Tag: September 1902

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part III: Found Supporting UMW Official, John P. Reese, Running for Congress

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Told the Court in WV to Stay, Ipl July 19, 1902, UMWC p86—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 12, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1902, Part III
Found in Hiteman, Iowa, Supporting John P. Reese for Congress

From the Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier of September 30, 1902:

SHE ASKS FOR REESE VOTES
———-
”Mother” Jones Tells Miners to Elect
One of Their Number to Congress.
———-

HER IMPASSIONED SPEECH AT HITEMAN
———-

SHE APPEALS TO THE TOILERS TO AWAKEN
AND SHOW THE WORLD THAT THEY ARE ABOUT TO
“ASSERT THEIR RIGHTS TO A FAIR SHARE OF EARTH’S RICHES.”
———-

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

In an impassioned address in which she sought to show the evils of the injunction, Mother Jones, the woman trades unionist and socialist, appealed to the miners and citizens of Hiteman Saturday afternoon to elect John P. Reese to congress, in order that he might introduce a bill taking from the federal courts the right to issue the injunction. She cited the effect the “one-man instrument,” as she called it, has had upon the strikers in the West Virginia coal fields, and stated that the strike would not have lasted more than two weeks if it had not been for the injunction. A short address was made by John P. Reese, who was chairman of the meeting, prior to Mother Jones’ speech.

In introducing Mother Jones to the audience Mr. Reese took occasion to thank the people of Hiteman and the members of the local miners’ union especially for the support they have given him during his term as president of the district miners’ organization, from which he is about to retire in order to commence his fight against Hon. John F. Lacey for the election to congress to represent the sixth district of Iowa.

Mother Jones is an avowed socialist. She points to the great day which she says is surely approaching, when the laboring millions shall rise in their might and claim a just share of the riches which they have produced and turned over to their employers. She says that conditions are leading up to a great climax. Her speech, which had much to do with the evils which she claimed were caused by the injunction, ended with a long appeal for support for Mr. Reese in his candidacy.

Mr. Reese Talks.

The meeting was to have been a part of the picnic planned by the people of Hiteman, to take the place of a Labor Day celebration, but owing to the inclement weather the big event was declared off. However, the people were not to be cheated out of an address by Mother Jones, and consequently they held a meeting at the opera house in Hiteman in the afternoon. The first address was by John P. White, of Oskaloosa, secretary-treasurer of the district organization of the United Mine Workers. During his speech Mr. Reese and Mother Jones arrived.

James Baxter, of Hiteman, was temporary chairman of the meeting, and at the completion of Mr. White’s speech he introduced John P. Reese as the permanent chairman. Mr. Reese took charge of the meeting, [and addressed] his former associates, the residents of the town where he resided as a coal miner a few years ago; and from which he went to take his position as president of the district miners’ union…..

[Mr. Reese said, in part:]

I will say that whatever the future may hold in store for me, I assure the miners of Hiteman and the citizens of this town that you will find that I will continue to be one of you in reality, and that I will continue to hold my membership in your union as long as I am eligible.

Now I want to introduce to you the only miner who wears skirts; the only miner who is allowed to belong to every local in the country at one time; the only miner who does not wear a pit cap; a woman who has the respect and love of every miner in America; a woman who, before she has finished her speech, will convince you that the mission of labor is a holy one; that the labor organizations have accomplished more progress during their existence than has any other similar organization during the same length of time during the history of the world. Ladies and gentlemen, I take great pleasure in introducing to you “Our” Mother Jones.

Mother Jones’ Address.

A round of enthusiastic applause greeted Mother Jones as Mr. Reese closed his speech, and she bowed in acknowledgement. After a selection by the band, she advanced to the front of the stage. Her hearers were interested because of her statements, although the speech in itself is not connected throughout. She said:

Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Toilers: —This is my first visit among you. It is not my first nor my last visit among workers. Away back among the ages we find that from the time the human race left the cradle and began to learn to talk there was planted in the bosom of mankind a desire to advance, to march forward; a desire for greater, nobler things. That desire has followed us down the stairway of time and has each day pressed on until the toilers are awaking now in such a way as the world never knew. Today we are confronted with conditions never known before.

Class Separation.

