Tag: The Labor World

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1902, Part I: Embodies Spirit of Revolt; UMWA Surrounded by Injunctions in West Virginia

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 9, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1902, Part I
Embodies Spirit of Revolt; Surrounded by Injunctions in West Virginia

From The Socialist Spirit of August 1902:

“MOTHER” JONES

BY WILLIAM MAILLY

“Mother” Jones has been compared to Joan of Arc, but she is more than that.

The French maid derived her inspiration from the mystical creations of a brain inflamed by religious ecstasy. She was the slave of her own imagination. She fought for the “divine right of kings,” dying a victorious sacrifice to a cause which, dominant in her day, will soon cease to disfigure the world. Her rightful place as the fanatical representative of medieval mummery has already been assigned her.

But “Mother” Jones absorbs inspiration from living men and women; their hopes and fears, their scant joys and abundant sorrows, are hers also to laugh with and to weep over. She deals with things that are, to fashion the better things that will be. And her cause is the one that will release mankind from material subserviency and mental obliquity, to finally rejuvenate and glorify the world.

In this only are they alike: John of Arc was peculiarly the product of the material conditions of her time, just as “Mother” Jones is of the conditions existing to-day. Each would have been impossible at any other period. As Joan of Arc typified the superstition and mental darkness of the people who hailed and followed her as one gifted with supernatural power, so “Mother” Jones is the embodiment of the new spiritual concept and clearer mentality characteristic of the awakening working class of our day. She is the incarnation of the spirit of revolt against modern industrial conditions—the spirit which finds fullest expression in the world-wide Socialist movement.

For “Mother” Jones is, above and beyond all, one of the working class. She is flesh of their flesh, blood of their blood. She comes of them, has lived their lives, and, if necessary, would die to make their lives happier and better. She loves the workers with a passionate love stronger than the love of life itself. Her advent marks the stage of their progress towards emancipation.

[…..]

[Everyone Knew Her]

Recently I traversed the territory where “Mother” had worked for several months organizing. To say her name is a household word is to use a hackneyed phrase for want of a stronger one to express it. Everyone knew her, from the smallest child to the oldest inhabitant. And all blessed her-except the mine-owners and their sympathizers whose hatred she is gratified to enjoy. There were places she entered three years ago where the women-wives of miners-refused to speak to or recognize her. Now her picture occupies a prominent place on the walls of their homes. Nothing could demonstrate more clearly her ability to overcome prejudice and make the workers her friends and confidants, and something more than mere blind followers or stupid worshipers. She represents the cause made up of the tangible realities which compose their daily lives.

[…..]

[Knows of Personal Suffering]

“Mother” has had full share of personal suffering. Coming early in life, with her parents, to Canada, she married, but lost her husband and four children in the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis several years afterwards. Thrown upon her own resources, she taught school for a while, and in pursuit of that vocation journeyed West. In San Francisco she gained her first experience in labor agitation by participating in the movement against Chinese cheap labor, in which Denis Kearney became famous. Then she joined the Knights of Labor, and from that time her activity has never ceased.

[…..]

[Organizing in West Virginia]

It is here where “Mother” has encountered more dangers than in all her experience, for the state has been heretofore entirely under control of the capitalists, and the entrance of agitators has been opposed in every shape and manner. It was for this very reason that “Mother” went there. She has been able to do what no man or any number of men could accomplish, even had they wanted to. The present strike of 20,000 men, after years of abject slavery, is the direct result of her work. Injunction after injunction has been issued against her, but she has gone right on. As I write this the news comes that, after awaiting sentence for several days, following upon being found guilty of contempt of court for violating one of these injunctions, the same judge has dismissed her with a reprimand. In this he showed more wisdom than such as he are usually credited with, but the effectiveness of the reprimand is doubted.

