Tag: Washington DC

Hellraisers Journal: Dramatic Story of Eugene Debs’ Unguarded Visit to Washington to See Attorney General

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

Quote EVD if Crime to oppose bloodshed, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 5, 1921
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary – Debs Returns After Unguarded Visit to Washington

From the Appeal to Reason of April 2, 1921:

Dramatic Story of Debs’ Sensational Visit
to Attorney General Daugherty

BY SAMUEL CASTLETON 
Personal Attorney for Eugene V. Debs
and member of Debs Amnesty Lobby.

By Telegraph to the Appeal.

EVD Returns to Pen ed crpd, Perth Amboy NJ Eve Ns p12, Rck Isl IL Arg p15, Apr 1, 1921

Atlanta, Ga.—In spite of the mysterious secrecy that shrouded Gene Debs’ dramatic departure for Washington to hold his conference with the United States Attorney General, a leak was sprung from the effort to suppress all information about his movements when it became rumored a few hours after his departure that he had been pardoned and had left the city.

I immediately telegraphed to the Appeal’s Amnesty Lobby in Washington for Verification at the department of Justice. The rumor also had reached the city editors of the three Atlanta newspapers and reporters went scurrying to the federal penitentiary in taxi cabs and to the office of the Warden. Some of them even went at midnight to the Federal prison farm on the McDonough road ten miles from the outskirts of the city, over almost impassable highways. All communication with the prison officials was completely shut off and it was impossible to obtain either a verification or denial of the rumor. An error of the Western Union Telegraph Company caused my message to Washington to miscarry and I was unable to learn anything from that source.

The next day the Attorney General issued a statement relating to the conference between Debs and himself. Then it became known in Atlanta that the rumor of the day before was partially based on facts and that Gene had been extended an invitation by the Attorney General to clarify misunderstandings.

I was certain that this administration, well as the preceding one, knew that Gene was adamant and uncompromising in his principles and ideals and that the administration did not summon him for the purpose of the decantation of his convictions or retraction of his views.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Dramatic Story of Eugene Debs’ Unguarded Visit to Washington to See Attorney General” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1920: Found in Nation’s Capital Pleading for Release of Eugene V. Debs

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

EVD Quote re Mother Jones, AtR, Nov 23, 1907———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 26, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1920:
–Found in Washington, D. C., Pleading for Release of Debs

From Virginia’s Richmond Times-Dispatch of December 15, 1920:

DEBS MUST SERVE TERM,
SAYS PRESIDENT WILSON
———-
Socialist Leader Not Included in Christmas
Pardons in List From White House.
—–

THREE RECEIVE CLEMENCY
———-
Executive’s Refusal Is Blow to Aspirations of Liberals,
Who Have Been Working to That End.
“Mother Jones” Visits Capital.

(By United News.]

Mother Jones, UMWJ p11, July 15, 1920

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24.-Two men convicted of murder and one man convicted of selling drugs unlawfully, received Christmas pardons today from President Wilson. Eugene V. Debs, choice of a million citizens for President in the recent election, did not. His ten-year term, under conviction of violating the espionage act, still stands, subject only to abbreviation through good behavior….

The President’s refusal to extend mercy to Debs is a blow in the face for Socialists and liberals all over the country. The Socialist party, as such, has not interceded in his behalf, but individual members of the party have been campaigning consistently ever since the signing of the peace treaty eighteen months ago to obtain Debs’ release. The Bureau of Civil liberties has been the center of activity of others working for pardon for him.

Mother Jones, aged friend of the miners, spent some time in Washington last week working in Debs’ behalf….

It became known recently that Attorney-General Palmer, who has been considered opposed to clemency for Debs, actually had recommended to the President that the grant the pardon. Partly because this fact was rumored among those working for Debs’ release and because of the frequent revival of the report that the President planned to grant the pardon at Christmas time, the general feeling In this city had been that the Socialist leader would be a free man Christmas Day. The statement that this would not be the case, made Thursday by the United News, was a profound shock, and many still clung to hope until the issuance of the pardon list by the Attorney-General’s office Friday revealed only the three names given above.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1920: Found in Nation’s Capital Pleading for Release of Eugene V. Debs” →

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

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
Share

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.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Frank Keeney Seeks Senate Investigation of Conditions in Coalfields of Mingo County, West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October & November 1920: Veteran Organizer Found in West Virginia and Washington D. C.

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 11, 1920
Mother Jones News for October & November 1920
“Veteran Organizer” Found in West Virginia and Washington D. C.