The people are being separated. Events are bringing to the mind the deep thinker of today the realization that there is a great evolution, a great revolution, going on in the world. Society is divided. The lines are closely drawn. On one side is a handful of human beings with all the wealth the human race has created in ages in their hands. On the other side is a multitude of people, robbed, oppressed, downcast, but pleading for the time when the human race shall possess its own. We look back into history and as we realize what the conditions were, and we thank Providence for the light that is beginning to dawn upon civilization…..

[Mother Jones on Trial in West Virginia]

As soon as I entered the court room I told my comrades [fellow U. M. W. organizers] that we were all convicted and that we might as well stand up and be sentenced…

The judge [John J. Jackson] asked me what right I had to come among the miners of West Virginia and disturb them. I answered him that I was a citizen of the United States and as such that I had a right to go anywhere in the country that I pleased. That judge was cornered and he asked me nothing more. But in the closing argument of the prosecuting attorney the most dangerous statement was made. It meant more than he, or anyone else but myself, probably, realized.

Points Out Danger.

He said in his argument to the court: “Owing to the fact that this is the most dangerous woman in the United States today, and owing to the fact that she can go among the miners and commence a disturbance at any time, if she will consent to leave the state of West Virginia and stay away, I would suggest that the court should have mercy on her.” Leave the state never to return! Mind you what that meant. Think of a public official making a statement of that kind…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part III: Found Supporting UMW Official, John P. Reese, Running for Congress” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part II: Found Interviewed in Chicago, Illinois, Relates Woes of Miners

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Quote Mother Jones, Evicted Miners Baby Dies on Roadside, Evl Jr Ns p3, Sept 28, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 11, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1902, Part II
Found in Chicago, Illinois, Depicts the Misery of the Eastern Coal Region

From the Evansville Sunday Journal-News of September 28, 1902:

MISERY IS DEPICTED IN EASTERN COAL REGION
“Mother” Jones Relates Woes of Miners and
Declares a System of Slavery is Being
Practiced by the Operators.
———-

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

CHICAGO, Sept. 27.-“Mother” Jones, friend and organizer of the eastern miners, arrived in Chicago yesterday direct from the fields of action where the seeds of independence she has been sowing for years are bearing fruit as they never bore before. Confident that the miners will win the great strike in Pennsylvania and West Virginia because the operators cannot afford to win, “Mother” Jones, fearless and determined as ever, discussed the problems and conditions of the present grave situation in the East. In spite of her snowy hair and sixty summers “Mother” Jones declared that she was as young to-day as she ever was.

[She said:]

The miners can now see the dawning of a brighter day and a new civilization. They are as hopeful of success as we are. John Mitchell was never so hopeful. The bituminous miners of West Virginia will win and the anthracite miners in the Pennsylvania fields will win. But no one can prophesy how long the strike will last.

“Mother” Jones said that the system of slavery that America’s blood poured out to abolish was never worse than a slave system conducted by the mine operators of West Virginia. She declared that miners are bought and sold for money, that bloodhounds are kept to trail fugitive slave miners and to avenge assaults on the “blackleg” agents of the operator.

She said that the immigration laws were being broken by the operators, whose agents go to Europe and import released convicts to work in American mines.

She proposed a congress of American labor to be held in Washington next winter when Congress is in session to investigate the rights of workingmen and get an expression from the government concerning the injunction cases of West Virginia and to seek legislation against injunction.

Concerning Commissioner of Labor Carroll D. Wright, who spoke at Minneapolis the other day, “Mother” Jones said:

Mr. Wright does not know the conditions concerning which he speaks. In the first place, I want to ask why he delayed making his report from the anthracite region until a week or two ago. I think it would pay the people to demand an investigation of the agents Mr. Wright sends out to gather his statistics. I found that one of them in the New River District has been dead for forty years and does not know it. He is incapable absolutely for the work he is assigned to do.

[Mother Jones continued:]

Herman Justi said at the Minneapolis convention, that arbitration is a failure. Arbitration is not a failure. The miners believe in arbitration and are willing to arbitrate. If the operators would ask for arbitration or would submit to arbitration of the present troubles the miners would abide by the decision. The whole trouble in this strike is because the operators do not want their schemes of robbery exposed.

[She continued:]

The operators buy their powder for 90 cents a keg and they sell it to the miners for $2.50 a keg. Is that robbery? The operators, against the laws of Pennsylvania, do not weigh the coal at the mines at all. The law says they should have scales and check weighmen. The miners demand these provisions. The miners want a nine-hour workday and they refuse to submit to discrimination against their organization.

