Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 20, 1921 U.M.W. of A. Supports Fighting Miners of West Virginia and Alabama
From the United Mine Workers Journal of January 15, 1921:
Official Notice of Assessment Indianapolis
Indianapolis, January 4, 1921.
To the Officers and Members, United Mine Workers of America:
Brothers—For many months about three thousand miners in the Mingo county coal section of West Virginia have been locked out by their employers. In Alabama twelve thousand miners have been on strike for many months because the coal operators, who employed them, refused to negotiate an agreement based upon the award of the Bituminous Coal Commission. The locked-out and striking miners in these two fields, together with their families, who are dependent upon them, have been cared for and supported by the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America. All together about fifty thousand men, women and children have been and are now being clothed, fed and cared for by the International Union of the United Mine Workers of America.
Evicted Miners and Families Live in Tents in Mingo County, W. V.
Since the beginning of the lock-out in West Virginia and the strike in Alabama the International Union has supplied $ 1,345,000 out of the International treasury, for the support of our striking brothers and their families. The suffering which the men, women and children living in both these coal fields have undergone challenges the admiration of every member of our union. They have been thrown out of their homes; have been denied the right of free assemblage; have been subjected to the brutal treatment of a private army of gunmen, guards and thugs employed by the coal operators, and to the repressive military regulations which have been established by state and federal troops ordered into these mining communities.
The fact that thousands of men, women and children are living in tents during these bitter cold wintry days and nights, fighting and struggling for recognition, the right to bargain collectively and for justice, excites our most profound sympathy. Such heroic action calls for our full support in the struggle these brave men and women are making against the forces of corporate greed and corporate power.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 15, 1911 Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1910: –Praised by Max Hayes and Eugene Debs for Work in Pennsylvania
From the International Socialist Review of December 1910:
THE WORLD OF LABOR
BY MAX S. HAYES.
[…..]
MOTHER JONES has been busying herself during the past few weeks in trying to bring cheer and comfort to the poor miners in the Irwin-Greensburg soft coal district of Pennsylvania [Westmoreland County], and assisting those unfortunate victims of one of the most heartless lockouts in American industrial history (as has been shown in THE REVIEW) to gain a semblance of humane working and living conditions. Mother is never so happy as when helping “the boys” in the mining fields, and, as every officer and member of the U. M. W. knows, she has gone into districts in Colorado, Alabama, West Virginia and other places where many of the bravest of men have feared to tread. She has faced injunction judges, served time in jail, lived on bread and water and has undergone a thousand hardships where others have hesitated or flunked, and never a word of complaint as to her own sufferings escape her lips. In fact she is as jolly and happy-go-lucky as a girl of sixteen and always refers to her direful experiences as humorous escapades.
Mother Jones only grows sorrowful and indignant when she discusses the fool factionalism among the miners and the sufferings endured by “the boys” and their wives and children, whom she knows and loves and for whom she has done organizing work in past campaigns. She has little patience with the penny-ante politics of this or that alleged leader who aspires for place or power, and when in a reminiscent mood she can relate some wonderful stories.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 14, 1921 Mexico City – Mother Jones Speaks at Pan-American Labor Congress
From the Washington Evening Star of January 13, 1921:
LABOR CONGRESS HEARS TALK
BY ‘MOTHER’ JONES ———- Thirty More Questions Likely to Be
Brought Up in Mexico City.
By the Associated Press.
MEXICO CITY, January 13.-Delegates to the Congress of the Pan-American Federation of Labor, in session here, listened today to an address by “Mother” Jones, the radical labor leader, who arrived here last week from the United States. She has been a regular attendant at sessions of the congress, although not a delegate, and yesterday was granted special permission to appear this morning before the federation.
The resolutions committee was busily engaged yesterday receiving motions to be brought before the congress, and when the committee adjourned, John P. Frey, its chairman, announced that a score of resolutions dealing with pan-American activity had been received and that the recommendations contained in the report of the executive committee would provide thirty more questions to be brought before the congress for final disposition.
