Category: Mother Mary Harris Jones

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones: “…the babes of Ludlow, I stand here bringing their tears and wasted hopes to you…”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Babes of Ludlow, Speech at Trinidad CO UMW District 15 Special Convention, ES1 p154 (176 of 360)—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 21, 1914
Trinidad, Colorado – Mother Jones Speaks at Special Convention of District 15

Mother Jones at Ludlow with Frank Hayes, full, possibly Sept 23, 1913
Mother Jones at Ludlow with Frank Hayes, possibly September 23, 1913

Mother Jones was greeted with wild cheering and applause in Trinidad, Colorado, when she arose to speak this past Tuesday at the special convention of District 15, United Mine Workers of America. Delegates were gathered there to consider President Wilson’s proposal for ending the year long strike.

Mother remembered the children and the mothers who were massacred at Ludlow on April 20th:

I stand facing the far east, sounding the voices of the babes of Ludlow, I stand here bringing their tears, their wasted hopes to you, the heartaches of the mothers, the screams and the agonies of those who gave up their lives there; but they did not die in vain. They stirred the nation from end to end and you never again will see such a condition of slavery in Colorado.

The convention resulted in a vote in favor of acceptance of the plan put forward by President Wilson. 

From the Proceedings of the Miners’ Special Convention, September 15, 1914
-Excerpts from the Speech of Mother Jones:

Now, boys, many things have happened in the last year. One year ago today, I talked to you about industrial freedom. We are living in a great nation. Industrial despotism will have to die and you, my boys, must use your brains, you must study and think. The sword will have to disappear and the pen will have to take its place. We are the bulwark of the nation.

Thank God that we have another great man, another Lincoln, in Washington today in our President. (Applause.) He does not rush into things but weighs everything carefully in the scale.

If there are any representatives of the Colorado Fuel & Iron company here, I want to tell you to keep out. You cannot vote in this Convention, for none but bona fide working men will have a vote here. If you are here, I will find you, I can spot you immediately, for I can smell you four miles away. (Applause.)

* * *

At the time of the strike in West Virginia, I cancelled engagements in San Francisco and went to West Virginia. I went to Charleston and took the Cabin Creek train and went up there. A little boy came to me and he said, “Mother, have you come to stay with us?” “Yes, I have come to stay with you,” and the tears trickled down his cheeks as he told me how they had beaten his mother and his baby brother and driven his father away and he said: “If I live to be a man I will kill twenty of them.”

They were not United States bayonets. They were corporation bayonets, and corporation bayonets are in the hands of sewer rats and the others are in the hands of men. While in West Virginia, I was a guest of the State, I was arrested and placed in the bull pen. But they didn’t keep me quiet there for I was raising hell more than if I had been out. Now these boys didn’t get what they wanted in that settlement in West Virginia. They came to me and asked my advice and I said: “Take what you can get out of the pirates.” The newspaper men asked: “What do you think of the settlement?” and I told them it was alright, it wasn’t what we wanted, but what we could get. The mine owners of West Virginia have begun to realize what that settlement means to them. You were never in the condition here that they were in West Virginia. I was not followed here by the Baldwin-Felts thugs in the dead of night or horseback as I was in West Virginia. In a battle we had there seven of my brothers were murdered in cold blood and twenty-one were wounded.

* * *

The President of the United States, when he found you could not settle your difficulties, sent the federal troops here to defend you, and now if you don’t accept this proposition what more can he do. He has to withdraw  the troops. The constitution gives him so long to keep them here and I don’t know but what he has already overstepped that authority now.

Another thing, you have allowed here in this strike is to let everybody to get a hand in it. Now this fight is ours, we have got the United States with us and we are fighting the greatest moneyed power in the world. John D. Rockefeller controls the whole of New York City and New York with its millions of population has to submit to him. He owns the mines, the industries and the railroads clear through the nation, but one man arises against that power and says to the miners of Colorado, I will be with you if you are fair. He faces the greatest moneyed power in the world and says these miners shall at least have a showing.