It remained for President John Mitchell to recognize the value of this woman’s great ability and provide the opportunity to put it to full account. Through him she has been a national organizer of the United Mine Workers for the past three years, and her work has more than justified his action. It is conceded and acknowledged by all that she has done more than anyone else to solidify the miners into a strong national organization. She has infected the whole mining industry with her enthusiasm and by her socialist teaching she has turned the thoughts of thousands of workers towards the greater mission in store for them. In view of this it is easy to understand why every one of the thousand delegates to the national convention just adjourned, wept when they bade farewell to her upon her departure to West Virginia to receive sentence from a capitalist court.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Duluth Labor World: “Gene Debs Defines Labor Leaders Duty”-Do Not Vote for Enemy of Workers

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Socialist Ripe Trade Unionist, WLUC p45, May 31, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 1, 1902
Comrade Eugene Debs on Class Consciousness and the Ballot

From the Duluth Labor World of August 30, 1902:

GENE DEBS DEFINES LABOR LEADERS DUTY
———-

EVD, LW p1, Aug 30, 1902

The time is near at hand when a member of a union will be expelled just as promptly for casting a scab ballot, that is to say for supporting the party of the enemy of labor, as if he took the place of a member while out on strike. Indeed, there may be some justification for the latter, but there can be none for the former act of treason, except alone that of ignorance. And thus it is the duty of the true leader to use his best efforts to overcome, so that the workers on all occasions, economically, politically, and otherwise, can use their entire organized class power in resisting the capitalist system, and in charging it at every point until finally it is overcome and the world’s workers stand forth free men.

The action taken by the three national conventions of labor organizations recently held at Denver [W. F. M., A. L. U. and United Association of Hotel and Restaurant Employes] in adopting a working class political program, has created widespread interest in every part of the country. The reactionary element predict for the new policy speedy and complete failure. So certain are they of this that they do not hesitate to misrepresent the action of the conventions and bear false testimony against those who took part in them. A number of misleading statements have appeared in the papers, and others are quietly circulated to bring the personnel of the conventions into disrepute, and this is engaged in by those who lack the courage to openly charge and face the men who led the movement which culminated in a new departure, which promises to remould the entire labor movement of the country, and bring it up-to-date in all its economic and political equipment.

The two men who led and inspired the conventions were Edward Boyce, president of the Western Federation of Miners, and Daniel McDonald, president of the Western, now the American Labor Union. McDonald was unanimously reelected upon that issue and holds his position by practically the unanimous confidence of the members of his great and growing organization. Edward Boyce retired from official life, honored by every true man and only hated by those who found him staunch and incorruptible, and utterly incapable of being swerved from his duty to his fellowmen. The name of this man will be honorably written in the history of trades unionism, as he has already written it in the deeds of duty that live forever.

I need not, at this time, repeat the terms of the essential change which has taken place in the Western labor movement. It is all summed up in this single statement that it has adopted a working-class political platform and is now equipped for united action in the political field in every contest until the victory is finally won.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1902, Part V: From Labor World: Judge Jackson is a Coward, Fears to Sentence Miners’ Angel

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones, Most Dangerous Woman, Machinists Mly, Sept 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 21, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1902, Part V
Judge Jackson Proves Himself a Coward, Afraid to Sentence Mother Jones

From the Duluth Labor World of July 26, 1902:

IT IS AN OUTRAGE
———-

ORGANIZERS OF MINE WORKERS
IN PRISON FOR CONTEMPT.
———-
Judge Jackson, of United States Circuit Court, Passes Sentence
-Fears to Sentence “Mother” Jones
-President Mitchell Says Decision “Imperils the
Rights of All Americans in the Courts.” 

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

Judge Jackson, of the United States Circuit Court, at Parkersburg, W. Va., has held “Mother” Jones and seven other organizers and officials of the United Mine workers guilty of contempt of court in violating his injunction of June 19, prohibiting them from “making inflammatory speeches,” and has imposed a sentence of from thirty to ninety days upon all, with the exception of “Mother” Jones.

The injunction in question, which Judge Jackson issued, is directed at the right of free speech. It is a deadlier blow at American liberty and the rights of the masses of the people than has been struck for a long time. It is an outrage which cannot but make the blood of every working man boil with indignation.

Trade unionists know President John Mitchell, of the United Mine workers. They know him by reputation all over the land. They know that he has compelled even those on the capitalistic side to acknowledge that he is cool-headed, conservative, brainy and far-seeing. He is not given to loud talk or extravagant assertions. Yet President Mitchell says of the Jackson decision:

“It imperils the rights of all Americans in the courts.”

