Hellraisers Journal: “There Is Only One Mother Jones” -Found at Wilkes-Barre Fighting for Striking Anthracite Miners

8th October 20208th October 2020 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones re Company Store, St L Pst Dsp p32, Sept 23, 1900 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 8, 1900
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – “There Is Only One Mother Jones”

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of September 23, 1900:

WILKESBARRE, Pa., Sept. 20.

Special Correspondence of the Sunday Post-Dispatch.

THERE is only one Mother Jones. Her field is all her own.

Clara Barton has her work of mercy, Susan B. Anthony has her equal suffrage. Mother Jones has her “boys”-the great, patient army that sweats and strives and suffers wherever there is labor to be done.

It is a big brood she mothers-a big, toilsome, troublesome brood, scattered all over the face of the land, delving in the earth and under the earth, swarming in mills and factories and sweatshops. There is seldom a time when some part of it is not on the ragged edge of hunger and in need of a mother’s help.

That is the time for Mother Jones. She has been called the stormy petrel of industry. Her appearance is a signal for those who grow rich by grinding the faces of the poor to “go slow,” and if they disregard the warning so much the worse for them and the better for organized labor.

For Mother Jones is the most successful organizer and sustainer of strikes in the country. That is why she is at Wilkes-barre now. That is why the miners expect to win. That is why the mine owners accompany her name with anathemas.

How does she do it? By the greatest of all powers-the power of love. She love her “boys”-be they Polish or Bohemian or Irish or American-and she teaches them to love her. The combination is irresistible. The ranks of the toilers stand firm at her bidding and the strategy dictated by her woman’s intuition does the rest.

It might be thought that she is an Amazon in physique and voice and gesture; that she sweeps her forces along with her by the sheer power of her vitality. Or else that she is endowed with the youth and beauty and mysterious spiritual influence of a Joan of Arc. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “There Is Only One Mother Jones” -Found at Wilkes-Barre Fighting for Striking Anthracite Miners” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1910, Part II: Found Speaking to Miners at Shenandoah, Pennsylvania

18th September 202019th August 2020 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Union Card n Pious Christian, Shenandoah Eve Hld p1, Aug 27, 1910 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 18, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1910, Part II:
-Found Speaking to Mine Workers at Shenandoah, Pennsylvania

From the Shenandoah Evening Herald of August 27, 1910:

MOTHER JONES WAS IN SCOLDING MOOD
—————

“Mother” Jones was the big noise at the open air mass meeting of mine workers at Main and Centre streets last night, and despite her seventy-five years of terrestrial pilgrimage she was in excellent physical trim.

“Never felt better In my life,” she said to a friend who commented upon her fine appearance, and added,

You know I’m good for seventy-five more years. I don’t think I’ll ever die, so long as I want to live.

“Mother” Jones was in fine voice and the verbal lambasting she administered to John Mitchell, former head of the United Mine Workers of America, ex-President Roosevelt and President Taft caused her hearers “to sit up and take notice,” as the phrase goes when something surprising and unexpected is sprung on an unsuspecting audience. There were other speakers, but “Mother” Jones was the attraction, and she certainly furnished the necessary entertainment, but her denunciation of John Mitchell as a traitor to the cause of labor did not gain her many sympathizers. She excoriated Mitchell for hobnobbing with Roosevelt and declared that both Mitchell and Roosevelt were the “two biggest bluffs at large.” She found fault with Bishop Hobin, of Scranton, for a humorous reference of the Bishop’s at a dinner to Roosevelt and Mitchell that it was the first time he had the honor of sitting between two presidents. She was quite emphatic in utterance and her oratory was attended by the usual gesticulations so familiar during the troublous times of some years ago.

She was more rabid of utterance last night than on any former occasion in this region, and she waved red-flag sentiments with defiance.

Speaking of the State Police she declared they were patterned after the Irish Constabulary.

[She fairly shrieked:]

I was six years old when I was driven from home at the bayonet point by the constabulary in Ireland, and I have never forgot it, and never shall.

I’d sooner go to heaven with a union card as a passport than as a pious Christian of the employer class who have accumulated their millions by grinding the lives out of the down trodden women and children.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1910, Part II: Found Speaking to Miners at Shenandoah, Pennsylvania” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1910, Part I: Found Speaking to Miners of Hazleton District, Pennsylvania

17th September 202019th August 2020 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 17, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1910, Part I:
-Found in Hazleton Coal District Addressing Miners’ Meetings

From the Pittston Gazette of August 3, 1910:

“Mother Jones.”

“Mother Jones,” the miners’ friend, is spending some time in the Hazleton district, recuperating from a severe illness, and nearly every evening addresses a meeting of mine workers.

—–

[Photograph added.]

From the Pottsville Republican of August 4, 1910:

Socialists to Observe Labor Day.

At a meeting of the Socialists of Pottsville held last evening in the barber shop of C. F. Foley arrangements were made to hold a big celebration here on Labor Day. Fred Warren, editor of the Appeal to Reason, will be the speaker of the occasion. Mother Jones will also be in attendance. The meeting will be held at Schuettler’s grove at the western end of Pottsville. Dancing will be one of the attractions of the day. Mr. Foley announced that his declination to run for lieutenant governor had been favorably acted. upon.

—————

From the Shenandoah Evening Herald of August 12, 1910:

Will Go to Dubois Next.

