Tag: United Mine Workers of America

Hellraisers Journal: Frank Keeney Seeks Senate Investigation of Conditions in Coalfields of Mingo County, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 6, 1921
Washington, District of Columbia – President Keeney Seeks Senate Investigation

From The Washington Times of February 5, 1921:

URGES SENATE QUIZ IN MINGO
———-

Mine Workers’ Chief Says Constitution
is in Discard-Gunmen in Power.
—–
By DAVID M. CHURCH.
International News Service.

 

Declaring that “the Constitution has been kicked into the discard in West Virginia,” Frank Keeney, president of District No. 17 of the United Mine Workers of America, is here today seeking a Senatorial investigation of labor troubles in the West Virginia coal fields.

“GOVERNED BY GUNMEN.”

Keeney, Prz UMW D17, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

[Said Keeney:]

The time has come for civil government to be restored in Mingo county and other West Virginia fields. We want a Senate committee to investigate this situation. The miners want them to come into the fields, see conditions as they are, investigate present and past troubles, and let the chips fall where they may.

Keeney today conferred with a number of Senators and laid before them evidence of what he termed “the brutal government of gunmen.” He stated that he had assurances that a resolution would be introduced in the Senate shortly authorizing a complete investigation of the West Virginia troubles.

[Said Keeney:]

The fact that the troops are in West Virginia is prima facia evidence that civil government has been destroyed there. We are tired of these shooting affrays and lawlessness, and we can prove that the blame for these shooting affrays can be laid at the door of the operators’ gunmen. We have evidence to back up all of our statements, and we are confident that this evidence will stand the scrutiny of any fair committee.

MINERS ARE DISARMED.

Why, all the miners have been disarmed by the troops, yet it is claimed that the miners are doing some of the shooting. They say that some of the troopers have been shot at as many as forty times. Let me tell you that those miners are crack shots, and it they ever shot at a trooper more than twice he wouldn’t be alive. We are willing for a committee of Senators to decide who is doing the shooting.

The Winchester rifle and the gun is the law in West Virginia coal fields now, and the gunmen aren’t at all backward in telling you so, either.

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers of America Will Support Mountaineers on Trial at Williamson, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 5, 1921
United Mine Workers of America to Support Matewan Defendants 

From the United Mine Workers Journal of February 1, 1921:

Union Will Support the
Twenty-four Mountaineers

CRTN BF Thugs Law n Order in WV, BDB p1, Sept 29, 1920

WASHINGTON, January 23.-The twenty four mountaineers who go on trial on a charge of first-degree murder Wednesday at Williamson, W. Va., will have the complete support, moral and material, of the United Mine Workers of America, according to an announcement here tonight by William Green, national secretary and treasurer of the organization.

The trial is the result of a sensational gun battle in the main street of Matewan on May 19th last, which resulted in ten deaths, including the mayor of the city and seven Baldwin-Felts guards. The fight is said to have had its origin in the attempts of the guards to arrest Sid Hatfield, chief of police of Matewan. Hatfield, a descendant of the feudists of Hatfield-McCoy fame, is the most prominent in the group of defendants, which includes special police deputies of Matewan and members of the miners’ union.

In his statement here tonight Mr. Green declared:

The United Mine Workers of America are prepared to afford full support, both moral and material, to the twenty-four defendants in the murder trial at Williamson, W. Va., this week. This trial is a direct result of the barbarous warfare waged on members of the United Mine Workers by the coal operators of Mingo county. And, so long as lives of members of our organization are at stake, we intend to put at their disposal every means for establishing their innocence of the charge. The court, of course, will determine their fate. But we will offer the defense every facility in our power.