It takes something of more than ordinary significance to draw from President Mitchell such an accusation against one of the highest tribunals of justice in the United States. Even now the statement is dignified, and quiet, but for that very reason it carries all the more force with thinking men.

“The rights of all Americans in the courts” is imperiled by what? Trades unions? Strikes? Organized, labor? Boycotts? Oh, no! By the action of a man chosen to meet out justice from the bench of the United States Circuit court, which is next to the Supreme court itself the highest court of justice in the country.

In the case of “Mother” Jones, the judge suspended contempt. In doing so he said that she had been found guilty of contempt, “but as she was posing as a martyr, he would not send her to jail or allow her to force her way into jail.” No more insulting message to organized labor could have been given out than that comment on the case of “Mother” Jones, coming after his action on her case. If she were guilty, she deserved punishment just as much as the others. But, because, forsooth, she is well known among organized labor circles, and her imprisonment would call attention to the monstrous injustice of this ermined anarchist, he sneeringly remarks that he will not allow her to “pose as a martyr,” and turns her loose.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1902, Part V: From Labor World: Judge Jackson is a Coward, Fears to Sentence Miners’ Angel” →

Hellraisers Journal: Chicago Dispatch Sends Officers Through Downtown Streets to Raid and Capture Little Beggar Children

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD, Children of the Poor, AtR p2, Mar 17, 1900—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 20, 1902
Chicago, Illinois – Police Raid and Capture Little Beggar Children

From the Duluth Labor World of August 16, 1902:

HdLn Raiding Little Children, Lbr Wld p1, Aug 16, 1902

From The Chicago Daily Tribune of July 30, 1902:

LOCK UP CHILD BEGGARS.
———-

TWO SCORE YOUNG MENDICANTS
OR PEDDLERS CAPTURED.
———-
Raid Made by Police Through Downtown Streets
and Many Little Ones Are Caught
Telling Tales of Poverty and Suffering
-Flight and Capture of the Popp Family
-Newspaper Alley Visited and
a Number of Boys Are Arrested.
———-

In a raid through the downtown streets last night forty children, all beggars or peddlers, were arrested and taken to the Harrison street police annex and to the Juvenile home, 625 West Adams street.

Three patriot wagons followed the police men and picked up the children arrested. Many were caught as they were telling pitiful tales of cruel parents and sick mothers. Several others were too quick for the detectives and dodged into alleyways and other avenues of escape. The raids will be continued until the streets are cleared of the baby beggars.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Crown of Greatness Put On Aged Head of Mother Jones” by Terence V. Powderly for The Labor World

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote John Mitchell, re Mother Jones, UMWC PM Session, Jan 25, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 13, 1922
Terence V. Powderly on the Greatness of Mother Jones: “Gives of Herself in Service.”

From the Duluth Labor World of August 12, 1922:

TVP re Mother Jones Greatness, LW p1, Aug 12, 1922

(Here is an article by a remarkable man about a remarkable woman, which was written for “Labor.” Forty years ago T. V. Powderly was the outstanding leader of American labor. He was the head of the Knights of Labor. His fame was international. He retired from active leadership years ago but retains all of his mental and much of his physical vigor. At the moment he is performing important duties in the Labor department.

Mr. Powderly writes of Mother Jones. She, too, was in the labor movement forty years ago, and she is still in it, loved and trusted by every man who carries a union card and by thousands who do not.)

By T. V. POWDERLY.

A short time ago the names and pictures of the six greatest women were laid before us by the pictorial press. Who selected them or by what standard they were adjudged great I do not know. They were estimable women, good women, respectable women, and I do not question their title to greatness.

Greatness to my mind is a relative term. It may apply to many kinds of activity. Many who through ambition, conquest or greed achieved a greatness, according to certain standards, were international whole-sale murderers. In their private lives they were dissolute, licentious, cruel monsters. History sets them down as great, but it does not tell of one tear wiped from the face of pain or sorrow by one of them. 

