Tag: September 1904

Hellraisers Journal: Part III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Plea for Justice, Not Charity, Quote Mother Jones—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 15, 1904
Part III of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Shines Among Workers

From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904: 

HdLn w Photos Mother Jones Methods, Speech WV 1897, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904
[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904

“MOTHER” JONES’ CONDUCT WITH FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
—————

She Shines Among the Workers.
—

Mother Jones Methods, Listening, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904The mother nature which is so strong in this remarkable woman as to have given her her beautiful soubriquet is not revealed among the ordinary surroundings which come to her during her brief sojourns in Chicago, New York or Washington, but is at once ready to shine forth when she is among the workers whom she calls her children-the girls of the silk mills, the men in the coal fields, or in the humble homes among the mothers and children.

In the strike of 1900 in Pennsylvania she started out one evening from Hazleton to go to Macadoo [McAdoo], to address a local union of miners. On the electric car she sat by the writer quietly observant of the other passengers. No one was as yet aware of her personality. Looking across at a young man and young woman who were sitting closely together, comparing two much thumbed note books with their heads quite close together, Mrs. Jones said: “Look at the dear children; they are comparing their savings. They are lovers, wondering how long it may be before they will be able to marry.”

There was a smile of tenderness on her face which did not wane when at transfer station some noisy youngsters outside discovered her and set up a cry of “Mother Jones! Mother Jones!”

“That’s so, children,” she said, standing up and leaning out of the window to them. “This is old ‘Mother’ Jones going to talk to your fathers and mothers. Are you union boys and girls?”

“You bet we are; hurrah for Mother Jones! Hurrah for Mother Jones!”

The youngsters kept pace with the car, and when the old lady stepped off they made her an escort as she walked to the hall, crowding and pushing to get close to her, to touch her dress, to hold her hand, to look up into her face and to shout the tidings that she was coming. When she reached the hall it was filled with men, who respectfully made way for her, and she passed among them to the platform.

After talking to them for a short time about the progress of the strike, and about a particularly obstinate body of workers at the Coleraine colliery, she told them that she had a plan, and asked them to clear the hall and send the women of their families to her. The men immediately yielded to her suggestion without understanding her intention, for she had worked so long among them as an organizer that they had faith in her judgment.

In about half an hour a strange audience had assembled. there were old, bent women of 70 and young, fresh-faced girls of 16. There were young matrons with babes in their arms, and women faded before their time. The faces that looked up from the rude benches of the strikers’ hall were at first only curious, or somewhat shy and embarrassed.

Walking to the edge of the platform “Mother” Jones stretched out her arms to them, and in her thrillingly sweet voice said, “Sisters!” A perceptible wave of emotion like the breath of wind sweeping the long grasses of downs and meadows passed over her audience. Still the women waited, wondered, watched.

“In the old revolutionary days,” said “Mother” Jones, “your mothers were heroes, as well as your fathers.”

The faces awoke; the souls back of them kindled. For an hour the speaker walked to and fro telling the deeds of mothers of the past, of sisters and wives. The listeners drew nearer. They leaned their elbows on the platform and lifted their faces to drink in her words. Their bosoms heaved and the tears rolled unheeded down their cheeks, but quickly the smiles flashed out again at the will of the speaker. She was explaining to them a plan to march by night through the mountains to surprise at dawn the body of workmen who had refused to strike, and by soft words and cajoleries to woo them to make common cause with their fellows. For who would stop a body of women carrying flags and singing.

“To Colerain-ah!” they whispered among themselves, and then broke out tumultuously: “We’ll go; yes, tonight; to win the boys of Colerain.” Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Part III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald” →

Hellraisers Journal: Part II: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Husband Children, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 14, 1904
Part II of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Then and Now

From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:

HdLn w Photos Mother Jones Methods, Speech WV 1897, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904

Her Appearance and Her History

Mother Jones Methods, Making a Point, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904“Mother” Jones is an old woman, perhaps about 62 years of age. Her hair is white as snow, her eyes bright blue. She has a sweet, womanly mouth, and a pink flush in her cheeks. She is robust and healthy in appearance, with a good matronly figure. In dress she is quite plain, often almost shabby; though there is a neatness, almost a daintiness, about her which always gives her an agreeable appearance.

Her maiden name was Mary Harris. When she was a child of 10 she came to this country with her father and brother from Ireland. They lived for time in Provincetown, and afterward went to Canada. She was educated in the common and normal schools of Toronto, where her brother became a priest, and is now the dean of the archdiocese. She went to teach in a convent in Monroe, Mich., and later, going to Memphis, Tenn., to teach, she met an iron moulder, whom she married. They had two [four] children. She lost husband and children after a brief six years of married life in the yellow fever epidemic in the south.

After the war she went to Chicago, where she lived from 1867 until 1874, taking part in the relief work of the great fire as one of her first experiences in public work. She was a dressmaker in Chicago, as she was in San Francisco, where she lived for five years. In San Francisco she became interested in socialism, and took part in the anti-Chinese movement. When she returned East it was Mrs. George Pullman who secured her transportation. She had sewed for many women of wealth in Chicago, and had a large circle of friends among them.

Her life thus far had been comparatively simple. As a daughter she was obedient and studious, as a young woman a modest, retired teacher, as a wife, faithful and loving. She says of her married life that it was like that of most devoted wives. She wept if her husband drank a glass of beer after the day’s work or went to a union meeting at night. Yet she had enough intelligence to interest herself in his labor views, and imbibed her first notions of unionism from the protestations of her husband against her too devoted solicitude, and a great part of her effort in later years was to make women understand what she failed to understand in those early days, that the wife must care for what the husband cares for, and that every man loves freedom, even freedom from domestic tyranny.

Her remedy for lonely wives is a broader interest in the affairs of life. As a young widow she took pride in the trade she learned, and today she still loves to walk for an hour through the shops and look at beautiful silks and fine laces.

But though a good teacher and skillful dressmaker, it was not sufficient for this woman to provide for herself a good living and take no further thought of the world. She was aware that there were questions troubling the minds of men, and she wanted to help solve them. And somewhat later it came to her that she had the gift of eloquence. She discovered this in the old trades and labor assemblies in the West, where, when rising to take part in a discussion, a torrent of words would rise to her lips and her hearers would sit spellbound.

She belonged to the old Knights of Labor, and later took part in the organizing work of the American Railway Union, and became the friend of Eugene Debs. She was active in Chicago at the time of the Pullman strike, unmindful of the old-time friendliness of Mrs. George Pullman. Some years later she was able to secure a pardon for some of the men involved in the labor troubles of that great railroad strike by a personal interview with President McKinley at the White House.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Part II: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald” →

Hellraisers Journal: Part I: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Speech WV 1897, Lives You Are Living, Bst Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 13, 1904
Part I of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Her Power Proved

From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:

HdLn w Photos Mother Jones Methods, Speech WV 1897, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904

Mother Jones Methods, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904If there is a woman of these modern times worthy of being classed with the grand characters of history, the heroic women of the ages-Hypatia, Deborah, the Mother of the Gracchi, Veronica, Joan of Arc-that woman, in the minds of thousands of the common people of America, is the good, gray-haired woman affectionately known to them as “Mother” Jones. To the cultivated and conservative such an estimation of a woman whom they have commonly heard derided as a troublesome mischief-maker may seem an absurdity, yet history has a way of making fools of the critics.

