———-
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 8, 1919
Buffalo, New York – Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Steel Workers
Mother Jones spoke Thursday evening, October 2nd, at Miller’s Harmonia Hall and said in part:
The revolution is on and nothing can stop is now. Old George III didn’t think the Americans would rise and lick h— out of him, and Gary thinks the same way. They call me an agitator well, the United States was founded on agitation by radicals, and we will make no apologies for that name if that is what they want to call us until we clean the whole lot of them out. American liberty was bought not by the money of men like Gary, but by the blood of men like you, who have left you that glorious emblem, the Stars and Stripes, of which the first stripe is red the color of the blood they shed.
The labor union represents the only Christianity of the present time. The labor union has done more of humanity than all the churches, universities, Y. M. C. A. and other institutions of capitalism. When the miners’ union took the children out of the mines and put them into the school the cry of anarchy went up. The master class has a new word now-Bolshevism-for those who do not agree with the capitalists. If Bolshevism makes the world any better for the workers, I am for the Bolsheviki. I want the spies who have followed me all day today to know this.
—–
[Photograph added is from New York Daily News of October 1, 1919.]
From the Buffalo Evening Times of October 3, 1919:
MOTHER JONES TO SPEAK TODAY
IN HOME OF STRIKE
—–
State Constabulary and Lackawanna Police
Will Make Talk Tame.
—–SHE ROASTED EVERYBODY
—–
Seven Police Officers Under Capt. Milan
Attended Last Night’s Address.
—–Renewed confidence in the outcome of their strike is expected to be gained by employes of the Lackawanna Steel Company’s plant this afternoon when Mother Jones, 89-year-old labor agitator, addresses them on nothing in particular, but everything in general. Lackawanna city officials said today that the woman would be permitted to speak to the strikers so long as she did not “wave a red flag in front of a bull.”
Lieut. Edward Sheehan, in command of the 75 members of the State constabulary on guard in Lackawanna, has detailed a number of mounted men to attend the meeting, which has been called for 2 P. M. The lieutenant has probably learned of Mother Jones’ intense love for the Pennsylvania State constabulary, and no doubt wants his men to hear what she has to say about the New York State constabulary.
In a speech which Mother Jones delivered last night at Miller’s Harmonia Hall, in Genesee Street, she referred to the State constabulary as being “a bunch of professional murderers hired by the government.”
Chief of Police Gilson of Lackawanna said today that neither he nor Lieut. Sheehan would interfere with Mother Jones’ speech-making unless she says something that might lead to further violence in Lackawanna. Many times in her roaming around the country Mother Jones’ speeches have been cut short by authorities, and in many, many other places she has not been permitted to talk at all. Of course, that is the worst punishment possible for a woman.
Cops Were on Hand.
Seven uniformed policemen under Capt. William H. Milan acted as a “reception committee” for Mother Jones last night when she dropped into Millers hall for her evenings work. They were as interested in what she said as any of the 400 other persons who crowded into the hall, and at no time were on the verge of muffling her.
As was predicted in THE TIMES yesterday, Mother Jones’ speech consisted of a bitter denunciation of Judge Elbert H. Gary, the so-called steel trust, the “capitalistic press,” the State Constabulary and a few other of her pet subjects.
Mother Jones’ auditors did not appear to be struck, by what she said, but by the manner in which she said it. Getting down to plain English, she has a good gift of gab.
Henry Streifler, general chairman of the local strikers’ committee, introduced Mother Jones. She was given a round of applause. Without stopping to primp her hair or powder her nose, she sailed into the strike situation, discussing it from many angles.
[Said Mother Jones:]
The world is undergoing the labor pains of a new birth. Out of the agony and suffering of this travail will come a new civilization which men have prophesied for ages. As Victor Hugo said, the twentieth century will be the people’s century.
Machinery and electricity are the means by which the workers have built a new world.
It remains for the workers to take possession of the world, regardless of Judge Gary and his courts, senates, judges and legislatures. Instead of letting them put us in jail, when we get sense enough we will put them in jail. They can’t run the mills, which you built and which they own, without you men. The only part they can run without you is the robbing part. Stay out of the mills, act like men, the workers of the world are with you. We invented the machines, we built them, and before we get through we are going to own them, too.
She’s Bolshevist.
The revolution is on and nothing can stop is now. Old George III didn’t think the Americans would rise and lick h— out of him, and Gary thinks the same way. They call me an agitator well, the United States was founded on agitation by radicals, and we will make no apologies for that name if that is what they want to call us until we clean the whole lot of them out. American liberty was bought not by the money of men like Gary, but by the blood of men like you, who have left you that glorious emblem, the Stars and Stripes, of which the first stripe is red the color of the blood they shed.
The labor union represents the only Christianity of the present time. The labor union has done more of humanity than all the churches, universities, Y. M. C. A. and other institutions of capitalism. When the miners’ union took the children out of the mines and put them into the school the cry of anarchy went up. The master class has a new word now-Bolshevism-for those who do not agree with the capitalists. If Bolshevism makes the world any better for the workers, I am for the Bolsheviki. I want the spies who have followed me all day today to know this.
There was no change noted today in the general strike situation in the Buffalo district. The employes are positive they will ultimately win, and so are the employers. Both sides have adopted a policy of watchful waiting.
[Emphasis added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
Buffalo Evening Times
(Buffalo, New York)
Oct 3, 1919
https://www.newspapers.com/image/442051866/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/442051869/
IMAGE
GSS Mother Jones, WZF, NY Dly Ns p2, Oct 1, 1919
https://www.newspapers.com/image/391481628
See also:
Tag: Great Steel Strike of 1919
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-steel-strike-of-1919/
The Great Steel Strike and Its Lessons
-by William Z. Foster
B. W. Huebsch, Incorporated, 1920
(search: lackawanna)
https://books.google.com/books?id=Hbt-AAAAMAAJ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I Am a Union Woman – Deborah Halland
Lyrics by Aunt Molly Jackson
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/unionwomanmollyjackson.html
The bosses ride fine horses
While we walk in the mud,
Their banner is the dollar sign,
Ours is striped with blood.