* * *

I stand facing the far east, sounding the voices of the babes of Ludlow, I stand here bringing their tears, their wasted hopes to you, the heartaches of the mothers, the screams and the agonies of those who gave up their lives there; but they did not die in vain. They stirred the nation from end to end and you never again will see such a condition of slavery in Colorado.

* * *

Now, boys, you know I have no interests outside of the welfare of the children yet to come. I have carried your case to Congress, to the President, and I feel that we ought to pay that tribute of respect to the head of the nation in accepting this proposition. It is not all we want but Christ did not get all he wanted. So, boys, take my advice, I beg of you in the name of the women and children of Ludlow to pay that tribute of respect to the President of the nation, saying that we appreciate the move he has made and I believe you will get more.

Now, don’t say Mother Jones is playing politics. I never played politics in my life. I have been a Socialist for twenty-nine years and I would hammer a Socialist if he is a crazy lunatic just the same as any one else. I am not living for nothing I hold no office only that of disturbing. Before I leave the world, I have a contract with God Almighty to stay here eighty-two years more, there will be no bayonets and no guns, we will all be great citizens, and the bayonets of the future will be the pen, which is mightier than the sword. The next thing the public officers will do at Washington will be to take over the mines. We want the mines and we want the oil fields and we are going to have them. I stand here today as one pleading with you, I ask you to accept the President’s proposition. Let the nation know that the United Mine Workers are not what they are represented to be by General Chase and his staff of pirates. I want the people to know that you miners are men and law-abiding citizens.

[Emphasis added]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones: “…the babes of Ludlow, I stand here bringing their tears and wasted hopes to you…”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Colorado Miners Accept Wilson’s Proposal; John Lawson Charged with Murders, Released on Bond

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote John Lawson 1913, after October 17th Death Special attack on Forbes Tent Colony, Beshoar p74—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 20, 1914
Colorado Miners Accept Wilson’s Peace Plan; John Lawson Charged with Murders

Mother Jones w Lawson n Hawkins at Denver CO Mar 16, 1914
John Lawson, Mother Jones, Horace Hawkins

Las Vegas Optic of Las Vegas, New Mexico, reported the optimistic news that the Colorado Strike could be settled within the next few days. Mother Jones spoke in Trinidad at the Special Convention of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America. She made a plea for acceptance of President’s Wilson’s peace proposal. She was greeted with much cheering and Wilson’s settlement plan was accepted by the miners, and that acceptance communicated to  the President.

In other news, John Lawson, hero of the striking miners, has surrendered to authorities. He now stands charged with twelve murders. He was not present when any of these men were killed, but is charged under the reasoning that he was a leader of the strike which led to their deaths.

From the Las Vegas Optic of September 15, 1914:

END OF STRIKE MAY COME
IN FEW DAYS

COLORADO MINERS HOLD A MEETING TO DECIDE
ON FUTURE ACTION
———-

Washington, Sept. 15.-President Wilson was notified today by the United Mine Workers of America that they had accepted the tentative basis for the settlement of the Colorado strike submitted by the president last week. The mine operators have not yet replied.
———-

Trinidad, Colo., Sept. 15.-“Thank God! We’ve got a great man-another Lincoln-in the person of the president at Washington.” said “Mother” Mary Jones, 82 year old strike leader in a speech today before the convention of the Colorado miners called to consider the proposal of President Wilson for a three year truce in the Colorado labor war. And the cheers which greeted the tribute to the president brought smiles to the faces of the officers of the United Mine Workers of America who are advocating the adoption of the peace protocol.

“Mother” Jones, who admits authorship of the famous “save your money and buy a gun” speech in West Virginia, appeared today in the guise of a peacemaker.

“The sword will have to disappear; the pen will have to take its place,” she declared.

The convention got under way shortly before noon. The only business transacted at the morning session was the appointment of a committee to examine the credentials of the delegates.

Lawson Gives Self Up

John R. Lawson, Colorado member of the executive board of the United Mine Workers of America today surrendered himself to the sheriff of Las Animas county to answer indictments charging him with 12 murders in connection with the coal miners’ strike. He was released on $15,000 bond.

