Hellraisers Journal: From the Wheeling Majority: “Hot Times in West Virginia”-Mother Jones Working Night and Day

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Quote Mother Jones, Life Work Mission, WV Cton Gz, June 11, 1912, per ISR p648, Mar 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 7, 1912
Charleston, West Virginia – Cossacks Rule Paint Creek, Mother Jones at Work

From The Wheeling Majority of July 4, 1912:

Hot Times In West Virginia
———-

[Mother Jones Working Night and Day]

(By G. H. Edmunds.)

Mother Jones WV , Cnc Pst p1, June 11, 1912

Charleston, W. Va., July 3.—(Special.)—You talk about the cossacks of Russia and the state police of Pennsylvania, but the guard system of West Virginia has all these backed off the boards. The guards along Paint Creek have taken the law in their hands, and are openly defying the law in all its phases. They are evicting the miners in open violation of the law up to date, we have been unable to check them. The law firm of Littlepage, Matheney and Littlepage sought to enjoin the coal companies, and here is what happened.

District Judge Burdette did the “fade-away” act’ to perfection. When our attorney went to his court (after having a time set to hear the injunction), and there and then found that the judge had left the community and no one could say where he had gone or when he would return. So the coal companies are still evicting our people. If Kellar, the great magician, wants to learn a few new tricks along the “fade-away” line, he might do well to consult his honor, Judge Burdette.

Assaulting Children.

Assault after assault has been committed upon defenseless men, women and children. But the sheriff of Kanawha county has done absolutely nothing about it at all. We hope that the miners will not forget Judge Burdette when election day comes. If he is afraid to perform the duties of his office, then he is not competent to fill that high office. I know it is pretty hard to go up against such a proposition as issuing or refusing an injunction as the one prayed for, yet it was the plain duty of Judge Burdette to have stood his ground and decided this case on its merits. Judge Burdette stands indicted for rank cowardice before all the people of this county. Will they forget or condone this act? Lots could be said about Kanawha county justice, but we will save it for campaign dope. Board Member Watkins Reports a good meeting at McClannahan, just across the mountain from Raymond City. We are glad to see these men coming out of the kinks at last. There are scores of good men over there and now that they have started again we bid them God speed.

Boys, don’t stop until every man in your locality is a union man and a Socialist. The “man catchers” from Burnwell “caught” two colored brothers in their net of deception, but upon their arrival at Burnwell, they found out about the strike and they left, walking 17 miles, and they informed the guards they would spend a year in the penitentiary before they would work as strike breakers. Pretty good union men, these.

Mother Jones There.

Mother Jones is still here and well and working night and day. She bears her 80 years as if they were 50. We expect big things next week. At this time we have 21 guards on trial for entering the homes of the miners without leave or warrant.

The miners are still firm and there will be no break away from our ranks. Organizers Batley and Davis left for their homes to spend the 4th of July. Organizer G. H. Edmunds and Vice President Frank J. Hayes will speak at Buxton, Ia., on the Fourth. Great credit is due the Majority for the gallant advocacy of the miners’ cause during this strike. All miners should subscribe to this paper, because he is our friend, and we should stand by our friends. Editor Hilton, has been fearless in his defense of our cause.

All mine workers are requested to stay away from West Virginia until notified officially that the strike is ended. 

[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: Strikers Along Paint Creek Are Standing Firm; Union Ranks Remain Intact

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Quote Mother Jones on Swearing & Praying, UMWC 1909—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 28, 1912
Paint Creek District, West Virginia – Striking Miners Standing Firm

From The Wheeling Majority of June 27, 1912:

Miners Strike In Kanawha Valley
———-

(By G. H. Edmunds)

West Virginia Miner, Evansville IN Press, Feb 20, 1907

Charleston, W. Va., June 24.—(Special)—After two months and one week of striking, the miners along Paint Creek and other places on strike, are standing firm. No desertions from the union ranks whatsoever.

This strike was forced upon the miners by the Paint Creek operators refusing to concede the same raise in wages that was granted by the other operators. The miners agreed early in March to work after April 1st, pending a settlement of the wage question, and the operators agreed to pay to them whatever scale was agreed upon, from the first of April. One-half of the Cleveland agreement was agreed upon, and three of the largest operators in the valley have refused to pay the scale.

