Tag: Samuel Gompers

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1909, Part I: Found Speaking in Denver

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p3, Mar 2, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 12, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1909, Part I:
-Found in Denver, Colorado, Speaking at Protest Meeting

On the evening of Thursday March 1st, Mother Jones spoke before trade unionists, assembled together at the People’s tabernacle, to protest against the jail sentences imposed upon Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and Frank Morrison by District Court Judge Daniel Thew Wright.

From The Denver Post of March 1, 1909:

MOTHER JONES TO ADDRESS DENVER
LABOR MEETING
—–
Protest Against Federal Judge Sending
Labor Leaders to Jail.
—–

3,000 ARE TO TAKE PART
—–
Resolutions to Be Adopted Strongly
Censuring Judge Wright.
—–

Mother Jones w edit crpd, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909

Tonight at the People’s Tabernacle, Twentieth and Lawrence, labor will enter its protest against the recent decision of Judge Wright of the district of Columbia, sentencing Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell and Frank Morrison to prison for alleged contempt of court. A monster massmeeting has been arranged for, to commence at 8 o’clock. State senators, representatives and many of the representative labor men of Colorado will take part.

[…..]

“Mother Jones,” one of the famous women advocates of the rights of labor, a woman who saw many of the early conflicts of labor when blood was shed in Easter miners’ strikes, and one of the most interesting orators among the women of the country today will be one of the principal speakers.

“Mother Jones” is known to every laboring men in the country. She attends many labor conventions, and last year delivered one of her characteristic speeches before the annual convention of the Western Federation of Miners. She has been travelling through the West seeking to raise funds for three Western men who are being held in Mexican prisons on the ground that they were seeking to overthrow the Mexican government.

“Mother Jones” is a guest at the home of John M. O’Neill, editor of the official organ of the Western Federation of Miners, 1229 Kalamath street.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Debs Bids Farewell to Cleveland Comrades at Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Appeals for Solidarity

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, re Red Roses, OH Sc p4, Mar 19, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 21, 1919
Cleveland, Ohio – Eugene Debs Presented with Red Roses at Farewell Address

From The Ohio Socialist of March 19, 1919:

Eugene V. Debs’ Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Cleveland
[Wednesday Evening, March 12, 1919]

EVD, Bstn Glb p3, Sept 13, 1918

Before a capacity audience of 3,000 which filled West Side Turn hall one hour before his scheduled appearance Debs made his farewell speech.

Debs was calm, His opening words were accorded an instantaneous silence. He said:

How true it is that there is a divinity that shapes our ends, roughhew them how we will! It may seem strange to you, but in my plans, in my dreams, I did not think of going to the penitentiary-and I-I had a thousand times rather go there and spend my remaining days there than to betray this great cause.

So far as I am concerned it does not matter much. The margin is narrow, the years between now and the sunset are few, and the only care that I have personally is that I may preserve to the last the integrity of my own soul and my loyalty to the only cause worth living for, fighting for, and dying for.

It is so perfectly fine to me to look into your faces once more, to draw upon you for the only word I have ever had, the only word that I can ever speak for myself. I love mankind, humanity. Can you understand? I am sure you can.

We are close of kith and kin, we are human and when we get into close touch with each other we come to understand that our good depends upon the good of all humanity.

Opposed to System.

I am opposed to the system under which we live. I am opposed to the government that compels you, the great body of the American people, to pay your tribute to an insignificant few who enjoy life while the great body of the people suffer, struggle, and agonize without ever having lived. Can you understand? I am sure you can.

Let me get in touch with you for a while. I am going to speak to you as a Socialist, as a revolutionist, and, if you please, as a Bolshevist.

And what is the thing that the whole world is talking about? What is it that the ruling class power of the world are denouncing, upon which they are pouring a flood of all their malicious lies-what is it? It is the rise of the workers, the peasants, the soldiers, the common man, who for the first time in history said, “I have made what there is, I produced the wealth; I want to be heard.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1909, Part II; Found in Chicago and in Denver

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Great Church upon Bodies of Girls, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 8, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1909, Part II:
-Found in Denver, Colorado; Scheduled to Speak at Protest Meeting

At the end of February, Mother Jones arrived in Denver, Colorado, where she was scheduled to speak at a “Gompers Protest Meeting” on March 1st. According to the Rocky Mountain News of February 28th, Mother made the following statements:

Mother Jones w edit, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909

There is an industrial panic in the United States today, and it is not confined to any particular locality. The steel trust is now engaged in stamping out the independent steel concerns, and God have pity on the iron and steel workers when this happens and the rest of the people, too. In Illinois the coal miners are having their trouble, some working only one day a week, and some three days a week. The shoemakers all over the country are struggling against similiar conditions, and everywhere you turn you find this industrial stagnation…..

How can you expect labor to make very much headway with 10,000 judges ruled by the capitalists? Where can they get justice? Where can justice be had with Wall Street dictating the policies of the president, congress and the governors of the states?

