Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones: “Every man should shoulder his gun and start to Colorado”-Speech to Kansas Miners

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Quote Mother Jones re Miners Org Real Power of Labor Mv, Speech UMW D14 Conv, Apr 30, 1914, Ptt KS, Steel Speeches p134—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 3, 1914
After Speech by Mother Jones, Kansas Miners Donate Treasury

April 30, 1914, Pittsburg, Kansas
-Mother Jones Addresses Convention of District 14, U. M. W. A.

Mother Jones gave a long speech Thursday, April 30th, in Pittsburg, Kansas, at the Convention of District 14, United Mine workers of America. She came seeking donations for the striking miners of Colorado, and, in the end, the miners of Kansas gave her all that she asked for.

MOTHER JONES INTRODUCED TO THE MINERS OF KANSAS

Chairman [John P.] White: Now, this morning I know that I voice the sentiments of this convention when I say that we appreciate the presence here of our great old organizer, Mother Jones. (Applause.)

Yesterday I gave you a pretty strong bump about Colorado, and what you were going to do about the money that you had loaned the national organization, that I plead guilty to being responsible for, so God help you for I put you in the hands of Mother Jones now. (Loud applause.)

A Delegate: I think the brothers ought to put up their pipes, put them in their pockets.

Mother Jones: You should join John D. Rockefeller, you are getting so nice…

The Colorado Coal War

[Mother Jones continued]: You see, my brothers, the trouble with us all is we don’t feel the pains of our fellow beings in the great struggle. I wonder if the nation felt horror of that affair at Ludlow? Why, if that happened in Mexico we would go down to clean up Mexico, and it happened here at home and there is very little said about it, when every man should shoulder his gun and start to Colorado to stop the war there. (Applause.)

Detail Tikas w Ludlow Flag, Mother Jones Leads CO FoL Dlg to State House at Dnv, Toronto Star Wkly p8, Jan 3, 1913
Louie Tikas with
the Flag of Ludlow

…No time in modern history has there been anything so horrible as this trouble in Colorado. I know those men in Colorado pretty well. No state in the Union has truer, better fellows; they have made a great fight against the men in power. There is no question about it. The poor fellow that got killed, this Greek [Louie Tikas], when I went to Ludlow, when the battle first started, the tears came streaming down his face, and he said, “Mother, they jumped at me to go war, and I got away and let the capitalists fight their own battle. I am here now, and this is my battle, the battle of right for the class that I belong to.” That summed up the whole philosophy of the labor movement. In other words, it was a battle for freedom for the class that he belonged to. And he said, “Mother, I need a gun.” I said, “You will have one, Louie, if Mother has to take her hat off and sell it, you will get the gun.” (Applause.)

Now, those brave men were the ones brought over, most of them, after the last strike that we had in Colorado; Rockefeller sent his agents to Europe and brought those fellows over. He has been able to crush them, rob them, persecute them until he has made his millions out of their precious blood, and then he goes into church on Sunday and is hallowed by the people of this great nation.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones: “Every man should shoulder his gun and start to Colorado”-Speech to Kansas Miners”

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Rescued from “Quarantine” in Utah; Charles Moyer and Big Bill Haywood Persecuted Under Military Despotism in Colorado

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 30, 1904
Mother Jones Held in Utah; Moyer and Haywood Up Against Militia in Colorado

From The Rocky Mountain New of April 27, 1904:

Mother Jones has been in Utah since her deportation from Trinidad, Colorado. There she has been working among the miners of that state, and, for her efforts, was confined under “quarantine” near Helper, Utah. This was too much for the miners of that area and a raid was made upon the pest house which freed from Mother from that place. She has since been recaptured, and, according to the following report, is now held in the Carbon County jail at Price, Utah.

