Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 25, 1910
Washington, District of Columbia – Mother Jones Remembers Martin Irons
From The Labor Argus of June 23, 1910:
Labor Progressing, Says Mother Jones
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Workers of Today Do Their Own Thinking Declares
“Stormy Petrel” In Special Interview
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Washington, D. C., June 22.-“The workingmen of this country are at last beginning to think for themselves.”
These significant words came from the lips of Mother Jones, the gray-haired labor agitator, who for the last thirty years has participated in every labor struggle of any prominence, whose presence on the field of action inspires courage and hope among the workers, and strikes terror in the hearts of the masters.
[Said Mother, as she is fondly called by the millions of her boys:]
In the years gone by, the workers were absolutely helpless and dependent on the ability and loyalty of the leaders. Today the leaders are absolutely helpless and dependent on the strength and intelligence of the rank and file.
The work of the old warriors of the labor movement, who have blazed the way with sacrifices for a cause that burned their souls, is bearing fruit. The workers are at last fired with the spirit of revolt and religiously and industrially they are working out their own salvation.
With the force and strength characteristic of the “Stormy Petrel,” and with a sudden brightening of her kindly face, she transmitted to her interviewer the thoughts that were stirring her soul when she uttered, “They are working out their own salvation.”
[Continued Mother Jones:]
There are any number of plain workingmen, who for clearness and logic in analyzing and understanding economic questions can give cards and spades to any Senator and Representative in Washington.
Workingmen of today exchange ideas and discuss important problems in the workshops, at their union meetings, and in their ever growing labor press. These are the most promising signs of the times.
Mother Jones has spent the last ten days in Washington, doing her utmost to secure a congressional investigation of the persecution of the Mexican political refugees in this country. When she was called upon to testify at the hearing on Representative Wilson’s resolution for an investigation of these outrages before the House committee on rules, Chairman Dalzell asked her to state the place of her residence.
“I live wherever the workers are fighting the robbers,” she replied to the surprise and embarrassment of a number of corporation men who are members of the committee.
Although seventy-six years of age, Mother Jones has no thought of retiring.
[She says:]
I am still in the fight. From here I am going to New York City, and see what I can do for those bakery boys who are there on strike. From there I am going to the anthracite region, and from there, I don’t know.
Working to the limit of her strength for those who are living, Mother Jones has not forgotten those “old warriors who have blazed the way.”
[Feelingly said Mother Jones:]
In a lonely spot in Bruceville, Texas, marked only by a piece of an old iron shovel, is a grave of Martin Irons, the labor pioneer, who is unhonored, unsung and unremembered.
Martin Irons, on whose bleached bones the railroad brotherhoods have been built, the man who was hounded to death by the Goulds and their satellites, is buried in an obscure spot in the little cemetery of that small Texas town. When I visited his grave, these words came to my lips:
“Here lies the hero of the industrial battle. He lies alone and yet not alone, for the mocking birds are singing their love songs to their mates.”
In the near future, I am going to have his remains moved to the cemetery of the martyred miners in Mt. Olive, Illinois, and there Martin Irons will sleep with fellow soldiers who have given their lives for humanity’s greatest cause.
“Song for the Knights of Labor” from “Iron & Gold”
-Opera by Mark Arnest
IRONS: We are the knights who ride as of old
Honest, courageous, sober and bold
With a wave of our lance
CHORUS: With a wave of our lance
IRONS: The fire of our glance,
CHORUS: The fire of our glance
IRONS: Capital trembles and schemers grow cold.
Let us press onward and raise up the standard of right!
Now is the moment to join in the fight.
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