Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 31, 1914 Seattle, Washington – Labor’s Memorial Day Honors Martyrs; Mother Jones Speaks
A grand parade, sponsored by the Central Labor Council and the local Socialist Party, was held yesterday in Seattle to honor those who have died as martyrs in the cause of Labor. Mother Jones was the honored guest and the featured speaker at the mass meeting held at the corner of Third and Blanchard Street where the parade ended. She rode at the head of the parade in an automobile which was followed by a thousand coal miners who had been invited to Seattle for that purpose. Following the miners, came marching members of all the various trade unions of Seattle. Some estimates are that six to eight thousand unionists marched in the parade.
LABOR’S MEMORIAL DAY PARADE
From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer of May 31, 1914:
Their banners and emblems draped in mourning, and each wearing a tag bearing a picture of Mother Jones, noted labor leader, who was the guest of honor and speaker of the day, in their coat lapels, thousands of members of organized and unorganized labor turned out yesterday in a monster parade and mass meeting to memorialize their fellow workers who have died in fighting industrial battles. It was the first observance of its kind ever held in the United States, and the huge success which it met prompted those in charge of the project to stamp it an annual affair…
The appearance of Mother Jones, familiarly called “the most devout friend of labor,” was the feature of the program. The aged labor leader addressed two large open air meetings at Third Avenue and Blanchard…
[Emphasis added.]
From The Seattle Daily Times of May 31, 1914:
The central figure of the parade was “Mother” Mary Jones, the noted coal strike leader who was the orator of the day. She rode in an auto with six children and A. Hutcheson, secretary of the joint [trade union and Socialist] committee.. and was cheered early and often along the line.
[Emphasis added.]
Three floats, covered in flowers, lead the three sections of the parade. One was dedicated to the memory of the “The Children of Calumet,” another honored “The Women and Children of Ludlow,” and a third remembered “The Heroes of Labor Who Have Lost Their Lives in Industrial Battles.”
THE SPEECH OF MOTHER JONES
Mother delivered the main address of the day; her speech, in part:
During the Civil War the emancipation of the slaves in the South was brought in as one of the leading measures. Today there is another war-a great war with a bunch of high-class burglars and looters, and the measure of this conflict is the emancipation of the mine workers and the nationalization of the mines. Why should we permit a bunch of burglars to own the mines? Nature did not put that mineral in the bottom of the earth for them. It was put there for the use of the people.
She spoke of that terrible day at Ludlow, of the machine-gun fire which tore through the tents, of the women and children whose bodies were taken from the death pit:
This happened right here in America, not in Russia or in Mexico, but right here under the American flag.
The peculiar thing about it all is that the public in general has not been aroused to a very noticeable extent. It seems that the public has to be struck by a cyclone before it will come to the realization of the actual state of affairs.
While I was down in Washington not very long ago, a Congressman asked me if I told the mine workers to buy guns. I replied that I certainly had told my boys to arm themselves and to do it in a hurry. And I am still appealing to mine workers and other workers all over the United States to arm themselves and be prepared to protect their families and their property. I would not be a fit woman to live in America if I did not tell my boys to be men and not cowards.
Get together, is my message to labor. The worker who has a label on him is not true to the working class. I was a member of the old Knights of Labor, and went into the American Federation of Labor when the Knights disbanded, and I will live and die in the Federation for it represents 2,500,000 workers.
I have been a Socialist for more than twenty-nine years, but I am not one of those who believe that individual freedom is going to drop down from the clouds-while we sleep. The fight can be won, and will be won, but the struggle will be long and education, agitation and class solidarity all must play a part in it. I have no patience with those idealists and visionaries who preach fine spun theories and cry down everybody but themselves. Let us keep our feet on the ground.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 30, 1914 Spokane, Washington – Mother Jones Talks with Reporter While Waiting for Train
From The Seattle Star of May 29, 1914 -Mother Jones Speaks on Christians and Savages:
A MODERN HEROD, “MOTHER” JONES CALLS ROCKEFELLER ———- Aged Angel of Organized Labor, En Route to Seattle, Talks to Star Correspondent of Colorado War
By Staff Correspondent.
SPOKANE, May 29-Mother Jones talked with a reporter during a short stop here today, while she waited for her train to speed on toward Seattle, where she will take part in the Memorial Day labor parade and exercises.
With the horror of the Ludlow massacre of women and children by the hired gunmen of the mine owners still noticeable in its effect on her, she is hurrying coastward to tell the story of the modern butchery.
