Tag: Westmoreland County Coal Strike of 1910–11

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1910, Part I: Holds Roosevelt Responsible for Ruin of Mine Workers in Anthracite

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Oligarchy, Sops, Rise Up, Giants, Clv Oct 12, Lbr Arg p1, Oct 13, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 28, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1910, Part I:
–Blames Roosevelt for State of Miners Union in Anthracite Field

From the Muskegon News Chronicle of November 4, 1910:

Workers of the World Peter Power, Muskegon MI Chc p5, Nov 4, 1910

[Mother Jones] Holds T. R. Responsible
for Ruin of Coal Union.

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p7, Oct 24, 1910

That man Roosevelt is responsible for the wrecking of the once powerful union of anthracite miners; he turned John Mitchell’s head by flattery and did what Geo. F. Baer and the combined hard coal barons couldn’t do. I repeat, the overrated Roosevelt wrecked the anthracite miners union.

These startling words were uttered by Mother Jones in conversation with the writer a few days ago, while en route to the Irwin-Greensburg coal field to assist the 20,000 striking miners who have been locked out since last spring [Westmoreland County Coal Strike].

Mother Jones is unquestionably the most influential figure among the American miners today, and has been for a decade. If she were a man she would be the life president of the United Mine Workers of North America. It was Mother Jones more than any other human being who rallied the hard coal miners in their helpless slavery 10 years ago and cheered them on a fight their way out.

[Said Mother:]

Now, after ten years of open shoppery, the boys are back in the old rut, back on the treadmill, not daring to call their souls their own, thanks to the scheming and hypocrisy of Roosevelt. And then that bluffer had the audacity to go down into the Scranton district recently, accompanied by photographers and press agents, and gloat and grin at the poor miners and announce ostentatiously, “I am ex-President Roosevelt.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1910, Part I: Holds Roosevelt Responsible for Ruin of Mine Workers in Anthracite” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor Argus: Women and Children of Irwin Coal Field Live in Tents on Frozen Ground

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Brutal Ruling Class, Cnc Pst p7, May 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 23, 1910
Greensburg, Pennsylvania – Strikers’ Families Face Winter in Frozen Tent Colony

From The Labor Argus of December 15, 1910:

PA Miners Strike, HdLn Horrible Conditions Tents, Labor Argus p1, Dec 15, 1910

PA Miners Strike, Small, Tent Colony Greensburg, Thanksgiving, Stt Str p1, Nov 24, 1910
Thanksgiving at Greensburg
Tent Colony

Pittsburg. Pa. Dec. 14.-Have you ever camped in a bleak and barren hillside in the frosty month of December with nothing to protect you from the biting winds but a flimsy tent, with the frozen ground for a carpet, and a hard wooden bunk for a bed? Can you imagine a more cruel punishment to inflict upon the most despised criminal upon earth? And yet this is exactly what thousands of people in the Irwin-Greensburg strike district are compelled to and they are not criminals either, but upright and honest, law-abiding people. The conditions which confront these poor mortals simply beggar description, no mind can picture nor pen accurately describe the situation.

And what have these people done to be thus punished? Is it a crime to revolt against merciless oppression, to prefer death by cold and starvation rather than a miserable existence in abject slavery. If it is then these people should be punished just like other criminals, but we know of no law they have violated, and hence society owes them some little consideration, at least an opportunity to live as others in this richly blessed land of ours live.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor Argus: Women and Children of Irwin Coal Field Live in Tents on Frozen Ground” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Opines on Meeting between Bishop of Scranton and Ex-Presidents Roosevelt and Mitchell

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Last Great Battle, UMWC p420, Jan 26, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 15, 1910
“What I Saw in the Anthracite Fields” by Mother Jones

From The New York Call of November 14, 1910:

MOTHER JONES’ LATEST VISIT
TO THE ANTHRACITE FIELDS

Mother Jones, the friend of the miners, the Socialist apostle, is now seventy-seven years old, but her activities in behalf of the oppressed are as vigorous as ever. Only lately she paid a visit to the anthracite fields. Her account of her visit, written for The Call, is as follows:

What I Saw in the Anthracite Fields.

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

My work in connection with the Mexican cases being completed at Washington, and feeling assured that the victims of this “bloodocracy” would not be rearrested on their liberation from prison, I decided to visit the boys in the anthracite regions, investigate conditions, and see what progress, if any, had been made in the way of organization and education since the last general strike. My visit to the anthracite regions which border on the inferno followed that of Roosevelt and his ex-labor leader, John Mitchell [ex-President of United Mine Workers of America], who had visited the coal fields, so it is said, for the purpose of making some observations and investigations as to the condition of the slaves whose lifeblood is coined into profits that the few may riot in luxury.

