Category: Mother Mary Harris Jones

Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason: “Mexico and Murder” by Mother Jones, Praises Article by John Kenneth Turner

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Wake fr Slumber, AtR p2, Oct 23, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 24, 1909
Mother Jones Praises Article by Turner on Brutality of Mexican Government

From the Appeal to Reason of October 23, 1909:

Mexico and Murder
———-

BY MOTHER JONES

Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909

I RISE to ask the American people, have you read John K. Turner’s article in the American Magazine for October on the frightful brutality of the Mexican government towards its people? If not, read it at once. Then ask your Christian minister why they are silent in the face of this frightful tragedy at our very doors.

Why are they silent? Because they worship at the shrine of Mammon.

If the Revolutionary fathers could come back to earth, the first question they would ask would be what has become of the national pride? Did it die with the immortal Lincoln? Look at the frightful pictures in the American Magazine. Imagine these lashes falling on your flesh. See and feel the blood dripping from your body. Go down to Belem prison see the shocking pictures there. Then, men and women, ask yourselves, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Look at their lacerated bodies, their hopeless lives.

They ask you, does God sleep? No, he does not. He will wipe out injustice with suffering, wrong with blood, and sin with death. The disgraceful phase of it all is that we stand and see the public officials whom we pay, become bloodhounds and man-grabbers in the service of bloody Diaz.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1919, Part II: Arrested for Organizing Steel Workers at Homestead, Pennsylvania

Janet RayeFannie Sellins
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Quote Mother Jones, Kaisers here at home, Peoria IL Apr 6, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal –Friday October 17, 1919
Mother Jones News for August 1919, Part II
Homestead, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Arrested for Speaking to Steel Workers

From the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader of August 21, 1919:

SEIZE MOTHER JONES
—–

Mother Jones Crpd Women in Industry, Eve Ns Hburg PA p2, Jan 6, 1919

Pittsburgh, Aug. 21.-“Mother” Jones, J. G. Brown, of Seattle; J. L Boghan [J. L. Beaghen], of Chicago, and R. W. Riley, of Homestead, organizers of the American Federation of Labor, were arrested last night in Fifth avenue, Homestead, when they attempted to hold a mass-meeting on the street. Acting Chief of Police Hood, who made the arrests, charged them with violating a borough ordinance when they were unable to produce a permit for the meeting.

When the automobile from which “Mother” Jones was speaking when she was ordered to stop by Chief Hood carried her and the other speakers toward the Homestead police station, a crowd of 1000 persons, mostly foreigners, who had gathered in Firth avenue,followed. Amity street in front of the police station, was blocked by the crowd for half a block on either side of the station.

“Mother” Jones and the others were released on forfeits. Mounting the rear seat of the automobile which carried her to the police station, “Mother” Jones addressed the crowd and advised them to “go home and be good boys”. After the crowd had cheered her, “Mother” Jones asked that they give three cheers for the United States and then told them to go home.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1919, Part I: Found Speaking to Steel Workers in Clairton, Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Quarry Workers re Mother Jones n GSS, Jr p2, Aug 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal –Thursday October 16, 1919
Mother Jones News for August 1919, Part I
Clairton, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Stands with Steel Workers

From The Quarry Workers Journal of August 1919:

Mother Jones Crpd Women in Industry, Eve Ns Hburg PA p2, Jan 6, 1919

[T]he same spirit [of liberty] that impelled men to fight for freedom in other times is not dead now. Mother Jones, gray-haired, stooped and bent under the load of her 89 years of fighting for labor, but with a soul on fire and the flash of her eyes undimmed, hearing of the outrages [against union organizers] in North Clairton, sent a wire demanding that she be billed for a speech in North Clairton on Sunday, Aug. 10. Her offer has been accepted. Thousands of mine workers, in grateful remembrance of the many sacrifices Mother Jones has made for them, insist that they too are going to be in North Clairton and if she is going to be dragged to jail by the brutal Carnegie Steel Co police with the sanction of the municipal authorities, they want to be eye-witnesses’ to the depths to which corporate hirelings can sink.

