Hellraisers Journal: Hung Jury Fails to Convict Steve Adams in Murder Trial at Rathdrum, Idaho

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday November 30, 1907
Rathdrum, Idaho – Jury Fails to Convict Steve Adams

The second trial of Steve Adams for the murder of Fred Tyler has ended with a second jury hung. Ida Crouch-Hazlett reports the trial’s outcome in the November 28th edition of the Socialist Montana News:

Ad Darrow to Adams Jury, MTNs, Nov 28, 1907

STATE FAILS TO CONVICT

Rathdrum Ida., Nov. 24.

The jury in the Steve Adams case disagreed to-night at 5:45 after being out 21 hours. The case was given to the jury last night at 8.30. The result was 8 for acquittal and 4 for conviction. Gorwood, House Dittemore and Varnim were the men that hung out for conviction. Varnim leading the fight against Adams.

Papers were on hand to rearrest Adams in case of an acquittal and take him in one case to Telluride, Col., to be tied for the murder of Arthur Collin, and in the other to Wallace to be tried for the murder of Boulier, a notorious claim jumper and land stealer.

Adams was indicted last week in Telluride for killing Arthur Collins, the superintendent of the Smuggle Union mine, who was shot through a window.

It is said to-night, however, that Adams is to be retried on the Tyler charge, and will be held here at Rathdrum till the next term of court.

The intention is evidently to pursue Adams to the utmost, to break down his constitution and will if possible, and use him as a means to break down the Federation. The policy of the capitalist prosecution is to exhaust the treasuries of the unions through continuous attacks by the courts.

Pettibone’s trial at Boise has been postponed till Friday, Nov. 29.

Ida Crouch-Hazlett.

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Hellraisers Journals: Goldfield Local of Western Federation of Miners on Strike Against Payment of Wages by Scrip

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If the workers are organized, all they have to do
is to put their hands in their pockets
and they have got the capitalist class whipped.
-Big Bill Haywood

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday November 29, 1907
Goldfield, Nevada – Miners Strike Against Scrip Peonage

The following reads like a report written by the mine owners themselves, and yet makes clear why the gold miners of Goldfield are now on strike.

From the Reno Evening Gazette of November 27, 1907:

Goldfield Miners Strk Begins, Reno Eve Gz, Nov 27, 1907

Grievance Over Manner of the
Payment of their Wages
—–

Rumor of Open Camp Results
—–

(Special to the Gazette.)

GOLDFIELD, November 27.-Once again the miners of this camp have decided that they would rather be idle than work. This time the grievance is the matter of payment of wages, the miners taking exception to the cashier’s checks that have been given them in return for their toil. The strike was foreshadowed last week, but it was hoped that the working miners would be able to vote the motion down, as it was known that they were opposed to the action of the idle members of the union. The checks that have been given to the men are negotiable at every store in the camp, but this fact has not prevented the men from again tying up the camp.

The leasers are not affected materially as their time limit will be extended, and the operators themselves are not greatly bothered because they are willing to shut down until the smelters accept ore at reasonable prices.

It is whispered on the streets today that one result of this move of the miners will be the importation of Slav miners, such as are now being employed by the Tonopah Mining company. These men belong to the union but they are glad to get the high wages that are paid in the southern camps. Their presence in Tonopah has greatly affected the business men, as they live as cheaply as Chinese and patronize their own countrymen exclusively. Many Tonopah merchants have been practically forced to suspend business because of the encroachments of small Greek stores which get practically all the business of these imported miners. Goldfield business men fear that the operators in this camp will take similar action and that the doom of many business houses will surely follow.

There is also some talk that an open camp will be the result of this strike, because it is known that the operators have previously expressed the determination to run the mines as they pleased if the demands of the union become intolerable. It may be that this trouble will be the one that will precipitate a crisis.

