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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 15, 1910
Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Brewers Stung by True Talks of Mother Jones
From the Duluth Labor World of May 14, 1910:
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CHICAGO, Ill., May 13.—”Mother Jones” told too much truth about the conditions under which the girls employed in the Milwaukee breweries work and the brewery interests think she has gone far enough. So they are calling to their aid detectives in an effort to suppress the printed matter which is being prepared in pamphlet form.
There was such a demand for the articles exposing the conditions in Milwaukee that it was decided to publish the material in pamphlet form.
Acting through a detective agency by the name of Mooney & Boland, the Northwestern Printing Company, which had the contract to print the article, were intimidated into turning over all the pamphlets.
William Vorsatz, who had charge of the distribution of the pamphlets, immediately complained to the postmaster, Daniel Campbell. Apparently the postal officials were more interested in the power of the brewery combine than the weakness of the girl slaves, and charged that “Mother Jones'” article was “obscene.” They especially referred to a paragraph telling about the treatment of the girls by the brutal foremen.
Twenty thousand copies of the pamphlet were printed and the question of sending them out regardless of the postal ruling is being considered.
In substantiation of “Mother Jones'” story of the breweries a delegation from the Women’s Trade Union League of Chicago visited Milwaukee and verified the statements made.
In this report the committee after repeating practically the charges “Mother Jones” made against the breweries, had this to say with reference to organization among the girls:
The want of organization is the great cause for the excessively low wage earned by these girls. An attempt has been made to organize the girls, but it was blocked somewhat by the opposition of the brewery authorities to the unionists shown by discharging those girls who showed most activity in this work and by efforts made by certain forewomen to influence the girls against the movement.
There is no direction in which the beneficial influence of the organization is more strongly felt than in protecting the girls’ moral standards and in enabling them to maintain their self-respect. It is perfectly evident that an individual girl is helpless to resent the insults or resist the advances of an abusive or unprincipled foreman, whereas with an organization behind her, her self-respect and womanly modesty are guarded at every point.
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[Photograph added.]
From the Appeal to Reason of May 7, 1910:
Some weeks ago the labor press printed an article from Mother Jones setting forth the terrible conditions among the women brewery workers of Milwaukee. There has been an aftermath to these publications. The Chicago Daily Socialist says:
Not content with making every attempt to block the efforts of Mother Jones to organize the girl slaves in the breweries of Milwaukee, the beer interests have stretched their tentacles to Chicago and used the local postal officials to stop the publicity given the conditions in the Milwaukee slave pen.
After Mother Jones’ article on the Milwaukee breweries had appeared in the Daily Socialist and numerous other Socialist and other labor papers in every part of the land, it was decided to give further publicity by publishing it in pamphlet form and distributing it throughout the nation.
This work had progressed, the pamphlets being printed and 8,000 letters addressed and stamped, one to every saloon in Chicago. At this point the Brewer’s association of Milwaukee, a strong combination of all brewery plutocrats, made its power felt.
Acting through Mooney and Boland, 108 LaSalle street, a detective agency, the printers, the Northwestern Printing company, 3217 North Ashland avenue, were intimidated into turning over all of the pamphlet, while the work of the Rapid Addressing Machine company, 173 Adams street, was also held up.
William Vorsatz, who was interested in having the pamphlets distributed, immediately complained to Postmaster Daniel Campbell. The servile postal officials, more interested in the power of the brewery combine than the weakness of the girl slaves, charged that Mother Jones’ article was obscene, especially referring to a paragraph telling of the treatment of the girls by the brutal foremen.
Mr. Vorsatz said he was surprised to hear that the postal officials had taken no action against the Socialist and labor papers that had publisher the article. The federal official claimed that these articles had not been brought to their attention, but said they would be forced to act if the pamphlet was sent out.
Twenty thousand copies of the pamphlet were printed. The advisability of sending them out in spite of the “influenced” ruling of the postal officials is now under consideration.
A committee from the Woman’s Trade Union League of Chicago went to Milwaukee to investigate conditions in the breweries, and its report fully corroborates Mother Jones. It further reports that much of the work is unhealthy and says that girls should be removed from the wash rooms altogether.
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Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Mlk Girl Slaves n Virtue, AtR p2, Apr 9, 1910
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/100409-appealtoreason-w749.pdf
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-May 14, 1910, Second Edition
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1910-05-14/ed-1/seq-14/
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-May 7, 1910
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/100507-appealtoreason-w753.pdf
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Mt. Vernon OH Democratic Banner p7, Apr 5, 1910
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88078751/1910-04-05/ed-1/seq-7/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 14, 1910
From the Appeal to Reason: “Girl Slaves of Milwaukee Breweries” by Mother Jones
Mother Jones Speaks
Collected Writings and Speeches
-ed by Philip S. Foner
Monad Press, 1983
(search: milwaukee beer)
https://books.google.com/books?id=T_m5AAAAIAAJ
The Speeches and Writings of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988
(search: girl slaves milwaukee)
https://books.google.com/books?id=vI-xAAAAIAAJ
The Chicago Daily Socialist (1906-1912)
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/chicago-daily-socialist/index.htm
Woman’s Labor Leader
-Autobiography pf Agnes Nestor
Bellevue Books Pub. Co., 1954
(search: breweries)
https://books.google.com/books?id=BByBAAAAMAAJ
Agnes Nestor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Nestor
Union Labor Advocate-Volumes 10-11
“Devoted to the Interest of All Union Labor and Labels”
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Jan 1909 to Dec 1910
George Hodge, Publisher
https://books.google.com/books?id=WB6l6ahRP6UC
-July 1910 WTUL Section of Chicago ULA
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=WB6l6ahRP6UC&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.RA18-PA13
-re Girls of St Louis and Milwaukee Breweries
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=WB6l6ahRP6UC&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.RA18-PA14
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Working Girl Blues by Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard