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Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 10, 1899
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for the Year 1898, Part I
May 12, 1898
During February of 1898, Mother Jones was found in St. Louis, Missouri, preparing for a Conference of Labor and Labor Reform Organizations scheduled to be held in that city on May 2nd. She was also found advocating for Domestic Workers in that city who were seeking to establish “a home of their own.”
Mother departed St. Louis in early March and headed out on a tour of Eastern cities in order to “stir up sentiment among the several reform organizations in behalf of the reform convention” to be held in May. Mother was back in St. Louis in time to present at that convention which was, sadly, not well attended. Nevertheless, Mother was soon busy attempting to organize factory girls, of whom, she declared:
The factory girls should be organized because their condition should be improved. This can be effected by organization, and by no other means. The girls are, as rule, underpaid, kept in cramped, unhealthy quarters, and ground down till their young lives have been dwarfed and stunted. Through the children the world is made what it is. In the unions they could be educated how to better themselves.
I have been all through the factories of this and other cities, and find conditions in them such that the lives of these children will be shortened many years by having worked in them. We have war abroad and war at home. The conflict with Spain is not half so grinding upon humanity as the battle for bread. A few hundred go down in a naval battle; thousands perish beneath the grinding tread of greed every day. We have reconcentrados in our own country-they are the poor, without wealth or friends, who perish in sight of plenty.
MOTHER JONES NEWS ROUND-UP FOR FEBRUARY-MAY 1898
From The St. Louis Republic of February 5, 1898:
LABOR CONGRESS WILL BE HELD
IN ST. LOUIS MAY 2
—–
Call for a Conference to Effect a Federation
of All the Labor Unions in America.
—–
“Mother Jones,” the Joan of Arc of the Labor Movement,
Discusses the Proposed Conference.
—–
A call will be issued to-day for a labor congress to be held in St. Louis on May 2, next. Organized labor will be invited to participate in a conference looking toward a general federation of all the labor unions in the United States. Labor leaders are endeavoring to bring about an amalgamation of all the different elements, on the ground that in union there is strength. An industrial consolidation or trust is deemed expedient at this time, because of the combinations of immense wealth. In order to meet the changed conditions and the more exacting terms of consolidated wealth it is considered that a national labor organization is necessary.
On that principle the call for the meeting has been founded. When the convention convenes a few months hence it is expected that every labor union in the country will be represented. Labor leaders of national reputation have approved of the move and signified their intention of participating in the proceedings.
It is expected that it will be one of the most representative and important labor conventions ever held in this country if not in the world. In the event of consolidation organized labor will become a more potent factor for the principles it represents than ever before in its history.
To Issue an Appeal.
At the miners’ conference held last fall a committee was appointed to call such a congress at some future date. Members of the committee delegated full authority in the matter to Mrs. Mary Jones, C. J. Brant [William Brandt], and E. M. Bannister, persons of note in the labor world. They have been in conference here for two weeks and yesterday completed their labors. Their appeal to organized labor goes out to-day. It will be sent in circular form to the National headquarters of every labor organization in the country. It is expected that each headquarters will send the address to every union in good standing in their organization. If the dreams and the expectations of the projectors come true Music Hall will be required to accommodate the crowds which will assemble here next May. Mrs. Jones estimates that there will be at least 5,000 delegates in attendance.
To Mrs. Mary Jones belongs much of the credit and honor of the call for the convention She has worked unceasingly in getting the approval of the big labor leaders and their promises that they would lend their sympathy and support to the movement. In the labor world Mrs. Jones is familiarly known as “Mother Jones.” There is not a union in America which would not gladly adopt her as mother. She has been a mother to the downtrodden of humanity.
Her works for the benefit of organized labor stand for themselves-monuments of self sacrifice and devotion to the cause which she has espoused with all the warmth of a true womanly heart, all the fervor of an enthusiast and all the ability of a remarkably bright woman. In the A. R. U. strike, in the recent coal strikes, at Homestead, at Pullman, she was a conspicuous figure and a power for good. In short she is the Joan of Arc of the labor movement.
Mother Jones Talks.
When seen by a Republic reporter yesterday at the conclusion of the committee conference “Mother Jones” said:
The trend of the times is toward consolidation. Capital is uniting on every hand Labor must pool interests or be crushed to a groveling, half-clothed, starving thing. We must keep up with the times. We must get at the evil at its very root. I am not in favor of violent methods to bring about the amelioration of the workingman. Peaceful, sensible means are the best.
“What is the key to the betterment of the laborer?”
It is not the gold question, the tariff problem, the revenue tax, this political bugaboo or that, but it is the industrial problem. Solve that and you have solved all the others. At the very bottom of all the ills that assail the laborer is the unsettled industrial conditions.
During the last strike in the coal fields the operators secured an injunction restraining the strikers from holding a meeting in an opera house. Some of the hot heads wanted to tear the building down. I said to them: “No. The men who granted that injunction are the men you elected to office. You yourselves are responsible for whatever legislation may seem to crush and misuse you. It is in your power to amend whatever is wrong, but to tear down the building would be lawless a thing which you condemn in others who are trying to enforce the injunction. Be just. As you have judged others judge yourselves.” Well, the men did not tear down the opera house, but we held the meeting there just the same.