Lawson is accused of the following deaths:

Mack Powell, killed October 9, 1913; John Nimmo, killed October 25, 1913; Tony Heno, Joseph Uppson, George Hall, S. A. Newman, M. Newman, Edward Kessler, Gosney Murrake, Jacob Smith and Kito, all killed in the battle of Forbes April 29, 1914.

Lawson is charged with assault to murder Walter Belk, October 7 and Zeke Martin October 27, 1913. He is also accused of arson in connection with the attack on the Forbes mine.

Soon after his arrival from Denver today, Lawson went alone to the sheriffs office to give himself up. He was told to go to the district court and arrange for bond and return when his bond was ready.

Felix Shippl, a striker from Sopris, was arrested on a grand jury warrant today charging him with an assortment of murders.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Colorado Miners Accept Wilson’s Proposal; John Lawson Charged with Murders, Released on Bond” →

Hellraisers Journal: Part III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Plea for Justice, Not Charity, Quote Mother Jones—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 15, 1904
Part III of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Shines Among Workers

From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904: 

HdLn w Photos Mother Jones Methods, Speech WV 1897, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904
[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904

“MOTHER” JONES’ CONDUCT WITH FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
—————

She Shines Among the Workers.
—

Mother Jones Methods, Listening, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904The mother nature which is so strong in this remarkable woman as to have given her her beautiful soubriquet is not revealed among the ordinary surroundings which come to her during her brief sojourns in Chicago, New York or Washington, but is at once ready to shine forth when she is among the workers whom she calls her children-the girls of the silk mills, the men in the coal fields, or in the humble homes among the mothers and children.

In the strike of 1900 in Pennsylvania she started out one evening from Hazleton to go to Macadoo [McAdoo], to address a local union of miners. On the electric car she sat by the writer quietly observant of the other passengers. No one was as yet aware of her personality. Looking across at a young man and young woman who were sitting closely together, comparing two much thumbed note books with their heads quite close together, Mrs. Jones said: “Look at the dear children; they are comparing their savings. They are lovers, wondering how long it may be before they will be able to marry.”

There was a smile of tenderness on her face which did not wane when at transfer station some noisy youngsters outside discovered her and set up a cry of “Mother Jones! Mother Jones!”

“That’s so, children,” she said, standing up and leaning out of the window to them. “This is old ‘Mother’ Jones going to talk to your fathers and mothers. Are you union boys and girls?”

“You bet we are; hurrah for Mother Jones! Hurrah for Mother Jones!”

The youngsters kept pace with the car, and when the old lady stepped off they made her an escort as she walked to the hall, crowding and pushing to get close to her, to touch her dress, to hold her hand, to look up into her face and to shout the tidings that she was coming. When she reached the hall it was filled with men, who respectfully made way for her, and she passed among them to the platform.

After talking to them for a short time about the progress of the strike, and about a particularly obstinate body of workers at the Coleraine colliery, she told them that she had a plan, and asked them to clear the hall and send the women of their families to her. The men immediately yielded to her suggestion without understanding her intention, for she had worked so long among them as an organizer that they had faith in her judgment.

In about half an hour a strange audience had assembled. there were old, bent women of 70 and young, fresh-faced girls of 16. There were young matrons with babes in their arms, and women faded before their time. The faces that looked up from the rude benches of the strikers’ hall were at first only curious, or somewhat shy and embarrassed.

Walking to the edge of the platform “Mother” Jones stretched out her arms to them, and in her thrillingly sweet voice said, “Sisters!” A perceptible wave of emotion like the breath of wind sweeping the long grasses of downs and meadows passed over her audience. Still the women waited, wondered, watched.

“In the old revolutionary days,” said “Mother” Jones, “your mothers were heroes, as well as your fathers.”

The faces awoke; the souls back of them kindled. For an hour the speaker walked to and fro telling the deeds of mothers of the past, of sisters and wives. The listeners drew nearer. They leaned their elbows on the platform and lifted their faces to drink in her words. Their bosoms heaved and the tears rolled unheeded down their cheeks, but quickly the smiles flashed out again at the will of the speaker. She was explaining to them a plan to march by night through the mountains to surprise at dawn the body of workmen who had refused to strike, and by soft words and cajoleries to woo them to make common cause with their fellows. For who would stop a body of women carrying flags and singing.

