In 1911, Mother Jones was again hired by the UMW, and
started organizing campaigns by working directly among the miners
in West Virginia. Conditions for miners were as bad as they had
ever been. Because the miners in West Virginia were making so little money,
West Virginia coal was relatively cheap, and consequently in high
demand. Operators justified their tactics by citing their financial
gains, and were obstinately against improving conditions for workers
or responding to worker issues.
However, over time, the ethnic and racial divisions that
had been obstacles to earlier unionization drives lessened, and
a greater worker solidarity arose. Miners at Paint Creek and Cabin
Creek went on strike, often coming close to violence against the
mine companies' armed guards and scabs. Most of the scabs were
unwitting accomplices in the business of ending the strike–they
came from distant places, were usually hired without being aware
of the strike, and forced to continue working if they did not like
the situation when they arrived. The mine operators refused to
negotiate with the union, and relied on violence to keep their
workers in line. Machine guns defended the company offices, and
the mine guards were ordered to shoot, and even to kill. Due to
the isolation of the mines, the operators were able to escalate
violence and intimidate workers without the risk of public uproar.
Even though Cabin Creek was isolated, Mother Jones found
a way to reach the workers. One town in the Cabin Creek district, Eskdale,
had been incorporated before the mine companies came to West Virginia.
Therefore, it was a "free town" where coal companies did not have
the authority to prevent meetings from taking place or to harass
people. Mother Jones went to Eskdale and called an organizing meeting
of the UMW in August of 1912. Her rhetoric aroused the workers to
strike, and her persistence galvanized both the workers and their
families.
In response to the violence and conflicts, Governor Glasscock declared
martial law in September, and state troops were sent to the strike
zone. The military confiscated the weapons of the strikers, but
it did not confiscate the powerful machine guns of the mine owners.
Furthermore, the military was allowed to court- martial individuals
and to try them in military court: as a result, many union organizers
were targeted and imprisoned. The Governor ordered a commission
to investigate the strike, but its findings, which confirmed that
the miners' civil rights had been violated, were hardly acknowledged.
When the Governor withdrew the troops in early January,
1913, fighting broke out between the mine guards and the strikers,
who had succeeded in arming themselves even though their weapons
had been confiscated during the period of martial law. In February,
at the Mucklow tent colony, mine operators drove a train by the
colony and fired at the tents, killing one man and injuring a woman. This
incident caused an escalation of violence, and Mother Jones decided
to personally go to the Governor with a group of supporters. She
was quickly arrested by the military, however, and taken back to
the strike zone, where she was confined.
The court case against Mother Jones, already an elderly
woman, gained much publicity, as the alleged crime of conspiracy
to aid killers was punishable by death. However, the evidence for
the accusations was scant, and the few transcripts of her speeches demonstrated
that she had asked the strikers to defend their families, but also
to respect law and property. The case was covered across the country,
even in mainstream newspapers such as the The New York
Times. Consequently, the state of West Virginia was flooded
with protests and criticism, particularly because of the poor state
of Mother Jones's health during her three-month incarceration.
Eventually, the state ceded, and supported negotiations that led
to an agreement calling for a nine-hour work day, among other concessions.
Although the workers were not fully satisfied, they went back to
work temporarily. Meanwhile, a United States Senate commission
exposed the conditions of the West Virginia mines, and the mine
owners were forced to a de facto recognition of the union in Paint
and Cabin Creeks. Mother Jones was released in May, and she started
to address the workers again. This was a success for the union,
and a triumphant victory for Mother Jones and her image.