They [the operators] at once resorted to the armed thug, and political tools some times called sheriffs and since the inauguration of the strike, one defenseless foreigner has been killed, one negro miner shot, and scores of men, women and children beaten, intimidated and insulted by this gang of gun men.

It is a disgrace upon the county of Kanawha and the state of West Virginia that such crimes could happen right under the “shadow of the dome” of the state capital, and the Honorable Governor at Chicago, singing for Roosevelt, and the high sheriff there also, joining in the chorus, while the poor common people are being killed, beaten, intimidated and exploited, and the Governor and sheriff thoroughly familiar with the entire situation, yet they refuse to prevent this continual violation of law and society, yet they are all lined up for Teddy.

No miner in this state can afford to vote for such politicians as these men…

On June 12th, the grand jury of Kanawha county returned indictments against eight Baldwin Feltz guards for first degree murder, in connection with their killing of the Italian miner [Donato di Pietro] at Wancomah, on June 4th. The 12th was on Wednesday, and the sheriff’s office made no attempt to apprehend or arrest these indicted mine guards until the following Monday, or on the 17th.

Yet six miners that were put in jail by these same guards, without the formality of a trial, were kept there, although the grand jury could find no indictment against them. Now Mr. Glasscock [Governor of West Virginia], did you not swear that you would see that the laws were strictly enforced? Please let us know under what law are these poor miners being kept in jail?

In the fact of all these hardships the miners are going to win this strike. Large mass meetings are being held daily all over the field to enlist support for the people on strike. Sunday there was a large meeting at Plymouth, in the south end of the field, and at Cedar Grove, in the central part of the Valley, and also on Paint Creek, up amongst the miners on strike.

Each week sees a new victory for the strikes. First was the winning Winnifrede. Next the complete victory of the men on Morris Creek. Next was the last past week we had two places on the Ohio river to sign up, making four victories of which we have a right to feel proud. Another gratifying condition, at this time is we are getting the miners to stand up for their rights in the courts, and by persistent fighting we are winning here and there. Organizer No. 3 has adopted a unique way of advertising the strike, by printing one thousand placards which reads as follows: 

To all miners and other Workmen

You are hereby notified to stay away from Burnwell, Waucoma, Standard, Mucklow, Mahan, Hickory camp Tomsburg and Banner, all on Paint Creek in Kanawha county. West Va. Also from Cole river and Fort Defiance, as there is a strike of the union miners at each of these places. If you are not a strike breaker, please stay away.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May 1912: Speaks in Anaconda, Montana, on Behalf of the Harriman Lines Shopmen’s Strike

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Quote Mother Jones re Wealth Power Government, Anaconda Standard p5, May 4, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 16, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May 1912
Found Speaking in Anaconda, Montana, on Behalf of the Shopmen’s Strike

From The Anaconda Standard of May 4, 1912:

URGES WORKERS TO JOIN THEIR FORCES
———-

MOTHER JONES ADDRESSES MEMBERS OF LOCAL UNION.
———-
IN INTEREST OF STRIKERS
———-
Speaker is well known as strike aider and
advocate of labor unions in general
-Speaks on behalf of Southern Pacific men.

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912

Mother Jones, the strike worker and speaker for labor unions, was in the city yesterday in the interest of the strikers on the Harriman lines. She addressed the members of the Mill and Smelter Men’s union at last night’s session. Mother Jones is known the world over. Last night she made a plea for the strikers on the Southern Pacific, stating that if this strike was lost it would be much harder to win the next. She said, in part:

I am here tonight in the interest of the strikers on the Harriman lines. From time immemorial all our wars were based on economic principles. It is a conflict between classes, and always has been. It is not a struggle between parties, it is class war. The great system you are grappling with the world has never known before. We are in the midst of a great industrial war such as the world has never seen before. Everything is changing; our newspapers, ideas, ways of living, ways of thinking and everything that is connected with us. What are our newspapers? Organs in the control of the ruling class.

We are producing more wealth today than ever before. We produce more wealth than ever did Rome or Greece. There is something wrong with the people when they let this wealth get in the hands of a few. Wealth is power, power rules, consequently we have a despotic government. The power is not in the government, but in Wall Street. The president who is elected is named two years before election by the banks on Wall street. The press is controlled by that power and it molds public opinion. The magazines are the same. Religion fits in with this system of the capitalists. You did not see any Salvation Army 60 years ago. It was not needed. The Salvation Army came with the controlling class. The same is true of the temperance movements. The controlling class needs these devices to keep the working class hypnotized so they cannot think. Everything is in conflict. We are all after the dollar. We betray ourselves for the dollar, as well as for a smile from the boss.

