Hellraisers Journal: Mine Guards Kill Four Men at Coal Creek, Tennessee; Gunthugs Opened Fire When Small Boys Began Yelling, “Scab” at Imported Miners

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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 10, 1904
Coal Creek, Tennessee – Company Gunthugs Murder Four Men 

From the Coffeyville Daily Journal of February 9, 1904:

A STRIKE TRAGEDY.
———-
Four Men Killed and Three Wounded
in Tennessee.

Coal Creek TN Massacre, NYT p1, Feb 8, 1904
The New York Times
February 8, 1904

Knoxville, Tenn., Feb. 9.-A bloody tragedy was enacted [Sunday, Feb. 7th] in the little mining town of Coal Creek, Tenn., forty miles northwest of Knoxville, as the result of which four lives were snuffed out and three persons wounded, one perhaps fatally. The clash was the culmination of the trouble between union and non-union labor. Three of the dead men were killed by guards employed by the Coal Creek Coal company, while the fourth victim, a deputy sheriff, was killed by a guard he had gone to arrest. The dead:

MONROE BLACK, miner, aged 24 years; married; leaves wife.
W. W. TAYLOR, miner, aged 31; leaves wife and four children.
JACOB SHARP, section hand; a bystander, aged 35; leaves wife and six children.
DEPUTY SHERIFF ROBERT S. HARMON, killed by Cal Burton, a guard at the Briceville mine.

The wounded are:

A. R. Watts, merchant of Coal Creek, an innocent by stander, shot through both cheeks.
Mote Cox, miner, shot through the left arm.
Jeff Hoskins, engineer on the Southern railway; slightly wounded.

When the wage scale was signed in district 19, United Mine Workers of America, the Coal Creek company refused to comply with the demands of the men. They refused to resume work in the Fraterville and Thistle mines, and for several months these two mines were shut down. Efforts were made to resume with non-union men, but these were either induced to join the union or were chased away, presumably by union men. The aid of the courts was invoked to oust families of union miners from the houses owned by the company. Scores of arrests were made for trespassing, and ill feeling was thus engendered. Recently a dozen guards, in charge of Jud Reeder, who served as lieutenant of police in this city for many years, were employed to guard the mines and protect the men who had been induced to go to work.

Non-union men were being brought to the mines every few days and Reeder and his guards would go to the railroad station and meet them. Today the crowd of idlers around the station was increased. Reeder and twelve guards came from the mines to meet a few non-union men who were to arrive on the morning train. When the non-union men got off the train, they were seen by a number of small boys, who began yelling, “Scab.” The killing grew out of this taunt. It is hard to tell what the provocation was, but the miners must have crowded up and attempted to take away the non-union men bodily or offered some direct insult to the guards.

Reeder and another guard drew their pistols and began shooting, Reeder doing the most of it. Miners and bystanders were taken by surprise and before they could realize what had happened the guards had climbed into their wagons and driven back to the mines.

About 12 o’clock a dispute arose between Deputy Sheriff Bob Harmon and Guard Cal Burton [whom Harmon was attempting to arrest]. Burton shot Harmon twice, killing him instantly.

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

It is interesting that the reporter’s account supplies the company guards with an excuse for opening up gunfire on unarmed protesters. Seems the reporter could not believe that company gunthugs would murder striking miners and bystanders for no other reason than that some small boys hollered “Scab.” 

Note: Willful neglect of safety standards by the Coal Creek Coal Company led to deaths of 184 men and boys in the Fraterville Mine Explosion on May 19, 1902.

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mine Guards Kill Four Men at Coal Creek, Tennessee; Gunthugs Opened Fire When Small Boys Began Yelling, “Scab” at Imported Miners”

Hellraisers Journal: Duluth Labor World: Hastings, Colorado-“Mother Jones Says Rockefeller Oppresses the Coal Miners”

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 7, 1904
Hastings, Colorado – Mother Jones Exposes Rockefeller’s “Sunday School Methods”

From the Duluth Labor World of February 6, 1904:

MOTHER JONES
Says Rockefeller Oppresses the Coal Miners.

Mother Jones Gives 500 Dollars to CO Strikers, LW p4, Feb 6, 1904

Hastings, Colo., Feb. 5.-[Mother Jones, the miners’ friend, who is now going up and down among the striking miners in Colorado, says:]

Rockefeller’s mining company cleared $39,000 [*] last year, and every dollar of it was wrung form the miners.

At some of these mining camps a miner is not even allowed to bring a pound of butter from the outside. He is compelled to buy everything at the company’s store. Every man who comes to the mines to work must be searched, and when he goes to visit a friend outside the camp an armed guard goes with him.

