Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Held in Cellar Cell “Surrounded with Sewer Rats, Tin-Horn Soldiers, and Other Vermin.”

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Mother Jones Quote, Let My Friend Villa Know, Cold Cellar Cell, Walsenburg CO, Mar 31, 1914, AtR p2, Apr 18, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 5, 1914
Walsenburg, Colorado – Mother Jones Smuggles out Letter from Cold Cellar Cell

From the Chicago Day Book of April 3, 1914:

Letter from Mother Jones to Public, Cold Cellar Cell, Let Pancho Villa Know, Day Book Last p3, Apr 3, 1914

March 31, 1914-from the Cold Cellar Cell, Walsenburg, Colorado,
Letter to Friends of Mother Jones and to the Public Generally:

                                                                                            Military Bastile
Walsenburg, Colo.
.                                                                                           March 31, 1914
To My Friends and the Public Generally:
     I am being held a prisoner incommunicado in a damp, underground cell, in the basement of a military bullpen at Walsenburg, Colorado. Have been here since 5:30 a.m. of the 23rd of March, when I was taken from the train by armed soldiers as I was passing through Walsenburg. I have discovered what appears to be an opportunity to smuggle a letter out of prison, and shall attempt to get this communication by the armed guards which day and night surround me (me, a white-haired old woman eighty-two years of age).
     I want to say to the public that I am an American citizen. I have never broken a law in my life, and I claim the right of an American citizen to go where I please so long as I do not violate the law. The courts of Las Animas and Huerfano are open and unobstructed in the transaction of business, yet Governor Ammons and his Peabody appointee, General Chase, refuse to carry me before any court, and refuse to make any charge against me.
     I ask the press to let the nation know of my treatment, and to say to my friends, whom, thank God, I number by the thousands, throughout the United States and Mexico, that not even my incarceration in a damp, underground dungeon will make me give up the fight in which I am engaged for liberty and for the rights of the working people.
     Of course, I long to be out of prison. To be shut from the sunlight is not pleasant, but John Bunyan, John Brown and others were kept in Jail quite a while, and I shall stand firm. To be in prison is no disgrace. In all my strike experiences I have seen no horrors equal to those perpetrated by General Chase and his corps of Baldwin-Feltz detectives that are now enlisted in the militia.
     My God–when is it to stop? I have only to close my eyes to see the mourning of the broken hearts and the wailing of the funeral dirge, while the cringing politicians whose sworn duty is to protect the lives and liberty of the people crawl subserviently before the national burglars of Wall Street who are today plundering and devastating the State of Colorado economically, financially, politically and morally.
     Let the nation know, and especially let my friend General Francisco Villa know, that the great United States of America, which is demanding of him that he release the traitors he has placed under arrest, is now holding Mother Jones incommunicado in an under ground cell surrounded with sewer rats, tinhorn soldiers and other vermin.
Mother Jones
[As written, without correction; paragraph break added.]
Mother Jones is not forgotten in her cold cellar cell, the same damp cell which led to the death of striking miner Kostas Marcos. 

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Held in Cellar Cell “Surrounded with Sewer Rats, Tin-Horn Soldiers, and Other Vermin.””

Hellraisers Journal: General Pancho Villa to President Woodrow Wilson: Mother Jones, “Is Being Illegally Deprived of Her Liberty”

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Quote Mother Jones re Pancho Villa, Day Book p13, Jan 16, 1914—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 23, 1914
“General Villa’s Ultimatum to President Wilson”

From the Appeal to Reason of March 21, 1914:

Gen Villa to Prez Wilson re Mother Jones, AtR p1, Mar 21, 1914

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: General Pancho Villa to President Woodrow Wilson: Mother Jones, “Is Being Illegally Deprived of Her Liberty””

Hellraisers Journal: From the Denver United Labor Bulletin: “Mother Jones Deported From Prison by Chase’s Militia”

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Quote Mother Jones, Raise Hell in Jail, Gary IN Oct 23, NYT p2, Oct 24, 1919—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 22, 1914
Denver, Colorado – Mother Jones Arrives After Deportation from Trinidad

-Meets with John Lawson and Horace Hawkins

From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of March 21, 1914:

Mother Jones w Lawson at Denver, HdLn Deported fr Trinidad CO, ULB p1, Mar 21, 1914

“Mother” Jones and John R. Lawson.

