Tag: United Mine Workers of America

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1909, Part I: Found in Texas, Missouri, & Kansas

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, We Will Rest, UMWC Jan 27, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 12, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1909, Part I:
-Found Speaking in Texas, Missouri, and Kansas

Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909

From The Houston Post
-of August 1, 1909:

Socialist Meeting at Tyler.

(Houston Post Special.)

TYLER, Texas, July 31.-About fifteen campers with outfits from Van Zandt and Henderson counties arrived this evening to attend the socialist encampment which commences Monday and lasts until Saturday of next week. The speakers for the encampment are prominent in the socialist party and includes Colonel Dick Maples, “Mother” Jones and Rev. Mr. Andrews.

———-

From The Kansas City Star
-of August 4, 1909:

“Mother Jones,” the well known Socialist lecturer, is announced for a lecture Friday night in the circuit court room at Independence under the auspices of the Independence Socialist club.

From Appeal to Reason of August 7, 1909:

WESTERN FEDERATION
—–

The convention of the Western Federation of Miners which recently adjourned was the most progressive in the history of that organization. There were some exciting debates and there were some minor elements with extreme tendencies, but on the whole the convention was composed of the clear-eyed, honest and progressive workers whose highest purpose it was to place their organization in the van of the working class movement…..

Mother Jones and Emma F. Langdon were the honored guests of the convention and made rousing speeches to the delegates. Mother is called “The Uncrowned Queen” by the rugged miners of the mountain states who have reason to know her for her fearless and faithful devotion to their interests at a time when it was at the peril of her life…..

From the Kansas City, Kansas, Labor Record of August 13, 1909:

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Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia Miners Declare They Will March on Logan County to Help Their Brothers Organize

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Kaisers here at home, Peoria IL Apr 6, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 7, 1919
4,000 Armed Miners Gather Near Marmet to March on Logan County

From the The West Virginian of September 6, 1919:

WV UMW, Armed Miners March, WVgn p1, Sept 6, 1919WV UMW, Armed Miners March Logan ed, WVgn p1, Sept 6, 1919

(By Associated Press)

CHARLESTON, Sept. 6-According to information received from a local operator who refused to be quoted the coal operators of the Guyan field yesterday unloaded a car load of machine guns at different places in Logan county as a means of preparation to meet the hosts of invading miners from the Kanawha and Coal river fields.

The five hundred armed miners who left Oak Grove this morning on the march across the hills to Coal river with the Guyan field of Logan county their object was to be joined at Racine and Little Coal River by about 3,000 more armed men according to information received here by coal operators.

The additional armed forces were said to be assembled at Racine and on Little Coal river early this forenoon awaiting the crowd from Oak Grove.

W. M. Petry, vice president of District No. 17 United Mine Workers of America said there were 4,000 armed miners on the march this morning to the Guyan fields, but disclosed no information regarding their whereabouts at that time.

Petry said the men absolutely refused to listen to the appeal of Governor Cornwell and the orders of the union officials. They refused to listen to any of us, Mr. Petry said and declared their intention of marching into Logan county to help their brothers organize.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Social Democratic Herald: Eugene Debs on Current Events: So-Called Miners’ Victories & Patriotism at $13 per Month

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, SDP Revolutionary, Sc Dem Hld p1, July 1, 1899———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 5, 1899
Eugene V. Debs on Current Events: Miners of Girard, Illinois, Appeal for Aid

From the Social Democratic Herald of September 2, 1899:

CURRENT EVENTS PASSED IN REVIEW
—–

MINERS’ “VICTORIES” SO-CALLED
—–
Thirteen-Dollars-a-Month Patriotism
-“Bull Pens” and Socialism-Justice in France
in Spite of Hell and the French Army
-Cleveland Boycott
—–

By Eugene V. Debs, Terre Haute, Ind.

[Part I of II.]

EVD, Houston Daily Post p6, May 22, 1899

We have heard a great deal about the “glorious victories” won for miners during the last two yeas. It is a ghastly lie. The only victory I know of is the $3,600.00 job snatched from the enemy by Ratchford [Michael D. Ratchford, former President of the United Mine Workers’ Union], the understudy of [U. S. Senator] Mark Hanna.

Here in Indiana hundreds of them are idle and suffering. In Illinois, according to the official report of [U. M. W. District 12] State Secretary Ryan, they are on strike at 14 different points. At Girard [Illinois] the other day they issued an appeal for charity, declaring that they were homeless and hungry. The “glorious victories” have reduced them to common beggars—and they belong to the union to a man.

Oh, miners, will you not open your eyes and will you not use your brains and see and think for yourselves?

You have won no victories worthy the name. You are slaves, every last one of you, the victims of the wage system, and as long as the mines you work in are privately owned you will be robbed while at work and clubbed and shot like dogs when you quit.

Arouse from your slavery, join the Social Democratic Party and vote with us to take possession of the mines of the country and operate them in the interest of the people, as well as the railroads, factories, and all the means of production and distribution, and then, and only then, will “glorious victories” have been achieved and you and your comrades be free and our families happy.

