Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Gets Her Permit; Crusaders March in New York and Hold Meeting Near Madison Square Park

SUMMARY FROM:

The New York Times
-of July 24, 1903
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-july-24-1903-new-yo/128847482/

July 24, 1903, Atlanta Constitution
-Mother Jones and Army Invade NYC, Socialist Ben Hanford Speaks
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution-july-24-1903/128849741/

Mother Jones came herself early Thursday morning (July 23rd) to see Acting Police Commissioner Ebstein, and when he continued to refuse her a parade permit, she went over his head and appealed directly to Mayor Low. The Mayor agreed to see her at City Hall. She explained to him that her army was intent on passing peacefully through New York City on its way to visit the President at Oyster Bay. The Mayor summoned Ebstein to City Hall and eventually an agreement was reached which allowed Mother and her Army to hold a parade and a meeting in the evening. The use of  Madison Square Garden was, however, denied to her.

The parade began at 8 o’clock in the evening with Mother Jones leading the way. The Industrial Band of two fifes and two drums provided the marching music. Local Socialists joined the little army of about forty warriors carrying torches to illuminate the transparencies:

Fifty-five Hours or Nothing

Give Us More Schools

We Only Ask for Justice

Prosperity: Where Is Our Share?

A crowd of east siders followed behind, and an escort of three Inspectors with city police reserves from eleven stations was provided by the city. That expense was thought necessary by city leaders to “guard” the little army of textile workers.

The meeting was held about a block from Madison Square, near Twenty-seventh. A great crowd of 30,000 turned out to hear the speeches. Col. Geiger of Philadelphia was the first to speak, followed by Benjamin Hanford, former Socialist candidate for Mayor of New York. Hanford’s statements had little to do with the textile strike or child labor. He first abused Low and Ebstein and then declared:

Each of these policemen has a revolver in his pocket. You have none. The militia come down the streets when they parade with glistening bayonets. Why are they armed: Because of the law. Your vote is a sacred thing. Next election vote so that you will carry the revolver instead of the police. Not that we socialists believe in blood shed-the capitalists say we do, but you can’t find any dead capitalist that we have killed.

After Benjamin Hanford’s  speech, Mother Jones was introduced by Col. Geiger to the cheers of the 30,000 New Yorkers assembled to hear her. She spoke from the back of a truck with her arms around the shoulders of two of the youngest textile strikers. She said that she had marched 92 miles with her band of little slaves and:

We are quietly marching toward the president’s home. I believe he can do something for these children, although the president declares he cannot. Congress last year passed a bill giving $45,000 to fill the stomach of an old prince, and he endorsed that, and if he could do that he surely could tell congress to pass a bill that would take the children out of the God-accursed mills and put them in the schools

Later Mother expressed disapproval of the speech made by Benjamin Hanford, stating that she had not realized that he would make such a violent speech. Regarding Hanford’s strong criticisms of the Acting Police Commissioner, Major Ebstein, and the New York City Mayor, Seth Low, Mother made this statement:

Both Mayor Low and Major Ebstein treated me with all possible courtesy. I could not ask for better treatment from any one. The Mayor was in every way a perfect gentleman in his dealings with me.