“To Colerain-ah!” they whispered among themselves, and then broke out tumultuously: “We’ll go; yes, tonight; to win the boys of Colerain.” Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Part III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald” →

Hellraisers Journal: Part II: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Husband Children, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 14, 1904
Part II of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Then and Now

From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:

HdLn w Photos Mother Jones Methods, Speech WV 1897, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904

Her Appearance and Her History

Mother Jones Methods, Making a Point, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904“Mother” Jones is an old woman, perhaps about 62 years of age. Her hair is white as snow, her eyes bright blue. She has a sweet, womanly mouth, and a pink flush in her cheeks. She is robust and healthy in appearance, with a good matronly figure. In dress she is quite plain, often almost shabby; though there is a neatness, almost a daintiness, about her which always gives her an agreeable appearance.

Her maiden name was Mary Harris. When she was a child of 10 she came to this country with her father and brother from Ireland. They lived for time in Provincetown, and afterward went to Canada. She was educated in the common and normal schools of Toronto, where her brother became a priest, and is now the dean of the archdiocese. She went to teach in a convent in Monroe, Mich., and later, going to Memphis, Tenn., to teach, she met an iron moulder, whom she married. They had two [four] children. She lost husband and children after a brief six years of married life in the yellow fever epidemic in the south.

After the war she went to Chicago, where she lived from 1867 until 1874, taking part in the relief work of the great fire as one of her first experiences in public work. She was a dressmaker in Chicago, as she was in San Francisco, where she lived for five years. In San Francisco she became interested in socialism, and took part in the anti-Chinese movement. When she returned East it was Mrs. George Pullman who secured her transportation. She had sewed for many women of wealth in Chicago, and had a large circle of friends among them.

Her life thus far had been comparatively simple. As a daughter she was obedient and studious, as a young woman a modest, retired teacher, as a wife, faithful and loving. She says of her married life that it was like that of most devoted wives. She wept if her husband drank a glass of beer after the day’s work or went to a union meeting at night. Yet she had enough intelligence to interest herself in his labor views, and imbibed her first notions of unionism from the protestations of her husband against her too devoted solicitude, and a great part of her effort in later years was to make women understand what she failed to understand in those early days, that the wife must care for what the husband cares for, and that every man loves freedom, even freedom from domestic tyranny.

Her remedy for lonely wives is a broader interest in the affairs of life. As a young widow she took pride in the trade she learned, and today she still loves to walk for an hour through the shops and look at beautiful silks and fine laces.

But though a good teacher and skillful dressmaker, it was not sufficient for this woman to provide for herself a good living and take no further thought of the world. She was aware that there were questions troubling the minds of men, and she wanted to help solve them. And somewhat later it came to her that she had the gift of eloquence. She discovered this in the old trades and labor assemblies in the West, where, when rising to take part in a discussion, a torrent of words would rise to her lips and her hearers would sit spellbound.

She belonged to the old Knights of Labor, and later took part in the organizing work of the American Railway Union, and became the friend of Eugene Debs. She was active in Chicago at the time of the Pullman strike, unmindful of the old-time friendliness of Mrs. George Pullman. Some years later she was able to secure a pardon for some of the men involved in the labor troubles of that great railroad strike by a personal interview with President McKinley at the White House.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Part II: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald” →

Hellraisers Journal: Part I: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Speech WV 1897, Lives You Are Living, Bst Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 13, 1904
Part I of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Her Power Proved

From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:

HdLn w Photos Mother Jones Methods, Speech WV 1897, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904

Mother Jones Methods, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904If there is a woman of these modern times worthy of being classed with the grand characters of history, the heroic women of the ages-Hypatia, Deborah, the Mother of the Gracchi, Veronica, Joan of Arc-that woman, in the minds of thousands of the common people of America, is the good, gray-haired woman affectionately known to them as “Mother” Jones. To the cultivated and conservative such an estimation of a woman whom they have commonly heard derided as a troublesome mischief-maker may seem an absurdity, yet history has a way of making fools of the critics.