Mother Jones continued in a similar strain at some length. 

—————

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones at Charleston, West Virginia: “To me the conditions mean industrial war.”

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Quote Mother Jones, Life Work Mission, WV Cton Gz, June 11, 1912, per ISR p648, Mar 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 13, 1912
Charleston, West Virginia – Mother Jones Arrives, Visits Holly Grove at Paint Creek

From The Cincinnati Post of June 11, 1912:

Mother Jones WV , Cnc Pst p1, June 11, 1912

CHARLESTON, W. VA., June 11.–(Spl.)—Mother Jones, who has devoted half of her 80 years to an effort to soften the lot of the coal miners, is here to remain until the miners of the Paint Creek section get some redress from the conditions which have made it necessary for them to appeal to Governor Glasscock.

Paint Creek is 18 miles long and is flanked by a score of mine operations, which usually employ thousands of miners. Idleness has reigned in the district since April 1. Now the operators have 100 guards patrolling the creek in an effort to crush out unionism among the West Virginia miners. It is only in this section that the miners have been strong enough to organize.

Condemns the System

“I am going to stay here all week and dig down to the bottom of this trouble,” said Mother Jones, who arrived Sunday from Colorado.

She began by addressing a mass meeting of miners Sunday at Holly Grove.

[She declared:]

It is not the individual we are after, it is the system.

In West Virginia the “system” has been to crush out organized labor by the bludgeon and rifle in the hands of guards, paid by the operators and sworn in by the State as Deputy Sheriffs.

[Said Mother Jones:]

To me the conditions mean industrial war. You may beat a slave, but after a time a slave will revolt. Sane men do not undertake to violate property law, but sane men may be driven insane when hunger comes, if they are forced to fight. They reach the stage where they feel they might as well die as try to live under the conditions they are forced to submit to.

Homes Are Saddened

[The aged friend of the toiler continued:]

We hear a great deal about the right of women to vote. You can’t improve such conditions as exist here by extending the ballot to women. One of the great troubles is the loss of sunshine in the home. When a man gets home from work he should be greeted by a smile, but the women can’t smile under these conditions. It’s no wonder the criminal class is chiefly made up of young people.

Sheriff Smith, under instructions from Governor Glasscock, is keeping in close touch with Paint Creek, where it is believed a crisis is at hand.

It is believed Governor Glasscock will order out the militia if there is further loss of life.  One miner was killed and another seriously shot last week. Many have been beaten.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Ends Western Tour on Behalf of Shopmen’s Strike, Plans to Leave for West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones, Better to Die Fighting, Sac Str p1, June 3, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 5, 1912
Mother Jones Preparing to Leave Montana, Heading for West Virginia

From The Sacramento Star of June 3, 1912:

Mother Jones on Train, Sac Str p1, June 3, 1912

Mother Jones has forwarded $800 from Montana to the Harriman shop strikers. Seven hundred of this was donated, in response to her earnest appeal, by unions of coal miners, and the remainder came from mill and smeltermen, machinists and other crafts. How persistent has been her work tor the System Federation is seen in her statement that she refused to accept less than $250 from the union of miners at Roundup, and their $100 donation was sent through their international office. Butte metal miners gave $300 some time ago.

[She writes in a characteristic letter to President E. L. Reguin and Secretary John Scott of the System Federation:]

If the men had been working regularly in the coal mines, I could have gathered up very much more. However, the whole thing shows the disposition of the men to aid each other in the struggle, which counts to me very much more than the finances,

I shall leave in a few days for West Virginia, to take up the battle there. It is a dangerous field, and many of us who go in there are more than likely never to come out, but what difference does that make so long as we are carrying on the industrial battle, and flaunting in the face of the foe the red flag of industrial freedom? There must be sacrifices made, and there must be martyrs. That state and Alabama must be organized within the next few years.

Tell my boys of the Federation it matters not where I go, I shall keep up the fight against oppression and wrong. Men, women and children must be free, and sentiment will never free them. Those who are grounded in the philosophy of the class struggle must go forth and give battle to the well-entrenched foe.

