Tag: Samuel Gompers

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1921: Journalist Claims Mother Jones Helping to Make Mexico Safe for American Business

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921———-

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

Mother Jones, ed WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920

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.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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WE NEVER FORGET: March 25, 1911, 4:40 pm: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, Life So Cheap and Property So Sacred

Janet RayeWe Never Forget
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Rose Schneiderman Quote, Life So Cheap———-

Life So Cheap; Property So Sacred
———-

From The New York Call of March 27, 1911:

The Real Triangle by John Sloan, crpd, NY Call p1, Mar 27, 1911
“The Real Triangle” by John Sloan

From the Jewish Daily Forward of January 10, 1910:

The “Triangle” company…With blood this name will be written in the history of the American workers’ movement, and with feeling will this history recall the names of the strikers of this shop-of the crusaders.

City Hall, New York City,
-December 28, 1910

Testimony before the New York State Senate and Assembly Joint Investigating Committee on Corrupt Practices and Insurance Companies Other Than Life Insurance:

Judge M. Linn Bruce, Counsel
Chief Edward F Croker, NYC Fire Department

Bruce: How high can you successfully combat a fire now?
Croker: Not over eighty-five feet.
Bruce: That would be how many stories of an ordinary building?
Croker: About seven.
Bruce: Is this a serious danger?
Croker: I think if you want to go into the so-called workshops which are along Fifth Avenue and west of Broadway and east of Sixth Avenue, twelve, fourteen or fifteen story buildings they call workshops, you will find it very interesting to see the number of people in one of these buildings with absolutely not one fire protection, with out any means of escape in case of fire.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Addresses Congress of Pan-American Federation of Labor at Mexico City

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921———-

Hellraisers  Journal – Friday January 14, 1921
Mexico City – Mother Jones Speaks at Pan-American Labor Congress

From the Washington Evening Star of January 13, 1921:

LABOR CONGRESS HEARS TALK
BY ‘MOTHER’ JONES
———-
Thirty More Questions Likely to Be
Brought Up in Mexico City.

By the Associated Press.

Mother Jones, NYC Dly Ns p12, May 7, 1920

MEXICO CITY, January  13.-Delegates to the Congress of the Pan-American Federation of Labor, in session here, listened today to an address by “Mother” Jones, the radical labor leader, who arrived here last week from the United States. She has been a regular attendant at sessions of the congress, although not a delegate, and yesterday was granted special permission to appear this morning before the federation.

The resolutions committee was busily engaged yesterday receiving motions to be brought before the congress, and when the committee adjourned, John P. Frey, its chairman, announced that a score of resolutions dealing with pan-American activity had been received and that the recommendations contained in the report of the executive committee would provide thirty more questions to be brought before the congress for final disposition.

The congress proper enjoyed a virtual holiday yesterday, the day’s session lasting only thirty minutes.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “Madre Juanita” in Mexico City, Greeted by Thousands of Workers and Shower of Flowers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Un-Christ-Like Greed, IN DlyT Ipls p1, July 15, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 13, 1921
Mexico City – Mother Jones Greeted by Shower of Flowers

Translated from Mexico City’s  El Universal of January 10, 1921:

Mother Jones Arrives in Mexico City

Mother Jones, UMWJ p11, July 15, 1920

Upon arriving at Buena Vista station in Mexico City [on the morning of January 9th], Mother Jones was met by 2,000 workers among whom were a large feminine contingent from the factories: El Recuerdo, El Buen Tono, Tabacelera, Cigarrera, La Estrella, Departmentos Fabules, and from the Trade Union of Waitresses, etc., all of whom carried, as did the male element, the banners of their respective groups…..

Mother Jones was the object of singular interest. With ninety years on her shoulders, she is one of the most indefatigable fighters for working-class organization in the United States.

Amidst a veritable shower of flowers, Mother Jones was brought in an auto from the platform of the station to the Glorieta Cuauhtémoc, where another contingent of trade union workers were awaiting her. They applauded her and threw fragrant sprays of roses. In the Glorieta, a demonstration was organized to honor Mother Jones, and was followed by a parade to the Hotel St. Francis where several Mexican workers spoke, and the guest of honor answered. She did so in virile and intrepid language, saying , in short, that when she first visited Mexico [in 1911], she never believed the workers’ movement in this country would have reached its present numbers and effectiveness; that she had been struggling in the field of ideas and action for years and years, a a struggle which would end only with her death; that she had dedicated her existence to seeking the economic, moral, and cultural development of the working class. She ended with a tribute to the Mexican workers affirming that only on the day when a single language and a single nation would exist on earth, would human happiness have been achieved.

