The Speculator Miners last letters

Link https://youtu.be/pdjvnGVWPyY

The Granite Mountain/Speculator Mine disaster of June 8, 1917 was the most deadly mine disaster in the history of the United States. Nearly two hundred miners died most from asphyxiation. Utah Phillips reads some of the trapped miners letters.

First letter

Dear wife, this may be the last message you will get from me. The gas broke about 11:15 pm, I tried to get all the men out, but the smoke was too strong. I got some of the boys with me in a drift and put up in a bulkhead. If anything happens to me you better sell the house and go to California and live. You will know your Jim died like a man and his last thoughts were for his wife that I love better than anyone on earth. We’ll meet again, tell mother and the boys goodbye,
With love to my wife and may God take care of you.
Your loving Jim
Jay D Moore

Second Letter

Dear Pat, well we are waiting for the end, I guess it won’t be long. We take turns rapping on the pipe so if the rescue crew is around they will hear us. Well my dear wife try not to worry, I know you will but trust in God everything will come out alright. There’s a young fellow here Clarence Marthy, he has a wife and two kiddies, tell her we done the best we could but the cards were against us.
Goodbye loving wife

Third Letter

All alive but air getting bad, one small piece of candle left, think it is all off.

Fourth Letter (written on the cover of the book)

In the dark.

The Speculator Miners last Letters

The Granite Mountain/Speculator Mine disaster of June 8, 1917 was the most deadly mine disaster in the history of the United States. Nearly two hundred miners died most from asphyxiation. Utah Phillips reads some of the trapped miners letters. 



First letter

Dear wife, this may be the last message you will get from me. The gas broke about 11:15 pm, I tried to get all the men out, but the smoke was too strong. I got some of the boys with me in a drift and put up in a bulkhead. If anything happens to me you better sell the house and go to California and live. You will know your Jim died like a man and his last thoughts were for his wife that I love better than anyone on earth. We’ll meet again, tell mother and the boys goodbye,
With love to my wife and may God take care of you.
Your loving Jim
Jay D Moore

Second Letter

Dear Pat, well we are waiting for the end, I guess it won’t be long. We take turns rapping on the pipe so if the rescue crew is around they will hear us. Well my dear wife try not to worry, I know you will but trust in God everything will come out alright. There’s a young fellow here Clarence Marthy, he has a wife and two kiddies, tell her we done the best we could but the cards were against us.
Goodbye loving wife

Third Letter

All alive but air getting bad, one small piece of candle left, think it is all off.

Fourth Letter (written on the cover of the book)

In the dark.

Loafers Glory 05: Whimsical Stew

 Episode 05 of Loafers Glory Whimsical Stew, this ones a bit more random going from a recital of Walt Whitman's poetry including a rare mechanical recording of the man himself, to activism of Yip Harburg the song writer responsible for Over the Rainbow among many others. It's also jammed with some Wobbly history and anecdotes about Utah Phillips childhood reading about Depression era Bank Robbers.

Despite the rather shotgun like approach to organisation this was again an informative and enjoyable journey through history. In particular the speech by Huey Long about wealth concentration seems very close to the 99% rhetoric of the Occupy movement.

The full audio archive
Video playlist

Loafers Glory 04: Holidays

Episode four of Loafers Glory is about holidays, we have stories and songs about Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. We also have an account of the New York News Guild strike that ended on Christmas day with the Newspaper companies conceding. We Christmas songs from the Basque community in Idaho, Congolese songs for Kwanzaa, and Shalom by Richard Tucker and a Mish Mosh by Mickey Katz.



We also have an account about the time Utah went to jail, and the history of the 1913 Miners Strike and the massacre at the Italian Hall, by the mine company guards. We also have some poetry and a few more funny anecdotes sprinkled in. My favourite is the story of the last living Wobbly.

Loafers Glory 03- Busking

Episode three of Loafers Glory is all about the art of busking, from street singing to soap box oration and all points in between. Includes some special tips on how to survive if your on the street during hard times.

Includes a selection of music from some of the most famous street corner singers in the US and Canada.

Loafers Glory and the West

Episode two of Loafers Glory focuses on the West, in its dying days in the 1910's. It covers the stories of Old Western Miners, loggers and farm hands. From the Logging camps in Washington state to Butte Montana and the conditions of the Miners who toiled away underground.



Includes music and poetry from Cowboys and Loggers including Gail I Gardner, and Bill Young (not the US legislator) and from other Wobblies such as Bruce Brackney and Mark Ross. Stories include a bit of Logger folklore like the story of the death of Tom Lamb. It also comes with a special Utah Phillips pie recipe. But the bulk of the show concerns Butte Montana miners in the 1910's in particular that Speculator Mine Disaster of 1917.

Loafers Glory the Hobo Jungle of the Mind

My introduction the IWW was the film Reds, I liked what they seemed to stand for but since I hadn't heard of them before I assumed they were one of those radical groups that became a casualty of the Red Scares. Letter on I found they were still around an while much smaller had actually spread to other nations including the UK.

My introduction into the Wobbly philosophy was the songs and little stories of Utah Phillips, a folk singer, song writer and Father Christmas impersonator. I love his songs and covers, and I really liked the little bits of story he'd use to book end them in many of his recordings. My favourite album by him Fellow Workers for this reason.

Later another Wobbly shared an archive of a community radio show Utah did in the 90's, Loafers Glory. It was weekly, around an hour, lasted 100 episodes and is just fascinating to listen to. Since I have a bit (ok a lot) more free time at present I've been making videos of them like I did for Free Speech Radio News. Which has made a comeback.

The program was a mix of folk songs -some of which hadn't been heard before at the time- and stories about important but overlooked people and events, many of whom Utah had a personal connection too.

Here's the first one.

The introduction is a bit less focussed than the other episodes, the others focus on a particular theme, for example episode 2 is about the West (as in Cowboys). The introduction includes everything from the life and death of Mother Jones, Tom Scribbner and the art of musical saws (yes that's right using saws to play music), to the Spanish Civil War with a beuatiful rendition of Freiheit (freedom) by Eddie Balchowsky, and some quite sad but sweet tributes to Utah's deceased friends from his hobo days.

 Since I do still have some work to do and am prone to distraction finishing the other 98 (I already did Episode 88) may take sometime but the full archive is freely available on the Long Memory.

Here's the playlist to be updated as and when.

Utah Phillips Chats with Pete Seeger

Here's an old interview of Pete Seeger by fellow folk musician and committed Wobbly Utah Phillips. The two discuss the history of folk music in America and Pete's proper place within the genre, broken up with a few songs of course.

The interview covers many topics, from McCarthyism, the Communist Party, going broke (repeatedly) and even covers mediaeval ballads. Utah also shares his secret recipe for self turning pancakes.



From the archives of Loafers Glory at the Long Memory website.