My whole life has been spent
on the economic field
fighting the battles of the workers,
and it will close there.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Monday January 22, 1917
From The New York Call: Letter to the Editor of the Forum
The following letter from Mother Jones was published yesterday in the Forum section of The New York Call:
Indianapolis, Indiana
Editor of the Forum:
My attention was called to an article that appeared on December 9 [17th] in the New York Call, written by one Edward Meyer. It seems that he had a spasm and called for house cleaning in the Socialist party. His criticism was entirely misleading. He said that while languishing in the prison cells I had asked the Socialists to secure my liberty. I have never in my life asked the Socialists for any personal favor, and I have never received any that I know of.
He further said that I solicited votes for Woodrow Wilson. That is not true. I made some speeches in Indiana coal camps for Senator Kern. I would do it again, if every one in the United States stood against me. In my opinion he is one of the truest and noblest of men within the walls of the nation. I did incidentally pay my respects to President Wilson for leaving the White House and going down to the Senate and notifying the committee that they could not adjourn until the clild labor bill was passed. I would do that again and apologize to no man.
The child of today is the future citizen of tomorrow; and any man, whether he be president or otherwise, who considers the welfare of the child against dollars will receive my indorsement to the end.
Coming back to the jail question, I have never been molested by the civil authorities of this country, except once, in Clarksburg, W. Va. in 1902, for alleged violation of an injunction issued by a federal judge. I was taken 84 miles to the courthouse, appeared before the federal judge, was tried and acquitted. I refused to pay a fine, and it was either to acquit or jail me. I was acquitted. I answered the court that I had no money to pay a fine, and that I would not permit any one else to pay it for me.
Every time that I have been arrested it was done by the military on order of the governor of the state. In every instance I could have secured my liberty had I compromised my principles in yielding to the wishes of the dominating powers, and they would willingly have paid my transportation to get me out of the strike zone. My life has not been, nor will it be, spent in the parlors of tea parties or of midnight diners and revellers, but in the trenches, with my boys, facing the machine guns. And I expect to close my eyes in these battles.
When the hounds of vested interests put me into bull pens and their military prisons midst rats and vermin, I never made any appeal to be released, nor would I allow any one to make it for me. In one instance the military court appointed two layers to defend me, but I declined their services. I fought my battles alone, ever suspicious of the capitalistic tools and hirelings.
When the aforementioned writer charges President Wilson with failure to intercede in my behalf when I was languishing in jail, I want to remind him that I was not a federal prisoner, but a military prisoner of the state, and the president had no jurisdiction over my case.
My whole life has been spent on the economic field fighting the battles of the workers, and it will close there. Inexperienced critics will not sway me from my work to help the needy and exploited wherever I can, and in this particular I have got to use my own judgment.
If proper analysis were made of my activity on the economic field it would be discovered that I have rendered greater service to the Socialist philosophy than the highly-paid star orator, who in some instances receives a hundred dollars a lecture for telling all about economic determinism to the half-starved, overburdened wretches who, because of their physical deprivations are not mentally equipped to grasp abstract theories.
Mother Jones
[Emphasis and photograph added.]
Mother Jones and the Military Powers of Colorado
Mother Jones and Colorado Militarism
SOURCE
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Correspondence_of_Mother_Jones.html?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ
IMAGES
Mother Jones and Justice in Colorado, Jan 1914
https://archive.org/stream/ludlowmassacrere00finkrich#page/88/mode/1up
Mother Jones, Colorado Military Bastile, March 1914 (X2)
https://archive.org/stream/ludlowmassacrere00finkrich#page/84/mode/1up
See also:
The New York Call Info and Image
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030226/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Call
https://alchetron.com/Robert-Minor-1264362-W
For more on Edward Meyer-note: this may or may not be the same Edward Meyer-
Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York
State of New York, 1913
(search: “Edward Meyer”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=LgFDAQAAMAAJ
Mother did in fact campaign for both Senator Kern and President Wilson, see:
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Evansville, Indiana, for Labor Day Celebration, Comes Out for Wilson
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-mother-jones-in-evansville-indiana-for-labor-day-celebration-comes-out-for-wilson/
Note: In 1902, Mother Jones famously tangled with Judge J. J. Jackson. For more on that see:
Hellraisers Journal: Last Act of Judge Jackson Is to Release the Murderers of Raleigh County Miners
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/3/15/1369643/-Hellraisers-Journal-Last-Act-of-Judge-Jackson-Is-to-Release-the-Murderers-of-Raleigh-County-Miners
We Never Forget the Raleigh County Miners of West Virginia:
“Feb 23, 1903, Mother Jones and the Massacre of the Raleigh County Miners
-by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/17/1256099/-Anti-Capitalist-Meetup-Feb-23-1903-Mother-Jones-and-the-Massacre-of-the-Raleigh-County-Miners
“The West Virginia Court-Martial of Mother Jones”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/10/1188855/-ACM-The-West-Virginia-Court-Martial-of-Mother-Jones
Mother Jones in [Colorado Military] Bull Pen
https://archive.org/stream/ludlowmassacrere00finkrich#page/79/mode/1up
For more on Mother Jones in the Military Bastilles of West Virginia and Colorado, search with: “hellraisers journal” “military bastile” “mother jones”. Note: “military bastille” can also be used, but “bastile” was the more common spelling back in the day.
WE NEVER FORGET
Kostas Marcos
Who lost his life in freedom’s cause as the result of conditions in the cold cellar cell used as a bull pen by the Colorado Military during the Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914. A proud member of the United Mine Workers of America, he refused release on the condition that he would go to work as a scab. Kostas Marcos died a loyal Union Man.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/1/4/1267160/-Hellraisers-Journal-Governor-Peabody-Will-Not-Allow-Return-to-Telluride-of-Deported-Striking-Miners
Written for France Estep, dedicated here to Kostas Marcos