Category: Mother Mary Harris Jones

Hellraisers Journal: 6,000 Miners Strike for Union Recognition in Newly Organized Williamson Field, Tug River District

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 3, 1920
Coal Strike Affects 5,000 Miners in Mingo County and 1,000 in Pike County

From The Charleston Daily Mail of June 30, 1920:

WILLIAMSON DISTRICT MINERS
TO QUIT TONIGHT
—–

Mingo Strike Effective at Midnight, Cton Dly Ml p1, June 30, 1920

About 5,000 mine workers of Mingo county W. Va., and 1,000 in Pike county, Ky., will be affected by a strike order issued from the Summers street headquarters of District 17, United Mine Workers to take effect at midnight tonight, according to officials of that organization, who that virtually all the miners of Mingo county and those employed on Kentucky side of the Tug river, and along Pond creek in Pike county, will strike.

Williamson Conv crpd, Mother Jones, UMWJ p7, July 1, 1920
United Mine Workers Journal of June 1, 1920
Note Mother Jones at center front.
—–

Many of the Kentucky mine workers, it is said, live in Mingo county and only recently joined the miners’ union. The recent affiliation with the union of the men affected by the strike order, it is said, is the cause of the present situation.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: 6,000 Miners Strike for Union Recognition in Newly Organized Williamson Field, Tug River District” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones is “one of the most conspicuous figures in the strike of the Maryland coal miners.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote JA Wayland, Mother Jones, AtR p1, Mar 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 30, 1900
Georges Creek Coal Region, Maryland – Mother Jones Organizing Coal Miners

From Wisconsin’s Kenosha Evening News of June 26, 1900:

MOTHER TO STRIKERS
—–

Mother Jones, Matronly Woman Organizer, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

One of the most conspicuous figures in the strike of the Maryland coal miners is Mrs. Mary Jones, who is popularly known in labor circles as “Mother” Jones. She is an organizer and is apt to be found anywhere in the country during a strike.

“Mother” Jones is a matronly looking old lady of 60, with plump, red cheeks, pleasant blue eyes and abundant white hair.

As a writer,speaker and propagandist for socialistic doctrines, “Mother” Jones has been successful. She has been in reform movements for 20 years, mostly in the west, and for some time has been a newspaper correspondent, but her penchant is a strike, the harder the better. No matter where the trouble comes, there she goes-some way, somehow. She always refuses to take pay for her work and says she does not “help the boys” for what little money she can get.

Four years ago she stumped the state of Georgia for the child labor bill, and she tells some interesting stories about the children between 6 and 10 years working 14 hours a day for about 10 or 15 cents.

She took part in the coal miners strike of 1894, the American Railway union strike, the textile workers’ strike and countless other smaller strikes. When the miners were practically beaten in Arnatt [Arnot] last year, she went and organized the women and children. How she did it no one knows, but for nine months she held those miners together and finally won a settlement. When she left there a few weeks ago, the whole little coal region turned out in a body to see her go. Mrs. Jones says she will not leave the George’s creek coal region until the operators consent to meet the miners.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones is “one of the most conspicuous figures in the strike of the Maryland coal miners.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason: Mother Jones Doing Good Work for Striking Coal Miners of Lonaconing

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote JA Wayland, Mother Jones, AtR p1, Mar 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 29, 1900
Lonaconing, Maryland – Mother Jones Stands with Striking Coal Miners

From the Appeal to Reason of June 23, 1900:

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

Mother Jones has been doing her usual amount of good work with the coal miners of Lonaconing, Pa [Maryland]. A local paper says in an account of a strike meeting: “Mother Jones was then introduced and proved herself beyond question a remarkable woman. She received liberal applause, and a number of ladies were present to hear her.”

[Drawing and emphasis added.]

From the Washington Times of June 23, 1900:

VIEWS OE MOTHER JONES
—–
Woman Labor Leader Explains Her
Interest in the Cause.

BALTIMORE, June 22.-“Mother” Jones, the widely known labor leader, was in Baltimore today in the interest of the striking coal miners of the Georges Creek region. The Federation of Labor is arranging a series of mass meetings for the near future to be addressed by her.

