Hellraisers Journal: Search Continues for Body of William Fessell in Argonaut Mine; Forty-Six Fellow Miners Are Laid to Rest

25th September 202227th September 2022 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 25, 1922
Jackson, California – Search Continues for Miner Fessell; 46 Are Laid to Rest

From The Anaconda Standard of September 22, 1922:

From The Anaconda Standard of September 23 1922:

ARGONAUT VICTIMS ARE LAID TO REST
———-
Forty-six Miners Who Lost Lives
in Mine Disaster Are Buried.
———-

JACKSON, Cal., Sept. 22.-Jackson buried 46 of the victims of the Argonaut gold mine disaster today. Preparations were made to continue the search for the 47th miner, William Fessel, whose body was not found by the federal mine rescue crew.

This little gold mining town suspended all activities for the funeral. Three processions, led by the town’s band, moved to three cemeteries, the Roman Catholic, the Protestant and the Greek Catholic, for services at different hours.

The state was represented at the funerals by Arthur Keetch, secretary to Governor Stephens. V. Filopi, consul general of Italy at San Francisco, who was among the mourners, congratulated the rescue workers after the funerals.

Searchers of the Argonaut mining crew will enter the Argonaut tomorrow to try to find Fessel, who left a farewell message in the mine. They will explore the levels previously covered by the government crews.

The Argonaut will resume mining as soon as the workers wish it. The fire which caused the tragedy is out, with a loss of $125,000 to the mining company.

Governor Stephens will appoint a party of mining experts to investigate the disaster, his secretary announced. The investigation was requested by the mining company.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: 47 Miners, Entombed at Argonaut Mine, Found Dead; Ernest Miller Was Hero of Butte Mine Fire of 1917

24th September 202226th September 2022 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 24, 1922
Jackson, California – 47 Miners Found Dead at Argonaut Mine

From The Anaconda Standard of September 19, 1922:

By the Associated Press.

JACKSON, Cal., Sept. 18.-All 47 of the miners entombed in the Argonaut mine Aug. 27 are dead, it was announced officially shortly before 9 o’clock tonight. A note found on one of the bodies indicated that all the men had died within five hours of the beginning of the fire, Aug. 27, officials said.

All the miners were found behind the second of two bulkheads they had built in a crosscut 4,350 feet down in the Argonaut mine. Byron Pickard, chief of the federal bureau of mines for this district, was the first man to go behind the bulkhead and discovered the bodies.

Pickard, on an earlier exploration behind this bulkhead, had counted 42 bodies and expressed the belief that there were others there.

The same note bore a scrawled figure “4,” apparently indicating the same man had attempted to leave word for those who might come as to the condition of the mine at that hour.

Mine officials declared that the condition of the crosscut behind the bulkhead was such that life could not have been sustained there by the entombed men for more than five hours.

The bodies were found piled one on top of another and decomposition had progressed so far that identification would be impossible, Pickard reported.

Relatives Mourn in Silence.

Jackson as a whole took the tragic news calmly and courageously. The general topic of conversation except in the immediate family circles of the dead, was arrangements for the funeral, which it was said would be held as a joint affair.

Those of the bodies that were not piled atop of one another were huddled together in little groups. Since death came approximately 22 days ago and the temperature in the crosscut where the men took refuge averages about 100 degrees, it will be necessary to wrap each body in canvas prior to its removal to the surface.

Officials thought it, likely some, but not all, of the bodies could be removed before morning.

The sad scenes customarily associated with removal of the dead from mine disasters were lacking here tonight. There was no crowd of weeping widows and sorrowing relatives at the mine mouth. Among those gathered at the entrance to the great gold workings, newspaper men and miners and comrades of those entombed predominated. For days the relatives have remained at home under persuasions of mine officials and Red Cross workers and tonight it was the Red Cross or sympathetic friends acting under its guidance that broke the sad news to them.

The time elapsing since the men were entombed had given opportunity, to all to prepare for the worst and when that came it was accepted without demonstration.

Most of the miners were of Austrian or Italian birth. Eighteen of them were married and these leave 25 orphans. The second communication from the dead was discovered near the body of William Fezzel. Scratched on a timber were these words, “3 a. m. Gas very bad. Fezzel.”