Mother Jones Escapes Quarantine to County Jail, Price UT, RMN p4, Apr 27, 1904

From the American Labor Union Journal of Apr 28, 1904
-Moyer brought to Denver, but returned to bullpen at Telluride;
Haywood brutally assaulted by soldiers:

BBH Moyer v Colorado Military Despotism, ALUJ p1, Apr 28, 1904

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Rescued from “Quarantine” in Utah; Charles Moyer and Big Bill Haywood Persecuted Under Military Despotism in Colorado”

Hellraisers Journal: From Denver’s United Labor Bulletin: “Industrial Commission Hearings Begin Monday at Washington”

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Quote Albert Parsons, Chicago, Nov 11, Alarm p1, Nov 19, 1887—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 7, 1914
Washington, D. C. – U. S. Commission on Industrial Relations to Begin Hearings

From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of April 4, 1914:

CIR Testimony to Begin Monday in WDC, ULB p1, Apr 4, 1914CIR Testimony to Begin Monday in WDC, ULB p6, Apr 4, 1914

From the Washington Evening Star of October 23, 1913:

CIR Members, WDC Eve Str p2, Oct 23, 1913
Commons, Garrettson, Ballard, Delano, Harriman,
Weinstock, Lennon, Walsh, O’Connell

From The Altoona Times of October 30, 1913:

CIR Members, Altoona PA Tx p1, Oct 30, 1913
O’Connell, Delano, Commons, Garretson, Harriman,
Ballard, Walsh, Weinstock, Lennon

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Denver’s United Labor Bulletin: “Industrial Commission Hearings Begin Monday at Washington””

Hellraisers Journal: From the American Labor Union Journal: “Climax Reached at Telluride”-Citizen Thugs Deport Miners

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 26, 1904
Telluride, Colorado – Union Men Dragged from Homes and Deported

From the American Labor Union Journal of March 24, 1904:

HdLn Telluride CO Deportations, ALUJ p1, Mar 24, 1904Telluride CO Deportations, ALUJ p1, Mar 24, 1904Telluride CO Deportations, ALUJ p4, Mar 24, 1904

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the American Labor Union Journal: “Climax Reached at Telluride”-Citizen Thugs Deport Miners”

Hellraisers Journal: From American Labor Union Journal: “The Colorado Bull Pen” by Allan W. Ricker, of the Appeal to Reason

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 4, 1904
“The Story of the Colorado Bull Pen” by Allan W. Ricker

From the Appeal to Reason of January 30, 1904
-The Colorado Bullpen by Cartoonist G. H. Lockwood:

Colorado Bull Pen by GH Lockwood, AtR p1, Jan 30, 1904
Striking Miner’s Wife and Child

From the American Labor Union Journal of February 4, 1904
-“The Colorado Bull Pen” by Allan W. Ricker:

American Labor Union Journal p1, Feb 4, 1904Colorado Bull Pen by AW Ricker, ALUJ p1, Feb 4, 1904Colorado Bull Pen by AW Ricker, ALUJ p1, part 2, Feb 4, 1904

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From American Labor Union Journal: “The Colorado Bull Pen” by Allan W. Ricker, of the Appeal to Reason”

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: John Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Workers at Oxnard, Part III

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Quote June 8, Lizarraras to Gompers re Unity of Japanese n Mexicans at Oxnard CA, ISR p78, Aug 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 7, 1903
Oxnard, California – J. Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Laborers, Part III

From The International Socialist Review of August 1903

A Foretaste of the Orient 

[-by John Murray Jr.]

[III of III]

Oxnard re Funeral of L Vasquez, SF Call p2, Mar 28, 1903
The San Francisco Call
March 28, 1903

Frightened at the turn [the strike] had now taken, Major Driffel, of the Beet Sugar Company, asked for a joint meeting of committees from the unions, the farmers and the company. The first day’s conference came to nothing, but at the second meeting the employers realized that they were facing a labor trust that had cornered all the available labor power in the valley, and so the men’s scale of prices was agreed to, with an additional pledge that all the idle union men would be immediately employed.

Twice, after this, the company tried to import a carload of scabs from Los Angeles-even going so far as to lock the last shipment in its car and receive them at the station with armed guards-but each time the new men joined the union as soon as they reached Oxnard-the last lot escaping from the car windows.

At this juncture, the Los Angeles County Council of Labor passed resolutions favoring the organization of all Asiatics now in California. This was done upon the recommendation of Comrade F. C. Wheeler, organizer for the A. F. of L. in Southern California, who had visited Oxnard, organized the two unions, and was much impressed by their fighting qualities.