Susan B. Anthony long ago rose above the clouds of derision and Mrs. Booth-Tucker has become a sainted memory. Frances Willard came to be called “America’s uncrowned queen” yet none of these noble and beautiful women ever possessed that large consciousness of the ebb and flow of human emotions, that sympathy with the sinful as well as the virtuous, with the drunkard as well as the ascetic, with man as with woman and with woman as with man, as does this woman labor agitator. The appeal of these other great women was limited, to sinners against faith, to drunkards and to helpless femininity. The appeal of “”Mother” Jones is avowedly to the soul of the race. She would have all men brothers, not under any especial creed or political system, but with the universal consciousness of one beating heart.

The world does not know this old woman of the people, and perhaps never will know her. Her personality may be obliterated on the pages of history. Even today she passes from place to place unheralded, makes a temporary sensation, and passes on. But her ideas quicken the ideas of others, what she makes her listeners feel is the truth which they knew before she came and which they unconsciously yearned to hear expressed. Through her lips brave notions of a higher life are set free in the thought void, and immediately become universal conceptions of humanity’s possible embodiment.

She does not force upon you the creed of “Mother” Jones, for certainly as an individual she has a creed. But she cries aloud to a careless, indifferent world, that humanity has one destiny, one goal to which it is struggling; that one nation cannot go there and leave behind another; that one sex cannot stand upon the other; that one class may not live by the other’s misery; that the elect may not find heaven alone; that sinners may not be damned and forgotten; that we may not escape by death from the earth life’s travail; but that all together must conceive the race born into freedom with the one pulsating consciousness of a divine organization.

And this vision of “Mother” Jones as one of the great souls of the world summoning men and women to the “grand roads of the universe” can only be had by seeing her under many aspects, at many times and places, watching her at the tables of the rich, in the homes of the poor, on the highway under sun or falling rain, or in those rare moments when the “intellectuals” corner her for a love feast and beg from her a crumb of wisdom.

—–

Power of “Mother” Jones Proved.

To be sure, this is extreme claim to make for any limited human life, for any individual however great its genius. And the mere thought of calling “Mother” Jones a genius will sound to the critical, fastidious, cultivated world as an absurdity or stupidity. But it is upon the testimony of events and incidents in a career that one may most safely rest a claim of this sort. One incident alone is sufficient to prove the power of “Mother” Jones to bring the sublime to the hearts of the lowliest, an incident which might thrill the comprehension of the most jeering of sceptics.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Part I: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Has any one ever told you, my children, about the lives you are living?”-Mother Jones, West Virginia, 1897

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Quote Mother Jones, Speech WV 1897, Lives You Are Living, Bst Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 12, 1904
Traveling West Virginia with Mother Jones during the Great Coal Strike of 1897

From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:

In the Sunday Magazine Section of the Boston Herald, a reporter recalls traveling with Mother Jones into the hills of West Virginia during the “first great anthracite strike” [most likely the Bituminous Coal Strike of 1897]. The reporter describes how Mother beguiled a young mine owner into allowing her to speak to his employees “near the pit mouth on his own property.” As gleaned from the memory of the reporter, the result of the speech given by Mother Jones to those miners and their families was dramatic.

HdLn w Photos Mother Jones Methods, Speech WV 1897, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904

…..In West Virginia, during the first great anthracite strike , the United Mine Workers of America had placed some of its organizers. Among these was “Mother” Jones, the only woman organizer employed by the trades unions. On the way she had traveled through the mountain roads by night and day, toiling in the passes, tramping the railroad tracks, riding in farm wagons, or push carts, or in whatever way seemed easiest to get from camp to camp to preach the doctrine that working men must unite, the slogan of the trades unions.

She had a good measure of success, and the fame of her power as a trouble maker had spread among the mine owners. She was detested and feared by half the state, wondered about and gaped over by the other half. She was sleeping under any sort of shelter, eating the coarsest of food, stripping herself of clothing to give away right and left. Though she was earning a fair salary, she could not use it to make life easier for herself in this environment.