Mother Jones is an elderly lady whose appearance is as modest as it its admirable, a woman with a very friendly behavior.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Travels to Mexico with Fred Mooney, Will Attend Pan-American Labor Conference

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Un-Christ-Like Greed, IN DlyT Ipls p1, July 15, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 11, 1921
Mexico City – Mother Jones Attends Pan-American Labor Conference

From The Pittsburg Press of January 9, 1921:

Mother Jones IN Dly Tx p1 crpd, July 15, 1920

“MOTHER” JONES WILL BE
OBREGON’S GUEST.
—–

Charleston, W. Va., Jan. 8.-Treasuring an invitation to be the guest of President Alvaro Obregon, of Mexico, during her stay in Mexico City, “Mother” Jones left here accompanied by Fred Mooney, secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of this district, to attend the Pan-American labor conference. She has been in West Virginia working among the miners for some time.

———-

UMW D17, Mooney Keeney, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Working Class Politics” -Speech by Debs at Riverview Park, Chicago

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Socialists n IU, Chg Sept 18, ISR p258, Nov 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 2, 1910
Chicago, Illinois – Eugene Debs Speaks on Working Class Politics

From the International Socialist Review of November 1910:

EVD ISR p257, Nov 1910

THE campaign of the Socialist party of Cook county, Illinois, was formally opened on September 18th, Eugene V. Debs being the principal speaker. A vast concourse of people were assembled at Riverview Park where the meeting took place. Below will be found some extracts from the speech of Debs, in which he emphasized the necessity of industrial unity as the only means of effective political action. Said Debs: 

We live in the capitalist system, so-called because it is dominated by the capitalist class. In this system the capitalists are the rulers and the workers the subjects. The capitalists are in a decided minority and yet they rule because of the ignorance of the working class.

So long as the workers are divided, economically and politically, they will remain in subjection, exploited of what they produce, and treated with contempt by the parasites who live out of their labor.

The economic unity of the workers must first be effected before there can be any progress toward emancipation. The interests of the millions of wage workers are identical, regardless of nationality, creed, or sex, and if they will only open their eyes to this simple, self-evident fact, the greatest obstacle will have been overcome and the day of victory will draw near.

The primary need of the workers is industrial unity and by this I mean their organization in the industries in which they are employed as a whole instead of being separated into more or less impotent unions according to their crafts. Industrial unionism is the only effective means of economic organization and the quicker the workers realize this and unite within one compact body for the good of all, the sooner will they cease to be the victims of ward-heeling labor politicians and accomplish something of actual benefit to themselves and those dependent upon them. In Chicago where the labor grafters, posing as union leaders, have so long been permitted to thrive in their iniquity, there is especially urgent need of industrial unionism, and when this is fairly under way it will express itself politically in a class conscious vote of and for the working class.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1900, Part I: Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Shoulder to Shoulder, Blt Sun p10, July 26, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 9, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1900, Part I
Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of August 5, 1900:

STRIKE LEADER GOES TO PRISON
FOR SIX MONTHS
——-
Woman Sympathizer Creates a Sensation
in a Maryland Jail

Special to The Inquirer.

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

CUMBERLAND, Md., Aug. 4.-William Warner, the strike leader, was sentenced this afternoon to six months in the House of Correction, having been convicted of unlawful assembly during trouble which arose at an anti-strike meeting. Seventeen miners were also sentenced. They were visited at the jail this afternoon by Mother Jones, the woman labor organizer, who created a sensation by proposing three cheers in the jail for the strikers and three hisses “for the blacklegs.” She led the cheering, as well as the hissing. Warner, who is from Pittsburg, took an appeal.

—————

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Samuel Gompers Demands Senate Investigation of Government by Gunthug in West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 5, 1920
Gompers Demands Investigation of Government by Gunthug in West Virginia

From the United Mine Workers Journal of July 1, 1920:

Asks Investigation of Killing at Matewan

Gompers, Ogden Standard Examiner p1, June 7, 1920
When Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, heard of the killing of ten men in a battle between coal company gunmen and coal miners at Matewan, W. Va., he sent a letter to Senator Kenyon, chairman of the Senate committee on labor and education, asking him to have his committee make an investigation of the case. His letter was as follows:

The men were shot and killed by an armed band of men sent into the state by the order of and in the pay of private interests. The men who were killed were interested only in seeing that the statutes and the constitution of the state and of the United States were respected, according to the newspaper reports of the outbreak. I am of the opinion that the invasion of West Virginia by an armed band of men in the pay of absentee owners of West Virginia mining property constitutes a suspension of the constitutional guarantees.

