Category: Mother Mary Harris Jones

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Evansville, Indiana, for Labor Day Celebration, Comes Out for Wilson

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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When there’s a fight on, I go.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday September 5, 1916
Evansville, Indiana – Two Interviews with Mother Jones

The people of Evansville were fortunate enough to enjoy the presence of Mother Jones at their Labor Day celebration yesterday. While in Evansville, Mother was interviewed by two of the town’s newspapers-which interviews we are pleased to offer in full.

From the Evansville Press of September 4, 1916:

Mother Jones, Evansville (IN) Press, Labor Day Sept 4, 1916

MOTHER JONES DEMANDS 6-HOUR DAY;
WANTS WILSON
—–

Eight-hour day! Huh!

Mother Jones, in Evansville Monday to speak at the Labor day picnic, thinks that six hours a day is enough.

(White-haired, she has, at 86, a complexion 16 might envy-rose and snow she is!)
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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones, The Stormy Petrel, Campaigns for Whiskey and Governor Hunt in Arizona

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Cats and parasites of the woman’s clubs
and the temperance brigade.
We dont want ’em yowling for us.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday September 2, 1916
State of Arizona – Mother Jones Stumps for Governor Hunt

Mother Jones, Stormy Petrel, Poster, Graham Guardian AZ, Sept 1, 1916
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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in El Paso, Texas: “Eats More Fire, Calls Spade a Spade and Swears.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Women, it’s up to you to change the evils.
Men will not change them, and the ballot will not do it.
I don’t care what party is in power
if you give me a well organized economic army.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday August 23, 1916
El Paso, Texas-Mother Jones “Eats Fire” as Crowd Cheers

From El Paso Herald of August 21, 1916:


‘MOTHER’ JONES EATS MORE FIRE CALLS
SPADE A SPADE AND SWEARS
—–
Aged Labor Agitator Says She Asked Colorado Governor
“What the Hell He Was Going To Do About It”
When She Returned; Crowd Cheers Her On To
Make Hot Statements in Cleveland Square.
—–

Mother Jones, UMWJ, Feb 10, 1916

“Roasted babies” and Children’s blood” were articles on the oratorical menu that was served by “Mother” Jones to an audience of 1500 in Cleveland Square Saturday night. The fiery speaker called a spade a spade and the crowd was with “Mother” from start to finish. Cries of “Give it to ’em, ‘Mother,'” “Tell it to ’em were heard after many of the speakers most telling points; but Mother needed no invitation.

Roasts George Baer.

“When George Baer told me that God Almighty had appointed him to take care of us working people, I answered him that God Almighty must have had a jag on when he did the appointing,” shouted the aged speaker, while her listeners broke out into a pandemonium of applause and laughter…

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Thanks Massachusetts Socialist for Her Care During Illness While in Arkansas

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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While life remains I shall always
be with you in the conflict.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday August 19, 1906
From the Appeal to Reason: Mother Jones to Massachusetts Socialists

From this week’s Appeal:

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

FROM MOTHER JONES.
—–

Through the columns of the APPEAL I desire to give expression to my deep appreciation of the thoughtful and kind consideration of the Massachusetts comrades during my recent illness. Your letter to Comrade Hogan, instructing him to spare no expense and that you would foot the bills, bears within itself a deep sense of comradeship which is worth much to us in the movement. I have never yet had to call on the comrades, having always felt that the Socialist movement had no right to pay my bills. My life work is consecrated to the oppressed and suffering ones of the human race; nevertheless, I feel a deep sense of gratitude to our Massachusetts comrades who so promptly and generously offered such substantial assistance.

While life remains I shall always be with you in the conflict.

MOTHER JONES.
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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Atlanta, Georgia, Where Legislation on Child Labor Is Pending, Gives Interview

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Tuesday July 18, 1916
Atlanta, Georgia – Mother Jones in City for Short Stay

From The Atlanta Constitution of July 12, 1916:

Mother Jones, Atlanta Constitution, July 12, 1916


Mother Jones, Laborers’ Friend,
Confers With Local Leaders
—–


Picturesque Character Here on
Flying Visit-
Is Her Visit Inspired by Pending
Legislation Before General Assembly?
-She Will Not Answer.
—–

Mother Jones, known internationally for her defense of organized labor and for agitation for improved labor conditions generally, arrived in Atlanta early yesterday afternoon, direct from Washington, D. C., on a mission, the precise nature of which she declines to reveal. She is scheduled to leave the city this afternoon.

At the train Mother Jones was met by a delegation of union labor friends, headed by Jerome Jones, editor of The Atlanta Journal of Labor, and was taken at once to the Ansley hotel, where she is a guest. During the afternoon she visited the federal penitentiary.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones on Rich at Horse Show & Children on Breadline, One Block Away

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I want justice, no more, no less.
If you’ll give us justice we won’t need charity.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 9, 1905
From the Albuquerque Evening Citizen:
Rich of Gotham Frolic While Children Stand in Breadline One Block Away

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

In an article which appeared yesterday in the Albuquerque Evening Citizen, Mother Jones describes the ostentatious display of wealth at a Madison Square Garden horse show while the children of the poor queued up for stale bread one block away.

Mother describes the Rich Spectators:

Hundreds of men and women, dressed in the height of what they called fashion, were seated in boxes, facing a circle, where well-bred horses, beautifully kept, beautifully fed, beautifully groomed and carefully sheltered from the cold blast of a November evening, were prancing about on the tan bark.