Reaching a town one morning which was practically dominated by the influence of a rich young mine owner, she applied for permission to the authorities to hold a mass meeting. She was refused the permit unless she could gain the consent of the mine owner himself, who held a position of local political authority. Two reporters, who had been sent out to watch the progress of events in this part of the state, believed that no speechmaking would occur in this town. “Mother” Jones thought differently. She sought the mine owner in his home. She told him that she had come to make a request which she saw in his face he would grant. He smiled and asked who she was and what she desired. With the benignity of the most gentle kindliness and simple dignity the old lady replied demurely that she was “Mother” Jones, and wished to have a talk with his employees.

“You, ‘Mother’ Jones,” said the rich man, astonished; “you are surely not in earnest?”

“Yes, I am ‘Mother’ Jones, the wicked old woman,” replied the supplicant with her steadfastly radiant expression and her almost subtle smile; so quiet, so gentle, so intelligent it made the words she uttered so whimsically of herself, a patent libel and insult upon her character. It was an irony that disturbed the judgment of the rich young man.

The mine owner studied the fact, the attitude, the folded hands of the woman before him, and then inquired what she would like him to do. “Mother” Jones said she would like him to send word through his mines that she was there, and grant her permission to talk on Sunday in an open space near the pit mouth on his own property. Though it seems incredible, the young mine owner consented. The inscrutable smile had been too much for his resistance.

The word was accordingly sent out through the mines that “Mother” Jones was to speak by permission of the operator. The foreman and bosses could scarcely believe their ears, and the ignorant miners, the foreign element that could scarcely speak English, did not believe. They feared it was some trap to compass their economic ruin, or more simply, to cost them their jobs. On Sunday morning only a few persons gathered at the meeting place designated, and “Mother” Jones seated on a rock, watched and waited.

The Local Labor Leader Surprised.

“This is going to be a frost,” said the local labor leader, one John Walker.

“Wait a little,” said “Mother” Jones.

Gradually it was apparent what the old lady was watching with her smiling eyes. Men were climbing up through the mountain passes and hiding behind huge boulders; they were peeping over the tops and around the sides of their hiding places, and women were lurking in the thickets.

“Come nearer, comrades; don’t be afraid, brothers,” said “Mother” Jones, standing up, and then she began to talk. In a few minutes about 100 men and women gathered in front of the rocky platform. The mine owner himself sat on a rock some paces away.

Has any one ever told you, my children, about the lives you are living, more so that you may understand how it is you pass your days on earth? Have you told each other about it and thought it over among yourselves, so that you might imagine a brighter day and begin to bring it to pass? If no one has done so, I will do it for you today. I want you to see yourselves as you are, Mothers and children, and to think if it is not time you look on yourselves, and upon each other. Let us consider this together, for I am one of you, and I know what it is to suffer.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Has any one ever told you, my children, about the lives you are living?”-Mother Jones, West Virginia, 1897” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Meeting of Akron Central Labor Union, Describes Labor War in Colorado

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 10, 1904
Akron, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks to Members of Central Labor Union

From The Akron Beacon Journal of September 9, 1904:

MOTHER JONES ADDRESSES LABOR UNION
———-
Woman Leader Speaks Her Mind
on Colorado Trouble.
———-

“COMMERCIAL CANNIBALS”
———-
Will Make a Public Address
in the City on Sunday.
———-

Mother Jones, Tacoma Times, Sept 19, 1904

The principal feature of the regular meeting of the Central Labor union Thursday night was an address by “Mother” Jones.

Mrs. Jones spoke mainly upon the labor war in Colorado. She maintained that the money powers and employers of the state of Colorado were united in an effort to crush out all organized labor. She stated that the governor of Colorado said the fight was against the Western Federation of Miners and not the American Federation of Labor he was a liar. Mrs. Jones described many of the scenes of this bloody labor war which she saw while in Colorado before she was deported.

About the Philippines.

She paid her compliments to the Dick bill by which the guns were supplied to the state of Colorado as well as the others. These guns were used by the militia in service at the mines.

Mrs. Jones brought up a bugaboo when she said she actually believed that the next congress would pass a law to make the Philippines a penal institution and ship all union labor over there.

She referred to the wealthy manufacturers of the east as the “commercial cannibals.” Commercialism was declared to be the curse of the whole country and responsible for the Colorado trouble.

Mrs. Jones then distributed some of her literature bearing on the labor questions of the day.

