Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Defies John Mitchell at Louisville Meeting, Speaks Out Against Separate Settlement for the Striking Coal Miners of Northern Colorado

23rd November 202312th December 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones re North n South Coal Miners Separate Settle, Ab p99, 1925 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 23, 1903
Louisville, Colorado – Mother Jones Speaks Against Separate Settlement

Sunday November 22, 1903 – Louisville, Colorado
-Mother Jones Urges Northern Miners to Stand with Their Southern Brothers

Mother Jones Opposes Mt, DP p1, Nov 22, 1903

A meeting was held in Louisville yesterday, called by District 15 of the United Mine Workers, to consider an offer made by the operators of the northern coal fields to make a separate agreement with the miners of the northern Colorado, thereby calling on these miners to desert their brothers of the southern coalfields. President Mitchell is in favor of the separate settlement, while Mother Jones is adamantly opposed. Mother arrived at the meeting with William Howells, District 15 President, who also opposes the separate settlement. Howells spoke at the meeting and advised the northern miners not to make a separate agreement. The meeting then erupted with loud calls for Mother Jones. Mother Jones arose to speak, determined to stand up for the Italian miners of the southern Colorado whom Governor Peabody has lately been speaking of with great disdain and threats to deport. The speech made by Mother Jones, in defiance of her employer, John Mitchell, was a speech in favor of Solidarity:

Brothers, you English speaking miners of the northern fields promised your southern brothers, seventy percent of whom do not speak English, that you would support them to the end. Now you are asked to betray them, to make a separate settlement. You have a common enemy and it is your duty fight to a finish.

The enemy seeks to conquer by dividing your ranks, by making distinctions between North and South, between American and foreign. You are all miners, fighting a common cause, a common master. The iron heel feels the same to all flesh. Hunger and suffering and the cause of your children bind more closely than a common tongue.

I am accused of helping the Western Federation of Miners, as if that were a crime, by one of the National board members. I plead guilty. I know of no East or West, North nor South when it comes to my class fighting the battle for justice. If it is my fortune to live to see the industrial chain broken from every workingman’s child in America, and if then there is one black child in Africa in bondage, there I shall go.

[Emphasis added.]

Mother Jones received a standing ovation, and the miners voted 228 to 165 to stay out on strike with their Italian brothers of the southern coalfield.

Photograph added from Denver Post.

—————

From The Denver Post of November 22, 1903:

[…..]

“Mother” Jones the Factor.

…..There were loud calls for [Mother Jones], and she was not slow in coming to the front…

[Mother acknowledged the telegram that had been sent by President Mitchell to this meeting endorsing a settlement, but stated nevertheless:] John Mitchell is in Boston, we are here in the field…A general cannot give orders unless he is in the field; unless he is at the battleground. Could a general in Washington give order to an army in Colorado?…

Are you brave men? Can you fight as well as you can work? I had rather fall fighting than working. If you go back to work here and your brothers fall in the south, you will be responsible for their defeat….

I don’t know what you will do, but I know very well what I would do if I were in one of your places. I would stand or fall with this question of eight hours for every worker in every mine in Colorado. I would say we will all go to glory together or we will die and go down together. We must stand together; if we don’t there will be no victory for any of us…

I want the world to know, and all the papers to print, that I am going to Cripple Creek to speak there tomorrow for the Western Federation of Miners. I am not afraid to be classed as a friend of this organization and all criticism of me on that account falls flat upon my ears….

As “Mother” Jones walked off of the stage to many affectionate good-byes, she said:

I will see you again, boys after I have licked the C. F. & I.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Defies John Mitchell at Louisville Meeting, Speaks Out Against Separate Settlement for the Striking Coal Miners of Northern Colorado” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Miners Bulletin: Secretary Wilson Perturbs McNaughton; Gunmen Attack Strikers

19th November 202319th November 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 19, 1913
Michigan Copper Country – Labor Secretary William B. Wilson Perturbs McNaughton

From the Miners’ Bulletin of November 18, 1913:

An article entitled “McNaughton’s Veracity,” concerning the truthfulness, or lack of thereof, of Mr. McNaughton, takes up almost half of the front page of the current edition of the Bulletin. Suffice it to say that Mr. McNaughton is not happy with the recent speech made by the U. S. Secretary of Labor, William B. Wilson, at the annual convention of the American Federation of Labor:

…McNaughton hollers “liar, liar.” McNaughton’s reputation for truth and veracity is at such a low ebb in this community that those long distance, epithets makes the average person smile, for instance, he stated at the beginning of this strike that 85 per cent of his employees were willing to return to work but were afraid although he had 2,500 militiamen and 1,000 gunmen at his disposal….

[Emphasis added.]