The miners demand a semimonthly payday, which five of the operators have already agreed to. As it is now they are paid every sixty days. If a miner goes to work now he must wait sixty days before he can get any money. Then at the end of that time he finds that $1 a week has been deducted from his wages for doctor bills whether he has had the services of a doctor or not. He can go to the “pluck me” stores and get food, the price of which is deducted from his earnings, and in many of the districts the miners are forced to pay for the water they drink.

The wretchedness and misery “Mother” Jones described in detail.

[She said:]

I tell you that there are no words capable of portraying the misery and woe. If Christ himself should come to earth and investigate the mining camps he could not find words to tell adequately what he saw. Along the mines of Loop Creek, West Virginia, “man-catchers” are regularly sent out by the operators to bring in mountaineers on some false pretense. These men are actually sold off at so much a head to the various mine operators. The “man catchers” are called “blacklegs” and are protected by trained bloodhounds. These bloodhounds are set on the trail of escaped slave miner.

“Mother” Jones declared that the miners and their families are living on the highways, forbidden to step onto mining grounds by injunction. Two thousand families have been driven into the streets in West Virginia.

[Mrs. Jones said:]

I saw one poor woman, her mother and her babe driven from their corporation shack into the street, and within four hours the starved, sickly babe died in its grandmother’s arms on the roadside. Such misery is apparent on every hand.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part II: Found Interviewed in Chicago, Illinois, Relates Woes of Miners” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part I: Predicts Victory for Striking Coal Miners of Pennsylvania and West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones Breaker Boys Bleeding Hands, LW p4, Sept27, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 10, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1902, Part I
Predicts Victory for Striking Coal Miners of Pennsylvania and West Virginia

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of September 3, 1902:

MITCHELL RETURNS
———-

MOTHER MARY JONES A VISITOR TO THIS CITY.

Mother Jones, Coal Miners, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902

President John Mitchell, of the United Mine Workers, arrived in this city yesterday afternoon, from Philadelphia, and immediately repaired to strike headquarters. He was accompanied by Louis Hammerling, of this city…..

Mother Jones, the labor advocate also arrived in town yesterday afternoon. She talked very interestingly to a News reporter about the prospects of the miners. She believes that no matter how long the struggle continues, there can be but one thing, and that is success for the miners.

[She continues:]

I hope the struggle will soon be over because there is no reason why the people of the anthracite regions should not be enjoying peace and prosperity, like the other workmen throughout the country. The operators if they have the proper conception of the exact conditions will end the disastrous strike, because no matter how long it continues, it will mean defeat for them in the end.

I do not not know when I shall return to West Virginia, but there is a probability that I may depart for those fields in a few days.

She also believes that the West Virginia miners will be successful in their efforts for better conditions.

[Photograph added.]

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 4, 1902:

HdLn Mother Jones Sure of Victory, Phl Iq p2, sept 4, 1902

“Mother” Mary Jones arrived here yesterday afternoon, confident that the mine workers would be victorious in their struggle.

[She said:]

There are 16,000 soft coal miners who are out on strike in the New River, Kanawha and Loop Creek districts of West Virginia. They are out to a man. The conditions in that region are appalling. It is far worse than the situation in the Pennsylvania coal fields.

“What do you think of the recent injunctions issued in West Virginia?” she was asked.

We are approaching a very dangerous crisis in the American nation. The American people are patient, but there will come a time when they will not tolerate such rule.

Disregarded the Injunction

Only last Saturday I was served with an injunction to prevent my speaking in Ohio. But it didn’t work. I have been served with enough injunctions to make a comfortable shroud to bury me in. In West Virginia they issue injunctions against everything. Injunctions are not laws. They are the work of one man. He makes it, issues it, serves it on us, tries us and then he sentences us. We disregard all of them because we know that none of them will stand the test.

“What is your idea of the termination of the strike?”

