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Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 8, 1913
Colorado Federation of Labor Issues Call for State Convention
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of December 6, 1913:
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Tag: Southern Colorado Tent Colonies 1913
Hellraisers Journal: “Rich Suffragets Know Nothing of Miners’ Wives’ Suffering Says Mother Jones” by William G. Shepherd
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 28, 1913
Mother Jones Lectures Rich Suffragettes on Suffering of Miners’ Wives
From the Chicago Day Book of October 27, 1913:
RICH SUFFRAGETS KNOW NOTHING OF
MINERS’ WIVES’ SUFFERING
SAYS MOTHER JONESBY WM. G. SHEPHERD
Trinidad, Col., Oct. 27.-Mother Jones, 81, here fresh from the West Virginia prisons to help Colorado coal strikers, recently gave me her opinion on women’s suffrage.
From what I see of conditions in this corrupted state of Colorado, where they have had women’s suffrage for 14 years, it seems to me that the influence of women has been utterly useless. I wish Mrs. Pankhurst would frame me a statement as to why women’s suffrage has failed so utterly in Colorado. Conditions of women and children in mining districts are worse than in any other part of the United States.
This state is owned by corporations. Votes of the women of Colorado have never helped Colorado women and children, made their lives easier or lessened their toil or gained for them any additional human rights.
The rights of lower classes are less respected in this great woman suffrage state than in West Virginia, where women don’t vote. It is like prescribing cough medicine to cure consumption for Mrs. Pankhurst to suggest votes for women as a cure for economical slavery.
Mrs. Pankhurst doesn’t understand problems of the lower classes; she belongs to the upper classes. What does Mrs. Belmont or Mrs. Mackay or other rich women who surround Mrs. Pankhurst know about suffering of miners’ wives and infants? Mrs. Pankhurst travels with women who are opposed to what laboring classes of America stand for. They demand to know what right Mrs. Pankhurst has to associate with such women at the same time she talks about uplifting the world. The consumptive, economical America needs something more than Mrs. Pankhurst’s celebrated cough syrup. I wish Mrs. Pankhurst were coming to speak to the women in the tented camps of the coal strikers of Colorado. It would be more of a lesson for Mrs. Pankhurst than for the wives.
[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Coal Strike is On in Southern Colorado Coalfields; Mass Exodus from Company Towns into Tent Colonies
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Hellraisers Journal- Wednesday September 24, 1913
Southern Colorado-Thousands of Striking Miners and Families Exit Company Towns
From the Trinidad Chronicle-News of September 23, 1913:
A meeting was held at Sopris this morning and talks were made by Frank J. Hayes and “Mother” Jones. A meeting will be held at Ludlow this afternoon. These meetings will continue from day to day at differenct camps to “keep the enthusiasm going”, as Vice President Hayes intimated last night.
Mother Jones worked up to a high pitch bordering on frenzey deliverd an impassioned address to more than three hundred coal miners at Sopris this morning. The meeting was held under canvass and the venerable labor leader sought to stir up the fires of revolet in the breast of every miner. While the speaking was going on scores of miners were receiving union cards. International vice president Frank J. Hayes also spoke. There was a good deal of enthusiasm manifested.
[Statement of Vice-President Frank Hayes to C-N reporter:]
We have conducted a quiet, dignified campaign. We feel confident the operators will accede to our demands in the near future. The miners by their action today have proved that they desire to enjoy better working conditions and work as union men and enjoy the same rights and privileges as the miners of Wyoming and neighboring states.
This is an age of co-operation and we demand the same right as the mine owners assert to band ourselves together for the purpose of promoting social and economic welfare. The statutes of Colorado concede us this right and the right to sell our labor collectively. We cannot surrender this legal right.
In view of the prosperity of this particular company [C. F. & I.] which also reflects the prosperity of other big corporations, we see no good reason why the miners should not enjoy more of the comforts and refinements of modern civilization. We have repeatedly sought to secure a joint conference but without success. We are still waiting for a conference to adjust the present controversy. If working conditions are as good as the operators say they are, then the operators ought not to fear to meet the miners in joint conference.
[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Exodus of Miners from Company Towns Increases on Eve of Strike in the Southern Colorado Coalfields
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 23, 1913
Southern Colorado – Exodus of Miners and Families from Company Towns Increasing
From the Trinidad Chronicle News of September 22, 1913:
[…..]
At Segundo yesterday a meeting was held, attended by about two hundred…“Mother” Jones addressed a meeting at Walsenburg and returned to this city on the C. & S. train last evening.
Vice President Hayes and International Board Member John R. Lawson will arrive here tonight and will speak at meetings Sopris and Ludlow tomorrow. [Lawson’s] last official utterance before the strike was made in Denver last night when discussing the situation he said:
There will be a complete tie-up of coal mines all over the state on Tuesday. Statements of conditions made by the operators are ridiculous. The operators are only trying to deceive themselves and the public. This contest of the coal miners of Colorado is one largely for improvement of conditions. The operators have laid stress on the demand for recognition of the union. I see the Denver Chamber of Commerce also says that that is the cause of the strike. They are wrong. Recognition of the union is only a minor question.
The miners are fighting for improved conditions, for rights granted them by the state law, and they are eager for a strike. Why, the organization has been preventing a strike for the last three years.
The United Mine Workers are prepared to fight ten years, if necessary, to make conditions in the Colorado mines as good as they are in those of Wyomng and other states. They are prepared to fight indefinitely. They have the money necessary and they can get more.
The Colorado coal miners are poverty stricken. The union has to take care of them, to feed and clothe them, the minute they go on strike. They would not be willing to strike under such conditions if they did not have rights to fight for.
[…..]
[Emphasis added.]
