Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 1, 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts – Prominent Magazine Writers Visit Strike Zone
From Boston Evening Transcript of February 29, 1912:
MUCKRAKERS ON THE SCENT
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Party Including Russell, White, Baker, and Others
Spends Day Gathering Material at Lawrence
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Industrial Worker February 29, 1912
A group of prominent magazine writers visited Lawrence yesterday for the purpose of gathering material. Among those in the party were Charles Edward Russell and Mrs. Russell, William Allen White, Ray Stannard Baker, Mary Heaton Vorse, Mrs. Freemont [Cora] Older, wife of the San Francisco publisher, and Miss Frances Jolliffe, also of San Francisco. The party came in on the midnight train from New York and left last night after spending a busy day going over the city. They first visited the county jail, where Ettor and Giovannitti are confined, and though they tried hard to see the two men they were unsuccessful. They were however allowed to talk to the Polish women pickets who refused to pay their fines and are serving out their sentence.
The members of the party were held up by the military guard in their attempt to go to the mills through Canal street, as they were wearing the strikers card, “Don’t be a scab.” Then they visited some of tho homes of the strikers, and later dined at a Syrian restaurant as the guests of William D. Haywood. There were also present other strike leaders, several newspaper reporters, Miss Emma Goulain and two more Franco-Belgians.
Just as they reached the restaurant the guide happened to catch sight of patrolman Michael Moore, the Syrian policeman who was prominent in the Saturday morning incident at the station [see Hellraisers Journal of Feb. 26th]. He was pointed out to the visitors as the policeman who clubbed a woman. He was still nearby when the party cams out from the restaurant and stood for a moment on the sidewalk before starting downtown. They stopped, and Moore came up and ordered them to move.
“All right, well go,” said one man, but the women were not so complacent. Mrs. Older said to the patrolman: “So you’re the man who clubbed a woman, are you?”
“Now don’t stand talking to me,” replied the patrolman. “You’ve got to go along.”
Some of the men tried to argue that they were under no compulsion to move, and in the end the policeman all but arrested one of the young Franco-Belgians who was in the party.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 16, 1902 Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1902, Part I Found Describing Organizing Efforts in Old Virginia
From the New York Worker of January 5, 1902:
CAPITALIST TOOLS IN OLD VIRGINIA.
Mother Jones is at present in old Virginia, organizing for the United Mine Workers. As usual she finds labor conditions in that state as deplorable as else where, more so perhaps, because modern industrial methods are comparatively new there and the capitalist exploiter has unrestricted sway. That Mother Jones has anything but a “soft snap” is shown in a private letter, recently received. She says:
This is an American Siberia if one exists anywhere on the continent. Let me tell you what happened to me yesterday. I had a meeting scheduled several miles from here. The federal judge located here got on the train and went down ahead of me. I had the meeting billed for the colored church, but before I arrived the company served notice on the trustees that if they allowed me to speak they would annul their deed. The poor negroes got scared and begged me not to talk. When I arrived the federal judge was waiting to arrest me if I spoke.
I fooled both him and the company, however, for I called the meeting in a secret place, and had a fine crowd of the boys. The company officials are trying to find out where the meeting was held, but none of the boys will give it away, and so they cannot arrest me.
Nevertheless, they tied to bluff me and sent a company policeman up to serve notice on me not to speak or they would put me in jail. I sent back word, “Jail be hanged. I am going to hold that meeting.”
The company policemen have no bondsmen, are responsible to no one but the company, and they can put you in jail without a cause, and there is no redress.This fellow who spoke to me was a dandy.
He said the company hired him for $35 a month, twelve hours a day, and night work besides. He boasted of working seven years for one man for $3.50 a week, took care of a wife, paid house rent, bought fuel and clothes and fed themselves, and when he quit he had $37.67 saved up. He thought I should not come in there and “bother the company.” In our conversation it developed that he did not know who Thomas Jefferson was. He asked me if Jefferson was a minter. When I spoke of George Washington he asked me if I meant the company doctor. And this fellow is an officer of the law in the state of Virginia!
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 13, 1912
New York City – Haywood and Hillquit Debate Labor Question at Cooper Union
From The New York Call of January 12, 1912:
The first of a series of meetings for the discussion of the various problems confronting the Socialist party of America was held in Cooper Union last night with Julius Gerber, organizer of Local New York, which has arranged these meetings, presiding.