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: James Connolly Announces Organization of Committee for Release of Preston & Smith

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The great appear great to us, only because
we are on our knees:
LET US RISE.
-James Connolly

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 28, 1907
New York, New York – Mass Meeting Planned for Preston & Smith

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of November 23, 1907:

Preston-Smith Release Committee

James Connolly, NYC Farewell Dinner, crpd, July 14, 1910

A meeting of delegates of all progressive labor organizations in New York and vicinity will be held in the Hall, 60 Cooper Square, New York, on Saturday, November 30, 8 p. m., to set on foot a movement to demand the release of our fellow workers, Preston and Smith. All labor bodies are cordially invited to send representatives, and to believe that if they do not receive a formal invitation it must be because of our failure to secure their proper addresses, and not from any lack of courtesy. All delegates from labor organizations will be welcomed.

At this meeting steps will be taken to appoint officers and committees, and to formally organize the committee.

JAMES CONNOLLY,
Secretary pro tem.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “GIRL WITH A MISSION,” Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks to Packed House in Duluth, Minnesota

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EGF Quote, I fell in love with my country, RG 96

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday November 27, 1907
Duluth, Minnesota – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks to Packed House

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of November 23, 1907:

THE GIRL WITH A MISSION
—–
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Addresses a Packed House
at Duluth on Industrial Unionism

EGF, DEN (ca) p 21, crpd, Sept 21, 1907

The visit of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn to Minnesota in behalf of the Industrial Workers of the World is arousing great interest among the workers of that state. She spoke on Sunday night, November 17, at Duluth, to an audience that filled Odd Fellows’ hall. From an interesting report of the meeting in the Duluth Harald we take the following extracts:

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is nothing if not earnest. Socialistic fervor seems to emanate from her expressive eyes, and even from her red dress. She is a girl with a “mission,” with a big “M,” and she delivered her sweeping generalities with perfect indifference as to where they hit.

She spoke to an audience which packed Odd Fellows’ hall last evening. There were a few labor leaders there out of curiosity; a scattering of women who were curious to see this strange school girl with the strange mission in life, and a large number of followers of the Socialistic doctrines expressed.

Characterizing the American Federation of Labor as organized scabbery, and branding it as a labor trust working injury to the majority of laborers for the benefit of the minority, the girl orator was evidently voicing the sentiments of many of her Socialistic followers in the room, but her statements in this respect made the several local labor leaders present hitch uneasily about in their chairs.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Recalls the Martyred Miners of Pennsylvania for “Jail and Gallows Edition” of Appeal to Reason

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EVD Quote re June 21 1877 PN Martyrs, AtR 11-23-1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday November 26, 1907
Eugene Debs on Pennsylvania’s “Day of the Rope”

From the Appeal to Reason of November 23, 1907:

“Looking Backward.”
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
—–

Molly Maguires marching to their death, Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, July 7, 1877.
The Day of the Rope, Black Thursday, June 21, 1877.

Before me lies a copy of the Philadelphia Evening Herald, bearing date of June 21, 1877. On that day the “Mollie Maguires” were executed, six of them-Boyle, McGeghan, Munley, Roarity, Carroll and Duffy-at Pottsville; four of them-Campbell, Doyle, Kelly and Donahue-at Mauch Chunk, and one-Lanahan-at Wilkesbarre. They all protested their innocence and all died game. Not one of them betrayed the slightest evidence of fear or weakening. The issue of the Herald referred to contains a full account of the executions, with portraits of the hapless victims.

Not long ago in the jail at Pottsville I stood on the spot where the six “Mollies” met their doom, and I uncovered in memory of their martyrdom.

Not one of them was a murderer at heart. All were ignorant, rough and uncouth, born of poverty and buffeted by the merciless tides of fate and chance.

To resist the wrongs of which they and their fellow-workers were the victims and to protect themselves against the brutality of their bosses, according to their own crude notions, was the prime object of the organization of the “Mollie Maguires.” Nothing could have been farther from their intention than murder or crime. It is true that their methods were drastic, but it must be remembered that their lot was hard and brutalizing; that they were the neglected children of poverty, the products of a wretched environment.

At the scenes of the execution the tragedy is today, thirty years later, still spoken of in whispers. A vague dread of reviving the fearful past seems to silence the tongue of the resident when the subject is introduced. But bit by bit the truth has slowly and painfully filtered through the dungeon doors of false history, and the world is beginning to understand the true inwardness of the “Mollie Maguire” organization and its real relation to the labor movement.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs on John Brown, “the bravest man and most self-sacrificing soul in American history.”

