Tag: William B Wilson

Hellraisers Journal: Tom Mooney’s Death Sentence Commuted to Life in Prison by Governor Stephens of California

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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 – Friday November 29, 1918
Sacramento, California – Life of Brother Mooney to be Spared

From the San Francisco Chronicle of November 29, 1918:

Tom Mooney, Gov Commutes to Life, SF Chc p1, Nov 29, 1918
—–

Tom Mooney, SF Chc p1, Nov 29, 1918


Governor, in Decision,
Refuses to Recognize
Case as Representing
Clash of Capital and Labor
—–
ACTION INFLUENCED BY
APPEALS FROM WILSON
—–
Convicted Man No True Friend
of  Working Class,
Statement Says;
Matter Decided on Merits
—–

Sacramento, November 28,-The death sentence of Thomas J. Mooney was commuted to life imprisonment today by Governor William D. Stephens. Mooney, convicted of the Preparedness parade bomb murders in San Francisco July 22, 1916, was sentenced to be hanged at San Quentin Prison December 13.

In announcing his decision governor Stephens asserts the case does not represent a clash between capital and labor. He characterizes as “absurd” propaganda that would make Mooney appear as a martyr to the cause of labor, and indicates that this action was influenced by two telegraphic appeals from President Wilson which urged commutation of sentence for international reasons….

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1918, Part III: Found Speaking at Evansville, Indiana, on Behalf of Tom Mooney

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Flag Organize, Evle IN Prs, Mar 29, 1918

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday April 23, 1918
Mother Jones News for March 1918, Part III: Found in Evansville, Indiana

On Thursday evening March 28th, Mother Jones spoke before a meeting organized by the local labor leaders of Evansville, Indiana. She was there to speak on behalf of Tom Mooney now facing the gallows in San Francisco. The Evansville Press of March 29th described her speech:

URGES MOONEY BE SAVED FOR SAMMIES’ SAKE

Mother Jones Fire Eater, Lg Crpd, St L Str, Aug 23, 1917

Altho she’d much rather be in Europe “cleaning up on the kaiser,” Mother Jones told an audience of workers Thursday night that the business of the people at home was to fight for the Sammies here.

She said the way to do this was to save the life of Thomas Mooney, the labor leader who is being railroaded to the gallows in San Francisco at the behest of labor-crushing interests.

[She said:]

Sometimes I feel almost ashamed that I’m not over there, putting heart into those boys, so they can give the kaiser hell.

But my place is here, fight ing for them while they’re gone. When those boys come back, after having fought your battles across the sea for democracy, you’ll be able to say: “Boys, while you’ve been gone we haven’t shirked; we’ve fought and won your battles here for industrial democracy.”

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Hellraisers Journal: William Z Foster on the Alschuler Award: “How Life Has Been Brought into the Stockyards,” Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote WZF, re Poverty of Packinghouse Workers, LnL, April 1918


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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday April 6, 1918
Victory! for Packinghouse Workers by William Z. Foster, Part II

From Life and Labor of April 1918:

HOW LIFE HAS BEEN BROUGHT
INTO THE STOCKYARDS
A Story of the Reorganization of the Packing Industry

William Z. Foster
Secretary Chicago Stockyards Labor Council

The main questions, touching wages, hours and conditions of labor, involved in the Stockyards arbitration hearing before Judge Alschuler, and his decision concerning them, are of overwhelming importance, both in principle and in consequence. Just how far-reaching will be the results of the decision one cannot now forecast. But lips stiffened by poverty will perhaps now learn to smile, and thousands of families will for the first time taste of life.

[Part II]

DRASTIC ACTION TAKEN

Chicago Stockyards, WZF, LnL p68, April 1918

The cup was full. It was evident that the packers had no intention of living up to their agreement, but were seeking openly to destroy the unions, let the consequences be what they might. The unions accepted the issue. They at once broke off negotiations with the packers and sent the committee away to Washington again to demand that the President take over the packing houses, as the only way to guarantee their operation during the period of the war.

On January 18th the committee met with President Wilson, explained to him the imminent danger of a great strike in the packing houses and asked that he take steps to seize the industry. The President replied that the proposed remedy involved a big issue, that he would take it under advisement, and that in the meantime another, effort would be made to get a settlement through arbitration.