The miners are not weakening in the slightest degree. We are sure of victory and will accept no compromise. We are determined to right it out to the finish. There will probably be a settlement made before long. I cannot say when that will be.  Public sentiment is growing. If it is necesary, I am sure that the American people will support the miners for another year, just as well as the operators have done. The public has never before realized what a big factor the miner is in civilization.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1902, Part I: Predicts Victory for Striking Coal Miners of Pennsylvania and West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: Duluth Labor World Covers Pennsylvania Anthracite Strike, Calls for Donations to Miners’ Aid Fund

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Quote Mother Jones, UMWC, Indianapolis, July 19, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 29, 1902
Pennsylvania Anthracite Strikers Will Win with Support from Union Labor

From the Duluth Labor World of September 6, 1902:

Great Anthracite Strike, Mine Strike Won, LW p1, Sept 6, 1912

From the Duluth Labor World of September 13, 1902:

Great Anthracite Strike, Give to Miners, LW p1, Sept 13, 1912

From the Duluth Labor World of September 20, 1902:

Great Anthracite Strike, Mitchell Says Miners Will Win, LW p1, Sept 20, 1912

From the Duluth Labor World of September 27, 1902:

Great Anthracite Strike, Fund for Miners Not Doing Well, LW p1, Sept 27, 1912

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “The Anthracite Strike” by William Mailly, Part II-Socialists Aid the Miners

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Quote Mother Jones, Capitalists should surrender gracefully, AtR p2, Sept 14, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 28, 1902
“The Anthracite Coal Strike” by Comrade William Mailly, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of August 1902:

The Anthracite Coal Strike.

[-by William Mailly]
———-

[Part II of II]

William Mailly, Sc Sp p2, July 1902
Socialist Spirit, July 1902
Comrade Mailly, now in field of
great anthracite coal strike.

This somewhat lengthy and yet incomplete explanation of the strike situation has been necessary in order that outsiders can understand why the Socialist agitators received such a warm welcome in the strike region. We came with a new message to the strikers and they heard us gladly. Thrown into the position of fighting simply to save the union that had protected them for two years, harassed and antagonized by the business men whom they had formerly believed their friends, deserted and deceived by the politicians who had always proclaimed themselves their champions, misrepresented and discouraged by the papers they had always supported, they were ready to listen to those who came and spoke the truth. In my experience I have never seen men who listened so eagerly and with such unfeigned enthusiasm to the Socialist presentation of the situation as did these strikers.

But the way had been prepared for us. “Mother” Jones had not been through the region for nothing. Everywhere she had left a trail of Socialist books and papers behind her. Few of the officials but had subscribed for a paper, and many of the miners received one she had subscribed for for them. And “Mother” Jones’ name is a talisman that opens the hearts of the anthracite miners to any Socialist that comes to educate and not abuse.

Then National Secretary Greenbaum’s “strike bulletins,” following upon his messages of friendship to the miners’ conventions, had also familiarized the name of the Socialist Party. These bulletins were much appreciated and made a good impression.

It did not take long, therefore, for the Socialist agitators to secure a hearing. Nothing could more emphasize the different effect produced by the Socialist Labor Party [SLP] tactics and those of the Socialist Party [of America, SPA] than the treatment accorded our representatives. Wherever I went in the region I heard stories of how the S. L. P. agitators had made themselves obnoxious by their attacks upon the union and their efforts to disorganize the men. It sometimes became necessary to explain the difference in the parties to enquirers who classed all Socialists as “union wreckers.”

I think the members of the Socialist Party are justified in believing that the presence of their representatives in the field was beneficial to the strike and the miners’ union. We preached the necessity of Solidarity and explained the industrial situation so that the miners could not help but become imbued with an increased faith in themselves. They were not slow to acknowledge this, and to show their approval of what we said. It became a very easy matter to get up a meeting for a Socialist speaker and, in some cases, men were known to walk several miles to hear us. The Socialists presented the case with a force and clearness that went home and made, I am sure, a lasting impression, especially as the situation provided all the necessary features for Socialist arguments of unlimited length.

There was no antagonism to the Socialists exhibited by any of the officials. On the contrary, there was an evident desire to allow us to be heard, and local officials gave us much assistance. Personally I received a letter from President Mitchell introducing me to the locals, which, as representative of the “Worker,” was of great help to me. I did not have to use the letter to get up meetings. Just as soon as it was learned I was a Socialist and “all right,” meetings were arranged for me. There was no danger of not having anything to do.

Wherever Vail, Spargo, Geiger and Collins had spoken, the same encomiums of their work were heard. We had a clear field, for none of the capitalist party politicians were in sight, and the miners were in the mood for the truth. Collins couldn’t begin to organize locals fast enough, and he’ll probably never do harder or better work again. Fortunately, we had comrades at Carbondale and Wilkesbarre, who took advantage of every opportunity presented.