There then follows a list of falsehood after falsehood put forth by Mr. McNaughton. But, on the same front page is a story about the effectiveness of the gunmen, imported into the strike zone by the copper bosses:

GUNMEN ATTACK STRIKING MINERS

Yesterday morning while a large number of strikers were holding their usual morning parade, and when near the Quincy mine, they were joined by quite a number of mounted police who rode amongst them until a point opposite the Quincy was reached when the parade was met by a large force of gunmen. At this juncture, the mounted guards lined up on each side of the parade wilst the gunmen poured a volley into the ranks of the strikers. One striker was badly shot in the hip while it is believed several others were slightly injured by the firing of lead missiles. One guard was badly injured by being trampled upon by one of the frightened horses. The attack was no doubt planned beforehand as the concerted action of the mounted guards and gunmen would imply.

The parade consisted of men, women and a scattering of children, all of whom were quiet and were marching on the county road. The guards and the gunmen had not the least provocation for making this dastardly assault upon peaceable citizens who have a perfect right to parade on the public highway. After the melee, six of the paraders were arrested and taken to jail, but were later released. Assistant states attorney Nichols will make an investigation of this dastardly assault and in all probability will bring the guilty parties to justice.

[Emphasis added.]

Somehow, we suspect, that the last sentence is meant as a bit of sarcasm.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Reporter in Denver, Describes Conditions in the Coal Camps of Southern Colorado

16th November 202317th November 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 16, 1903
Denver, Colorado – Mother Jones Describes Conditions in Southern Coalfields

From The Denver Post of November 13, 1903:

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Hellraisers Journal: Poetry from the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin: “The Little Children of the Poor” by Ellis B. Harris

15th November 202316th November 2023 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

Quote Ellis B Harris Children of the Poor, MI MB p2, Nov 11, 1913 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 15, 1913
“Little Children of the Poor” by Ellis B. Harris

From the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin of November 11, 1913:

Little Children of the Poor
by Ellis B. Harris

Little children of the poor,
My heart goes out to you.
Little lives that must endure
Where miseries accrue;
In the factories and mills
There robbed of play and hearth
Suffering a world of ills
For parasites of wealth.

Little children of the poor,
You, tender, precious flowers,
Blooms for gardens sweet and pure,
Yet robbed of playtime hours.
Is it strange that blood runs wild
And hands are clenched in wrath
When we contemplate a child
Upon the thorn strewn path?

Little children of the poor,
Brave hearts shall place the blame
For the lives that you endure,
And point the nations’s shame.
Boasting here of Freedom’s reign
And scorning royal commands,
Forging them a master’s chain
To shackle baby hands.

Little children of the poor,
Pearls for trampling swine,
Cast and mired that they secure
The wealth from mill and mine.
There are those who hear the call
From far off Galilee,
Heeding, until Mammon fall
And you, His Jewels, are free.

Little children of the poor,
A future day shall break,
When no one can e’er secure
Your lives for profit sake;
When the people’s rule shall fill
The world with melody,
And childhood’s joys and laughter thrill
The world with ecstasy.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Poetry from the Michigan Miners’ Bulletin: “The Little Children of the Poor” by Ellis B. Harris” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Miners’ Bulletin (W. F. M.) of Michigan Copper Country: “Government by Gunmen”

14th November 202315th November 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III —————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 14, 1913
Michigan Copper Country – Striking Copper Miners Governed by Gunmen

From the Miners’ Bulletin of November 11, 1913:

The Miners’ Bulletin is the official newspaper of the Western Federation of Miners in the strike zone of Michigan’s Copper Country. The latest issue contains a scathing indictment of the community’s indifference to the terror being spread through-out the strike zone by the Waddell-Mahon Company gunthugs, known as “Waddies.” The strikers maintain that these imported gunthugs have been deputized by Sheriff James Cruse of Houghton County, in defiance of state law, although the Sheriff continues to deny that the imported gunmen have actually been formally deputized. The article stated in part:

When the citizens of a community show such indifference as to permit any corporation of greed to import gunmen for the purpose of intimidating the working-class of said community in their peaceful demands for simple justice, it certainly is a sad commentary on the stability and integrity of the community. It seems the people of the copper region of this state would have profited by the experience of Idaho, Colorado, and South Dakota camps in the fight for justice by the working-class. There are thousands of good, loyal citizens who could have been deputized to keep the peace, and who would have done their duty without fear or favor, but the mine companies did not want this kind of policing: they wanted the thug, the crook, and the gunman in order to create as much trouble as possible: then comes the National Guard, and the trick is done. The mining officials can then sit home in their easy chairs while the troops guard their property and scabs imported by their agents from all the largest cities in the country. Regarding Government by Gunmen, the Omaha Daily News has the following to say: “The police power is supposed to be the arm of the government to uphold law and order and justice. In theory, policemen are public servants. YOUR employees, hired to execute YOUR will.”

What are the facts?

Throughout the 1,019 square miles of Houghton county, Michigan in the copper country the policing has been subjet to imported gunmen, recruited from the slums of the great cities by a corporation of strikebreakers under the pay of the mining companies: and this Michigan instance is not unique, but typical….

