Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones: “We want every dollar we produce, and what is more, we are going to have it!”

STRIKES AND BOYCOTTS NO LONGER EFFECTIVE.
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Employers Using Weapons of Union Labor Against It,
Speakers Declare.
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MOTHER JONES SCOLDS MEN.
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Oppression and Tyranny Under Stars and Stripes Greater
Than in Ireland, She Declares.
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The rather astonishing statement that the strikes and boycotts are no longer effective weapons in the hands of trades unions was made last evening by several speakers at the complimentary dinner given by the Central Federated Union of Manhattan and the Central Labor Union of Brooklyn to John Z. White, the noted labor leader, of Chicago. The dinner was given as a sort of a peace pipe between the two great central bodies. Besides declaring, or rather admitting, that strikes and boycotts had outlived their usefulness, all of the speakers bent their every energy to awaken the unionists present to renewed efforts. “We see defeat staring us in the face” was the burden of their speeches. “The employers have seized our own weapons and are using them against us,” several of the speakers declared.

Perhaps the most remarkable speech of the evening was that given by that remarkable woman, Mother Jones. Mother Jones has been in every great strike in the country. She arrived at the table a trifle late. As she was taking her seat she espied John Sherwin Crosby. She arose immediately and amid thunderous applause, threw her arms about his neck and kissed him.

Mother Jones spoke to “Law and Order in Colorado.” She said the reason strikes and boycotts were no longer the effective weapons they once were was that the labor unions of the country were not united. She gave a good scolding to the labor unions of this city.

[She said:]

You read in the papers..of our sufferings in Colorado, but you did nothing until they began to put us in bull pens, and then you growled a little. I have been at my father’s knee when a girl and have listened to his stories of oppression and tyranny in God-cursed Ireland. I have seen suffering and bloodshed in that little island, but never have I seen or heard of oppression and tyranny equal to that which I have witnessed in the past six months under these Stars and Stripes. Talk about your Neros of ancient times. There never was a Nero who could equal in cruelty Jim Peabody, of Colorado.

Unless you here realize that when labor suffers in Colorado, you are suffering here, that what is the concern of one is the concern of all, we shall be crushed out.

We have been charged with wanting it all. That is right. The employers are entitled to none of the profit which is coming to us. We want every dollar we produce, and what is more, we are going to have it before we are through.

The applause which greeted Mother Jones as she finished her speech was deafening and lasted several minutes. Mother Jones finished with a voice trembling with emotion. Her gray head was shaking with the feeling to which she had wrought herself.

[Emphasis added.]

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