Tag: United Mine Workers of America

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Coal Miners’ Fight for Union in West Virginia by Leslie H. Marcy

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Quote Mother Jones Buy Guns, Ptt Pst p1, Feb 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 1, 1913
Kanawha County, West Virginia – Coal Miners’ Continue Long Fight for Justice

From the International Socialist Review of March 1913:

The Fight in West Virginia
-by L. H. Marcy

WV Militia Escort Prisoner Miners, ISR p391, Nov 1912

The Fight in the Mountains

Two months ago it looked as though the West Virginia miners would win their long fight against the operators. As cold weather came on and troops and police drove the families of the miners off company property, they were not permitted to stop on public land. So the miners secured tents and took their families and few belongings up into the mountains.

And all through the cold of winter, they have gathered together to talk unionism and Socialism and to weld the group into a band that would hold out until the strike was won.

The company-employed trouble-makers have been always on the ground looking for an opening to start something. Children have been kidnapped; women have been assaulted. Men have been deliberately picked off and shot by brutes hiding in ambush.

There occurred many clashes between “guards” and strikers. It seems to be the business of the “guards” to kill a few miners now and then to stir the others into violence.

The miners who have withdrawn from the property district of the mine owners, who have taken refuge for their families in the mountains ARE NOT TO BE ALLOWED ANY PEACE.

Sheriff Hill of Kanawha County, with a posse of twenty-five deputies was unable to enter the strikers’ camp. The miners declared he was going too far to try to take armed men into their peaceful camps after the mine owners’ thugs had virtually driven them into the mountains by actual murder. All approach to the miners’ camps were carefully guarded by strikers who occupied commanding positions on the mountain sides.

The mine owners were at their wits end. The United Mine Workers promised the strikers aid. The strikers swore they would GAIN something or stay out forever.

Then came His Honor, Governor Glascock, the colleague of Theodore Roosevelt, the vaunted PROGRESSIVE-the “friend of the workingman.” Five companies of militia were ordered to the scene and a sixth company called from Mucklow. Martial Law will probably be declared again.

Put this where you will never forget it. This Progressive Governor has shown himself more surely the servant of the mine owners than any old time politician could possibly have done. He has sent troops into the mountains who will SEARCH OUT and shoot innocent women and children and miners who have been persecuted in their retreat.

Telephone and telegraph wires have been cut. More troops are on their way to the mountains. February 11, at the first encounter, the long range rifles of the militia killed thirteen miners and wounded fifteen more. The capitalist papers report that “three mine guards were also killed.”

If there has ever been any doubt in your mind before, this strike ought to be an eye-opener, as to the functions of capitalist governors and the militia.

The CHIEF FUNCTION OF THE ARMY IS TO BREAK STRIKES. Gov. Glasscock seems to feel it his chief duty to serve the mine owners in their efforts to crush the mine WORKERS. This was the consistent attitude of the First Progressive Leader in all troubles between capitalists and laborers.

Report comes in that several hundred miners, employed in a union mine near the Kanawha District, have armed themselves and started for Paint Creek, declaring they will avenge the death of their comrades who were shot by paid thugs, hiding in ambush.

The United Mine Workers have promised a $200,000 monthly benefit assessment for the striking miners.

The strikers have learned to fight, in and for, One Big Union. They are learning, in this strike, that they must put their own men in office to USE THE TROOPS IN THEIR BEHALF NEXT TIME.

[Emphasis added. Photograph added from ISR of November 1912]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: “Coal Barons Maim and Murder” Mother Jones Arrested; Industrial War Rages in Kanawha County, West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones Buy Guns, Ptt Pst p1, Feb 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 21, 1913
Kanawha County, West Virginia – Mother Jones Arrested; Class War Rages

From The Wheeling Majority of February 20, 1913:

Mother Jones Arrested, WV Class War, Wlg Maj p1, Feb 20, 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: W. V. Strike Leaders, Mother Jones and Other Military Prisoners, Are Subjects of Habeas Corpus Writs

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Quote Kintzer re Mother Jones, WV Angel, ISR p393, Nov 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 19, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – Strike Leaders Seek Civilian Trials

From the Pittsburg Gazette Times of February 18, 1913:

Paint Creek Strike Heads Seek Release
———-

“Mother” Jones and Other Military Prisoners
Subjects of Habeas Corpus Writs.
———-

THEY WANT CIVIL TRIALS
———-

(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO GAZETTE TIMES.)