The spirt of liberty still lives! The American Federation of Labor proposes to plant its banner in every steel center in western Pennsylvania. Other national figures in the labor movement will follow Mother Jones. Wires are pouring into the office of the national committee for organizing iron and steel workers announcing the names of men who wish to enlist “for the duration of the war.” North Clairton and other autocratic boroughs will have to back up. Democracy is on the ascendency. Justice for labor is the cry that is encircling the world and wise men will heed this cry.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1909: Found in South Dakota Black Hills

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote John ONeill re Mother Jones Resting Place, Miners Mag p6, Sept 23, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 15, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1909:
-Found Speaking at Labor Day Celebration in Lead, South Dakota

From The Deadwood Daily Pioneer-Times of September 1, 1909:

Ad Mother Jones Labor Day, Dwd SD Dly Pr Tx p5, Sept 1, 1909

From the Appeal to Reason of September 4, 1909:

Mother Jones Doing Good Work.

Mother Jones is speaking in Texas and New Mexico in behalf of the accused [Mexican] revolutionists and is attracting great crowds of workers. Even the papers are compelled by the force of public opinion to speak well of her work. The Houston Chronicle recently devoted a column to her full of praise. It quotes her as saying:

I hope the time will come when the lead which is now used for making bullets will be used for making type to educate the masses.

Everywhere she goes she is greeted with large and enthusiastic audiences.

—–

Note: We last found Mother in Texas, speaking in San Antonio, on August 21st.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Woman Prolongs Miners’ Strike” -Agitator Mrs. Mary Jones Arrives at Arnot, Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Raising Hell, NYC Oct 5, 1916———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 11, 1899
Arnot, Pennsylvania – Agitator Mrs. Mary Jones on Scene of Miners Strike

From the Philadelphia Times of October 9, 1899:

Mother Jones, Arnot Strike, Elmira NY Dly Gz p5, Oct 7, 1899
Elmira Daily Gazette and Free Press
October 7, 1899

MINERS EVICTED
FROM THEIR HOMES
—–
Blossburg Miners Are Facing
Starvation by Reason
of Their Strike.
—–

WILL NOT YIELD A POINT
—–

Special Telegram to The Times.

Arnot, October 8.

The strike situation hereabouts is becoming serious, and the sufferings of the miners will be severe if an agreement is not soon reached with the Blossburg Coal Company. During the past week the company has discharged its superintendent, ordered the mules sold and made preparations to close down the mines permanently.

Although the strikers have been out sixteen weeks, and are facing certain starvation, they are as determined as ever not to “cave in” to the company, as they term it. The action of the miners in deciding to return to work, and then changing their minds after hearing the harangues of Mrs. Mary Jones, a woman labor agitator of Pittsburg, has apparently aroused the ire or the officials of the company.

Evicted Their Tenants.

As soon as the intention of the miners to remain out became known the company took steps to evict the men who occupied houses belonging to the company for non-payment Thus far thirty-six families have been forced from the houses which they have occupied for years. The evictions were effected by Sheriff Johnston and a force of deputies from Wellsboro. There was no show of force. Those who had no place to go were taken in by neighbors who own their own houses, and are therefore out of reach of the company’s eviction process.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Steel Workers of Buffalo: “The Revolution Is On and Nothing Can Stop It.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones GSS American Liberty, Bff Eve Tx p4, Oct 3, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 8, 1919
Buffalo, New York – Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Steel Workers

Mother Jones spoke Thursday evening, October 2nd, at Miller’s Harmonia Hall and said in part:

The revolution is on and nothing can stop is now. Old George III didn’t think the Americans would rise and lick h— out of him, and Gary thinks the same way. They call me an agitator well, the United States was founded on agitation by radicals, and we will make no apologies for that name if that is what they want to call us until we clean the whole lot of them out. American liberty was bought not by the money of men like Gary, but by the blood of men like you, who have left you that glorious emblem, the Stars and Stripes, of which the first stripe is red the color of the blood they shed.