Others who gather millions are set down as great, but when we lift the lid from the crucible, in which their wealth was formed, we see the quivering, agony-distorted nerves, sinews, and torn hearts of men and women ground to pulp as they struggled to create wealth for those who got it. Then we replace that lid in horror.

So, then, what is greatness? To my mind it consists of doing for fellow man instead of doing him. It consists of giving, rather than getting, and by giving I do not mean giving the money, houses, or lands. I mean service to others instead of self.

Judging by that standard I ask permission to name one woman who symbolizes greatness, and in doing so let me say that I do not wish to take one leaf from the wreath of greatness worn by others. I merely wish to place the laurel crown of greatness upon the head of Mother Jones.

The Measure of Real Greatness.

My reason for calling her great is that she gives of herself in service.

She has given bread to those who hungered.
She has given rest to the wearied.
She has clothed the naked and has worn rags in the doing.
She has worked that the homeless may have homes.
She has labored that the laborer may be happy and prosperous.
She has begged for others, asking nothing for herself.
She has mothered the motherless.
She has given hope to the hopeless.

When men who got of the substance of others sanctioned the maiming and killing of helpless, defenseless women and children, she folded the arms of love around the suffering ones and gave them a glimpse of heaven through clouds begotten of greed.

Pride, glory, riches, praise, and censure are alike to her. She cares nothing for these. Her sole reward comes through service to God’s suffering poor.

As a recognition of her devoted service she has been reviled and tra­duced as was done 1900 years ago. Her sole reply was more unselfish service, even as Jesus of Nazareth gave to those who reviled him.

Not is he rich or great or powerful or influential, but does he need? is her question.

I who have known her for nearly half a century bear willing testimony to her great work for humanity. All through these years she gave while others got.

Gives Riches of Great Soul to Humanity.

When others were getting millions of dollars for self she was giving up the riches of her great soul in loving service to millions of men and women.

She does not court the favor of any mortal, high or low. As she sees the truth she speaks it, aye, even though it may not be palatable to others or helpful to herself.

Soon her labors here shall end. When those willing hands shall cease from doing, when the voice that inspired and encouraged thousands shall lapse to silence, the perfume of her good deeds shall live to bless those who shall walk wherein she once walked. When that hour comes abler pens than mine shall write her eulogy and do it more fittingly than I. My purpose in tracing these lines while she lives and walks among us-perhaps a selfish one-is that she, and others, too, may know what one of her co-workers of the long ago thinks of her. I offer these flowers that she may know their fleeting fragrance here, for blossoms laid upon the tomb are scentless to the one who rests beneath.

When that rest comes to her the world in all truth and earnestness may say: Mother Jones was truly great.

I reckon her greater than lord or prince,
Or king, or warrior bold,
For unlike these the poor of earth,
Are her’s to have and to hold.

When others take she gives and gives,
Caring naught for self or gain,
And when the cry of want is heard,
She gives and gives again.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: U. S. Department of Labor Report States 610,000 Coal Miners Are Now Out on Strike Across the Nation

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, IN DlyT Ipls p1, July 15, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 10, 1922
U. S. Department of Labor Report States 610,000 Coal Miner Now on Strike

From the Duluth Labor World of August 5, 1922:

610,000 MINERS IN COAL STRIKE
———-
Department of Labor Completes
Coal Fields Survey.

Connellsville PA Coal Strike, Eviction, UMWJ p3, Aug 1, 1922

Washington, Aug. 3.-Following a survey of the coal industry, the department of labor announces that there are 610,000 miners on strike and 185,000 miners at work. Listed with the latter are 10,000 union pump men and firemen who have remained at work to keep the properties from being destroyed by water flooding the mines.

A significant part of the report is the statement that of the 13,000 Kansas miners, but 1,000 are working. This is the state it will be remembered, that prevents strikes by law. Colorado, also, has a law which outlaws strikes under certain conditions, but only 4,000 of the 19,000 miners before the strike was called are working.

Cossack-ridden Pennsylvania reports that not a man of the 155,000 anthracite miners are working, and but 20,000 of the 175,000 bituminous men are working.