Two things are to be regretted. First, that more agitators could not be kept in the field, and second, that more literature and better facilities for handling it could not be provided. I was never more impressed with the necessity of a well-formed, efficiently conducted Socialist organization. The national and State officials of the party did their utmost, but their hands were tied for lack of funds. I am of the opinion that half a dozen good Socialist agitators, speaking different languages, following each other through the region, would do more toward winning the strike than all the money the Socialist Party can give to a strike relief fund. The demand for literature cannot begin to be filled. The miners are reading and discussing what they read as never before. Such an opportunity to reach a large number of workingmen so receptive and hungry for knowledge will seldom be presented again. As it is, we can feel that not only have we done our utmost to propagate Socialism, but we have also inculcated into the hearts and minds of thousands of workingmen the true spirit of the class struggle and some conception of the prevailing industrial phenomena.

A final word about the strike itself. That the conditions around the mines justify organization goes without saying. Nevertheless, I believe these conditions might have been endured a while longer if tyranny had not been exercised to such an extent. To be continually insulted and reviled when seeking redress, to be cursed by the boss and subjected to his open contempt, to be ignored by the employer when seeking recognition—this was more than the miners could stand forever. The union has offered them the only medium of expression for their grievances, the only form of protection from the domineering of under bosses and the larger tyranny of the operators they have ever had. The strike is the harvest of years of arbitrary and selfish corporate misrule.

Whatever the outcome may be, the fact that the fight is one to preserve the right to organize should be of encouragement to all Socialists. There is one thing also of which I am morally certain: that, even if the strike be lost, the union will not wholly be destroyed. It has the elements of permanency in it, for men like those to be found in the anthracite region are not conquered by one defeat. The union is there to stay, no matter how this strike may result or who the officers may be. The seed of Solidarity is too deeply planted to be uprooted and destroyed so easily as the mine owners wish. And if the Socialists have only succeeded in planting that seed a little deeper, this alone should recompense us for any money or energy expended during the strike.

William Mailly.

Boston, Mass., July 23, 1902.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Anthracite Strike” by William Mailly, Part I-Right to Organize

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Quote Mother Jones, Capitalists should surrender gracefully, AtR p2, Sept 14, 1901—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 27, 1902
“The Anthracite Coal Strike” by Comrade William Mailly, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of August 1902:

The Anthracite Coal Strike.

[-by William Mailly]
———-

[Part I of II]

Great Anthracite Strike, Mitchell Statement, Scranton Tb p1, Sept 26, 1902
Scranton Tribune
September 26, 1902

There is only one issue in the present struggle between the anthracite coal miners and the mine and railroad owners. That issue is the right to organize. There were other issues when the strike began—wages, hours, dockage, weighing, etc., but they have all been subordinated to this one. The coal trust wants to get rid of the union; the miners want to preserve it. No other question will be settled, or will even be considered, until this one is disposed of: The right of the miners to organize—that is, the issue. The mine owners refuse to arbitrate because that will mean recognizing the union. This they will not do, unless forced to it. The miners, having exhausted every other means, say they will compel recognition.

In order to fully understand how much the preservation or the destruction of the miners’ union means to both sides, one has to be right on the ground and hear direct testimony. For twelve years, following upon the failure of the Hazleton and Panther Creek Valley strike in 1887, there were practically no unions in the anthracite region. Strikes broke out spasmodically, but were soon crushed. Lattimer became famous through one of these in 1897. The operators had everything their own way, and that way was simply one of extortion and oppression. There are no gentler names for it—and these are too mild. The miners were discouraged, cowed and spiritless. Those among them who tried, secretly or openly, to organize were “spotted” and blacklisted out of the region. I met several such men, who had returned after the strike of 1900. During this time the mine owners were organizing. Untrammeled by any resistance from their employes, they had free scope to fight one another in the market. Inevitably combination resulted. Small owners were wiped out or absorbed, until now the coal trust controls the anthracite output, the transportation facilities and dictates prices to the consumer. There are individual operators, but they are dependent, more or less, upon the trust, and their position makes them even harder task masters than the trust companies.

In 1899 the Vanticoke [Nanticoke] miners succeeded in organizing, and in winning a strike which lasted five months. Wages were increased, docking regulated, hours reduced and several minor grievances adjusted. This victory awoke the miners of the whole region. A clamor for organization arose from various quarters. President Mitchell answered the cry by sending “Mother” Jones and other organizers into the field. They worked all winter. Every corner of the region was invaded. The capitalists fought them tooth and nail. At some places the miners themselves, goaded on by their bosses, mobbed and jeered the agitators. There are exciting stories told of those time, but this is not the place to tell them.