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Hellraisers Journal: Bisbee Deportation Severely Scored by Report of President Wilson’s Mediation Commission

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little

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

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 1, 1917
Washington, District of Columbia – Bisbee Deportation “Wholly Illegal”

The deportation of the striking miners of Bisbee, Arizona, carried out last July by the sheriff of Cochise county and about 2,000 of his armed “deputies,” was “wholly illegal and without authority in law, either state or federal.” So says the recently released “Report of the Bisbee Deportations Made by the President’s Mediation Commission.” The Commission was chaired by Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson.

William B Wilson, Sec of Labor, LOC ab 1913

From the Duluth Labor World of December 1, 1917:

COMMISSION CRITICIZES BISBEE DEPORTATIONS

WASHINGTON. Nov. 29.—Severe criticism of the persons responsible for the deportation of 1,186 striking copper workers from Bisbee, Ariz., and the Warren mining district July 12, is contained in a report of President Wilson’s special labor commission made public Saturday by the president.

The deportation was carried out by the sheriff of Cochise county and about 2,000 armed men, “presuming to act as deputies under the sheriff’s authority,” the report said, and “was wholly illegal and without authority in law, either state or federal.”

After extensive investigation of the causes and circumstances surrounding the copper mine strike, the commission found that the deportations were planned by a number of Bisbee citizens, including officers of the Phelps-Dodge and Calumet & Arizona mining interests.

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Hellraisers Journal: Conditions of “Economic Indecency” Commonplace Today in Nation’s Capital

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 23, 1917
Washington, D. C. – Report on Poverty from U. S. Department of Labor

Bitter Cry, Spargo, Little Tenement Toilers, Feb 1906

—–

The nation was shocked in 1906 when John Spargo’s Bitter Cry of the Children revealed shocking details of the lives of millions of American children who then lived in conditions of abject poverty (such as those pictured above). A recent report from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, demonstrates that conditions of “economic indecency” are yet commonplace among the American working class.

From the Appeal to Reason of October 20, 1917:

Bad Living Conditions In the
Nation’s Capital

Everybody knows-and mostly from painful personal experience-that living conditions are shockingly miserable as a result of high prices. But when confronted with the cold facts and figures, such as the Appeal has been running regularly for several weeks past, one realizes the truth even more terribly. We do not believe any one can read the following report of the federal bureau of labor statistics on living conditions in the city of Washington, which appears in the Weekly News Letter of the American Federation of Labor, without agreeing that it affords “a shocking example of economic indecency”:

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Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: Woman Representatives Score Butte & Bisbee, Jeannette Rankin Speaks

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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No one is safe where lynching is sanctioned.
-Jeannette Rankin

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday August 22, 1917
From the Appeal to Reason: Two Brave Women Speak for Labor

The Appeal to Reason of August 18th featured the opinions of two women elected to represent the people: the first, Miss Jeannette Rankin of the United States House of Representatives, and the second, Mrs. Rosa McKay of the Arizona House of Representative. Today we begin with Miss Rankin who outlines conditions at Butte. We will conclude tomorrow with Mrs. McKay and her view of recent events in Bisbee.

Butte and Bisbee Outrages Scored
by Brave Woman Representatives

Jeannette Rankin, MN Princeton Union, Aug 9, 1917

The stories of the labor troubles in Butte, Mont., and Bisbee, Ariz., are told below by two women, both of them elected representatives of the people from their respective districts.

Miss Jeanette Rankin, of Montana, the first Congresswoman of the United States, told of conditions in Butte in a speech [August 7th] before the national House of Representatives.

In an article to the Appeal, Mrs. Rosa McKay, member of the Arizona House of Representatives from Bisbee, Cochise county, Arizona, tells of the Bisbee deportation.

The activity of these two women in behalf of justice for the workers and in defense of the cause of true democracy, leaves little wonder why the reactionary, corporation-serving politicians have sought to prevent the entrance of woman into politics. Speed the day when woman will take her full share in the affairs of government! Miss Rankin and Mrs. McKay have done the cause of suffrage a great service in the noble stand they have taken.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1916: Pays Visit to President Wilson with Labor Delegation

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I am loyally yours for a damn fine fight.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 16, 1916
Mother Jones Found in Washington D. C. During November

We pause to review the activities of Mother Jones, that fearless champion of the cause of working-class men, women and children in their struggle for industrial freedom. We first find her remembered for her work on behalf of the children of the mills when she led them on the March of the Mill Children during the summer of 1903.

