Tag: Pittsburgh PA

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones, “The Angel of the Mines” by Nora Gillespie-“The Old She-Devil” to Owners and Operators

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, WV Court Martial, No Plea to Make, Ptt Pst p3, Mar 8, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 2, 1913
Mother Jones, “The Very Incarnation of Aggressive and Fighting Labor”

From the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star of May 30, 1913:

The Angel of The Mines.
———-

By NORA GILLESPIE.

Mother Jones, Cora Older, at Military Bastile WV, Colliers p26, Apr 1913

Seventy-three years ago there fled from Ireland a political refugee, with a little girl of eight, taking refuge in the land of freedom. Thus the spirit of rebellion and revolt is the heritage of the most noted and talked-of woman in the U. S. today. Mother Jones has stood for so many years as the very incarnation of aggressive and fighting labor, that it is very hard to picture her as a school teacher, and as a busy wife and mother fulfilling her domestic duty in the home. Yet she was all of these. She had a good education and taught school for several years before she married a worker, a staunch union man, and she, soon began organizing other workingmen’s wives into an auxiliary realizing even at that early stage the value of organization for the workers whether they be men or women.

Four children were born to her in rapid succession, and the wives of workingmen will understand what her life was for six years, when the great tragedy took place, which changed her from the mother of four to the mother of the working class.

An epidemic [of yellow fever] broke out in the town [Memphis, 1867] where she lived and in the space of seven days she saw death take from her one after another, her husband and four children. It was overwhelming and the average woman would have succumbed utterly. But not Mother Jones of the great heart and rebellious spirit. All the love, devotion and self-sacrifice she would have bestowed upon her own dear ones became transmuted into a declaration for the cause of labor. Here is heroism for you in comparison with which DYING for a cause seems insignificant. To determine to LIVE for a cause, when your own life is shattered and your whole being pleads-that is the very flower of heroism.

Since that time the story of Mother Jones has been the story of the labor war that goes on and must go on in every country where workers are exploited to make profit for shirkers, and always has she taken her place on the firing line. Neither the bullpen nor the jail have held any terrors for her and she [has] known the inside of both.

“The Angel of the Mines” has other names, one of which is “the old she-devil,” which the owners of the earth and the fullness thereof apply to her. This is a good example of the difference in classes.

[Photograph, paragraph breaks and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in Pittsburgh, Raps Pennsylvanians, Calls West Virginia Officials “Pack of Anarchists”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, WV Court Martial, No Plea to Make, Ptt Pst p3, Mar 8, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 20, 1913
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Speaks at Lyceum Theater

From The Pittsburg Press of May 19, 1913:

“MOTHER” JONES MAKES ROUSING
ADDRESS HERE
———-
Says West Virginia Officials Form
“Pack of Anarchists.”
Takes Vigorous Rap at Pennsylvanians
———-

AGED LABOR LEADER CRITICISES CONGRESS
———-

Mother Jones in Rocker, Survey p41, Apr 5, 1913

Arraigning Pennsylvanians as moral cowards for permitting the present state of affairs to exist in the West Virginia mining country; scoring the West Virginia authorities bitterly, and never dropping her high note of enthusiasm for a single instant, “Mother” Jones,  the noted woman leader yesterday,  in the Lyceum theater talked to a crowded house which applauded almost every sentence. She was presented with a huge bunch of flowers by the Slavonic Associated Press.

The world-renowned labor organizer, who confessed yesterday to being aged 81, made an imposing figure as, white-haired, erect, nervous and virile, she completely possessed the stage during her speech, and, incidentally her audience as well. Among other things, she said:

[The speaker declared:]

If one were to go to the West Virginia strike region and see the indescribable conditions I have seen there, he would say that America is darker than even Russia was; darker than even barbarous Mexico was. The harrowing stories I could tell as I have seen them there would paralyze the heart of the Nation-if it had a heart. But we’re so hypnotized by our ruling class.

