You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Tuesday July 18, 1916
Atlanta, Georgia – Mother Jones in City for Short Stay
From The Atlanta Constitution of July 12, 1916:
Mother Jones, Laborers’ Friend,
Confers With Local Leaders
—–
Picturesque Character Here on
Flying Visit-
Is Her Visit Inspired by Pending
Legislation Before General Assembly?
-She Will Not Answer.
—–Mother Jones, known internationally for her defense of organized labor and for agitation for improved labor conditions generally, arrived in Atlanta early yesterday afternoon, direct from Washington, D. C., on a mission, the precise nature of which she declines to reveal. She is scheduled to leave the city this afternoon.
At the train Mother Jones was met by a delegation of union labor friends, headed by Jerome Jones, editor of The Atlanta Journal of Labor, and was taken at once to the Ansley hotel, where she is a guest. During the afternoon she visited the federal penitentiary.
She said that she had come to Atlanta for a series of conferences with labor leaders of Atlanta and throughout the south generally, which were begun almost immediately upon her arrival.
The fact that pending in the general assembly, now in session, is a quantity of proposed legislation looking to the abolishing of child labor in Georgia factories and wholesale reforms in factory labor conditions, it was suggested when the coming of Mother Jones was first announced exclusively in The Constitution last Sunday, has a direct bearing upon her visit at this time, but Mother Jones refused either to confirm or to deny this surmise.
In her apartment at the Ansley last night Mother Jones freely discussed politics, labor matters and the general topics of the day. Talking for publication, her statements where short, terse and epigrammatic in their nature. As an instance:
“The south possesses a cesspool of degradations in its child labor” was all she had to say on this particular subject.
She deplored alleged lack of the spirit of unionism in the south.
“The laboring class of this section is not getting its deserts,” she said, “because it lacks in sufficient organization.”
“The American people are dollar-hogs,” is another characteristic expression she used.
Concerning President Wilson and the national political situation, Mother Jones said she sees an easy victory ahead of the chief executive next November.
“President Wilson,” she said, “is the safest man in his position since Lincoln. He will defeat Hughes, because the people are beginning to realize that they owe something to Wilson for keeping this country out of war, and refusing to invade Mexico for the sake of a wealthy burglar class.
“America,” she continued, “can avoid a great economic war between capital and labor only by judicious legislation (as sort of an afterthought) by wiping out the present biased judiciary of the nation.”
Mother Jones contrary to an opinion held by many is not a suffragist. This is what she had to say on that subject:
“Im against women suffrage. Women today are paying too much attention to tea-dances, card parties, theaters, fancy and vulgar clothing, and are neglecting their children. I never see a great man but I ask to see his great mother. At the present pace American women will produce no more great mothers, and the race will deteriorate.”
The chief claim to fame of Mother Jones has been won by her services in behalf of the miners of the west, although she is equally well known and loved by the underground workers of the coal fields of the east, the iron and copper miners of the middle west and south, and of the hardrock men of Canada. She gained marked notoriety during the recent Colorado strikes, and wide publicity during that time for her fearless personal attacks upon the mine owners, especially John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
“Wherever miners are on strike for better wages or better working conditions,” she said, “there you will find me just as quickly as I can get there. I go to them, help them, encourage them and give what aid I can to their families, and there I make my home-until the militia gives me a ride to jail.”
Mother Jones is 85 years old; but is hale and hearty and enjoys every moment of her life.
—–
SOURCE
The Atlanta Constitution
(Atlanta, Georgia)
-July 12, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/26916175/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Atlanta Constitution, July 12, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/26916175/