The labor union represents the only Christianity of the present time. The labor union has done more of humanity than all the churches, universities, Y. M. C. A. and other institutions of capitalism. When the miners’ union took the children out of the mines and put them into the school the cry of anarchy went up. The master class has a new word now-Bolshevism-for those who do not agree with the capitalists. If Bolshevism makes the world any better for the workers, I am for the Bolsheviki. I want the spies who have followed me all day today to know this.

—–

GSS Mother Jones, WZF, NY Dly Ns p2, Oct 1, 1919

[Photograph added is from New York Daily News of October 1, 1919.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Buffalo Labor Journal: “Steel Strikers Holding Firmly” & Message from William Z. Foster

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Strikes are not peace Clv UMWC p537, Sept 16, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 7, 1919
Buffalo, New York – Steel Strikers Standing Firm as Gibraltar

From Buffalo Labor Journal of October 2, 1919:

STEEL STRIKERS HOLDING FIRMLY
—–
Propaganda in Sunday Papers Fails in Desired Effect
-Gunmen Modest in Their Retirement
-Big Mill and the Assessors

GSS William Z Foster, Binghamton Prs n Ldr, p11, Oct 1, 1919

A flood of printer’s ink and a mountain of good white paper was utterly wasted in the campaign of propaganda which the barons of the Steel Trust and their affiliations poured forth in last Sunday’s papers of this good, old America of ours.

According to the writings of the lads employed by Kaiser Gary and his entourage, the gates of the big mills would be choked on Monday morning with the men, eager to bend their backs to the crack of the driver’s whip

Their fond anticipations failed to realize and there was no response to the weasel voice of the hired scribblers. The men are standing as firm as the rock of Old Gibraltar.

None went back-divel the wan.

In all this pyrotechnical display of the propagandists we fail to catch the sonorous voice of our old friend, False Alarm Donner. In the first week of the strike Donner could be heard with his discordant bray over the thunderous voices of both master and men. That lad made a high mark for himself as the Grand Claimant of All. He spouted interviews like a Texan oil gusher.

They have put the soft pedal on Donner and the atmosphere no longer vibrates with his amazing prognostications.

So much for friend Donner; now for the big mill with its company houses, its Moses Taylor hospital, its Smokes Creek and its favored assessments. All are interwoven closely with its desire for welfare work and its Oh! Be Joyful efforts at uplifting.

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Hellraisers Journal: Steel Strike Begins Monday; Mother Jones Back in Pittsburgh: “I CAME HERE TO RAISE HELL!”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Raising Hell, NYT p1, Oct 6, 1916———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 20, 1919
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Arrives to “Raise Hell”

From the Fairmont West Virginian of September 18, 1919:

GSS Mother Jones Pittsburgh Ive Come to Raise Hell, W Vgn p1, Sept 18, 1919———-

“I’ve Come to Raise Hell!”
Mother Jones Announces

Famous Labor Worker is
in Pittsburgh for the
Steel Strike.
—–

By LEE J. SMITS.
N. E. A. Staff Correspondent.

GSS Mother Jones, WVgn p1, Sept 18, 1919

PITTSBURGH, Pa., Sept. 18.-The chief of police in a steel town said: “I’d rather see a mob of armed strikers marching down Main street than have that old lady arrive on the scene.”

He meant Mother Jones.

From mine fields of West Virginia and Colorado; from every field where labor and capital have battled, come the tales of this white-haired warrior, who has been in jail more times than she can remember, who is called a demon by her foes and an angel by her friends.

She says she is 89 years old, but her voice rings out like a bugle call and she expects to see labor triumphant, not only in the steel strike, but in every industry in the United States.