THREATS BROUGHT DEFIANCE.

When I went to Cabin Creek last May they told me that if I went up there at an organizer I would come back on a stretcher, but I defied them.

[She almost screamed:]

You people in Pennsylvania are moral cowards. The nation never gave you so great an opportunity to show yourselves as when it gave you the story of the drum-head court by military despots such as we were brought before. And you sat idly by and did nothing! If you can get a bigger pack of anarchists than the public officials of West Virginia I want to find them!

“Mother” Jones spent her eighty-first birthday in jail. She had the locals of the miners’ union elect delegates to lay their grievances before the governor, W. E. Glasscock, of West Virginia and went with these delegates to Charleston. It was then, she says, that the governor became alarmed, fearing from her reputation as an agitator that she meant trouble. A warrant was issued for her arrest and she spent some time under guard, some of the delegates being imprisoned also.

Harold W. Houston, secretary of the Socialist party of West Virginia, closed the meeting by referring to conditions in the strike zone of his state. He urged co-operation on the part of the party here to aid in righting the wrongs which he claims have been done organized labor in the “Mountain State.”

Mother Jones made a great appeal for the protection of the home and didn’t neglect to inject a smart rap at congress occupying “a whole session talking about the navy and how much money to spend on it, but not a dollar to protect the childhood of the nation.”

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Excerpt from The New York Times of  May 19, 1913:

We’re going to organize the state of West Virginia if every one of us dies in the battle…I’m going back to West Virginia. If I can’t go on a train, I’ll walk in…[Before going into the trouble zone] one of the boys told me: “If you go up there, Mother, you’ll come back on a stretcher, no organizer can speak there!” I spoke there. I didn’t come out on a stretcher. I raised hell.

…I organized the women because the women can lick a non-union man better than you fellows here can…

Labor must stand together. You trades unions must stop wrangling with the I.W.W., and the I.W.W. must stop wrangling with the trades unions I know industrial unionism is coming, and you can’t stop it.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs, S.P.A. Presidential Candidate, Speaks at Grand Socialist Picnic in Pennsylvania

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, SPA Campaign Opens, Riverview Park, Chicago, June 16, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 30, 1912
Cascade Park, New Castle, Pa. – Debs and Seidel Speak at Interstate Socialist Picnic

From The Coming Nation of July 27, 1912:

EVD Speaks Cascade Park, New Castle PA June 22, 1912, Cmg Ntn p9, July 27, 1912

Note: Photograph was taken June 22, 1912 at Cascade Park, New Castle, Pennsylvania, at the Grand Interstate Socialist Picnic. Speakers included Eugene Debs and Emil Seidel, candidates for President and Vice-President, Socialist Party of America. Transportation was provided from as far away as Pittsburgh.  

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Joan of Arc of Lawrence, Massachusetts, Tells Truth About the Textile Strike

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 9, 1912
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Joan of Arc of Lawrence, Massachusetts

From the Pittsburgh Gazette Times of March 4, 1912:

EGF, Ptt Pst Gz p1, Mar 4, 1912

The Militant Leader of the Textile Workers, Who Made Successful Appeal
for Funds for the Relief of the Wives and Children of the Workmen.

From Pennsylvania’s Franklin Evening News of March 5, 1912:

EGF w Baby Fred, Franklin PA Ns Hld p1, Mar 5,1912

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, fresh from her work at Lawrence, Mass., where she played a prominent part in organizing the textile workers on strike there, is making speeches in the larger cities over the country, telling of conditions existing in Lawrence and raising funds for the relief of the strikers. Miss Flynn, who is only 22 years old, first gained fame as a labor worker in New York. She is an able talker.

“The Lawrence strike is no labor union strike,” she is telling her audiences; “it is a starvation strike.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1911, Part I: Reporting on Pittsburgh Protest Rally on Behalf of McNamara Brothers

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 19, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1911, Part I
Found with “Characteristic Style” at Rally on Behalf of McNamaras

From the Appeal to Reason of June 3, 1911:

Solidarity at Pittsburg.
[Mother Jones Speaks.]