When Roosevelt and his bodyguard arrived at Scranton they were received by the Bishop of Scranton, who wined and dined them and who remarked during the meal that it was the first time in his life he had had the honor of sitting between two Presidents. On the right of the bishop sat Mr. Roosevelt, friend of the workingman. It was he who, in order to show his friendship, sent 2,000 guns to Colorado to shoot the miners into subjection and, if they did not obey, blow their brains out, and who, while president of the United States, sent hundreds of messages to Congress, but never one in the interest of the working class. Not even when the explosion in the Monongah mine sent 700 souls, the souls of wage slaves, into the shadows and shocked the civilized world, did he find it in his sterile conscience to send a message to Congress demanding protection for the men whose labor feeds the mammoth maw of industry and warms the fireside of the world. Roosevelt’s real interest in the working class is only aroused when he seeks their votes. On the left of the bishop sat the $6,000 Civic Federation beauty [Mitchell], pet of the mine owners, decorated with diamonds, gifts from the coal barons.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Opines on Meeting between Bishop of Scranton and Ex-Presidents Roosevelt and Mitchell” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1910, Part I: Found in Cleveland, Ohio, Stopping at Home of Editor Max Hayes

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Oligarchy, Sops, Rise Up, Giants, Clv Oct 12, Lbr Arg p1, Oct 13, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 12, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1910, Part I:
-Found in Cleveland, Stopping at Home of Editor Max Hayes

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer of October 6, 1910:

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

Mother Jones Chides Officials
at the National Capital.
—————

Mother Mary Jones, the white haired woman so long identified with the labor cause the country over, is in Cleveland. She spoke to the members of the Trades and Labor council last evening, urging them to forget internal differences, to go into the fight united. She did not spare her words, but advised them to meet violence with violence.

Mother Jones is a little woman; she came gowned last evening in trim and sober black. With a grandmother’s sweetness and dignity she sat quietly on the platform until her turn came to speak.

She chided the officials in Washington, scored the trusts, roasted capital whole, called down the wrath of the gods on police and marshals who point revolvers at strikers.

———-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1910, Part I: Found in Cleveland, Ohio, Stopping at Home of Editor Max Hayes” →

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “The Cossacks Club,” Brutal Servants of Capitalism

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 20, 1910
“Have you ever been clubbed  by a Cossack” -Louis Duchez

From the International Socialist Review of October 1910:

Cossacks Club by Duchez, ISR p198, Oct 1910

Letter W, ISR p577, Jan 1920

ERE you ever on strike? Sure, you’ve been- or else you’ve never been a workingman, or woman. Very well! It’s you I am talking to.

Now, have you ever been clubbed by a Cossack? Have you ever had these brutal servants of capitalism ride into you and your fellow workers on strike, like so many sheep, and club right and left and shoot without reserve?

Perhaps the Cossacks have not been established in your state yet? Then you’ve had similar dealings with the militia, the the local “cops” or the deputies of the firm you were striking against. They’re all about the same thing. They are part of the capitalist machine to keep you and your class-my class—in submission-in slavery.

Well, I’ve had them club me when I was on strike! I’ve seen “the man on horse back” come “over the hill.” And I’ve seen the bloody trail he left behind. I’ve seen it at McKees Rocks, at Butler, at New Castle and elsewhere in Pennsylvania.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “The Cossacks Club,” Brutal Servants of Capitalism” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1910, Part II: Found Speaking in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Corporations Wreck n Maim, Cnc Pst p9, Sept 26, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 15, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1910, Part II:
-Found in Ohio Speaking in Cincinnati and Columbus

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910From the Wilkes-Barre Evening News
of September 23, 1900:

“Mother” Jones after recuperating her health in Hazleton, returned to Cincinnati, Ohio, today.

—————

From The Cincinnati Post
of September 23, 1910:

‘MOTHER JONES’ TO BE SPEAKER
AT OUTING
——-

“Mother Jones,” known as the “Angel of the Miners,” will address the Woman’s Union Label League at an outing at Chester Park Sunday. Mrs. May Wood Simons, one of the editors of the Chicago Daily Socialist; E. L. Hitchens, Wm. Tateman and Mrs. Etta Knatt Behrman also will speak.

—————

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1910, Part II: Found Speaking in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio” →

Hellraisers Journal: Correspondent for Duluth Labor World Describes “Starvation Camp” of Irwin Field Miners’ Strike

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Brutal Ruling Class, Cnc Pst p7, May 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 4, 1910
Irwin Coal Field, Pennsylvania – Report from Strikers’ “Starvation Camp”

From the Duluth Labor World of October 1, 1910:

Keystone State Awakens to Hunger-Driven Peonage
Practiced Within Its Confines

PA Miners Strike, Woman n Children Starving, LW p1, Oct 1, 1910

PITTSBURG, Pa., Sept. 30—Thousands of Pittsburg women, influential club women as well as the wives of storekeepers and mechanics, are signing a petition to Governor Edwin S. Steuart asking that he intervene and compel the coal companies to arbitrate the strike in the Erwin [Irwin] and Greensburg coal fields.