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912

CHARLESTON, W. VA., Feb. 17.-On account of the issuance of writs of habeas corpus, returnable forthwith, against Gov. William K. Glasscock, Adjt. Gen. Charles D. Elliott, Maj. James I. Pratt, president, and the four other members of the military commission appointed to try cases in the martial law district, the military commission has been stopped in the trial of persons under arrest as members of the commission must appear in court tomorrow to argue the writs.

“Mother” Jones, Paul J. Paulson [Paulsen], Charles Boswell and Charles Batley, for whom the writs of habeas corpus were asked today, have not been brought to Charleston and will not likely be brought here unless the court tomorrow insists on their presence while the question of whether the prisoners shall be turned over to the civil authorities is being argued. This action compels the military authorities to produce what evidence they have against the prisoners for the court to determine whether the military commission has jurisdiction. The right of the governor to declare martial law and cause a military commission to be appointed to try all cases, is also to be determined.

The question of the governor’s right to declare martial law was decided in the affirmative in the Charles Vance case, but the right of the military commission to try persons arrested outside of martial law territory has not been determined. Attorneys for the accused believe the court will hold that the military commission has no authority in such cases and that the accused must be tried by the civil authorities, although the alleged offense was committed in what is now a martial law district, previous to the declaration of martial law.

The provost marshal, Capt. John C. Bond, reports no disturbances in the district today. It is known, however, that the militia is searching for persons wanted in connection with some of the recent disturbances.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones, C. H. Boswell and Others, Held at Pratt, to Be Tried by West Virginia Military Commission

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Quote Kintzer re Mother Jones, WV Angel, ISR p393, Nov 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 18, 1913
Pratt, West Virginia – Mother Jones, Editor Boswell Held Under Martial Law

From the Akron Beacon Journal of February 17, 1913:

Mother Jones n Editor Boswell Held Under WV Martial Law, Akron Bcn Jr, p1, Feb 17, 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Arrested; Holly Grove Captured and All the Men of the Town Taken into Custody by Militia

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Quote Mother Jones Buy Guns, Ptt Pst p1, Feb 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 17, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – Mother Jones, Editor Boswell, and Organizers Arrested

From The Pittsburgh Post of February 14, 1913:

“MOTHER” JONES ARRESTED;
MINE TOWN CAPTURED
———-
Socialists Charged With Inciting Rioting;
Militia Surrounds Miners’ Village.
———-

RIOT CALL AT CAPITOL
———-

(SPECIAL TO THE POST.)

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912

CHARLESTON, W. Va., Feb. 13.-The arrest of “Mother” Jones, famous agitator; C. H. Boswell, editor of a Socialist paper in this city; Paul J. Paulson [Paulsen], of the international organization of the United Mine Workers of America; Frank Bartley [Charles Batley], a Socialist leader, and others here today, brought rapid developments in the Paint Creek strike situation.

“Mother” Jones and her associates are charged with conspiracy and as accessories before the fact in the death of Fred Bobbett, bookkeeper of the Paint Creek Colliery Company in Mucklow. “Mother” Jones, in a speech in Boomer last night is alleged to have urged the miners to come to Charleston today and “take” the capital. She was arrested this afternoon on one of a number of warrants issued, and with her associates will be taken before the military commission.

“Mother Jones” is reported as having said:

Buy guns, and buy good ones; have them where you can lay your hands on them at any minute. I will tell you when and where to use them.

Mother Jones, it is reported, held a meeting in Longacre, two miles below Boomer, at 10 o’clock this morning, and urged striking union miners to refuse to heed orders of the union president to return to work.

A rumor that miners were coming here to take the State capitol caused a sensation. When some miners and citizens began to gather a riot call was sent in from the capitol building, and the local police under Chief Albert Guill rushed to the State house. The streets about the building were crowded with people, most of whom, however, were drawn there by the riot call.

CAPTURE WHOLE VILLAGE.

Detachments from the troops stationed in the strike zone this morning surrounded the village of Holly Grove, which has been the hotbed of trouble makers since the strike broke out, and captured 68 men. With the men a large quantity of arms and ammunition was also taken. Every man in the little town, which is composed of tents and huts, was taken into custody. The women and children were not disturbed.

According to the military officials commanding in the strike zone, all the rioting and attacks made on troops and workmen have had their inception in Holly Grove. It was from this rendezvous that the strikers were wont to sally forth in parties and fire on the guards and others, in the Paint Creek valley. At the time the raid and arrests were made the population of Holly Grove was far below normal. Ordinarily there are several hundred strikers in the little town.