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John Brown by EVD, AtR, Nov 23, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday November 25, 1907
Eugene Debs on John Brown: “He resolved to lay his life on Freedom’s alter.”

From the Appeal to Reason of November 23, 1907:

JOHN BROWN: HISTORY’S GREATEST HERO
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
—–

John Brown, ab 1846, by A Washington, wiki

The most picturesque character, the bravest man and most self-sacrificing soul in American history, was hanged at Charleston, Va., December 2, 1859.

On that day Thoreau said: “Some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was crucified. This morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung. These are the two ends of a chain which is not without its links. He is not ‘Old Brown’ any longer; he is an Angel of Light… I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it, the historian record it, and with the landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown.”

Few people dared on that fateful day to breathe a sympathetic word for the grizzled old agitator. For years he had carried on his warfare against chattel slavery. He had only a handful of fanatical followers to support him. But to his mind his duty was clear, and that was enough. He would fight it out to the end, and if need be alone.

Old John Brown set an example of moral courage and of single-hearted devotion to an ideal for all men and for all ages.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs on Mother Jones: “wherever the battle waxes hottest there she surely will be found upon the firing line.”

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

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday November 24, 1907
Eugene V. Debs on “The Grand Old Woman of the Revolutionary Movement”

From the Appeal to Reason of November 23, 1907:

“MOTHER” JONES.
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
—–

Mother Jones, Fort Worth Telegram, Apr 26, 1907

“The ‘Grand Old Woman’ of the revolutionary movement” is the appropriate title given to Mother Jones by Walter Hurt. All who know her—and they are legion—will at once recognize the fitness of the title.

The career of this unique old agitator reads like romance. There is no other that can be compared to it. For fifteen years she has been at the forefront, and never once has she been known to flinch.

From the time of the Pullman strike in 1894, when she first came into prominence, she has been steadily in the public eye. With no desire to wear “distinction’s worthless badge,” utterly forgetful of self and scorning all selfish ambitions, this brave woman has fought the battles of the oppressed with a heroism more exalted than ever sustained a soldier upon the field of carnage.

Mother Jones is not one of the “summer soldiers” or “sunshine patriots.” Her pulses burn with true patriotic fervor, and wherever the battle waxes hottest there she surely will be found upon the firing line.

For many weary months at a time she has lived amid the most desolate regions of West Virginia, organizing the half-starved miners, making her home in their wretched cabins, sharing her meagre substance with their families, nursing the sick and cheering the disconsolate—a true minister of mercy.

During the great strike in the anthracite coal district she marched at the head of the miners; was first to meet the sheriff and the soldiers, and last to leave the field of battle.

Again and again has this dauntless soul been driven out of some community by corporation hirelings, enjoined by courts, locked up in jail, prodded by the bayonets of soldiers, and threatened with assassination. But never once in all her self-surrendering life has she shown the white feather; never once given a single sign of weakness or discouragement. In the Colorado strikes Mother Jones was feared, as was no other, by the criminal corporations; feared by them as she was loved by the sturdy miners she led again and again in the face of overwhelming odds until, like Henry of Navarre, where her snow-white crown was seen, the despairing slaves took fresh courage and fought again with all their waning strength against the embattled foe.

Deported at the point of bayonets, she bore herself so true a warrior that she won even the admiration of the soldiers, whose order it was to escort her to the boundary lines and guard against her return.

No other soldier in the revolutionary cause has a better right to recognition in this edition than has “Mother” Jones.

Her very name expresses the Spirit of the Revolution.

Her striking personality embodies all its principles.

She has won her way into the hearts of the nation’s toilers, and her name is revealed at the altars of their humble firesides and will be lovingly remembered by their children and their children’s children forever.

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs on Mother Jones: “wherever the battle waxes hottest there she surely will be found upon the firing line.””

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1917, Part II: Claude G. Bowers, “She is not afraid of man or devil.”

