You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Thursday October 1, 1903
Victor, Colorado - Work Force of the Victor Daily Record Released from Bullpen
We left Mrs. Emma F. Langdon yesterday hard at work in the office of the Record, having had no sleep the night before, and with the newspaper's work force held captive in the military's bullpen. Mrs. Langdon continued working throughout the day until 2 o'clock this morning when the men of the Victor Daily Record were released.
The men have given a harrowing account of their time in captivity. They were held Tuesday night in a cold tent without blankets. Yesterday morning they were taken to a breakfast which they found to be inedible. They were taken back to the cold tent, and soon a Gatling gun was brought over and aimed straight at the tent. Thus, they spent most of the day.
Eventually, their lawyer managed to have them turned over to the Teller County Sheriff. They were then able to learn that they were being charge with libel. It seems that an article in the Record naming two employees of the mine owners as ex-convicts was partially incorrect. Only one of those named, a Mr. Vannick, is actually an ex-convict. Mr. Scanlon has not, thus far, ever been incarcerated. This error, however, does not rise to the level of criminal libel, and furthermore,the Record was not given the opportunity to correct the error. The error was simply used by the military, in the service of the mine owners, as an excuse to suppress the Record.
The Victor Daily Record appeared as usual this morning thanks to the untiring efforts of Mrs. Emma F. Langdon. Her heroic efforts in the interest of free speech are being recognized across the nation. Messages of congratulations are flooding into the office of the Victor Daily Record, the official voice of the Western Federation of Miners in the strike zone.
SOURCE
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969
Note: the entire text of Langdon's account of these events can be read here:
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Wednesday October 1, 1913
Southern Coalfields, Colorado - Coal Official Renews Story of Mother Jones as Madame
Lamont Bowers, Vice President of Rockefeller's Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, is radically anti-union. He is also no fan of Mother Jones. Bowers has recently been renewing the old charge that Mother is a former madame who kept various brothels around the country back in the days before she became known as "The Miners' Angel."
These old worn-out charges stem from a 1903 article published in the infamous scandal sheet, the Polly Pry. The story came from an "investigation" conducted by the Denver office of the Pinkertons, then under the direction of one James McParland. This Pinkerton is well-known to Labor as the man who engineered the hanging of the Pennsylvania miners, the so-called Molly Maguires. His efforts to frame and hang Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone in 1906 and '07, using the same methods, were less successful.
The truth of the matter is that Mother did, at one time, sew for a young woman of the streets. When this unfortunate woman later died of tuberculosis, the Catholic Church refused to bury her. Mother was outrage by this, and wrote a letter to the newspaper to protest this lack of compassion on the part of the Church. When the Pinkertons got hold of this story, they changed Mother's role from seamstress to Madame, and a scandal was born and spread by the Polly Pry.
Mother Jones has long taken her stand with the poor and despised of this land. Much like a certain Carpenter whom the Capitalist claim to hold in such high regard.
STRONG
Mother Jones
The Most Dangerous Woman in America
-by Elliott J Gorn
NY, 2001
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Note: Late and condensed due to internet problems. For once, not the fault of my poor old computer, but due to local area problem which lasted for several hours. Did not forget the song! Will add one soon!
"To sing and to fight is our life." -Arturo M. Giovannitti
Just As I Am-Willie Nelson
Just as I am, thy love unknown
hath broken every barrier down;
now, to be thine, yea thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Please note that I am not trying to push any particular religion on anyone. But the compassionate side of Christianity was often a theme of Mother Jones.