Mrs. Jones does not look like the fiery agitator that she has been described. A motherly, good natured face is lighted by kindly blue eyes and crowned by silver hair. She is evidently over the half-century mark, but is as active as a young girl. “I love my work and it loves me,” she said when her physical vigor was commented upon. She speaks deliberately, with a pleasant voice suggestive of an ancestry to be credited to Ireland, and uses excellent language.

“Why shouldn’t a woman take part in all efforts for the benefit of labor?” she asked in response to a question. ”

Labor is the basis of all society. A woman should surely be interested in her surroundings and her home and do her part to uplift both. When did I begin this work? So many years ago that I have forgotten. I go wherever I think I can be of use. I have taken part in strikes all over the country, and have always urged peaceful methods. All these complex problems will be solved peacefully in time through the molding of public sentiment and the ballot box.

Am I a woman’s suffragist? Well, I have never been identified with the movement or belonged to any organization that was. I think beneficial results have always followed the placing of the ballot in woman’s hands. The excellent labor laws of Australia and New Zealand came only after women began to vote. Colorado, where women vote, is the only State that has taken steps to investigate the labor laws of Australia and New Zealand with a view of adopting them.

A woman becomes no less a woman when she studies social and political conditions and takes part in public affairs. A broadened intellect teaches her to love her home better. Such a woman, as a rule, loves her home and family better than the society woman who hands her children over to hired people to rear.

“Mother” Jones returned to western Maryland today, but will come to Baltimore again next week to make several speeches.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason: Mother Jones Doing Good Work for Striking Coal Miners of Lonaconing” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones, the Stormy Petrel, Interviewed in Washington D.C., Remembers Martin Irons

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Martin Irons Sleeps, AtR p4, May 11 1907———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 25, 1910
Washington, District of Columbia – Mother Jones Remembers Martin Irons

From The Labor Argus of June 23, 1910:

Labor Progressing, Says Mother Jones
—–

Workers of Today Do Their Own Thinking Declares
“Stormy Petrel” In Special Interview
—–

Mother Jones, ed Cameron Co PA Prs p1, Apr 7, 1910

Washington, D. C., June 22.-“The workingmen of this country are at last beginning to think for themselves.”

These significant words came from the lips of Mother Jones, the gray-haired labor agitator, who for the last thirty years has participated in every labor struggle of any prominence, whose presence on the field of action inspires courage and hope among the workers, and strikes terror in the hearts of the masters.

[Said Mother, as she is fondly called by the millions of her boys:]

In the years gone by, the workers were absolutely helpless and dependent on the ability and loyalty of the leaders. Today the leaders are absolutely helpless and dependent on the strength and intelligence of the rank and file.

The work of the old warriors of the labor movement, who have blazed the way with sacrifices for a cause that burned their souls, is bearing fruit. The workers are at last fired with the spirit of revolt and religiously and industrially they are working out their own salvation.

With the force and strength characteristic of the “Stormy Petrel,” and with a sudden brightening of her kindly face, she transmitted to her interviewer the thoughts that were stirring her soul when she uttered, “They are working out their own salvation.”

[Continued Mother Jones:]

There are any number of plain workingmen, who for clearness and logic in analyzing and understanding economic questions can give cards and spades to any Senator and Representative in Washington.

Workingmen of today exchange ideas and discuss important problems in the workshops, at their union meetings, and in their ever growing labor press. These are the most promising signs of the times.

Mother Jones has spent the last ten days in Washington, doing her utmost to secure a congressional investigation of the persecution of the Mexican political refugees in this country. When she was called upon to testify at the hearing on Representative Wilson’s resolution for an investigation of these outrages before the House committee on rules, Chairman Dalzell asked her to state the place of her residence.

“I live wherever the workers are fighting the robbers,” she replied to the surprise and embarrassment of a number of corporation men who are members of the committee.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones, the Stormy Petrel, Interviewed in Washington D.C., Remembers Martin Irons” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting in Front of Court House at Williamson, West Virginia, Part II

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Every Damned Robber, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel p222———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 23, 1920
Williamson, West Virginia – Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting, Part II

Williamson, West Virginia – Sunday Evening June 20, 1920
-Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting in Front of Courthouse.

SPEECH OF MOTHER JONES at WILLIAMSON, PART II.

[Mother Jones on Agitators.]

