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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 24, 1902
Parkersburg, West Virginia – Mother Jones Interviewed at Van Winkle Hotel
From the Parkersburg Daily Morning News of June 23, 1902:
IF MINERS, THEY Will GAIN
IS VIEW OF “MOTHER” JONES
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The Noted Labor Organizer
Talks to Reporter and
Advances Her Theories on
Strike Matters
While in conversation Sunday [June 22nd] with a News reporter, “Mother” Jones, quoted as follows from “Ignatius Donnelly’s Caesar’s Column.”
The world, today, clamors for deeds not creeds; for bread, not dogma; for charity, not ceremony; for love, not intellect.
Society divides itself into two hostile camps; no white flags pass from one to the other. They wait only for the drumbeat to summon them to armed conflict.
The masses grow more intelligent as they grow more wretched; and more capable of cooperation as they become more desperate. The labor organizations of today would have been impossible fifty years ago. And what is to arrest the flow of effect from cause? What is to prevent the coming of the night if the earth continues to revolve on its axis? The fool may cry out: “There is no night!” But the feet of the hours march unrelentingly toward the darkness.
Believing, as I do, that I read the future aright, it would be criminal in me to remain silent. I plead for the higher and nobler thoughts in the souls of men; for wider love and ampler charity in their hearts; for a renewal of the bond of brotherhood between the classes; for a reign of justice on earth that shall obliterate the cruel hates and passions which now divide the world.
Mrs. Jones, after having furnished bond for her appearance at United States court Tuesday moved her quarters from a room in the county jail building to the Van Winkle hotel, where, she will remain until the trial of the agitators take place. She does not seem to be troubled in the least about the outcome of the proceedings as she says she does not believe that either she or the men who were arrested showed any contempt by their actions after the injunction issued a short time ago by Judge Jackson was served.
Mother Jones is an attentive student of human nature. While a woman, she has those observant qualities that give her an opinion on any subject. She has made a life-study of the lives and ways of working men, especially of the miners.
She stated that the agitators, among whom she is considered a member of high standing, have never countenanced the brutality connected with some labor troubles in the past. It is her opinion that fighting does not gain for them the desired end, and that it won’t be long until all troubles of the kind will be settled without compelling the men to overstep the boundaries of prudence.
[Mother Jones stated:]
It should not be necessary at this civilized age for men to battle and cause the loss of life. The time is near when wars will not be the means of settling differences of either nations or men.
It is a fact generally conceded that there are now two classes, each of which could work to the advantage of itself and to the other, but instead they cause agitations that grow and cause disturbances that are widely felt. To make those conditions different it is necessary for the working class to be educated to the realization of its standing, and not until that time comes will there be a a proper feeling between the employers and the employees.
In former years miners were considered a bad class. They came from different countries, and were of the kind that believed in settling all differences by force. Fighting was fun to them. They were not to be blamed for that, for they were educated to that point by those socially and officially their betters. Take for instance the troubles in Ireland years ago. The inhabitants of one county would fight those of the other until there was continual trouble. The same spirit was brought to this country, and, while the hardy miners could stand such hardship and rough treatment at the hands of their employers, they could not stand by and see themselves getting beaten for their wages.
At that time it was almost an impossibility for them to get any redress, for organization was not thought of. The workers in one mine even would not stand together and demand consideration for their rights. They were enemies to each other, and were always unsuccessful in their attempts to better themselves. The permanent populace of the entire country saw the miners as a people who should not be deigned any attention whatever. They were rough and uncouth and in a manner, not considered as being the product of the Hand that made us all.
That feeling is fast being lost, and well it may be. In a great part the miners are uneducated. They have never had the opportunities that have been afforded those in other walks of life. But, while they may not have refinement and learning, they have a sense of honor that may be envied by some other classes of people. They have begun to appreciate the beauties of life. They have begun to hold themselves in personal esteem, and are attempting to hide from the world the fact that they are untutored and have not the polish that would gain for them the esteem of the better classes.
It won’t be long until the working-men of the country will have the hand that controls affairs. That day is near, having been brought about partially by the state of commercial affairs. The trusts have done much to advance the masses. They are educators to which we should give great credit. While the masses are becoming educated they are rising, not only in their own estimation, but in that of the commercial oligarchists. They are rapidly coming out of the darkness in which they have previously existed. The natural trend of human affairs tends to their good and that to their uplifting.
