US Constitutional Rights – WE NEVER FORGET

Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 1, 1914
Indianapolis, Indiana – President Moyer Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention

From The Indianapolis News of January 26, 1914:

Charles Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners gave a long speech at the Convention of the United Mine Workers now in progress in Indianapolis. In his speech, President Moyer described the ongoing violations of Constitutional Rights in both the Colorado and the Michigan strikes:

Charles Moyer, Pres WFM, Survey p433, Jan 10, 1914

…..What is being done in the state of Colorado in the miners’ strike, is being done in the state of Michigan. I don’t think it is any worse. In the state of Colorado men and women have been mistreated by the military, by the armed thugs of the mine owners’ association; they have been arrested without warrant; they have been sent to jail; they have been deprived of all of those rights that are supposed to belong to an American citizen, or one living under this government, the same as they have in Colorado.

Mother Jones has been deprived of her liberty by the military, and is now confined in the custody of the military of that state, without any warrant, absolutely deprived of her constitutional rights.

In the state of Michigan representatives of organized labor have been assaulted, ordered from the state, deprived of every right that we are supposed to enjoy under this great Constitution of ours, and yet, after months of effort we are at this time uncertain as to whether our national government, our representatives down at Washington, are going to make an investigation: are going to inquire into the facts as whether or not these things that we claim and that we believe we furnished them a preponderance of evidence of, are in violation of our American citizenship. They say, I believe, as an excuse for their hesitancy in acting, that they do not want to interfere with state rights, and in answer to that we say that the Constitution of the United States gives the right to every American citizen to meet in peaceable assembly, to freely express himself in speech…..

[Photograph added emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Charles Moyer, President of Western Federation of Miners, Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers; House Committee to Investigate Miners’ Strikes in Michigan and Colorado” →

There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday October 14, 1906
Washington, District of Columbia – State Kidnapping Challenged

The Appeal to Reason of October 13th published a good part of the brief presented by Attorneys Murphy, Darrow, and Richardson on behalf of Fellow Workers Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone before the U. S. Supreme Court. The attorneys for the defense seek to free the men who were kidnapped from their homes as part of a plot perpetrated by the governors of Colorado and Idaho to deprive the men of their constitutional rights. The brief takes up an entire page of this issue of the Appeal, and we, therefore, offer this summary:

We ask and we believe that the action of the supreme court of the state of Idaho and of the circuit court of the United States, sitting in and for the state of Idaho, will be reversed, and that they will be directed to sustain the writs and direct the release of the prisoners, with an opportunity to them of returning to the state from which they were kidnaped by the conspiracy, confederation and agreement of the governors of the states of Idaho and Colorado, for the overthrow and in avoidance of a provision of the constitution of the United States and an act of congress made pursuant thereto.

Respectfully submitted.
JOHN H. MURPHY.
CLARENCE S. DARROW.
EDMUND F. RICHARDSON,
Counsel for Appellants and Plaintiffs in Error.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Darrow Appears Before U. S. Supreme Court on Behalf of Moyer, Haywood, and Pettibone” →