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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 20, 1900
Mother Jones in Pennsylvania: Women Stand Ready for the Strike
From the Philadelphia Times of September 15, 1900:
WOMEN IN FAVOR OF THE STRIKE
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Wives, Daughters and Sweethearts of Miners
Are as Much in Earnest as the Men.
——-Dictated for The Times by MOTHER MARY JONES,
the Great Woman Labor Leader.
——-Mahanoy City, September 14.
Since my departure from Hazleton I have made a point of visiting every coal mining village in the whole coal mining district from Shamokin to Pittston, and I have found that the spirit of the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of the men who are going to quit work on Monday [September 17th] is Spartan in steadfastness. All who know the effect of strikes are aware that families suffer just the same as do the men themselves, and when the women of the coal fields are willing for a strike to take place one can decide that the struggle will be one that a great money power will have hard work to win.
I have found that the 200,000 women and girls who will be involved in the strike were just as much determined as were the men folks. They advised that the strike take place, a fact that certainly is unusual, and one on which I base my belief that this strike is bound to be a success. As a rule long established, women have been found against anything that might tend to create disturbances between the men and coal operators, but this time they are behind the mine workers, heart and soul, and will stand out to the last. They will put courage into the hearts of the weaklings and will sustain the determination of the more dogged.
The support of a wife or mother is a great factor in any contest. When women of the household have reproach in their eyes, when they continually din into the ears of the men on strike that they had no right to quit work, it is safe to say that the strike will not last long.
Another thing that I have seen is that the women have been quietly preparing for the strike as well as the men. The flour barrel in every little home is filled, and in the more prosperous households an extra barrel has been laid away. Provision chests and closets are well stored. Winter clothing is ready. Stout feminine hearts have prepared as well as they have been able.
As to the men, I have found only a grim determination to win the strike. The leaders are correct in their assertions that fully 95 per cent. of the men in the whole region will strike. I have talked with thousands of them and know thoroughly what I am saying. The operators will be grievously mistaken as to their figures on the number of men who are going out. They say that at least 20 per cent. will remain at work.
While in the Coxe and Markle mines at Highlands, Drifton and elsewhere, within fifteen or twenty miles from Hazleton, 20 per cent. of the men may remain in the shafts, this is not true of all other districts, and these mines will have no effect on the others.
There is, I see, the usual fear of violence. None will come from anyone connected with the United Mine Workers. I know this positively. Union miners will protect the mines to the last extremity, because they know it is to the advantage of the organization. Then, too, the women will be more prominent in the strike than in any heretofore, and their influence is peaceful.
The United Mine Workers will win this strike, for the reason that for the first time in the history of the struggles in the hard coal regions [anthracite] the workers have an organization of great national scope behind them. This means that there is an inexhaustible fund to draw upon, as thousands of men at work will contribute to the support of those out, so long as they are on strike.
MARY JONES.
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[Photograph of Mother Jones and emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, If war Shamokin Sep 8, Phl Iq p2, Sept 9, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167217933/
The Times
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
-Sept 15, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/53319916/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/595263678/
See also:
Tag: Great Anthracite Strike of 1900
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-anthracite-strike-of-1900/
Search at Chronicling America
-Sept 14-20, 1900 for Mother Jones
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?dateFilterType=range&date1=09%2F14%2F1900&date2=09%2F20%2F1900&language=&ortext=&andtext=&phrasetext=%22mother+jones%22&proxtext=&proxdistance=5&rows=20&searchType=advanced&sort=date
Monday Sept 17, 1900-Harrisburg PA Star Independent:
-Big Miners’ Strike On; Sturdy Toilers Quit
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/57818638/monday-sept-17-1900-harrisburg-pa-star/
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I Am A Union Woman – Deborah Holland
Lyrics by Florence Reese