[Will Speak to Public on Sunday]

She will remain in Akron for several days and on Sunday afternoon will again speak in public under the auspices of the Central Labor union. A committee was appointed by the Central union to secure a hall for the purpose. One of the opera houses will be secured…

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Labor Day Celebration at Columbus, Kansas

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 8, 1914
Columbus, Kansas – Mother Jones Speaks at Labor Day Celebration

From The Pittsburg Daily Headlight of September 7, 1914:

Mother Jones Coming to Seattle crpd, Stt Str p2, May 29, 1914Mother Jones at Columbus.

Columbus, Sept. 7-“Mother” Jones, the aged woman who has figured in the mine troubles of West Virginia and Colorado, and who has spent a large part of the past few years in military prisons and jails as a result of her activity among the miners, was the principal speaker at the Labor Day celebration in this city today. She spoke to an immense audience in the City park. L. F. Fuller of Girard, Socialist candidate for Congress, was the other speaker. It is estimated 5,000 persons came to Columbus to participate in the celebration today. There was a parade in the morning and outdoor exercises in the afternoon.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Nurse Helen Schloss and Union Leaders Jailed at Trinidad CO; Martial Law Enforced at Butte MT

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Miners Org Real Power of Labor Mv, Speech UMW D14 Conv, Apr 30, 1914, Ptt KS, Steel Speeches p134—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 5, 1914
News from Miners’ Strikes at Trinidad, Colorado, and Butte, Montana

From the Salem, Oregon, Capital Journal of September 2, 1914:

Mother Jones Says Government Will
Take Over the Colorado Mines

Mother Jones Coming to Seattle crpd, Stt Str p2, May 29, 1914

“Mother” Mary Jones, the militant woman strike leader, claims to have some “inside” information to the effect that President Wilson will soon take vigorous action in the Colorado mine strike situation. “Mother” Jones declared that within the next two or three days the United States Government will take over and administer the strike-bound Colorado mines.

[Photograph added.]

From Lawrence [Kansas] Daily Journal-World of September 2, 1914:

BUTTE UNDER MARTIAL LAW
———-

All Saloons Ordered Closed-No Public Gatherings
———-
Newspapers Under Strict Censorship.
-Women Not Allowed on the Streets

Butte, Mont., Sept. 2.-Butte is under martial law by a proclamation issued by Governor Stewart. On the order of Major Dan J. Donahue, commanding the militia, all the saloons were closed and public gatherings of any character were forbidden without permission of the commanding officer. Women will not be permitted on the streets after 8 o’clock in the evening nor before 6 in the morning. No disturbance thus far has occurred since the troops have arrived. Major Donahue has formally notified the newspaper offices of the city that they were under censorship.[Emphasis added.]

From Lawrence Daily Journal-World of September 3, 1914:

NO DISTURBANCES AT BUTTE
———-

Militia Arrest Leaders of Mine Workers’ Union

Butte, Mont., Sept. 3.-Butte’s fist day of Martial law was without disturbance. The Montana National guard occupied the court house and city hall. Headquarters of the state militia were established in the court house with Jess B. Roote as chief of staff and judge advocate. At the city hall Provost Marshal Frank Conley took charge.Orders were given soon after the militia moved into the business district to arrest leaders of the Butte Mine Workers’ union, the organization formed to oppose the Western Federation of Miners. Four arrests were made late in the afternoon, one of the men being James Chapman, chairman of the jurisdiction committee.

Provost Marshal Conley searched the city for President McDonald of the union, but he could not be found. He is wanted on charges of inciting riots. The list of men who are wanted was said by Major Roote to be a long one.

For the first time in three  days the jurisdiction committee of the new union did not appear at the mines to prohibit non-members from working. Outside of the court house, Gatling guns were placed in the streets and two machine guns were placed on the roof of the court house. Martial law orders prohibit all public meetings without special permits.

[Emphasis added.]

From the New York Times of September 3, 1914:

ARRESTS IN MINE WAR.