From The Charleston Daily Mail of October 2, 1920:

COAL COMPANIES AFTER
RESTRAINT ON MINERS
———-
Petition Federal Court for Injunction
to Prevent Officials Organizing.
———-

Mother Jones, UMWJ p11, July 15, 1920The United Mine Workers have made defendants in two injunction suits brought in the southern district federal court by the Red Jacket Coal company of Red Jacket, Mingo County, and the Pond Creek Colliery to restrain them from  interfering with employes of the two companies in efforts to unionize the mines operated by the coal concerns. Notices were reported as served yesterday evening from the United States marshal’s office, and arguments will be heard October 11, at Huntington.

John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America; William Green, secretary and treasurer of the United Mine Workers; C. F. [Frank] Keeney, president of district No, 17, United Mine Workers; Fred Mooney, secretary and treasurer of the district; Harold W. Houston, attorney; Mary Harris, (“Mother Jones“), J. A. Baumgardner, president of Local Union, No. 4804, at Williamson; C. L. McShan, secretary of the local union; Dock Wolford, president of Local Union No. 4181 and Bud Auzier, secretary of the union, and a score of others are named in the petition.

Petitions in both cases are said to be based on the allegation that activities of agents and organizers of the mine workers interfere with contracts which the companies have made with the miners and would prevent the delivery of coal to customers. The further charge is made that the purpose of the United Mine Workers in organizing is illegal.

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October & November 1920: Veteran Organizer Found in West Virginia and Washington D. C.” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Butte Daily Bulletin: Mother Jones Stands by William Z. Foster, John Fitzpatrick and J. G. Brown

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones re WZF Straight Brave Sincere, BDB p3, Nov 19, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 24, 1920
Washington, District of Columbia – Mother Jones Stands by W. Z. Foster

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of November 19, 1920:

‘MOTHER’ JONES STANDS BY FOSTER
—–
Secretary Machinists’ Union Replies to Press Canard
about Cleaning Movement of the Reds.
—–

(By LAURENCE TODD.)

(Federated Press Correspondent.)

Washington, Nov. 19.–[Request of Mother Jones to the Federated Press:]

GSS, Mother Jones, WZF ed, Survey p64, Nov 8, 1919

Say to the world of labor for me that never since the beginnings of the labor movement in this country were there finer, straighter, braver, more sincere or more unselfish men in its service than John Fitzpatrick, William Z. Foster and Jay G. Brown of the steel strike committee.

All this stuff in the capitalist press about the repudiation of Fitzpatrick and Foster by organized labor, and the cleaning out of the reds and Bolsheviks, is rot. The bosses are mighty anxious to stir up one set of union men against another, and it looks easy to them to call one set reds, and to tell the other set that this first lot is plotting against them. Any man who makes the fight for the workers against the oppressions of capitalism is my brother, no matter what he calls himself, and every good labor man and woman feels the same way. This bugaboo about radicals and reds is played out.

General Secretary Davison of the International Association of Machinists remarked that “if there were any reds in the ranks of organized labor who were trying to destroy the labor movement, our enemies wild be very glad to leave them undisturbed. It is the effective trade unionism that is branded as red by the anti-union forces. We have no dangerous radicals in our organization. The dangerous people are those outside.”

[…..]

[Emphasis added; photograph of Mother Jones with W. Z. Foster added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Butte Daily Bulletin: Mother Jones Stands by William Z. Foster, John Fitzpatrick and J. G. Brown” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1920, Part II: Found Opining on Women, the Ballot, and “the Stormy Course of Labor”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Suffrage, Ballot, Labor, WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 26, 1920
-Mother Jones News for August 1920, Part II
Found in Washington, D. C., Opining on Women, the Ballot, and Labor Struggles

From The Washington Times of August 29, 1920:

BNR HdLn Women n Ballot per Mother Jones, WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920

SEES CURE IN RIGHT VOTING
——-
Victory Futile, Says 90-Year-Old Leader,
If “Ownership of Bread” is Lost.
——-

“No nation can ever grow greater or more human than its womanhood and I am not expecting the millennium as a result of woman’s privilege to vote,” said Mother Jones, noted woman leader, here today.

Mother Jones re Women n Ballot, WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920

I am anxious to see women stand aide by side with men in developing the human family, but all of the ballots in the world will not change conditions for the people’s welfare unless attention is focused upon the disease causing the trouble.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1920, Part II: Found Opining on Women, the Ballot, and “the Stormy Course of Labor”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1900, Part I: Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Shoulder to Shoulder, Blt Sun p10, July 26, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 9, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1900, Part I
Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of August 5, 1900:

STRIKE LEADER GOES TO PRISON
FOR SIX MONTHS
——-
Woman Sympathizer Creates a Sensation
in a Maryland Jail

Special to The Inquirer.

