Category: Mother Mary Harris Jones

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones: “We want every dollar we produce, and what is more, we are going to have it!”

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 23, 1904
Brooklyn, New York – Mother Jones Cheered at Meeting of C. L. U.

From the New York Sun of August 22, 1904:

UNION MEN DINE AND TALK.
———-
C. F. U. Joins With Brothers in Brooklyn in Cheering Mother Jones.
———-

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

The Central Federated Union of Manhattan and the Central Labor Union of Brooklyn met in the Labor Lyceum, Myrtle and Willoughby avenues, Brooklyn, last night, for a dinner with speechmaking on the side. About 300 men and women were present.

The guests of honor were John Z. White of Chicago and “Mother” Jones. The latter attracted the most attention and got the most cheers. In responding to the toast, “Law and Order in Colorado,” “Mother” Jones began by saying:

I hope the cheers you are giving me to-night you will give the Labor candidate for the Presidency the day after election.

Then she went on with parts of the speech she has been giving recently about her work and accounts of what she saw in the Colorado mining camps, and ended with an appeal for funds to help the Colorado miners in their struggle.

[She said:]

Even if you deplete your treasuries completely..it’s the best thing you can do with you  money.

John Sherwin Crosby talked on the “Open Shop,” opposing it.

Miss Annie C. Patterson urged the women to confine their purchases to those articles bearing the union label

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones and Eugene Debs Blast Insurgents of Butte WFM Local 1, “Foes of All Unionism”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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MJ Quote Solidarity————————-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 22, 1914
Mother Jones and Eugene Debs Blast Insurgents of Butte WFM Local 1 

From the Miners’ Magazine of August 20, 1914:
Mother Jones Opposes Insurgents’ Union in Butte

Butte Miners Hall after Explosion of June 23, ISR p89, Aug 1914

In a letter to the editor written August 13th and published in the August 20th edition of Miners’ Magazine, Mother Jones opposes, in no uncertain terms, the admission of the insurgent Butte Mine Workers’ Union into the United Mine Workers of America. Mother refers to this union, formed by the large majority of members who seceded from the W. F. of M.’s Butte Miners’ Union No. 1, as a “dual union.” Perhaps Mother has forgotten that the United Mine Workers of America itself was formed largely by members of the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 who had seceded from the parent organization.

Denver, Colorado
August 13, 1914

To the Editor of the Miners’ Magazine:

I have received a few letters from Butte, Montana, from  parties who were formerly identified with Butte Miners’ Union No. 1 of the Western Federation of Miners, but who are now members of Butte Mine Workers’ Union. I have not answered these letters owing to the fact that I cannot give my approval to the lawlessness that disgraced the greatest metal mining city of America-a city that has been lauded as the best organized mining camp in America.

Two of the parties who have written letters to me have stated that the Butte Mine Workers’ Union would seek affiliation with the United Mine Workers of America. It seems to me that the time has come when it is imperative that every man and woman who is interested in the cause of labor should speak in in no uncertain language relative to the situation that presents itself in Butte, Montana. I feel positive that the United Mine Workers of America will not court the admission of a local union that was born in dissension and promoted by disrupters who seem to have no scruples, as they destroyed with explosives a temple that stood as a monument to the pioneers who laid the foundation of Butte Miners’ Union. The United Mine Workers of America has never given its sanction or recognition to dual unions, and the coal miners of this continent, believing in the strength and power of labor solidified, will scorn to accept an organization that came into the world heralded by explosions of dynamite.

The Butte Mine Workers’ Union can have no standing with the bona fide labor movement of this country. The members of the Butte Mine Workers’ Union can only come into, or become a part of the United Mine Workers of America through the Western Federation of Miners, and if any members of this dual union are laboring under the delusion that they can become affiliated or become a part of the United Mine Workers of America, they should get rid of the deception immediately for the United Mine Workers believe with all their hearts and souls that solidarity of the working class that will one day be able to grapple with the hosts of greed. If the Butte Mine Workers’ Union ever becomes a part of the United Mine Workers of America, it must come under the flag of the U. M. W. of A. as members of Butte Miners’ Union No. 1, W. F. M. , or remain outside the pale of the labor movement. The United Mine Workers of America will demand that those seeking affiliation or amalgamation shall come in with clean hands, not as secessionists, but standing under the banner of the Western Federation of Miners-an organization that for more than twenty-one years has fought the battles of labor in Western America, and though defeated in a number of battles has never been conquered.

I have fought for the men of the coal mines for many long years. I have helped to establish the United Mine Workers, and my voice shall be raised in protest against the taking into its folds men who have seceded from the metal miners’ organization. I know the Western Federation of Miners. I have also fought its battles, and shall continue to do so, and I now serve warning on all who would seek its destruction that it will find no place in the United Mine Workers of America, unless it be as members of the Western Federation of Miners. If they have grievances against the management of their local affairs, let them go to work like men and adjust them, and not spend their time in an effort to destroy an organization such as the Western Federation of Miners, which will go down in history as second to none in fighting the battles for the emancipation of the toiling masses.

Mother Jones

[Emphasis added.]

——————–

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones urges the striking meat cutters of New York City to “squelch” both Roosevelt (R) and Parker (D).

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MJ Quote Solidarity————————-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 21, 1904
New York, New York – Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Meat Cutters

From the Raleigh, North Carolina, Morning Post of August 19, 1904:

MOTHER JONES ON HAND

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

New York, Aug. 18.-Homer D. Call, National secretary of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters of America, arrived here today to take charge of the local beef strike, or what is left of it. He denied statements that men had been brought here to work in the plants in violation of the contract labor law.

“These people,” he said, “are cattle tenders who look after the cattle on the voyage and who return to Europe upon the next steamer.”

Mother Jones, who is always to be found where there is labor troubles, and is therefore in New York now, will address a meeting of the strikers tomorrow.

Mr. Call said that National President Donnelly, who had thought of coming to New York, had decided that it is not necessary to come here now.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado, Refers to Mother Jones, Miners’ Angel, as “that old hag.”

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Quote Mother Jones re Walsenburg Cellar Cell, Mar 22, 1914 x26 days, Ab Chp 21, 1925————————-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 19, 1914
Governor Ammons Refers to Mother Jones as “That Old Hag”

CRTN Copy w Gray Border, Mother Jones Silence by Gen Chase and Colorado Gov Ammons, SUR p3, Feb 21, 1914

Yesterday’s edition of The Lincoln Star noted the visit to that Nebraska city of the Democratic Governor of Colorado, Elias M. Ammons. Ammons came to the state on business, but gave an interview in which he expressed his opinion that the mine owners of Colorado had been unfairly treated by the newspapers of the land. He referred to Mother Jones as “that old hag” and asserted that she was a “professional trouble-maker.” He admits that she was held incommunicado in a Trinidad hospital, but appears to forget her further incarceration of nearly a month’s duration in the cold cellar cell which had already claimed the life of a much younger miner.

While complaining that “a great deal of sympathy has been wasted on that old hag,” the Governor wasted none of his sympathy on the the men, women and children who were murdered at Ludlow. Not a word did he speak of the Ludlow Massacre committed by soldiers who were sent into the strike zone at his command. Not one word of compassion or sorrow did we hear from the Governor for those who lost husbands, wives, and children at the hands of Colorado National Guard whom he had allowed to be infiltrated by the coal company’s hired gunthugs.

From The Lincoln Star of August 18, 1914:

GOV. AMMONS, A LINCOLN VISITOR
———-

Colorado Executive Talks of Mine Troubles in That State
———-
Asserts Only the Miners’ Side Was Given by Newspapers
———-

Nothing has been settled in the Colorado coal miners’ strike, and 2,200 federal troops are still on duty in the region affected, according to the statement of Gov. E. M. Ammons while in Lincoln today. Governor Ammons, who is president of the Farmers Life Insurance company of Denver, was in Lincoln conferring with Insurance Commissioner L. G. Brian over the status of the company in Nebraska. Mr. Brian some time ago refused it a license on the ground that it was engaged more actively in selling stock than in conducting an insurance business.

Governor Ammons said he went to the capitol to call on Governor Morehead, but the latter had gone home to Falls City for the primary election. Not finding Governor Morehead in, he decided to pay Insurance Commissioner Brian a visit. It just happened that Governor Ammons had brought with him a Denver attorney, J. A. O’Shaughnessy, and he also took part in the interview with Mr. Brian.

The Colorado executive showed some feeling when he discussed with a Star reporter the Colorado strike. He declared that the situation had been greatly misrepresented, and only the miners’ side had received publicity. He criticised the newspapers of Denver for not printing all the facts. Three of the four newspapers there, he said, are owned outside of Colorado.

“One of them is a Scripps-MacRae sheet, and it is so rank that I cut it off my list a long time ago.” said Mr Ammons. “I not only don’t read it, but I don’t allow any body to talk to me about what it says.”

The governor asserted that “Mother” Jones is a professional trouble-maker in labor disputes, and that she had not been mistreated by the militia. He said she was told before she went into the strike district that she would be placed under arrest. She refused to stay out and was accordingly taken into custody, being placed in a hospital and not a jail, Governor Ammons declared. He admitted that she was held “incommunicado,” but justified this by saying it would have been just as well to leave her at liberty in the first place as to let her confer with her followers from the hospital.

“She understood, however, that she could leave the strike district whenever she wanted to,” he continued “but she would not agree to go. So we just had to keep her shut up.”

The governor expressed his opinion that “a good deal of sympathy has been wasted on that old hag.”

Governor Ammons is not a candidate for re-election. He has served one term, and says that is enough. He expects to go back to his ranch when he gets through.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: John D. Rockefeller Jr. Remains Firm, Will Not Agree to Mediation in Colorado Coalfield Strike; Mother Jones Ends Tour of Vancouver Island Coal Camps

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Quote John D Rockefeller Jr, Great Principle, WDC Apr 6, 1914, US House Com p2874—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 20, 1914
Rockefeller Refuses Mediation in Colorado Strike; Mother Jones Leaves Canada

From the Appeal to Reason of May 23, 1914
“The Oil of Rockefeller” by Ryan Walker

Oil of Rockefeller by Ryan Walker, AtR p2, May 23, 1914

From the Chicago Day Book of June 15, 1914
-Rockefeller Jr. Remains Firm, Will Not Agree to Mediation:

COLORADO MINES SITUATION IS
COMING TO SHOWDOWN

Washington, June 15.-A military receivership to compulsory arbitration faces the Rockefellers and allied interests in the Colorado coal fields. Aroused by the belligerent brief of the mine operators submitted to the House mines committee, members declared Pres. Wilson will be forced to one of the above extremes to settle the civil war now dormant under orders from federal troops.

Congress, Colorado state officials and the United Mine Workers were bitterly attacked in the brief. Lawless agitation throughout the country lamented. Congress was charged with showing extreme favoritism to “Mother” Jones, a strike leader. The operators showed no signs of agreeing to mediation. Everything in the brief was a reiteration of the position of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., before the House committee that the Rockefellers would lose every cent invested in Colorado before they would yield to the union demands.

[Emphasis added.]

From the Santa Cruz Evening News of June 15, 1914
-Mother Jones Ends Tour of British Columbia Coal Camps:

“MOTHER” JONES LEAVES CANADA.

SEATTLE, June 15.-“Mother” Mary Jones, organizer of the United Mine Workers of America, is on her way to New York [Indianapolis], under orders from the general officers of her union.

Her tour of the British Columbia coal camps was without special incident, except that at Ladysmith [where miners are on strike] the mayor forbade her to speak in the city limits and she held a meeting outside.

—————-

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Heads East, Found in Kansas City, Missouri, Speaking at Meeting of Industrial Council

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Mother Jones Makes the Strikers Demonstrate, POEM, SL Hld p4, Apr 25, 1904—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 15, 1904
Kansas City, Missouri – Mother Jones Speaks at Meeting of Industrial Council

From the Kansas City Star of June 10, 1904:

“Mother” Jones to Speak at a Picnic

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

Mary G. [sic] Jones, known as “Mother” Jones, will speak at Budd park Sunday afternoon at 4 o’clock. “Mother” Jones once lived in Kansas City and had a dressmaking shop, but in recent years has devoted her attention to Socialism and has been active in big strikes as a crusader. She will talk on the miners’ strike in the Cripple Creek district. There will be a picnic in connection with the meeting Sunday afternoon.

