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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 22, 1920
Williamson, West Virginia – Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting, Part I
From the Tuscaloosa News of June 21, 1920:
THE GRAND JURY IS INVESTIGATING
THE MATEWAN SHOOTING
—–
“Mother Jones” in West Virginia Coal Fields
Making Speeches to Excite Miners
—–(By Associated” Press)
WILLIAMSON, W. Va., June 21.-Investigation of the fight between Baldwin-Felts detectives and citizens at Matewan, May 19, in which ten persons were killed, was commenced here today by a special grand jury. Deliberations of the jury will be behind closed doors, and nothing be known of its work until its report is made to the court.
Fifty men of the state constabulary were on duty here following a meeting last night in front of the court house at which “Mother” Jones was the principal speaker. Announcement was made that she would speak tonight at Matewan.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Williamson, West Virginia – Sunday Evening June 20, 1920
-Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting in Front of Courthouse.
[SPEECH OF MOTHER JONES at WILLIAMSON, PART I.]
[The Pagan Agitator]
The old condition is passing away. The new dawn of another civilized nation is breaking into the lives of the human race.
Away back, eighteen hundred years ago, two hundred years after the world’s savior was hung there arose an agitation. The Roman lords got uneasy about it, and they said, “We have got to stop this agitation and this education. If we don’t they will get the best of us. That won’t do.” They sent down and brought up all those they could get together to come in a hurry to Rome. They either sold them into slavery or held them, and among those that was brought in was a young man. When he came into the Roman court to get his decision the Judge said, “Who are you?”
“I am a man, and a member of the human family.”
“Then why do you carry on this agitation?”
“Because I belong to a class that all down the ages have been robbed, murdered, maligned, crucified, deluded, and because I belong to that class I think it is my duty to be with that class and to put a stop to these crimes.”
I wish I could convey that same spirit that possessed this pagan slave eighteen hundred years ago to every working man in my hearing today. If he possessed that spirit of manhood the other fellow would come and ask us for the right to eat instead of asking him for the right to eat. But we haven’t come to that spirit yet, because all down the ages the system has been going on to enslave us. This pagan slave was not a Christian. By no means. He was a pagan in those days, but he was teaching real Christianity. He was teaching Christ’s Christianity, that an injury to one working man is an injury to all. But they called him a pagan.
[War Makes Multi-Millionaires]
It don’t make much difference what we are called, it is what we do that tells. It is how much we use the brain that nature gave us. Today you have closed the war in Europe, so they say, and remember this war was a psychological movement of the system. There is no getting away from that. It was not brought on by the Kaiser; it was not brought on by President Wilson, nor by Lloyd George, or any of that crew. It was conditions. Revolution forced it, because men don’t think. Now, this war, you were told, was a war for democracy. You went abroad to clean up the Kaiser. You made twenty-four multi-millionaires during that war besides those you had before, and for every millionaire, every high-class burglar that you made, you killed three Americans. Their bones are bleaching on the soil of Flanders. Now, then, the boys have come home, and they are trying to hypnotize them. But you can’t do it. (Applause and laughter.) You can’t do it. You must remember the pendulum is changing, my friends.
[The Cause of Unrest.]
The force of the human mind has taken on a change entirely. That is the cause of the unrest. The servile working class issues in a servile political class in the nation and the world.
Today you can see the unrest, not in America, not in Mexico; it is all over the world. You don’t get it because your papers are not permitted to convey it to you. What is the cause of this unrest? That is the question. What caused the uprising in Seattle? What caused the uprising of the railroad men all at once? What caused the uprising of the miners when the court issued the injunction? For a month they didn’t go to work and dig any coal. But what was the cause? Because there is a new conception of human rights entering the brain of man. The Mayor may not see it; the Governor may not see it. Their thoughts are in another channel.
But the man who sits on the tower knows before the thunder clap comes there must be a clash of clouds, and he sees the clouds clashing and gathering and he warns that the storm will break. So it is with us, my friends. The terrible Bolsheviki or I.W.W.’s or Reds can’t stop it. (Applause.) Deportation won’t stop it. It is the new era, the new manhood and womanhood coming to life, my friends. Has it stopped the agitation, deporting them over to Russia? Not at all. It has not stopped it. Now, here the other day over in England they were loading up a lot of ammunition on a ship to go over to Poland, and after a while the fellows found out that stuff was going over to Poland to fight the Bolsheviks. They took everything off the ship. They said, “Go to Hell; we are not going to furnish that.” (Applause.) You don’t get that in the papers. That wouldn’t do for the American working man to get that in his skull. O, no; that is dangerous. The miners said, “We are not going to dig any coal; they can’t run the ship without coal.” So they didn’t dig any, and they didn’t get the stuff. Do you see the game?
Over there in Portugal they all went on a strike against the methods of Parliament over there. They are striking everywhere. They are striking over there in Ireland, and the Irish are raising Hell in America, too. (Laughter and applause.)