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WE NEVER FORGET: Fannie Sellins & Joe Starzeleski, Shot Down by Gunthugs, August 26, 1919, at West Natrona, PA

Janet RayeFannie Sellins
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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, Ab Chp 6, 1925———-

WNF Fannie Sellins n Joe Starzeleski, West Natrona PA, August 26, 1919———-

WE NEVER FORGET
Fannie Sellins & Joe Starzeleski
Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause
August 26, 1919 at West Natrona, Pennsylvania

From The Woman Today of September 1936:

Fannie Sellins

-by Lillian Henry

WNF Sellins Starzeleski Monument, The Woman Today p9, Sept 1936

Gold flows down the Alleghany [Allegheny] and Monongahela Rivers and up the Ohio river to coffers in tall buildings in downtown Pittsburgh. There is a steady stream from the coal mines and steel mills-from the coal mines and the steel mills-from the plants of Jones and Laughlin, Bethlehem Steel, Carnegie, U. S. Steel, Alleghany Steel, Alleghany Valley Coal. These and many other sources fill the banks and strong boxes in Pittsburgh.

Blood has flowed along these rivers-shed at the command of the owners of the strong boxes in tall buildings, and one of their victims was Fannie Sellins, mother of four children.

Fannie Sellins’ grave stands in New Kensington on the Alleghany River. The tombstone, erected by the United Mine Workers of District No. 5, stands as a monument to those “killed by the enemies of organized labor”.

We went to see Fannie Sellins’ daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Broad, to learn about the life of this heroic woman.

[Said the former
Dorothy Sellins:]

My father died when I was two years old, and mother went to work in a garment factory in St. Louis to support her four children. We all come from the South.

Grandfather was a painter-had a regular job painting Mississippi River boats. He used to take mother and the children around to union meetings. I’ve heard union talk ever since I was a baby.

Mother worked hard to organize, not only the men, but also their women. She used to go around to the women to tell them how important it was for them to organize. She was jailed for six months in West Virginia for doing that.

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Hellraisers Journal: Union Organizer Fannie Sellins and Miner Joseph Starzeleski Murdered Near Brackenridge

Janet RayeFannie Sellins
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Quote Anne Feeney, Fannie Sellins Song, antiwarsongs org———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 28, 1919
West Natrona, Pennsylvania – Fannie Sellins & Joe Starzeleski Murdered

From the Pittsburgh Gazette Times of August 27, 1919:

Note: We caution our readers to remember that the enemies of organized labor, through the kept press, are often the first to tell the story of labor disturbances. Already, the day after the murders of Mrs. Sellins and Joe Starzeleski, we find the kept press charging that the two died in a “mine riot.” Other accounts, from the strikers side, indicate that there was no riot until Deputized Coal and Iron Gunthugs attacked Miner Starzeleski. When Fannie attempted to save him, she was beaten and shot. We will continue to report on this story that the truth may be told of the deaths of these two labor martyrs.

WNF Fannie Sellins, Joe Starzeleski Aug 26, Ptt Gz Tx p1, Aug 27, 1919

———-

Two persons, one of them Mrs. Fannie Sellins, organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, secretary of the Allegheny Valley Trades Council and a woman labor worker of national repute, were shot to death and five others wounded in a strike riot at the entrance of the Allegheny Coal and Coke Company near Brackenridge late yesterday.

THE DEAD

Mrs Sellins, aged 49, of New Kensington: shot in the head and instantly killed.
Joseph Strzelecki [Starzeleski], aged 58, of West Natrona, a miner: shot in the head and instantly killed.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1919, Part II: Sissonville Prison Road Camp-Burning Hell Hole of West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Constabulary n Bread, Ab Chp 23, 1925———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 16, 1919
Mother Jones News for July 1919, Part II
-Found Protesting Conditions at Sissonville Road Camp

Hell Hole in West Virginia: Sissonville Prison Road Camp
-Described by Mother Jones:

Mother Jones Crpd Women in Industry, Eve Ns Hburg PA p2, Jan 6, 1919

With Mr. [Fred] Mooney and Mr. Snyder, organizers, I went to the prison camp of Kanawha County where prisoners were building a county road. It was a broiling hot day.

About forty men were swinging picks and shovels; some old grey haired men were among them, some extremely young, some diseased, all broken in spirit and body. Some of them, the younger ones, were in chains. They had to drag a heavy iron ball and chain as they walked and worked. A road officer goaded them on if they lagged. He was as pitiless as the Bull on their bent backs.

These were men who had received light sentences in the courts for minor offenses, but the road officer could extend the sentence for the infraction of the tiniest rule. Some men had been in the camp for a year whose sentence had been thirty days for having in their possession a pint of liquor. Another fellow told me he was bringing some whiskey to a sick man. He was arrested, given sixty days and fined $100. Unable to pay he was sentenced to five months in the prison camp, and after suffering hell’s tortures he had attempted to run away. He was caught and given four additional months.