Susan B. Anthony long ago rose above the clouds of derision and Mrs. Booth-Tucker has become a sainted memory. Frances Willard came to be called “America’s uncrowned queen” yet none of these noble and beautiful women ever possessed that large consciousness of the ebb and flow of human emotions, that sympathy with the sinful as well as the virtuous, with the drunkard as well as the ascetic, with man as with woman and with woman as with man, as does this woman labor agitator. The appeal of these other great women was limited, to sinners against faith, to drunkards and to helpless femininity. The appeal of “”Mother” Jones is avowedly to the soul of the race. She would have all men brothers, not under any especial creed or political system, but with the universal consciousness of one beating heart.

The world does not know this old woman of the people, and perhaps never will know her. Her personality may be obliterated on the pages of history. Even today she passes from place to place unheralded, makes a temporary sensation, and passes on. But her ideas quicken the ideas of others, what she makes her listeners feel is the truth which they knew before she came and which they unconsciously yearned to hear expressed. Through her lips brave notions of a higher life are set free in the thought void, and immediately become universal conceptions of humanity’s possible embodiment.

She does not force upon you the creed of “Mother” Jones, for certainly as an individual she has a creed. But she cries aloud to a careless, indifferent world, that humanity has one destiny, one goal to which it is struggling; that one nation cannot go there and leave behind another; that one sex cannot stand upon the other; that one class may not live by the other’s misery; that the elect may not find heaven alone; that sinners may not be damned and forgotten; that we may not escape by death from the earth life’s travail; but that all together must conceive the race born into freedom with the one pulsating consciousness of a divine organization.

And this vision of “Mother” Jones as one of the great souls of the world summoning men and women to the “grand roads of the universe” can only be had by seeing her under many aspects, at many times and places, watching her at the tables of the rich, in the homes of the poor, on the highway under sun or falling rain, or in those rare moments when the “intellectuals” corner her for a love feast and beg from her a crumb of wisdom.

—–

Power of “Mother” Jones Proved.

To be sure, this is extreme claim to make for any limited human life, for any individual however great its genius. And the mere thought of calling “Mother” Jones a genius will sound to the critical, fastidious, cultivated world as an absurdity or stupidity. But it is upon the testimony of events and incidents in a career that one may most safely rest a claim of this sort. One incident alone is sufficient to prove the power of “Mother” Jones to bring the sublime to the hearts of the lowliest, an incident which might thrill the comprehension of the most jeering of sceptics.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Part I: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Has any one ever told you, my children, about the lives you are living?”-Mother Jones, West Virginia, 1897

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Speech WV 1897, Lives You Are Living, Bst Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 12, 1904
Traveling West Virginia with Mother Jones during the Great Coal Strike of 1897

From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:

In the Sunday Magazine Section of the Boston Herald, a reporter recalls traveling with Mother Jones into the hills of West Virginia during the “first great anthracite strike” [most likely the Bituminous Coal Strike of 1897]. The reporter describes how Mother beguiled a young mine owner into allowing her to speak to his employees “near the pit mouth on his own property.” As gleaned from the memory of the reporter, the result of the speech given by Mother Jones to those miners and their families was dramatic.

HdLn w Photos Mother Jones Methods, Speech WV 1897, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904

…..In West Virginia, during the first great anthracite strike , the United Mine Workers of America had placed some of its organizers. Among these was “Mother” Jones, the only woman organizer employed by the trades unions. On the way she had traveled through the mountain roads by night and day, toiling in the passes, tramping the railroad tracks, riding in farm wagons, or push carts, or in whatever way seemed easiest to get from camp to camp to preach the doctrine that working men must unite, the slogan of the trades unions.

She had a good measure of success, and the fame of her power as a trouble maker had spread among the mine owners. She was detested and feared by half the state, wondered about and gaped over by the other half. She was sleeping under any sort of shelter, eating the coarsest of food, stripping herself of clothing to give away right and left. Though she was earning a fair salary, she could not use it to make life easier for herself in this environment.

