You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Thursday June 1, 1905
From the Montana News: "Dates for Tour of Mother Jones Rapidly Being Filled"
The
Montana News, Socialist Party organ for the state of Montana, is announcing that the schedule for the upcoming speaking tour of Mother Jones in that state is rapidly filling up.
From the Montana News of May 24th:
SOCIALIST NEWS FROM STATE HEADQUARTERS.
Dates for Mother Jones are rapidly being filled; any local wishing a date, and have not applied for same, had better do so at once if they do not wish to be disappointed.
From the
Montana News of May 31st:
SOCIALIST NEWS FROM STATE HEADQUARTERS.
Dates for Mother Jones are as follows; Red Lodge May 30, Billings May 31, Livingston June1, Fridley June 2, Aldridge June 3, Chestnut June 5, Bozeman June 6, Butte June 7 other dates will be announced later.
Exactly when she plans to arrive in Montana, we do not know, but on May 29th, we do know that Mother was in Wyoming for she sent this greeting to the Western Federations of Miners, now in convention in Salt Lake City:
Dietz, Wyoming,
May 29, 1905
Convention Hall, Salt Lake
To the brave officers and miners in convention, greeting. May your deliberations awaken the slumbering giant from his long dream of ages.
Mother Jones
From The Salt Lake Tribune of June 1, 1905:
MINERS FAVOR A NEW MOVE
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Surprise Manifested at the Vote.
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Federation Is Committed
to Industrial Union Movement.
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Vote on the Crucial Resolution
Was Not Unanimous by Any Means.
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By far the most important action that is likely to be taken by the Western Federation of Miners at its national convention was the adoption of a resolution yesterday committing the federation to the industrial union movement. From the beginning there has been no serious question that the movement would be indorsed. It has only been a question of the majority. The showing of opposition was something of a surprise to those who have believed the federation to be practically unanimous.
Vote a Surprise.
The vote on the crucial resolution was 175 1/2 for and 49 1/2 against. But the "nay" vote will give more comfort to the defenders of old-fashioned craft unionism than it should. It did not, in a great many instances, signify opposition to the principle of industrial unionism, but merely indicated that the delegate voting objected to some technical feature of the manifesto calling for a meeting in Chicago June 7 [27], of the wording of the resolution.
Message From Mother Jones.
At the opening of the morning session, the following message was read from "Mother" Jones, the woman agitator and organizer, who visited Utah during the coal strike:
Deitz, Wyo., May 29, 1905.-Convention Hall, Salt Lake: To the brave officers and miners in convention, greeting. May your deliberations awaken the slumbering giant from his long dream of ages. Mother Jones.
Was Heartily Cheered.
This communication was heartily cheered, but not more heartily than a message from Denver to the effect that the meeting held in the Coliseum by President Gompers of the American Federation of Labor was a frost, with only about 500 persons in attendance. This item of news was hailed as a straw showing the times to be ripe for the industrial organization plan.
Voted on Section by Section.
The industrial union resolution was voted on section by section. Section 2 was amended to read:
Five delegates be elected from the floor, and they are hereby appointed as delegates to represent the W. F. M. in convention to be held in Chicago, June 27, 1905, for the purpose of forming the said industrial economic organization. That they be authorized to unite the W. F. M. as an integral part of the proposed industrial union in the industrial department, to which it logically belongs in the general plan of organization.
[...]
This resolution was adopted in reply to certain charges that have been made against the Miners' union from American Federation sources:
Replies to Charges.
Wereas, It has been persistently rumored by the enemies of the Western Federation of Miners that this organization makes a practice of ignoring the union labor products of unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, and
Whereas, It is a well-known fact that no other organization on the American continent makes a more vigorous and determined demand for the union label than the Western Federation of Miners and that many Eastern factories and unions composed of their employees owe their existence to this demand created by our members in the Rocky mountain and Pacific coast States, therefore be it
Resolved, That we denounce the above-mentioned rumors as false and untrue in every particular, and be it further
Resolved, That the thirteenth annual convention hereby renews its pledge for the future to all members of organized labor, regardless of national affiliation, the same continuous and insistent demand for union label products on the part of the members of the Western Federation of Miners that they have shown in the past.