Matewan, re Grand Jury, WVgn p1, June 22, 1920
The West Virginian
June 22, 1920

I went to a meeting and the secretary of the steel workers went with me. He got up to speak. They took him. The next fellow got up; they took him. I got up. They arrested me. I wouldn’t walk. They had to ride me. A big old Irish buck of a policeman said, “You will have to walk.” “No, I can’t.” “Can you walk?” “No, I can’t.” “We will take you down to jail and lock you up behind the bars.”

After a few minutes the chief came along.
“Mother Jones?”
“Yes, sir.”

“There is some of the steel managers here want to speak to you.”
“All right, let the gentlemen come in. I am sorry gentlemen, I haven’t got chairs to give you.” (Laughter.)

One good fellow says, “Now, Mother Jones, this agitation is dangerous. You know these are foreigners, mostly.”
“Well, that is the reason I want to talk to them. I want to organize them into the United States as a Union so as to show them what the institution stands for.”

“They don’t understand English,” he says.
I said, “I want to teach them English. We want them into the Union so they will understand.”
“But you can’t do that. This agitation won’t do. Your radicalism has got to go.”
I said, “Wait a minute, sir. You are one of the managers of the steel industry here?”
“Yes.”
“Wasn’t the first emigrant that landed on our shore an agitator?”
“Who was he?”
“Columbus. Didn’t he agitate to get the money from the people of Spain? Didn’t he agitate to get the crew, and crossed the ocean and discovered America for you and I?

“Wasn’t Washington an agitator? Didn’t the Mayflower bring over a ship-full of agitators? Didn’t we build a monument to them down there in Massachusetts. I want to ask you a question. Right today in and around the City of Pittsburgh I believe there has assembled as many as three hundred thousand people [bowing the knee to Jesus during Easter season.] Jesus was an agitator, Mr. Manager. What in hell did you hang him for if he didn’t hurt your pockets?” He never made a reply. He went away.

He was the manager of the steel works; he was the banker; he was the mayor; he was the judge; he was the chairman of the city council. Just think of that in America—and he had a stomach on him four miles long and two miles wide. (Laughter.) And when you looked at that fellow and compared him with people of toil it nauseated you.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting in Front of Court House at Williamson, West Virginia, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting in Front of Court House at Williamson, West Virginia, Part I

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 22, 1920
Williamson, West Virginia – Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting, Part I

From the Tuscaloosa News of June 21, 1920:

THE GRAND JURY IS INVESTIGATING
THE MATEWAN SHOOTING
—–
“Mother Jones” in West Virginia Coal Fields
Making Speeches to Excite Miners
—–

(By Associated” Press)

Mother Jones, NYC Dly Ns p12, May 7, 1920

WILLIAMSON, W. Va., June 21.-Investigation of the fight between Baldwin-Felts detectives and citizens at Matewan, May 19, in which ten persons were killed, was commenced here today by a special grand jury. Deliberations of the jury will be behind closed doors, and nothing be known of its work until its report is made to the court.

Fifty men of the state constabulary were on duty here following a meeting last night in front of the court house at which “Mother” Jones was the principal speaker. Announcement was made that she would speak tonight at Matewan.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Williamson, West Virginia – Sunday Evening June 20, 1920
-Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting in Front of Courthouse.

[SPEECH OF MOTHER JONES at WILLIAMSON, PART I.]

[The Pagan Agitator]

The old condition is passing away. The new dawn of another civilized nation is breaking into the lives of the human race.

Away back, eighteen hundred years ago, two hundred years after the world’s savior was hung there arose an agitation. The Roman lords got uneasy about it, and they said, “We have got to stop this agitation and this education. If we don’t they will get the best of us. That won’t do.” They sent down and brought up all those they could get together to come in a hurry to Rome. They either sold them into slavery or held them, and among those that was brought in was a young man. When he came into the Roman court to get his decision the Judge said, “Who are you?”

“I am a man, and a member of the human family.”

“Then why do you carry on this agitation?”

“Because I belong to a class that all down the ages have been robbed, murdered, maligned, crucified, deluded, and because I belong to that class I think it is my duty to be with that class and to put a stop to these crimes.”