The big hall was jammed to the doors and the audience followed every word of the protagonists with breathless interest.
The meeting was a sort of family affair, only holders of red cards being allowed in the hall. A few Socialist Labor party men smuggled themselves into the crowd on borrowed S. P. cards. They were promptly recognized and Chairman Gerber asked that they leave the hall, which they did.
The subject of the discussion last night was “What shall the attitude of the Socialist party be toward the economic organization of the workers?”
William D. Haywood and Morris Hillquit were the debaters. Each of them was given an hour, the time being divided as follows: half an hour for the outline of the debate by each speaker, then each one got twenty minutes for rebuttal and finally ten minutes for closing the discussion.
Haywood opened the discussion. The burden of his arguments in the main was that the Socialist party should go among the workers and begin a propaganda for industrial unionism, for one big union. He assailed the American Federation of Labor and said that the Socialist party is acquiescing in the policy of the American Federation, which was a distinctly anti-Socialist and capitalist policy.
Industrial Form Superior, But-
Hillquit in his reply to Haywood said that there can be no question in the mind of any Socialist that the industrial form of organization is superior to the craft organization. But he did not believe that the Socialist should begin preaching industrialism outside of organized labor. The Socialist party, he said, should keep up its policy of trying to reach the workers in their present unions. The policy has been successful, Hillquit said, as is shown by the fact that every union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor has Socialists in important positions, as well as in the rank and file. These men have been elected to these positions by the rank and file, he said, because they were Socialists.
[…..]
Haywood’s Final Reply.
Haywood took the floor to reply in his final ten minutes.
He declared there is nothing in common between the policies of the American Federation of Labor and the Socialist party. The former, he said, is craft conscious as opposed to the class consciousness of the latter. He went on to show that by high initiation fees, curtailment of apprentices and even closing of books, membership is kept down and would-be members excluded…..
He went on to say that he had never advocated anything else but the organization of the workers as one man, and that he had believed and still believes the craft form of organization to be “ethically unjustifiable and tactically suicidal.”
At the same time he urged the necessity for political action, the political power to be used, not after the social revolution, but under present conditions, citing as an instance of its use the turning of the police against strikebreakers instead of against strikers.
Haywood explained that in criticizing the American Federation of Labor he criticized its leaders, who were members of the Knights of Columbus and of the Civic Federation executive.
Hillquit Finds Mystery Deep.
In taking the floor to close the debating. Hillquit declared that the mystery had deepened, seeing that Haywood did not oppose the rank and file of the A. F. of L. but the members of the Executive Committee of the Civic Federation…..
The difference between the speaker’s policy and Haywood’s, Hillquit declared, was that the former, while condemning the policies of Samuel Gompers, made efforts to educate the rank and file, while Haywood was ready to kick over and destroy the whole A. F. of L.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 3, 1902 San Juan, Porto Rico – Organizer Santiago Iglesias Sentenced to Two Years in Prison
From the International Socialist Review of January 1902:
THE WORLD OF LABOR
By Max. S. Hayes.
[…..]
Santiago Iglesias, who was sent to Porto Rico on an organizing expedition by the A. F. of L., and who was arrested the moment he stepped on shore for having led a strike, was sentenced to three years imprisonment [two years, three months, eight days].
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 21, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May and June 1921
Found in Mexico City, Standing for Organization of Mexican Workers
From the Tucson Citizen of May 11, 1921:
MOTHER JONES WILL RESIDE IN MEXICO.
In January Mother Jones, the noted socialistic agitator who has been in the public eye throughout the United States through many years, went to the City of Mexico to attend an international congress of workingmen and women.
It is announced now that Mrs. Jones has decided to make her permanent residence in Mexico. She is quoted as saying that after many years of story experience in the United States including six penitentiary sentences served she finds Mexico “the only country where she can live la tranquility.”
[Photograph added.]
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Note: Mother has been taken into custody many times during her long life of standing with working people, but has never served a sentence in any penitentiary sentence that we know of.
From the Cleveland Toiler of June 4, 1921 -excerpt from article by Geo. N. Falconer:
MOTHER JONES.
Seemed as if she had been imported specially to boost the Workers’ Mexican Government. “Workers,” she shouted during her several addresses during the Pan-American Congress, “stand by your government and it will stand by you.”
