You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Friday April 15, 1904
From The Topeka Daily Capital: General Bell Plots to Break Miners' Strike
W. F. of M. Union Hall in Victor, Colorado
HAVE ENOUGH OF STRIKE
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General Sherman Bell Understands Colorado Miners Will Return to Work.
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Trinidad, Colo., April 14.-Arrangements were made today, with the approval of Major Jeph T. Hill, commander of the National guard on duty here, for the removal of Camp Howells, the coal mine strikers' colony in Packers' grove along the river bottoms to the Beshoar addition one mile from the center of this city.
Major Hill warned the strikers that they must keep the camp in an absolutely sanitary condition.
Telluride, Colo., April 14.-Adjutant General Sherman M. Bell who is enforcing martial law in San Miguel county expressed the opinion today that the convention for the Western Federation of Miners which is to be held at Butte, Mont., next month will call off the strike here or give the miners authority to do so.
"I am reliably informed," said the general, "that at the next convention the power vested in the executive board by the last convention to call strikes will be annulled, and that in the future no strikes can be ordered except by referendum vote of the members."
The belief is quite general here that the military authorities propose to hold President Moyer here until after the Butte meeting and reduce his chance of re-election to the minimum.
Stuart B. Forbes, secretary-treasurer of the Telluride Miners' union accompanied by his wife and son, left this morning for Denver, where Mr. Forbes will make personal report to Secretary-Treasurer Haywood of the condition now existing in this district. It is reported that Forbes does not intend to return to Telluride, and that he will go to England.
General Bell, it is understood, agreed to give Forbes his liberty if Mrs. Fores would induce him to leave the district permanently.
Perhaps, if the reporter had bothered to interview any of the striking miners, whether from the Telluride or the Cripple Creek strike zones, who have been bullpened, frozen, half-starved, beaten, and deported, then he might better understand that President Moyer will be re-elected and the strikes will be continued regardless of whatever General Bell does or does not understand about the upcoming W. F. of M. convention.
SOURCE
The Topeka Daily Capital
(Topeka, Kansas)
-of Apr 15, 1904
The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood
(1st pub 1929)
International Pub, 1983
Photo: Victor, Colorado, WFM Union Hall, about 1903
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Wednesday April 15, 1914
From the Weekly Journal-Miner: Colorado Military Puzzled As to Status of Mother Jones
Mother Jones at Ludlow Tent Colony
Papers around the nation are reporting that Mother Jones is likely to be released today or tomorrow. The
Weekly Journal-Miner reports from Prescott, Arizona:
ORDER PRODUCES PUZZLE FOR OFFICIALS
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IS MOTHER JONES AUTOMATICALLY RELEASED BY WITHDRAWAL OF SOLDIERS?
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By Associated Press.
DENVER. April 13.-The status of "Mother" Mary Jones, a military prisoner at Walsenburg became puzzling for the State officials after Governor Ammons ordered the troops out of Huerfano county and announced the troops would withdraw from Trinidad, Las Animas county, within a week. Adjutant General Chase has been ordered to produce "Mother" Jones before the State Supreme Court on Friday. The Governor's order is interpreted as the immediate abandonment of military government at Walsenburg automatically releasing the aged strike leader.
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This same paper declares that the Michigan Copper Strike has ended in complete defeat for the Western Federation of Miners:
VICTORY IN DEFEAT CLAIMS FEDERATION
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MEN VOTED TO END STRIKE BECAUSE FUTURE PROMISES
NOTHING BUT HUNGER AND PRIVATION
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DENVER. April 13.-That the Western Federation of Miners refuses to recognize defeat in the ending of the Michigan copper strike, but capitulated, not to the mining companies, but to the near future that promised nothing but hunger and privation, and that it expects to continue its "onward march to the goal of economic liberty," was the salient declaration in a formal statement issued by Charles H. Moyer, president of the federation today.
"We want the public to know that at no time during the life of the strike did the miners feel more confident of victory than the day they cast their votes declaring the strike at an end."
He describes incidents charging the [Democratic] Governor of Michigan with having aided the "powerful copper interests in driving underpaid, overworked labor back into the mines," and declared gunmen were used to institute a "reign of terror."
An unofficial vote from four of five locals in the district resulted: For a return to work 1867, against 507.
The heaviest vote case against returning was at Calumet, 328. Recognition of the union is waived by the strikers. They claim that practically all other demands have been complied with since the strike was called. These demands include better working conditions, an eight-hour day and a minimum daily wage of $3.00.
The announcement is made that all strikers who do not get work will be cared for by the federation. Company officials said that no strikers will be taken back until they have renounced their membership in the federation.
SOURCE
Weekly Journal-Miner
(Prescott, Arizona)
-of April 15, 1914
Photo: Mother Jones at Ludlow Tent Colony
http://motherjonesmuseum.org/...
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Carry It On-Joan Baez
They will tell their lying stories
Send their dogs to bite our bodies
They will throw us into prison
But, Carry It On
Carry It On
-Gil Turner
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