She wants the Northwest to know the awful details of that terrible day at Ludlow.
[Said Mother Jones:]
I wish I could stop in every city and hamlet on the Coast and throughout the West and tell the story of Ludlow as I know it. The world outside of Colorado still fails to realize the full extent of Colorado’s red history.
This charming old lady of 80 comes to the Northwest fresh from her imprisonment in Colorado for participation in the miners’ strike there.
She has written to John D. Rockefeller, jr., asking him to see her when she returns East, and let her tell him the grievances of his former employes.
She has dreamed a dream of acting as an unofficial mediator between Rockefeller and the strikers in Colorado.
[She said sadly:]
I’ll never hear at all from the young man. He hasn’t even a polite excuse for an old woman. I might have known, though, that the man who would permit his gunmen to shoot down women and boil babies in oil wouldn’t want to hear the miners’ side.
Likens Him to Herod.
But you see I’ve just come from Colorado-from the strike zone.
I have a photograph of the little boy [Frankie Snyder] whose head was shot off while he was getting a drink of water for his dying mother. I haven’t been able to get my mind off the horror of Ludlow.
I thought just for a minute that perhaps Rockefeller was not as bad as he has been painted. But I’ll never hear from him. I know it now. Why, a mother might just as well have written to Herod to ask him why he ordered the slaughter of the innocents! THAT’S ALL ROCKEFELLER IS-ANOTHER BUT CRUELER HEROD!
[Mother Jones continued, in the deep, booming voice that shows the astonishing triumph of an ageless spirit over age:
They’re all alike, those capitalists.
They’re All Savages.
They’re all Christians in China and savages in their own country.
The reason they all give so much money to foreign missions is because they wast to keep Christianity where it can’t do any harm-where it can’t interfered with BUSINESS. BUSINESS IS THEIR GOD! They all worship it.
I tell John D Rockefeller and all others like him that the men Christ scourged from the temple, the money-changers, were men LIKE HIM and MORGAN and CARNEGIE.
And I warn them that another scourging of the money-changers is close at hand!
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 19, 1913 Michigan Copper Country – Labor Secretary William B. Wilson Perturbs McNaughton
From the Miners’ Bulletin of November 18, 1913:
An article entitled “McNaughton’s Veracity,” concerning the truthfulness, or lack of thereof, of Mr. McNaughton, takes up almost half of the front page of the current edition of the Bulletin. Suffice it to say that Mr. McNaughton is not happy with the recent speech made by the U. S. Secretary of Labor, William B. Wilson, at the annual convention of the American Federation of Labor:
…McNaughton hollers “liar, liar.”McNaughton’s reputation for truth and veracity is at such a low ebb in this community that those long distance, epithets makes the average person smile, for instance, he stated at the beginning of this strike that 85 per cent of his employees were willing to return to work but were afraid although he had 2,500 militiamen and 1,000 gunmen at his disposal….
[Emphasis added.]
There then follows a list of falsehood after falsehood put forth by Mr. McNaughton. But, on the same front page is a story about the effectiveness of the gunmen, imported into the strike zone by the copper bosses:
GUNMEN ATTACK STRIKING MINERS
Yesterday morning while a large number of strikers were holding their usual morning parade, and when near the Quincy mine, they were joined by quite a number of mounted police who rode amongst them until a point opposite the Quincy was reached when the parade was met by a large force of gunmen. At this juncture, the mounted guards lined up on each side of the parade wilst the gunmen poured a volley into the ranks of the strikers.One striker was badly shot in the hip while it is believed several others were slightly injured by the firing of lead missiles. One guard was badly injured by being trampled upon by one of the frightened horses. The attack was no doubt planned beforehand as the concerted action of the mounted guards and gunmen would imply.
The parade consisted of men, women and a scattering of children, all of whom were quiet and were marching on the county road. The guards and the gunmen had not the least provocation for making this dastardly assault upon peaceable citizens who have a perfect right to parade on the public highway. After the melee, six of the paraders were arrested and taken to jail, but were later released. Assistant states attorney Nichols will make an investigation of this dastardly assault and in all probability will bring the guilty parties to justice.
[Emphasis added.]
