Little children roasted alive make a front page story.
Dying by inches of starvation and exposure does not.
-Mother Jones
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Sunday November 22, 1914
From the New York Tribune: Mother Jones Calls Notice to Suffering in Colorado
Today's edition of the New York Tribune carries an interview with Mother Jones, recently returned from a visit to the strike zone of southern Colorado. Mother Jones states:
My chief purpose in coming East...has been to call notice to the suffering wives and starving children of the Colorado strikers and to remind the citizens that the strike has not yet been settled.
The New York Tribune, November 22, 1914:
"MOTHER JONES" SEEKS MINE PEACE
----------
Visits Tribune in Mission
to End Coal Strike in Colorado.
----------
DOES 70,000 MILES IN TEN MONTHS
----------
Declares Operators Will Never Listen to Reason
and Must Be Made to Do So.
Proudly boasting she is champion octogenarian traveller in the United States, "Mother " Jones, leader of the striking miners, visited the Tribune office last night immediately before leaving for Philadelphia. Since January 1 "Mother" Jones has covered more than 70,000 miles, in spite of the fact that for a goodly part of the time she was detained as a prisoner in Colorado.
Two weeks ago she arrived in Washington from Colorado, and was granted an audience with President Wilson in regard to the situation in the Colorado coal fields. Since then she has journeyed to Colorado and back East again. To-night she will leave Philadelphia for Trinidad, Col., the centre of the strike zone.
"Mother" Jones is a sweet faced, motherly looking old lady, with sparse, snow-white locks. There is nothing in her appearance to suggest that she is a fire-eater or agitator. She is somewhat under medium height and rather stout, and wears a widow's bonnet and a gown of rusty black.
[She said:]
In spite of the work of the mediation commission appointed by the Department of Commerce and Labor at Washington last April...conditions remain unchanged in Colorado. Under the protection of the federal troops non-union labor has been imported, but as soon as the regulars are withdrawn there is likely to be trouble.
The mine operators, headed by the Rockefeller interests, have refused to consider the terms of settlement suggested by President Wilson. The abolition of the company stores, the correction of the short weight scales, the abandonment of assessments on the miners for the maintenance of schools on company property and the discontinuance of company saloons-none of these reforms will be considered by the employers.
It is significant that the men engaged in the present strike were originally imported as strike breakers themselves ten years ago. Conditions became so intolerable that they were forced to unite in an effort to secure justice.
The strikers are still living in tent colonies, and with the approach of winter the condition of their families becomes as pitiable as that of the refugees in poor, stricken Belgium. Meanwhile the regular troops are saving to the companies the cost of hired guards an economy of some $2,000 a day.
The state has arranged for the expenditure of $1,000,000 for the rehabilitation of its militia, which will take the place of the regular troops when the latter are withdrawn. If the personnel of men and officers in the militia is the same as last spring, however, we can expect to see re-enacted the same brutal crimes as were perpetrated then.
The truth of the matter is that the coal operators own the courts and civil officers of Colorado, as well as the Governor and the Legislature. My experience is typical.
"Mother" Jones said the European war had aided the mine operators by distracting the attention of the public from the situation in Colorado.
[She said:}
My chief purpose in coming East...has been to call notice to the suffering wives and starving children of the Colorado strikers and to remind the citizens that the strike has not yet been settled. Public opinion can end it and should end it. These mine magnates should be forcibly brought to time. John D. Rockefeller should be made to feel the lash of popular indignation.
[emphasis and photograph added]
In the November 20th edition of Hellraisers we reported on a visit made by a delegation of officials from the United Mine Workers to Washington, D. C., where they were granted an interview with President Wilson. We are now pleased to provide more details of this historic meeting between the President and Officers White, Hayes, and Greene. Accompanying these officers from the A. F. of L. convention in Philadelphia to the meeting in Washington, D. C., where John Lawson and Mother Jones. It appears from the photograph below that James Lord was also present in the Washington at the time.
From Philadelphia's Evening Ledger, November 19, 1914:
UNION MINERS ASK PRESIDENT
TO END COLORADO STRIKE
----------
Delegation Visits Mr. Wilson and Suggests
Federal Receivership Unless Peace Is Restored.
----------
Mine Workers Officials at White House with Secretary of Labor
F. J. Hayes, James Lord, Secretary William B Wilson, J. P. White, William Greene, J. R. Lawson
Officials of the United Mine Workers of America attending the convention of the American Federation of Labor, went to Washington today, where they will see President Wilson and present to him the resolution adopted by the convention calling upon the President to compel John D. Rockefeller and the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company to make peace with the striking miners in Colorado, or else submit to a Federal receivership of the mines.
President Wilson was requested to take physical possession of the Colorado coal mines and operate them "on behalf of the American People." President White told the President of conditions in Colorado and declared it to be his opinion that only a federal receivership would solve the problem. The President was told that, while the miners complied with the order of the troop commander to turn over their arms, the mining companies still retained rifles and ammunition with which to arm strikebreakers or mine guards.
President Wilson reached no new decision. This was announced following the conference.
[Said Secretary of Labor,
William B. Wilson:]
The mine worker's side of the strike, with the resolutions asking the President to take over the Colorado mines, was laid before the President...He will decide for himself in regard to withdrawal of Federal troops, and on all other remedies proposed for ending the big strike. The matter is still open.
Those who went to Washington are John P. White, president of the United Mine Workers; Frank J. Hayes, vice-president; William Green, secretary-treasurer; John R. Lawson, executive board member, and "Mother" Jones.
The delegation is expected to return to the convention today and report the reply of the President....
----------
[paragraph break and photograph added]
SOURCES
New York Tribune
(New York, New York)
-Nov 22, 1914
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Mother Jones Speaks
-ed by Philip S Foner
NY, 1983
Evening Ledger
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
-Nov 19, 1914
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
See also:
"Hellraisers Journal: A. F. of L. Raises Wages of Gompers
to $7,500 & Morrison to $5,000 Per Year" by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
IMAGES
Mother Jones at White House, Late October or November 1914*
http://www.loc.gov/...
United Mine Workers Officials at White House, November 1914
http://www.loc.gov/...
*Note: I am now reasonably certain that the photo of Mother Jones was taken either in late October or about November 19, 1914, and that the photo of the UMW officers with William B Wilson was taken on or about November 19, 1914.
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Fire In The Hole - Hazel Dickens
Daddy died a miner, Grandpa he did too,
I'll bet this coal will kill me 'fore my workin' days is through.
In a hole that's dark and dirty, an early grave can find;
I plan to make a union for the ones I leave behind.
-Hazel Dickens
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````