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Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 12, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1909, Part I:
-Found in Denver, Colorado, Speaking at Protest Meeting
On the evening of Thursday March 1st, Mother Jones spoke before trade unionists, assembled together at the People’s tabernacle, to protest against the jail sentences imposed upon Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and Frank Morrison by District Court Judge Daniel Thew Wright.
From The Denver Post of March 1, 1909:
MOTHER JONES TO ADDRESS DENVER
LABOR MEETING
—–
Protest Against Federal Judge Sending
Labor Leaders to Jail.
—–3,000 ARE TO TAKE PART
—–
Resolutions to Be Adopted Strongly
Censuring Judge Wright.
—–
Tonight at the People’s Tabernacle, Twentieth and Lawrence, labor will enter its protest against the recent decision of Judge Wright of the district of Columbia, sentencing Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell and Frank Morrison to prison for alleged contempt of court. A monster massmeeting has been arranged for, to commence at 8 o’clock. State senators, representatives and many of the representative labor men of Colorado will take part.
[…..]
“Mother Jones,” one of the famous women advocates of the rights of labor, a woman who saw many of the early conflicts of labor when blood was shed in Easter miners’ strikes, and one of the most interesting orators among the women of the country today will be one of the principal speakers.
“Mother Jones” is known to every laboring men in the country. She attends many labor conventions, and last year delivered one of her characteristic speeches before the annual convention of the Western Federation of Miners. She has been travelling through the West seeking to raise funds for three Western men who are being held in Mexican prisons on the ground that they were seeking to overthrow the Mexican government.
“Mother Jones” is a guest at the home of John M. O’Neill, editor of the official organ of the Western Federation of Miners, 1229 Kalamath street.
———-
[Photograph added.]
From The Rocky Mountain News of March 2, 1909:
LIBERTY ASSAILED BY JUDGE WRIGHT,
LABOR’S VIEW
—–
Jail Sentence of Leaders Bitterly Denounced
by Denver Mass Meeting.
—–“MOTHER” JONES SPEAKS
—–
“Jurists Are Serving Their Masters Well,”
Woman Unionist Declares.
—–After hearing “Mother” Jones and half a dozen other speakers deliver some of the severest arraignments ever spoken publicly in Denver against the “capitalist system,” “government by injunction,” “money government” and other alleged evils under which the laboring people of the present day are suffering, 2,700 union men and women, assembled at the People’s tabernacle last night to protest against the jail sentences imposed upon three leaders of the American Federation of Labor, unanimously adopted the following resolutions:
DENVER, Colo., March 1, 1909
The trades unions of Denver, in mass meeting assembled March 1, 1909, do emphatically and unreservedly protest against the sentences and threatened imprisonment of Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell and Frank Morrison officers of the American Federation of Labor.
The action of Justice Wright in these cases can never be accepted with any degree of justification by organized labor. We maintain that there was no violation of the law by our fellow workmen.
We hold that the Sherman anti-trust law was never intended by congress to apply to labor unions and the construction placed thereon by the federal courts is destructive of the usefulness and only power of organized labor for its protection and advancement.
We further protest against the uncalled for and extreme bitterness of the arraignments of the defendants by Justice Wright as unparalleled in judiciary proceedings. We regard his action as a direct blow against our individual liberties, as workmen and against our labor unions. We condemn the penalties imposed as unjust, unreasonable and shockingly excessive.
Trades Unions Loyal.
Notwithstanding, Judge Wright’s denunciatory opinion we maintain that the trade unions have been and are based on loyalty to the laws of our country and we are now, as we have been in the past, determined to resent any encroachments on our rights as guaranteed by the constitution of our republic…..
Arraigns “Money Slavery.”
“Mother” Jones one of the best known women labor leaders and Socialists in the country, was the leading speaker. She is notable throughout the country for the vigor with which she denounces what she considers the great evils of the age, arising from what she terms the “money slavery” system, and she took no pains to temper her remarks.
[She said:]
I don’t blame the judges of the court, Justice Wright or any of the rest of them for the way they have decided this case. They are representing their owners and are serving them well. If the laboring people of the country would stick together half as well as these people they wouldn’t be holding protest meetings to keep their members out of jail for talking. Judge Wright was working for the interest of the class he represents and that is more than I can say for the leaders of the labor movement.
The senate is made up of corporation lawyers. What can you expect from them? I call that organization down there in Washington that is pretending to represent the people the “house of thieves.” Look who they are. What can you expect for the laboring classes?
And here on the platform with me is my old friend Max Morris. What is he doing for the laboring people? I love him, but I want him to be sent to jail along with the rest. He is one of the officers of the American Federation of labor. He has just told you that the injunction was directed against him. I think it would do him and the movement good for him to go to jail along with the rest. I have been to jail, and other good union people have been to jail. It doesn’t do us nearly so much harm as it does the movement we are fighting for good.
The meeting was held under the direction of the central labor bodies and the Socialists of the city. William Leonard, member of the team owners’ union and delegate from that body to the Trades and Labor assembly, presided. He is a Socialist, as are also William Tobin and John M. O’Neill, who were members of the committee that arranged for the meeting.
John M. O’Neil of the Western Federation of Miners declared that the decision of Justice Wright would have the effect of arousing the laboring people of the country to fight for the rights granted them by the constitution. He characterized it as a wicked violation of the constitutional right of free speech and free press, and said that if such a decision could be enforced equal rights are forever a delusion in America.