“The pulse of the world is throbbing today,” declared ‘Mother’ Jones. “Humanity is watching the new Mexico. I want to tell you that there will be no intervention by the capitalist robbers of the United States in the affairs of Mexico. We won’t stand for it. We are going back to the United States and appeal to the workers there to stand by the workers here.”
When she shouted, “You are going to bring the new day in this country and center the eyes of the world on Mexico as well as Russia,” the applause was tremendous.
Didn’t Mother Jones boost for Woodrow Wilson in 1916? And Mother Jones paid many compliments to that “grand old man of labor,” King Gompers. Why? Is she so ignorant of Samuels’ labor history?
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From Proceedings of the Convention of American Federation of Labor at Denver, Colorado, June 13-25, 1921:
…..Ernest Greenwood representing the International Labor Office at Geneva, Frank Bohn, publicist, together with Mother Jones as the invited guest of General Villarreal, minister of agriculture of Mexico, accompanied the party [of representatives of the American Federation of Labor] from St. Louis to Mexico City. Mother Jones attended the meetings of the convention and spoke on two occasions.
On arrival at Nuevo Laredo we learned that that the government of Mexico had sent a reception committee representing the government and labor to the boundary line to meet and greet us…..
Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 27, 1911 Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1911, Part II Mother Jones Accompanies Samuel Gompers on Visit to Jailed Miners
On Sunday, August 20th, Mother Jones accompanied Gompers on his visit to the miners jailed by Injunction Judge Whitford, which visit was described in the August 29th edition of The Joliet News (Illinois):
President Gompers [while in Denver] en route to the Pacific coast expressed a desire to visit the coal miners who have been made the victims of the abuse of the injunction writ in the strike in the northern coal fields of the state. The committee in charge made suitable arrangements and a trip was made to the quarters of the miners in the jail, where Mother Jones, on behalf of Mr. Gompers, presented the prisoners with a large bouquet of flowers. An informal and impromptu meeting was held and a few remarks made by Mr. Gompers. The prisoner have been accorded the privileges of the court yard and following the meeting inside the jail all retired to the court yard where, with the grated windows of county jail serving as a background, a group picture was taken, President Gompers and Mother Jones being the central figures.
[Photograph added.]
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From The Denver Post of August 21, 1911:
GOMPERS VISITS MINERS IN JAIL ———-
“Distortions of law” and “byplays of justice” were terms applied to the injunctions issued by District Judge Greeley W. Whitford in the miners’ trouble of northern Colorado by Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, in a speech at Eagles’ hall in the Club building at 2 o’clock Sunday afternoon [August 20th].
Later in the day he visited the miners in jail and told them they were martyrs to labor’s cause and deserved to be ranked with Lincoln and Jefferson in their devotion to the people. He told the men thy suffered no moral stigma and the good their imprisonment is doing for labor could not be measured in words…..
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 12, 1921 Gompers on Fight of West Virginia Miners Against Government by Gunthug
From the Duluth Labor World of September 10, 1921:
WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 8.—Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, in a statement issued this week sets forth the fundamental facts in relation to the situation in West Virginia. He declares that in the mines there an unrestrained, unlimited greed absolutely dominates.
“The appetite of this private greed is upheld by a private army of killers the like of which exists in no other state,” says the labor chief. He shows how the state government has crumbled under the rule of the mining interests and declares the federal government must destroy the rule of gunmen by restoring civil government.
Information Lacking.
[Says Mr. Gompers in his statement:]
With the situation in West Virginia at a most critical juncture it is almost beyond belief that there has not been placed before the public complete and accurate information regarding the events leading up to the position taken by the President of the United States.
There are certain basic facts which must lie considered before there can be fair and proper judgment of the West Virginia situation. These facts have not been presented adequately and in most cases not at all.
The public press has been negligent and the federal government has been equally so in not presenting to the people the full underlying truth.
Prejudice Miners’ Case.
The great mass of news relating to West Virginia conveys the impression that lawless bands of miners are roving the state without reason except an unjustified bitterness against the mine owners. “Uneducated mountaineers,” they are called.
There are four basis facts which are consistently ignored and which it is the duty of government and press to present. These are:
1—The mines of West Virginia constitute the last refuge of autocracy in the mining industry. In these mines an unrestrained, unlimited greed dominates absolutely. Absentee owners hold immense tracts of rich mining land, demanding only dividends.
Private Army of Killers.