The United Mine Workers are determined to see justice done the locked-out miners of Mingo county. These men and their families were evicted from their homes for the “crime” of joining the union. The operators employed professional gunmen to hasten the evictions. We are insistent that the use of gunmen in West Virginia mining areas shall cease. It is time that a republican form of government, as ordained by the constitution, should be restored in Mingo county and the arbitrary rule of the coal barons brought to an end.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Mother Jones on Deck” -Speaks on Behalf of Striking Miners of Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Hell, Greensburg PA Jan 14, AtR p2, Jan 28, 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 1, 1911
Greensburg, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Speaks for Striking Miners

From the Appeal to Reason of January 28, 1911:

Mother Jones on Deck
———-

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

The papers of Greensburg, Pa., are filled with accounts of the great speech delivered there by Mother Jones in behalf of the striking miners on January 14th. Mother Jones appears to have been in perfect form and to have electrified the audience of three thousand people assembled to hear her. Below will be found brief extracts:

Thrusting aside hands proffering assistance, Mother Jones mounted the speakers table. Holding up her hands for silence, when the wave of applause swept over the audience, she burst out into a fierce invective against the business men of Greensburg. With her expressive hands gesticulating, she said;

“They are so full of greed that they won’t take a day off to find out what is the matter. The business men furnish the scabs with Armour’s rotten beer and swill whiskey. Then they blame disorder on the miners. It’s the changing order of economics. The small business man is put to the wall and he scratches his head and wonders what the hell is the matter.”

Turning around in partial apology to Rev. Mr. Schultz. she said:

“You ministers think you are the only ones who can talk about hell. I live in hell and I have a right to talk about it.”

Assuring them that she did not get into the labor movement yesterday, she said:

“The class who owns the industries, owns the governments, the newspapers and all.”

Turning to Mr. McGinley, Mother Jones spit out:

“You may like the constabulary, but I don’t-no true American would belong to the constabulary.”

Then in a bitter tirade against the state police she said:

“Their little gray cap covers the outside of their skull, buy they have nothing inside.”

Constantly throughout her invective, the state police were referred to as “dogs of war” and “bloodhounds.”

Notwithstanding the radical speech of Mother Jones and her unmerciful flaying of the coal company and its hirelings and lackeys the papers treated her with great regard. The following description of her as a she took her place upon the platform is interesting:

With firm tread, keen old eyes peering out at the crowds from behind spectacles set determinedly on her nose, Mother Jones advanced through the crowds and took her place at the speakers table. A modest bonnet covered her wealth of soft gray hair, soft laces appeared at her throat and wrists, and her strangely youthful face broke into smiles and her eyes twinkled in a roguish Irish way as she acknowledge greetings.

The seventy-seven years of Mother Jones sit lightly upon her venerable features. She is just as active and quite as revolutionary as at any time in her life. If only the great mass who are in their prime were imbued with her spirit and nervous energy what a great change there would be in this world. There would be no question about the social revolution in our time. We are glad this great effort of Mother Jones was made in behalf of the miners and earnestly hope they will stand solidly together to the end. If they do this they are sure to win and they certainly ought to win, for never was there a strike more justified than this, nor more deserving of the support of the working class and those who sympathize with it.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers: We must learn to bear each other’s burdens.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Love Each Other, UMWC Ipl IN, Jan 25, 1901 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 29, 1901
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks to Miners, Part II

January 25, 1901-Convention of United Mine Workers of America:

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900In New York they are going to give a charity ball. I suppose it is a kind of restitution to the people they have been robbing for years. They will spend thousands and thousands of dollars for decorating their old carcasses, and they go into a hall and admire one another; and if we were to sit up in the gallery and venture to look at them they would wonder what such a lot of Wops wanted in the world anyhow. Then some smart newspaper man will take his gilt pen and sit down and write of the beautiful Mr. So and So who was there, and of the beautiful Mrs. So and So who was there, and how they were dressed, and how splendid it all was.

Splendid! Yes, my friends, but they are dancing on the minds and hearts of the men and women they have robbed, dancing on the hearts of the little children who are working in their factories and of the boys and girls working everywhere.