The hour indicated was only three hours after fire broke out in the Argonaut.

———-

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Critically Ill with Pneumonia at Home of Terence V. Powderly in Washington, D. C.

15th September 202215th September 2022 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones re RR Men Haul Gunthugs n Scab Coal, Coshocton Tb OH p3, Sept 17, 1921 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 15, 1922
Mother Jones Critically Ill at Home of T. V. Powderly in Washington, D. C.

From the Pittsburg, Kansas, Workers Chronicle of September 8, 1922:

FRIEND OF MINERS IS CRITICALLY ILL
———-
“Mother” Jones, 92, “Angel Mining Camps,”
Stricken With Pneumonia.
———-

Washington, Sept. 5.-“Mother” Jones, known to coal miners the country over through her work in their behalf for fifty years, lies critically ill here.

All news of the coal strike settlement and of developments in the rail strike have been kept from Mother Jones by her doctors’ orders.

The aged unofficial leader of the miners was stricken with pneumonia following her arrival here late in July. She came to Washington to recover from a nervous breakdown, following work in the Colorado [West Virginia] mine fields.

At the home of T. V. Powderly, secretary of the board of review, labor department, where Mrs. Jones is being cared for, it was said the aged woman has an even chance for recovery, despite her 92 years.

Once a school teacher in Chicago, Mother Jones became interested in welfare work for girls, and from that broadened her activities until she was nationally known. She was called “Angel of the Mining Camps” because of her frequent ministrations to miners, particularly during strikes.

[Emphasis added; newclip added from Richmond Palladium of Sept. 8th]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “Strike Violence That Doesn’t Get Into the Newspapers”-Strikers and Families Evicted

13th September 202214th September 2022 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III —————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 13, 1922
Coal Miners and Families Brutally Evicted from Company Towns

From The Liberator of September 1922:

From the United Mine Workers Journal of September 1, 1922:

-Tent Colony of Evicted Miners at Buck Bottom, West Virginia

-Families Forming Tent Colony at Gray’s Landing, Pennsylvania

-Evicted Miner George Walker of West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, Age 60

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “Strike Violence That Doesn’t Get Into the Newspapers”-Strikers and Families Evicted” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The North American Review: “The Miners and the Law of Treason” by James G. Randall, Part II

4th September 20225th September 2022 Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921

Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 4, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Miners on Trial for Treason Against the State, Part II

From The North American Review of September 1922:

THE MINERS AND THE LAW OF TREASON

BY JAMES G. RANDALL

[Part II of II]

Turning to the case of the miners, we find that the offense for which they (or rather a selected number of them) are held is treason against the State of West Virginia. In the Constitution of the State of West Virginia there is the following provision:

Treason against the State shall consist only in levying war against it, or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. Treason shall be punished, according to the character of the acts committed, by the infliction of one or more of the penalties of death, imprisonment or fine, as may be prescribed by law.

It will be noticed that the provisions in the West Virginia Constitution resemble those of the Federal Constitution in the definition of the offense and the requirements as to evidence sustaining the overt act, but that the State Constitution goes farther than that of the United States in that it specifies the general nature of the punishment. An examination of the West Virginia code shows that the punishment, as further defined by the Legislature, shall be death, or, at the discretion of the jury, confinement in the penitentiary not less than three nor more than ten years and confiscation of the real and personal estate. Withholding knowledge of treason, attempting to justify armed insurrection by written or printed words, or engaging in an unlawful assemblage, are punishable by lesser penalties, thus indicating that these offenses are regarded as distinct from treason itself. As to what constitutes “levying war” against the State, this is largely a matter for interpretation by the court, and it appears that Judge Woods has made considerable use of Federal as well as State decisions in determining his rulings.

The acts for which the miners are on trial took place in connection with the serious outbreak of August, 1921. As a climax of years of growing hostility, during which the United Mine Workers had made repeated efforts to unionize the mine fields of Logan and Mingo counties, several hundred men assembled on August 20 at Marmet, West Virginia, with the intention of making some kind of demonstration or attack, the exact purpose of which is disputed. An important feature of the case is that the Governor had previously proclaimed martial law in Mingo County, and had sent State troops into that county to preserve order. It is the contention of the prosecution that the acts of the miners constituted a defiance of this martial law, and an intention to resist the troops.