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

CUMBERLAND, Md., Aug. 4.-William Warner, the strike leader, was sentenced this afternoon to six months in the House of Correction, having been convicted of unlawful assembly during trouble which arose at an anti-strike meeting. Seventeen miners were also sentenced. They were visited at the jail this afternoon by Mother Jones, the woman labor organizer, who created a sensation by proposing three cheers in the jail for the strikers and three hisses “for the blacklegs.” She led the cheering, as well as the hissing. Warner, who is from Pittsburg, took an appeal.

—————

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1900, Part I: Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1920, Part I: Found in Nation’s Capital after Visit to Matewan, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
Share

Quote Mother Jones, IN DlyT Ipls p1, July 15, 1920

———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 21, 1920
-Mother Jones News for July 1920, Part I
Found in Washington, D. C., after Visit to Matewan, West Virginia

From the United Mine Workers Journal of July 1, 1920:

Williamson Conv ed, Mother Jones, UMWJ p7, July 1, 1920

…..Mingo county is now 100 per cent organized. Approximately 6,000 new members have been taken in in that county since the Matewan battle.

The first convention of the United Mine Workers of America ever held in Mingo county was held at Williamson, the county seat, on June 23. The sessions were held in the court house, the purpose of the convention being to formulate a set of demands as to wages and working conditions to be presented to the operators. The above photograph was taken on the court house steps, and it shows the delegates, some of the officials of District 17, and also some of the international organizers who were active in effecting the organization……

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1920, Part I: Found in Nation’s Capital after Visit to Matewan, West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1910, Part II: Found Honored for Her Work on Behalf of the Mexican Political Refugees

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones Save Our Mexican Comrades, AtR p3, Feb 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 14, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1910, Part II:
-Found Praised for Her Work on Behalf of Mexican Comrades

From the Appeal to Reason of July 2, 1910:

Mother Jones in Washington.

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

Mother Jones has for two weeks been in Washington where she went to testify in behalf of the Mexican politician refugees. She has been courteously received even by members of congress who have no special leaning to labor’s cause, and was admitted to an audience with Taft. She said this was a courtesy which was denied her by Roosevelt. After she had laid the case of the Mexican prisoners before the president, Taft remarked:

“Mother, I am afraid if I were to put the pardoning power in your hands, there wouldn’t be any men left in the penitentiaries.”

To this Mother Jones replied:

And, indeed, Mr. President, if this nation spent half as much money keeping men out as she does keeping them in, we wouldn’t need so many penitentiaries.

Mother described her residence to Washington reporters as “wherever there is a labor war,” which is literally true.

———-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1910, Part II: Found Honored for Her Work on Behalf of the Mexican Political Refugees” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for June 1910, Part III: “Friend of Labor” Interviewed in Washington, D. C., by Selene Armstrong

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Husband Children, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 19, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1910, Part III:
-Interviewed by Selene Armstrong in Washington, D. C.

From The Washington Times of June 18, 1910:

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

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910Thus spoke Mother Jones, the plucky little white-haired woman, whose home, to use her own words, is “wherever there’s a labor war, and the President of the United States, when she had journeyed across half a continent to lay before him for the first time the cases of a number of political refugees in prison in Arizona, Kansas, and other Western States.

Today and on other days this week, Mother Jones has been busy at the Capitol, where it said that members of certain committees before which she has appeared have gasped for breath and begged for mercy before she had finished outlining to them their duties in regard to the Mexicans whose freedom she seeks from the Government.

Meets Old Friends.

She has hobnobbed with her old friends Representatives Wilson and Nicholls of Pennsylvania, and has made new friends of many other statesmen, who, however little they sympathize with her decided views on this or that public question, cannot harden their hearts against the cheery good humor and keen wit which radiate from her.

When asked by Chairman Dalzell of the Rules Committee of the House, before which she has appeared this week, to state her place of residence, Mother Jones replied:

My home is wherever there a labor war, sir.

The life story of this little woman with the snow white hair, the childlike blue eyes, and the look of perennial youthfulness on her face, would, if it were written, be the history of the of cause of organized labor. For thirty years she has traveled throughout the length and breath of the land in order to stand by the workers in time of stress. In the roughest mining camps of the West, and in the crowded tenement districts of eastern cities, she has brought to the women of the working class a woman’s gentle counsel, and to the men sagacity and keen judgement the equal of a man’s.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for June 1910, Part III: “Friend of Labor” Interviewed in Washington, D. C., by Selene Armstrong” →