Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 30, 1921 Miners of Kansas Condemn Suspension of District 14 U. M. W. A.
From The Workers Chronicle of Pittsburg, Kansas, November 25, 1921:
Truth Shall Win —————
Alex Howat
Reports from all over the country are to the effect that organized labor everywhere is condemning the action of one man (John L. Lewis with the assistance of his hired gang of labor crooks) in suspending District 14 and expelling the officers from the U. M. W. of A., at a time when the, crisis is on in the fight against the infamous court of industrial relations law. This contemptible action was taken with controversies at two small strip pits as the basis. One was a lockout and the other a shutdown, and both companies refuse to let the men return to work in accordance with orders given the men by officials of District 14, and pursuant to instructions of the recent national convention of the U. M. W. of A.
But, President Lewis, with malice aforethought, waited until the miners’ leaders were practically isolated from the world-put there by Governor Allen and his infamous misfit legislation-and when 100 per cent of the rank and file of District 14 laid down their tools and resolved to dig no more coal until President Howat and Vice President Dorchy are released from jail, Lewis demands that ALL miners return to work if they want to remain in good grace with HIM. They are to forget all about their noble, self-sacrificing officials, who are cooped up in cold, damp cheerless cells in the Cherokee county jail. They are ALL TO RENIG the positive policy, unanimously declared, of their District Convention in Kansas City, March, 1920. They MUST give up all their personal honor manhood and self-respect, and return to work just because John L. Lewis-backed by a handful of paid stoolpigeons-demands it! Their published howls about, “contract” is rankest camouflage. The miners and officials here have violated no contract in the DEAN and RELIANCE shut-downs. The operators of those two small pits are the only ones violating the contract. And so Lewis himself says, “no condition enters into the expulsion of the officers and members of District 14 except that of the Dean and Reliance controversy.” However he wants not only the employees of those two strip mines to return to work, (in spite of the fact that the operators will not let them return under conditions required, not only by President Howat, but by the National Convention-and the almighty John L., himself) but all miners who are standing pat with the dictates of their District Convention must give up their only efficient weapon against the industrial court law by returning to work and let their leaders rot in jail (for all Snake Lewis cares) while HE fights the law in the courts. He knows, and the miners know, that Labor stands as much chance there as Christ did before Pontius Pilate. So, all his efforts in his publicity campaign in that direction is “grandstand,” pure and simple.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 13, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1909, Part II:
-Found in Pittsburg and Girard, Kansas
Mother praised by Appeal to Reason:
Mother Jones is in the field appealing to the workers with the eloquence and force for which she is noted. She has already raised by her own efforts over three thousand dollars for the defense of the Mexican comrades. Her meetings are uniformly crowded and at the close resolutions are adopted voicing the protest of the working class and demanding the liberation of the patriots.
[Emphasis added.]
From the Appeal to Reason of March 13, 1909:
….PREPARING FOR THE BATTLE….
The Mexican cases become more important hourly. Along the Rio Grande the pickets, sentinels and spies are posted and there is a state of actual war, although the capitalist press makes no report of it. The war is between the rising proletariat under the leadership of such patriots as Araujo and Magon, and the Mexican despotism with the tyrant Diaz at its head. Stripped of all collateral developments it is simply a war between labor and capital, between freedom and peon slavery.
The managing editor of the Appeal [Fred Warren] has for some days been at San Antonio, Waco and other points in southern Texas, making a personal investigation. He reports a far more serious and complicated situation than most of our readers imagine. He is convinced that these cases are but the beginnings of what is going to prove a serious and far-reaching conflict.
Efforts are being mede to appeal the case of Antonio Araujo to the supreme court, and at all events to fight the case to a finish. Additional evidence has accumulated to emphasize the infamy of the conviction. A number of other Mexican patriots have been arrested in secret in Texas and Arizona, waylaid, beaten jailed and held “incommunicado” by collusion of the American police in the employ of the Mexican government.
So powerful are the Mexican influences in those states that the papers are silenced and the courts are virtually Mexicanized in their treatment of the patriots who are fighting for liberty.