At night the miserable colony were driven to their horrible sleeping quarters. For some, there were iron cages. Iron bunks with only a thin cloth mattress over them. Six prisoners were crowded into these cages. The place was odorous with filth. Vermin crawled about…..

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Hellraisers Journal: Speech of IWW Organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn at Spokane on June 29, 1909, Part III

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, My Aim in Life, Spk Rv p7, July 8, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 27, 1909
Spokane, Washington – June 29th Speech of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part III

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of July 15, 1909:

ELIZABETH G. FLYNN ADDRESS TO WORKERS
—–

(Concluded From Last Week)

Address of Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Organizer and Lecturer of the Industrial Workers of the World, given at Spokane, Wash., on Tuesday evening, June 29, 1909.

EGF, Spokane IW p3, July 22, 1909

We had another strike, or contemplated strike, last spring in the coal mining district, the United Mine Workers of America-I was going to say one of the backbones of the America Federation of Labor, because it is like a jelly fish, it has lots of backbone! That organization had a convention in Scranton and they decided not to strike, though they were very anxious to get better conditions in the mines. A good mine contract expired in April. What kind of a time is that to strike? Who cares anything about coal in April The time for a coal mine to strike is very much the same time as the time for a hotel workers strike.

The strikers in Butte told me that they were dissatisfied with their wages, and they wanted more and they were going to wait until prosperity came back and then they were going to strike. Can’t you see them waiting? And I said, “The time for you to strike is next week when there will be a convention of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the town will be filled with members and all the hotels will be on their good behaviour and the town of Butte trying to make a great show of their wealth and generosity; then would be the time to strike.” And can’t you see the hotel managers and the restaurant owners coming to time if the girls struck then? The time to strike is when you are most needed and when it hurts the boss most. (Applause.)

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1919, Found in Illinois and West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Kaisers here at home, Peoria IL Apr 6, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 18, 1919
Mother Jones News for June 1919
-Found Speaking at Memorial for Coal Miners of Herrin, Illinois

From Springfield [Massachusetts] Republican of June 1, 1919:

Mother Jones, Labor Leader, Spgfld Rpb p37, June 1, 1919

Mother Jones has participated in many a successful strike. During the war she is reported to have said to miners: “Let us lick the kaiser first, then we can lick the operators.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for June 1909: Found Meeting with President Taft

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Women Socialism, AtR p3, June 12, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 12, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1909, Part I:
-Meets with President Taft on Behalf of Mexican Refugees

From Oakland Tribune of June 24, 1909:

Mother Jones Seeks Pardon Crpd, Oak Tb p3, June 24, 1909

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1919, Found in West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Fight for Flag Apr 8, Rockford IL Morn Str p4, Apr 9, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 20, 1919
Mother Jones News for May 1919
-Found Speaking to Coal Miners in Watson, West Virginia

From the Fairmont West Virginian of May 31, 1919:

Mother Jones at Parade for Soldiers, WVgn p1, May 31, 1919
Mother Jones Speaks, WVgn p1, May 31, 1919

Organized labor paid its tribute to the returned soldier boys yesterday when a parade was held in the morning between Fairmont and Watson under the auspices of United Mine Workers’ local union 4005, of Watson which closed with an open air meeting at the grove at Watson. Two thousand United Mine Workers participated in the parade.

The parade started at Fairmont avenue and Twelfth street and was escorted by Chief of Police Harr and a cordon of police. W. M. Rogers, Fairmont, president of the State Federation of Labor lead off the procession.

The Moose band, of Fairmont, was next in line, wearing their new uniforms, which are composed of a pretty blue with appropriate trimmings. The band rendered a fine program of march music. Thirty-five service men who reside near Watson, were in line. There were 200 members of local 4005, United Mine Workers, in line. One hundred and twenty-five members of local 4006, Kingmont, were in line and local 4017, Norway, had 55 men in line. Local union 4021, of Dakota, had 58 men in line and local 4027, of Barnstown had 120.

Local 4006, Rivesvllle, had 50 men, while local 2358 Rivesville, had 56 men. United Mine Workers, local 4048, Carolina, had 41 men. Then came the largest delegation in the parade that of local 1643 Monongah, which had 500 United Mine Workers in line. The next largest delegation was from local 4047, Grant Town, which had 400 men.

Mother Jones occupied a seat in an auto that led off the parade. R. E. Fitzhugh, of Watson, was marshal of the parade, which was a great success.

After the parade the column moved to Crawford’s Grove Watson, where meeting was held in the presence of 3,000 United Mine Workers and their families. W. M. Rogers, Fairmont, president of the State Federation of Labor, introduced the speaker in well chosen words.

“Mother Jones” was the first speaker. She urged all of the United Mine Workers to remain loyal to their organization. Later she paid a high tribute to the returned soldiers, many of whom appeared in uniform at the meeting. She praised the democracy of America.

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