By Telegraph to APPEAL.

Mother Jones crpd ed, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

Pittsburg. Pa., May 27.-The most tremendous labor demonstration Pittsburg ever saw occurred tonight. Thirty thousand indignant working men and women marched through the principal streets in protest against the kidnaping of McNamara, congregated at west side and yelled themselves hoarse at every telling point made by the speakers. Hundreds of policemen guarded the streets in squads and mingled with the monster crowd.

Socialists, Industrial Workers and craft unionists were thoroughly united on this occasion and all made the very earth tremble with their yells of defiance. The spirit of solidarity prevailed as it has never been known to prevail before, and Pittsburg is alive to its power. The echo will be heard in the morning to the cell doors of the victims in Los Angeles and to every nook and corner of America. Capitalists will realize once again that they have to deal with an aroused and awakened class. The chant was started tonight by Comrade Debs that was used in the Moyer-Haywood case “If McNamara die, twenty million working men will know the reason why.”

The first speaker of the evening was Comrade Fred H. Merrick, who is under indictment for libeling a Judge here in Pittsburg. Debs followed, and not only described the McNamara case in detail, but also analyzed the Pennsylvania strike and reviewed the great strike of the Pennsylvania railroad employes. His force and eloquence inspired the multitude and something will drop if the enthusiasm of the crowd was an indication.

Mother Jones in characteristic style appealed to the assemblage to be men and stand together, both on the political and economic field. De Leon, of New York, also spoke.

GEORGE D. BREWER.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1911: Found in Pittsburgh Speaking at Huge Protest Rally on Behalf of McNamara

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 17, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May 1911
Found in Pittsburgh Speaking at Rally on Behalf of James McNamara

From The Pittsburg Press of May 28, 1911:

BIG RALLY BY HOSTS OF LABOR
———-
Demonstration Against McNamara “Kidnaping”
Transformed Into Meeting in Favor
of the P. R. R. Strike
———-

DEBS, “MOTHER” JONES AND DE LEON SPEAK
—–

Mother Jones crpd ed, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

One of the biggest labor demonstrations ever known in this community took place last night around the old bandstand in West Park, North Side, where from over 6,000 persons, mostly workingmen, gathered to listen to vehement addresses protesting against the arrest and “kidnaping” of Secretary James [John J.] McNamara, of the Bridge and Structural Iron Workers. Widely-known Socialist leaders, among them Eugene V. Debs, “Mother” Jones and Daniel de Leon, were the principal speakers of the occasion.

The demonstration, which was originally instituted in behalf of McNamara, was transformed by the remarks of Mr. Debs, before the meeting was half an hour old, into a rally in the interests of the striking Pennsylvania Railroad shopmen. Debs urged every man and woman present to throw the weight of his or her influence in favor of the strikers.

The meeting was preceded by a parade half a mile long from the Labor Temple on Webster avenue to the Allegheny parks. Probably 4,000 men were in line. In the van was a large squad of the city mounted police. The procession proper was led by the local Socialistic organization, members of which turned out in large numbers. The strikers from the Twenty-eighth street shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad came next in order, and a big delegation from the Ormsby shops, on the South Side, formed the rear.

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Hellraisers Journal: Miss Emmeline Pitt Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention, Requests Aid for Irwin Field Strikers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Greensburg PA Cmas 1910, Steel 2, p83———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 24, 1911
Miss Emmeline Pitt Pleads for Aid for Strikers of Irwin Field 

Columbus, Ohio-Convention of United Mine Workers of America
 -Monday January 23, 1911, Sixth Day-Afternoon Session

Emmeline Emmilinne Pitt, Ptt Pst Gz p13, July 4, 1909

Miss [Emmeline] Pitt was escorted to the platform by Vice-President Hayes.