She is the same dear little old Mother Jones
and if she has lost any vigor
in the past two years I can’t see it.
-An Iowa Miner, 1918
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday April 19, 1918
Mother Jones News for March 1918: Found in Kansas and Iowa
We begin our Mother Jones news round-up for March 1918 with a report of Mother listening to A. F. of L. President Samuel Gompers pleading for the Eight Hour Day before the Chicago Alschuler Hearings. We next find her speaking before district conventions of the United Mine Workers held in Kansas and in Iowa.
From Springfield’s Illinois State Register of March 1, 1918:
GOMPERS SAYS SHORTER DAYS WILL WIN WAR
—–
Long Hours and Low Wages Drive Men to Drink,
Is Plea of Labor Chief at Chicago
—–
MOTHER JONES LISTENS
—–
Chicago, Feb. 28.-Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor made a stirring appeal today in behalf of an eight-hour day for employes in the meat packing industry at the stockyards wage arbitration. He appeared as a witness for the employes and his testimony was eagerly listened to by “Mother” Mary Jones, an organizer for the United Mine Workers and several hundred other representatives of organized labor from all sections of the country…..
From the Kansas Pittsburg Daily Headlight of March 11, 1918:
DISTRICT MINERS’ CONVENTION STARTS
—–
MOTHER JONES IS ON HAND TO ADDRESS
KANSAS COAL DIGGERS
—–
President Howat’s Report Was Read
at Opening Session-
Excluded Two Papers From Hall.
—–
That old blood sucker,
the kaiser, ought to
be kicked off his throne.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 22, 1917
Mother Jones News for November, Part II: Supports President Wilson
From the Pittsburg, Kansas, Sun of November 15, 1917:
MINERS VOTE TO REJECT THE
AUTOMATIC PENALTY
—–
MAJORITY WAS 18 WITH KANSAS MINERS
OUTVOTING THE OTHER DISTRICTS.
—–
Howat Stands Pat in a Fiery Speech
—–
President John Wilkinson and “Mother Jones”
Urges Miners to Vote for Wilson
and Against the Kaiser
—–
Kansas City, Nov. 14.-Delegates representing the coal miners of Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas in convention here tonight voted to reject the automatic penalty clause insisted on by Dr. H. A. Garfield, federal fuel administrator, as a part of their working agreement. The vote was 185 to 167…
Kansas Outvoted Others.
…It was announced that the vote by districts was as follows: Kansas, for the resolution, 129; against, 11; Oklahoma-Arkansas, for 22; against, 105; Missouri, for, 34; against 51.
Howat for Rejection.
The adoption of the resolution came at the end of a day of debate in which “Mother Jones” and John Wilkinson, president of district 21, counseled against the rejection of the clause and Alexander Howat, president of district 14, vehemently urged its rejection.
“Mother Jones” and Wilkinson urged the acceptance of the clause on the ground of patriotism.
[Mother Jones declared:]
It’s our to stand by the president and the nation in this crisis. Our business now is to help the government lick hell out of the Kaiser and then we will lick hell out of the operators. President Wilson and Dr. Garfield will see that no injustice is done you through the working of this hateful clause. And I pledge myself to go before the president and Mr. Garfield and obtain relief if you want me to.
As “Mother Jones” left the platform she said:
Vote for the clause, boys, it’s a vote for Wilson and he’ll vote for you.
Hellraisers Journal, Friday December 21, 1917
Mother Jones News for November, Part I: Attends District Miners Convention
Mother Jones began the month of November in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she was found addressing a meeting of the employes of the Locomobile Company who were seeking organization with the machinists union.
We next found her in New York City at the headquarters of the Democratic Party where she shook hands with Mayor-elect Hylan.
At near mid-month we found her in Kansas City attending the convention of the miners of the Southwestern districts, whose delegates were there assembled to debate the “automatic penalty clause,” a bone of contention within the United Mine Workers of America. Regardless of her stand on that issue, Mother remains much beloved by the miners. She was welcomed into the convention on the arm of the President of District 14 (Kansas):
Howat entered the hall with Mother Jones on his arm. He introduced her as the “angel of the miners,” after she had been heartily cheered.
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