2—T’he appetite of this private greed is upheld by a private army of killers the like of which no longer exists in any other state. This private army is paid by the mine owners and naturally seeks to justify its presence by making “business” for itself in the form of trouble. The Baldwin-Felts detective agency recruits this army, but the mine owners pay the bill. Deputy sheriffs, paid by mine owners, form another wing of the private army, equally dangerous.
A Direct Protest.
3—The present strike is a direct protest against the action of the mine owners of West Virginia in refusing to abide by the award of the United States coal commission. If the United States government at this time defends the mine owners and does not destroy the private armies of the mine owners the government is in the position of sustaining a defiance of an order issued by its own authority.
4—The state government of West Virginia has broken down, not because the miners have protested against lawlessness, but because it has failed to stop the mine owners from enforcing law as a private business at the hands of privately paid and privately directed gunmen.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 25, 1921 Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1921 -Found in Washington, D. C., Protesting West Virginia’s Jury Bill
From the Washington Evening Star of April 1, 1921:
PROTEST WEST VIRGINIA JURY LEGISLATION ———- Samuel Gompers and ”Mother” Jones Speak at Central Labor Meeting.
President Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor and “Mother” Jones of the United Mine Workers led the local protest against enactment of the proposed jury legislation for West Virginia at a special mass meeting of Central Labor Union, in Musicians’ Hall, last night.
President Gompers denounced the proposed law as an abrogation of the right guaranteed to a defendant under the Constitution of the United States providing trial by jury and change of venue. He said that a premeditated conspiracy for the destruction of trades unionism was at the basis of the move for the law which will allow a judge to select a jury from any county in the state no matter in which county the trial was being held. He charged that the judiciary, consciously or unconsciously, were aiding in the fight against organized labor.
Mother Jones was vehement in her expressions against the proposed legislation. She flayed local labor for its seemingly supine attitude.
[She said:]
You haven’t any fire in you at all, sitting here with your comfortable air, while tyranny is being wrought in West Virginia, where babes of murdered fathers are starving for their very bread.
At the conclusion of the meeting a resolution was adopted unanimously denouncing the proposed legislation.
The resolution declared that “the legislature of West Virginia has passed a bill which would place the power in the hands of a trial judge in that state to select a jury from counties outside of that in which the trial is being held,” and that if enacted the proposal would mean “the abrogation of the intent of the jury system.”
Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 25, 1921 Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1921 -C. H. Newell Claims Mother Jones is Helping to Make Mexico Safe
From the Salt Lake Telegram of February 1, 1921:
MAKING MEXICO SAFE PLACE FOR ALL ———- Obregon, Villareal, Gompers and “Mother Jones” Fight Bolshevism ———
By C. H. NEWELL
MEXICO CITY, Feb. 1.-Mexico’s “big four” are Obregon, Gompers, Villareal and Mother Jones.
They’re making Mexico safe for Americans and American business.
The great American drive to capture the immensely rich Mexican trade is on full blast…..
“MOTHER” IS HELPING.
Mother Jones, America’s 90-year-young labor leader, is helping to put the skids under bolshevism in Mexico.
Her visit to Mexico, at first hailed with glee by Communist party organizers, has resolved itself into a characteristic crusade for trade union organization.
This means, employers and government officials say, a better chance for the Obregon administration to get the country back on a productive basis.
[Mother Jones says:]
Education is the fundamental need of Mexico. I’m down here to preach the gospel of education for workers.
When they get education they will know how to act to achieve full industrial as well as political rights. And the agency through which they will make the most rapid, peaceful progress is the Pan-America Labor federation, backed as it is by the American Federation of Labor.
This is what Mother Jones told the communists at the labor convention:
SAYS IT IS BEST.
Uncle Sam’s government may not be perfect, but it is the best one on earth today. So you rats may just as well understand that if you open your mouths against my country, I will grab you by the collar, drag you out of your hole, and shake hell out of you.
Mother Jones is the personal guest of General Antonio Villareal, who, as secretary of agriculture, is trying to restore farming and ranching pursuits, with real success.
Several years ago an effort was being made by mining and timber interests of northern Mexico have Villareal deported from the United States. His deportation would have meant his death.
Mother Jones made a trip to Washington in his behalf and he was not deported.
Villareal has been one of the foremost in restoring mail, wire, railway and ship service, so all important lines of communication are now open in the country.
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