Tag: United Mine Workers of America

Hellraisers Journal: 120 Coal Miners Feared Dead at Hastings, Colorado; Smoke Pouring from Victor-American Mine

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday April 28, 1917
Hastings, Colorado – 120 Coal Miners Trapped in Victor Mine

From the Spokane Daily Chronicle of April 27, 1917:


FIRE TRAPS 120 IN VICTOR MINE;
HINT WAR PLOT
—–
Rescuers Rush Into Smoke-Filled Shafts-
Fear Every Man Is Lost.
—–

Hastings Colorado Victor American Fuel Company
—–

TRINIDAD, Col., April 27.-Fire in the Victor American Fuel Company mine No. 2, at Hastings, near here, is believed to have trapped 120 coal miners.

Reports were in circulation this afternoon that the fire was the result of a war plot, Austrian miners being suspected. A company of troops has been guarding the property for some weeks.

Fire was first noticed coming out of the mouth of the mine shortly after 9:30 this morning. Helmet crews which entered had made no report this afternoon as to whether or not they had reached the entombed men.

Heavy smoke was pouring from the mine at 1:20 o’clock and it was feared there was little hope of rescuing the men.

Rescuers are being hurried into the workings. At 1:50 o’clock this afternoon 50 men had descended to aid in the fight to save the entombed workmen.

A messenger who reached here from the scene said:

The fire broke out shortly before 9:30 o’clock, when smoke was seen coming from the mine. We think there was an explosion also, but there is no sign of it on the outside. Heavy smoke is pouring from the mine.

Not a word has come from the inside since the fire started.

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Hellraisers Journal: Colorado Miners & Families to Honor the Martyrs of Ludlow on Sunday, April 22, 1917

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday April 19, 1917
From the United Mine Workers Journal: Ludlow Martyrs to be Honored

From this week’s Journal:

The Seed of Freedom

The Black Hole, Ludlow Massacre by Fink, after April 20, 1914

April 20th is the third anniversary of the day on which was perpetrated the crime that shocked humanity in every part of the civilized world, the massacre of unarmed men, women and babies in the little canvas city that the miners’ organization had built to shelter the evicted strikers of southern Colorado who had revolted against the conditions of servitude imposed upon them in the surrounding coal mine camps.

It is not the purpose of this article to recall the horrors of that day of shame; rather would we rejoice that the time is here when we can demonstrate that the victims of the Ludlow massacre did not die in vain, that there also “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Freedom.”

On Sunday, April 22nd, organized miners from the towns contiguous to the field where the strikers’ tent colony was located and destroyed, will hold memorial services. From Hastings, the great mining camp of the Victor American Coal Company, once closed against every man known to have union sympathies, will come a solid delegation, all the miners of that camp all members of the United Mine Workers union. Every mining town from Morley in the south to Walsenburgh, Fremont County and the lignite coal fields north will send delegations of union men, who can today publish it to the world that they have affiliated with the organization of their industry.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Abandons Her Neutrality; Says Kaiser Should Be “Kicked Off His Throne”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Why should the workingmen fight for
the robbers of Wall street?
Let them fight their own battles.
-Mother Jones

That old blood sucker,
the kaiser, ought to
be kicked off his throne.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 4, 1917
Des Moines, Iowa – Mother Jones Speaks Out on European War

WWI Dead All On Our Side, Ryan Walker, Nw Wkr, Mar 22, 1917

Overnight, perhaps reacting to the War Resolution now before Congress upon the request of President Wilson for same, Mother reversed her stand regarding American involvement in the terrible slaughter now taking place between the waring nations of Europe. In an interview reported by the April 2nd edition of The Des Moines Register, Mother declared:

I hate war. We must not throw our American workingmen into olive drab uniforms, stick guns in their hands, and ship them over to France to be fresh slaughter for the cannons of the devilish kings of Europe.

If John D Rockefeller, Morgan, the Guggenheims, or Wall street wants to see Germany defeated, let them go over and fight in the allies’ trenches. Why should the workingmen fight for the robbers of Wall street? Let them fight their own battles, says I!

The next day, the Register reported that Mother had “abandoned her neutrality:”

That old blood sucker, the kaiser, ought to be kicked off his throne, and if he ever starts anything with this country we will lick hell out of him if I have to raise a regiment of 10,000 women myself.

Thus “Mother” Jones, firebrand speaker, abandoned her neutrality in a speech that held spellbound the miners of the thirteenth district, U. M. W. A., who were celebrating the nineteenth anniversary of the securing of the eight-hour day for miners at the Coliseum yesterday afternoon.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for February 1917: Found in New York City & Chicago Fighting for Working-Class Women

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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When half a million mothers
in the richest city
in the richest country in the world
feel the pinch of hunger
as they are feeling it here now
nothing can prevent trouble.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday March 8, 1917
Mother Jones News for February: Fighting for Working-Class Women

Mother Jones, Colorado Military Bastile, March 1914

During the month of February 1917, before she moved on to the struggles of the working-class women in the cities of New York and Chicago, we first found Mother Jones in Washington, D. C. Here she observed a women, one of them clad in a $7,000 coat, demonstrating for women’s suffrage. Now, Hellraisers does not agree with Mother on the issue of suffrage for women, but we acknowledge that, perhaps, her attitude is shaped by having been on the front lines of the Colorado Coal Miners’ Strike of 1913-1914. In Colorado, at that time, the vote for women did very little good for miners, their wives, or their children.