President Lewis–

By action of this convention last week a motion was adopted to extend an invitation to Miss Pitt to address the convention. Miss Pitt is an organizer of the American Federation of Labor and Secretary of the Labor Temple Association of Pittsburg. She has been doing a great deal of work in behalf of the miners in the Irwin Field district. I take pleasure at this time in presenting and introducing to you Miss Emmilinne Pitt.

Miss M. Emmilinne Pitt-

Mr. Chairman and Members of this Convention: It may seem strange to you that a woman would be so vitally interested in a miners’ convention. But in view of the fact that we are still in this endless struggle between capital and labor, it is little wonder that the women of the world today are becoming thoroughly aroused to the industrial situation. If I could bring before you this afternoon a vision of what I found in the Irwin Field a few days before Thanksgiving and a few days before Christmas on my visits to that region I believe your hearts would be sad today. Hundreds of helpless children and helpless women are suffering in that field. You all know of strikes, but I believe there is an exceptionally bad condition there. I want to ask you today as men of labor to extend your interests and your sympathy and your financial support to a continuation of one of the greatest battles, I believe, that was ever waged in the State of Pennsylvania.

Going over the field in the fall, amidst the countless golden harvest fields of plenty, in one of the wealthiest states of the Union, I found those women driven from their pitiful little homes into the highways and byways, and, like the lowly Nazarene, with no place to lay their heads. There have been extreme cases that occasioned many visits there. In one little cemetery on the hillside a Catholic priest has planted a cross above a lonely grave, which tells to us all that every man cannot be bought, body and soul, with a price. Out of the yoke of Egyptian bondage came the redemption of God’s people. Out from under the rod of Israel came a great power, and I believe organized labor will come out just as victorious.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1910, Part I: Found Fighting for Coal Miners, Brewery Girls, and Mexican Comrades

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Young Again, Special UMWC Cinc OH p62, Mar 24, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 19, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1910, Part I:
-Found in the Thick of the Fight on Behalf of Working Class Men and Women

From the Mt. Vernon, Ohio, Democratic Banner of April 5, 1910:

DROP THEIR PICKS AT STROKE OF TWELVE.
———-

Mother Jones, Mt V OH Dem Banner p7, Apr 5, 1910

Coal Miners’ Strike Is a Reality.
—–

200,000 MEN ARE IDLE
—–
D. H. Sullivan Falls Heir
to Ohio Situation.
—–

THINKS SETTLEMENT IN SIGHT
—–
General Belief Is That Suspension
Will Be of Short Duration and That
Country Will Experience No
Serious Result From Shutdown
-Pittsburg Operators Anxious to Sign.
—–

Columbus, O., April 1- Dennis H. Sullivan of Coshocton today assumed his duties as president of the Ohio miners’ union, and made the announcement that nearly every union miner in the state is now idle, work at all mines having been suspended in response to the general order to quit work until new agreements are signed between the operators and officials of the union, in accordance with the 5-cent increase demanded as an ultimatum by the miners present at the Cincinnati conference.

Mr. Sullivan said:

The miners of Ohio stopped work at midnight, but this is in accord with an understanding with the operators. Every miner in the state went out, with the exception of cases in which there has been special permission granted for them to run.

Some mines are run to furnish coal for some specific purpose. For instance, there will be a mine whose entire output is taken by certain locomotives or by a furnace. Here is a contract [picking one from his desk] signed by an eastern Ohio operating company. A furnace is absolutely dependent on these mines, and if they were closed the business would so to some other mine, outside the state, or the furnace would close. We’re not driving business from the state; we’re for Ohio. So in all these cases privilege is given to continue work, pending adjustment of local differences at some later time.

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Hellraisers Journal: Steel Workers Offer Heartfelt Thanks to Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Make Our Neighbors Wrongs Our Own, II Altoona Tb p6, Jan 12, 1920 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 24, 1920
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Steel Workers Offer Resolution of Heartfelt Thanks

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of March 20, 1920:

STEEL WORKERS THANK CLOTH UNION FOR HELP
—–

(By the Federated Press.)