Reaching a town one morning which was practically dominated by the influence of a rich young mine owner, she applied for permission to the authorities to hold a mass meeting. She was refused the permit unless she could gain the consent of the mine owner himself, who held a position of local political authority. Two reporters, who had been sent out to watch the progress of events in this part of the state, believed that no speechmaking would occur in this town. “Mother” Jones thought differently. She sought the mine owner in his home. She told him that she had come to make a request which she saw in his face he would grant. He smiled and asked who she was and what she desired. With the benignity of the most gentle kindliness and simple dignity the old lady replied demurely that she was “Mother” Jones, and wished to have a talk with his employees.

“You, ‘Mother’ Jones,” said the rich man, astonished; “you are surely not in earnest?”

“Yes, I am ‘Mother’ Jones, the wicked old woman,” replied the supplicant with her steadfastly radiant expression and her almost subtle smile; so quiet, so gentle, so intelligent it made the words she uttered so whimsically of herself, a patent libel and insult upon her character. It was an irony that disturbed the judgment of the rich young man.

The mine owner studied the fact, the attitude, the folded hands of the woman before him, and then inquired what she would like him to do. “Mother” Jones said she would like him to send word through his mines that she was there, and grant her permission to talk on Sunday in an open space near the pit mouth on his own property. Though it seems incredible, the young mine owner consented. The inscrutable smile had been too much for his resistance.

The word was accordingly sent out through the mines that “Mother” Jones was to speak by permission of the operator. The foreman and bosses could scarcely believe their ears, and the ignorant miners, the foreign element that could scarcely speak English, did not believe. They feared it was some trap to compass their economic ruin, or more simply, to cost them their jobs. On Sunday morning only a few persons gathered at the meeting place designated, and “Mother” Jones seated on a rock, watched and waited.

The Local Labor Leader Surprised.

“This is going to be a frost,” said the local labor leader, one John Walker.

“Wait a little,” said “Mother” Jones.

Gradually it was apparent what the old lady was watching with her smiling eyes. Men were climbing up through the mountain passes and hiding behind huge boulders; they were peeping over the tops and around the sides of their hiding places, and women were lurking in the thickets.

“Come nearer, comrades; don’t be afraid, brothers,” said “Mother” Jones, standing up, and then she began to talk. In a few minutes about 100 men and women gathered in front of the rocky platform. The mine owner himself sat on a rock some paces away.

Has any one ever told you, my children, about the lives you are living, more so that you may understand how it is you pass your days on earth? Have you told each other about it and thought it over among yourselves, so that you might imagine a brighter day and begin to bring it to pass? If no one has done so, I will do it for you today. I want you to see yourselves as you are, Mothers and children, and to think if it is not time you look on yourselves, and upon each other. Let us consider this together, for I am one of you, and I know what it is to suffer.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Has any one ever told you, my children, about the lives you are living?”-Mother Jones, West Virginia, 1897” →

Hellraisers Journal: Debs on the Capitalists’ Parties: “Differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 11, 1904
Indianapolis, Indiana – Debs Opens Campaign with Impassioned Address

From the Appeal to Reason of September 10, 1904:

Published in the Appeal we find the entire text of the speech made by Socialist Presidential Candidate, Eugene Debs, in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Thursday, September 1st. The article begins with a few notable quotes:

TOCSIN OF THE 1904 CAMPAIGN SOUNDED
———-

In an Eloquent and Impassioned Address Before A Multitude of
Cheering People, Eugene V. Debs, Candidate for President of
the Socialist Ticket, Opened the Campaign at
Indianapolis, Indiana, Last Thursday.

SPA Ticket Debs and Hanford, 1904

SOME OF DEBS’ EPIGRAMS.

     “Ignorance alone stands in the way of Socialist success.”

———-

     “Capitalist parties stand for slavery and night; the Socialist party is the herald of Freedom and Light.”

———-

     “The ballot of united labor expresses the people’s will, and the people’s will is the supreme law of a free nation.”

———-

“The divided vote of labor is the abuse at the ballot and the penalty is slavery and death.”