In Freeland [Pennsylvania] I held a meeting for the boys and girls from the silk mills. They were on a strike and one morning they tried to keep the scab children from working. The children went into the factory to work, and the poor little outside ones entered a protest and called them “Blackleg,” and “scab,” and a burly policeman took one girl by the hair of the head and dragged her to the police station and she was put under three hundred dollars bond. The bond was furnished and they took her home, but the fright and ill treatment had made her ill, and she had three hemorrhages of the lungs. There was not a dollar in the house to get food or medicine or a doctor for her. Think of that.

When the children stood on the platform of a hall we had hired for them to expose the corporations one little boy of twelve came to the front and told us that he worked thirteen hours at night, that they paid him one cent an hour; but that these same people had gone to the church and put in a magnificent stained glass window in it. Did you ever hear a minister say one word about the condition of these children? We did not find one minister to defend these children.

In the Scriptures they can see where the Master said, “Suffer little children to come unto me.” My friends, I believe we should clasp our hands and come out together in defense of these little children. I can see an appeal in their eyes which seems to ask what they have done that they should be battered and knocked about as they are. There are children under age in those factories.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers: “You have traveled over stormy paths.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Stormy Paths, UMWC Ipl IN, Jan 25, 1901 ———–

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 28, 1901
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks to Miners, Part I

January 25, 1901-Convention of United Mine Workers of America:

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900

President Mitchell: Ladies and gentlemen: There are few persons in the Industrial movement who have impressed themselves upon the toilers as has the one who will address you this afternoon. During the long years of struggle in which the miners engaged they have had no more staunch supporter, no more able defender than the one we all love to call Mother. I don’t believe there is a Mine Worker from one end of the country to the other who does not know her name. It gives me great pleasure to pre- sent to you this afternoon Mother Jones.

Mrs. Mary Jones: Fellow toilers, it seems strange that you should have selected the month of January for your conventions. It has a lesson by which you may well profit, and no craft needs more to profit by that lesson than the miners. The month of January represents two seasons, a part of the dead winter and a part of the beautiful coming spring. I realize as well as you do that you have traveled over stormy paths, that you have rubbed up against the conflict of the age, but I am here to say that you have come out victorious, and in the future you will stand as the grand banner organization. My brothers, we are entering on a new age. We are confronted by conditions such as the world perhaps has never met before in her history.

We have in the last century solved one great problem that has confronted the ages in the mighty past. It had ever been the riddle of the people of the world. The problem of production has been solved for the human race; the problem of this country will lie with the workers to solve, that great and mighty and important problem, the problem of possession. You have in your wisdom, in your quiet way, with a little uprising here and a little uprising there solved the problem of the age. You have done your work magnificently and well; but we have before us yet the grandest and greatest work of civilization.

We have before us the emancipation of the children of this nation. In the days gone by we found the parents filled with love and affection. As the mother looked upon her new-born boy, as she pressed him to her bosom, she thought, “Some day, he will be the man of this nation; some day I shall sacrifice myself for the education, the developing of his brain, the bringing out of his grander, nobler qualities. But, oh, my brothers, that is past, that has been killed! Today, my friends, we look into the eyes of the child of the Proletariat as it enters into the conflict of this life, and we see the eyes of the poor, helpless little creature appealing to those who have inhabited the world before it. Now when the father comes home the first question he asks is “Mary, is it a boy or a girl?” When she answers, “It is a boy, John,” he says, “Well, thank God! he will soon be able to go to the breakers and help earn a living with me.” If it is a girl there is no loving kiss, no caress for her for she cannot be put to the breakers to satisfy capitalistic greed.

But my friends, the capitalistic class has met you face to face today to take the girls as well as the boys out of the cradle. Wherever you are in mighty numbers they have brought their factories to take your daughters and slaughter them on the altar of capitalistic greed. They have built their mines and breakers to take your boys out of the cradle; they have built their factories to take your girls; they have built on the bleeding, quivering hearts of yourselves and your children their palaces. They have built their magnificent yachts and palaces; they have brought the sea from mid-ocean up to their homes where they can take their baths—and they don’t give you a chance to go to the muddy Missouri and take a bath in it.

