Tag: Ohio Valley Trades and Labor Assembly

Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: Fannie Sellins, Angel to Collier District Miners, Arrested for Violating Federal Judge Dayton’s Injunction

Janet RayeFannie Sellins
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Quote Anne Feeney, Fannie Sellins Song, antiwarsongs org—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 13, 1914
Mass Protest Meeting at Wheeling Followed by Arrest of Fannie Sellins

From The Wheeling Majority of February 12, 1914:

Wheeling Mass Meeting Feb 8 v Fed Judge Dayton of US No Dist WV, Fannie Sellins re Colliers Mine Strike, Wlg Maj p1, 2, 3, 6, Feb 12, 1914Wheeling Mass Meeting Feb 8 v Petition Fed Judge Dayton of US No Dist WV, Fannie Sellins re Colliers Mine Strike, Wlg Maj p1, Feb 12, 1914

Fannie Sellins Arrested re Colliers Mine Strike, Wlg Maj p1, Feb 12, 1914

By a grand jury of more than 3,000 talesmen, Federal Judge A. G. Dayton, of the United States Circuit Court, Northern District of West Virginia was indicted for misuse of the power of the injunction, and high crimes and misdemeanors against labor and the citizens of the State, at the huge mass meeting in the Market Auditorium, last Sunday afternoon [February 8th]. Public opinion appeared as the prosecutor; and witnesses were examined whose testimony revealed Judge Dayton as a Twentieth Century Judge Jeffrys, and his judicial methods as those of a Star Chamber court.

Judge Dayton entered no defense. He waived examination entirely, holding himself above the power that placed him in office. The verdict of the grand jury was unanimous, and only one ballot was taken. As a result of the action of the mass meeting, his conduct will be brought to the attention of President Wilson, Chief Magistrate of the United States. An official investigation of his unlawful practices in office will be prayed for, together with relief from the intolerable tyranny of his administration through removal from office.

Oppression of Helpless

Tears came involuntarily to the eyes of auditors as witness after witness recounted the oppression of the helpless miners at Colliers and elsewhere, and the misery and suffering engendered through Judges Dayton’s overriding of the laws of the land. Tears and horror were succeeded by anger and a determination to end the reign of injustice in West Virginia by the recountal of the betrayal of citizens of the State by a judge whose sworn duty it is to redress their wrongs, and to see that the violations of the laws of the United States are punished.

[The article continues at length with descriptions of the many speeches made, including that of Fannie Sellins whose speech was described thus:]

Fannie Sellins

Perhaps the most dramatic and stirring moments of the meeting came when Miss Fannie Sellins began a personal recital of the wrongs she had witnessed and encountered in the Colliers district during the strike. Without any attempt at oratory,—her sentences at times disconnected, her voice now hoarse with righteous anger, now tremulous to the verge of tears, she held the entire assembly breathless for nearly three quarters of an hour.

Audience In Tears

Hundreds in the audience were in tears when she told of hardships endured by miners and their families on the barren hillsides; of families huddled together beneath rags to keep themselves warm; of twin babies born without attention of any kind, either medical or otherwise in just such conditions.

She rehearsed incidents that happened to families of miners who had been brought to the district through misrepresentation,—who were told that there was no trouble, and of cruelties practised on them because they refused to work under those conditions.

She told of assaults without redress, of eviction from homes under unspeakable brutalities; of shots fired by assassins on men peacefully asleep in tents at night.

She recounted the stories of many assaults on pickets by Baldwin thugs,—called by the operators, mine guards. She told of insults offered to women and children; of an attempt to bribe a Polish boy to murder a union man.

She told of nights of horror when unheralded out of the darkness shots would sweep the camps in which were sleeping women and children from the hillsides where the guards were.

Appeals Are Vain

She told of frequent and vain appeals to the courts for justice, and of its refusal by Judge Dayton.

She told of her seizure on entering the district from Pittsburgh, and of threats of personal violence made to her by “Bob” Virgin, superintendent of the Pittsburgh Coal company, and miners.

Wave after wave of feeling swept over the hearers as with unstudied eloquence Miss Sellins told incident after incident, piled tales of hardship upon hardship, and of the vain endeavor to get justice from the courts.

