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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 21, 1904
New York, New York – Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Meat Cutters
From the Raleigh, North Carolina, Morning Post of August 19, 1904:
MOTHER JONES ON HAND
New York, Aug. 18.-Homer D. Call, National secretary of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters of America, arrived here today to take charge of the local beef strike, or what is left of it. He denied statements that men had been brought here to work in the plants in violation of the contract labor law.
“These people,” he said, “are cattle tenders who look after the cattle on the voyage and who return to Europe upon the next steamer.”
Mother Jones, who is always to be found where there is labor troubles, and is therefore in New York now, will address a meeting of the strikers tomorrow.
Mr. Call said that National President Donnelly, who had thought of coming to New York, had decided that it is not necessary to come here now.
[Emphasis added.]
From the New York Tribune of August 20, 1904:
Mother Jones spoke before the striking Butchers and Meat Cutters of New York City urging union Solidarity, both on the picket line and at the ballot box. She was greeted with cheers as she arose to speak:
“MOTHER JONES” TALKS.
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Tells Beef Strikers They Will Win if Not Weak Kneed.“Mother Jones,” the labor agitator, addressed the local beef strikers yesterday, and was greeted with cheers. She said she expected to go to Chicago to aid the striking butchers there. “Mother Jones” addressed the men as “Boys” and “Brothers.” She said in part:
I want to tell you that a woman can play at more war than a hundred men. Because you are on strike I came on to talk to you. I want to be with you in your mighty strike for emancipation. People who condemn strikes know nothing of the causes which provoke them. It was the strikers of old that moved the world and led to the development of the present civilization.
You alone can break this strike. If you continue to show a compact front and there are no weak kneed fellows among you, victory will be yours. “Scab” meat is not fit to eat, and the mystery to me is that there is any women mean enough to marry a “scab.” They are the traitors, rattlesnakes and henchmen of the capitalist. They try to poison your minds against your leaders. No leader under heaven can sell you out unless you want him to do so.
I believe that next November you will march to victory at the ballot box and overthrow the present rottenness. The Senate is made up of trust magnates. Do no more begging to the legislature, but go to Albany and make your own laws. If you do not, you will find that you are up against it. They have the guns, and the workers have the ballot. With it you can squelch Roosevelt and Parker.
Roosevelt could settle the beef strike by telling the packers that he proposed to take over the slaughter houses in the interest of the public, which is being charged high prices for rotten meat that has been in the companies’ boxes for ten months. They are working off their stale stock now.
The police decided that little more trouble was to be expected from the beef strikers. The only violence reported, however, was against a strikebreaker, Fred Wilson, who came here from Baltimore several weeks ago. He was assaulted by rowdies at Forty-sixth-st. and First-ave. as he was on his way to work in the Schwarzschild & Sulzberger plant. He was so badly treated that he did not go to work, although he refused to have an ambulance called and went home. His assailants, none of whom, the police believe, are members of the striking union, escaped.
In the evening, Captain Lantry of the east Fifty-first-st. station took most of his men away from the strike center. The few wagons still sent out by the United Dressed Beef Company and Schwarzschild & Sulzberger were still guarded by mounted and bicycle policemen but no violence against them was attempted.
The strikers appeared to continue in high spirits, and they said that many of the non-union workmen recently employed were becoming disgusted with the butcher work, which was at times decidedly unpleasant for those not used to it, and were quitting their places. It was evident that the number of cattle slaughtered in the two big plants was far below the normal average. Large quantities of meat, it was said, still remained in the refrigerators, however, and most orders were filled from this stock.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones Stand Together in Solidarity,
Nov 21, 1903, Louisville CO, Foner p106
https://books.google.com/books?newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=T_m5AAAAIAAJ&dq=foner+mother+jones+speaks&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22we+must+stand+together%22
The Morning Post
(Raleigh, North Carolina)
Aug 19, 1904
https://www.newspapers.com/image/57505689/
New York Tribune
(New York, New York)
Aug 20, 1904
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1904-08-20/ed-1/seq-4/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902
https://books.google.com/books?id=wIcuAAAAYAAJ
See also:
Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalgamated_Meat_Cutters
Michael Donnelly
https://dp.la/item/7e242aed4acd4d663bd13292441fd330
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor,
Volume 1; Volume 4
New York (State). Dept. of Labor
State Dept. of Labor, 1905
(search: butchers meat cutters new york city) page II.90
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ye4ZAAAAYAAJ
1904 United States Presidential Election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_United_States_presidential_election
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