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Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 29, 1909
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Speaks at U. M. W. Convention, Part I
From Proceedings of United Mine Workers Convention
-Wednesday January 27, 1909
Speech of Mother Jones, Part I:
President Lewis—If there are no objections we will have a short intermission at this time and hear from a visitor we have present.
We have with us this morning a friend with whom many of the delegates are acquainted. The Mine Workers of the country generally know of the work of this friend. In many of the districts in the turbulent times when our men were engaged in a struggle, when men, women and children were suffering all the hardships incident to industrial warfare, she spent her time helping them. This morning she is here in the interest of men who have been persecuted in other countries and have come to this country in the belief that they were coming to the land of the free. We understand that the men in whose interest she is here have not committed any crime, but rather are regarded as political criminals because they believed that all men have certain rights that all other men should respect. She has encouraged our men, women and children, not alone in the mountains of West Virginia and the valleys of Pennsylvania, but on the prairies of some of our states where words of encouragement were needed by those whose spirits were drooping because of surrounding conditions. I therefore take great pleasure in introducing to this convention Mother Jones, who has lost none of her vigor, none of her interest in the cause of organized labor and in the cause of humanity because of her age or her white hair.
Mrs. Mary Jones (Mother Jones)—Permit me to extend to your worthy President my appreciation for his introduction. In the days of old when the revolutionists fought against the conditions that King George III was about to fasten upon them, could he have reached his claws in and have put them around Washington he would no doubt have hung him. Today, after a century or more of history in this nation, we find two diabolically tyrannous governments reaching their hands into this country and asking us to deliver men who have taken refuge here and surrender our rights to the czar of Russia and the military despot of Mexico. You will realize, my friends, that international economic interests are back of all this; you must realize that for this change in our nation’s history there is a cause. Economic interests, both in Mexico and Russia, are dictating the policy of our government today—I mean the other fellow’s government. As the method of production changes, the policy of the government must change to fit into it. Newspapers, magazines, churches, all must fit into the changed order. It governs home life, it governs national life, it governs the newspapers, it governs all avenues of educating the people.
To prove my statement I am going to give you an illustration, and I don’t know of a better one to convince you that they have reached into the avenues of religious life to gain their ends. In Texas we had a fight with the Copper Queen Company. They sent to Joplin, Missouri, for scabs. And I want to say to you Missouri boys that you ought to get those scabs organized or lick hell out of them. They got about forty scabs. They were coming over the Rock Island road. I asked the conductor why the train was rocking so much, and he said there was a bunch of fellows on it going to Bisbee, Arizona. I asked him to take me to them, and he did, and I won over thirty-seven of them. The company had only three left. I sent them into Mexico. I said, “Go in there and earn four or five dollars a day and lick the other fellows who are scabbing.”
I had to stay in El Paso for a while. While I was there three miners from Mexico came along and they said, “Mother, we haven’t had anything to eat today, or yesterday, or the day before, and we are dead broke.” I said it would be remarkable to find a miner any other way. I said I had enough money to get them plenty to eat, but to be sure and steer clear of the charity organizations. I said, “I can tell you where you can go and get filled up. Go down to the saloon and get a free lunch, and they will give you a schooner of beer to wash it down. I will have a meeting on the street tonight, and as this is the tourist season the collection will be good and I will give it to you.” We had a collection of eighteen dollars that night, and I gave them five dollars apiece and kept three dollars to get something to eat.
Then we saw a gang coming down the street and they were hammering each other. I asked a policeman what the trouble was. He said it was a row about Jesus. I said, “Who is in it?” He said, “The Salvation Army and the Volunteers are fighting about Jesus.” I said, “That is a hell of a way to fight for Jesus. Why don’t you arrest them?” He said it would not do because they were fighting for Jesus. They had beaten each other and the women had pulled each other’s hair out. They were fighting to see which side Jesus belonged to. While they were hammering each other the collection that had been taken up rolled on the street. I jumped in and rescued the coin. When I had some coin I didn’t have to fight for or talk for, but got it by bending my back a little, I said to the policeman: “Don’t you want a drink on Jesus?” He said, “By God, I do!” so we went to a restaurant and got supper and some beer, and if any fellow wanted to get an extra jag on we were ready to pay for it because we had Jesus’s money. When we had had our suppers we asked the restaurant keeper how much we owed him, and he said we didn’t have to pay anything.
These things fit into the changed order of things. That month I went up to Douglas, Arizona, to try and organize the smelters for the boys. One evening on the street one of the boys came to me and said, “Mother, there has been some dirty work going on at the jail.” I said, “That is none of our business; let the jail take care of itself.” Then he said, “But something is going on that is not straight. They brought a fellow there in an automobile and he screamed for his liberty. I think there is something wrong.” Then a young fellow came along and said, “My God, Mother, they have kidnapped our young revolutionist [Manuel Sarabia], and they have run him across to Mexico and he will be murdered immediately!” We telegraphed to the governor and to Washington. We got Teddy out of bed that night, I can tell you. The next night we proposed to hold a mass meeting. I needn’t tell you it is a very hard thing to wake people up in a town. There is a peculiar stupidity about them, and it is hard to wake them up at once to action. I said we would have to get at the papers in some way or put leaflets into the hands of the people.
I went to a fellow who was fighting the Copper Queen and asked if he could get out an extra. He said he hadn’t the money, and I gave him twenty dollars and told him to go ahead. He did, and we flooded the town with them, and when we got to the meeting the crowd was dense all around that neighborhood. I needn’t tell you, boys, I suppose, or most of you, that I long ago quit praying and took to swearing. If I pray I will have to wait until I am dead to get anything; but when I swear I get things here. Well, I was not very particular what I said at that meeting. I said, “Boys, if you will go with me we will go into Mexico and bring that fellow back; we will make Diaz give him up.” They said they would go with me. I said, “There isn’t a Pinkerton between here and hell we won’t hang,”and they went and got the ropes. Well, we got the fellow back.