Even religion is mixed up in the conditions. I saw in an Eastern city a $2,000,000 church built with the subscriptions of men whose daughters work in factories and stores for $3 and $4 per week. Oh, the farce of it all! Dare you tell me that a girl can work for $3 a week and be respectable? The idea of building a great church upon the sold bodies of girls!…..

I tell you that there is a limit to all things-and the limit will come in the present economic conditions of this country, and people will arise and take the industries into their own hands and right the wrongs that are making of this nation the most grasping in the world today.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1909, Part II; Found in Chicago and in Denver” →

Hellraisers Journal: Debs on Deported Radicals: They are human beings, his brothers, & is ready to share their lot.

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD re Deportations, Btt Dly Bltn p1, Feb 21, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 27, 1919
Terre Haute, Indiana – Eugene V. Debs on Deportations of Working Men

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 21, 1919:

Debs Brands Plot to Deport
Radicals “Crime of Crimes”
—–

Recalls Lincoln’s Birthday. Says Rail Splitter Was
Murdered by the Ruling Class, that Same Power That
Today Is Shipping Men Overseas Like Cattle Because
They Are Protesting Against Wage Slavery.
—–

By EUGENE V. DEBS.

EVD, Bstn Glb p3, Sept 13, 1918

Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. 12.-This is Lincoln’s birthday. It is a day rich with memory and dark with tragedy. Lincoln was and is the sweetest product of American soil. Like the Nazarene, he loved the poor, sympathized with the lowly, and was hated, vilified and finally murdered by the ruling class of his time.

The birthday of the immortal rail splitter is being celebrated in part by deportation from the land he loved of the men of honest toil, who, like himself, hated the money power and believed in government of and by and for the people. This is one of the beautiful ironies of capitalism. Its vaunted love of freedom is but the velvet cloak which conceals its iron-fisted despotism.

These men are charged by the ruling class and its prostitute press with being enemies of the government. Precisely the same charge that is being brought against these men today under capitalist despotism was brought against Abraham Lincoln by the slave power of his day. Lincoln was murdered by same power that is now tearing our brothers from their families and friends and shipping them over the wide seas like cattle for the crime of protesting against wage slavery and aspiring to walk the earth free men.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1909, Part II; Found in Indianapolis Speaking at UMWA Convention

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones on Swearing & Praying, UMWC 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 17, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1909, Part II:
-Found Speaking at Convention of United Mine Workers of America

From The Indianapolis Star of January 29, 1909:

Mother Jones, Ipls UMWC with Her Boys, Ipl Str p7, Jan 29, 1909

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1909, Part II; Found in Indianapolis Speaking at UMWA Convention” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Convention of United Mine Workers on Behalf of Mexican Revolutionaries, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Old Devil, UMWC Jan 27, 1909—–

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 30, 1909
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Speaks at U. M. W. Convention, Part II

From Proceedings of United Mine Workers Convention
-Wednesday January 27, 1909
Speech of Mother Jones, Part II:

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

Now, I will tell you what I am here today for. I am not here to beg. I hate beggars; I don’t want any begging machines; I want to do away with every begging parasite in the world. I want to fight and take what belongs to us. What I want here today with you is this: We have got to get those boys out of jail. We have got to let them live in this land; we have got to let them fight Mexico from here. And I am with those boys because Diaz and Harriman and Rockefeller and the whole push are together down there. They were down there wining and dining, and we paid for it.

And while I am on this wining and dining subject I am going to say something about the board member from Pennsylvania, Miles Dougherty. I want to talk to you Pennsylvania fellows. You had an awful fight there. I was out West and took up a paper and read of Mr. Miles Dougherty sitting down with his feet under the table looking Mrs. Harriman square in the eye and putting a bowl of champagne inside of his stomach— “Here’s a health to you, Mr. Belmont; here’s a health to you, Miss Morgan, and here’s a health to you, Mrs. Harriman.” And then, when Mrs. Harriman and Miss Morgan walked down the street with Miles Dougherty the fellows over home in Pennsylvania said, “Don’t you see how labor is getting recognized?” How labor is getting recognized! That’s true, Mr. Lewis, as sure as you sit there, they said that about labor getting recognized! I want to tell you here the trouble with you is this: your skull hasn’t developed only to the third degree. You would consider it an honor to go down the street with Miss Morgan, who never worked a day in her life. You would consider it an honor to dine with those fellows that skinned you and your children and murdered you in the mines, and while they were filling you with champagne they murdered us poor devils with bullets.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Convention of United Mine Workers on Behalf of Mexican Revolutionaries, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison Sentenced for Contempt of Court in Bucks Stove & Range Case-Continued

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 29, 1908
Samuel Gompers on the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press:

Samuel Gompers addressed the Court, December 23rd, before being sentenced to one year in prison, and said, in part:

[T]he freedom of speech and of the press have not been granted in order that men may say the things that please, but to say the things that displease, which may convey the need of change and the unaccepted thought….