The congress proper enjoyed a virtual holiday yesterday, the day’s session lasting only thirty minutes.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 11, 1921 Mexico City – Mother Jones Attends Pan-American Labor Conference
From The Pittsburg Press of January 9, 1921:
“MOTHER” JONES WILL BE OBREGON’S GUEST. —–
Charleston, W. Va., Jan. 8.-Treasuring an invitation to be the guest of President Alvaro Obregon, of Mexico, during her stay in Mexico City, “Mother” Jones left here accompanied by Fred Mooney, secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of this district, to attend the Pan-American labor conference. She has been in West Virginia working among the miners for some time.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 8, 1901 Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1900 Found in Leaving Pennsylvania, Headed for Coal Fields of West Virginia
From the Hazleton Plain Speaker of December 1, 1900:
WITH THE MINE WORKERS. ———- “Mother” Jones Leaves For Virginia –Dilcher, Here Next Week.
Fred Dilcher, who is at present doing missionary work in the Lackawanna region will arrive in this city on Monday. Mr. Dilcher’s visit is for the purpose of organizing the brewery employees and clerks in Hazleton. The latter have been organized but very little interest has been taken in the local and not a meeting has been held since the union was formed. Benjamin James was present at the meeting and it was decided by a unanimous vote that a charter be applied for.
Through the Lackawanna, upper Luzerne and the greater part of Schuylkill all tradesmen have been organized and every craft is represented in the great Federation of Labor.
“Mother” Jones who has been among the miners hereabouts for some time is organizing them, leaves tomorrow morning for Montgomery, Virginia, where she will do missionary work.
[She said today:]
Conditions are worse in Virginia than anywhere, and the days of chattel slavery are nothing compared to the methods employed by the mine owners there in forcing their employees into subjugation.
Mrs. Jones informed a reporter today that she would not return to this region for several months, but she leaves Hazleton glad in the knowledge that the miners are happy and contented and that better conditions exist in the anthracite region than for many years…..
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 28, 1910 Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1910, Part I: –Blames Roosevelt for State of Miners Union in Anthracite Field
From the Muskegon News Chronicle of November 4, 1910:
[Mother Jones] Holds T. R. Responsible for Ruin of Coal Union.
That man Roosevelt is responsible for the wrecking of the once powerful union of anthracite miners; he turned John Mitchell’s head by flattery and did what Geo. F. Baer and the combined hard coal barons couldn’t do. I repeat, the overrated Roosevelt wrecked the anthracite miners union.
These startling words were uttered by Mother Jones in conversation with the writer a few days ago, while en route to the Irwin-Greensburg coal field to assist the 20,000 striking miners who have been locked out since last spring [Westmoreland County Coal Strike].
Mother Jones is unquestionably the most influential figure among the American miners today, and has been for a decade. If she were a man she would be the life president of the United Mine Workers of North America. It was Mother Jones more than any other human being who rallied the hard coal miners in their helpless slavery 10 years ago and cheered them on a fight their way out.
[Said Mother:]
Now, after ten years of open shoppery, the boys are back in the old rut, back on the treadmill, not daring to call their souls their own, thanks to the scheming and hypocrisy of Roosevelt. And then that bluffer had the audacity to go down into the Scranton district recently, accompanied by photographers and press agents, and gloat and grin at the poor miners and announce ostentatiously, “I am ex-President Roosevelt.”
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 26, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – Relief Workers Bring Cheer to Tent Colonies
From The Washington Post of December 25, 1920:
CHRISTMAS CHEER FOR MINGO TENTS ———- Relief Workers Give Fruits and Toys to Strikers’ Families
Williamson, W. Va., Dec. 24 (By the Associated Press).-Relief workers who have been employed during the last week in distributing Christmas cheer to the striking miners and their families in the Tug River coal field, reported to union headquarters here tonight that their task was completed. Two carloads of goods have been assigned to the tent colonists throughout the district, and strikers who reside in houses have been provided with seasonal necessities.
Besides the candies, fruits and toys, nearly 2,000 hams were distributed for those who may not be able to have turkeys. The big community Christmas tree erected in the courthouse yard in Williamson was lighted for the first time tonight with scores of colored electric bulbs. There will be no formal ceremony about the tree, which was intended for the soldiers on strike duty in the coal fields as well as the residents, until tomorrow night. All civic clubs have joined in an effort to make tomorrows celebration the most successful ever held in this community…..
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 23, 1910 Greensburg, Pennsylvania – Strikers’ Families Face Winter in Frozen Tent Colony
From The Labor Argus of December 15, 1910:
Thanksgiving at Greensburg Tent Colony
Pittsburg. Pa. Dec. 14.-Have you ever camped in a bleak and barren hillside in the frosty month of December with nothing to protect you from the biting winds but a flimsy tent, with the frozen ground for a carpet, and a hard wooden bunk for a bed? Can you imagine a more cruel punishment to inflict upon the most despised criminal upon earth? And yet this is exactly what thousands of people in the Irwin-Greensburg strike district are compelled to and they are not criminals either, but upright and honest, law-abiding people. The conditions which confront these poor mortals simply beggar description, no mind can picture nor pen accurately describe the situation.