GSS, WZF, TY to ACW, ACWAC p223, May 1920

New York, March 20.-As a mark of gratitude for the magnificent aid given by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America to the steel workers during the great strike of 1919, they have been sent a handsomely drafted resolution of thanks. The document, which is signed by John Fitzpatrick and William Z. Foster, respectively chairman and secretary-treasurer of the committee for organizing the iron and steel workers, thanks the amalgamated for their gift of $100,000 to the strikers’ defense fund.

The amalgamated’s solidarity with the steel workers has created a sensation all over the world. Their gift is the largest sum ever raised by any organization to aid workers in another industry.

—–

GSS AFL Received from ACWA, Nov 13, 1919, ACWAC p220, May 1920

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1919, Part II: Not Afraid of Federal Judge in Washington, D. C.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones in WDC re Great Coal Strike, Lebanon Dly Ns p1, Nov 14, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 29, 1919
Mother Jones News for November 1919, Part II
Found in Washington, D. C., Not Afraid of Judge Anderson

From the Lebanon Daily News of November 14, 1919:

Great Coal Strike, Mother Jones v Jdg Anderson, Lebanon PA Dly Ns p1, Nov 14, 1919Great Coal Strike, Mother Jones v Jdg A, Lebanon PA Dly Ns p1, Nov 14, 1919—–

(Special to News by United Press)

Washington, Nov. 14.-With the government acting as mediator, mine operators and representatives of the United Mine Workers came together here today in an effort to settle the dispute over wages and hours which caused the recent coal strike.

As the delegates assembled for this “peace conference,” it appeared there would be a deadlock from the very outset.

The union representatives were prepared to enter the conference at 2:30 this afternoon determined to hold out for an uncompromising victory. Less than complete triumph, they feared, will give the extreme radical element control of the miners-the men will lose faith in their conservative leaders. Acting President Lewis was expected to insist on full compliance with the men’s demands of a 50 hour week and wage increases ranging up to sixty per cent.

Operators were solidly in favor of refusing to surrender anything to the workers, according to early indications. They stood pat on the “Washington wage agreement,” contending it runs until the end of the war, and that the war is not ended. Some of them were disposed to emphasize that comparatively few of the miners have returned to work in obedience to their leaders instructions, and it was expected the union chiefs would be asked about this at the outset of the meeting.

Secretary of Labor Wilson, who called the conference, has invited Dr. Harry A. Garfield, Fuel Administrator, to participate in the hope that if an agreement cannot he reached within a reasonable time the government may be able to offer a compromise. Any compromise will probably carry with it an increase in the price of coal to the consumer, so the operators will have increased revenue to pay higher wages.

Garfield, who is in charge of coal prices, was in a position to give expert advice on just what a raise in pay to the workers will mean to the coal market.

That Lewis and his colleagues will not be left in doubt as to how radical labor stands on the miners’ case, “Mother” Jones, of Colorado fame, and Andy Furuseth, head of the Seamen’s union, are here to let them know. Both are emphatic in their disapproval of Lewis’ compliance with Federal Judge Anderson’s order to end the strike.

“The strike should never have been called off,” said Furuseth. “The miners won’t return to work, and I approve of it.”

[Mother Jones Defies John L. Lewis.]

[Said Mother Jones:]

This is a free country, but it would starve people. This is what Judge Anderson’s order means to the miners who are fighting for their freedom and a living.

Next Monday I am going down into West Virginia and urge the miners to stay out until they win. I am not afraid of Judge Anderson. He can send me to jail or he can hang me, but he will have to do it.

Overhearing “Mother’s” remark, Furuseth exclaimed:

Lewis wears pants, but he ought to wear petticoats; Mother, you wear petticoats but you ought to be in Lewis place.

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