Hellraisers Journal: Photographs of the “Amazon Army” of Wives and Daughters of Striking Coal Miners of Southeast Kansas

23rd December 202124th December 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Raising Hell, NYC Oct 5, 1916 ———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 23, 1921
Coal Mining Region of Southeastern Kansas- “Amazon Army” Raises Hell

From the New York Evening World of December 20, 1921:

SIX MORE WOMEN RIOTERS ARRESTED
Police of State and Nation Extend
Drive in Kansas Coal Field
Against Bootlegging.

PITTSBURG, Kan., Dec. 20. Six more women, charged with unlawful assembly in connection with the coal mine riots were under arrest today as State and county officials broadened their offensive against illegal rum venders, radicals and other undesirables of the mine fields….

From Washington Evening Star of December 21, 1921:

From the Albuquerque Evening Herald of December 22, 1921:

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Art Shields Reports: “Amazon Army” on the March Against Scabs in the Mines of Southeastern Kansas

18th December 202118th December 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones Raising Hell, NYT p1, Oct 6, 1916 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 18, 1921
Southeastern Kansas – Art Shields Reports on the Miner’s “Amazon Army”

From the Oklahoma Leader of December 13, 1921:

PITTSBURG, Kan., Dec 13- There is joy and laughter in the coal fields of Kansas for the strikebreakers are on the run before the militant ladles of that Sunflower state.

The fun begun before daylight when the 120 men who have helped themselves to the vacant jobs in the big Jackson-Walker mine No. 17 near South Franklin began to get off the two interurban cars and to get into hot water all at once.

They say there used to be some excitement in the old Amazon days, but it was nothing to the action out there on the Kansas prairie. Seven hundred and fifty lively ladies gave the travelers the liveliest reception they had ever experienced. Young women, old women, blondes, brunettes and every kind began swarming into those wishers for unhallowed work and began ruffing their feelings.

Deputies Looked On.

In the midst of the charming host were the forces of the law, Sheriff Gould and his deputies, to see that nothing happened that ought not to happen, and all they could do was to look on while the cause of the trouble was all removed by the visitors rushing pell mell back into the cars and begging the motormen to drive on.

What could the sheriff do against such a crowd of lovely femininity, all in their best bibs and tuckers, flying the stars and strips from a dozen poles and laughing and singing? One stalwart woman wrapped her country’s banner around the sheriff and gave him three cheers, and they all joined in and gave him three cheers, and gave the inter-urban cars a salvo of hurrahs as they went on with the men who tried to break the strike for the release of Howat and Dorchy.

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Hellraisers Journal: Frank Little, IWW Organizer and Executive Board Member, Says: “Be Men. Don’t be a scab.”

14th December 202114th December 2021 Janet RayeFrank Little

Payne County Farmer ———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 14, 1911
From Yale, Oklahoma, Frank Little Exhorts Men Not to Scab on Fellow Workers

From the Payne County Farmer (Yale, Oklahoma) of December 13, 1911:

The Explanation.

Editor Payne Co. Farmer: In the issue of Dec. 6 there was a letter from Texas, by Mrs. J. B. MacClain. She states that, in that county, the sawmills are idle for the want of men.

The sawmill worker of Texas and Louisiana have been fighting the lumber trust, trying to force them to pay living wages. There has been a strike on in that country for some time. All working men should stay away. Be men. Don’t be a scab.-F. H. Little, organizer of the I. W. W.

—————

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Phillips Russell on the Shopmen’s Strike against the Harriman Lines

3rd November 20213rd November 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Joe Hill, General Strike, Workers Awaken, LRSB Oct 1919 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 3, 1911
“Switched off the Main Line” by Phillips Russell

From the International Socialist Review of November 1911:

ON the last of September, the long delayed strike of the System Federation among the shopmen of the Harriman lines took place, extending from the middle west to the Gulf in the south and taking in all that territory westward to the Pacific ocean.

The System Federation comprises the shopmen of ten different organizations. the principal ones being the International Association of Machinists, Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Brotherhood of Blacksmiths and Helpers, International Association of Sheet Metal Workers, the steamfitters, clerks, painters, engine hostlers and members of the Federal Labor Union. The first five mentioned are the leading organizations involved. The international presidents of these unions, having had many conferences with Vice-President Kruttschnitt of the Harriman lines, finally called the strike on three lines, these lines being the Illinois Central, the Southern Pacific and the Union Pacific lines.

The union officials claimed that 25,000 men came out. The railroad heads asserted there were only a few thousand at most.

In this strike there are just two questions with which the men in the ranks need concern themselves, and these are-hours and wages. The matter of recognition early in the fight was made the most of, but of all the issues involved, this was the most insignificant. However, the Federation heads insisted on making recognition the leading demand and pushing the first two fundamentals into the background.

