You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Tuesday January 5, 1904
From The Indianapolis News: "Miners' Officers Consider Strikes"
At the meeting, to-day, between the national executive board of the United Mine Workers and President John Mitchell, Vice-President T. L. Lewis and Secretary W. E. Lewis, at the headquarters in the Stevenson building, it was decided that the national organization should support the miners of the Meyersdale (Pa.) region in their refusal to accept a cut of 10 cents a ton in their wages. Just what form this support will take will be decided later, and will probably be left in the hands of the national officers to take whatever action they see fit.
Mark M. Smith, the member of the national executive board from Meyersdale, said that there was no prospect of a settlement, as both the miners and operators were remaining firm. He said that a little more than a week ago four families were evicted from their homes in the Meyersdale region because the heads of the families had refused to work for the 10 cents reduction. It was bitterly cold when they were evicted and there was a severe snowstorm, but they were taken in and cared for by the families of other miners. The houses from which they were evicted were the property of the Somerset Coal Company, and it is possible that other evictions will follow...
The
News further reported that the Miners' Executive Board also discussed the strikes in Colorado and West Virginia as well completing arrangements for the upcoming national convention of the United Mine Workers of America which will begin January 18. The Convention will be held in Tomlinson Hall in Indianapolis, and will last three weeks.
SOURCE
The Indianapolis News
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-of Jan 4, 1904
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Monday January 5, 1914
From The New York Times: "Colorado Troops Oust Mother Jones"
John Lawson, Mother Jones, Attorney Horace Hawkins
Woman Strike Agitator Deported from Trinidad Under Guard of Soldiers
WARNED NEVER TO RETURN
One Thousand Taxpayers Meet and Warn Other Agitators to Get Out in
Twenty-for Hours.
Trinidad, Col., Jan. 4-"Mother" Jones was seized by the militia upon her arrival at Trinidad this morning from El Paso, taken from a Santa Fe train, held for two hours and deported from the strike district.
Capt. E. A. Smith, acting under orders from Gen. John Chase, met the train with a detachment of soldiers. The troops prevented a demonstration from the strikers at the station.
Mother Jones was held under surveillance until a Colorado & Southern train arrived from Denver. Then she was place aboard the train under guard of a lieutenant and four soldiers, and ordered never to return to the district. She had planned to spend several days among the coal strikers, and was to make a speech to-day at Walsenburg. The train on which she was being held under guard passed through Walsenburg.
Gen. Chase had been notified that she was on the way to Trinidad and acted so quietly that none of the strikers knew of his plans to deport her. When the soldiers took her in charge, she said:"I never had believed you would go this far."
Contrary to her usual custom, she did not make any protest. While she was being held here she was not permitted to talk to any of the strikers or union leaders, the soldiers refusing to allow John McLennon, head of the mine workers, to speak to her.
At Walsenburg the train stopped for only a few minutes. Thousands of strikers, having been apprised by telephone of Mother Jones's deportation, were at the station, but none was allowed to approach near enough to speak to her. However, she tried to make a speech.
The train pulled out just as she was assuring the miners that she would return to Colorado "as soon as it becomes a part of the United States."
Denver Col., Jan. 4-"The deportation of Mother Jones was the most disgraceful act ever perpetrated by supposed police officers in the Union," said John McLennon, President of the Colorado State Federation of Labor tonight.
"I'll go back; they can't keep me from my boys," said Mother Jones on her arrival here to-night from Trinidad. "I am not afraid of all the troops in the State."
"Gov. Ammons said: " I do not care to express an opinion regarding the deportation of Mother Jones, because I am not fully aware of the circumstances, but I would not hesitate to express an opinion if the person concerned were a resident of Trinidad."
After the deportation, Gen. Chase gave out this statement:
"Mrs. Jones was met at the train this morning by the military escort acting under instructions not to permit her to remain in this district. The detail took charge of Mrs. Jones and her baggage and she was accompanied out of the district under guard after she had been given breakfast. The step was taken in accordance with my instructions to preserve peace in the district.The presence of Mother Jones here at this time cannot be tolerated. She had planned to go to the Ludlow tent colony of strikers to stop the desertion of union members.
"If she returns she will be placed in jail and held incommunicado."
Company G. First Infantry, Colorado National Guard, to-night was ordered to leave here tomorrow morning for Oak Creek to take charge of the strike situation in that district. In issuing the order Gen. Chase said that seventy-five men would leave on a special train.
[emphasis added]
SOURCE
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-of Jan 5, 1914
Colorado Troops Oust MJ
http://select.nytimes.com/...
John McLennon on Deportaion of MJ
http://select.nytimes.com/...
Photo: Mother Jones with John Lawson & Attorney Hawkins
http://ludlowsymposium.wordpress.com/...
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Sunday January 5, 2014
More on Mother Jones in El Paso and Mexico:
The 1914 news account above reports that Mother Jones was returning from El Paso when she arrived at Trinidad and was then deported. According to most biographies (Atkinson, Fetherling, and Gorn), she had been sent to El Paso to try stop the flow of scabs from that city. While there, she crossed over the border and met with Pancho Villa. According to Gorn:
From Denver, [after the Convention of the Colorado Federation of Labor] Mother Jones went to El Paso, Texas, for two weeks in an effort to stop state troops from escorting Mexican strikebreakers into Colorado. She also went to Juárez to meet with the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, who pledged to help stop the flow of strikebreakers across the border.
SOURCE
Mother Jones
The Most Dangerous Woman in America
-by Elliott J Gorn
NY, 2001
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
There Is Power In A Union-Billy Bragg
Now I long for the morning that they realize
Brutality and unjust laws can not defeat us
But who'll defend the workers, who cannot organize
When the bosses send their lackeys out to cheat us?
-Billy Bragg