Piloted by the “Angel of the Camp,” Miss Emmeline Pitt, committees from various women’s clubs have visited the frail tents in which are huddled the thousands of miners’ wives and children, and, after hearing the stories of eviction and brutality committed by the deputies, have gone back to their organizations burning with indignation against the coal barons and determined to force action from the state authorities.

[Asserts Francis Feehan, president of district No. 5:]

The operators could settle this strike, settle it and give the miners all that they demand and then operate their mines at 20 per cent less than it is costing them now. It’s the strike-breakers that cost. They’re paying them $2.50 and $3 a day with rations—and that’s more than the skilled union miners ask.

Experienced miners say that the United Coal company is paying at the rate of $3 a ton to have its coal mined, while the market price is just half that amount.

Three things the striking miners want:
1. Recognition of the union.
2. Check-weighmen on the tipples.
3. Payment of the Pittsburg Scale.

And these three things the miners will win, coal barons or no coal barons, for the entire power of the United Mine Workers of America is gathering behind them.

————

GAUNT MOTHERS, THEIR BABES STARVING, HERE
——-

Special Correspondence of Labor World.

NEW ALEXANDRA, Pa., Sept. 30.—Three hundred puny babies, thinly clad and underfed by half-starved mothers who have nothing to give, live beneath canvas roofs and within canvas walls these chilly days and shivery nights in the Erwin coal regions of western Pennsylvania.

A thousand other little children, barefoot and almost barebacked, “live” on bread and water in that starvation camp among the foothills of the Alleghenies.

PA Miners Strike, Starvation Camp, LW p1, Oct 1, 1910

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Correspondent for Duluth Labor World Describes “Starvation Camp” of Irwin Field Miners’ Strike” →

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Brutal Ruling Class, Cnc Pst p7, May 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 23, 1910
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania – Cossacks Terrorize Irwin Coalfield Strike

From the International Socialist Review of September 1910:

PA Miners Strike, HdLn Class War by TF Kennedy, ISR p141, Sept 1910

Cossacks vs. “Black Hundreds.”

Brutal as the state constabulary have shown themselves on numerous occasions the testimony on all sides is overwhelming that compared with the thugs and bums engaged as deputies by the coal companies the State Police are gentlemen.

One of the odd developments is the cordial dislike of the State Police for the deputies. The State Police are not backward about declaring that practically all of the rioting and killing has been caused by the deputies. You must understand that economic interests are at the bottom of this feeling of these two forces for each other. The rank and file of the Police get $60.00 a month and board, no matter what is doing. When all is quiet they get their pay for patroling some country road on a well groomed saddle horse. If there must be a strike they would much rather see a nice quiet orderly one where there are no riots.

But the deputies are in a different boat. If all were quiet they would have no occupation. So to make their jobs secure they must keep something doing all the time. They explode a charge of dynamite under the corner of an unoccupied house, fire a lot of shots some night or when they meet an unarmed striker on the highway slug him or arrest him. When there is any real duty to perform, when there is a batch of strike breakers expected who must be prevented from talking to the strikers the first thing they do is fill up with whiskey. At one hotel where a bunch of them stopped, six drinks of whiskey in their stomachs and a half pint in their pockets was the regular ration, before going out on any special duty.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Mother Jones, Brutal Ruling Class, Cnc Pst p7, May 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 22, 1910
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania – Class War Continues in Irwin Coal Field

From the International Socialist Review of September 1910:

PA Miners Strike, Class War by TF Kennedy, ISR p141, Sept 1910

[Part I of II.]

Letter T, ISR p828, Mar 1910

HE Strike” are the words most appropriate to designate an article dealing with the situation in the Irwin coal field, because it is the strike of the year if not of the decade. There was nothing out of the ordinary about any of the other strikes that have occurred so far this year. The biggest strike in point of numbers and duration is that of the Illinois miners. It has been since its inception strictly orthodox, including the conflict of authority between the district organizations and the National Board and President Lewis. In Illinois both sides were, and had for years, been organized. All of the arts of diplomacy and bargaining were exhausted before the strike was declared. It is warm, pulsing stomachs against steel safes full of gold. 

The Irwin strike is rashly unorthodox. Excepting the formal declaration it has all of the characteristics of a violent revolution.

More persons have been killed, injured and taken prisoners than in many of the bloody uprisings in the Balkans or South America which are so regularly exploited on the front pages of the “Joinals.”

Fifteen persons, two of them women, have met violent bloody deaths. Some of these were killed in open conflict, others in skirmishes, but most of them were brutal, cold-blooded murder of men who dared to tell a prospective scab that there was a strike on.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Class War in Irwin Coal Field by Thomas F. Kennedy, Part I” →