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[Photographs added.]
More from The Salt Lake Tribune:
Boom Haywood for Head New Organization
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He Will Be Urged for President
of Industrial Union Soon to Be Launched.
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In the judgment of the delegates to the national convention of the Western Federation of Miners W. D. Haywood is the right man to pit against Samuel Gompers in the struggle for supremacy in the labor world. Quite a boom has been started for Mr. Haywood as president of the Industrial union organization that is to be launched in Chicago June 27. His friends point to his record as a leader of the miners in their struggle with the Mine Owners' association in Colorado and insist that no better head can be found for the new national body.
What Haywood Says.
"You may say that I am not a candidate," remarked Mr. Haywood last night. "This is not a movement for the purpose of making places for office seekers."
"Will you say that you would not accept the presidency of the new organization?"
"Just say that I am not a candidate. I can't tell now how things will shape up, and so I prefer not to say any more."
"Have you any choice as to the presidency of the Industrial union."
"No. I have not. It is too early to talk about officers now. The first work we have on hand is to get the movement organized."
Debs Is a Candidate.
In addition to Mr. Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, the organizer of the American Railway union and twice the Socialist candidate for President of the United States, and Dan McDonald, president of the American Labor union, are spoken of as possible selections for the presidency of the new labor body.
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[Photographs added.]
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
Montana News
(Helena, Montana)
-May 24, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
-May 31, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The Salt Lake Tribune
(Salt Lake City, Utah)
-June 1, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Socialist Party of America Button
http://www.marxists.org/...
WFM Seal, 1912 Convention Proceedings
https://books.google.com/...
Mother Jones, Appeal to Reason, Mar 11, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Big Bill Haywood, 1904
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
Debs for President,
Appeal to Reason, Oct 29, 1904
http://www.newspapers.com/...
See also:
DK search: Utah + quarantine + JayRaye
for more on Mother Jones in Utah
during coal strike mentioned above.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
The American Federationist, Volume 12, Issue 1
American Federation of Labor, 1905
https://books.google.com/...
AF of June 1905
https://books.google.com/...
Note: The link at "President Gompers" above leads to a speech given while
Gompers was in Denver in May of 1905. I could find no news coverage of a
speech given by Gompers at the Coliseum in Denver. With the approach of the Chicago
Convention of Industrial Unionist, Gompers became increasing shrill in his denunciation
of those planning to take part in founding the new industrial organization, as can be
found in the June 1905 edition of the American Federationist.
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One Big Industrial Union - May Day Chorus of Asheville
PAINT 'ER RED!
Come with us you workingmen and join the rebel band
Come you discontented ones and lend a helping hand
We march against the parasite to drive him from the land
With One Big Industrial Union
Chorus:
Hurrah! hurrah! we're gonna paint 'er red!
Hurrah! hurrah! The way is clear ahead!
We're gaining shop democracy and liberty and bread
With One Big Industrial Union.
In factory and field and mine we gather in our might
We're on the job and know the way to win our hardest fight
For the beacon that shall guide us out of darkness into light
Is One Big Industrial Union.
Come on you fellows, get in line, we'll fill the boss with fears
Red's the colour of our flag, it's stained with blood and tears,
We'll flout it in his ugly mug and raise our loudest cheers
For One Big Industrial Union.
"Slaves", they call us, "working plugs", inferior by birth
But when we hit their pocketbooks, we'll spoil their smiles of mirth
We'll stop their dirty dividends and drive them from the earth
With One Big Industrial Union.
We hate their rotten system more than any mortals do
Our aim is not to patch it up but build it all anew
And what we'll have for government when finally we're through
Is One Big Industrial Union.
-Ralph Chaplin/Elmer Rumbaugh
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