You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Wednesday February 17, 1904
From The Anaconda Standard: Unions of Helena Support Striking Miners of Colorado
HELENA UNIONS ARE IN LINE
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Enthusiastic News in Regard to the Preparations for the Colorado Miners' Benefit.
Word was received at labor headquarters in Butte yesterday that the unions of Helena have taken enthusiastic hold of the benefit entertainment for the Colorado miners to be given there March 9 by Daniel E. Bandmann and company, who are to tour the state in the good cause in "The Merchant of Venice." A committee on arrangements was appointed by Helena Trades assembly Sunday night, with Matthew Staff as chairman. Already advertising matter and tickets have been sent on from the Butte office. It is reported that Herr Bandmann will reach Butte this morning from Missoula to complete the cast of his company. He will meet with Dick Sutton and others who have offered their services in the project a 9 o'clock this morning.
SOURCE
The Anaconda Standard
(Anaconda, Montana)
-of Feb 17, 1904
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Tuesday February 17, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado - Governor Fears Riot If Mother Jones Escorted to Investigation
John Lawson, Mother Jones, Attorney Horace Hawkins
During yesterday's afternoon session of the Congressional Investigation into the conditions of the coal mines of Colorado, this exchange took place regarding the military's fear of a riot should Mother Jones be escorted through the streets of Trinidad in order to give testimony before the committee:
Mr. John R. Lawson: If the committee will pardon me, I would like to say just a word about producing Mother Jones before this committee. I desire to say that in producing Mother Jones before this committee in this opera house or in any other place in Trinidad — that it will be the best evidence to this committee whether or not there is insurrection or riot in Trinidad — as Maj. Boughton has just stated. I want to say, Mr. Chairman, that in my judgment — and I speak as the officer in charge of the coal strike in the State of Colorado, representing the international union of the United Mine Workers of America — in my judgment there will not be any riot. There will not be any disorderly demonstration, and I want to say to you that I am willing to assume the full responsibility for any such riot if Mother Jones is produced in this opera house.
(At the conclusion of Mr. Lawson's remarks there was applause from the audience.)
Maj. Boughton. Our whole point is that that responsibility rests upon the governor alone, and not upon Mr. Lawson and not upon your honorable selves.
Chairman Foster. I would like to admonish the audience that we would appreciate it if you can restrain your ideas of cheering; that we would be very glad to have you do so. We are here to get some facts in reference to this matter, and of course we want the public to hear it and we want them to hear every word of it — every word that goes into the testimony on the matter, but of course if these demonstrations are to occur we would have to make different arrangements. So we would like to ask you to kindly desist from any demonstrations whatever.
The reporter for the
El Paso Paso Herald witnessed the hearings this morning and provided the following account:
During the morning session the committee received a telegram from governor Ammons in reply to a message from chairman Foster, which requested the presence of "Mother" Mary Jones. The governor said that he would not refuse to produce "Mother" Jones, but that he would prefer to have her examined in Denver or in San Rafael hospital. The telegram explained that a letter would follow.
The committee decided to await the receipt of the letter before deciding upon any further action.
Ammons Fears Trouble.
Governor E. M. Ammons indicated his fear of serious trouble if "Mother" Jones should be taken through the streets of Trinidad from her prison in the hospital to the hall where the sessions of the committee are being held.
While governor Ammons hesitated to make public the contents of the letter before it reached the committee, it was understood that the text elaborated on the matters contained in his telegram, and told at length the reasons for her captivity, and the cause of his anxiety lest her unrestrained presence in the city of Trinidad might influence the strikers to riot.
SOURCES
Conditions in the Coal Mines of Colorado: Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on mines and mining, Hous of Representatives, Sixty-third Congress, second session, pursuant to H. res. 387, a resolution authorizing and directing the Committee on Mines and Mining to make an investigation of conditions in the coal mines of Colorado
-United States. Congress. House. Committee on Mines and Mining
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1914
Vol. 1, p.1-1477
http://books.google.com/...
-page 640, page number is for actual report, not for scroll bar
El Paso Herald
(El Paso, Texas)
-of Feb 17, 1914
Photo: Mother Jones with Lawson and Hawkins
http://ludlowsymposium.wordpress.com/...
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Monday February 17, 2014
In her Autobiography, Mother Jones described her capitivity in Trinidad by the militia:
We drove to the prison first, passing cavalry and infantry and gunmen, sent by the state to subdue the miners. Orders were given to drive me to the Sisters' Hospital, a portion of which had been turned into a military prison. They put me in a small room with white plastered walls, with a cot, a chair and a table, and for nine weeks I stayed in that one room, seeing no human beings but the silent military. One stood on either side of the cell door, two stood across the hall, one at the entrance to the hall, two at the elevator entrance on my floor, two on the ground floor elevator entrance.
Outside my window a guard walked up and down, up and down day and night, day and night, his bayonet flashing in the sun.
"Lads," said I to the two silent chaps at the door, "the great Standard Oil is certainly afraid of an old woman!"
They grinned.
My meals were sent to me by the sisters. They were not, of course, luxurious. In all those nine weeks I saw no one, received not a letter, a paper, a postal card. I saw only landscape and the bayonet flashing in the sun.
Finally, Mr. Hawkins, the attorney for the miners, was allowed to visit me.
The Autobiography of Mother Jones
-ed by Mary Field Parton
Charles H Kerr & Co, 1925
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/...
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Ready for the Storm-Kathy Mattea
But I am ready for the storm
Yes Sir, ready
I am ready for the storm
-Dougie MacLean