Be that as it may [the abdication of popular government in the Michigan copper country], this hiring out of the police power to disreputables in the interest of greed and oppression WILL HAVE TO BE STOPPED. The alternative is slavery.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Citizens Alliance Formed in Michigan Copper Country with Goal of Eradicating the Western Federation of Miners from the Keweenaw District

12th November 202314th November 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III —————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 12, 1913
Michigan Copper Country – Citizens Alliance Formed to Combat W. F. M.

From The Calumet News of November 10, 1913:

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Hellraisers Journal: Annie Clemenc Arrested Along with 98 Other Strikers and Sympathizers Marching in Fierce Blizzard

11th November 202314th November 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Annie Clemenc, Die Behind Flag, Mnrs Bltn, Sept 16, 1913 —————

Hellraisers Journal -Tuesday November 11, 1913
Calumet, Michigan – Ninety-Nine Arrested Marching in Fierce Blizzard

From The Calumet News of November 8, 1913:

Cavalrymen stationed in Calumet this morning [November 8] arrested ninety-nine strikers and sympathizers on a blanket charge of violating the injunction [against picketing]. The arrests were made on Calumet avenue near the M. E. church, between 6 and 7 o’clock. A parade, headed by “Big Annie” Clemenc, proceeded north from Red Jacket road and when a number of workmen passed the marchers yelled and cursed them, it is alleged…..

From El Paso Herald of November 9, 1913:

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: “Clash in the Copper Country”-Photos from the Front Lines of Michigan Miners’ Strike

8th November 202312th November 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Annie Clemenc, Die Behind Flag, Mnrs Bltn, Sept 16, 1913 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 8, 1913
“Clash in the Copper Country” by Graham Romeyn Taylor

From The Survey of November 1, 1913:

[Scene of Seeberville Murders]

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Hellraisers Journal: From Miners Magazine: “The Faithful Dog” Walks the Streets of Chicago to Advertise Against Scabs

7th November 202312th November 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 7, 1913
Chicago, Illinois – Faithful Dog, Topey, Says, “Don’t Be a Scab”

From the Miners Magazine of November 6, 1913:

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Michigan Copper Strike, Working Class Solidarity for Miners’ Victory

4th November 202310th November 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 4, 1913
The Michigan Copper Strike, Working Class Solidarity Can Win All Strikes

From the International Socialist Review of November 1913:

THE COPPER STRIKE

[Part II of II]

When the boys heard that several carloads of armed ”guards” were on their way to Calumet from New York City, they got busy. The train was rushed through Calumet, but a few miles beyond was halted by piles of tiles thrown over the tracks. The miners had gathered to see the fun and to show their contempt for the ”guards”. This was too much for those ”clothed with authority”. They immediately opened fire upon the boys. A little surprise was in store for them, however, as the miners stood their ground and instead of turning the other cheek, opened fire in return. So hot did it become for the “guards” that the train hastily backed out and the guards retreated, vanquished.

It is granted by everyone that the “mine guards” are on the ground to irritate the miners into an open and sanguinary revolt. Miners are attacked constantly. Many are seriously injured. Women are insulted and beaten. The miners are armed. Most of them realize that THE ARMED RESISTANCE OF A FEW WORKERS NEARLY ALWAYS FAILS, because the bosses can call all the forces of capitalist society to do their bidding. A group of workers cannot defeat the whole capitalist government-the entire capitalist class-the army. But the miners are not meek and lowly wage slaves. One of them writes to us:

For every miner who is deliberately picked off and murdered by a “guard” they will have to settle with us.

But the men want peace. Not the peace of the lamb that has been devoured by the lion, but the peace that follows a victorious engagement with the enemy, the peace after a strike is won.

Last reports claim that the militia and gunmen have declared that they have been ordered to crush the strike by the use of violence. Following attacks upon the miners, the troopers arrest all they cannot ride down.

Strikers frankly admit their participation in the disturbances. All the big trouble arose when the armed artillerymen deliberately rode down a nine-year-old girl who was the daughter of a striker. It is reported that the soldiers were commanded to go to any lengths to provoke an outbreak by the strikers in order to find further opportunity for brutality and terrorism.

During the absence of the commanding general and his staff the militia and thugs have promised the striking miners a “real reign of terror.” We are not prophets, but we have a suspicion that these boys of the Western Federation of Miners will give them all they are looking for.

In the meantime the organizers are holding meetings and persisting in their picket duty. The spirit of solidarity is spreading rapidly and the mine men are confident of victory.

Much more could be gained, however, if the railroad men and all other miners would join the strike and enlarge the war zone. If many large groups of men in the same industry would STRIKE AT THE SAME TIME, they would be better able to fight the capitalist class.

WORKING CLASS SOLIDARITY and a general stoppage of all work in any industry are weapons that no GUN can destroy nor judge enjoin away.

[Emphasis and detail of photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Michigan Copper Strike, Working Class Solidarity for Miners’ Victory” →