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Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 23, 1902
Mother Jones Interviewed in Jail at Parkersburg, West Virginia
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of June 22, 1902:
From the Parkersburg Daily Morning News of June 21, 1902:
[Mother Jones Arrested While Speaking
to Strikers at Clarksburg][Clarksburg, June 20]-Mother Jones’ address this afternoon was more than ordinarily bitter. She has good command of language and a powerful voice, which combined with her grey hair and commanding bearing and pleasant face give her undoubtedly much influence. She understands her power and how to use it, and while in private conversation shows a surprisingly cultivated manner and correct speech. Her language, when addressing a crowd of miners, is much after their common style and is thickly interspersed with slang and homely wit. In her speech today she denounced the mine operators as robbers, and defied Judge Jackson, placing him in the same class, and asserting that he, as well as the newspapers, and even the preachers, are in league with the interests of the mine owners against the mine workers. She was vigorously cheered at different times during her address, and especially at the close while the marshal and his deputies were making their arrests. She closed her address by urging the miners not to work, not to drink, to avoid all lawlessness and to stick together and continue to “agitate.”
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[Emphasis added.]
From the Parkersburg Sentinel of June 21, 1902:
Mother Jones and a Dozen Strike Agitators Arrested
For Violating U. S. Court Injunction.
-Prisoners Brought Here and Lodged In Jail.
-And Will Answer For Contempt.
-The Agitators Were Arrested at Clarksburg.A dozen strike agitators were arrested at Clarksburg on Friday afternoon [June 20th] about 3 o’clock and were brought to Parkersburg on the train that arrived at 10:07 last night. The prisoners were taken to the county jail.
The arrests were made by Marshal C. D. Elliott and deputies D. R. Jackson, C. W. Law, and Chas. Hughes who have been in the Clarksburg and Fairmont region for several weeks.
The prisoners are Mary Jones, alias “Mother” Jones, Thos. Haggerty, Wm. Morgan, Bernard Rice, Peter Wilson, Wm. Blakeley, George Baron, Andrew Lascavash, Albert Roppoke, Joe Reossky, George Reossky, and Steve Tonike.
The prisoners were in charge of Deputy Marshals D. R. Jackson, C. W. Law, G. A. Elliott, deputy sheriff John Long and Ormon Randolph.
Deputy Marshal Jackson in discussing the arrest said that the miners had rented a lot about forty yards from the buildings of the Clarksburg Fuel Co. and were holding a meeting there which was addressed by several of those under arrest, the last speaker being Mother Jones. These parties had worked their base of operations from the Fairmont field to the Clarksburg region and were trying to incite the miners that were still at work and get them to join the ranks of strikers. Mother Jones, it is stated, was unsparing of her denunciation of the operators, the trusts, and capitalists, and severely criticized the action of Judge Jackson. Marshal Elliott, as soon as the address was concluded placed Mother Jones under arrest for a violation of the injunction of the U. S. Court…..
On the arrival here Marshal Jackson offered to secure quarters for Mrs. Jones at a hotel, which offer she refused, giving her reasons that she was a federal prisoner and would remain with the boys. She was then given a room in the residence part of the jail.
Mother Jones was visited by a reporter at the jail this morning and when asked as to what she had to say as to the arrest of herself and the men she replied:
Well, we are here to await the action of the United States court. We were arrested on our own ground which we had rented and which was entirely separate from the company’s premises. We were holding a meeting which the authorities claim was a violation of the blanket injunction of 1897 which they claim holds good in this movement.
[Mrs. Jones further remarked:]
This is a chivalric state, isn’t it? I have been in all kinds of movements in all parts of the country in which labor and capital were interested and this is the first time anybody had tried to molest me. I am the first woman ever to be arrested under a federal injunction in a labor movement.
When asked why she did not accept the offer of Deputy Marshal Jackson to take her to a hotel her answer was:
I am a federal prisoner, the same as the boys, and consider myself no better than they are. Had they been taken to a hotel I would have wanted to go with them, but I expect to stand by the boys and will go with them even to the penitentiary if needs be. We expect to fight this matter to the highest court to see whether it is a case of one man rule or the people ruling.
“Will the arrest of yourself and the boys affect the movement in any way?”
[She replied:]
No, organizers from other states will take our places and the fight will be carried on just the same.
The question was asked how long she had been interested in labor movements.
Nearly all my life and I expect to continue to stay in the work the balance of my life as I cannot stand idly by and see the suffering of mothers and babies without making some effort to help improve the condition of affairs.
At this point Mother Jones was informed that her breakfast was ready and in taking leave of the reporter she said:
Young man, remember this fight is for the future of you young men; it is against the capitalists who are nothing more than robbers, or to use the aristocratic pronunciation, they are kleptomaniacs.
The arrests of the prisoners were not made under the blanket injunction of 1897 as stated by Mother Jones but under an injunction issued on Thursday by Judge Jackson upon the application of Clarksburg fuel Co.
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[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Injunction Shroud, Bff Exp p7, Apr 24, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/344471675/
The Philadelphia Inquirer
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
-June 22, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/168338244/
Mother Jones Speaks
Collected Writings and Speeches
-ed by Philip S Foner
Monad Press, 1983
(search: arrested clarksburg parkersburg 1902)
(pages 78-9, 481-2)
https://books.google.com/books?id=OE9hAAAAIAAJ
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 22, 1902
Clarksburg, West Virginia – Mother Jones Arrested by U. S. Marshals
Daily Morning News (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1898-1902
https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86092448/
Parkersburg Sentinel (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1875-1923
https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84038259/
Tag: West Virginia Coalfield Strike of 1902-1903
https://weneverforget.org/tag/west-virginia-coalfield-strike-of-1902-1903/
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The Most Dangerous Woman – Ani DiFranco & Utah Phillips