I wish I could convey that same spirit that possessed this pagan slave eighteen hundred years ago to every working man in my hearing today. If he possessed that spirit of manhood the other fellow would come and ask us for the right to eat instead of asking him for the right to eat. But we haven’t come to that spirit yet, because all down the ages the system has been going on to enslave us. This pagan slave was not a Christian. By no means. He was a pagan in those days, but he was teaching real Christianity. He was teaching Christ’s Christianity, that an injury to one working man is an injury to all. But they called him a pagan.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting in Front of Court House at Williamson, West Virginia, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1920, Part II: Found Described by John D. Barry and Speaking in Streator, Illinois

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Labor Unions for Humanity, Streator Dly Free Prs p3, May 24, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 20, 1920
-Mother Jones News for May 1920, Part II
Found Described by John D. Barry and Speaking in Streator, Illinois

From The Pacific Commercial Advertiser of May 15, 1920:

Ways of the World by John D Barry, Pacific Com Adv p4, May 15, 1920

AN EVENING WITH MOTHER JONES

BY JOHN D. BARRY

Mother Jones, NYC Dly Ns p12, May 7, 1920
The News
“New York’s Picture Newspaper”
May 7, 1920

A few months ago I heard someone say: “I wonder where Mother Jones is now. I suppose that, like many an other she has pulled in her horns and gone into retirement.”

I thought of those words as I listened to the old lady in Los Angeles recently, on her way to San Francisco, and heard her declare in that deep, strong voice of hers, the highly developed voice of the practiced orator, that she had passed her ninetieth milestone.

“You’ve got a lot of fight in you yet,” said a man who had himself long been a fighter for good cause.

[Mother Jones announced:]

Whenever there’s a fight for labor, I want to be there. I’m still in the ring.

I wondered if those fights hadn’t been the means of keeping her so well and young. She fulfilled the law emphasized by the psychologists, that life, to be a success, must mean persistent devotion to the ideals of the mind and the spirit. Her ideals had been high. They had exacted hard service. She had lived up to them devotedly.

* * *

She knew that a group of us had come to hear her talk and it was characteristic of her good humor to talk freely for our entertainment and enlightenment. She was evidently a born story teller. She had a dramatic quality that, under different circumstances, might have made her a great actress or a great playwright. Her memory was like a series of brilliant slides. Now she would give us one picture, now another.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1920, Part II: Found Described by John D. Barry and Speaking in Streator, Illinois” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1920, Part I: Found in Washington, DC: Age 90, Still Fit to Battle “Wall Street Sewer Rats.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Likes Fighters, WDC Eve Str p4, May 11, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 19, 1920
-Mother Jones News for May 1920, Part I
Found in Washington, D. C., Age 90 and Fit to Fight Another 40 Years

From The Washington Times of May 4, 1920:

“SISSIES”
—–
Mother Jones on 90th Birthday Pays Respects
to Prohibition Advocates.
—–

‘SUFFS” GIVE HER PAIN
—–
Wants to Live Forty Years More
to Fight “Wall Street Rats.”
—–

Mother Jones v Suffragists, Topeka St Jr p3, May 4, 1920
The Topeka Daily State Journal
May 4, 1920

Mother Jones came to town today breezily announcing that she had just observed her ninetieth birthday and was fit for forty more years of battle against “them Wall Street sewer rats.”

It was suggested that she might live long enough to see a woman President of the United States.

“May God save us!” she said.

She looked sharply at the reporter.

[She said:]

Maybe you’re one of them fools who’s worrying about the women not getting the ballot. It won’t hurt the country any if they don’t. It’ll help. Colorado elected some good men until them women out there got to voting.

The women of today give me a pain. Whining for the ballot like sick cats! Do you find ’em at home rearing their babes in fine ideals. No, you find ’em at the club uplifting the nation smoking cigarettes or dancing the fol-de-rol, looking like naked hussies. Ask ’em why they don’t put their nightgowns on and they get insulted. Say ‘Hell’ before them like an honest woman and they faint with shame. And where d’ye find their babes? At the picture show.

Reminiscing, she lamented the passing of the era “when the America of Patrick Henry was still on the throne and people were clean and fine and you got pure whiskey.”

“That was seventy-five years ago,” she said. “None of them prohibition sissies running around taking nourishment out of the mouths of honest working men.”