Somehow, we suspect, that the last sentence is meant as a bit of sarcasm.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 22, 1920 Leavenworth, Kansas – Hulet M. Wells Released from Prison
From the Everett Labor Journal of November 19, 1920:
HULET M. WELLS IS AT LIBERTY —————
WASHINGTON, D C, Nov. 16.-Hulet M. Wells, former president of the Seattle Central Labor Council, sentenced to prison by the Seattle federal court for alleged seditious utterances in opposing the draft act, was released from Leavenworth prison on November 13 under order of immediate commutation of the remainder of his sentence.
The formal order for his release was signed today by Attorney General Palmer.
——-
Wells, after two trials, was sentenced to serve two years in the federal penitentiary following his conviction in the local district court on a charge of having violated the military law of the United States. He began serving his sentence at McNeil Island in June, 1919, and about one year ago was transferred to the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kan.
—————
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Note: Hulet Wells was convicted in March of 1918 but did not begin serving his sentence until June of 1919 when all appeals were exhausted.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 15, 1919
Seattle, Washington – Union Record Editor and Staff Arrested
From The Nation of December 13, 1919:
A Newspaper Confiscated—And Returned
By ANNA LOUISE STRONG
[Part II of II.]
Spokane Spokesman-Review November 15, 1919
Meantime [as more facts came to light concerning the Centralia outrage] The Record had been seized. Two hours before the seizure the other competing newspapers knew of it, and proclaimed it on the streets. Reporters, camera men, and moving-picture men accompanied the deputies. The editor, and the president and secretary of the board of trustees, were arrested and later released on bail. The employees were cleared out of the building which was then searched. Much material was carted away. The seizure occurred while the presses were turning out the regular home edition, and their work was stopped. The staff was told, rather vaguely, that the place was closed. Later in the evening the proprietors again obtained possession of the plant, with the assurance that there was no intention of holding it. However, on the following day, when the main edition was on the press, the marshal again arrived, stated that the plant was indefinitely closed, and gave the employees half an hour to clear out. The first act of one of the deputies was to take down the telephone, call up a competing newspaper, and announce “We’ve shut her down tight.”
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 14, 1919
Seattle, Washington – Union Record, Confiscated and Returned
From The Nation of December 13, 1919:
A Newspaper Confiscated—And Returned
By ANNA LOUISE STRONG
[Part I of II.]
SEATTLE has a way of making labor history. The third week in November saw not only the confiscation and later the return of the property of The Seattle Union Record, the mouthpiece of organized labor in that city, but produced as by-products several actions new in the history of unionism. The newspaper’s plant was seized without warning by the United States Attorney, held throughout a week’s time through various court delays, and at last returned on order of the court, which stated that it was illegally held. The mailing of the paper was held up for over a week by the local postmaster on the ground that he was “in doubt” concerning its mailability.
The Seattle Star of November 13, 1919
Meantime, the labor movement of the city, which was obviously expected by the authorities to indicate its anger in some storm or upheaval, remained calm and self-controlled, and began voting a day’s pay per member for “a bigger, better Union Record.” Several unions displayed spontaneously the extent to which solidarity of feeling has transcended in Seattle the actual craft lines of organization. The union teamsters, sent to The Union Record office to haul away the confiscated files, records, and papers, obstinately refused to handle them until the marshal appealed to the secretary of The Union Record’s board of control, whom he had just arrested. Mr. Rust then went out and told the teamsters “It’s all right, boys; go ahead.” And they went ahead.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 18, 1909
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Describes Her Western Tour
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of August 12, 1909:
SUCCESSFUL TRIP WORK OF E. G. FLYNN
—–
My western trip has convinced me of at least two things, that the sun doesn’t rise in the Long Island sound and set in the Hudson river, and that I couldn’t possibly blarney myself into the idea that I am a hard-worked sort of martyr for the cause of labor, and give due consideration to the splendid treatment I have received from the organization and audiences in the west. The trip has been an unqualified success from all points of view, yet I have enjoyed every step of the way. Nowhere have I felt like a stranger, everywhere I could say regretfully of the cast, “Home was nothing like this!” I would recommend a like trip to any New Yorker who believes that their town is the world, and then some. Even if they travel the box car route they can feel at home after their 6×12 hall bedrooms on the air shaft, and they will feel, as I have, that New York is a very small part of the revolutionary movement, at least.
No. 64 at Minneapolis.
My trip started in Minneapolis, where Local No. 64 is forging ahead.We held a series of open air meetings in the employment agency district and every night before we opened up crowds 500 or 600 strong gathered. They listened attentively, sang revolutionary songs and judging by the enthusiasm the time is more than ripe to open up a hall and reading room in that city. We have certainly “started something” in the Flour City.
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