Tell the boys to keep up the fight. It is far better to die fighting and suffering than to remain slaves.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Socialist Outlook in West Virginia” by Harold W. Houston

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EVD re Socialism v Capitalism—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 28, 1912
Socialist Party Organizing in West Virginia by Harold Houston

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

The Socialist Outlook in West Virginia

[-by Harold W. Houston, State Secretary]

It is impossible to write of the political situation in this state without enthusiasm. The apathy of recent years has given place to a marvelous awakening among all classes of voters. The seed sown by the early agitators has taken deep root in our soil and is bearing abundant fruit. The dues paying membership of the Socialist party is about one thousand. We have ninety-three locals in good standing. Our party press is a development of the last two years, and we now have the following papers: The Labor Argus, Charleston, edited by C. H. Boswell; the Clarksburg Socialist, Clarksburg, edited by E. H. Kintzer; the Wheeling Majority and the West Virginia Socialist, both of Wheeling and edited by Walter B. Hilton; the Plain-Dealer, Cameron, edited by William E. Lang. A movement is now on to start several other papers during the coming campaign.

Several towns in the state have elected Socialist mayors and other officials. Star City, Hendricks, Adamston, Miama and other towns have been swept into the Socialist ranks. All indications point to our carrying at least five counties in the coming election. Our state government is located at Charleston, Kanawha county, and the political piracy that always characterizes the doings of the politicians that infest the seat of government has polluted that community beyond description. The voters there are in revolt. The generals of the old parties find themselves without an army. The Socialists have set themselves the task of electing the entire ticket in that county, especially the legislative ticket. Our enemies freely admit that we have a splendid fighting chance. At Clarksburg, Harrison county, the situation is intensely interesting. It has attracted the attention of all of the lyceum lecturers. The industrial workers of that section are intelligent and progressive, and during the last two years they have been coming into the Socialist movement in battalions. This is another county that is almost certain to land a full Socialist ticket.

At Wheeling there is the same widespread response to the call of Socialism. The voters are organizing the entire county, and there is little doubt but that we will secure at least a portion of the ticket in that county. One of the most gratifying things about the West Virginia movement is the utter absence of factional strifes and disruptive tactics. Some slight differences do indeed exist as to minor matters, but there is no bitter or serious breaches in the organization. On the whole complete harmony reigns. The personnel of the movement is exceptionally high, and the movement is revolutionary to the core.

This is a war-born state, and it has a population that illy wears the collar of industrial servitude. When it seceded from Old Virginia it placed upon its coat of arms the motto: “Montani Semper Liberi” (Mountaineers are always free), and the sweep of the Socialist movement over the mountains and valleys indicates that we are going to translate those words into a reality. We send greetings to our comrades of other states, and we say to them that the coming election will show that we have been in the thick of the battle.

HAROLD W. HOUSTON, State Sec’y.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1921, Part III: Found Speaking at Indianapolis Convention of United Mine Workers

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Quote Mother Jones, Hang That Old Woman, UMWC p733, Sept 26, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 10, 1922
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1921, Part III
Found Speaking to Delegates at Convention of United Mine Workers 

Indianapolis, Convention of the United Mine Workers of America
Sixth Day, Afternoon Session,  Monday September 26, 1921

“I can fight…”

Mother Jones, Still w Miners, Speaks at UMWC, IN Dly Tx p9, Sept 27, 1921
Indiana Daily Times
September 27, 1921

Vice-President Murray: I understand that Mother Jones has just arrived in the convention and I am going to request Brother David Fowler to escort her to the platform. It isn’t necessary that I should introduce Mother Jones to you at this time; it isn’t necessary that I should eulogize the work she has performed for the coal diggers of America, and I will simply present to the convention at this time our good friend, Mother Jones.

ADDRESS OF MOTHER JONES

Mr. Chairman and Delegates: I have been watching you from a distance, and you have been wasting a whole lot of time and money. I want you to stop it.

All along the ages, away back in the dusty past, the miners started their revolt. It didn’t come in this century, it came along in the cradle of the race when they were ground by superstition and wrong. Out of that they have moved onward and upward all the ages against all the courts, against all the guns, in every nation they have moved onward and upward to where they are today, and their effort has always been to get better homes for their children and for those who were to follow them.