So far everything was well with the beet thinners, the company whipped in the first battle of the local class-war and the field hands unionized. But a most unexpected and disheartening blow capped the climax of their struggles-a blow from behind. Samuel Gompers, while granting the Mexicans all rights and privileges, refused to grant the Japanese union a charter, and in his letter to Secretary Lizarraras made the following remarkable statement:

It is further understood that in issuing this charter to your union, it will under no circumstance accept membership of any Chinese or Japanese. The laws of our country prohibit Chinese workmen or laborers from entering the United States, and propositions for the extension of the exclusion laws to the Japanese have been made on several occasions.

In making such an extraordinary ruling, President Gompers has violated the expressed principles of the A. F. of L., which states that race, color, religion or nationality, shall be no bar to fellowship in the American Federation of Labor.

California, alone, contains over forty thousand Japanese who, if unorganized, will be a continuous menace to union men.

“Better go to hell with your family than to heaven by your self,” said the speaker whose stirring words decided the Mexican union to send back its charter to President Gompers, along with the following letter:

Oxnard, Cal.,
June 8, 1903.

Mr. Samuel Gompers,
Pres. American Federation of Labor,
Washington, D. C.
     Dear Sir: Your letter of May 13, in which you say: “The admission with us of the Japanese Sugar Beet & Farm Laborers into the American Federation of Labor cannot be considered,” is received.
     We beg to say in reply that our Japanese brothers, here, were the first to recognize the importance of co-operating and uniting in demanding a fair wage scale.
They are composed mostly of men without families, unlike the Mexicans in this respect.
They were not only just with us, but they were generous. When one of our men was murdered by hired assassins of the oppressors of labor, they gave expression of their sympathy in a very substantial form.
     In the past we have counciled, fought and lived on very short rations with our Japanese brothers, and toiled with them in the fields, and they have been uniformly kind and considerate. We would be false to them and to ourselves and to the cause of Unionism if we, now, accepted privileges for ourselves which are not accorded to them. We are going to stand by men who stood by us in the long, hard fight which ended in a victory over the enemy. We therefore respectfully petition the A. F. of L. to grant us a charter under which we can unite all the Sugar Beet & Field Laborers of Oxnard, without regard to their color or race. We will refuse any other kind of charter, except one which will wipe out race prejudices and recognize our fellow workers as being as good as ourselves.
“I am ordered by the Mexican union to write this letter to you and they fully approve its words.

J. M. Lizarraras,
Sec’y S. B. & F. L. Union, Oxnard.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: John Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Workers at Oxnard, Part III”

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Western Labor Movement” by Eugene Victor Debs

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Quote EVD, Socialist Ripe Trade Unionist, WLUC p45, May 31, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 6, 1902
Eugene V. Debs Describes the Western Labor Movement

From the International Socialist Review of November 1902:

The Western Labor Movement
[by Eugene V. Debs] 
———-

EVD, LW p1, Aug 30, 1902

There seems to be considerable misapprehension, especially among Socialists, in regard to the trade union movement of the Western states, whose delegates, recently assembled in national convention, adopted the platform of the Socialist Party and pledged the support of their organizations to the International Socialist movement. This radical departure from the effete and reactionary non-political policy of the American Federation of Labor, so long and so earnestly striven for by the Western leaders, and so entirely compatible with the Socialist conception of class-conscious and progressive trade unionism, should have been met with the prompt and hearty approbation of every unionist and every Socialist in the land. That such was not the case, the lukewarm comment and half-approving, half-condemning tone of the Socialist Party press, with but one or two exceptions, bear convincing testimony, while the uncalled for, unwise, and wholly unaccountable official pronunciamento of the St. Louis “Quorum,” purporting to speak for the National Committee, capped the climax of unfairness and injustice to the Western movement. [See REVIEW of October 1902]

Stripped of unnecessary verbiage and free from subterfuge, the Socialist Party has been placed in the attitude of turning its back upon the young, virile, class-conscious union movement of the West, and fawning at the feet of the “pure and simple” movement of the East, and this anomalous thing has been done by men who are supposed to stand sponsor to the party and whose utterance is credited with being ex cathedra upon party affairs.