From The Topeka Daily Capital of June 11, 1904:

“MOTHER” JONES WAS HERE
———-
Is One of the Staff of President John Mitchell

“Mother” Jones, who has been prominently identified with the Colorado miners’ strike and is on the immediate staff of John Mitchell of the United Mine workers, was in Topeka for a short time yesterday afternoon. She called upon the local machinists and made a short talk at their meeting. She left for the East last night.

From The St. Louis Republic of June 13, 1904:

Mother Jones addressed the Kansas City, Missouri, Industrial Council on Sunday June 12th, and the following telegram was sent to Governor Peabody of Colorado:

The Industrial Council of Kansas City, Mo., in regular session assembled, condemns your action as unamerican, uncivilized and barbarous in the extreme, in your treatment toward workingmen and women of Colorado. For such acts Russia, in her darkest ages, would blush with shame.

Note: Emphasis added throughout.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Invades Canada, Supports Striking Coal Miners of Ladysmith and Nanaimo, Vancouver Island

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 12, 1914
Mother Jones Invades Canada to Support Miners of Ladysmith and Nanaimo

From The Winnipeg Tribune of  June 5, 1914
-Called to Aid Nanaimo Strikers, Mother Jones Insists, “I’ll go in spite of you!”

Mother Jones Barred from Canada, Wpg Tb p1, June 5, 1914

The coal miners of Nanaimo, British Columbia put out a call to Mother Jones to come and assist them with their strike. They are members of the United Mine Workers of America who have been on strike since August of last year. They have suffered all the usual consequence of the striking coal miner: military despotism and mass arrests. In March, many of those arrested were sentenced, some to six months, and some to four years in prison.

Mother Jones was labeled a “disturbing element” by the chief of the provincial police of British Columbia and was prevented, from boarding a steamer for Victoria by Canadian immigration officers and told that she was barred from Canada.

Labor Secretary William B. Wilson, former official of the U. M. W. of A., was contacted by Frank Farrington, western representative of the mine worker’s union, and Wilson sent a message requesting that Mother Jones “be accorded every right she is entitled to as an American citizen.

“Mother Jones made this statement regarding her status as a “disturbing element” threatening the peace of the citizens of Canada:

I am past 80 years and have never been charged with a crime, and so I cannot understand why I am prevented from entering a friendly nation. I never quarrel and I believe in law and order, and I do not blame the man who stopped me, for he had his order from higher up. He is merely carrying out a policy that means “You shall not educate my slaves,” but it is a mistaken view and is bound to fall finally. I had been invited to go to British Columbia and did not know that I was committing any wrong in accepting the invitation of the mine workers there.

Efforts continued on behalf of Mother Jones to enable her to go to the aid of her boys in Nanaimo.

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Hellraisers Journal: Summary of Miners’ Strikes in Colorado and Utah, May 1904

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones re North n South Coal Miners Separate Settle, Ab p99, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 9, 1904
Summary of Miners’ Strikes in Colorado and Utah for May 1904

From The Salt Lake Herald of May 06, 1904:

Mother Jones at Conv of UT WFM, SL Helrad p3, May 6, 1904
Mother Jones with Delegates at Utah State Convention
of Western Federation of Miners

From the San Francisco Chronicle of May 1, 1904
Southern Coalfields of Colorado – Union Organizer Beaten, Not Expected to Live

The strike zone of the southern coalfields of Colorado continues to be a dangerous place for union organizers working for the United Mine Workers of America. Brother Wardjon was brutally assaulted there and was not expected to live. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on that assault and other news regarding the labor situation in Colorado:

ASSAULT ON A LABOR LEADER
———-
Mine Union Organizer Wardjon Beaten on Head
in Colorado So Severely That He May Die
———-
DENVER, (Col.). April 30.-W. M. Wardjon, national organizer of the United Mine Workers of America was terribly beaten on the head and shoulders with revolvers by three unknown men at Sargent, Col., to-day and lies in a critical condition at the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Hospital at Salida. Wardjon was traveling eastward from Crested Butte, where he had been organizing the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company’s miners, and was attacked in a car while the train was standing at Sargent.
He is suffering from concussion of the brain, and the hospital physicians say his recovery is doubtful.

