This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 19, 1917
Mother Jones News for June: Organizing in West Virginia
Mother Jones was found in West Virginia during the month of June 1917 continuing on the mission to organize the coal miners of that state into the ranks of the United Mine Workers of America.
The United Miner Workers Journal of June 7th had this to say about the organizing campaign in the New River and Winding Gulf field:
Mother Jones, ably assisted by organizers in whom the West Virginia miners have learned to repose the fullest confidence, are active in the field and are making a record of successful organization.
New River and the Winding Gulf field, where but a short time ago a union man could not confess his faith except at the imminent risk of his life, is fairly on the road to solid organization.
A letter from West Virginia printed in the June 28th edition of the Journal describes the miners lining up with the union en masse:
Possibly a few words from this part of West Virginia would not be amiss. Of course, as you know, there has been a local here of several years’ standing, but not until now, of recent date, has there been any united action on the part of the miners themselves, and to cinch it all Mother Jones and Brother L. Dwyer clinch it. All Layland, believe me, turned out en masse, even the county officials, to attend, and general good feeling exists all around. The boys are joining their union and the quickest way seems too slow now since they begin to see the light.
From Indiana’s Brazil Daily Times of June 5, 1917:
It appears that a police officer of Brazil, Indiana, is paying the price for failing to arrest Mother Jones when she visited that locale a few ago.
PATROLMAN GIVEN 6 MONTHS IN JAIL
[-for not arresting Mother Jones!]
—–JUDGE ANDERSON SAYS HE WILL HAVE THE WHOLE
COMMON COUNCIL OF BRAZIL IN JAIL IF LAWLESSNESS
AT BRAZIL DOES NOT STOP-
BITTERLY ASSAILS OFFICERS OF CITY.
—–RALPH DONNELLY IS HELD FOR CONTEMPT
—–
On Learning of Assault of Donnelly
on Clay Worker Named Beaman
Federal Judge Orders Man Held Under $500 Bond-
Contempt of Court Cases Are Tried Today
in Federal Court at Indianapolis.
—–Fred Wagner, patrol man was found guilty of contempt of court and was sentenced to serve six months in the federal jail at Indianapolis.
Fred Norton was also found guilty of contempt of court and was sentenced to 3 months in the federal jail at Indianapolis.
Thos. Tiffee’s, patrolman, case was taken under advisement of the condition that he would prosecute the duties of his office and report to the federal court any interference by superior officers.
Judge Anderson bitterly assailed Wagner for his alleged biased attitude in the strike; for contributing to the commissary of the strikers and for marching in the Mother Jones parade, hearing her speech in which she condemned the Federal court, and not arresting her…..
From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 7, 1917:
New River Agreement Enthusiastically Ratified
By a unanimous vote delegates representing the miners of the New River and Winding Gulf districts of West Virginia ratified the agreement reached by their representatives on the scale committee, the officials of District 17 and the international organization represented by Vice-President Frank J. Hayes and Statistician John L. Lewis in a conference with the operators of the districts above named.
The contract provides for a 12-cent per ton increase for pick and machine mined coal, 20 per cent and upward increased wage for day hands, the eight-hour workday instead of nine as in the former contract, recognition of the union, all coal to be weighed and paid for according to the tonnage rate where formerly it had been computed by the car (some say “by the acre”) and other standard clauses for adjustment of differences—the miners’ officials to represent the miners—such as are provided for in the contracts in the old organized fields.
The delegates endorsed the report with enthusiasm. A motion to accord a vote of thanks to Vice-President Hayes, Statistician John L. Lewis, the international organization and the officials of District No. 17 for their able co-operation in bringing about this splendid agreement brought the delegates to their feet with a whoop.
The splendid spirit shown by the delegates at the convention at Charleston assures the complete organization of the fields represented.
Mother Jones, ably assisted by organizers in whom the West Virginia miners have learned to repose the fullest confidence, are active in the field and are making a record of successful organization.
New River and the Winding Gulf field, where but a short time ago a union man could not confess his faith except at the imminent risk of his life, is fairly on the road to solid organization.
And throughout West Virginia the miners are awakened, alert, realizing their right and their advantage, determined to improve their condition permanently through the only method by which such ends can be assured—organization.
Within the year, we believe, West Virginia will take her proper place—among the solidly organized states of the country.
The agreement ratified in Charleston by the miners of the New River district was the one worked out in May, in Cincinnati, between the operators and officials of the U. M. W. of A. According to the Indianapolis News, the coal operators made “broad concessions” to the Union by signing this agreement:
From The Indianapolis News of May 25, 1917:
Operators Make Concessions
CINCINNATI, May 25.-Coal operators, representatives of the New River and Winding gulf fields, in West Virginia, in a conference with the miners’ representatives in Cincinnati yesterday made broad concessions in wages and working conditions. They granted a horizontal advance on the pick and machine mining rates of 12 cents a gross ton and 20 per cent, and more on day labor and the eight-hour-day, recognition of the United Mine Workers of America and agreed to weigh all the coal.
