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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 22, 1911
Mother Jones in Mexico City, Meets with Madero Regarding Right to Organize
From the Appeal to Reason of October 21, 1911:
Mother Jones In Mexico
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Mexico City, Oct. 4.-Just a line to let you know I have just returned from the palace where I have had a long audience with President De La Barra. At the close of my interview the Mexican guaranteed me protection and my right to organize the miners of Mexico. This is the first time that any one has ever been granted that privilege in the history of the Mexican nation. It is the greatest concession ever granted to any one representing the laboring class of any nation.
I also spent an hour with President-elect Madero and he granted me the protection and aid from the government that I called for. I am the first person who has been permitted to carry the banner of industrial freedom to the long suffering peons of this nation.
MOTHER JONES.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
Quote John O’Neill re Mother Jones Resting Place
–Miners Mag p6, Sept 23, 1909
John O’Neill was editor of Miners Magazine,
Official Organ of the Western Federation of Miners
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.RA1-PA59
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Oct 21, 1911, page 4
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/111021-appealtoreason-w829.pdf
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66983937/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1910-06-18/ed-1/seq-5/
See also:
The Speeches and Writings of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988
(search: mexico oct 1911)
(search: joseph cannon)
https://books.google.com/books?id=vI-xAAAAIAAJ
The Survey of December 2, 1916
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=wKMqAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA242
-John Murray quotes Joseph Cannon re 1911 trip
to Mexico with Frank Hayes and Mother Jones:
In the month of September of 1911, the three of us went down into Mexico to see Madero. Mother Jones, Frank J. Hayes, vice-president of the United Mine Workers of America, and myself [Joseph D. Cannon, organizer for the Western Federation of Miners]. First we saw de la Barra-he was the stop gap president at the time when Diaz had fled and Madero was on his way to take possession of the presidency. But de la Barra gave us a mouthful of words and nothing more. Then we saw the Minister of Justice Calero, and he did better, promised that our organizers should have the protection of law if any jefe politico took it into his head to stick our union miners in jail. Finally Jesus Magon took us to see Madero, who had just entered the city for the first time after his election to the president’s chair.
Our mission was to get the consent and protection of the Mexican government to organize all the miners of Mexico. As you know, the labor movement is international and to organize Mexican workers is a necessary for our end as is the organizing of the workers in the United States.
Mother with her white hair had, single-handed, commenced the fight for the imprisoned Mexican political refugees in the time of Diaz. Thousands of dollars contributed by the miners’ organizations in the United States for the legal defense of these prisoners was the result of Mother Jones’ pleadings to “her boys” in the mines for ‘her boys” in prison.
Madero spoke good English and commenced with this question: “What is your interest in the Mexican miner?” We told him that we were compelled to either fight to raise the standard of living of the Mexican miner or fight the Mexican worker that lowered our wage scale, and we preferred the first to the last. At this Madero warmed up and said: “Not only will I pledge you my word that no objection will be made by the government to your organizing our miners, but I assure you that we want them organized; we want labor to act collectively; we do not want blind revolt. Come down from the United States and organize all the workers in Mexico-you will be welcomed.“…..
Mother told him of the difference in wages paid the Mexican and American miners in Cananea-a matter of compulsion under Diaz-and Madero said: “That’s a condition that will not be tolerated as long as I am connected with the government.” The death of Madero was all that brought this international alliance of the labor in the two countries to a halt. But the halt is only temporary. Just as the American copper interests are forced to enter Mexico to keep step with the demands of the copper market, so the Western Federation of Miners and the United Mine Workers of America will be forced, likewise, to follow the mineral leads wherever they may run and organize the miners irrespective of national boundaries.
[Emphasis added.]
The Autobiography of Mother Jones
Chapter 16-The Mexican Revolution
CH Kerr, 1925
https://archive.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/16/
[In 1911 I went to Mexico] with Frank Hayes and Joseph Cannon. Madera [Madero] had just been elected president after the overthrow of Diaz. I had a long audience with Francesco De la Barra, president ad interim, and with the chief justice; and also with Madera in his own home. I was most favorably impressed with Madera whose heart seemed filled with the desire to relieve the suffering in his country.
“Mother,” he said, “when I go into office, you will come down and organize the workers and help them get back their land.”
Then Madera was assassinated and Mexico went on in turmoil…..
Tag: John Murray
https://weneverforget.org/tag/john-murray/
Francisco I. Madero, 1873-1913
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_I._Madero
Francisco León de la Barra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Le%C3%B3n_de_la_Barra
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There Is Power in the Union – Street Dogs
Lyrics by Billy Bragg