[“We Know How to Raise Hell”]
You see, it is a new fever, my friends, that is brought on. Men have come home to America from the war, and they have been told, “Now let’s clean up the Kaiser in Germany and we will have democracy.” Well, they came home. They didn’t find any democracy but an increased autocracy at home. They came back, and therefore they have lined up and they are giving us the signals, the railroad men, the miners and all around. Now we are after the robbers, the Kaisers at home. There is the whole of it all in a nut-shell. All industrial Kaiserism has seen its day. They know it. You read after Schwab, the great steel magnate, what he says. Them fellers are beginning to take notice. They know their day is doomed. But they are going to give us a fight, and if they want to we are going to give them a fight, and we know how to raise Hell as well as they do. (Applause.)
[Pennsylvania During Great Steel Strike.]
I said to the boys, “They will put us in jail. They own the judges, but bye and bye we will be the judges, and we will put them on the scrap pile.”
The boys got up in the automobile. They went with me. I said, “There is not doubt but what they will put us in jail, so let’s get ready for the jail.” They said, “Mother, you can’t go to jail.” I said, “All right; I will go; let’s go.” We went into Homestead.
For twenty-eight years the voice of labor was not raised in Homestead. They would not dare. They were shocked. America will be America. We went in and one of the boys got up to talk in an automobile. The Chief of Police came along. “Under arrest, sir.” The next fellow got up. He says, “Under arrest, sir.” Well, I thought it was time for me to speak. (Laughter.) I got up. The Chief of Police said: “You can’t talk here, madam.”
I said, “What is the matter with you? You have been dead twenty years. Don’t you know God Almighty never made a woman that couldn’t talk?” (Great applause.)
Well, they didn’t think anybody dared to talk to the Chief of Police. I said to the Chief of Police: “I want to tell you something. Before I would be a lap-dog for those steel robbers…I would stand like an American under the flag as the revolutionist did before…
All right; we went to jail. A thousand steel workers gathered around that jail inside of ten minutes—I want to show you your power— and the burghers run away. They got a pain in the stomach and went out the back door and went home. (Laughter and applause.)
The Chief of Police says, “If you will put up fifteen dollars bond we will let you out,” and the boys came to the rescue all right. I didn’t know there was eight thousand steel workers outside of that jail, and when we put up the bond the Chief of Police says, “You can’t go out. It is dangerous to go out.” I says, “Why?” He says, “There is a thousand men out there. We don’t know what they are going to do.” I said, “Can’t you manage them?” He says, “Oh, God, no, you can’t manage that bunch.” (Applause.)
One time the fear of God got to their corporation heart. I am not referring to your officers here in Williamson….
I slipped out of the door and I got up in the automobile and I said, “Three cheers for Uncle Sam!” and the whole sky trembled. “Three cheers for America! The greatest country in the world!” and they just yelled. I says, “Look here! We are going to take Pennsylvania away from the steel robbers and we are going to hand it over to Uncle Sam,” and that crowd went wild with cheers. They realized who they were. Cowards! I got into the automobile and eight thousand men followed us down. I got out and I said, “Boys, everybody clear the streets and go home.”
“Are you going to Pittsburgh, Mother?”
“Yes, I will be back tomorrow night.”
In thirty minutes that whole town was cleared, nobody on the streets. There is a sample of the order of the workers, that if you leave them alone they are all right. But I want to tell you something. We could have spoke. The burgher was still sick. Ten thousand gathered around the jail tomorrow night, and we were to go again the following Monday.
[Mother Goes Washington D. C.]]
I left Pittsburgh and went up to Washington. I went into the Department of Justice. I saw the Attorney-General [A. Mitchell Palmer]. I went to the Attorney-General and said, “I have come here for the safety of the nation. The pulse of the nation is beating at fever heat. It is the duty of every man and woman, regardless of what position they occupy, to do their part to bring that pulse down as near normal as possible.”
“I agree with you, madam,” he said.
“Now,” I said, “It is not the Bolsheviks; it is not the Reds; it is not the I.W.’s that America has got to fear. There is no danger from them. But the real enemy of the nation is the politicians that serve the interests before they do the honor of the nation.”
I related the whole thing. He said, “Did they arrest you?” I said, “Why, I am used to that. I get lonesome when I am not arrested. (Laughter.) Certainly, I don’t care for that.”
I went away. The thing was stopped. We established an office there. They had an alley; we termed it “Rotten Alley”—the rottenest place in the country. We kept up the agitation until they cleaned the alley and put sanitary houses there for the people. Don’t you think we did something.
[Ministers Afraid of High-Class Burglars.]
I want to say here there wasn’t a Y.M.C.A., there wasn’t a minister, there wasn’t a social settlement worker that took a hand to make conditions better for those workers. I am talking the truth. Why don’t you ministers go out and preach as Christ did? You are afraid of the high-class burglars, and there are many. (Applause.) You are gambling in Christ’s philosophy; but you are not carrying out Christ’s doctrine, and I defy you to tell me so. How many of your ministers came with us in Cabin Creek when we cleaned out the professional murderers? There wasn’t one of them. Not one of them. But one went up to Washington and asked the Immigration Commissioner to take down the bars so “I can bring in southern Italians.” What do you think of that? He was working for Jesus—and if Jesus had ever let the bars down there would have been Hell. (Laughter.)