Remarkable likeness of the 82-year-old Camp Angel, telling her story to John R. Lawson, Executive Board member U. M. W., Monday [March 16th] after arrival in Denver from Trinidad, where she was detained as military prisoner for 9 weeks.

From The Denver Post of March 16, 1914
-Statement of Mother Jones after Deportation from Trinidad:

Statement of Mother Jones in Denver af Deportation fr Trinidad, DP p4, Mar 16, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: Writ of Habeas Corpus Denied by Colorado District Court for “Dangerous Person,” Mother Jones

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Quote Mother Jones, Chase No Own State, RMN p3, Jan 12, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 9, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Writ of Habeas Corpus Denied for Mother Jones

From El Paso Herald of March 6, 1914:

MILITIA MAY HOLD WOMAN, COURT RULES
———-
Judge Denies Writ of Habeas Corpus
in the Case of “Mother” Jones.
———-

POWER OF MILITARY OFFICIALS UPHELD
———-

Cartoon Mother Jones Surrounded by Soldiers Trinidad, ISR p462, Feb 1914

Trinidad, Colo., March 6.-In a verbal decision rendered at the opening of the district court this morning, Judge A. W. McHendrie denied the writ of habeas corpus for “Mother” Mary Jones, the noted woman strike leader held under military guard at the San Rafael Hospital, and remanded the prisoner to the custody of the respondent in the action, Gen. John Chase, commander of the state militia in the strike zone.

The ruling of the court was brief. Immediately upon hearing the decision, attorney F. W. Clark, local counsel for the United Mine Workers, asked for and was granted 60 days to prepare a bill of exceptions to be submitted to the supreme court.

Like [Albert] Hill Case, Says Court.

The court held the case in all essential respects to be the same as the case instituted early in February for others who were held prisoners by the military authorities for alleged connection with the burning of the Southwestern mine tipple and postoffice.

The court in its ruling upheld the powers of the military authorities in arresting and detaining the petitioner under specific instructions form governor Ammons, who in his order to Gen. Chase, declared the woman to be a “dangerous person” and one likely to raise riot or disorder.

To Appeal Case.

But few people were in court when the opinion was rendered this morning. The attorneys for the petitioner will now submit the case on appeal to the supreme court, which a short time ago denied an original application.

[Drawing and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Wives of Strikers and Strike Sympathizers Invade Hotel of Gen. Chase, Demand Release of Mother Jones.

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Quote Mother Jones, Chase No Own State, RMN p3, Jan 12, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 17, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Chase: Mother Jones is “an Inciter of Violence and a Disturber”

From the Trinidad Chronicle News of January 15, 1914
-200 Women Invade Hotel, Demand Gen. Chase Release Mother Jones:

HdLn Women v Chase re Mother Jones, TCN p1, Jan 15, 1914

From The Day Book of January 16, 1914
-Mother Jones on Mexican “Bandits” and Colorado Soldiers:

Mother Jones re Mexican Bandits n CO Soldiers, Day Book p15, Jan 16, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Defies Chase, Returns to Trinidad, Arrested and Held as Military Prisoner at Local Hospital

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Quote Mother Jones, Chase No Own State, RMN p3, Jan 12, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 13, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Mother Jones Seized by State Militia, Held at San Rafael Hospital

From the Trinidad Chronicle News of January 12, 1914:

“Mother” Mary Jones, nationally known as a strike leader, is a military prisoner at the San Rafael hospital where she is being held incommunicado. The woman, who was deported from the strike zone Sunday, January 4, by the military authorities and warned not to return to the district under pain of immediate arrest, accepted the defi and returned this morning. She slipped quietly out of Denver at midnight on a C. & S. train.

