Hellraisers Journal: From The Socialist Spirit: “Mother Jones” by William Mailly, Part II: Found in West Virginia for UMWA

Quote John Mitchell to Mother Jones re WV Fairmont Field, May 10, 1902 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 5, 1902
“Mother Jones” by William Mailly, Part II: Found in West Virginia

From The Socialist Spirit of August 1902:

“MOTHER” JONES

BY WILLIAM MAILLY

[Part II of III]

[Standing with Strikers]

During this time she was also working on the skirmish line of the trade union movement, going here and there, assisting where she could in winning battles on the economic field. She was in Chicago during the famous strike of 1894, and no great struggle but has known her since. It was her work in the bituminous miners’ strike of 1897 that first attracted universal public attention, although labor agitators almost everywhere knew her. At that time she braved a cordon of deputies in West Virginia in order to get the miners there to quit work, and in the Pittsburg district her pathway was lined with thugs employed to intimidate her, an effort which was, of course, a failure. From that time her name has been anathema to the coal operators of America.

Her exploits during these latter years would fill a good-sized book. Travelling overland through Nebraska and other western states in a waggon, speaking and distributing literature on socialism; securing employment in southern cotton mills to investigate conditions first hand; conducting a successful strike of packers in the stock yards of Omaha; another of four thousand silk mill girls in Scranton, Pa., extending over four months; a seven months’ miners’ strike at Arnot, Pa., another victory and one which marked a new era in the mining industry of that region-these and others constitute a record unequaled by anyone. For the past two years her time has almost wholly been taken up in organizing the miners of West Virginia, whose indifference to organization and subjection to the mine-owners has made that State a source of injury to the whole miners’ union.

[Organizing in West Virginia]

It is here where “Mother” has encountered more dangers than in all her experience, for the state has been heretofore entirely under control of the capitalists, and the entrance of agitators has been opposed in every shape and manner. It was for this very reason that “Mother” went there. She has been able to do what no man or any number of men could accomplish, even had they wanted to. The present strike of 20,000 men, after years of abject slavery, is the direct result of her work. Injunction after injunction has been issued against her, but she has gone right on. As I write this the news comes that, after awaiting sentence for several days, following upon being found guilty of contempt of court for violating one of these injunctions, the same judge has dismissed her with a reprimand. In this he showed more wisdom than such as he are usually credited with, but the effectiveness of the reprimand is doubted.

It remained for President John Mitchell to recognize the value of this woman’s great ability and provide the opportunity to put it to full account. Through him she has been a national organizer of the United Mine Workers for the past three years, and her work has more than justified his action. It is conceded and acknowledged by all that she has done more than anyone else to solidify the miners into a strong national organization. She has infected the whole mining industry with her enthusiasm and by her socialist teaching she has turned the thoughts of thousands of workers towards the greater mission in store for them. In view of this it is easy to understand why every one of the thousand delegates to the national convention just adjourned, wept when they bade farewell to her upon her departure to West Virginia to receive sentence from a capitalist court.

Courageous almost to the point of recklessness, she knows no danger when occasion requires it. Her defiance of a court’s injunction is not mere bravado nor shallow “playing to the galleries.” She realizes the probable cost of such action, but she believes it is necessary—some one must do these things, else there will be no progress. Underneath her apparent indifference to injunctions, Pinkerton Thugs and prison cells lies the motive born of a definite purpose. If needs be she would yield her freedom gladly if by so doing she believed the workers would the more quickly gain theirs. Nevertheless, there is nothing incendiary about her; she trusts in the efficacy of the ballot, and has no sympathy with those who teach otherwise.

[Indomitable Energy]

Busy as “ Mother” has been with the miners’ union yet she has found time to help other trades, and to make socialist speeches, as in the presidential campaign two years ago. Her energy is both the concern and wonder of her friends. She never seems to become too tired to answer the call of duty. Sleep is a stranger to her when there’s work to be done. During a strike she is always on the alert and no move of the enemy escapes her. She is as resourceful as she is energetic, and as determined as she is both. Innumerable stories could be told of her sagacity, determination and indomitable energy. None can outdo her in fealty to the task at hand. When necessary she will tramp for miles over mountains and along railroad tracks in the dead of night, and to sleep on the bare floors of miners’ huts is a common occurrence that has long ago lost its novelty. Her food is plain at all times, but she has often gone over a day with only a few crusts to eat, and sometimes with nothing at all. No one lives more in her work and for it than she does.

Indeed, if “Mother” Jones has any fault at all it is that she is so much engrossed in her work that she is practically oblivious to anything else-except her dearest friends, whom she surprises from time to time with reminders of her remembrance of them. She reads the newspapers closely, but only to keep posted on affairs affecting the cause. While she obtained a livelihood for years by dressmaking, yet she takes no interest in those things that are supposed to come solely within the purview of womankind. And yet she has a knack of brightening up her usually dark dress with a quiet little bit of color that reveals the innately refined woman. Her one great desire is activity in the movement, and of the workers, their wrongs and their rights, she never tires. Nothing else will ever take the place of that cause while her brave heart beats.

[Countless Deeds of Thoughtful Kindness]

Next to the cause comes her allegiance to her friends. She has many of these, but of those who are close to her and whom she really loves there are only a few. Because there are really few who understand her, who have long since recognized, under the aggressive manner and fiery speech of the agitator, the pure soul, restless with its mission of justice. Selfishness never finds a refuge within her breast, and countless deeds of thoughtful kindness are gratefully remembered wherever she has been. But it is the sympathetic word, the gentle hand touch, coming when they are most needed, that has tied her friends to her with bonds of steel. Only a woman, gifted with the supreme attribute of unalloyed sympathy, could bring peace to the troubled mind and heart as she does.

Perhaps nothing has contributed to “Mother” Jones’s success more than her aptitude to extract mirth from the most trying situation. She is endowed with the saving sense of humor to a degree that has served her well on more than one occasion. She can crack a joke with the “boys,” mimic an opponent, transfix an interrupter at a meeting, turn the point of argument with a sarcastic sally-all with equal facility. She is never at a loss for the exact word at a critical moment. And she can change an audience from tears to laughter without any effort at effect, as readily as the words flow from her lips. A rarer combination never took the field for a worthy cause.

[Emphasis added.]