It is not intended that one man or a few of them can successfully control the destinies of men. It is a fact, though, that such is very nearly the state in which affairs now rest. These conditions cannot last, and many of us will live to see the day when the masses are in control. We who have studied the conditions see plainly the result, and feel that it is almost in reach at this time.
“Mother,” Jones was asked what would be the result if the miners fail to succeed in gaining their ends in the present disturbance. She said:
If they were to lose today, the result would not hurt them. “Truth crushed to earth shall rise again.” They have lost before, and have been strengthened at that. Every attempt they make is to their advantage, whether or not they fail in their purpose. Labor organization becomes stronger each day and will continue to until they are composed of such members that the destinies of the nation will be controlled by their action.
The newspapers and even the clergy have misrepresented the facts in the miners’ troubles that are now being experienced. It seems that the public in general has not learned to appreciate the true conditions. People continue to allow themselves to be mislead.
It is necessary to only become acquainted with the conditions that surround the lives of the miners and their families to cause one to extend every sympathy, and if possible to lend assistance towards bringing about a change.
In addressing crowds of these miners, how can I help being deeply appealed to? Many of them with pinched looks and ragged clothing compose the meetings. Each one of them has his eye open in hope that he will be given aid. Each heart contains that ray of hope that the miners will be bettered.
Mother Jones tells a story of a young man who was sent to follow in her steps and learn of her every action during the trouble between the miners and operators a short time ago. He had been hired by the mine owners and while he did not relish the position he did as he was directed. He attended every meeting which was held. Mother Jones soon learned of his activities and became acquainted with him. She said he was but about eighteen years of age, and of excellent parentage. He was not strong and could not well stand to follow her to the many places she went. He always registered at the hotels were she stopped. One day after she had covered more territory than usual, she found him in a very tired condition. She called him to her room and requested him to rest, saying that she would tell him of every movement so he could make his reports to headquarters. She said she appreciated the requirements of his duties and his physical condition, as well, and would report to him of her every movement when he was unable to be present at the meetings.
It was “Mother” Jones who gained a great victory for working children in Scranton some years ago. She was successful in gaining for them the consideration rightly due them. She states that girls, some as young as eight or nine years, were required to work ten hours each day many of them lived outside of the city and would have to walk three or four miles to and from their work.
She said the mothers of some of the children would go to the factory owners, and, after making affidavit that her girl was thirteen years old, secure employment for her if she be even less than ten years of age…..
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Love Each Other, UMWC Ipl IN, Jan 25, 1901
MJ Speeches, Steel, p13
https://books.google.com/books?id=vI-xAAAAIAAJ
Mother Jones Speaks
Collected Writings and Speeches
-ed by Philip S Foner
Monad Press, 1983
(search: van winkle)
(pages 483-6)
https://books.google.com/books?id=OE9hAAAAIAAJ
IMAGE
Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/168338244/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 23, 1902
Mother Jones Interviewed in Jail at Parkersburg, West Virginia
Daily Morning News (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1898-1902
https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86092448/
Caesar’s Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century
-by Ignatius Donnelly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar%27s_Column
1890 Edition
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433039680552&view=2up&seq=7
“To the Public”
https://www.sacred-texts.com/utopia/cc/cc01.htm
re “Truth crushed to earth…”
James Russel Lowell’s “Present Crisis” (1845)
quotes “The Battle Field” (1837) by William Cullen Bryant.
See:
Under the Old Elm
And Other Poems
-by James Russell Lowell
Houghton, Mifflin, 1888
(search: “truth crushed” bryant)
https://books.google.com/books?id=y7w9AQAAMAAJ
“The Present Crisis” is an 1845 poem by James Russell Lowell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Present_Crisis
The U.S. Democratic Review, Volume 1, 1938
(search: battlefield bryant)
https://books.google.com/books?id=uBE0AQAAMAAJ
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Russell_Lowell
William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cullen_Bryant
Tag: Pennsylvania Silk Mill Workers Strikes of 1901
https://weneverforget.org/tag/pennsylvania-silk-mill-workers-strikes-of-1901/
Tag: West Virginia Coalfield Strike of 1902-1903
https://weneverforget.org/tag/west-virginia-coalfield-strike-of-1902-1903/
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Mother Jones-No More Deaths For Dollars – Ed Pickford