In that state, women had the right to vote, nevertheless, the miners and their families suffered greatly under the rule of Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado. Many of these coal-camp women were immigrants who could not vote. And those women who were citizens, and had the right to vote, had first to get past the company guards before they could exercise their franchise.

The duly elected Governor Ammons sent a brutal military general to rule over the striking miners and their families. It was this Military Despotism which then resulted in the Ludlow Massacre of April 20, 1914. Mother Jones was herself a guest of the Military Bastile established under General Chase who answered directly to the democratically elected Governor of the State of Colorado.

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Hellraisers Journal: Part I-Report on Everett’s Industrial Warfare by E. P. Marsh, President Washington State F. of L.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday February 15, 1917
From Everett Labor Journal: Report on Industrial Warfare, Part I

Over a period of three weeks, from January 26th to February 9th, The Labor Journal of Everett, Washington, published the “Report on Everett’s Industrial Warfare,” by E. P. Marsh, President of the Washington State Federation of Labor, which report he had delivered on the first day of that bodies annual convention, Monday January 22, 1917. Hellraisers Journal will republish the entire report, in three parts, beginning today with Part I:

EVERETT’S INDUSTRIAL WARFARE, PART I

EVERETT’S INDUSTRIAL WARFARE
—–

SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT BY PRESIDENT MARSH
—–

E. P. Marsh, Pres WA FoL, Everett Labor Journal, July 23, 1915, small

For several reasons I have thought best to cover the stirring industrial events transpiring in the city of Everett during the past year in a separate report from that printed and mailed to the delegates prior to the opening of this convention. The main part of my annual report was prepared early in December. This report was prepared one month later that it might bring the situation as near as possible up to date. The seriousness of the situation, the tragedies and clashes that marked the struggle, has attracted the attention of the entire United States and the situation deserves to be dealt with quite apart from any other subject.

To relate in circumstantial detail each step of the conflict that has soiled the pages of Everett’s industrial history, would require more printer’s ink than I am at liberty to use in the Federation proceedings. It shall be my task to attempt to give you a word picture of the restless, resistless forces at work in this community which have produced near anarchy, lessened respect for constituted authority, wounded nigh unto death the community spirit which ought to prevail in every hamlet, city and town, and brought bloodshed and death in their wake. It will not be a pretty picture to look upon, but it is drawn with the hope that it will be truthful rather than fanciful, may point the way toward a different viewpoint upon the part of those who have hitherto held aloof from the industrial struggle, holding the eternal conflict between capital and labor to be no particular concern of theirs.

The labor interests, the manufacturing and commercial interests; the business and professional interests, all played a part, some unwittingly, in the weaving of their drama which ended in tragedy, and all have suffered alike from the misunderstandings, the cupidity, the bigotry, the hatred, which, mixed in the alchemy of class conflict, brought forth class hatred and its handmaiden, the law of physical force, as an arbiter of human problems. If this report shall be some times narrative, sometimes argumentative, it is with a very definite end in view. Dame Rumor shall play small part in this report, but I shall try to set forth clearly established facts. You may not agree in the end with the deductions I shall draw from the struggle, but I intend that at least none shall successfully dispute the statement of facts set forth.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: A Poem for Abraham Lincoln, “Savior and Martyr”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital.
Capital is only the fruit of labor,
and could never have existed if labor
had not first existed.
Labor is the superior of capital,
and deserves much the higher consideration.
-Abraham Lincoln

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 11, 1917
From the United Mine Workers Journal: A Tribute to Lincoln

UMWJ, Lincoln, Savior and Martyr, Feb 8, 1917

A Poem for Abraham Lincoln by E. Richard Shipp

UMWJ, page 3, Lincoln, Poem, Feb 8, 1917

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1917: Found Visiting “Her Boys” in Denver

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday February 8, 1917
Mother Jones Found in Denver During Month of January

From The Denver Post of January 1, 1917:

‘MOTHER’ JONES HERE TO SEE ‘HER BOYS’
OF THE MINERS’ UNION
—–

Mother Jones, John P White, UMWJ, Feb 10, 1916

“Mother” Jones, leader of labor, is in Denver. She states that she came here to spend New Year with her “boys,” meaning the members of the United Mine Workers of America. She is fresh from active participation in the strike of garment workers and street car employes in New York, she stated that the returns of the recent national election showed that John P. White had been re-elected president of the miners over John H. Walker of Illinois.

“Mother” Jones says that she is not here to take any part in the factional differences of the officers of the Colorado district. She is of the opinion that there will be a satisfactory adjustment before long and that “everything will come out all right.” She is stopping at the Oxford hotel. She will leave Denver tomorrow night.