“Mother Jones” stands with both feet on a platform opposed to woman’s suffragism.
[She said yesterday:]
Such agitation does no good. It is misdirected. If the women really wanted suffrage they could get it in very short order by appealing to the men in the proper way. Man is just. Once convinced that it was the best and proper thing the men would concede the ballot to women with good will and grace.
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From The St. Louis Republic of February 28, 1898:
DOMESTIC SERVANTS WILL DELIGHT THE EPICURES.
—–
A Home With Cooking-School Feature
Will Soon Be Established.
—–
Interesting Meeting of the Domestic
Science Club Held Yesterday.
—–
Domestic servants in St. Louis are to have a home of their own. It will be a place for recreation, amusement and education. Novices in the art of cookery may there learn to bake biscuits which would tempt the appetite of an epicure, while those already skilled in the culinary science may become experts. An attempt will be made to revive the lost art of making old-fashioned cornbread and hoe cakes, while other toothsome dishes will be brought to such a state of perfection that dyspepsia will be a thing of the past. Great good is to come of the movement if the efforts of the Domestic Science Club come to aught. Judging from the enthusiastic and well-attended meeting of that body held at 1523 North Broadway yesterday its every aim and object is destined to successful fruition. Besides the educational and social advantages of the organizations the home will embrace another important factor. Members of the club who lose their places are to be provided with room and board until they secure another position.
Miss Edna Black, president of the club, wishes it understood by the public that the organization does not contemplate adopting a wage scale or work day limit. The elimination of such measures will, of course, avoid the danger of cooks on a strike for better hours and more pay and will relieve the housewife from any anxiety as to what she would consider the evil effects of a union of cooks and housemaids. Before the meeting yesterday she stated that the club would endeavor to advance the interests of all its members socially, intellectually and professionally. In a word it will be the object of the body to better the condition of its members when employed, as well as when unemployed. Miss Gertrude Roscoe, the secretary, reports an initial membership of 50, with a number of new applicants whose petitions for membership will be acted upon at the next meeting.
Mother Jones, the Joan of Arc of the labor movement, was present at the meeting yesterday and made an interesting address in reference to its purposes. She prophesied a glorious future for the organization and offered her services in its behalf whenever needed…..
From The St. Louis Republic of March 5, 1898:
MOTHER JONES DEPARTS FOR THE EAST TO-DAY.
—–
Will Endeavor to Arouse Interest in the Reform
Convention Which Convenes Here May 2.Mother Jones, the Joan of Arc of the labor movement, departs to-day on a tour through Eastern cities, where she will endeavor to stir up sentiment among the several reform organizations in behalf of the reform convention, which convenes here May 2. Her itinerary will embrace all cities of importance east of the Mississippi River. She is well and favorably known throughout the labor and reform circles of the country and has been assured of a hearty welcome wherever she goes.
She stated to a Republic reporter yesterday that she expected to see every labor organization in the country represented at the convention in St. Louis. Labor leaders, as well as the rank and file, have generally approved of the call for the assemblage and much interest in the coming gathering has already become manifest.
From The St. Louis Republic of May 3, 1898:
THE LABOR REFORM FORCES CONVENE.
—–THIRTY-SIX DELEGATES ATTENDED THE OPENING
AT WALHALLA HALL YESTERDAY,
—–
Single-Taxers, Social Democrats and Trades Unionists
Preponderate-Not Much Was Done.
—–A convention of labor and labor reform organizations convened in Walhalla Hall yesterday morning. There were 36 delegates present, mainly representing the single tax advocates, the Social Democracy movement and the trades unionists. The meeting was not as well attended as had been expected. Lack of interest among the unions throughout the country to respond to the call is attributed to the demoralizing effect that war is having upon business, and the impoverished condition of the unions as a result of the recent hard times. The farming element did not send the representation which had been expected, only one delegates from the Farmers’ Mutual Benefit Association being present.
The meeting was called to order at 10 a. m. by the temporary chairman. In the selection of permanent officers, L. C. Cleaver of St. Louis was selected chairman and W. A. Klinger of Pittsburg, secretary. After the reports of committees and a few brief addresses a resolution was introduced by one of the single tax delegates which in substance committed the convention to the support of that theory. A substitute was offered which was of a decidedly socialistic nature……
Nearly every delegate spoke upon the question… Among the speakers [was] Mother Jones, the Joan of Arc of the labor movement…..
Mrs. Jones, speaking privately to The Republic reporter, said that she had just returned from a tour of the labor unions throughout the East. She observed that the labor organizations were not in sympathy with the war, and indicated in their meetings they believed the present conflict was instigated by capital and for capital….
From the Pittsburg National Labor Tribune of May 12, 1898:
TALKINGMEN VS. WORKINGMEN.
—–
During last week a convention of labor and labor reform organizations was in session at St. Louis, and the New York Sun, which wastes a great deal of valuable plutocratic wit at the expense of all schemers but those who swindle the stockholders of trusts, remarks that “some choice opinions have been disengaged.”
