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, Monday August 5, 1918
Duluth, Minnesota – Workingmen Demand Freedom for Mooney
Labor mass meetings, demanding justice for Tom Mooney, were held across the nation on Sunday July 28th. The labor unions of Duluth, Minnesota, joined the nationwide protests, listened to speeches, and passed resolutions.
From The Labor World of August 3, 1918:
DULUTH WORKINGMEN ASK
“TOM” MOONEY’S FREEDOM
—–
Declare Condemned Man Was Convicted
on Perjured Evidence and Demand
He Be Granted New Trial Without Delay.
—–
Rena and Tom Mooney
Duluth workingmen, at a largely attended meeting held at Owls’ hall last Sunday evening [July 28th], joined in the nation-wide protest against the proposed legal murder of Thomas J. Mooney at San Francisco. A. G. Catlin of Duluth Typographical union served as chairman and speeches were made by W. E. Towne of Duluth and Arthur Le Sueur of St. Paul.
Mr. Towne reviewed the history of the Mooney case, pointing out that all other persons charged with being participants in the alleged conspiracy had been acquitted by juries, including Mrs. Mooney, wife of the condemned man. He revealed the fact that since Mooney was tried it has been conclusively proven and admitted by the attorney general of the state that two of the witnesses against him were self-confessed perjurers and had been so found in other cases where they seemed to have served as professional witnesses.
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
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.”
There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 10, 1918
From San Francisco to Petrograd, Workers Fight for Life of Tom Mooney
From The Liberator of March 1918:
The Peril of Tom Mooney
By Robert Minor
THE story of the manner in which Tom Mooney’s death sentence was procured is stock conversation in American working-class homes. It has gone as far as the trenches of the European armies. There is hardly a Russian village where the name of “Tom Muni” has not been heard. Actually, the names of the witnesses in the case are spoken in Siberian villages, and a certain California district attorney is regularly cursed around the samovar.
The only evidence against Tom Mooney that a sensible man would listen to, was that of an Oregon cattleman, Frank C. Oxman, who came into the trial at the last moment, took the stand like a breeze from the prairie, swore that he was a country gentleman, loved his wife, and had seen Israel Weinberg drive Tom Mooney, Mrs. Mooney, Billings and an unidentified man to the scene of the crime in Israel Weinberg’s jitney bus, of the number of which car he had made a note on a telegraph envelope which he had in his pocket at that moment. He never made a mistake in his life in the identity of a person, as he was used to identifying cattle on the range….Mooney was condemned to die on the gallows.
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday February 26, 1918
Mother Jones News for January 1918: Gives Speech at Miners’ Convention
On January 17th of this year, Mother Jones was found speaking in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the Convention of the United Mine Workers of America. She voice her support for President Wilson and for the war effort, declaring:
We must lick the Kaiser.
She also spoke regarding the ongoing attempt to organize West Virginia:
There is a system of industrial feudalism in the State of West Virginia but before another year ends the backbone of that damnable system will be broken and men will rise beneath those stars and stripes as they should rise, free, for the first time. We propose to put the infamous gunmen there out of business. We will make them find other occupations. You are robbed and plundered to pay these gunmen that are hired to keep you in industrial slavery. If it takes every man of the 500,000 miners in this country to march into West Virginia we propose to drive out that feudal system that survives there. It is an outrage and an insult to that flag. They may as well prepare for business, for we are going to do it. The president of the Winding Gulf gang said in Washington, “Don’t you know that Mother Jones swears?” I was asked, “Do you swear, Mother Jones?” I said, “You don’t think I’m hypocrite enough to pray when I’m talking to those thieves!”
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.
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.
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
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.
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 9, 1917
Maryland Boss Has Heartache for Loss of Child Cannery Workers
From the Appeal to Reason of October 6, 1917:
“SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN–.”
—–
W. E. Robinson, a Belair, Md., canner, is heartbroken because the Keating-Owen child labor law has forced him to employ men and women instead of the little children who formerly did the work in his factory. In a recent letter to a local newspaper he says:
Since the first of September [when the Keating-Owen Law became effective] I have not permitted these boys and girls to work in my factory. They are healthful, industrious youngsters, and the work they have been doing was very beneficial to them, mentally and physically. But my heart aches for them now. Their parents are all at work in the factory. Where are these husky boys and girls; what are they doing?
These unfortunate youngsters, bereft of their beloved jobs, exiled from the kindly shelter of Robinson’s cannery, their plight is indeed pitiful. Deprived of the life-giving labor, which was so “very beneficial to them, mentally and physically” doubtless their muscular little bodies are wasting away, and the once eager young minds have crumbled into mental and moral ruin.
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