It will be remembered that a public official, testifying in the investigation of 1912-13 before the committee of which you are now chairman, swore that the constitution of the United States did not apply in West Virginia. It was brought out that miners had been kidnapped and given long sentences by drumhead court martial. This official was not rebuked by West Virginia for his testimony as to its lawlessness. On the contrary, he was appointed by the governor of the state to be the impartial investigator of crime against the miners, their wives and their children, in the mining camp of Guyan Valley, and this within the year.

For a generation the only law in the mining camps of West Virginia, save in those few instances where the power of organized labor and outraged public opinion has forced a return to constitutional methods, has been the law of the thug and the gunman disguised as deputy sheriffs and usurping the police power of the land. The blackjack and the pistol, the high-powered rifle and the machine gun have been substituted for statute law, judges and juries.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “Shirt Waist Girls’ Strike the Greatest Struggle of Women In History of Labor” by R. Love, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Rose Schneiderman Quote, Stand Together to Resist———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 26, 1910
New York, New York – How the Shirt Waist Girls’ Strike Began

From the Duluth Labor World of January 22, 1910:

NYC Uprising Greatest Girls Strike, LW p7, Jan 22, 1910—–

By ROBERTUS LOVE.

[Part II of II.]

How General Strike Began.

The general strike was not declared until Nov. 22, when at a great mass meeting in the hall of Cooper Union, where Abraham Lincoln made his first speech in the east, President Gompers of the American Federation of Labor delivered an address on the shirt waist workers’ situation. A Jewish girl [Clara Lemlich], representing many thousands of her nationality who work in the waist shops, advanced to the front of the platform and delivered in Yiddish an appeal to those of her race to strike immediately. More than 2,000 right hands went up in response. The sentiment for an immediate and wholesale strike spread to the Italian and American shirt waist makers, and the “walk out” of seven-eighths of those employed in that industry was the result.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the New York Liberator: Mary White Ovington on the Massacre of Union Men at Bogalusa

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Messenger p2 editorial, Bogalusa Massacre, Feb 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 20, 1920
Bogalusa, Louisiana – Union Men Massacred by Loyalty Leaguers

From The Liberator of January 1920:

Bogalusa

By Mary White Ovington

Bogalusa Massacre, NYT p1, Nov 23, 1919
The New York Times
November 23, 1919

ON Saturday morning, November 22, in the town of Bogalusa, in the state of Louisiana, three men marched down the street. One was black; the other two, armed, walking on either side, were white. A negro criminal, one says at once, guarded by two officers of the law. No, there was no look of criminal or of policeman on anyone of the three faces. Those men, marching abreast, one black, the others white, were brothers, comrades-in-arms in the interminable battle of the worker for the product of his toil. The black man had dared to organize in a district where organization meant at the least exile, at the most, a death by lynching. On either side of him two white union men, carpenters by trade, risked by their espousal of the black man’s cause, not only their lives, but, if they were permitted to live, their reputations. They knew every vile taunt the cheap type of southerner, whom Dixie has made familiar to the world, would cast upon them. Yet together the three men marched down the broad highway of the Southern lumber town.

Unionism is far from popular in Bogalusa. The town is controlled by the Great Southern Lumber Company which this autumn ordered 2500 union men to destroy their union cards. Those refusing were thrown out of work. The Lumber Company has at its command the Loyalty League, a state organization formed during the war, not of soldiers but of men at home, part of whose business it was to see that every able-bodied man (Negro understood) should work at any task, at any wage, and for any hours that the employer might desire. They had back of them the State “work or fight law,” and might put to work men temporarily unemployed, save that the provision of the act did not apply to “persons temporarily unemployed by reasons of differences with their employers such as strikes or lockouts.”

Under this legislation it was small wonder that unionism was forbidden by the Lumber Company; or that, though the war was ended, the Loyalty League continued its work. Returning soldiers joined it, and the night before the three men marched down the city street five hundred armed Leaguers held up a train half-a-mile from the railroad station and searched it for undesirables. Failing to get anyone on the train, they turned back into town and proceeded to chase undesirables there. A number of union negroes were beaten up, but their chief quarry, Saul Dechus [Dacus], president of the local timberman’s union, they could not find. They wanted the “nigger” to be handed to them to be lynched, and failing to get him, they went discontented to their homes.

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