The 68 men arrested were taken to Paint Creek Junction and placed under a strong guard. With the 60 men who had been arrested previously and taken to Paint Creek Junction, today’s arrests swell the number in custody of the militia officials at that point to 128 men.

EXPECT TO CONVICT RIOTERS.

The militia admit they may not be able to prove that all the prisoners were implicated in the disorders in the Paint Creek region, but that they will be able to connect many of the suspects with the outrages, they say they have no doubt.

According to the civil authorities, who were in charge in Mucklow during the battle fought at that point last Monday night, the men implicated came from Holly Grove, and after the trouble had quieted down, returned to the little village and hid their arms.

The military authorities have not been able to get a copy of the proclamation issued by the miners in the Smithers Creek district, which declared they would “tear the heart of the sheriff, kill the governor and wipe the militia off the map,” although it is said that copies of these proclamations were posted in many conspicuous places throughout the district. Especially were copies of the notice freely distributed throughout the district where the foreign population is in the majority.

Four additional companies of militia were ordered to the strike district to-night by Governor Glasscock. Two are from Parkersburg, and one each from Morgantown and Sutton. Six companies are now in the field.

SAYS DEATH LIST IS 28.

HUNTINGTON, W. Va., Feb. 13.-That the death list in the Cabin Creek riot will total 26 instead of 16, is the statement of W. O. Robbett [Bobbitt], a mine superintendent, who brought his brother, Bob Robbett [Fred Bobbitt] who was killed in the riot, to this city for burial. Mr. Robbett [Bobbitt] made the positive statement that there were 24 miners and two mine guards, one of whom was his brother, a volunteer, killed.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part III: Speaks at Meeting of Indianapolis Central Labor Union Against Stag Banquets

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 16, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part III
-Speaks at Meeting of Indianapolis Central Labor Union

From The Los Angeles Record of January 27, 1903:

“MOTHER JONES” TO THE MINERS

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

Mother Jones, the woman champion of the United Mine Workers, stirred their convention in Indianapolis by a speech denouncing the use of the pistol in labor disputes. She said:

You old gray beards are going to see a new epoch. You have been crying that we are in a country without liberty, but you have not gone out and fought to get it. That you are going to do and you won’t use pistol to get it either. We will shoot such men as Judge Jackson off the bench, and it won’t be with a gun.

Good for “Mother Jones.”

She is talking Americanism straight from the shoulder. No one can charge this white-haired old woman with incendiarism when she sticks to the ballot box.

The pistol is a relic of barbarism-a barbarism from which the Anglo-Saxon has not yet emerged.

Capital is shrewd. Sometimes it employes “private detectives,” not so much to guard property, as to provoke violence. The strikers oppose pistol to pistol. They lose public sympathy and the strike.

“Mother Jones” knows this and the miners are coming to know it, as is attested by their applause at the utterance.

Two so-called gospels have distinguished the last decade or so, each diametrically opposed to the other:

Nietache’s gospel is the gospel of brute force.
Tolstoi’s gospel is comprehended in “Resist not evil.”

So long as men and women are as they are either of these doctrines run to its legitimate extreme is absurd.

We must resist evil, not by brute force, but by education, agitation and finally, and forcefully, at the ballot box.

That is civilization.

That is the evolution of society.

[Photograph added.]

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 27, 1903:

CENTRAL LABOR UNION
———-

RESOLUTION FAVORING SUNDAY
BASEBALL ADOPTED.
———-
Women Object to Being Excluded
from the Banquet to Miners
To-Morrow Night.
———-

The Central Labor Union at a meeting held last night, adopted a resolution favoring the passage of the bill now before the Legislature legalizing Sunday baseball. The resolution was introduced by John L. Feltman, who spoke briefly in explanation of it.

President George A. Custer was absent last night and the chair was occupied by Vice President Edgar A. Perkins.

[…..]

The report of the committee, which arranged the miners’ banquet to be given Thursday night, by William F. Ewald precipitated a storm. The report described the programme of entertainment and furnished the names of the men who will serve on the committees to entertain the miners and operators. It concluded with the statement that the banquet was to be for the men delegates only, and the women delegates to the body, as well as the women in the Label League, would be entertained subsequently in a little affair to be planned for them. Delegates immediately objected to this and declared that women ought to be admitted and they could see no reason for their exclusion. After a long discussion of the merits and demerits of the last banquet and the possibility of a recurrence of several unpleasant features, “Mother” Jones, who was a guest of the evening, made a talk which smoothed over the obstacles to peace, and the report of the committee was concurred in. The women were still unsatisfied, however, and several of them voiced their disapproval by saying that they thought it was a shame that they could not go to the banquet.