The horse show was in progress. The great garden was hung with gay bunting, the air was oppressive with the perfume of cologne and flowers. Pecks of diamonds glistened at the ears and breasts of the women. Orchids, which I am told cost $5 apiece, were as common at the corsages of the society dames as are daisies in an uncultivated meadow in July.

Mother describes the Hungry Children of the Slums:

I walked a hundred paces east, toward the corner of 27th street, and Fourth avenue. A little army of children from the slums was drawn up before Cushman’s bakery. Those children are there every night at 6 o’clock, drawn up in a line of misery. They came for free bread-stale bread, something to hold together the bodies and souls of brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers.

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Hellraisers Journal: Last Act of Judge Jackson Is to Release the Murderers of Raleigh County Miners

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

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday March 15, 1905
From Cincinnati Enquirer:
Judge Jackson’s Last Act on Behalf of Coal Companies

Who among us can ever forget the Massacre of the Raleigh County Miners of West Virginia? Judge Jackson also remembers and, thus, made sure to release their murderers as his last bit of work before leaving the bench. From yesterday’s Enquirer:

LAST WORK
—–
Of Judge Jackson Was the Release of
Deputies Charged With Murder

-SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE ENQUIRER

African-American Coal Miners OH, e-WV

Charleston. W. Va., March 13.-John Jay Jackson to-day wound up his career here as a United States Judge. He rendered his decision in the cases of Gaujot and Summers, growing out of the famous Stanford City fight between miners and Deputy Marshals two years ago.
Gaujot and Summers were indicted for murder in the State Court in Raleigh county, and were taken before Judge Jackson on writs of habeas corpus. Their cases were heard more than a year ago, but this decision was held up pending an appeal in the cases of Laing and Hurt in similar cases decided by Judge Jackson and taken to Circuit Court of Appeals. He had released the men on the ground that they were acting as Deputy Marshals of the United States when the killing was done, and therefore were not amenable to state law. His decision was affirmed by the higher Court. He held the same way in the Gaujot and Summers cases, and they were both released from custody and bond to-day.

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Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Mary Petrucci: She fled burning tent as militia fired upon her and her children.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ludlow Mary Petrucci, Children all dead, ed, Trinidad Las Animas Co CO Affidavit, May 11, 1914
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 7, 1915
New York City – Mrs. Petrucci Tells Harrowing Story of Ludlow Massacre

Mrs Dominiski & Mrs Petrucci, NY Trib, Feb 4, 1915

On Wednesday morning, February 3rd, Mrs. Mary Petrucci sat listening to Mr. Jerome Greene, Secretary of the the Rockefeller Foundation, give his testimony before the Commission on Industrial Relations. She heard this man speak of the vast amounts of money donated to worthy causes by the foundation bearing the name of the man who controls the condition under which the Colorado miners and their families work and live. Pennsylvania’s New Castle Herald described her response to that testimony:

“The Rockefeller way of philanthropy,” he said, “is a far better way than if he [Mr. Rockefeller] were to blow it in on his own amusement or give his money away in an ostentatious manner.”

Mrs. Mary Petrucci seated in the front row, threw her arms about Mother Jones and, in an audible whisper, said:

My God! What do you think of that, and we and our families facing starvation in Colorado.

That afternoon, Mrs. Petrucci followed Mrs. Dominiski to the witness stand and recalled that terrible day when her three youngest children perished in the Ludlow Massacre. Her eldest had died just a few weeks earlier of illness.She described fleeing her burning tent, carrying the baby and pulling her little daughter by the hand while her four year old son ran along behind:

Well, in the evening when the fire started I came out of my tent; it was all on fire, and I came out of my tent, and as I was coming out of my tent under that tank there was a lot of militiamen, and I was running out and hollering with my three children, and they hollered at me to get out of the way and they were shooting at me and I ran into this place [the cellar where the children died].

She awoke early the next morning and made her way to the Ludlow depot, and from there to Trinidad. She lay ill with pneumonia for the next nine days, and only when she recovered did she learn that all of her little children were dead.

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Hellraisers Journal: Democratic Party VP Candidate Authored Injunction Used Against Mother Jones

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday October 7, 1904
Presidential Campaigns:
Davis Authored Injunction Used Against Mother Jones

Democratic Campaign Poster, Parker and Davis

According to an article published in The Union of Indianapolis, and republished by The Western Laborer of Omaha, and thence by The Post-Standard, Henry G. Davis of West Virginia, candidate of the Democratic Party for the office of Vice-President of the United States, was the author of Judge Jackson’s injunction which led to that judge’s famous confrontation with Mother Jones. We suspect that Davis also had a hand in the injunction which led to the slaughter of the miners of Raleigh County in West Virginia. We are unable to prove that connection at this time, but we will certainly be looking for more information regarding Davis’ coal mines in West Virginia and the Massacre of the Raleigh County Miners.

From today’s edition of The Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York:

WHAT DAVIS STANDS FOR.
———-
Private Interests of the Man Who Is
“Against the Trusts.”
———-

The Western Laborer Omaha.

“I beg my countrymen as they value their liberty, to watch with a zealous eye the tendency of the many to centralize power in the hands of the few.”-Henry G. Davis

Here is the record of Davis, as published by The Union, printed at Indianapolis:

When Mr. Davis began operating mines, he issued and edict that no member of a labor union should be employed in any of his mines or on any of his roads. He has broken up the coal miners’ union along the lines of his roads where and whenever they have been organized. Mr. Davis evicted every union man and his family from the company houses blacklisted them and notified merchants that if favors were shown them or credit extended to them, their own credit would be shut off at his bank. He refused to haul the coal over his road that was mined by union miners, executing a complete boycott over union operators by refusing to place cars at their mines to be loaded.

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