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Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 10, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1909, Part II:
-Found in Speaking and Touring in Western New York
After being disappointed by her missed visit last February, the working men and women of Olean, New York, were pleased to welcome Mother Jones into their midst for a speech given Tuesday evening, April 20th.
From the Olean Evening Times of April 19, 1909:
Reception Tonight-This evening Mother Jones will arrive in Olean, and will be given a reception in the Trades and Labor Council hall at 8 o’clock, at which time those who desire will be given an opportunity to meet her. Tomorrow evening she will deliver an address in the opera house on “Peonage in Mexico, and what it means to the American workingman.” The meeting will be called to order by Elmer E. Evans and August Klenke will act as chairman. An invitation has been extended to the officers of all the local labor organizations to take seats on the platform. Music for the occasion will be furnished by the Red Mens’ band. It is anticipated that the opera house will be filled, and those desiring seats are advised to be early.
[…..]
Peon Labor and Its Effects on American Workmen, will be the subject of Mother Jones’ lecture at the opera house Tuesday night.
When miners were evicted because they dared to strike for more wages it was Mother Jones, who will speak at the opera house Tuesday night, took the wives and children to the woods and sheltered them in tents and secured food for them until the strike was won.
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[Photograph added.]
From the Buffalo Evening News of April 20, 1909:
MOTHER JONES TO SPEAK AT OLEAN.
OLEAN, April 20-(Special).-Local Socialists last night gave a big reception in Trades and Labor Council Hall to Mother Jones labor leader, who tonight will speak in the opera house on “Peonage in Mexico.” She arrived last night from Dayton, O., to begin a speaking tour in Western New York. She will speak in Buffalo Friday night, and Rochester Saturday night.
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From the Olean Evening Times of April 21, 1909:
Was Well Attended-The address given last evening in the opera house by Mother Jones was well attended and was listened to with close attention by the large audience. Previous to the meeting the Red Men’s band rendered selections in front of the opera house, and inside music was supplied by Collins’ orchestra. The meeting was called to order by Elmer E. Evans, who presented August Klenke, as chairman. Mr. Klenke made a short address, stating the object of the meeting, and introduced the speaker, Mother Jones. Her subject, as previously stated, was, “Peonage in Mexico, and Its Effect on American Workmen.”
Mother Jones is much younger in appearance than many had anticipated, and she is a clear and forceful speaker. Those who attended the lecture were well repaid for doing so, and those who were instrumental in bringing the speaker to Olean are to be congratulated. Her talk, as well as being entertaining was along instructive lines, and was not in the least dry or tedious. This evening she will speak in the skating risk at Salamanca.
From the Buffalo Evening Times of April 23, 1909:
“MOTHER JONES” HERE
—–
Delivers an Address Tonight
at International Hall.
—–Mother Jones, the eloquent labor orator, arrived in Buffalo this afternoon to address audience in International Hall, No. 249 Genesee Street, at 8 o’clock tonight on the subject, “Peon Labor in Mexico and its Effect on American Workingmen.” Mother Jones was met at the station by a delegation of Socialists and other students of political economy and sociology.
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From the Buffalo Express of April 24, 1909:
SHE MISSED THE UNIFORM
—–
Mother Jones was nettled because
no Policemen were at the Hall
to protect Her.
—–HARD ON THE MEN
—–
“If I lived in Buffalo,” said Mother Jones,
“there is not a Man in it I’d marry.”
—–USUAL ATTACK ON COURT
—–
Nevertheless, she was applauded by some
of the Audience of 110 that
sat in the cold Hall.
—–Mother Jones, the Socialist agitator, held forth in International Hall, Genesee street, near Michigan, last night. Only 110 gathered to hear her and the hall was cold. The small audience, the cold hall, and the fact that no uniformed policemen were on hand, nettled Mother Jones, who gave vent to her feelings as follows:
I’m not surprised that so small an audience is here tonight. It isn’t strange in a city which does nothing but chew the rag. (Laughter.) If I lived in Buffalo, there’s not a man in it I’d marry-indifferent, as they are to the questions affecting the welfare of the working-man!
