of them, and were kept under the watchful eye of armed company guards. When the Alabama miners became aware of the situation, most of them resisted being turned into scabs. However, according to reports, the company guards threatened to shoot down any who attempted escape.

From the the the Chicago Public
-of August 27, 1898

The sheriff of Christian county, Ill., seems to think it his duty not only to threaten to shoot white miners who try to reach the imported negroes at Pana to explain the trick that has been played upon them by the operators, but also to threaten to shoot the negroes if they attempt to leave the operators’ employment. It is the business of the sheriff to preserve order, but it is not his business to act as a private detective for coal operators, which is a distinction that the sheriff of Christian county ought to know, and one which, if he doesn’t know it, he ought to be made to learn.

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Hellraisers Journal: Two More Miners Die Following Battle of Virden: E. F. Long of Mt. Olive & William Harmon of Girard

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Quote Mother Jones re Virden Martyrs, Daily Worker, Oct 22, 1925~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 14, 1898
Springfield, Illinois – Two Miners Breath Their Last

From the Springfield Illinois State Journal of October 14, 1898:

TWO MORE ARE DEAD
—–
Miners Injured in Virden Battle
Die from Their Wounds.
—–

[…..]

Virden Massacre, E. F. Long, ab 1898, Keiser Un Mnrs Cem, 1980
Brother E. F. Long

Two of the miners who were shot during the Virden riot Wednesday died yesterday [Thursday October 13th] in St. John’s hospital. The names of the two men who swelled the list of fatalities to a dozen are: Ernest Long, aged 19 years, of Mt. Olive, and William Harmon, aged 49, of Girard.

Earnest Long breathed his last at 12:07 o’clock yesterday afternoon and William Harmon expired at 5:30 o’clock in the evening. Long was shot in the bladder, in the left leg, and twice in the right hip. His comrade, Harmon, was shot through the spine and lungs. Long is survived by his father, four sisters and two brothers. The remains were taken to Blach’s undertaking parlors where they were prepared for burial. Last night the body was taken to Mt. Olive for burial. the deceased was a member of the A. O. U. W., which order will have charge of the funeral service.

Th remains of William Harmon were taken to Foster’s undertaking parlors and prepared for burial. They will be taken to Girard at 6:45 o’clock this morning. A son of the deceased will accompany the remains home. Harmon was 49 years of age and is survived by a wife and five children.

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Hellraisers Journal: Company Guards Open Fire on Miners at Virden, Illinois; Scene of Carnage Follows Fierce Battle

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Its a sad blow to us. Father was
the head of a family of nine of us.
I don’t know what we will do now.
It will break their hearts at home.
-Young Son of Abe Breneman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 13, 1898
Virden, Illinois – Striking Miners Shot Down by Company Guards

From Springfield’s Illinois State Journal of October 13, 1898:

Battle Virden, HdLn, Spgfld IL St Jr p1, Oct 13, 1898

(By J. E. Vaughn, Staff Correspondent.)

Virden. Oct. 12.-(Special.)-Mid-night.-Ten dead, one fatally wounded and twenty-five carrying gunshot injuries of a more or less serous character, is the result of Manager Fred Lukins’ determination to run the Chicago-Virden coal mine in his own way and the counter determination of the striking miners not to permit non-union men to operate the plant.

In battle, fierce and sharp and attended by an unusual number of casualties, the striking miners today came into contact with the men who are supporting the operator and drove them from the town, but at a cost which makes the victory a bitter one. Six of the strikers were killed by the superior weapons of the armed guards, while three of the guards, two on the train that conveyed them to the town, and one within the stockade, lost their lives…..

[…..]

SCENES AFTER THE BATTLE.
—–

Virden, Oct. 12-(Special.)-The scenes that attended the removal of the dead miners from the field east of the stockade were pathetic in the extreme as soon as the firing had ceased and while there was still the greatest danger of a resumption of the fire from the stockade, shrieking, bare-headed women, their hair flying in the air, ran from the houses in the vicinity and rushed for the place where the miners had fallen, looking for their husbands and fathers. As they run they shouted curses at the men in the stockade and shook defiant fists at the grim tower from which had come the shower of lead.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs on “Social Democracy” and the Social Democratic Party of America

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Quote EVD, On overthrow of ruling class power, SD Hld, Oct 8, 1898~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 9, 1898
Debs on Capitalism Run Riot and the Battle for Social Democracy

From the Social Democratic Herald of October 8, 1898:

Social Democracy

-by Eugene V. Debs

EVD, New Time Magazine, Feb 1898

In the outset, and to “clear the deck” for action, some attention should be paid to definitions. What is meant by the term, “Social Democracy?” The term “social” as applied to “democracy” means, simply, a society of democrats, the members of which believe in the equal right of all to manage and control it. Reading this definition, men are likely to say, “There is nothing new in that,” and they speak understandingly. The men and women who are engaged in organizing the Social Democratic Party of America are not pluming themselves upon the novelty of their scheme for the improvement of social, industrial, and political conditions. They claim for their movement a common-sense basis, free from the taint of vagary and in all regards preeminently practical.

The wise man is credited with saying, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun” [Ecclesiastes 1:9]. Crediting the declaration of Solomon as conclusive, there must have been a time before he lived when something like “social democracy” of which I write existed in the earth, the germ idea of which, though latent for centuries, has aroused men from their lethargy from time to time in the processes of evolution, to find its most potent expression in the present era of “progress and poverty,” civilization and savagery, wealth and war, charity and greed, aroused them to an interest in socialism, which, with the chivalric courage of crusaders and the revolutionizing zeal of iconoclasts, has appeared to do battle for the regeneration of society.

No one hesitates to admit that the task is herculean; no one underestimates the power of opposing forces. Their name is legion, and they are organized forces—close, compact, resourceful, and defiant. They do not propose to surrender, compromise, nor arbitrate. They have the masses in the dust, their claws upon their throats and their hooves upon their prostrate forms. In the face of all the verified facts that startle thinking men, there is no requirement for extravagant speech.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the London Social Democrat: “From More to More” a Poem by Michael Schwab

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Not yours the victor’s meed of praise,
When Freedom leads her hosts to war,
For even in these evil days
Her fighters grow from more to more.
-Michael Schwab
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 2, 1898
“From More to More” by Michael Schwab

From the London Social Democrat of October 1898:

Poem, Michael Schwab, More to More, London Soc Dem p321, Oct 1898

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