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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 16, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1902, Part I
U. M. W. of A. Organizers Surrounded by Injunctions in West Virginia
From the Wilkes-Barre Semi-Weekly Record of July 1, 1902:
[Yet Another Injunction.]
Indianapolis, Ind., June 29.-“If the courts continue issuing injunctions against us there will be but one proposition open. Some one will have to furnish the 400,000 mine workers of this country with balloons in which they can hold meetings privately or publicly and not disobey the mandates of the courts,” said W. B. Wilson, secretary and treasurer of the mine workers’ organization, yesterday when informed that Federal Judge Keller, at Fairmont, had enjoined him, Chris Evans, “Mother” Jones and others connected with the organization from interfering with miners.
No papers have been served on Wilson. He said he had not been in Judge Keller’s district, but If his business calls him there he will go. He declared that if he has been enjoined from holding a private conference on business that concerns the organization he will disobey the injunction.
[Photographs added.]
From The Clarksburg Telegram of July 4, 1902:
“MOTHER” JONES MUST BE GOOD
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Judge Jackson Continues the Case and Cautions Her.
—–“Mother” Jones trial at Parkersburg has been continued to July 11.
When United States Court convened Friday the attorneys for “Mother” Jones and the other strike leaders announced that they would introduce no more evidence and they were ready to rest their case. The prosecution had nothing further to introduce and when it was ascertained that the attorneys wished to argue the case the court announced that it would continue it untill July 11, when the lawyers would be given an opportunity to be heard. The defendants were released under bond. In releasing them the court said:
I have been sitting here for three or four days investigating whether you have violated this injunction or not. That question I shall determine when the case comes up for final disposition on the 11th day of July, as soon as the argument is over and I can reach a conclusion; but I want to say to you that you have a duty, under the recognizance that you have taken here, to perform; that the duty is to abstain-I mean abstain from trying to induce anybody who is employed in these mines from leaving work or from disseminating your own peculiar doctrines that you bring from the other states into this state to disturb the peace and harmony of those who are engaged in the lawful pursuits of mining in this state.
You are citizens, that is true, of the United States, but while you are citizens of the United States you owe obligations to any state you are in, just as much as you do to the state in which you have a permanent residence. The constitution of the United States don’t guarantee rights to the citizens to go into the domain of another state and excite the people to violence or to commit unlawful acts. There is no such provision in the constitution; and, as liberal as the constitution is as to personal rights, the constitution does not protect the person in illegal or unlawful acts in any state in the Union or in a state, particularly, where the parties do not reside.
And I shall expect you upon this occasion, each and every one of you, to observe literally (both in spirit and letter) this injunction; if you wish this court in dealing with you to consider your acts and to weigh your acts with reference to what has heretofore transpired in reference to the order of the court, it will be well for you to consider these things and to act accordingly.
The remarks of Judge Jackson were a warning to the defendants not to interfere with the miners or incite them to strike, as a further violation will result in their rearrest and it will make it harder for them in the present cases.