And what have these people done to be thus punished? Is it a crime to revolt against merciless oppression, to prefer death by cold and starvation rather than a miserable existence in abject slavery. If it is then these people should be punished just like other criminals, but we know of no law they have violated, and hence society owes them some little consideration, at least an opportunity to live as others in this richly blessed land of ours live.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 21, 1920 Mingo County, West Virginia – “Civil War Has Become a Fact”
From The Literary Digest of December 18, 1920:
WEST VIRGINIA’S WAR
THE BIGGEST AND BLOODIEST FEUD in the history of West Virginia, say special correspondents on the ground, continues in the vicinity of Williamson, in the bituminous coal-mining district [note: photo above incorrectly states “anthracite field”]. With the private feud on a gigantic scale is combined an industrial war-a strike and lockout. “The issue of the open versus the closed shop is being put to the acid test,” says John J. Leary, Jr., in the New York World, and the scene of the battle between coal-operators and miners is said to be just across the river from the county in which the McCoy-Hatfield feud was waged a generation ago. The strike in the Williamson coal-field began in May with an attempt of the United Mine Workers to unionize the men, we are told by the New York Herald, and the death-toll since that time is thirty-nine. Six hundred men have been wounded. Mine-workers, on one hand, and mine-guards, private detectives, and deputy sheriffs, on the other, have staged a civil war, during which time the estimated loss in production of coal has been 5,000,000 tons and the loss to the miners $3,500,000 in wages, according to the figures of The Herald. Many coal-plants and at least one power-house have been dynamited, declares the New York World, while Mr. Leary continues in that paper:
Murders and killings on both sides have been frequent; hundreds of families have been driven from their poor homes; civil war has become a fact. Back of the mountaineers are the 400,000 union coal-miners of the country. Back of them the sympathy, and, if necessary, the support of the other 3,600,000 members of the American Federation of Labor.
Back of the operators are the open-shop interests. Quietly, but none the less effectively, they are protecting and sustaining the smaller operators who have small resources. They are assisting with advice and with experts in such matters. Likewise they are assisting in Charleston, the capital of the State.
Meantime, the deadlock.
At any time it may flare up again with heavy loss of life on one side or the other, or both.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 20, 1900 Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1900, Part IV Found Standing with Silk Mill Strikers of Wilkes-Barre and Carbondale
From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of November 27, 1900:
The trouble at the Hass-Goldsmith Silk Mill is causing a great deal of discussion in labor circles. Mother Jones, one of the most prominent agitators in this country, arrived in town last evening and had lengthy conference with the employes. She expressed a desire that the young women should arrange for a mass meeting, to which the public will be invited.
Mother Jones is in the best of health and spirits and feels elated over the success of the miners’ strike. She is an intelligent woman, and despite the fact that many disagree with her on questions agitating the public mind, they must acknowledge that she is a very clever woman. Mrs. Jones was interviewed yesterday afternoon at Hotel Hart by a News reporter. Among other things she said:
The employes of the Hess-Goldsmith mill sent for me and this evening they will come to my hotel and we will have a conference. From what I can learn the women, boys and girls, have just cause to complain. They are treated something similar to the children at the Freeland silk mills. There one boy received one cent per hour and worked 13½ hours per day. Do you wonder why the employes complain? It is not unusual to see a boy or girl prematurely aged. What is the reason? It is plain to be seen. These little ones are driven from daylight till dawn by a crowd of slave drivers who have not the slightest conception of the honor or respect due womankind. The factories steal from the parents the most desirable jewel, the light, the joy of the home-those bright faced little children. There was a time-I am sorry to say that it is fast disappearing-that she first thing asked a child in the morning by the mother was: “Dear, do you know your lessons?” But this is changed now to, “You must work hard and earn a few cents to-day.”
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The trouble at the Hass-Goldsmith Silk Mill is causing a great deal of discussion in labor circles. Mother Jones, one of the most prominent agitators in this country, arrived in town last evening and had lengthy conference with the employes. She expressed a desire that the young women should arrange for a mass meeting, to which the public will be invited.