What would a Chicago workingman think if he had to pay 90 cents for a quart of syrup that cost at wholesale $1.25 a gallon? What would he think if his employer taxed him a dollar a month for a doctor whether he needed one or not? What would he think if he was obliged to pay his employer 50 cents a month for a preacher?

Yet such are Mr. Rockefeller’s Sunday school methods of conducting his mining business in Colorado,” says Mother Jones.

[Emphasis added. Newsclip added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Duluth Labor World: Hastings, Colorado-“Mother Jones Says Rockefeller Oppresses the Coal Miners””

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Calumet” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II-Profits, Wages and Working Conditions

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Quote re Annie Clemenc at Mass Funeral Calumet, Day Book p4, Jan 6, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 3, 1914
“Calumet” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II-Profits, Wages and Working Conditions

From the International Socialist Review of February 1914:

Calumet MI by LH Marcy, ISR p453, Feb 1914

[Part II of II]

Italian Hall Massacre Calumet MI, Small White Caskets, ISR p457, Feb 1914

We have seen how the copper country is governed by an “invisible government”; from the judge on the bench, to the grand jury in session; from the national guard of the state of Michigan, on “duty,” since July 24, 1913, to the sheriff with his hundreds of imported professional strike breakers whom he swore in as deputies. The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, Calumet, is the invisible government of Michigan.

This poor-little-rich corporation was “created” in the early fifties. According to a statement given out by Attorney Peterman, and endorsed by General Manager W. F. Denton, and General Manager C. L. Lawton, we find this devout confession: ”The profits of the Calumet and Hecla have been large, but they were due solely to the fact that the Creator put such rich ore in the company’s ground.”

However, Congress in the year of our Lord, 1852, seems to have been in total ignorance of this little gift on the Creator’s part to the copper crowd, for we find that “it gave to the state of Michigan 750,000 acres of public land, to aid it in building a ship canal around the Falls of St. Mary. The state in turn bargained this land to the contractors who built the canal, at a dollar and a quarter an acre. The lands thus disposed of at so beggarly a price were supposed to be swamp, or overflowed lands, but somehow, and strange to say, a part of them are now the rocky matrices from which the Calumet and Hecla has long been extracting shot-copper,-that company having in some way got hold of them. Years later a man named Chandler, who claimed to have bought the same land over again from the State of Michigan, brought a suit to dispossess the copper company,-charging all sorts of fraud in the switching of swamps so as to be quarries of copper-bearing rock. But the Supreme Court ruled against him, on the ground that as he got his deed from the state, he was in no better plight than the state, and that the state could not go back on its first deed to the canal contractors: so the Calumet and Hecla people kept it.”

This “good thing” was capitalized for $2,500,000 in shares of $25 each, instead of $100-note that. Of this $25 a share, only $12 was paid in. A total cash investment of $1,200,000. According to the Mining and Engineering World of December 27th, Calumet and Hecla has declared dividends on issued capitalization to December 1, 1913, amounting to $121,650,000, or $1,216 a share or $101 profits for each dollar invested.

Dividends for 1900 amounted to 320 per cent; for 1906, 280 per cent; for 1907, 260 per cent. In the Boston market, the stock was quoted on the day before New Years, at 427, bid price. Bearing in mind that the par value of the shares is but $25, this figure means that the stock is now worth more than 1,700 per cent, and bearing in mind also that only $12 a share was actually paid in, it means more than 3,400 per cent, market value. The president of the company receives a salary greater than the president of the United States.

Not long ago, when dividends threatened to be unusually enormous, the company purchased an extensive island in Lake Superior, stocked it with the finest game, and it is now used by stockholders of the company as a hunting preserve.

And the capitalists, who have never seen the inside of a mine shaft, who have stolen and defrauded to gain possession of the Calumet mines, have refused to permit their wage slaves, who produce all the wealth brought out of the mines, to organize into a union. They have denied the right of these workers to organize to demand more wages and better working conditions. Their arrogance is summed up in the words “We have nothing to arbitrate.”

These capitalists want MORE labor from the laborers. They are not satisfied with having stolen hundreds of millions from the men who have dug the wealth from the dangerous recesses of the earth. They demand still MORE.