———-

     “Labor has always been the mud-sill of the social fabric-is so now, and will be until the class struggle ends in class extinction and free society.”

———-

     “These are stirring days for living man. The day of crisis is drawing near and Socialists are exerting all their power to prepare the people for it.”

———-

     “The old order of society can survive but little longer. Socialism is next in order. The swelling minority sounds warning of the impending change. Soon that minority will be the majority, and then will come the Co-operative Commonwealth.”

———-

     “The Socialist party comprehends the magnitude of its task and has the patience at preliminary defeat and the faith of ultimate victory.”

———-

     “With faith and hope and courage we held our heads erect and with dauntless spirit marshal the working class for the search from capitalism to Socialism, from slavery to Freedom, from barbarism to Civilization.”

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Debs on the Capitalists’ Parties: “Differences as arise between them relate to spoils and not to principles.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Meeting of Akron Central Labor Union, Describes Labor War in Colorado

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 10, 1904
Akron, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks to Members of Central Labor Union

From The Akron Beacon Journal of September 9, 1904:

MOTHER JONES ADDRESSES LABOR UNION
———-
Woman Leader Speaks Her Mind
on Colorado Trouble.
———-

“COMMERCIAL CANNIBALS”
———-
Will Make a Public Address
in the City on Sunday.
———-

Mother Jones, Tacoma Times, Sept 19, 1904

The principal feature of the regular meeting of the Central Labor union Thursday night was an address by “Mother” Jones.

Mrs. Jones spoke mainly upon the labor war in Colorado. She maintained that the money powers and employers of the state of Colorado were united in an effort to crush out all organized labor. She stated that the governor of Colorado said the fight was against the Western Federation of Miners and not the American Federation of Labor he was a liar. Mrs. Jones described many of the scenes of this bloody labor war which she saw while in Colorado before she was deported.

About the Philippines.

She paid her compliments to the Dick bill by which the guns were supplied to the state of Colorado as well as the others. These guns were used by the militia in service at the mines.

Mrs. Jones brought up a bugaboo when she said she actually believed that the next congress would pass a law to make the Philippines a penal institution and ship all union labor over there.

She referred to the wealthy manufacturers of the east as the “commercial cannibals.” Commercialism was declared to be the curse of the whole country and responsible for the Colorado trouble.

Mrs. Jones then distributed some of her literature bearing on the labor questions of the day.

[Will Speak to Public on Sunday]

She will remain in Akron for several days and on Sunday afternoon will again speak in public under the auspices of the Central Labor union. A committee was appointed by the Central union to secure a hall for the purpose. One of the opera houses will be secured…

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Meeting of Akron Central Labor Union, Describes Labor War in Colorado” →

Hellraisers Journal: Chicago Meat Cutters and Butchers Renew Strike and Stand Ready to Fight to the “Bitter End”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Coming of the Lord, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 7, 1904
Striking Chicago Meat Cutters and Butchers Will Fight to Bitter End

From The Labor World of September 3, 1904:
The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of Chicago have renewed their strike and stand ready to fight to the “bitter end.”

TO FIGHT BIG CHICAGO STRIKE
TO BITTER END
———-

Executive Officers Decide to Wage War
Against Packers With Vigor.
———-
Meeting Which Promised to Call Off Strike
Renews Activities.
———-

Michael Donnelly w Butchers, Chicago Ill Commons p397, Sept 1904

Chicago, Ill., Sept. 1-Hostilities have been vigorously renewed in the stock yards strike, both sides threaten a determined fight to the finish and the police have taken extreme measures in anticipation of trouble.

Following the action of the strike leaders in unanimously voting to continue the strike and fight to the bitter end, now that the packers have rejected final overtures for peace, an army of more that 2,000 strike pickets again have taken up watch about the yards. At a late hour the Board of business agents of the twenty-seven branches of the Butcher Workmen’s Union, were convened and given instructions. It was asserted that the question of calling a general strike of the 220,000 union workmen in Chicago in all trades was discussed.

