Tag: Tom Mooney

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1917: Found Visiting “Her Boys” in Denver

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday February 8, 1917
Mother Jones Found in Denver During Month of January

From The Denver Post of January 1, 1917:

‘MOTHER’ JONES HERE TO SEE ‘HER BOYS’
OF THE MINERS’ UNION
—–

Mother Jones, John P White, UMWJ, Feb 10, 1916

“Mother” Jones, leader of labor, is in Denver. She states that she came here to spend New Year with her “boys,” meaning the members of the United Mine Workers of America. She is fresh from active participation in the strike of garment workers and street car employes in New York, she stated that the returns of the recent national election showed that John P. White had been re-elected president of the miners over John H. Walker of Illinois.

“Mother” Jones says that she is not here to take any part in the factional differences of the officers of the Colorado district. She is of the opinion that there will be a satisfactory adjustment before long and that “everything will come out all right.” She is stopping at the Oxford hotel. She will leave Denver tomorrow night.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Robert Minor, of International Workers’ Defense League, on the Mooney Frame-Up

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, January 12, 1917
San Francisco, California – Frame-Up of Tom Mooney Examined

Writing in this month’s edition of the International Socialist Review, Robert Minor, Treasurer of the International Workers’ Defense League, exposes a few interesting details in the ongoing frame-up of the San Francisco labor leader, Tom Mooney:

The Suitcase Ghost

By ROBERT MINOR

Tom and Rena Mooney, ISR, Dec 1916

LIKE the giant trees that astonish the eye of the traveler, like the wonderful climate and other marvels of the state, California produces the most amazing manifestations of the Labor Struggle.

Since the McNamara plea of guilty, there has been a ghost in nearly every labor dispute. That ghost is “the Suitcase.” There is a suitcase in every strike. Sometimes made of yellow leather, some times of black morocco, the suitcase is more often built of nightmares—pure imagination. But the suitcase, in one form or another, is a California institution.

When made of more than imagination, the suitcase has usually been (since the McNamara case) in the hand of an agent of the corporations, and loaded with dynamite.

In Stockton, three years ago, Anton Johannsen, labor organizer, “got the drop on” a gunman who came to his hotel room to kill him for the Merchants,’ Manufacturers’ and Employers’ Ass’n. The trapped gunman confessed that it was his intention, after killing Johannsen, to place a suitcase of dynamite in his room, another suitcase of the same explosive in the Santa Fe station checking room, with the check slipped into the pocket of the Secretary of the Building Trades Council. One of the other plotters, J. J. Emerson, was caught by a bungling policeman with a suitcase of dynamite, confessed to the plot to “plant” it so as to blame the strikers, but was, of course, acquitted in spite of the confession. (What are courts for?) Ed Nolan and Tom Mooney were instrumental in the expose.

In the same strike, Warren K. Billings, then 19 years of age, out of a job, was accosted by strangers who offered him $50 to carry a suitcase to Sacramento, to be delivered to two men whom he was to meet in a saloon. The boy accepted the offer. The men waiting for him in the saloon in Sacramento proved to be detectives, the suitcase contained dynamite, and Billings was given a two-year sentence.

When an explosion occurred in the San Francisco preparedness parade and killed ten persons, the blame was laid upon labor organizers with a suitcase. This in spite of the fact that the most reliable witness, a prominent physician, and several others whose names the police promptly lost, stated that they had seen a large, cylindrical bomb thrown.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Theodora Pollok on the Mooney Frame-Up

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 18, 1916
San Francisco, California – The Closed Shop Fight and Frame-Up

From the December edition of the International Socialist Review:

Will Labor Stand for Another
Haymarket?

By THEODORA POLLOK

Tom and Rena Mooney, ISR, Dec 1916

SAN FRANCISCO in 1916; Chicago in 1886. The closed shop fight now; the 8-hour fight then. In both cases, a crime of violence occurs and is tied around the necks of innocent labor men in the hope of helping to crush the spirit of labor.

In Chicago in 1886 a slavish press and an inflamed public mind, and the labor and radical groups, too weak to save the chosen victims. Today in San Francisco a slavish press, but a public mind open to conviction. Yet young Billings, first of the San Francisco Preparedness Day explosion defendants to be tried, has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, and only the fighting working class of the country can save him—by saving his four co-defendants.

Tom Mooney’s trial, the second trial, is set for the 27th of November. It is Tom Mooney’s life that is desired above all others by this gang of ruffians, the “gentlemen” of the Chamber of Commerce, the United Railroads, and the Pacific Gas & Electric, and their tools in the District Attorney’s office. For Mooney, helped by his little music teacher wife, Rena, who is one of his co-defendants—Mooney recently dared actually try to organize the carmen of the United Railroads, who have been beaten down, spied upon and “weeded out” since the great car strike before the earthquake.