No doubt. Choice opinions are not confined to Wall street. There are more fools than Vanderbilt, the man who chose for his motto, “The public be damned.” And even in labor conventions one sometimes encounters advocates of extremes, visionaries, etc.
The mistake that influential newspapers sometimes make-and a mistake which one suspects they sometimes make intentionally-is in holding the working people at large responsible for every notion, however dangerous, that anybody assuming to speak in labor’s name may chance to make. Of the St. Louis gathering the St. Louis Globe Democrat says:
There was talk of a coming revolution. Force was advocated by one delegate as a means to overthrow the Supreme Court and government by injunction when all peaceful means had failed. War was said to be a means of feeding out the laborers as food for gunpowder. The workingmen were more than once referred to as wage slaves, resembling nothing so much as the reconcentrados. The “Joan of Arc of the labor movement, Mother Jones,” told a reporter that she “observed that the labor organizations were not in sympathy with the war, and indicated in their meetings that they believed the present conflict was by capital and for capital.”
Of course no intelligent observer needs to be told that some of the opinions which were aired at St. Louis are in no sense representative of the opinions of organized labor in America. Communism, anarchy and all of that brood are frowned upon by the bone and sinew of the land as severely as they are frowned upon by the so-called “upper crust.” The constant effort that is made in many quarters to identify communism and a general reign of terror with the program of organized labor is labor’s best warning against the slightest fraternization with those who preach lawlessness.
———-
From The St. Louis Republic of May 12, 1898:
ATTEMPT TO ORGANIZE THE FACTORY GIRLS.
—–
“Mother Jones,” the Well-Known Female Labor Leader,
Has Undertaken the Task.Mother Jones, the Joan of Arc of the labor movement, has undertaken the gigantic task of organizing the factory girls of St. Louis. She will make an attempt to band together the children in the different trades, so that they may form unions, to be affiliated with the American Federation or whatever national labor body the individual union may prefer. Mrs. Jones hopes to perfect organization within the next six months. The time may seem short, but Mrs. Jones has spent her life in such work, and attains results more quickly than seems possible at first blush.
To a Republic reporter she said:
The factory girls should be organized because their condition should be improved. This can be effected by organization, and by no other means. The girls are, as rule, underpaid, kept in cramped, unhealthy quarters, and ground down till their young lives have been dwarfed and stunted. Through the children the world is made what it is. In the unions they could be educated how to better themselves.
I have been all through the factories of this and other cities, and find conditions in them such that the lives of these children will be shortened many years by having worked in them. We have war abroad and war at home. The conflict with Spain is not half so grinding upon humanity as the battle for bread. A few hundred go down in a naval battle; thousands perish beneath the grinding tread of greed every day. We have reconcentrados in our own country-they are the poor, without wealth or friends, who perish in sight of plenty.
———-
Note: Emphasis added to each article.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
The St. Louis Republic
(St Louis, Missouri)
-Feb 5, 1898, page 2 (note, photo is of poor quality, but only one published in 1898 that I have yet found. Hopefully a better quality copy of this photo exists somewhere, waiting to be discovered.)
-Feb 28, 1898, page 10
-Mar 5, 1898, part 2, page 7
-May 3, 1898, page 5
-May 12, 1898, page 14
https://www.genealogybank.com/
National Labor Tribune
(Pittsburg, Pennsylvania)
-May 12, 1898, page 1
https://www.genealogybank.com/
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See also:
Re Call for Labor Reform Convention
The Typographical Journal, Volume 12
-Jan 1 to May 15, 1898
International Typographical Union., 1898
https://books.google.com/books?id=LqMuAQAAIAAJ
Edition of April 15, 1898
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=LqMuAQAAIAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA315
“Call for a Labor Convention”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=LqMuAQAAIAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA360
Note: The “United Labor” convention was held in Chicago September 27-29, 1897, and called for delegates to be elected by labor and labor reform organization to attend “the first regular annual United Labor and Labor Reform convention, to be held in St. Louis, Mo., on Monday May 2, 1898, for the purpose and under the conditions following: [Listed: First-Seventh.]
The signers of the Convention Call included William Brandt and E. M. Bannister of the the Trades and Labor Union of St. Louis and Vicinity, and Mrs. Mary Jones of the Knights of Labor.
Note: for more on Mother Jones before 1898, see:
Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America
by Elliott J. Gorn
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Jun 2, 2015
https://books.google.com/books?id=9gRpCAAAQBAJ
Note: for United Mine Workers 1890-1897, see:
History of United Mine Workers of America
-Vol II – 1890 to 1900
-by Chris Evans
Allied Printing Trades Council, Indianapolis, 1920
https://archive.org/details/historyofunitedm21evan/page/n4
For events of 1897, see pages 435-509
https://archive.org/details/historyofunitedm21evan/page/434
Re Single Tax Movement, see:
Single Tax Movement by Christopher England
Social Democracy of America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democracy_of_America
Farmers’ Mutual Benefit Association
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_Mutual_Benefit_Association
Spain’s Reconcentrado Policy in Cuba 1896-97
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/reconcentrado.htm
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