Out of those feverish days and nights of dangerous and difficult work came the strike of 1900. Not all the miners responded immediately to the call. Persuasion was required to get some, exhibition of numbers to get others. After six stormy weeks the strike was settled. It was won, whether politics had anything to do with it or not. True, the union was not directly recognized, but it was established. And that was the main point.

From that time, organization spread and strengthened. Every mine in the region has its local and the districts are well organized. Last year, when the mine owners refused to consider the miners’ demands, a strike was avoided through the advice of President Mitchell. He counseled peace, told the men they were not ready to strike, the organization was not compact enough and that they lacked resources. They should accept the situation and prepare for decisive action later. The advice was taken. The men continued to organize and they did prepare. And the present strike is the result.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Anthracite Strike” by William Mailly, Part I-Right to Organize” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Land of the Noonday Night, A Miner’s Song” by Ernest Crosby

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Quote Mother Jones WV Miners Conditions, ISR p179 , Sept 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 26, 1902
“The Land of the Noonday Night, A Miner’s Song” by Ernest Crosby

From the International Socialist Review of September 1902:

Poem Miners Song, ISR p133, Sept 1902Poem 2, Miners Song, ISR p133, Sept 1902

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Divine Rights Baer Offered Bible Scriptures for His Further Enlightenment

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Quote Divine Rights Baer July 17, 1902

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 21, 1902
Scriptures for Mr. Baer, President of Reading Railroad by Divine Grace

From the Appeal to Reason of September 20, 1902:

Poem for Miners, Trust Divine Rights Baer, AtR p3, Sept 20, 1902

—————

Scripture for Mr. Baer.

While Mr. Baer, president by divine grace of the Reading railroad, is diligently searching for a title to the life, liberty and happiness of his employes, he might get more light on the subject by reading the following selections from the bible.

Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from afar? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

-Isaiah, chapter X., verses 1 to 4.

Go to, now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

-James chapter v, verses 1 to 6.

It might also be profitable for Mr. Baer, whose intimacy with the scriptures is unquestioned, to meditate upon the statement therein contained concerning the rich man, the camel and the needles’ eye.

[Emphasis added.]

The Appeal to Reason further opines regarding Divine Rights Baer:

At last we have one who speaks with authority. Mr. Baer announces that he holds the coal mines by Divine Authority. The preachers and other religionists will now have some definite intermediary with Deity. Send up your prayers to Baer. It is evident that the possession of money is not an evidence of intelligence.

—————

The Northwestern Christian Advocate does not support Mr. Baer in his claim to divine connection, but endorses the statement of a Chicago paper which says that he is a member of one of the most persistent and offensive law breaking organizations in the country.

—–

If Mr. Baer and God are in partnership in the railroad and mining business would it not be a good thing to place the better talent of the two in control of the business and let Mr. Baer get out among the hands and rustle with a pick and shovel?

—————

Standing Prosperity.

A wise man once said in response to the toast, “Prosperity;”

“Here’s to, your, prosperity, may you stand it like a man.”

“That’s a better sentiment than you think it is,” said he. “It takes a clever man to stand prosperity. Any fool can stand adversity; he has to.”

[…..]

Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, and this latter day madness for money that makes a slave of the laborer, an insatiable brute of the capitalist and a blasphemer of such as Mr. Baer, can result only in the total discomfiture of those who can not stand prosperity that has come to them through the machine-making genius and patient toil of labor.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mr. Baer Expounds Upon Divine Rights of Capitalists, Granted by “God in His Infinite Wisdom”

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Quote fr POEM re Divine Rights Baer, KS Agitator p1, Aug 29, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 12, 1902
George F. Baer Expounds Upon the Divine Rights of the Capitalist

From the Appeal to Reason of September 6, 1902:

GEO. F. BAER
———-

Divine Rights Baer Blasphemy, KS Agitator p1, Sept 5, 1902
Kansas Agitator
September 5, 1902

Before he became president of the Reading railroad:

Extracts from an address delivered by Geo. F. Baer, before the law department of the university of Pennsylvania, on October 3, 1887:

States Resources Fabulous.