“There will be startling developments within a few hours,” said President Michael Donnelly of the Butcher Workmen’s Union. “We are preparing our fences and laying our lines and we are going to win this strike. Chicago will be amazed when the developments become public. We will say nothing until the proper time.”

The fact that T. P. Quinn of the Chicago Federation of Labor, who advocated a general walk-out of every trade in Chicago held a long conference with the strike leaders led to a wide report that a general tie-up of all Chicago’s industries for three days or a week by a monster strike of all organized labor was under discussion.

On their side the packers took steps which threatened trouble. They demanded a heavily increased police guard and last night began preparations to attempt to move to their Fulton and South Water street branch markets, which have been practically closed since the big strike began.

Pickets are Ordered Back.
With the packers thus throwing down the gage, the strike leaders ordered the army of pickets back to vigorous duty. More that 1,500 pickets took up watch about the yards and at the various points where supplies may be hauled to the various branch markets.

Vice President Raff of the Teamsters Union, which declared last night to stay in the strike to the end, asserted that his men would aid in the work of picketing.

“Contrary to reports in some quarters,” said he, “we have never withdrawn our pickets. We are increasing their number and they will do duty as before, stopping ice deliveries to those dealers who persist in handling ‘unfair’ meat.”

International Secretary Call of the Butcher Workmen’s Union, said:

“Everything is most satisfactory. We stand as a unit. We are convinced that this strike can be won.”

“It will be a strike now that will strike some surprise to this city.” said President Donnelly of the Butcher Workmen’s union. “We have made every possible effort for peace. Now the blame for the results must rest on the packers. Our men stand firm to a a man. They will fight to win if we have to stay out until Christmas.”

The Conference Board indorsed the action of the Butcher Workmen’s executive board by unanimous vote.

President Donnelly and Secretary Homer D. Call of the Butcher Workmen’s Union, as a special committee, carried to the conference board the report of the action of their body.

They were greeted with a terrific outburst of cheering. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Chicago Meat Cutters and Butchers Renew Strike and Stand Ready to Fight to the “Bitter End”” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Wayland for Debs Campaign; Colorado Republicans; Georgia Democrats

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Prosperity, LW p1, July 1, 1919—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 6, 1904
Comrade Wayland Supports Debs Campaign vs Republicans and Democrats

From the Appeal to Reason of Sept 3, 1904:

Comrade Wayland Does His Part for Socialist Candidates

In this week’s Appeal to Reason, Editor J. A. Wayland  describes how he has been working, on his own time, for the Socialist Party candidates and asks the Appeal Army to do the same:

EVD n Hanford for Pres SPA, AtR p6, Sept 3, 1904

WILL YOU HELP
———-

Last week I rode sixty-five miles, circulating Appeals and pamphlets, about Girard [Kansas]. One evening after work I made twenty miles and left an Appeal and two pamphlets at every farm house. Don’t feel to dignified to do such work, and the most humble can do it and by it do just as effective work as the most brilliant speakers. I intend to keep this up during the entire campaign, giving fresh literature at each covering of the same roads. I do this after my day’s work in the office is done. Ten thousand men doing this two or fours hours a week would make a tremendous breach in capitalism this fall.

J. A. WAYLAND

Good Christians of Colorado Fear Growth of Socialism

The Appeal to Reason reports that ministers throughout Colorado have been receiving the following letter:

Letter re Socialism v Christianity by Rev, AtR p2, Sept 3, 1904

The above letter was written to a New Castle, Colo., minister. A similar letter was sent to every minister in the state of Colorado. You will note that it is written on stationery furnished and paid for by the people of Colorado. It is by this means that the ruling class hope to further enslave the working class. The Mine Owners’ Association and the Citizens’ Alliance are flooding Colorado with literature in a vain attempt to stem the tide which they realize will soon engulf them. The Rev. Mr. Malone is very much afraid that Socialism will sweep aside the time honored institution of private property-and by private property in this case the gentleman has reference to the great productive properties of the state-the mines-the railroads-the mills and factories. Mr. Malone is right. Socialism proposes to destroy private property in these things, which are essential to the collective welfare and vest the title in society collectively. Exploitation will then cease.
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Wayland for Debs Campaign; Colorado Republicans; Georgia Democrats” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Burley WA Co-operator: Mother Jones Describes the March of the Mill Children of July 1903

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones to TR, These Little Children, Phl No Am July 16, 1903, Foner p552—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 4, 1904
Mother Jones Describes the March of the Mill Children of July 1903

From The Co-operator of September 1904:

The March of the Children.

Lena Morrow Lewis, in The Socialist, Seattle, Washington, June 19th, 1904. From notes by Mother Jones.

Mother Jones w Army, March of Mill Children, AZ Rpbn p1, July 18, 1903

PHILADELPHIA is famed far and wide as the ” City of Brotherly Love.” Churches abound everywhere, and her people look with holy awe upon the sins and vices of their sister city on Long Island Sound. And an unsuspecting and unobserving public has been quite ready to accept without question all that the City of Brotherly Love has claimed for herself.

It has remained for the wicked labor agitator to ferret out and unearth the criminal conditions that exist in this quiet, peaceful church- going city of Philadelphia, and it is only in a Socialist paper that these facts are permitted to see the light of day.

The writer is indebted to “Mother” Jones for the items contained therein.

Last summer the textile workers of Philadelphia, 125,000 men, women and children, went on a strike. They demanded shorter hours, an increase of wages and better sanitary conditions. Filthy closets and a defective sewerage system produced a very unwholesome atmosphere in which to work. Meanwhile the rest of the world wagged merrily on, and no one seemed to know or care anything about the strike, except a few labor cranks and Socialists and the owners whose profits were being affected. Not a daily newspaper mentioned the cause of the strike, nor the fact that among the strikers were a large number of children. During this time “Mother” Jones “happened” to drop into town and, as is her custom, she began to stir up matters. The public should be forced to know what these people were striking for. But strikes were such common affairs and it would require drastic measures to arouse an indifferent public.

At last she hit upon a plan. She would marshal all the children between the ages of ten and fourteen and take them on a thirty-mile march and they were to stop at every town within that radius and tell the people the story of their wrongs. Many of these children had worked in the factory since they were seven years of age and had never been inside a school room. When they were gone about forty miles they decided to go over to Oyster Bay and present their case to President Roosevelt. There was some risk connected with a project of this kind. If any of the children had sickened or died on the way, that fact would have been heralded all over the country, and “Mother” Jones proclaimed a murderer. The mills could maim and disfigure and kill scores of children annually and no mention be made of the fact. However, “Mother” Jones felt that they could afford to take chances and proceeded with the children.

As they journeyed from town to town, members of the working class provided them with food and shelter.

The children marched thru the streets of the towns, held meetings and, thru their leaders, told the story of their wrongs. Every child was keyed up to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. Every step northward was taking them farther away from Philadelphia. Some of their fathers had voted for President Roosevelt; in their eyes he was the greatest man in the United States and so they went hopefully and merrily on. When they reached Bristol the leader sent a request on behalf of the children for a permit to hold a street meeting and, when it was learned that an army of children was coming into town, a squad of policemen armed with guns were ordered to stand guard on the bridge to protect the city against the children.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Burley WA Co-operator: Mother Jones Describes the March of the Mill Children of July 1903” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mrs. Langdon Reports on the Torture and Deportation of A. G. Leduc of the Western Federation of Miners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III————————-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 1, 1904
Cripple Creek District, Colorado – The Torture and Deportation of A. G. Leduc

DRWG Siberia CO Citizens Alliance, AtR p1, June 25, 1904

Terror still reigns against union miners and union sympathizers in the Cripple Creek Strike Zone of Colorado. Mrs. Emma Langdon, of Victor, Colorado, reports from the Cripple Creek Strike zone:

The Inter-state Mercantile Company is seeking relief through the federal courts from mob terror. This company operates the stores which assist the striking miners and their families, and, being run by an out-of-state company, they are able to take their case into the federal courts.