“Mother” Jones the United Mine Workers organizer, who is stopping at Hazleton with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gildea, will go from Hazleton to Dubois. She expects to stay at Hazleton for several weeks yet, part of which time she will spend in the Panther Creek sub-district.

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1910, Part I: Found Speaking to Miners of Hazleton District, Pennsylvania” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Sways Thousands of Pennsylvania Miners, Now Ready to Strike for Their Just Demands

11th September 202015th August 2020 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, If war Shamokin Sep 8, Phl Iq p2, Sept 9, 1900 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 11, 1900
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Working with Mine Workers Union

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 5, 1900:

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Sways Thousands of Pennsylvania Miners, Now Ready to Strike for Their Just Demands” →

Hellraisers Journal: Explosion and Fire Kills 78 Coal Miners at the Baltimore No. 2 Tunnel at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

6th June 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Thomas Dougherty re Wilkes Barre MnDs, Harrisburg Tg p1, June 5, 1919 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 6, 1919
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – Coal Miners Perish in Flames of Mine Fire

From Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg Telegraph of June 5, 1919:

—–

Sparks Ignite Powder

More than 100 mine workers were riding to their work crowded into what is known as a “trip” of mine cars, drawn by a motor. The rear car carried twelve kegs of black powder used for blasting loose the coal in the chambers. When the train had gone about 200 feet from the entrance the trolley wire snapped. The sparks it emitted touched off the powder.

There was a roar and in an instant every man and boy on the train was either dead or dying. Mangled bodies were found everywhere by the rescue crews which rushed into the mine. Fire fighters, working frantically, soon succeeded in subduing the flames which followed the blast. Those who had not already succumbed were so badly burned that in nearly every case death was a matter of only a short time.
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Explosion and Fire Kills 78 Coal Miners at the Baltimore No. 2 Tunnel at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “The Hazelton Massacre;” Report on Trial of Sheriff & Deputized Gunthugs

22nd February 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday February 22, 1898
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – Gunthugs with Badges on Trial

Lattimer Massacre of 1897, Locomotive Firemens Mag, Nov 1897

On September 10, 1897, striking coal miners were marching peacefully behind the American flag when they were shot down in cold blood at Lattimer, a mining village near Hazelton, by Sheriff Martin and his deputies. Many of the 19 miners who died in the massacre were shot in the back. That sheriff and his deputies are now on trial in the Luzerne County Courthouse.

From the Appeal to Reason of February 19, 1898:

THE HAZELTON MASSACRE.

There never was a case in which the evidence was more direct, explicit and full that men had committed unprovoked murder than that being given in the trial of the sheriff and his 67 pals for the murder of the miners. Not only is the guilt practically admitted, but the evidence shows that the deputies boasted before what they were going to do and boasted afterwards what they had done. One of the most significant things about it is that the bail was given by a Philadelphia trust company putting up $340,000 in cash! All the corporations are showing their interest in clearing the murderers. I [J. A. Wayland?] clip these bits of testimony from the trial report as a sample evidence:

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “The Hazelton Massacre;” Report on Trial of Sheriff & Deputized Gunthugs” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1906: Gives Speech for Dettrey Campaign in Wilkes-Barre

15th December 201615th December 2016 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

While life remains I shall always
be with you conflict.
-Mother Jones

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

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 15, 1906
Mother Jones Found Campaigning for Comrade Dettrey During November

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

In the New York Worker of November 3, 1906, under “Party News,” National Secretary J. Mahlon Barnes reported on the whereabouts of Mother Jones:

PARTY NEWS

NATIONAL SECRETARY’S REPORT

The report of National Secretary Barnes to the National Executive Committee is in part as follows:

[…]

“Mother” Jones, in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Illinois and Pennsylvania;…

From the Wilkes-Barre Times of November 5, 1906:

From the Wilkes-Barre Times of November 6, 1906:

THE SOCIALISTS held a final rally in this city last night. William Dettrey and Mother Jones were the chief speakers.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1906: Gives Speech for Dettrey Campaign in Wilkes-Barre” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1906: Campaigning for Socialist Candidates in Illinois and Pennsylvania

8th November 20169th November 2016 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

I have been on the firing line
of the industrial battle for years,
and when democratic bullets shot workingmen,
their blood watered the highways just the same
as when republican bullets shot them.
-Mother Jones

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

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 8, 1906
Mother Jones Found Campaigning in Pennsylvania During October

From The Worker of October 6, 1906:

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

MOTHER JONES ABLE TO SPEAK.

Comrades the country over will be pleased to learn that Mother Jones is soon to be once more in the field [having recovered from a recent illness] and from now till election will divide her time between the 18th Illinois (Speaker Cannon’s) and the 11th Pennsylvania Congressional Districts, in which National board members of the United Mine Workers of America are candidates for Congress on the Socialist ticket, namely: John Walker and William Dettry.

———-

[Photograph added.]

Mother Jones, Grandmother of Agitation:

NATIONAL AGITATION FUND.

Contributions to the National Agitation Fund are reported:

…Mother Jones, gathered a field, $180…

Note: the other contributors donated between $10 and 50 cents, with the exception of the International Union of Brewery Workmen of America which donated $500.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1906: Campaigning for Socialist Candidates in Illinois and Pennsylvania” →