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Hellraisers Journal: Luella Twining Reports From New York on “Frenzy” of Central Federated Union to Save WFM Officials

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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If that is frenzy, I plead guilty
and I notify the Globe
I shall not soon recover.
-Luella Twining

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday January 13, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: New York Workers Aroused!

Luella Twining of Denver can now be found in New York City assisting in the organization of the defense movement for Comrades Haywood, Moyer and Pettibone by the working men and women of that city.

From the Appeal to Reason of January 12, 1907:

NEW YORK IS AROUSED
—–
Working Class of City Organizing
Powerful Defense Movement
for W.F.of M. Officials.
—–

By Luella Twining.
—–

Luella Twining

New York, Jan. 4.-New York workingmen and women are demonstrating the solidarity of the working class. The second meeting of the Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone conference, composed of all workers who want to save their brothers in Idaho, irrespective of race, color, creed or politics, was more enthusiastic even than the first. Many new delegates were seated. Among the unions represented were the District Council of the Carpenters and Joiners, Central Federated Union, Brewers, Bill Posters, Typographical Union, Tobacco Workers, Bakers and Confectionary, Cloak and Suit Tailors, Cigar Makers, Butchers, Hat and Cap Makers, Beer Drivers, Beer Bottlers, Painters and Decorators, Steam Fitters, Bricklayers, Machinists, United Hebrew Trades, Sick and Death Benefit and Waiters. All of these trades were represented by more than one local, most of them by three or four.

The financial secretary reported the receipt of $2,760.20 for the “Defense Fund,” and $1,500 for the “Agitation Fund.” While we are laying particular stress on the necessity of money to carry on the trial, still we are setting forth also the necessity for agitation. We shall hold many meetings to warn the workers of the murder that is being planned in Idaho. We shall also distribute tons of literature setting forth the facts. New York City shall be buried in papers and pamphlets. Everybody shall know of this conspiracy, planned in New York, in that magnificent stone building on Broadway, and to be executed in that desolate, isolated region of Idaho. We do not intend to wait till our brothers are in their graves for the working class to say: “We did not know, we thought they would have a fair trial.”

The unions visited show intense interest. Many of them are holding special meetings for the reason that their by-laws do not permit them to give more than a prescribed sum. For instance, the “Sheet and Metal Workers” gave the maximum amount at their regular meeting. They held a special meeting the next week and gave $500. No unions before which speakers have appeared have refused to assist. All have displayed the greatest enthusiasm and expressed their indignation in burning words at the foul conspiracy to break up organized labor, and all resistance to capitalistic encroachment. They realize that Standard Oil, successful in ridding themselves of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, would be like wild animals after having a taste of human blood, and thirsting for more. They know they would be the next victims.

The action of the Central Federated Union, in displaying such intense interest in the “Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone Conspiracy” was a hard blow for the prosecution. The Globe commented on it editorially, and said that the C. F. U. should not have allowed such statements to be made on its floor. They called me a “Maenad” (frenzied woman). I suppose that was for portraying the sufferings of Comrade Haywood’s invalid wife, also the agony she has endured during the long year in which her husband has been incarcerated in a cell, denied every right of an American citizen. If that is frenzy, I plead guilty and I notify the Globe I shall not soon recover. I am not alone. The C. F. U. all became “frenzied,” gave all they could and promised all moral support possible.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1916: Found Visiting President Willson with UMWA President

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I am yours in the struggle for
a nobler civilization.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday January 11, 1917
Mother Jones Found in Nation’s Capital During Month of December

From Washington Evening Star of December 11, 1916:

APPEAL TO PRESIDENT TO
PARDON LABOR MAN
—–
Frank P. Walsh, John P. White and “Mother” Jones
at the White House.
—–

Mother Jones, John P White, UMWJ, Feb 10, 1916

President Wilson remained indoors all of today, having been prevented from a morning game of golf. He worked upon various matters that have been pending some time. In the afternoon he had engagements for a number of visitors. He received Frank P. Walsh, former chairman of the industrial commission; John P. White, president of the United Mine Workers, and “Mother” Jones, labor’s incessant champion. They asked the President, it was said, to grant a pardon to a labor leader erroneously convicted and sentenced to prison….

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1906: Articles Found in Appeal to Reason and Labor World

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday January 10, 1907
Mother Jones Found Featured in Socialist and Labor Press

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

As to the actual whereabouts of Mother Jones during the month of December 1906, we could find very little. However, we were able to find her featured in an article in the Appeal to Reason and as the author of an article in the Duluth Labor World. The article in the Appeal details the campaign, last fall, of William Dettrey in Pennsylvania where he ran as the Socialist candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives from Luzerne County. The article notes the hard work done by Mother Jones during that campaign and the lack of interest shown by the two most famous union leaders in the American labor movement.

From the Appeal to Reason of December 1, 1906:

DETTREY’S CAMPAIGN IN PENSLYVANIA.
—–

BY ONE OF THE BOYS.
—–

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