In a lengthy brief filed before the Supreme Court to-day by Attorney E. F. Richardson in the habeas corpus case of Charles H. Moyer, president  of the Western Federation of Miners, who is held as a military prisoner at Telluride, Governor James H. Peabody is declared to be a usurper. Governor Peabody is compared by Richardson to a soldier drunk with power, and his acts in trying to suppress the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus compared to the acts of tyranny practiced on the people of England by the olden kings.

Richardson, in his brief, attacks the decision of the Supreme Court of Idaho in a similar case, and says it is the only court in the country that has said that the military was above the judiciary. He says that the decision does not follow precedent or commonsense, and that the Judges of the Supreme Court of Colorado should not consider it when deciding the present case.

The Legislature alone, Richardson says , has the authority to determine when the conditions require the suspension of the privilege of habeas corpus and then to suspend it.

PUEBLO (Col.).-April 30.-Because Charles Demolli, a former organizer of the United Mine Workers, failed to appear to-day as complaining witness against Oreste Pagnini, charged with being the ringleader of a gang which assaulted the Italian labor leader several weeks ago, the case was dismissed by Justice McCallip. Pagnini, however, will be held on a complaint sworn to by William Gearhard, charging him with assaulting Demolli with intent to kill. Demolli is in the coal fields of Kansas and is in communication with friends here.

INDIANAPOLIS (Ind.), April 30.-The Colorado situation was again taken up at to-day’s session of the national executive board of the United Mine Workers of America……

President Mitchell has telegraphed to “Mother” Jones, who is being held in quarantine near Price, Utah, directing her to report to him in person in this city as soon as possible. He says that there is no significance attached to this, and that the order was issued because the work in the district 15 at the present time is scarcely suitable for a women.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Artists of The Masses Portray the Ludlow Massacre; Max Eastman Describes “Class War in Colorado”

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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 – Friday June 5, 1914
Excerpts from “Class War in Colorado” by Max Eastman

From The Masses of June 1914:

CLASS WAR IN COLORADO

Max Eastman

[Illustrated by M. H. Pancoast, John Sloan, and Art Young]

Ludlow Real Insult to Flag b;y MH Pancoast, Masses p6, June 1914

“FOR EIGHT DAYS it was a reign of terror. Armed miners swarmed into the city like soldiers of a revolution. They tramped the streets with rifles, and the red handkerchiefs around their necks, singing their war-songs. The Mayor and the sheriff fled, and we simply cowered in our houses waiting No one was injured here-they policed the streets day and night. But destruction swept like a flame over the mines.” These are the words of a Catholic priest of Trinidad.

“But, father” I said, “where is it all going to end?”

He sat forward with a radiant smile.”War!” he answered. “Civil war between labor and capital!” His gesture was beatific.

“And the church-will the church do nothing to save us from this?”

“Yes, this is Colorado,” he said. “Colorado is ‘disgraced in the eyes of the nation’-but soon it will be the Nation!“

I have thought often of that opinion. And I have felt that soon it will, indeed, unless men of strength and understanding, seeing this fight is to be fought, determine it shall be fought by the principals with economic and political arms, and not by professional gunmen and detectives.

Many reproaches will fall on the heads of the Rockefeller interests for acts of tyranny, exploitation, and contempt of the labor laws of Colorado-acts which are only human at human’s worst. They have gone out to drive back their cattle with a lash. For them that is natural. But I think the cool collecting for this purpose of hundreds of degenerate adventurers in blood from all the slums and vice camps of the earth, arming them with high power rifles, explosive and soft-nosed bullets, and putting them beyond the law in uniforms of the national army, is not natural. It is not human. It is lower, because colder, than the blood-lust of the gunmen themselves.

[…..]

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