———-
From The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of June 24, 1917:
[…..]
“Mother” Jones: A Story.
There is one woman in America who is either intensely loved or intensely hated-“Mother” Jones, sometimes known as “the angel of the miners.” Several years ago I heard her address a public meeting designed to expose the intolerable conditions in the mining regions of West Virginia. I was impressed by her great vitality-she was almost eighty-and her marvelous power over a popular audience composed in large part of workingmen. Some time went by before I had an opportunity to meet her and know her as a really wonderful woman. It was at the time the fight was on in the senate over the Kern resolution providing for a senatorial investigation into the conditions in West Virginia. The senator had presented the resolution rather perfunctorily and on request, the same resolution having been presented at a previous session by Senator Borah.
At the time of the introduction of the Kern resolution things were happening in West Virginia. The press contained rather meager accounts of a rather starting nature. Among other things that “Mother” Jones had been arrested and was about to be tried for her life by a drum head court martial. With the introduction of the resolution the most tremendous pressure was brought to bear to impel the senator to drop the fight. This aroused his interest. The most powerful figures in the financial and railroad world from all parts of the country, not content to write or wire, used the long distance phone freely. It was all too clear that there was “something rotten in the state of Denmark.” And then one day there came a telegram from “Mother” Jones urging him to keep up the fight and disclosing the fact that she was being held a lone prisoner in a hut. This telegram read in the senate compelled her immediate release and she hurried on to Washington to participate inn the battle.
The story of how she sent the telegram is dramatic. She had been shut out from all outside news for days. One afternoon she heard a rustling of paper at the door, and a moment later a piece of paper was pushed into the room. She read it. It was a clipping from a newspaper to the from a newspaper to the effect that Kern had introduced a resolution and that the governor of West Virginia had ridiculed the idea that “mother” Jones was being held a prisoner and treated harshly. Knowing that one of “her boys,” as she calls the miners, was without, she wrote the telegram and slipped it under the door with a note to the effect that it was to be taken three miles down the track to a certain telegraph operator. She knew that none closer would send it-and the man three miles away was secretly one of “her boys.” That was the last she heard of it until the order came for her release.
During the period of the fight in the senate she was tireless. An old woman, then eighty, but robust and full of fire, she armed herself with personal letters of introduction from the secretary of labor and Senator Kern and started in to make a personal appeal to every individual senator. This meant the walking of miles on a marble floor. Time and again she would stop at the office for a moment’s rest, looking utterly fagged out, and then in five minutes she was up and gone. To each senator she told the whole shameful story, with all the force and fire of which she is capable-and she converted practically every one she saw. The thing that impressed me about her was her wonderful knowledge of men. After seeing a senator for the first time she would analyze his character, his predilections, his mental processes, as perfectly as though she had studied him for a month. That and her uncanny diplomacy. She knew which man to talk to straight-and which to approach with less frankness and more tact.
After that I saw her frequently in her dashes over the country. Now in the Calumet strike region of Michigan addressing great outdoor meetings, now in New Mexico organizing the miners, now in Colorado defying the authorities who were in league with the operators, she would rush into Washington for a conference with some one, and out again. And always full of fire and fury against the outrages against “her boys.” The last time I saw her she had pictures of the children murdered by the private guards of the Colorado mines, displaying them to senators in effort to force the intervention of the national government.
In appearance she does not look the fire brand. Of medium height, rather heavily built, with a good, grandmotherly face, and as kindly an eye as ever looked out upon the world, she might easily be taken at first glance for a quiet domestic old lady of the old school. But once started on the wrongs of “her boys” her eyes flash, her lips tremble, her voice quivers with all the emotions, and it is easy to understand how she dominated five and six thousand infuriated men and controls them by her eloquences. Some day a magnificent monument will be erected to her memory-and every man and boy in mines of America will contribute to the fund.
[Drawing added is from United Mine Workers Journal of Jan. 21, 1915]
From the San Francisco Chronicle of June 27, 1917:
During the trial of Rena Mooney, a letter written by her husband, Tom Mooney, to Mother Jones, made its way into the court records.
LETTER FROM MOONEY TO MOTHER JONES READ
Among the correspondence [presented in court] was the Mother Jones letter, in which [Tom] Mooney wrote, under date of December 15, 1915, of the electric workers’ strike in 1913, and said:
At the time I was out of work, and I at all times feel it my duty to do all in my power to aid and assist any or all aggregations of workers on strike for better conditions…There was several hundred thousand dollars worth of the property of the gas company destroyed by the strikers in various ways. I was in hiding for four months myself, and was finally arrested and kept in jail for four months, going to the highest court of the State on habeas corpus.