Despite the terroristic policy of West Virginia coal owners, and the aid given them by the state, there are 40,000 of the 90,000 coal miners on strike.

The states that report a 100 per cent strike are: Illinois, 90,000 out; Ohio, 50,000 out; Indiana, 30,000 out; Iowa, 15,000 out; Montana, 5,000 out; Michigan, 3,000 out.

Wyoming reports 7,000 on strike while 8,000 were employed before the strike. The same situation is reported by Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and several other states.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Journal: Photograph of Miners’ Baseball Team at Charles Town, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote West Virginia Miner re Gunthugs, LW p1, Sept 24, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 4, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – U. M. W. A. Baseball Team, Bill Blizzard with Bat

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

WV Treason Trial Baseball Team w Blizzard, UMWJ p17, June 1, 1922

From the Duluth Labor World of June 3, 1922:

COSSACKS ACT JUST LIKE
PRUSSIAN OFFICERS DID

West Virginia state police, known as the Cossacks, have made a mess of things since their arrival at Charles Town to attend the miners’ trial. They do not realize that they are not in Logan county where the coal barons rule by force and might.

The Cossacks have clashed with Charles Town police officials and have assumed the attitude of a Prussian army officer toward private citizens.

The miners insist that there would be no trouble in Logan and other counties but for the Cossacks, who are now sustaining the miners’ claim.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs Opines on Pennsylvania’s Great Anthracite Coal Strike for the Social Democratic Herald

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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quote EVD re PA Great Anthracite Strike Cossacks, SDH p1, May 4, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 27, 1902
Eugene Debs Opines on Pennsylvania’s Great Anthracite Coal Strike

From the Social Democratic Herald of May 24, 1902:

EUGENE V. DEBS ON THE MINERS’ STRIKE

EVD, Houston Daily Post p6, May 22, 1899

The miners’ strike is on in the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania. The operators were defiant and eager for the fray. The miners pulled every wire to prevent the collision and finally voted to go out in the very last extremity. A large minority voted against the strike and President Mitchell, all accounts agree, did his best to prevent it.

Most earnestly do I hope the poor devils will win, but there is no use trying to conceal the fact that they are up against it and that the coal and railroad companies have been preparing for the fight, openly courted it, and are determined to wipe out the union and run their mines to suit themselves.

At this writing everything is quiet as a graveyard in the anthracite region, but nevertheless the Republican governor [William A. Stone], elected largely by the votes of coal miners who don’t believe in going into politics, has already sworn in an army of special coal police, armed with Winchesters, to protect “property” and incidentally to perforate the hides of the striking miners if this becomes necessary to break up their strike, and force them back into their holes through starvation tunnel, to dig for their masters.

That is all they are fit for; at least that is what they themselves seem to think, for that is what they voted for under the direction of some of their district officers, who are simply the political pluggers of the gang of robbers that fleece the poor coal diggers when they work and have them murdered when they strike.

Pennsylvania, where hell is active as Mt. Pelee, and slavery in full blast, has a Republican majority of 300,000, made up quite largely of the poor devils now on strike.

The governor is already making active preparation to return bullet for ballot in accordance with the invariable program of the capitalist class, whom the miners and other workingmen have made the ruling class of the country.

President Mitchell will do the best he can in a trying position. He has issued a request that miners abstain from the use of liquor during the strike, and, acting upon his advice, they thronged the churches on Sunday last and took the oath of total abstinence and the pledge to entirely keep out of saloons till the strike is settled.

As for the Civic Federation, it has already done its worst. It has delayed and dallied six weeks, taken the heart out of many of the strikers and set them by the ears among themselves. Had the miners struck April 1, as they intended, they would have been far stronger than they are today.

My advice to you, striking miners, is to keep away from the capitalistic partnership of priest and politician, to cut loose from the Civic Federation, and to stand together to a man and fight it out yourselves. If you can’t win, no one else can win for you; and if in the end you find that the corporations can beat you at the game of famine, you may, and it is hoped that you will, have your eyes opened to the fact that your vote is your best weapon and that if the 140,000 miners of Pennsylvania will cast a solid vote for socialism, they will soon drive the robbers from the state and take possession of the mines and make themselves the masters of their industry, and the workingmen the rulers of the state.