I have just come up from West Virginia. I left Williamson last Friday and came into Charleston. I was doing a little business around there looking after things. We have never gotten down to the core of the trouble that exists there today. Newspapers have flashed it, magazines have contained articles, but they were by people who did not understand the background of the great struggle…..

I walked nine miles one night with John H. Walker in the New River field after we had organized an army of slaves who were afraid to call their souls their own. We didn’t dare sleep in a miner’s house; if we did the family would be thrown out in the morning and would have no place to go. We walked nine miles before we got shelter. When we began to organize we had to pay the men’s dues, they had no money.

At one time some of the organizers came down from Charleston, went up to New Hope and held a meeting. They had about fourteen people at the meeting. The next morning the conductor on the train told me the organizers went up on a train to Charleston. I told Walker to bill a meeting at New Hope for the next night and I would come up myself. He said we could not bill meetings unless the national told us to. I said: “I am the national now and I tell you to bill that meeting.” He did.

When we got to the meeting there was a handful of miners there and the general manager, clerks and all the pencil pushers they could get. I don’t know but there were a few organizers for Jesus there, too. We talked but said nothing about organizing. Later that night a knock came on the door where I was staying and a bunch of the boys were outside. They asked if I would organize themI said I would. They told me they hadn’t any money. Walker said the national was not in favor of organizing, they wanted us only to agitate. I said: “John, I am running the business here, not the national; they are up in Indianapolis and I am in New Hope. I am going to organize those fellows and if the national finds any fault with you, put it on me—I can fight the national as well as I can the company if they are not doing right.”

[…..]

When we began organizing in 1903 the battle royal began. The companies began to enlist gunmen. I went up the Stanaford Mountain and held a meeting with the men. There wasn’t a more law-abiding body of men in America than those men were. While they were on strike the court issued an injunction forbidding them to go near the mines. They didn’t. I held a meeting that night, went away and next morning a deputy sheriff went up to arrest those men. He had a warrant for them. The boys said: “We have broken no law; we have violated no rules; you can not arrest us.” They notified him to get out of town and he went away. They sent for me and I went up. I asked why they didn’t let him arrest the men. They said they hadn’t done anything and I told them that was the reason they should have surrendered to the law.

That very night in 1903, the 25th day of February, those boys went to bed in their peaceful mining town. They had built their own school house and were sending their children to school. They were law-abiding citizens. While they slept in their peaceful homes bullets went through the walls and several of them were murdered in their beds. I went up next morning on an early train. The agent said they had trouble on Standifer [Stanaford] Mountain, that he heard going over the wires news that some people were hurt. I turned in my ticket, went out and called a couple of the boys. We went up the mountain on the next train and found those men dead in their homes, lying on mattresses wet with their blood and the bullet holes through the walls.

I want to clear this thing up, for it has never been cleared up. I saw there a picture that will forever be a disgrace to American institutions. There were men who had been working fourteen hours a day, who had broken no law, murdered in their peaceful homes. Nobody was punished for those murders.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1921, Part III: Found Speaking at Indianapolis Convention of United Mine Workers”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1921, Part II: Found Denouncing the Private Army of Gunthugs Ruling West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones re RR Men Haul Gunthugs n Scab Coal, Coshocton Tb OH p3, Sept 17, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 9, 1922
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1921, Part II
Found Denouncing Government by Gunthug in the State of West Virginia

From The New Castle Herald of September 6, 1921:

MOTHER JONES HAS SOLUTION

DECLARES FORCE OF RIGHT MUST SUPPLANT
RIGHT OF FORCE IN WEST VIRGINIA
———-

By HARRY HUNT

Mother Jones, Lecompton KS Sun p10, Sept 8, 1921

WASHINGTON Sept. 6.-“The secretary of war doesn’t understand. The president doesn’t understand.”

There is a great wrong being perpetrated in West Virginia. This wrong will not be corrected by jailing miners or shooting them. It will be settled only by social and industrial justice.

It was ”Mother” Jones speaking. She had just left the office of Secretary of War Weeks, where she had gone to protest against the sending of federal troops into the zone of the West Virginia mine war. 

“Just what is the situation?” she was asked. “You were there last week. What is the trouble?”

[Mother Jones replied:]

The miners under arms in West Virginia are not fighting the government, either state or nation. But they are determined to defend themselves from the oppression and domination of the hired gunmen of the mine operators who constitute a private army of the interests in West Virginia.