[Newsclip added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1920, Part I: Found in Washington, DC: Age 90, Still Fit to Battle “Wall Street Sewer Rats.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Mother Jones before House Committee on Behalf of Persecuted Mexican Refugees, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, No Abiding Place, WDC Hse Com Testimony, June 14, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 18, 1910
Washington D. C. – Mother Jones Before House Rules Committee, Part II

Washington D. C., June 14, 1910-During the morning session of the Hearings before the House Rules Committee on H.J. Res. 201, “Providing for a Joint Committee To Investigate Alleged Persecutions of Mexican Citizens by the Government of Mexico,” Mother Jones continued her testimony as follow:

STATEMENT OF MRS. MARY JONES

[Part II of II.]

Mother Jones re Mex Rev, Lebanon PA Dly Ns p7, June 15, 1910
Lebanon Daily News
June 15, 1910

I left there [Arizona] then, but in 1908, immediately after the campaign. I learned from those men in jail at Los Angeles their condition [Ricardo Flores Magon, Librado Rivera, and Antonio I. Villareal]. They were without money, without aid, and I felt that they were just like Kosciuszko, Carl Schurz, Kossuth, and Garibaldi, and men of that kind, who received protection in our country from the tyrannical governments which they fled from, and I felt they were entitled to some protection, and that if they were without money, but were in the fight for liberty, a fight against the most bloody tyrant that has been produced, I would protect them; and so, although I was not in very good health, I went out and raised $4,000. I sent it West to get stenographers, hire attorneys, and bring witnesses to Tombstone, Arizona, where they were to be tried. I did not expect any great amount of mercy from the court at Tombstone, because Judge Doan is not very humane man. People who are feasting and eating and drinking with those who own the fleshpots of Egypt are not generally very humane characters. But I still felt that probably through the efforts we were making, and the publicity we were giving it, they would not be turned over to be murdered, and if they could be saved from being murdered that would satisfy me, knowing that some day we would get them out of the clutches of the tyrant. And so they were tried and sentenced to eighteen days in Yuma. From there they were moved to the new prison.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Mother Jones before House Committee on Behalf of Persecuted Mexican Refugees, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Mother Jones before House Committee on Behalf of Persecuted Mexican Refugees, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, No Abiding Place, WDC Hse Com Testimony, June 14, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 17, 1910
Washington D. C. – Mother Jones Before House Rules Committee, Part I

Washington D. C., June 14, 1910-During the morning session of the Hearings before the House Rules Committee on H.J. Res. 201, “Providing for a Joint Committee To Investigate Alleged Persecutions of Mexican Citizens by the Government of Mexico,” Mother Jones was called to the stand by Congressman William B. Wilson of Pennsylvania. Mother testified as follow:

Mr. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, I would like to have Mother Jones speak.
The Chairman [Representative John Dalzell of Pennsylvania]:
Mother Jones, please give the stenographer your name and residence.

STATEMENT OF MRS. MARY JONES

[Part I of II.]

Mother Jones re Mex Rev, Lebanon PA Dly Ns p7, June 15, 1910
Lebanon Daily News
June 15, 1910

[Questioned by Chairman Dalzell:]

My name is Mary Jones. I live in the United States, but I do not know exactly in what place, because I am always in the fight against oppression, and wherever a fight is going on I have to jump there, and sometimes I am in Washington, sometimes in Pennsylvania, sometimes in Arizona, sometimes in Texas, and sometimes up in Minnesota, so that really I have no particular residence…No abiding place, but wherever a fight is on against wrong, I am always there. It is my pleasure to be in the fray.

[Mr. Wilson questions Mother about the kidnapping of Manual Sarabia from Douglas, Arizona, during summer of 1907:]

I was in Arizona at that time. We had a strike on there with the Philip Dodge copper interest. The smelters, the men, or the slaves, rather, working in the smelters, had not been organized, and I went down there in Douglas to help organize those workers.

[Wilson asks Mother if she would rather sit down] I am so accustomed to standing when I am talking that I am uncomfortable when sitting down. That is too easy. [Laughter.]

Well, I was holding a meeting on the streets of Douglas on Sunday night for the workers that were in the smelters. An automobile was run out from the jail, from what I learned afterwards and this young Sarabia was thrown into it.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Mother Jones before House Committee on Behalf of Persecuted Mexican Refugees, Part I” →