As for the army of coal police already marshaled and armed by the governor to shoot the strikers upon the assumption that they are criminals, I advise that the miners in convention assembled unanimously resolve that, while they propose to keep within the law, they also propose to exercise all the rights and privileges the law grants them; and, furthermore, that the monstrous crime of Latimer shall not be repeated, and if any striker is shot down without good cause the first shot shall be the signal for war and the miners will shoot back; and if killing must be the program of the coal barons, let it be an operator for a miner instead of miners only, as in the past. 

Terre Haute, Ind., May 19. 

Eugene V. Debs [Signature]

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1912, Part III: Speaks in Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana on Behalf of Harriman Strikers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones, LW p3, Apr 20, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 21, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1912, Part III
Found Traveling  and Speaking in Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana

From The Labor World of April 20, 1912:

HdLn Mother Jones at Head of Lakes, LW p1, Apr20, 1912

Mary Jones, the little mother of the miners, and familiarly known throughout the country as Mother Jones, was a visitor in Duluth Monday and Tuesday. She delivered an address Monday evening at the Lincoln Park Auditorium in the interest of the shop employes of the Harriman lines who are on strike.

Mother Jones has been sent out by the United Mine Workers’ Union to help the striking railroad men. She is meeting with much success in soliciting funds. A fairly good collection was taken up at the Lincoln Park meeting.

During her visit to Duluth, Mother Jones spent much of her time in the office of the Labor World. We have’ known her for almost twenty years, and blamed if she does not look younger today than she did two decades ago. She attributes her youthful appearance to the fact that she has not been in jail lately nor has she been quarantined for smallpox.

Is Eighty Years of Age.

Mother Jones will be eighty years of age on May first. She is as active and as sprightly as a woman of thirty. She never looked better in her life. Her complexion is as clear as that of a baby and there is not the sign of a furrow on her kind old face.

Fight? When she is asked a question about labor conditions in the mining regions of America, her eyes flash, her mouth is set firm, her fist is clenched and she stretches out her arm with the vigor and force of an athlete. She tells a story of social injustice that reaches the heart of the most hardened.

In her speech at Lincoln Park the daily newspapers dwelled only upon the shafts she hurled at men and women of the toady type who “bend the cringing hinges of the knee that thrift may follow fawning.”

Knows the Labor Movement.

Mother Jones understands the philosophy of the labor movement. She has a peculiar way, which is distinctly her own, of driving her points right to the hearts of her listeners. For a moment she will philosophically discuss the growth and development of production; then like a flash she will clinch her argument with a militant attack upon both men and women who are responsible for injustices that have been permitted to creep into the industrial system.

Mother Jones is said to be without fear. During her strenuous life she has been cast into prison, confined in bull pens, driven at the points of bayonets, and once or twice has had a pistol aimed close to her face by willing servants of the capitalistic class…..

From The Butte Miner of April 25, 1912:

Mother Jones Ad for Lecture, Btt Mnr p10, Apr 25, 1912

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Hellraisers Journal: Accused Union Miners Play Ball with Home Team at Charles Town, West Virginia, to Benefit Hospital

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Fred Mooney, Mingo Co Gunthugs, UMWJ p15, Dec 1, 1920—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 16, 1922
Charles Town, West Virginia – Accused Union Miners Play Ball with Home Team

From the Duluth Labor World of May 13, 1922:

ACCUSED MINERS PLAY BALL
WITH HOME TEAM
———-

WV Miners Trials, Blizzard at Bat Close Up, NY Dly Ns p24, May 4, 1922

CHARLES TOWN, W. Va., May 11.—Town folk “rooted” for the miners’ baseball team in its game with the local champions for the benefit of a hospital fund controlled by the citizens. The miners won by the score of 7 to 3.

All of the miners are charged with treason or murder. William Blizzard, the first miner to face trial, played right field for his team.

The miners have secured baseball uniforms’with the initials “U.” M. W. of A.” across their breasts. As they walked the diamond, they, were given a rousing cheer by Charles Town citizens, who show their admiration for the accused on every occasion.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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