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday November 23, 1917
Mother Jones News for October, Part II: Claude G. Bowers on Mother Jones

Mother Jones, Colorado Military Bastile, March 1914

Claude G. Bowers, journalists, spent a few hours with Mother Jones while she was traveling from Colorado to Indianapolis sometime around October 19th (see Mother Jones News for October, part 1), and writes about that meeting for his column, “Kabbages and Kings.” Bowers notes that Mother “is not afraid of man or devil,” and as an example tells of her experiences in Colorado during the Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914. During that struggle, Mother was held for almost one month in the “Military Bastile,” a cold cellar cell which had already claimed the life of a miner held prisoner there. She counseled “her boys” not to attempt a rescue, “Maybe I can do some good in the bull pen,” she said.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1917, Part II: Claude G. Bowers, “She is not afraid of man or devil.””

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1917, Part I: Found in West Virginia, Washington D.C. and Colorado

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 22, 1917
Mother Jones News for October, Part I: Up Against the West Virginia Gunthugs

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

During the month of October 1917, we find Mother Jones in Raleigh, West Virginia, once more facing the Baldwin-Felts gunthugs. Lawrence Dwyer, organizer for the United Mine Workers of America, described the encounter:

So Mother Jones, accompanied by District President Gilmore, Lawrence Dwyer and other representatives, went to the meeting in an automobile, and as the meeting was assembling alongside of the county road, three shots were fired from a rifle on the hillside and sixty gunmen came from the hills, each having a high-powered 30-30 rifle. They swarmed around Mother Jones and the officials with her and they all having their rifles pointing at Mother Jones, and they said they would “shoot her damned head off,” but Mother Jones didn’t appear to scare at all; in fact, when they threatened to shoot her she told them back, “Oh, no you won’t.” In fact, I know I felt more uneasy than Mother Jones did.

Mother was also found in Washington, D. C., and in Colorado during the month of October 1917.

From The Beckley Messenger of October 2, 1917:

MINERS HOLD MEETING

A large number of miners from Raleigh and intermediate mines met in Beckley Sunday afternoon and held a meeting at the court house. Plans looking to the betterment of working conditions were discussed. “Mother” Jones was present and expressed the wish that the coal companies might dispense with the services of armed guards, wherever they were employed.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1917, Part I: Found in West Virginia, Washington D.C. and Colorado”

Hellraisers Journal: Federal Agents Move Against IWWs in Kansas Oil Fields, Fifty Arrested in Butler County

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IWW on War and Class Solidarity, Dec 1, 1916

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday November 21, 1917
Butler County, Kansas – I. W. W. Oil Workers Seized by Feds

IWW Label, IWWC Proceedings held Nov-Dec 1916

A round-up by federal agents of members of the Industrial Workers of the World has commenced in Butler County, Kansas. Reports from Kansas indicates that most of those taken into custody were members of the Oil Workers Industrial Union. Butler County is located just east of Wichita. The county seat is located at El Dorado.

From The Topeka State Journal of November 20, 1917:

FEDERAL AGENTS START A ROUNDUP
I.W.W. IN KANSAS
—–
Fifty Arrests Made in Butler
Oil Fields Today.
—–
Starts Gigantic Drive Thru
Forest of Derricks.
—–

ATTORNEY ANNOUNCES CLEANUP
—–
“Workers” Won’t Get Chance to
Duplicate Okla. Trouble.
—–
Robertson, U. S. District Attorney,
Will See to It.
—–

Kansas City, Nov. 20.-A roundup of I. W. W’s in the oil fields of Kansas is to be made immediately, Fred Robertson, district attorney for Kansas, announced late today. Already more than fifty alleged I. W. W.’s were arrested in the Butler county oil fields today, it was announced.

The arrests today were made in the vicinity of Augusta by state and federal agents, it was announced. A tent alleged to have been used for I. W. W. meetings there was raided and a great quantity of literature was seized.

The purpose of the raids will be to rid the oil fields of the state of undesirables, federal officers say, and each man arrested will be examined as to whether he was registered.

The presence of alleged I. W. W.’s in the Butler county fields recently led to the placing of armed guards.

———-

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