An appeal by “Mother Jones”, a well-known leader among the miners, failed to disperse them, and the armed force, picturesquely uniformed in blue overalls and red bandanna handkerchiefs, proceeded on their march. The first violence occurred at Sharples in Boone County, where a small force of State police was resisted by the miners while seeking to serve warrants upon men wanted by the Logan County authorities. Several miners were killed and from this time the march assumed much more alarming proportions. By the time the Boone-Logan county line was reached the invaders numbered about eight thousand. Don Chafin, sheriff of Logan County, raised a defending force of approximately two thousand which he commanded until, after some delay, Governor Morgan commissioned Colonel Eubanks to take charge with State troops. For over a week the opposing “armies” confronted each other over an extended mountainous battle-front in the neighborhood of Blair, and there was considerable detached fighting. On the defending side three deputy sheriffs were killed, and it was for their deaths that the indictments for murder were drawn. Probably more than twenty of the invaders lost their lives.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The North American Review: “The Miners and the Law of Treason” by James G. Randall, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The North American Review: “The Miners and the Law of Treason” by James G. Randall, Part I

3rd September 20224th September 2022 Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921

Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 3, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Miners on Trial for Treason Against the State, Part I

From The North American Review of September 1922:

THE MINERS AND THE LAW OF TREASON

BY JAMES G. RANDALL

[Part I of II]

Once again the quiet village of Charles Town, West Virginia, in the historic Shenandoah valley, has furnished the setting for a memorable State trial. As in 1859, when John Brown went to the gallows for a traitorous assault which was misconceived as a stroke for Abolition, so in the present year the eyes of the nation have been focused upon this same little county seat while hundreds of miners have faced trial on indictments for murder and treason in connection with the “insurrection” of August, 1921. Twenty-four of the miners who were associated with the armed march of several thousand men directed against the coal fields of Logan and Mingo counties have been charged with the grave offense of “treason”, and it is with this phase of the question that the present article proposes to deal. Many circumstances unite to make the trials notable. The long continued efforts of the United Mine Workers to unionize the West Virginia fields, the elaborate litigation which included several federal injunction suits, the huge scale as well as the gravity of the indictments, the intensity of the industrial disputes involved, and the challenge to the State authorities to uphold elemental social order and yet deal fairly with both sides in an unusually bitter struggle-all these factors lift the case above the level of an ordinary criminal proceeding. Without attempting, however, to discuss the industrial phases of the “miners’ war”, the writer proposes to view the cases from a restricted angle and to consider their relation to the history of treason in our legal system.

Though the charge against the miners is the rara avis of treason against a State, the analogy of this crime with treason against the United States is very close, and it may therefore be useful to recall some of the outstanding points in the history of national treason. Treason is the only crime which the Federal Constitution undertakes to define. It consists “only in levying war against the United States or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort”. To prove treason, the commission of an overt act must be established by at least two witnesses, unless there is a confession in open court. Congress has no authority to fix the nature of the crime, and can neither enlarge nor restrict the offense beyond the constitutional definition. Congress may, however, fix the punishment, and among the acts passed by the first Congress ever assembled under the Constitution was the Treason Law of 1790, which established the penalty of death for this highest of crimes.

In the course of time a well recognized body of principles has grown up around the law of treason. Thus it is recognized that “constructive treason” has no place in our legal system. There must be an actual levying of war. A mere plotting, gathering of arms, or assemblage of men is not treason, in case no overt act is committed. The “levying war”, however, has been rather broadly defined by our courts. Besides formal or declared war, it includes an insurrection or combination which forcibly opposes the Government or resists the execution of its laws. Engaging in an insurrection to prevent the execution of a law is treason, because this act amounts to levying war. The mere uttering of words of treasonable import does not constitute the crime, nor is mere sympathy with the enemy sufficient to warrant conviction.

Treason differs from other crimes in that there are no accessories. All are principals, including those whose acts would, in the case of felonies, make them accessories. Those who take part in the conspiracy which culminates in treason are principals, even though absent when the overt act is committed.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The North American Review: “The Miners and the Law of Treason” by James G. Randall, Part I” →