The tactics of the prosecution are such as might rather be expected in some backwoods lumber baron’s camp than in a great urban center. Indeed, with the “Law and Order” Committee from the Chamber of Commerce censoring all the press, the truth is even harder to get to the people than in a small town where it flies from mouth to mouth.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1916: Pays Visit to President Wilson with Labor Delegation

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I am loyally yours for a damn fine fight.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 16, 1916
Mother Jones Found in Washington D. C. During November

We pause to review the activities of Mother Jones, that fearless champion of the cause of working-class men, women and children in their struggle for industrial freedom. We first find her remembered for her work on behalf of the children of the mills when she led them on the March of the Mill Children during the summer of 1903.

From the Iowa Bayard Advocate of November 2, 1916:

TENEMENT CHILDREN WILL
VISIT WILSON
—–
Their Welcome Will Be Unlike That
Once Given at Oyster Bay.
—–

Mother Mary Harris Jones, Logansport, IN, Sept 27, 1916New York, Oct. 28.-Fifty mothers of New York’s east side, with their children, who have been emancipated from sweatshops by the enactment of

the child labor law, are going to Shadow Lawn, Saturday, in person to thank President Wilson.

A “kind lady,” who prefers to conceal her identity, has donated a special car to be attached to one of the trains bearing pilgrims from New York to Shadow Lawn to hear the president’s address on “Wilson day.” The children will carry armsful of artificial flowers which they used to make in the factories, before their emancipation.

No such pilgrimage of the children of the poor has been attempted since the one when Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States and a carload of children from the Pennsylvania coal mines [textile mills] journeyed to the summer capital at Oyster Bay to petition for a national child labor law.

“Mother Jones,” who conducted that excursion, told recently in public of the refusal of the guards at Oyster Bay to allow the children to pass the outer gate, and of their return home to wait 14 years for a Woodrow Wilson to set them free.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Tom and Rena Mooney Accused of Arranging Bombing at San Francisco Preparedness Parade

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 8, 1916
San Francisco, California: Attempt to Connect Bombing to I. W. W.

From the Reno Evening Gazette of August 4, 1916:

Tom Mooney, Wife, Billings, Weinberg, Reno Gz Jr, Aug 4, 1916

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Hellraisers Journal: A. F. of L. Convention Passes Unanimous Resolutions on Behalf of FW Joe Hill

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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 Don’t Mourn; Organize!
-Joe Hill

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday November 17, 1915
From El Paso Herald:
-A. F. of L. Convention Pleads for Life of Fellow Worker Joe Hill

Resolutions on behalf of Joe Hill were passes unanimously yesterday by the thirty-fifth annual convention of American Federation now in session in San Francisco. Last evening’s El Paso Herald reported the news:

Labor Pleads For Murder Convict’s Life
—–

HILLSTROM IS TO DIE FRIDAY
—–
Federation Calls On Utah Governor To
Exercise Clemency for Swede.
—–
President Wilson and Swedish Legation
Are To Receive Appeal Also.
—–

Joe Hill wikiSAN FRANCISCO, Cal, Nov. 16.-Resolutions asking clemency for Joseph Hillstrom, member of the Industrial Workers of the World, sentenced to be shot at Salt Lake City Utah, Friday, were passed unanimously by the American Federation of Labor, meeting here in its 35th annual convention.

The resolutions were presented by the ways and means committee, to which the case was referred yesterday by president Samuel Gompers, after appeals for action in the case were made before the convention by Thomas Mooney, not a member of the convention, and delegate Camomile, both of Salt Lake City.

President to Receive Copy.

The resolutions authorized president Gompers to transmit immediately copies of the resolution to the governor of Utah, the board of pardons of Utah, the Swedish minister to the United States and president Wilson.

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Hellraisers Journal: American Federation of Labor Convention Takes Up Case of Fellow Worker Joe Hill

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Don’t Mourn; Organize!
-Joe Hill
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday November 16, 1915
San Francisco, California-
A. F. of L. Convention Takes Up Case of Fellow Worker Joe Hill

The American Federation of Labor has waited until the eleventh hour to address itself to frame-up, by the state of Utah, of Fellow Worker Joe Hill. Nevertheless, that body appears willing to act at last. At the thirty-fifth annual convention, now meeting in San Francisco, delegates were allowed to hear an address presented yesterday by Tom Mooney.

From The Oregon Daily Journal of November 15, 1915:

Labor Would Stay Death for I. W. W.
—–

Federation Will Ask President to Intervene to Prevent
Execution of Hillstrom Friday.

Tom Mooney, 1910

San Francisco, Nov. 15.-(U. P.)-The American Federation of Labor will appeal to President Wilson in an eleventh hour effort to save Joe Hillstrom, I. W. W., from the Utah firing squad.

Hillstrom is slated to die Friday for murders he committed at Salt Lake City a year since.

Thomas Mooney brought the issue before the convention today, declaring that the trial had been conducted to determine Hillstrom’s connection with the McNamara’s and other labor cases rather than to find if he were guilty of murder.

When the question was referred to the ways and means committee, it decided on an appeal to Wilson, asking that he intervene to get a writ of error from the Utah supreme court.

[Photograph of Tom Mooney added.]

—–

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