Of all the questions at issue, that pertaining to the hours of labor is supreme. Men on strike can afford to make the matter of wages a secondary issue. It is the hours that count, for it cannot be too often repeated that shorter hours in variably mean higher wages.

Several thousand unorganized workers followed the union men out, and having been given the impression that the revolt was for an eight hour day and better conditions, they were eager for the fight.

But on learning that the question of hours and conditions was not going to figure in the struggle, and on hearing the incessant chant of the Federation heads that they asked only recognition for the Federation, the unorganized men soon lost interest and began to drift back into the shops.

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Hellraisers Journal: Gilson Gardner: Mothers and Babes Locked Up in Rat Infested Jail at Greensburg, Pennsylvania

22nd June 202122nd June 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, PA Strike Greensburg Women Sing Jail, Ab p146, 1925 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 22, 1911
Greensburg, Pennsylvania – Mothers and Babes Locked Up in Rat-Infested Jail

From the Arkansas Democrat of June 20, 1911:

MOTHERS AND BABES TO JAIL
———-
In Famous Westmoreland Coal Strike,
Which Has Been in Progress Nearly
18 Months, Company is Said to be
Taking Severe Steps to End Trouble.
———-

(By Gilson Gardner.)

Greensburg, Pa.-(Staff Special.)-The famous Westmoreland coal strike, which has been in progress nearly a year and a half, has reached a new stage. To win, the coal companies now find it necessary to send mothers with babes and little girls to the county bastile.

A little crippled girl, 14 years old, was sitting on the front porch of her home when the village scab went by on his way from work. The little girl began to laugh at the scab and to sing, “Will There Be Any Stars in My Crown?” For this the town constable, Pat McDonough, in behalf of the Westmoreland Coal Company, swore out a warrant and had it served by the deputy constable. The little crippled girl was arrested, taken to Irwin, a village two miles away, where she was brought up before the local justice of the peace-“Squire” H. L. Meeroff. Tho squire found the cripple girl guilty of “breaking the peace” and sentenced her to the county jail for 20 days. So the prisoner was taken 10 miles to Greensburg, where she was locked up in a jail provided for hardened criminals.

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Hellraisers Journal: Miners’ Wives, with Babes in Arms, Arrested for Serenading Scabs, Sing on Their Way to Jail

4th June 20214th June 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, PA Strike Greensburg Women Sing Jail, Ab p146, 1925 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 4, 1911
Greensburg, Pennsylvania – Miners’ Wives Sing on Their Way to Jail

From the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader of June 2, 1911:

MINERS’ WIVES ARE JAILED WHEN
THEY SHOUT AT WORKERS
———-
Eleven Torn from Families on Complaint of
Coal Company Officials at Greensburg.
———-

TWO WERE CARRYING BABES
—–
Prisoners Will Have to Spend Thirty Days
in Jail Unless Judge Changes Mind.
—–

GREENSBURG, Pa., June 2.-With tearful faces, but defiant in their stand for their husbands, who are striking miners in the Irwin coal fields, eleven women were torn from their husbands and children, who had accompanied them to the Westmoreland county jail, and locked up to serve thirty-day sentences, imposed for disorderly conduct.

The women are from Westmoreland City, and it was alleged by the prosecutors, who are officers of the coal company, that the women had made the night hideous for the inhabitants with their shouting and had been a menace to the men who were working for the company [scabs].

They were arrested on warrants issued before Squire H. A. Meerhoff, of Irwin, who sentenced them.

Two of the prisoners, Mrs. Margaret Means and Mrs. Dot Smith, carried babies in their arms. A crowd gathered around the jail when it became known that a band of strikers wives were being locked up.

Judge A. D. McConnell ordered twenty strikers who were brought before him from Latrobe and Bradenville, charged by the Latrobe Connellsville Coke Company with violating the court’s injunction, to pay the costs or stand committed. They were also ordered to remove their camp at Superior No. 2 within the next five days or be sent to jail.

This is the second bunch of strikers who were ordered to pay the costs for violating the court’s injunction issued a year ago restraining them from marching “by or near” company property. There is some talk among the United Mine Workers of making an appeal from the court’s decision, especially in the matter of ordering them to remove their camp, which is located on private property which they have leased.

—————

[Newsclip added from Pittsburg Post of June 2, 1911]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Held at Columbus, Ohio

23rd January 202127th October 2021 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Grow Big Great Mighty Show CFnI, UMWC p269 Jan 21, 1911 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 23, 1911
Columbus, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks at Miners’ Convention

From the Washington Sunday Star of January 22, 1911:

LIE IS PASSED FREELY AT MINERS’ CONVENTION
—–
“Mother Jones” Makes Address Calling
Supreme Court Judges Real Anarchists.
———

COLUMBUS, Ohio, January 21.-Control of the United Mine Workers’ convention came to a severe test in the contest for the seating of delegates from nine locals of district No. 2 of central Pennsylvania. Charges of falsehoods were made freely by each side and the convention finally adjourned to continue the fight Monday.