From the Iowa Bayard Advocate of November 2, 1916:

TENEMENT CHILDREN WILL
VISIT WILSON
—–
Their Welcome Will Be Unlike That
Once Given at Oyster Bay.
—–

Mother Mary Harris Jones, Logansport, IN, Sept 27, 1916New York, Oct. 28.-Fifty mothers of New York’s east side, with their children, who have been emancipated from sweatshops by the enactment of

the child labor law, are going to Shadow Lawn, Saturday, in person to thank President Wilson.

A “kind lady,” who prefers to conceal her identity, has donated a special car to be attached to one of the trains bearing pilgrims from New York to Shadow Lawn to hear the president’s address on “Wilson day.” The children will carry armsful of artificial flowers which they used to make in the factories, before their emancipation.

No such pilgrimage of the children of the poor has been attempted since the one when Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States and a carload of children from the Pennsylvania coal mines [textile mills] journeyed to the summer capital at Oyster Bay to petition for a national child labor law.

“Mother Jones,” who conducted that excursion, told recently in public of the refusal of the guards at Oyster Bay to allow the children to pass the outer gate, and of their return home to wait 14 years for a Woodrow Wilson to set them free.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mary Heaton Vorse on the Mesabi Iron Miners’ Strike in Minnesota, Part II

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

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday August 31, 1916
Mesabi Range, Minnesota – “Injustices, Large and Small”

From The Outlook of August 30, 1916:

THE MINING STRIKE IN MINNESOTA
-FROM THE MINERS’ POINT OF VIEW

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE OUTLOOK
[Report of Mary Heaton Vorse, Part II]

Mary Heaton Vorse, 1874-1966, Spartacus Ed

Under the contract system, the miner contracts to mine ore for a certain price a car load. The price of this car-load may be, and is, varied at any time according to the conditions encountered. It is the mine captain who fixes the price. According to the miners, it has been the custom to sell the best places for prices varying from the virtue of the miners’ wives and daughters to presents of drinks and cigars. So universal is this custom that any reference to the graft of the captain is received in any meeting of miners by laughter and applause.

There are at present in the hands of the Federal investigators affidavits sworn to before a notary public concerning all these forms of grafts, from insulting propositions made to the women of miners’ families to affidavits that drinks or money were paid for the job.
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Hellraisers Journal: Democratic Party VP Candidate Authored Injunction Used Against Mother Jones

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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday October 7, 1904
Presidential Campaigns:
Davis Authored Injunction Used Against Mother Jones

Democratic Campaign Poster, Parker and Davis

According to an article published in The Union of Indianapolis, and republished by The Western Laborer of Omaha, and thence by The Post-Standard, Henry G. Davis of West Virginia, candidate of the Democratic Party for the office of Vice-President of the United States, was the author of Judge Jackson’s injunction which led to that judge’s famous confrontation with Mother Jones. We suspect that Davis also had a hand in the injunction which led to the slaughter of the miners of Raleigh County in West Virginia. We are unable to prove that connection at this time, but we will certainly be looking for more information regarding Davis’ coal mines in West Virginia and the Massacre of the Raleigh County Miners.

From today’s edition of The Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York:

WHAT DAVIS STANDS FOR.
———-
Private Interests of the Man Who Is
“Against the Trusts.”
———-

The Western Laborer Omaha.

“I beg my countrymen as they value their liberty, to watch with a zealous eye the tendency of the many to centralize power in the hands of the few.”-Henry G. Davis

Here is the record of Davis, as published by The Union, printed at Indianapolis:

When Mr. Davis began operating mines, he issued and edict that no member of a labor union should be employed in any of his mines or on any of his roads. He has broken up the coal miners’ union along the lines of his roads where and whenever they have been organized. Mr. Davis evicted every union man and his family from the company houses blacklisted them and notified merchants that if favors were shown them or credit extended to them, their own credit would be shut off at his bank. He refused to haul the coal over his road that was mined by union miners, executing a complete boycott over union operators by refusing to place cars at their mines to be loaded.

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