The audience rose en masse and cheered her at the conclusion of her effort.

[…..]

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mass Protest Meeting Held in Wheeling; Mother Jones Speaks on Behalf of Striking West Virginia Miners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Fred Mooney re Mother Jones at Cabin Creek Aug 6, 1912, Ab p27—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 10, 1913
Wheeling, West Virginia – Mother Jones Speaks at Mass Protest Meeting

From The Wheeling Majority of January 9, 1913:

Protest Meeting Well Attended
———-

Mass Meeting Scheduled for Sunday w Mother Jones, Wlg Maj p1, Jan 2, 1913
The Wheeling Majority
January 2, 1913

The mass meeting held last Sunday afternoon to protest against the conditions being inflicted upon the striking miners of this state by heartless coal barons, and to insist upon a federal investigation of the coal mine industry in West Virginia was a great success. The Victoria theatre was crowded long before the hour for opening the meeting had arrived, and close attention was paid to the teaches and great interest shown on the part of the audience—an interest which proves that the working class is awakening to its own desires and that the days of inhuman exploitation in the coal mines of this state are numbered.

The meeting was held under the auspices of the Ohio Valley Trades & Labor Assembly, in behalf of the United Mine Workers of America, and T. J. Hecker, of the Assembly, called the meeting to order and introduced Harry P. Corcoran as chairman.

H. P. Corcoran Chairman.

Mr. Corcoran made a brief talk, explaining that the meeting was non-political and non-sectarian, and that it was held in the attempt to arouse public sentiment to demand a federal investigation of conditions in the West Virginia coal fields, and the passage of remedial legislation by the present legislature.

Marco Roman.

He introduced Marco Roman, international organizer of the United Mine Workers, who spoke briefly in Italian, giving a history of the present conflict.

Attorney Houston Speaks.

H. W. Houston, attorney for the Mine Workers, followed, stating that he was making an appeal from the supreme court of the state to the “Court of last resort—the people.” He reviewed the granting of political concessions in governments from the Magna Charta almost 700 years ago, and said that all these concessions would now be worthless until we abolished industrial slavery. Modern government, he said makes workers be good while it robs them. Courts are daily twisting old decisions in order to keep the workers in subjection. He cited the Hatters’ case, the Iron Workers case, and the Ohio county case where, before Judge Nesbitt, it was held that when workers combine and keep another fellow out, they must respond in damages, but when he asked if employers could be held if they combined to discharge men in malice and blacklist them he received no answer.

He said that Governor Glasscock established martial law while the courts were open, which is a violation of the state constitution. Then there were no jury trials, and no chance to cross examine witnesses. All the criminals of the state, he said, had never violated the basic law of the state as had Governor Glasscock. The military authorities used the words of Wellington to justify their deeds: “That martial law was the will of one man.”

The miner Nance [Silas Frank Nantz], whose case the supreme court refused to dismiss, was always an aggressive fighter for unionism and because of that he was arrested without warrant by the military authorities for an alleged offense committed eight days before martial law was established, and, although the penalty in law for the offense provided a maximum punishment of but one year in jail or $500 fine, he was sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. He quoted the opinion of the U. S. Supreme court in the case of Nance was not unanimous, even Judge Ira E. Robinson dissenting, saying: “I stand for constitutional law.” Attorney General Conley, also, refused to stultify himself by defending the state’s unwarranted action before the court.

Mother Jones.

“Mother” Jones was next introduced and spoke for nearly an hour in her accustomed vigorous style. She recited with much detail the horrors of the situation throughout the strike region. She stated that this fight had begun twelve years ago and told of the first meeting ever held. Contrary to general opinion, she said, she had not been in jail often, but had had that honor only once, when Judge Jackson put her in jail at Parkersburg.

When she came to West Virginia she had been working for the shop men on the Harriman lines, then on strike, and she came down to help the boys she knew. When she got here they told her that a stone wall was the dividing line in the Cabin Creek region and that no organizer was allowed behind the wall. She replied that no wall had ever been built by capitalist robbers high enough to keep her out and she proceeded to go in. And she had been in ever since, except when she came out, as she was out now, to tell the people of this state and country about the conditions that existed behind that wall.

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