State wide pressure placed upon Governor Peabody forced the executive of the state to offer state troops to the Sheriff of Teller County in order to quell the violence of the white-cappers [Citizens Alliance]. This offer was rejected by Sheriff Bell, the sheriff chosen by the white-cappers to replace Sheriff Robertson who was deemed too sympathetic to the W. F. of M. and was forced to resign or be hanged.

Sheriff Bell has now arrested a member of the clergy, Rev. Leland, who is considered too friendly to the union cause.

And finally Mrs. Langdon reports on the case of A. G. Leduc, member of the Western Federation of Miners. Leduc was kidnapped by the white-cappers, beaten, terrorized and driven from the his home and family. He was able to make his way to Denver, but his condition is serious.

MRS. EMMA F. LANGDON REPORTS
FROM THE CRIPPLE CREEK STRIKE ZONE
—————

Interstate Mercantile Company Appeals to Federal Court

On August 23, H. N. Heinerdinger, manager of the Inter-state Mercantile Company, which had some time previously, taken the control of the union stores of the district, applied to Judge Riner and Judge Hallett of the Federal court, first for an injunction restraining any one in the Cripple Creek district from interfering with the operations of the store; second, for damages against Teller county and certain individuals for the wrecking of the store, and third, individual suits for personal damage brought by Mr. Heinerdinger and F. J. Hall, citizens of Montana, who purchased and owned the store in Cripple Creek.

The Mercantile Company applied for the aid of the Federal court because it was a corporation organized under the laws of Montana, which made it a citizen of another state than Colorado. It was the diversity of citizenship between the company and the defendants which gave the Federal court jurisdiction to act. Most of the other deported men being citizens of Colorado as well as the deporters, the Federal court could not act for them.

Governor Offers Troops

[With citizens of the state becoming more disturbed over the outrages perpetrated on citizens in Cripple Creek], the governor, in order to make it appear that he would make an effort to maintain law, sent the following communication to Sheriff Bell, of Teller county:

State of Colorado, Executive Chamber,
Denver, Colo., Aug. 27, 1904.
Hon. Edward Bell, Sheriff of Teller County, Cripple Creek, Colorado:

Sir—Upon Saturday, the 21st inst., there was assembled in Teller county a disorderly mob of men. This mob destroyed private property and maltreated and drove from the county a number of citizens and other persons.

Teller county has been a source of much anxiety to my administration. Order has been restored there at great expense to the state, and the militia, after a protracted service, rendered with the single purpose of making life and property secure, had only recently been withdrawn.

Your county had been freed, as I hoped, from criminal disturbers of the peace; the civil offices of your county are now filled, as I am informed, by incumbents who desire to extend to all citizens the full protection of the law. I recalled the troops because I believed and was informed that your community was once more safe in the hands of such officers. If I am right in so believing, there should be no occasion for lawless outbursts such as that of Saturday last.

I am recently informed that a similar mob of men have in contemplation another and still further outrage. I am convinced that you, as sheriff, having the full sympathy and support of the civil authorities, can and should maintain peace and lawful order. I therefore desire to say that should you not be able, with the means at your disposal, to successfully cope with the situation and maintain law and order in Teller county, I am ready to again place at your disposal the militia of this state.

Our paramount duty at this and at all times is to uphold the law and its safeguards, without distinction of interests or of individuals.

I will thank you for an early reply, and am, respectfully yours,
JAMES H. PEABODY. Governor.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mrs. Langdon Reports on the Torture and Deportation of A. G. Leduc of the Western Federation of Miners” →