After recounting his trial at Martinez, which resulted in his release, he continued to Mother Jones:
The Defense League carried on the defense in my behalf, and were it not for such a league I would be in San Quentin with the MacNamara boys.
From the United Mine Workers Journal of June 28, 1917:
FROM WEST VIRGINIA
Mother Jones Still Pushing the WorkPossibly a few words from this part of West Virginia would not be amiss. Of course, as you know, there has been a local here of several years’ standing, but not until now, of recent date, has there been any united action on the part of the miners themselves, and to cinch it all Mother Jones and Brother L. Dwyer clinch it. All Layland, believe me, turned out en masse, even the county officials, to attend, and general good feeling exists all around. The boys are joining their union and the quickest way seems too slow now since they begin to see the light. The day of collective bargaining is here, and West Virginia needs it badly enough. The feudalistic conditions have passed, and I know the miners throughout the United States will rejoice in knowing that West Virginia is going to be placed on the map with the other states where the United Mine Workers of America are doing business.
If this escapes the waste basket, I may come again.
Yours for the emancipation of miners,
NICK GEIS.
———-
SOURCES
The Brazil Daily Times
(Brazil, Indiana)
-June 5, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/112962460/
The United Mine Workers Journal, Volume 28
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-May 3, 1917 to Oct 25, 1917
https://books.google.com/books?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ
UMWJ of June 7, 1917 re New River Agreement
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT73
UMWJ-June 28, 1917
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT137
Re Mother Jones in West Virginia
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT143
The Indianapolis News
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-May 25, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/37351498/
The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
(Fort Wayne, Indiana)
(Also source for image of “Kabbages”)
-June 24, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/29294653/
San Francisco Chronicle
(San Francisco, California)
-June 27, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/27577146/
-June 26, 1917 (see also)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/27576902/
IMAGES
Mother Jones, UMWJ, Feb 10, 1916
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=NQpQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.RA11-PA1
UMWJ Cover Detail, Mother Jones, Jan 21, 1915
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=PxZQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.RA5-PA1
See also:
Mooney-Billings Case
http://spartacus-educational.com/USAmooneycase.htm
Entire letter to Mother Jones from Tom Mooney:
December 15, 1915: Letter to Mother Jones from Tom Mooney
Mother Jones Monument, Mount Olive, Illinois
-and Mother Jones Museum
(Note that someone has tied a red bandanna around the neck of one of the miners standing guard at the grave of Mother Jones.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Miners_Cemetery
Mother Jones to John H. Walker
Mother was not at all pleased with the New River Agreement.
Charleston, W. Va.,
Mr. John H. Walker,
801 Commercial St.,
Danville, Ill.
Dear John:I am going to write you a few lines. We had a convention here yesterday of the New River miners to accept an agreement that the distinguished officers made in Cincinnati. I mean the vice President and Johnie Lewis [John L Lewis] has become the general Jesus of the movement. Hays [Frank J Hayes] made a speech. I wish you could have heard that fellow. He has become what you call a self conceited empty brained dictator….I dont know John what the future of this organization is going to be, but if they continue doing business as they have I doubt very much of its destiny. and the other fellow, Lewis. He represented John P. [John P White] in the conference. There is nothing to that fellow but an empty piece of human slime. I get so disgusted sometimes that I feel like giving up the whole field, and going away off some where. If the organization ever gets into the hands of this fellow that is the end of the miners. Zimmerman the board member from Ill. is in here, and Valentine from Iowa. I think he is the best of the lot.
F. J. [Hayes] gave the revolters the right to sit in the convention and President [Frank] Keeney of the District [17] forced them to get out at the point of the pistol and altho he was a big gun in his own estimation, the local officer carried the day. as for orarty and logic John, there is none in that individual, and is imposition on civilization to have the miners money paid in salary to such ablily. No wonder the operators get the best of them. If I was an operator I would sit back and laugh at the things that come across. However, there are a few brave men here that will take the bull by the horn and do business regardless of who oppose them and who doesn’t.
That was a good meeting we had at Brazil…
I am going to Henderson Kentucky for Labor day. I dont think I will be out of this state before then. There is so much to do and so few to do it. But you send my mail to Beckley, W. Va…
I leave tomorrow for New River and expect to be up ther all summer. Take good care of your self until I see you again. and give my love to them all at home.
Always yours,
Mother Jones
SOURCE
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ
For entire letter from Mother to JH Walker:
(Note this letter was written some time after May 25th and before June 7th. Can be dated: “we had a convention here [Charleston] yesterday [see UMWJ, June 7] of the New River Miners to accept an agreement that the distinguished officers made in Cincinnati [see Indianapolis News, May 25].”
1917-Letter from Mother Jones to John H Walker