* * * * * * *

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Calumet” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II-Profits, Wages and Working Conditions”

Hellraisers Journal: From Miners Magazine: “Human Rights Shall Not Be Murdered in America-President Moyer After Operation”

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 9, 1914
Chicago, Illinois – President Moyer after Operation with Walker, Terzich and Riley

From Miners Magazine of January 8, 1914:

Moyer af Surgery in Chicago w JHW, Terzich, MJ Riley, Mnrs Mag p8, Jan 8, 1914

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Miners Magazine: “Human Rights Shall Not Be Murdered in America-President Moyer After Operation””

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Boston and Baltimore with J. W. Brown of West Virginia, Speaks on Colorado Coal Strike

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Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 21, 1913
Mother Jones Travels to Boston and Baltimore Accompanied by J. W. Brown

From The Boston Globe of November 17, 1913:

Mother Jones w JW Brown Speaks re CO Strike, Bst Glb p8, Nov 17, 1913

From the Baltimore Sun of November 20, 1913:

Mother Jones w JW Brown Speaks re CO Strike, Blt Sun p2, Nov 20, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Boston and Baltimore with J. W. Brown of West Virginia, Speaks on Colorado Coal Strike”

Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Miners Bulletin: Secretary Wilson Perturbs McNaughton; Gunmen Attack Strikers

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Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 19, 1913
Michigan Copper Country – Labor Secretary William B. Wilson Perturbs McNaughton

From the Miners’ Bulletin of  November 18, 1913:

Miners Bulletin Mnrs Bltn p1, McN v WBW, Gunmen Attack Striking Miners, Nov 18, 1913

An article entitled “McNaughton’s Veracity,” concerning the truthfulness, or lack of thereof, of Mr. McNaughton, takes up almost half of the front page of the current edition of the Bulletin. Suffice it to say that Mr. McNaughton is not happy with the recent speech made by the U. S. Secretary of Labor, William B. Wilson, at the annual convention of the American Federation of Labor:

McNaughton hollers “liar, liar.” McNaughton’s reputation for truth and veracity is at such a low ebb in this community that those long distance, epithets makes the average person smile, for instance, he stated at the beginning of this strike that 85 per cent of his employees were willing to return to work but were afraid although he had 2,500 militiamen and 1,000 gunmen at his disposal….

[Emphasis added.]

There then follows a list of falsehood after falsehood put forth by Mr. McNaughton. But, on the same front page is a story about the effectiveness of the gunmen, imported into the strike zone by the copper bosses:

GUNMEN ATTACK STRIKING MINERS

Yesterday morning while a large number of strikers were holding their usual morning parade, and when near the Quincy mine, they were joined by quite a number of mounted police who rode amongst them until a point opposite the Quincy was reached when the parade was met by a large force of gunmen. At this juncture, the mounted guards lined up on each side of the parade wilst the gunmen poured a volley into the ranks of the strikers. One striker was badly shot in the hip while it is believed several others were slightly injured by the firing of lead missiles. One guard was badly injured by being trampled upon by one of the frightened horses. The attack was no doubt planned beforehand as the concerted action of the mounted guards and gunmen would imply.

The parade consisted of men, women and a scattering of children, all of whom were quiet and were marching on the county road. The guards and the gunmen had not the least provocation for making this dastardly assault upon peaceable citizens who have a perfect right to parade on the public highway. After the melee, six of the paraders were arrested and taken to jail, but were later released. Assistant states attorney Nichols will make an investigation of this dastardly assault and in all probability will bring the guilty parties to justice.

[Emphasis added.]

Somehow, we suspect, that the last sentence is meant as a bit of sarcasm.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Miners Bulletin: Secretary Wilson Perturbs McNaughton; Gunmen Attack Strikers”

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Reporter in Denver, Describes Conditions in the Coal Camps of Southern Colorado

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 16, 1903
Denver, Colorado – Mother Jones Describes Conditions in Southern Coalfields

From The Denver Post of November 13, 1903:

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p1, Nov 13, 1903Mother Jones Interview re CO Coal Strike, Dnv Pst p1n3, Nov 13, 1903 Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Reporter in Denver, Describes Conditions in the Coal Camps of Southern Colorado”

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks on Colorado Coalfield Strike at Washington [D. C.] Central Labor Union Meeting

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Quote Mother Jones, Coming of the Lord, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 10, 1913
Mother Jones Speaks at Meeting of Washington, D. C., Central Labor Union

From The Washington Herald of November 6, 1913:

Mother Jones Speaks at WDC CLU re CO Strike, WDC Hld p2, Nov 6, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks on Colorado Coalfield Strike at Washington [D. C.] Central Labor Union Meeting”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: “Clash in the Copper Country”-Photos from the Front Lines of Michigan Miners’ Strike

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Quote Annie Clemenc, Die Behind Flag, Mnrs Bltn, Sept 16, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 8, 1913
“Clash in the Copper Country” by Graham Romeyn Taylor

From The Survey of November 1, 1913:

Clash in MI Copper Country by G Taylor, Survey p127, Nov 1, 1913MI Strikers Parade, Annie w Flag, Survey p127, Nov 1, 1913

[Scene of Seeberville Murders]

MI Seeberville Murder Scene, Survey 128, Nov 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: “Clash in the Copper Country”-Photos from the Front Lines of Michigan Miners’ Strike”