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Hellraisers Journal: “The One We All Love to Call Mother” Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote John Mitchell, re Mother Jones, UMWC PM Session, Jan 25, 1901———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 27, 1901
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 26, 1901:

“Mother” Jones Heard

[U. M. W. of A. Convention, January 25th]

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900At the opening of the afternoon session Henry J. Skifington [Skeffington], of the Boot and Shoe Makers’ Union, addressed the convention and urged the delegates to buy none but union made shoes. Following his address, “Mother” Jones spoke. The work of Mrs. Jones among the miners is known to every miner in the country and her appearance was the signal for loud and prolonged applause. She addressed the delegates as “fellow-toilers.” She said the miners had wisely chosen the month of January for holding their convention, as it is the intermediate month between the closing of the year and the opening of spring. It was appropriate, she said, to use this opportunity to look behind and to the front.

The review of experiences of the past should be applied to preparations for the future, and the work of the miners should not be entirely for the present, but foundation should be laid for coming generations. Her pointed and witty expressions caused many outbursts of laughter and her ability to appeal to the deeper feelings was equally as effective with the delegates. When “Mother” Jones wished to say something she said it and spared none, but even members of the organization to whom she said: “if the shoe fits you must wear it.” Mrs. Jones is a Socialist and an ardent admirer of Eugene V. Debs, and she could not refrain from paying a tribute to both.

PATRICK DOLAN’S REMARKS.

At the close of her speech Patrick Dolan, of Pennsylvania, sought the floor to take objections to what Mrs. Jones had said about Debs. He said while he had the highest respect for “Mother” Jones, he did not think Debs was the only man who ever did anything for labor. So slow was he in making his point that many delegates arose to a point of order and tried to have him seated, but President Mitchell was lenient and gave him further time to express himself. The convention became noisy in an attempt to force him to his seat, but it was some time before it could be accomplished……

By vote an invitation was extended to Eugene V. Debs to address the miners while in session here, and it was later announced he will speak Monday afternoon.

———-

[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph break added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Agnes Nestor Speaks on Behalf of Chicago Garment Strikers at United Mine Workers’ Convention

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote UMWA, re Chg Police v Garment Strikers, Columbus UMWC, Jan 25, 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 25, 1911
Miss Agnes Nestor Speaks on Behalf of Chicago Garment Strikers

Columbus, Ohio-Convention of United Mine Workers of America
 -Monday January 23, 1911, Sixth Day-Afternoon Session

Agnes Nestor, Everybodys Magazine p 801, Dec 1908

President Lewis stated that Miss Agnes Nestor of Chicago was in the convention and desired to address the delegates in behalf of the striking garment workers in that city.

President Lewis stated that Miss Nestor had credentials from the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Woman’s Trade Union League.

Delegate Walker, District 12—

I move that an invitation be extended to Miss Agnes Nestor to address the convention. (Seconded and carried by unanimous vote.)

President Lewis-

I take pleasure in introducing the young lady spoken of in the credentials received from Chicago. Miss Nestor will address the convention in behalf of the striking garment workers in that city.

Miss Agnes Nestor—

Mr. Chairman and Delegates to this Convention: I am here to tell you something about the garment workers’ strike now going on in Chicago and to make an appeal for funds. This is an extraordinary strike. It is a wonderful strike, it is a strike of unorganized workers. It began with the unorganized workers in one of the shops of Hart, Schaffner & Marx and spread to every shop of that concern and every other unorganized garment factory in Chicago until it reached 40,000 garment workers. It began the latter part of September and spread to the greatest extent in October. These people have been on strike now nearly four months.