The natural resources of this state, (Pennsylvania ) are simply fabulous. How much of this great wealth falls to the share of our state and her citizens? It has passed into the hands of gigantic associations, kept together by state charters, or some cunning called a trust, whose principal stockholders are not among us nor of us. Daily they carry off our treasures, and leave only enough to pay the labor, which prepares them for and transports them to market. The profit which should enrich our citizens and state, goes beyond our borders and we thus receive little benefit from it. All this has only become possible through the mistaken policy of attempting to foster the development of our resources by departing from the simple principles of honest, free government. It is thru the manipulation of these associations that men ride to ‘sudden fortune,’ and thereby provoke the discussion of social problems and the promulgation of theories, which are at variance with all sound thinking and past experience.”

After he became president of the Reading railroad:

Wilkesbarre, Penn., Aug. 20.-W. F. Clark, a photographer of this city, recently addressed a letter to President Baer, of the Philadelphia & Reading railroad company, appealing to him as a Christian to settle the miners’ strike. The writer said that if Christ was taken more into our business affairs there would be less trouble in the world, and that if Mr. Baer granted the strikers a slight concession they would gladly return to work, and Baer would have the blessing of God and the respect of the nation.

Baer’s Reply Was:

“I see you are evidently biased in your religious views in favor of the right or the working man to control a business in which he has no other interest than to secure fair wages for the work he does. I beg of you not to be discouraged. The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for, not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in his in his infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country. Pray earnestly that the right may triumph, always remember that the Lord God Omnipotent still reigns, and that His reign is one of law and order, and not of violence and crime.”

[Emphasis added.]

From the Kansas Agitator of August 29, 1902:

POEM for Divine Rights Baer, KS Agitator p1, Aug 29, 1902

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1902, Part III: Found in Pennsylvania Anthracite Region, Returns to West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, God s Cause, Scranton Tb p1, Aug 7, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 11, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1902, Part III
Found in Anthracite Region of Pennsylvania, Returns to West Virginia

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of August 11, 1902:

MOTHER JONES CONDEMNS
———-
She Does Look With Favor
on Certain Statements.

BELIEVES THAT IT IS ONLY A QUESTION OF A SHORT TIME
UNTIL THE MINERS WIN-TRAINMEN UP IN ARMS.
———-

 

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

President Mitchell spent yesterday at Scranton, the guest of friends. His visit was one of pleasure and had no bearing on the strike situation. He returned last evening but had nothing of an interesting nature to disclose. He is still confident of the ultimate results.

Mother Jones still remains in the city and unless the present plans are changed she will deliver an address this afternoon at Nanticoke. Mother Jones has no particular love for Father O’Reilly and believes the latter to be unwise in his assertion about the miners and their organization. She believes that he will profit by his indiscretion. When told that he had delivered another address derogatory to the miners’ cause, she waxed warm, saying that if the occasion permitted; she would go to Shenandoah and tell the miners some pertinent facts.

[Declared Mother Jones:]

I know the miners are going to win this struggle, and every just man who is a competent observer of the prevailing conditions must be actuated by the same feeling. It is fallacy for even biased persons to harbor the idea that the miners are not steadfast. They show the same determined spirit, are practically speaking, of one mind and will never swerver the least iota from that course, they planned to take. The time is not far distant when the operators must mine coal or else lose their markets. In September the consumers will make an effort to get anthracite, and if they cannot they will look elsewhere and once the grates are changed it will take years, perhaps, before they resume the use of hard coal. If the operators permit it their business ability is not as great as credited. There may be an attempt made to operate the mines with non-union men, but the number will be so decidedly small and the work incompetently done, the effort will be given up with disgust. The operators will, after the trials, comprehend the determination of the men and will make the necessary concessions. The people of this country can rest assured that the miners are going to win this strike.

How about the one in West Virginia? asked the reporter.

[Mother Jones continued:]

We will not give up until the same results are achieved. Some of the places are completely tied up and victory is only a question of a short time. The collieries at Fairmont have not been reached, that I will admit, but do you know that there is a fence built around the town and no one in allowed to enter unless a permit is secured from some company agent. The men of West Virginia are partly paid in script, receive their money every month, sometimes every six weeks, deal in ‘”pluck me” stores and undergo other indignities. No American can or will endure such conditions.

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1902, Part III: Found in Pennsylvania Anthracite Region, Returns to West Virginia” →