Companies Obdurate

The government rendered a decision on the wage question in this district in 1919. But the mine companies have not recognized the authority of the government in that decision and have not followed it.

The men, being Americans, revolted. They sent out word asking to be organized.

Then they were thrown out of the miserable company shacks in which they lived.

The mine workers in this district are robbed to pay an army of professional murderers, maintained to keep the workers in subjection.

The money that ought to go to the miner who slaves underground is diverted to maintain gunmen to enforce the demands of greedy overlords of industry.

The fathers want that money, which they earn, to help educate their children, to improve their homes, to get churches and schools and the rights of American citizens.

Force of Right 

The trouble in West Virginia must be settled by the force of right, not by the right of force.

You can shoot down these men in West Virginia, but they will rise again against the outrage of being robbed to pay a private army to enforce the brutal demands of coal operators.

If the employers can form their army, the workers naturally think they can do the same. That’s logical, isn’t it?

And that situation is the ulcer from which flows all the poison. Until it is removed, there will be no peace.

Fought Same Battle

We fought this fight out in the Kanawah and New River fields 23 years ago. We had a few battles. A good many of us were put in jail. I was carried 84 miles to jail myself, to get me out of the zone where it was thought I would be troublesome.

But we got the whole of these fields organized. The gunmen had to leave. The men began to get their pay in Uncle Sam’s currency, not in company money that could only be spent at company stores.

They are living in peace today in the Kanawha and New River fields and in the Fairmont district. Their homes are happier, their work better, the relations of the men and their employers more just.

But along the Norfolk & Western in the Mingo fields, a private army rules.

—————

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1921, Part II: Found Denouncing the Private Army of Gunthugs Ruling West Virginia”

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part III: Warning for Gunthugs

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Quote Mother Jones, Fools Gunthugs re Miners in Hills w Guns, UMWC p735, Sept 26, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 29, 1921
Mother Jones Speaks at United Mine Workers Convention, Part III

Indianapolis Convention of the United Mine Workers of America
Sixth Day, September 26, 1921, Mother Jones Speaks, Part III of IV:

Mother Jones Eggs On Miners, re UMWC, Muncie IN Str, p1,9, Sept 27, 1921
Muncie Morning Star
September 27, 1921

The gunmen were driven out of there [Cabin Creek, West Virginia] and there has been peace ever since. They were driven out of Paint Creek, where they had sent a death special with thirty deputy sheriffs on board. When they wanted that special car equipped to send up the mountain the painters at Huntington said they wouldn’t paint it. The machinists said they wouldn’t equip it. Some other men were asked to do it and they said: “We will talk about it tonight and ask the Lord”—they were Holy Rollers. Well, the Lord must have told them to do it because in the morning they equipped the train and later that armored car fired into the tents of the strikers.

Here are the machine guns that were turned on us (exhibiting a picture). I went up to speak to the boys and the guns were turned on them. I didn’t see them until I got on the track. There were twenty-five of those gunmen who turned on those law-abiding citizens. I put my hands on the guns. One fellow told me to take my hands off the gun. I said: “No, sir; my class go into the bowels of the earth to get the materials to make these guns and I have a right to examine them. What do you want?” He said: “We want to clean out those fellows, every damn one of them.” I told him they were not doing anything wrong, that they were only trying to earn money for their wives and children. I told him if they shot one bullet out of that gun the creek would be red with blood and theirs would be the first to color it. They asked what I meant and I told them I had a lot of miners up above who were fully armed. There was nothing up the mountains but a few rabbits, but we scared hell out of them! We organized the men there. We have them solid to this day.

Those are the guns they sent across seven states to Colorado when the men there struck. The railroad men hauled them. Those are the guns that murdered the women and children at Ludlow, Colo. Here are the Baldwin thugs (showing several pictures). Here are some of the boys who were killed. Some young men joined the militia in Colorado, but when they found they were called out to turn their guns on the miners they went home. The mine owners said they would have to have an army. Here they are in this picture. They were not citizens of the state. The laws of Colorado said a man must be a citizen before he could put on the uniform, but these were the private armies of overlords and they kept committing crimes against the miners and their families until the horror of Ludlow shocked the country. Here is the picture of the children who were murdered. 