Trinidad Jail Is Filled – Union Leaders Reported Indicted.
Special to the New York Times

DENVER. Sept. 2. – Twenty prisoners, including union officials, strikers, and sympathizers, alleged to be concerned in the disorders arising out of the Colorado mine war are in jail at Trinidad, and many warrants are still to be served. The warrants, charging murder, arson, and other crimes, which followed the several pitched battles between strikers and mine guards this spring, are based on indictments which were returned by the Grand Jury last Saturday. It is believed that some of the prominent officers of the United Mine Workers have been indicted. Their names will not be revealed until the arrests are mad.The Trinidad Jail is filled tonight. Among the prisoners are William Diamond, National organizer of the United Mine Workers; James Davis, Marshal at Aguilar; Frank Miner, President of the Trinidad Trades Council, and Robert Uhlich, former President of the Trinidad Miners’ Union.

Helen Schloss of Denver, who is in charge of the strikers’ hospital at Ludlow, was arrested today by Federal troops charged with picketing. Her arrest has caused great concern among the strikers.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Nurse Helen Schloss and Union Leaders Jailed at Trinidad CO; Martial Law Enforced at Butte MT” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Burley WA Co-operator: Mother Jones Describes the March of the Mill Children of July 1903

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones to TR, These Little Children, Phl No Am July 16, 1903, Foner p552—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 4, 1904
Mother Jones Describes the March of the Mill Children of July 1903

From The Co-operator of September 1904:

The March of the Children.

Lena Morrow Lewis, in The Socialist, Seattle, Washington, June 19th, 1904. From notes by Mother Jones.

Mother Jones w Army, March of Mill Children, AZ Rpbn p1, July 18, 1903

PHILADELPHIA is famed far and wide as the ” City of Brotherly Love.” Churches abound everywhere, and her people look with holy awe upon the sins and vices of their sister city on Long Island Sound. And an unsuspecting and unobserving public has been quite ready to accept without question all that the City of Brotherly Love has claimed for herself.

It has remained for the wicked labor agitator to ferret out and unearth the criminal conditions that exist in this quiet, peaceful church- going city of Philadelphia, and it is only in a Socialist paper that these facts are permitted to see the light of day.

The writer is indebted to “Mother” Jones for the items contained therein.

Last summer the textile workers of Philadelphia, 125,000 men, women and children, went on a strike. They demanded shorter hours, an increase of wages and better sanitary conditions. Filthy closets and a defective sewerage system produced a very unwholesome atmosphere in which to work. Meanwhile the rest of the world wagged merrily on, and no one seemed to know or care anything about the strike, except a few labor cranks and Socialists and the owners whose profits were being affected. Not a daily newspaper mentioned the cause of the strike, nor the fact that among the strikers were a large number of children. During this time “Mother” Jones “happened” to drop into town and, as is her custom, she began to stir up matters. The public should be forced to know what these people were striking for. But strikes were such common affairs and it would require drastic measures to arouse an indifferent public.

At last she hit upon a plan. She would marshal all the children between the ages of ten and fourteen and take them on a thirty-mile march and they were to stop at every town within that radius and tell the people the story of their wrongs. Many of these children had worked in the factory since they were seven years of age and had never been inside a school room. When they were gone about forty miles they decided to go over to Oyster Bay and present their case to President Roosevelt. There was some risk connected with a project of this kind. If any of the children had sickened or died on the way, that fact would have been heralded all over the country, and “Mother” Jones proclaimed a murderer. The mills could maim and disfigure and kill scores of children annually and no mention be made of the fact. However, “Mother” Jones felt that they could afford to take chances and proceeded with the children.

As they journeyed from town to town, members of the working class provided them with food and shelter.

The children marched thru the streets of the towns, held meetings and, thru their leaders, told the story of their wrongs. Every child was keyed up to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. Every step northward was taking them farther away from Philadelphia. Some of their fathers had voted for President Roosevelt; in their eyes he was the greatest man in the United States and so they went hopefully and merrily on. When they reached Bristol the leader sent a request on behalf of the children for a permit to hold a street meeting and, when it was learned that an army of children was coming into town, a squad of policemen armed with guns were ordered to stand guard on the bridge to protect the city against the children.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Burley WA Co-operator: Mother Jones Describes the March of the Mill Children of July 1903” →