“Mother” Jones was given a chance to speak during the meeting, and quickly drifted into socialism……

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part III: Speaks at Meeting of Indianapolis Central Labor Union Against Stag Banquets” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part II: Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers, Meets with Socialists

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 15, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part II
-Speaks at Miners’ Convention, Meets with Socialists

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 22, 1903:

TRIP LIGHT FANTASTIC
———-

MINERS’ DELEGATES ATTEND BALL
AT TOMLINSON HALL.
———-
Early Adjournment of the Convention
in Order that the Auditorium
Could Be Cleared.
———-

MOTHER JONES MAKES SPEECH
———-

[…..]

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

The dance of the Indianapolis garment workers in Tomlinson Hall last night interfered with the session of the mine workers’ convention that was to have been held during the afternoon. In order that the Janitors might prepare the floor of the hall for the dance the convention adjourned at noon until 9 o’clock this morning, after a motion to omit the afternoon session had carried.

The morning session was a busy one during the earlier hours, but toward noon had resolved itself into speech-making. Mother Jones, the woman friend of the miners, who was enjoined by Judge Jackson’s order prohibiting inflammatory speeches in the coal-mining district, was called on for an address. Her speech was typical of the woman and socialistic in tone. Her recommendation to the miners was that they use their votes as citizens to change conditions In the trade. Mother Jones was pessimistic in her views on the possibility of friendly relations between capital and labor. She thinks there is such a gulf between the two classes that it can never be bridged except by a change in government. The miners could adjust the conditions by their vote, she said, if they voted right. Now miners in America are existing as miserably as the serfs in Russia, and will continue so until all of the changes are made in the government which she suggests, she insinuated in her speech…..

[Photograph added.]

From The Indianapolis News of January 22, 1903:

SOCIALISM’S VOICE IN MINERS CONVENTION
———-

EXPRESSION ON GOVERNMENT
OWNERSHIP WANTED.
———-

INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM
———-
Miners Voted Unanimously Not to
Incorporate Their Organization
-Question of Co-Operative Stores
———-

At the opening of the United Workers’ convention this morning, there was the first clash of the year between the conservatives and the Socialistic factions. It originated in a resolution from an obscure local union, favoring an expression of Government ownership of coal mines and railroads.

A motion on the part of the conservatives to table it brought on a long discussion, and many leaders of the two factions were heard.

The socialistic faction based its arguments on the anthracite strike and the combination of coal companies and railroads and that a tendency not to treat with miners “according to the laws of man or God” made it necessary for the Government to take some such action.

Delegate Walker, of Illinois, in a long speech, said that the coal companies and railroads were now in a combination injurious to the interests of the people, and were holding back coal to boost prices.

Delegate Lusk, of West Virginia, also charged heartless attitude of coal operators and railroads not only to the miners, but to the people.

The controversy was finally ended for the time, on a motion of Chris Evans, of Ohio, to refer the matter back to the committee.

[…..]

William R. Fairley, executive committeeman for the Alabama district, in a speech of some length, laid before the convention a grievance of the Alabama miners on the speech made yesterday by Mother Jones, in which, he claimed, she held them responsible for the appalling child labor conditions in Alabama. Mother Jones made a reply in which she said she did not hold the miners responsible only in so far as they cast votes for and elected members of agricultural classes to the Legislature, who permitted the infants to be worked and murdered by mill and mine owners. She ripped the State of Alabama up and down. At the close of the discussion Patrick Dolan, president of the Pittsburg district, moved that Fairley and Mother Jones kiss and make up. There was a great deal of laughter but no vote was taken…..

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part I: Arrives in Indianapolis for Convention of United Mine Workers

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

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 14, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part I
-Arrives in Indianapolis for Convention of United Mine Workers

From The Clarksburg Telegram (West Virginia) of January 2, 1903:

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

“MOTHER” JONES VISITS CLARKSBURG

“Mother” Jones was in her usual splendid health and was quite talkative and courteous.

While in the city she was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. D. W. McGeorge in Glen Elk.

[Photograph added.]