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part III: Warning for Gunthugs”

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part II: “Hang that old woman…”

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Quote Mother Jones, Hang That Old Woman, UMWC p733, Sept 26, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 28, 1921
Mother Jones Speaks at United Mine Workers Convention, Part II

Indianapolis Convention of the United Mine Workers of America
Sixth Day, September 26, 1921, Mother Jones Speaks, Part II of IV:

Mother Jones Arrives, re UMWC Speech, Ipl Str p11, Sept 27, 1921
Indianapolis Star
September 27, 1921

We then went into the Fairmont Field. One night while holding a meeting in New England I paid a fellow to go and circulate bills. We held a meeting on the sand lot. The United States marshal and the deputy marshal were there. When the meeting closed I went away. A little boy told me to get into a buggy and he would drive me to the interurban. When I was going over a dark bridge there were six or eight fellows at the company’s store. One fellow asked me where I was going. I said I was going into Fairmont and asked him to take care of the slaves because if he didn’t I would have to hunt a job for him next day.

Barney Rice, Joe Poggiani and another fellow from Indiana were there. I was hoping the boys would come, because those fellows could throw me into the river and say I committed suicide. Barney Rice came out calling: “Police! Police!” I asked what was the matter and he said they were killing Joe, that he was alone in the dark bridge and he had broken no law. The interurban turned the corner and I told those fellows to hurry. I ran into the bridge and the fellows who had attacked Joe had run away. He had a deep cut in his head. I dragged Joe out and bound his head up with a piece of my underskirt. I asked the interurban men to hurry him into Fairmont and they did.

Next day the boys came down to see Joe. There wasn’t a detective or a gunman that didn’t run out of the city that night. Every one of the cowards left. I had about 150 men at the hotel, and the general manager asked: “Mother, what can I do for the boys?” I said: “Send up a couple of drinks for the boys, because they need it.” There wasn’t a gunman stayed in town that night. Even the United States marshal got scared, but no- body was hurt except Joe.

That was the start of this thing. Later on I went into Wise County. Old Dad Haddow of Iowa was with me. The colored people gave us their church for the meeting. The gunmen told us we couldn’t hold a meeting there and we went out and held it at the corner of two roads. I said: “Dad, have you a pistol?” He said he had and I told him he had better show it. I told him the law said if the pistol was exposed, even a little bit, he would be safe, but if he had it concealed he might be arrested. Those hounds got around Dad and nearly tore him to pieces. They took him to the oflice and those fellows came, the general manager with them, and said: “Mother Jones, what is the matter? I am astonished, really astonished! The idea of you going into the house of God with a pistol!” “Don’t you know,” I said, “that I know God never comes around a place like this—he stays a damned long way from a place like this.”

The gunmen were there and I was arrested. The old man was nearly scared to death. They fined him $25. He didn’t want to pay it, he wanted to appeal, but I said we would pay it. I paid the $25. That evening one of the men who had been in the crowd came to me and said: “Mother Jones, I want to pay my respects to you for paying that $25 as quick as you did. The scheme was to lock you up and burn you in the coke ovens.” And you women raised those brutes! It is horrible to think of.

We battled on and here and there we organized and got better conditions for the men. In 1902 a board member and your President, John L. Lewis, went up Kelly Creek. They chased him out. I was determined to organize that Creek. I went to the town at Eastbrook and in the morning went across by ferry, then walked six miles. The company was paying two deputies to keep me out but we got into the mining camp. I told a merchant my business and he said we could use a hall over his building. I rented that for four months. I took the men down and organized them that night. The company suspected there was something wrong and the next day discharged forty of the men. Then the drivers got restless and came out. I was determined to finish the job and on Sunday went through the camp with the boys marching. I told them to ask every fellow they saw sitting on the steps of the houses to be an American and come down. They came. 

We told Jack Roan, the manager, who had come over from Columbus that day, to come out. He didn’t come out. In front of the hotel were two fellows and one said: “I would like to have a rope and hang that old woman to a tree.” Another one said: “And I would like to pull the rope.” After the meeting the boys pointed those men out. I stood with my back to a tree and said: “You said you would like to hang the old woman. Here is the old woman and the tree, where is your rope?” They ran away because there were more than a thousand men at the place. Since that day there has been no strike and no disturbance, but there is one thing we failed to do—we did not educate them thoroughly, because bringing them into the union was only the kindergarten; we should have educated them after they came in but we failed to do that.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part II: “Hang that old woman…””