“I came here to raise hell,” said Mother Jones, as she looked up from her sewing to welcome me.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in Cleveland to Delegates of Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part III

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, UMWA Until We Win, Clv UMWC p618, Sept 17, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 19, 1919
Cleveland, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks at U. M. W. A. Convention, Part III

Mother Jones addressed the convention once again during the afternoon of Wednesday September 17th, the seventh day of the convention. She urged the miners to unite behind the steel workers in their upcoming battle against the Steel Trust:

I beg of you for the sake of the heroes that are going to break into the war Monday [September 22nd] for a better civilization, to bury the hatchet and come together, regardless of what may happen. Let the enemy see that we are a solidified army and ready for the war if they want it.

From Stenographic Report by Mary Burke East:

ADDRESS OF MOTHER JONES.

Mother Jones Crpd Women in Industry, Eve Ns Hburg PA p2, Jan 6, 1919

Now, boys, I have got to go; I am called away. I don’t know whether it will ever be my privilege to attend another of your conventions. The battle of ages is on; we have got to fight it and it has got to be won. In an hour or so I will leave for the steel strike in Pittsburgh. I have no doubt the bonds of those poor steel workers will be broken before we end. It has been a long struggle, but it is going to come to an end.

Now, I am going to say a few words to you, and I want you to pay attention to what I say. Don’t forget the men and women who gave up their lives for this movement in Utah, Colorado, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. This movement was founded on the blood of men who tramped the weary pathway at night, often hungry and cold, to carry the message of a better day to you. Some of you remember the awful day at McCray’s School House, when you walked forty miles, hungry and worn out, to attend that meeting. The fact of your meeting here today is due to the work of those men who are in their graves.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in Cleveland to Delegates of Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Judge Gary Cup of Rice, Clv UMWC p540, Sept 16, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 18, 1919
Cleveland, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks at U. M. W. A. Convention, Part II

From Stenographic Report by Mary Burke East
-September 16th speech of Mother Jones continued:

Mother Jones Crpd Women in Industry, Eve Ns Hburg PA p2, Jan 6, 1919

In Homestead the labor men were allowed to speak for the first time in 28 years. We were arrested the first day. When I got up to speak I was taken. Eight or ten thousand labor men followed me to the jail. They all marched there. When we went into the jail they remained outside. One fellow began to cry and said: “What for you take Mudder Jones?” and they took him by the neck and shoved him behind the bars. That is all he did or said. We put up a bond of $15 each. We were to come for trial the next day, but the burgess didn’t appear. They postponed the trial on account of the mob that appeared outside. When they got me in jail the police themselves got scared to death. One of our men said: “Mother can handle those men.” He was told, “No, nobody can handle them.” “Yes, she can; let her get out.” I went out and said: “Boys, we live in America! Let us give three cheers for Uncle Sam and go home and let the companies go to hell!” And they did. Everybody went home, but they went down the street cheering. There was no trouble, nobody was hurt-they were law-abiding. They blew off steam and went home.

In Duquesne they took forty men. One man came out of a restaurant and asked what the trouble was. They got him by the back of the neck and put him behind the iron bars. He was kept there from two o’clock Monday afternoon until ten o’clock Sunday morning without a bite to eat or even a drink of water. That was the only crime the man had committed. Is there any kaiser who is more vicious than that? Do you think it is time for us to line up, man to man, and clean out those kaisers at home?

The steel workers have taken a strike vote and decided to strike. You men must stand behind them. Never mind what anybody says, that strike will come off next Monday. The miners and all the other working men of the nation must stand with them in that strike, because it is the crucial test of the labor movement of America. You are the basic industry. They didn’t win the war with generals, and the President didn’t win the war. They could have sent all the soldiers abroad, but if you hadn’t dug the coal to furnish the materials to fight with, what could they have done? You miners at home won the war digging coal. You have been able to clean up the kaisers abroad, now join with us and clean up the kaisers at home.

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