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Hellraisers Journal: Miss Emmeline Pitt Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention, Requests Aid for Irwin Field Strikers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Greensburg PA Cmas 1910, Steel 2, p83———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 24, 1911
Miss Emmeline Pitt Pleads for Aid for Strikers of Irwin Field 

Columbus, Ohio-Convention of United Mine Workers of America
 -Monday January 23, 1911, Sixth Day-Afternoon Session

Emmeline Emmilinne Pitt, Ptt Pst Gz p13, July 4, 1909

Miss [Emmeline] Pitt was escorted to the platform by Vice-President Hayes.

President Lewis–

By action of this convention last week a motion was adopted to extend an invitation to Miss Pitt to address the convention. Miss Pitt is an organizer of the American Federation of Labor and Secretary of the Labor Temple Association of Pittsburg. She has been doing a great deal of work in behalf of the miners in the Irwin Field district. I take pleasure at this time in presenting and introducing to you Miss Emmilinne Pitt.

Miss M. Emmilinne Pitt-

Mr. Chairman and Members of this Convention: It may seem strange to you that a woman would be so vitally interested in a miners’ convention. But in view of the fact that we are still in this endless struggle between capital and labor, it is little wonder that the women of the world today are becoming thoroughly aroused to the industrial situation. If I could bring before you this afternoon a vision of what I found in the Irwin Field a few days before Thanksgiving and a few days before Christmas on my visits to that region I believe your hearts would be sad today. Hundreds of helpless children and helpless women are suffering in that field. You all know of strikes, but I believe there is an exceptionally bad condition there. I want to ask you today as men of labor to extend your interests and your sympathy and your financial support to a continuation of one of the greatest battles, I believe, that was ever waged in the State of Pennsylvania.

Going over the field in the fall, amidst the countless golden harvest fields of plenty, in one of the wealthiest states of the Union, I found those women driven from their pitiful little homes into the highways and byways, and, like the lowly Nazarene, with no place to lay their heads. There have been extreme cases that occasioned many visits there. In one little cemetery on the hillside a Catholic priest has planted a cross above a lonely grave, which tells to us all that every man cannot be bought, body and soul, with a price. Out of the yoke of Egyptian bondage came the redemption of God’s people. Out from under the rod of Israel came a great power, and I believe organized labor will come out just as victorious.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Held at Columbus, Ohio

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Grow Big Great Mighty Show CFnI, UMWC p269 Jan 21, 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 23, 1911
Columbus, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks at Miners’ Convention

From the Washington Sunday Star of January 22, 1911:

LIE IS PASSED FREELY AT MINERS’ CONVENTION
—–
“Mother Jones” Makes Address Calling
Supreme Court Judges Real Anarchists.
———

Mother Jones crpd ed, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

COLUMBUS, Ohio, January 21.-Control of the United Mine Workers’ convention came to a severe test in the contest for the seating of delegates from nine locals of district No. 2 of central Pennsylvania. Charges of falsehoods were made freely by each side and the convention finally adjourned to continue the fight Monday.

Expected contests over the seating of President Francis Feehan of the Pittsburg district did not materialize and he was seated without final objection.

“Mother” Jones spoke before the convention. She classes members of the United States Supreme Court and Gov. Harmon of Ohio among “the real anarchists of the country.”

[…..]

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Without Husband or Children, Mother Jones Chooses as Her Family the Toilers from Coast to Coast

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Husband Children, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 22, 1911
Columbus, Ohio – Mother of the Toilers Speaks to Miners’ Convention

From Ohio’s Marion Daily Mirror of January 21, 1911:

Talks to Miners.

Mother Jones, ed Cameron Co PA Prs p1, Apr 7, 1910

Columbus, O., Jan. 21.-“Mother” Jones, whose name and fame is known throughout the country as the friend of laborers, addressed the miners’ convention [United Mine Workers of America] this morning and was given a rousing ovation when she appeared on the stage. “Mother” Jones claims the United States as her only home and registers on the hotel registers accordingly. She is 67 years old, and her hair is as white as snow. Without husband or children, she has chosen as her family the thousands of toilers from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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