From the Appeal to Reason of January 3, 1903:

From the Kingwood West Virginia Argus of January 8, 1903:

The election of Samuel B. Montgomery to the office of Mayor of Tunnelton for another term, is quite a compliment to this rising young orator who is called the “Patrick Henry of West Virginia,” by Mother Jones. Mayor Montgomery has a good strong ticket with him composed of the leading men of the Coal Center.

From the Bisbee Daily Review of January 9, 1903:

LABOR IS CAPITAL; CAPITAL IS LABOR

By “Mother” JONES. Friend of Striking Miners

WE are in a battle of class against class. Pierpont Morgan can go abroad-to Germany, to Russia, to England-and when he arrives he is entertained by his class, his own class, though you sometimes forget it in America-the class that oppressed you in Europe and that is growing more and more powerful and oppressive here. CAPITAL AND LABOR ARE THE SAME THING. LABOR IS CAPITAL, AND CAPITAL IS LABOR. WHAT WE’RE FIGHTING IS NOT CAPITAL, BUT CAPITALISTS. When the fight is won, this third element will be missing, and capital and labor will be joined without separation.

In the last 160 years there has been an economic revolution. What would you have thought years ago if some one had told you that all these coalfields would be held and operated by one combination. That sort of thing is what you must defend yourself against.

THERE IS A TREMENDOUS CHANGE GOING ON; AND YOU MUST CHANGE TO MEET IT.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Funeral of Frances Estep Who Was Shot Down by Gunthugs During Sneak Attack Upon Holly Grove from Bull Moose Special

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 13, 1913
Holly Grove, West Virginia – Mother Jones Speaks at Funeral of Francis Estep

From The Washington Times of February 11, 1913:

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912

Cesco Estep, striker…was buried yesterday [February 10th near Holly Grove, West Virginia]. At his funeral, “Mother” Jones made an appeal to the men to get their guns and “Shoot them to hell,” meaning the mine watchmen and others who will not join their ranks.

[Emphasis added.

Note: Initial reports, in newspapers across the nation, claim that a striking miner, “Robert Estep,” was killed during rioting at Mucklow. In fact  the striking miner killed was Francis Estep, member of the United Mine Workers of America. He was murdered at Holly Grove by gunthugs firing upon men women and children from a train-car called the “Bull Moose Special.” The attack was perpetrated against the small village at about 10 p. m. Residents scrambled for shelter and few miners were able to respond to the attack in an attempt to defend their families.

From the Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia) of February 9, 1913:

re Murder of Francis Estep, Richmond VA Dly Tx p2, Feb 9, 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: From McClure’s Magazine: “Children of the Coal Shadow” by Francis H. Nichols, Part III

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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 12, 1903
Children of Pennsylvania’s Anthracite “Coal Shadow”
-Part III of article by Francis H. Nichols, with illustrations by Frank E. Schoonover

From McClure’s Magazine of February 1903:

CHILDREN OF THE COAL SHADOW

BY FRANCIS H. NICHOLS

Illustrated by Frank E. Schoonover

[Part III of III]

Children of Coal Nichols Schoonover, Girls Forelady, McClures p439, Feb 1903

Where the Daughters Work

While the miner’s son is working in the breaker or mine it is probable that his daughter is employed in a mill or factory. Sometimes in a mining town, sometimes in a remote part of the coal fields, one comes upon a large, substantial building of wood or brick. When the six o’clock whistle blows, its front door is opened, and out streams a procession of girls. Some of them are apparently seventeen or eighteen years old, the majority are from thirteen to sixteen, but quite a number would seem to be considerably less than thirteen. Such a building is one of the knitting mills or silk factories that during the last ten years have come into Anthracite…..

Through a district organizer I was enabled to interview under union auspices a number of little girls who were employed in a knitting mill. One girl of fifteen said that she was the oldest of seven children. She had worked in the mill since she was nine years old. Her father was a miner. As pay for “raveling” she received an amount between $2.50 and $3 every two weeks. Another thirteen-year-old raveler had worked since the death of her father, two years before, from miner’s asthma; her brother had been killed in the mine. The $3 she received every two weeks in her pay envelope supported her mother and her ten-year-old sister…..

The breaker boss finds at the mill or factory a counterpart in the “forelady.” This personage holds a prominent place in the civilization of Anthracite. It is taken for granted that the forelady must be habitually hateful, and in all controversies side with the proprietor against the rest of the girls. It is her duty to crush incipient strikes, and to do all in her power to “break” the union. She enjoys being hated by every one, and leads an isolated life of conscious rectitude for about $5 a week…..

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