Here is the question you have to bear in mind, my brothers. Owing to international economic conditions this government is becoming officious in this matter. The Southern Pacific railroad, the Standard Oil and the copper interests are all back of this affair. They know if these men win out their doom is registered. Here are some pictures I wish to send down through the audience. These men were in the battle of Cannanea [Cananea] in 1896 [1906] when they drove those poor slaves back. These six were missing. Nobody could tell where they were for three or four weeks afterwards, and then they were found hanging as they appear in the pictures, with their flesh eaten off their bodies. The other two that led the strike in the Green mines of Cannanea were sent to prison at hard labor for fifteen years [Esteban Baca Calderón and Manuel Macario Diéguez].
I have a letter here which says: “The cause of liberty is going back here every day. The Mexican who has the courage to speak out is arrested and punished to the limit. The Mexican consul is lying every day to his government in order to hold his dirty job of spy. God only knows what will become of these people. They have incarcerated many workers in Sonora for leading the strike.” Talk about Russia! Mexico is worse than Russia, because Russia has a parliament but Mexico has nothing but Diaz! They have reached into St. Louis and have the Jeffries Detective agency to hound those men all over the continent, even into Canada. Those men were be hind the bars when I was notified of it. They said they had not a dollar for their trials. One of their lawyers said he had been engaged in the last year fighting the case. He said that when he saw me he would tell me many things that would make my blood boil. He said they needed both money and moral support. He asked that whenever I spoke before a gathering to have a resolution adopted asking the government to intercede in their behalf.
I have a bunch of such letters, but as you have been held here a long time, with someone spouting something to you to make you good or bad, I won’t detain you. I am not here to spout something to make you good or bad; I know you are good. I have fought with you long enough to know that you are about the best fighters this country has. You miners can revolutionize this whole country if you want to. I will tell you, Comrade Wilson, it is not waterways we need, but the ownership of those means so the boys will only work four hours a day. That is what we are after. You have to work too much.
President Lewis—We are willing to work less.
Mother Jones—Send more fighters to congress. I want to tell you, [William B.] Wilson, you haven’t made enough noise in congress. I have been watching you. You must understand that this government is not in Washington; it is in Wall street. That is the trouble with those boys. That is why Russia can enter Sandy Hook and find written on the portals of the city “Leave behind all hope of liberty, you who enter here.” Morgan went to Russia last year and made a deal with the czar of Russia, and the czar said: “If you will surrender those refugees we will take care of your interests.” Morgan got his order for thousands and thousands of tons of steel rails. Harriman and Morgan were fighting, and Harriman went to Morgan and said: “Let us fix it up,” and they did, and instead of charging the southern Pacific $29.00 a ton for rails they put them down to $23.00 a ton, and reduced the wages of the steel workers.
If you fellows cannot make a noise in congress get down and out and we women will go there. If I was in congress I would tell Teddy to shut his mouth, not be lecturing women about race suicide, when his own daughter has been doubled up with a congressman for three years and he hasn’t said a word about race suicide to her yet.
Now, boys, remember that back of all these things is the question of economic interests. The Standard Oil owns the Green mines. Green owns seventy-five square miles of the people’s land in Arizona. And we haven’t an oligarchy in this country! You ought to be looking after these things, Wilson and [T. D.] Nicholls, not looking after waterways. Those little side-show issues don’t amount to anything; what we are after today is to shake them up, because president, cabinet, congress, senate and the courts are simply putty in the hands of the Wall street gang of commercial pirates.If they weren’t old Joe Cannon would not be boss and shooting off his bazoo. If there was just one woman in that congress old Joe Cannon would shake on his throne.
[Part I of II, to be continued.]
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCE
Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual
Convention of the United Mine Workers of America
Held in the City of Indianapolis, Indiana
-Jan 19 to Feb 4, 1909
https://books.google.com/books?id=dyhRAQAAMAAJ
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=dyhRAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA1
Wednesday January 27, 1909, Eighth Day-Morning Session,
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=dyhRAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA364
UMWA President Thomas L. Lewis introduces Mother Jones
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=dyhRAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA374
Mother Jones speaks on behalf of imprisoned Mexican Revolutionaries.
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=dyhRAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA375
Quote Mother Jones re Wall St Gang, UMWC Jan 27, 1909
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=dyhRAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA378
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908
https://www.genealogybank.com/
See also:
Thomas L Lewis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Lewis_(unionist)
Tag: Mexican Revolutionaries
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mexican-revolutionaries/
Tag: Russian Revolutionaries
https://weneverforget.org/tag/russian-revolutionaries/
William B Wilson, U. S. House of Representatives 1907-1913
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bauchop_Wilson
T. D. Nicholls, U. S. House of Representatives 1907-1911
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_David_Nicholls
“Old Joe Cannon”-Speaker of U. S. House of Representatives 1903-1911
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Gurney_Cannon
For more on Mexican Revolutionaries and Cananea Strike of 1906:
Hellraisers Journal: Monday January 25, 1909
Los Angeles, California – Mexican Revolutionaries Languish in Jail
From the Appeal to Reason: “Oh! Ye Lovers of Liberty,” Mother Jones Pleads for Our Mexican Comrades
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Hazel Dickens – Fire in the Hole
“I plan to make a union for the ones I leave behind.”