Expected contests over the seating of President Francis Feehan of the Pittsburg district did not materialize and he was seated without final objection.

“Mother” Jones spoke before the convention. She classes members of the United States Supreme Court and Gov. Harmon of Ohio among “the real anarchists of the country.”

[…..]

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Leads Army of Strikers’ Wives and Daughters to Coleraine and Beaver Meadows

27th September 202031st August 2020 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Ladies Women, NYT p3, May 23, 1914 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 27, 1900
Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Leads Army of Women from McAdoo to Coleraine

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 23, 1900:

Sketched on the Spot by an Inquirer Staff Artist.
—————

WOMEN FIRED TO FRENZY MARCH ON MINES AND HUGGING
THE WORKERS THEY FORCE THEM TO LEAVE THEIR POST
——-
Females Led by Mother Jones Form a Strange and
Remarkable Procession-Shouting and Waving
Their Arms They Dance to Martial Music

From a Staff Correspondent.

HAZLETON, PA., Sept. 22-Unless there is a speedy close down of the mines whose operators persist in keeping them running with armed protection, there s going to be trouble in this district. When it comes, the women will be at the bottom of it. In the early hours this morning they swooped down upon Coleraine and Beaver Meadows. They were led by Mother Jones. They marched with a band at their head, the men falling back in the rear. In the journey some of the party were girls, who gave way to the wildest abandon and danced and shouted, waving their arms in the air.

On arriving at Coleraine, emotional frenzy reached its limit. The men who on their way to work were seized, When cold argument failed some of the women threw their arms about the miners’ necks and exercised all their powers of pleading. Unable to resist the demonstrative actions of the women, the miners gave in, and consented to return to their homes.

Flushed with victory, the raiding party proceeded on to Beaver Meadow. There were about a hundred women in it, and male recruits had been picked up all along the road, so that the entire aggregation numbered five or six hundred. They reached Beaver Meadow too late for any demonstration with the miners, as they were in the colliery at work.

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Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part I

22nd September 202025th August 2020 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Brutal Ruling Class, Cnc Pst p7, May 31, 1910 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 22, 1910
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania – Class War Continues in Irwin Coal Field

From the International Socialist Review of September 1910:

[Part I of II.]

HE Strike” are the words most appropriate to designate an article dealing with the situation in the Irwin coal ﬁeld, because it is the strike of the year if not of the decade. There was nothing out of the ordinary about any of the other strikes that have occurred so far this year. The biggest strike in point of numbers and duration is that of the Illinois miners. It has been since its inception strictly orthodox, including the conflict of authority between the district organizations and the National Board and President Lewis. In Illinois both sides were, and had for years, been organized. All of the arts of diplomacy and bargaining were exhausted before the strike was declared. It is warm, pulsing stomachs against steel safes full of gold.

The Irwin strike is rashly unorthodox. Excepting the formal declaration it has all of the characteristics of a violent revolution.

More persons have been killed, injured and taken prisoners than in many of the bloody uprisings in the Balkans or South America which are so regularly exploited on the front pages of the “Joinals.”

Fifteen persons, two of them women, have met violent bloody deaths. Some of these were killed in open conflict, others in skirmishes, but most of them were brutal, cold-blooded murder of men who dared to tell a prospective scab that there was a strike on.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “The Irwin Coal Strike” by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part III

27th August 202023rd August 2020 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Last Great Battle, UMWC p420, Jan 26, 1910 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 27, 1910
“The Irwin Coal Strike” by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part III

From the International Socialist Review of August 1910:

[Part III of III]

At a Socialist meeting at Jamison No. I on the evening of July 8 three well known scabs walked up and took seats on the grass in the middle of the crowd. Several armed deputies were also present, and we heard later that a large body of these cut-throats were concealed nearby. The purpose of course was to irritate the strikers so they would attack the scabs and use this as an excuse for whole sale murder. They were disappointed because the scabs were not molested, except for the scourging usually given scabs and deputies by the speakers.

* * *

Not a single beer keg, beer case, beer bottle or whiskey bottle around any camp that I have visited. Not a sign of intoxication. This is one of the gratifying features of the strike.

* * *

Numerous dynamite explosions have occurred throughout the district during the strike. No one was injured and no damage to property resulted. If experienced miners accustomed to using explosives had been guilty of such folly there would be somebody or something destroyed. I have not the slightest doubt about declaring that this is the work of the operators or their agents, or of deputies who want their $5.00 day jobs to last and who perhaps are doing it without the knowledge of the sheriff or his employers, the operators.

One of the noteworthy features of the strike is the sympathy displayed by the farmers. And it is no mere lip sympathy either, but takes the good substantial form of defying the coal corporations and permitting the strikers to erect tents on their farms right under the noses of the scabs.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “The Irwin Coal Strike” by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part III” →

Tag: Scabs