They may congratulate themselves that upon this point at least they are in perfect accord with the capitalist press, and also with the “labor lieutenants,” the henchmen, and the heelers, whose duty it is to warn the union against Socialism and guard its members against working class political action.

The writer takes issue with these comrades upon this vital proposition; and first of all insists that they (including the members of the Quorum) speak for themselves alone, as they undoubtedly have the right to do, and that their declaration in reference to the American Labor Union is in no sense a party expression, nor is it in any matter binding upon the party, nor is the party to be held responsible for the same.

As a matter of fact the rank and file of the Socialist Party, at least so far as I have been able to observe, rejoice in the action of the Denver convention, hail it as a happy augury for the future, and welcome with open arms the Western comrades to fellowship in the party.

“Why didn’t they stay in the Federation of Labor and carry on their agitation there? Why split the labor movement?” This is made the burden of the opposition to the Western unionists, who refused to be assimilated by Mark Hanna’s “Civic Federation”-the pretext for the scant, half-hearted recognition of their stalwart working class organization and their ringing declaration in favor of Socialism and in support of the Socialist Party.

And this objection may be dismissed with a single sentence. Why did not those who urge it remain in the Socialist Labor Party and carry on their agitation there? Why split the Socialist movement?

It is not true that the Western unionists set up a rival organization from geographical or sectional considerations, or to antagonize the Federation; and they who aver the contrary know little or nothing about the Western movement, nor about the causes that brought it into existence. A brief review of these may throw some light on the subject.

In 1896 the annual convention of the Federation of Labor was held in Cincinnati. The Western Federation of Miners, at that time an affiliated organization, was represented by President Edward Boyce and Patrick Clifford, of Colorado. The strike of the Leadville [Colorado] miners, more than 3,000 in number, one of the bloodiest and costliest labor battles ever fought, was then in progress and had been for several months. The drain and strain on the resources of the Western Federation had been enormous. They needed help and they needed it sorely. They had always poured out their treasure liberally when help was needed by other organization, East as well as West, and now that they had reached their limit, they naturally expected prompt and substantial aid from affiliated organizations. Boyce and Clifford appealed to the delegates. To use their own language they were “turned down,” receiving but vague promises which, little as they meant, were never fulfilled. At the close of the convention they left for home, disappointed and disgusted. They stopped off at Terre Haute to urge me to go to Leadville to lend a helping hand to the striking miners, which I proceeded to do as soon as I could get ready for the journey. It was here that they told me that the convention was a sore surprise to them, that 3 or 4 men had votes enough to practically control the whole affair, and that the dilatory and reactionary proceedings had destroyed their confidence in the Federation.

Afterward I was told by the officers in charge of the strike that no aid of the least value, or even encouragement, had been rendered by the Federation of Labor and that the financial contributions were scarcely sufficient to cover the expense of the canvass for same.

It was not long after this that the Western miners withdrew from the Federation and a couple of years later, conceiving the necessity of organizing all classes of labor in the Western states, which as yet had received but scant attention, the American Labor Union was organized, the Western Federation of Miners being the first organization in affiliation with the new central body.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Western Labor Movement” by Eugene Victor Debs”

Hellraisers Journal: Local Boise, of Socialist Party, Defends Comrade Bill Haywood Against Charges Made by Local Yuma

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Quote BBH, IU Socialism w Working Clothes On, NYC Cooper Union Debate w Hillquit, Jan 11, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 3, 1912
Local Boise (S. P. A.) Defends Big Bill Haywood