Max Morris, one of the vice presidents of the American Federation of Labor called attention to the fact that the decision against Gompers, Mitchell and Morrison may be extended to all other officers of the federation if it is enforced against those three, and may finally be brought into force against almost all laboring people of the country.
———-
From The Catholic Advance March 6, 1909:
A MELANGE OF INCOMPATIBLES.
That was a very strange assemblage at Chicago last week when a Paulist priest, a reformed Episcopal bishop, several noted socialists and “Mother Jones” were present to address what turned out to be crowd of agitators who got together to express their pent-up feelings against the government. The priest and bishop gave some sane advice about the privileges and duties of American citizenship which was received with considerable applause.
When these gentlemen left “Comrade” [John] Murray, representative of the Mexican revolutionists, “Comrade” [A. M.] Lewis, “Comrade” Miss Malloy and “Comrade” Mother Jones, launched out on the beauties of socialism and brought down the house. Mother Jones wound up the proceedings by declaring that every church that did not bear a “Union label” should be boycotted and remarked that it would be more pleasant to visit a saloon than a church. “For heaven’s sake,” croaked this infected product of the new political disease, “leave us our drink until we get rid of the infamous conditions under which we live. It’s a godsend to be able to get a jag on.”
Mother Jones evident does not like the conditions under which we live; they do not suit her. She and her like ought to move away to a country which accepts her notions of happiness, and where she could “get a jag on” without the “infamous conditions” which supply policemen to manage her “jag.”
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[Paragraph breaks added.]
From New York’s Olean Evening Times of March 11, 1909:
LETTER FROM MOTHER JONES.
—–
Explaining Why She Failed to Arrive in Olean.
—–A letter has been received by the Olean C. L. U. from Mother Jones, which explains why she failed to be in Olean to speak at the mass meeting held on Lincoln’s birthday. The letter is as follows:
To the Officers and Members of the
C. L. U., Olean, N. Y.Brothers, permit me to express to you my sincere regret for the disappointment you had in my not appearing at your mass meeting on the 12th of February. I wrote the secretary as soon as I received your letter and stated what the expenses, alone, would be. As I did not hear from him, I concluded that you had cancelled the engagement; of course, the fault was somewhat mine I was away in southern Illinois among the mining camps and the mail did not reach me. Secretary Ewing’s letter lay in the office in East St. Louis for two weeks before it reached me, so the meeting was over and ended before I had any information as to what action you had taken. However, I hope some day in the near future to be with my co-workers in Olean. I hope that this will be a satisfactory explanation, although I feel it is not a restitution to the audiences. it has been my policy never to disappoint any meeting at which I was billed to speak, if there was a possibility of reaching there. Permit me to ask you to accept, this explanation for th disappointment. With you I wish the cause of labor to move onward and upward to the day in history when there will be no master nor no slave. I am,
Fraternally yours for Justice,
Mother Jones.
[Dated:] Denver, Colo., Mar. 4, 1909At a meeting of the Trades and Labor Council held last evening, the letter was read by Secretary Burley of the central body. It was moved and carried that it be received and acknowledged, and that it be published in the local papers for the benefit of the hundreds who were in the disappointed audience.
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Note: Emphasis added throughout.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
The Denver Post
(Denver, Colorado)
-Mar 1, 1909, page 8
https://www.genealogybank.com/
The Rocky Mountain News
(Denver, Colorado)
-Mar 2, 1909, page 3
https://www.genealogybank.com/
The Catholic Advance
“The Official Catholic Paper of
Kansas and Oklahoma”
(Wichita, Kansas)
-Mar 6, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/179471194/
Olean Evening Times
(Olean, New York)
-Mar 11, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/35553422/
IMAGES
Mother Jones, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909
https://www.genealogybank.com/
Max Morris, AFL VP, Retail Clerks Sec Treas, Advocate, July 1909
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=kW4WAAAAYAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.RA8-PA13
See also:
Re Judge Wright
– and the Buck’s Stove & Range Case
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 28, 1908
Leaders of American Federation of Labor Flayed by Justice Wright
Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison Sentenced for Contempt of Court in Bucks Stove & Range Case-Part I
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 29, 1908
Samuel Gompers on the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press
Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison Sentenced for Contempt of Court in Bucks Stove & Range Case-Continued
Re the speech of Mother Jones “last year”
at the WFM Convention:
Hellraisers Journal, Friday August 21, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1908, Part II
Found Speaking at Denver Convention of W. F. of M.
Re Max Morris, 1866-1909, see:
Retail Clerks International Advocate of July 1909,
-Coverage of life and death of Morris continues for several pages:
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=kW4WAAAAYAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.RA4-PA11
For photo of Max Morris with 1900 AFL Executive Council, see:
https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM114642
Re John M O’Neill as editor
of WFM’s Miners Magazine:
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA3
Re Chicago meeting with the Priest and Bishop,
-reported by Chicago Daily Tribune of Feb 22, 1909,
see & scroll down:
Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 8, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1909, Part II
Tag: John Murray
https://weneverforget.org/tag/john-murray/
Tag: A. M. Lewis
https://weneverforget.org/tag/a-m-lewis/
Tag: Olean NY
https://weneverforget.org/tag/olean-ny/
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The Spirit Of Mother Jones – Andy Irvine