[Mother Scolds the Miners of Mingo.]
My friends, we are in the turning tide, and it is time for all to turn around, and you fellows here, I want to tell you twenty years ago I was here on this Norfolk and Western. I was at Pocahontas. We held a meeting. We were making a move. Now don’t blame the Governor; don’t blame the State officials; don’t be forever charging up the government with the State officials. You yourselves are men of honor, high-principled men, and have stood and seen yourselves robbed of every ton of coal so much was taken out and professional murderers were hired to keep you in subjection, and you stood for it. Damn you, you are not fit to live under the flag. You took the food from off the table of the child. You paid professional murderers with that money you were robbed of, and then you never said a word. Not a single word out of you. You stood there like a lot of cowards going along chewing some scab tobacco (applause), and you have let yourselves be robbed by the mine owners. And why shouldn’t he rob you? He has the right to do it if you let him do it. He is not in business for fun. He doesn’t go into the mining business for fun. He goes in there to make all he can out of it, and no matter how he makes it he is going to do all he can. And you let him do it, and then you go about shaking your rotten head, not a thing inside. You call yourselves Americans. Let me tell you America need not feel proud of you.
[Kanawha Cleaned Up.]
We cleaned them up in the Kanawha, didn’t we? When I went into the Kanawha River in 1900 these miners worked fourteen hours a day. They got forty cents for every ton of coal. That is all they got. Now, then, the children were in the mines; they saw no school; they never entered the school. They came out, threw themselves behind the stoves and there they lay until their mother picked them up to wash them.
Now we have changed that. We have taken the children out of the mines, out of the Hell holes; we have put them in the school rooms; we have made better citizens. They were able to go abroad and fight. They bought over seven million nine hundred thousand dollars in war bonds, the miners did.
[Boys in the Mines of Pennsylvania.]
We did the same in Pennsylvania. We went in.
“Do you go to school?”
“No, I never saw the school.”
“How old are you?”
“I am just ten.”
“How long have you been working here?”
“Oh, I have been here two years.”
“Never went to school?”
“No, I never went to school.”
“How long has Mikey been here?”
“Oh, Mikey, he is just seven. He came here eight months ago, I believe.”
“Never went to school?”
“No, never went to school at all. And Joey fell down the chute and got killed.”
“How old was Joey?”
“He was just eight.”[Mopping Up Pennsylvania!]
Old Mother Jones was a frightful character! Good Lord, she is a horrible thing! What do you think of her? Oh, Old Mother Jones fought. I lined up four thousand women one night, took five thousand men out that no man could get near, from the crack team of Pennsylvania at two o’clock in the morning, with bayonets, and we didn’t have a stick. All we had was a mop and a broom, and we mopped them up. (Applause.)
[Wake Up!]
We brought the ten thousand men out and organized them. We brought out the striking men and organized them, and from that day to this these men have been getting along. I tell you, my friend, you have to remember, men, you have to remember, women, that America was not bought by dollars; that this great nation was bought by the blood of men who for seven long years marched the highways and byways. They bought it with their blood, and they left you and I the grandest emblem ever handed down the stairway of nations: the Stars and Stripes; and the first stripe in that flag is red, to guarantee that your liberty was fought for by blood and not by dollars; and they drove rotten royalty off. Today you are turning this great nation over to get hold of dollar thieves, and you will be worse than the slaves of ancient Rome if you don’t wake up. Men, this is the time that calls on men. Lincoln said, “It is the time that tries men’s souls.” It is the time that tries men’s hearts and brains. They who love the nation’s honor, love her future and love the children that are yet to come know that the workers must be waked from their sleep.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
Tuscaloosa News
(Tuscaloosa, Alabama)
-June 21, 1920
https://www.newspapers.com/image/323355875/
The Speeches and Writings of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988
https://books.google.com/books?id=vI-xAAAAIAAJ
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735035254105/viewer#page/234/mode/2up
Note: Source for speech was Army Intelligence Records
-the agent made the following notation:
Mother Jones spoke from an automobile in the public square in front of the court house, the reporter being seated at an upstairs window. There was great confusion in the street at all times during the address, and the greater portion of the time the speaker had her back toward the reporter. For this reason it was practically impossible to report the address and the report is necessarily very incomplete and disconnected. However, the following is a transcript of such notes as were taken.
IMAGE
Mother Jones, NYC Dly Ns p12, May 7, 1920
https://www.newspapers.com/image/391486555/
See also:
For more on situation in WV, spring & summer of 1920:
Tag: Battle of Matewan
https://weneverforget.org/tag/battle-of-matewan/
For more on Mother’s Involvement in GSS, see:
Tag: Great Steel Strike of 1919
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-steel-strike-of-1919/
For more on Mother’s earlier organizing campaign’s, see:
The Autobiography of Mother Jones
Charles H Kerr, 1925
https://archive.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/
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The Matewan Massacre – Hammertowne