That she expected arrest is indicated by her action in alighting at the D. & R. G. crossing this morning instead of waiting until the train reached the station. She walked to the Toltec hotel alone and took a room but did not register at once. The fact of her presence became known to the military authorities about eleven o’clock and a few moments later a military detail in command of Lieut. H. O. Nichols entered her room, placed her in an automobile and whirled her away to the hospital at full speed, with a swarm of cavalry men galloping behind the machine.

Apparently the only object of the aged strike leader had in returning to Trinidad was to see if the threat to arrest her would be carried out. It was. “Mother” Jones was apparently not surprised at the action but was loud in her denunciation of the “military despots who stab and spit upon constitutional rights.” She declares she has viloated no law and that she is willing to face any sort of a civil inquiry. “Why take me to a hospital?” she shouted at Lieut. Nichols , when arrested. “I am not sick! Why not take me to jail?” The prisoner made it clear that she was even more willing to be placed in a cell “for the sake of the cause.”

[…..]

[Paragraph break and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: El Paso-Mother Jones Praises Pancho Villa and the Rebels, Wishes We Had Men Like That in This Country

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Quote Mother Jones re Pancho Villa, Day Book p13, Jan 16, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 4, 1914
El Paso, Texas – Mother Speaks, Praises Pancho Villa and the Rebels

From El Paso Herald of January 3, 1914:

Mother Jones Speaks in El Paso, El P Hld p6, Jan 3, 1914

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Abandons Her Neutrality; Says Kaiser Should Be “Kicked Off His Throne”

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Why should the workingmen fight for
the robbers of Wall street?
Let them fight their own battles.
-Mother Jones

That old blood sucker,
the kaiser, ought to
be kicked off his throne.
-Mother Jones

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 4, 1917
Des Moines, Iowa – Mother Jones Speaks Out on European War

WWI Dead All On Our Side, Ryan Walker, Nw Wkr, Mar 22, 1917

Overnight, perhaps reacting to the War Resolution now before Congress upon the request of President Wilson for same, Mother reversed her stand regarding American involvement in the terrible slaughter now taking place between the waring nations of Europe. In an interview reported by the April 2nd edition of The Des Moines Register, Mother declared:

I hate war. We must not throw our American workingmen into olive drab uniforms, stick guns in their hands, and ship them over to France to be fresh slaughter for the cannons of the devilish kings of Europe.

If John D Rockefeller, Morgan, the Guggenheims, or Wall street wants to see Germany defeated, let them go over and fight in the allies’ trenches. Why should the workingmen fight for the robbers of Wall street? Let them fight their own battles, says I!

The next day, the Register reported that Mother had “abandoned her neutrality:”

That old blood sucker, the kaiser, ought to be kicked off his throne, and if he ever starts anything with this country we will lick hell out of him if I have to raise a regiment of 10,000 women myself.

Thus “Mother” Jones, firebrand speaker, abandoned her neutrality in a speech that held spellbound the miners of the thirteenth district, U. M. W. A., who were celebrating the nineteenth anniversary of the securing of the eight-hour day for miners at the Coliseum yesterday afternoon.

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Hellraisers Journal: George P West Reports on Meeting Between American and Mexican Labor Leaders, Part II

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Since we arrived here we have learned
that the American people do not want war,
and especially the working people.
-Carlos Lovera

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday August 16, 1916
From The Masses: Robert Minor on Mexico and American Politics

Masses, Dems Rpbs Hang Mexico, Robert Minor, Aug 1916
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: George P West Reports on Meeting Between American and Mexican Labor Leaders, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: George P West Reports on Meeting Between American and Mexican Labor Leaders, Part I

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Since we arrived here we have learned
that the American people do not want war,
and especially the working people.
-Carlos Lovera

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 15, 1916
From The Masses: Robert Minor on Class War in Pittsburgh

Masses, Pittsburgh, Robert Minor, Aug 1916
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: George P West Reports on Meeting Between American and Mexican Labor Leaders, Part I”