If in monarchical England these rights can be given, they ought not to be denied to the theoretically free citizens of this Republic.

From the Washington Evening Star of December 23, 1908:

Bucks Stove n Range, Morrison Gompers Mitchell, WDC Eve Str p3, Dec 23, 1908

From The Washington Times of December 23, 1908:

Bucks Stove n Range, AFL Leaders Sentenced, WDC Tx p1, Dec 23, 1908

[Continued.]

Defendants Before the Court.

All the while the reading [of Judge Wright’s opinion] proceeded the three defendants sat in the courtroom directly in front of Judge Wright. All were composed, betraying at times slight evidence of restlessness, but listening closely to the words of the court. When he had concluded his opinion, Justice Wright announced he was ready to pass sentence, and after the customary fashion, the defendants were ordered by the bailiff to stand up.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison Sentenced for Contempt of Court in Bucks Stove & Range Case-Continued” →

Hellraisers Journal: Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison Sentenced for Contempt of Court in Bucks Stove & Range Case

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 28, 1908
Leaders of American Federation of Labor Flayed by Justice Wright

From The Washington Times of December 23, 1908:

Bucks Stove n Range, AFL Leaders Sentenced, WDC Tx p1, Dec 23, 1908

FEDERATION’S HEAD IS GIVEN ONE YEAR
BY JUSTICE WRIGHT
—–
Vice President Gets Nine Months
and the Secretary Six Months
in Bucks Stove and Range Case.
Give Appeal Bond.
—–

DEFENDANTS FLAYED FROM THE BENCH
—–
Court Declares Violation of Order as to Boycott
and “We Don’t Patronize List”
Is Flagrant and Deserves Severe Punishment.
—–

Bucks Stove n Range, Gompers, Mitchell, Judge, Morrison, WDC Tx p1, Dec 23, 1908

President Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor,  Secretary Frank Morrison of this organization, and John Mitchell, former president of the United Mine Workers, were today sentenced by Judge Wright of the District Supreme Court to the District jail for contempt of court.

Their offense is the violation of the injunction issued some months ago by Judge Gould prohibiting the American Federation of Labor and its officials from publishing the name of the Bucks Stove and Range Company in the “We Don’t Patronize List” of the federation as it had appeared in the American Federationist, the official organ of the American Federation of Labor.

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Hellraisers Journal: Duluth Metal Trades Council Unanimous on General Strike for Mooney, Life of Rena Mooney Described

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 18, 1918
Duluth, Minnesota – Mass Meeting Supports Tom & Rena Mooney

From The Labor World of December 14, 1918:

DULUTH LABOR IS FOR MOONEY
—–
Mass Meeting Held By Metal Trades Council
-Telegram Sent to Gompers.
—–

Tom Mooney, Renas Message Crpd, Evl IN Prs p1, Nov 30, 1918
Mrs. Mooney, wife of Tom Mooney, whose death sentence has been commutated to life, has worked since her acquittal to secure a new trial
for her husband.

A mass meeting to protest against the incarceration of Tom Mooney was held at Woodman hall last Wednesday evening. The meeting was largely attended by representative union men from nearly every organization in the city.

Sentiment for Mooney was strong and the meeting lasted until nearly midnight.

William E. Towne, president of the Typographical union, and one of the best known trade unionists at the Head of the Lakes, was the first speaker. He touched upon Mooney’s life and described his earnest efforts to organize the workers, and how the money power had been used against him. Mr. Towne also gave a brief history of Rena Mooney, wife of Tom Mooney.

Duty of Labor.

Following Mr. Towne’s address, W. D. Croker, printer, touched upon the duties of every member of union labor and what was expected of labor in the nation.

[Said Mr. Croker:]

If by December 9, the governor doesn’t grant Mooney a new trial or an unconditional pardon, it is labor’s duty to hold the wheels of production until some one thing or the other is granted this man Mooney.

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Hellraisers Journal: Charles Moyer at Laredo Labor Conference: Half-Truths & Untruths re IWW & Big Bill Haywood

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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BBH Quote re May Day, AtR p2, Apr 27, 1907
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 20, 1918
Laredo, Texas – Charles Moyer Spews Bitter Venom at Bill Haywood

With great sadness we report and correct the half-truths and untruths spewed by Charles Moyer at Big Bill Haywood during the recent Pan American Labor Conference held at Laredo, Texas. Charles Moyer knows what it is to face the persecutions of the ruling class. He nearly lost his life in the 1913 Michigan Copper Miners strike when he was kidnapped, shot, and deported from the strike zone by company gunthugs.

From the Chicago Day Book of December 29, 1913:

M13, Moyer in Hospital, Day Book p29, Dec 29, 1913

He nevertheless returned to the strike zone after his release from the hospital, and was greeted by thousands of cheering strikers and their families. That this hero would now turn on his fellow workers brings deep disappointment and sadness.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Charles Moyer at Laredo Labor Conference: Half-Truths & Untruths re IWW & Big Bill Haywood” →