From the International Socialist Review of June 1912

BBH w Tom Mann, ISR p882, June 1912

Approve Haywood.-Just because our Com. Wm. D. Haywood happens to lay some stress on the industrial field, we are told by Local Yuma, Arizona, that he is unfit for the executive committee. We, Local Boise, take exception to this and declare that if Haywood is unfit for the executive committee we had better disband the Socialist party and tell Carl Marx to turn over in his grave, since by such an act we would proclaim to the world that the bona fide workers were not able to be a directing head. Local Yuma, in the desert of Arizona, seems to have a spirit in its ranks. This spirit seems to be able to go thousands of miles to report the words of a man who, maybe, is little to its liking. If Com. Haywood transgressed the holy word, why doesn’t Local New York, in whose territory Com. Haywood is said to have desecrated the Socialist party [Cooper Union Speech of Dec. 21, 1911], we say, why doesn’t New York move to recall Com. Haywood? Perhaps Com. Hillquit and others, who are always in New York, have too much influence there, and as they love Com. Haywood the New York local overlooks whatever Com. Haywood says. We rather think that the gods of our party make the faith in New York, but only the rank and file of Yuma, Arizona, believe it. Comrades, we, Local Boise, have had the good fortune to know Com. Haywood at close quarters. We saw him suffer day by day in the damp jail in this city. We saw him heroically withstand the slaughter of bloodthirsty lawyers and all for our cause. Comrades, we know that Com. Haywood is a true Socialist. His dues are paid in the Socialist party, and above all he never flinches from his duty to the working class, our class. If the referendum proposed by Local Yuma should carry, a smile of pleasure would spread itself over the face of every enemy of Socialism. We, Local Boise, call on all true comrades to snow under the proposed recall and thereby keep Com. Haywood where he was duly elected by a big majority.

MICHELE CIMBALO.
SEWELL H. CHAPMAN,
Local Boise Press Committee.

[Note: re Tom Mann, the Review states:]

Tom Mann Sentenced.-Tom Mann, the industrial union labor leader who inspired over a million English miners to strike a few months ago, has been sentenced to serve six months in jail for calling upon the troups during the recent coal strike to refuse to shoot down strikers or their sympathizers. Comrade Mann defended himself and asked no mercy of the court. The charge against him was “inciting to mutiny.”…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Local Boise, of Socialist Party, Defends Comrade Bill Haywood Against Charges Made by Local Yuma”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor World: Mother Mary Jones in Duluth, Speaks to Large Meeting at the Head of the Lakes

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Quote re Mother Jones, LW p3, Apr 20, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 21, 1912
Duluth, Minnesota – Mother Jones Speaks at Lincoln Park Auditorium 

From The Labor World of April 20, 1912:

HdLn Mother Jones at Head of Lakes, LW p1, Apr20, 1912

Mary Jones, the little mother of the miners, and familiarly known throughout the country as Mother Jones, was a visitor in Duluth Monday and Tuesday. She delivered an address Monday evening at the Lincoln Park Auditorium in the interest of the shop employes of the Harriman lines who are on strike.

Mother Jones has been sent out by the United Mine Workers’ Union to help the striking railroad men. She is meeting with much success in soliciting funds. A fairly good collection was taken up at the Lincoln Park meeting.

During her visit to Duluth, Mother Jones spent much of her time in the office of the Labor World. We have’ known her for almost twenty years, and blamed if she does not look younger today than she did two decades ago. She attributes her youthful appearance to the fact that she has not been in jail lately nor has she been quarantined for smallpox.

Is Eighty Years of Age.

Mother Jones will be eighty years of age on May first. She is as active and as sprightly as a woman of thirty. She never looked better in her life. Her complexion is as clear as that of a baby and there is not the sign of a furrow on her kind old face.

Fight? When she is asked a question about labor conditions in the mining regions of America, her eyes flash, her mouth is set firm, her fist is clenched and she stretches out her arm with the vigor and force of an athlete. She tells a story of social injustice that reaches the heart of the most hardened.

In her speech at Lincoln Park the daily newspapers dwelled only upon the shafts she hurled at men and women of the toady type who “bend the cringing hinges of the knee that thrift may follow fawning.”

Knows the Labor Movement.

Mother Jones understands the philosophy of the labor movement. She has a peculiar way, which is distinctly her own, of driving her points right to the hearts of her listeners. For a moment she will philosophically discuss the growth and development of production; then like a flash she will clinch her argument with a militant attack upon both men and women who are responsible for injustices that have been permitted to creep into the industrial system.

Mother Jones is said to be without fear. During her strenuous life she has been cast into prison, confined in bull pens, driven at the points of bayonets, and once or twice has had a pistol aimed close to her face by willing servants of the capitalistic class.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor World: Mother Mary Jones in Duluth, Speaks to Large Meeting at the Head of the Lakes”