I tell you it would have been different if I could have reached Buffalo earlier. I’d got a crowd all right. I’d have done something to stir things up. Why, in Brooklyn when I speak, the mayor, who likes me very much, has 40 policemen to see that no one hurts me. (Laughter.)
She then went on to illustrate her method of “stirring things up.” In one town near the border of Mexico she got the people so wrought up they said they would follow her into Mexico.
[she explained confidentially:]
Of course, I had no idea of leading an army into Mexico, so I had to think up some way to back water. I told the crowd I’d send a telegram to the Governor and if he was on the job then we would not need to go; but if he wasn’t attending to business I’d lead them into Mexico and try to rescue the poor fellows in prison.
Well, I found the Governor was doing his duty so we turned the work over to him.
Mother Jones’s Personality.
Her hair as white as snow and admitting to 74 years old, Mother Jones actually shows but little of the vicissitudes through which she has passed during the 35 years she has been a labor and Socialist agitator. Her figure is plump, her eyes are keen and bright, and her manner and gestures are forceful and emphatic. In repose, her’s is the face of a kindly and shrewd grandmother, but without her bonnet and cloak, as she stands before an audience, she is a very different person.
The subject announced for last night was: Mexican Peon Labor and Its Result on the American Workman. Mother Jones spoke on that -and something more. In fact, during her two-hour harangue, she touched upon about every phase of the labor movement, managing to denounce the Pinkertons, the federal judiciary, foreign missions, Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Rockefeller and others. Of the federal judiciary, she said:
I’ve been in jail. I’ve had so many injunctions served on me to keep me from talking that when I die I will need no shroud. All they’ll have to do is to sew ’em together. My friends, the ruling power own the courts and the courts have got to do what they are bidden to do.
“That Bunch!”
About the poorest thing you’ve got today is the 10,000 federal judges. That bunch!-I wouldn’t waste time washing their clothes.
The audience seemed to think these remarks extremely funny, and there was an outburst of applause and laughter.
Mother Jones is evidently very proud of her police record. Incidentally, she referred two or three times to her incarcerations, rather glorying in them. She likes to bait the Pinkertons. Speaking of them, she said:
[The Pinkertons’] villainy had been shown up to the world.
[She shouted:]
You know that, Mr. Pinkerton man, if you are here-and I don’t doubt you are, and you daren’t deny it. (Turning to a reporter) Put that down will you, sir?
Peon labor in Mexico and the alleged importation of the Mexicans into Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, Mother Jones declared, was a menace to the American workingman. Today Japan, China, Central America and Mexico are the stamping grounds of capitalism for the reason that in these countries labor is cheap.
She charge that the Standard Oil, the Southern Pacific Railroad, the Dodge copper interests and an English and Canadian syndicate are responsible for the bloody strikes in Mexico where, she said, the “streets ran with blood.”
Labor Unions in Mexico?
[Said Mother Jones:]
Strikes in Mexico are seldom successful, for there are no labor unions there. But there will be labor unions there. (Applause.) And those Mexicans will rise quicker than your dinner-pail wage slave in America.
Then she launched into a bitter diatribe of the “self-satisfied free America, so-called, who blacks the shoes of capitalism, while his wife goes in rags and his children are sold into slavery.”
Mother Jones closed with an appeal for money to aid in defending the Mexican refugees who will soon be tried for alleged violation of the neutral laws.
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From the Binghamton Press and Leader of April 26, 1909:
“MOTHER” JONES TO-NIGHT.
“Mother” Jones a prominent labor leader, will speak this evening in Royal Arcanum Hall, 4 Henry street, on “Mexican Peon Labor and Its Effect on the American Workingman.” The Rev. J. W. Phillips will preside.
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From the Elmira Star-Gazette of April 26, 1909:
Page 2:
Page 4:
MOTHER JONES WILL LECTURE IN ELMIRA
—–Much interest centers in the visit to Elmira of Mother Jones, one of the most noted women orators in the country, who will lecture in the City Hall tomorrow evening at 8 o’clock.
During the Pullman, Homestead, Anthracite coal miners and Cordelan strikes she was an untiring worker among the poor of the laboring classes raising money, visiting the sick, in fact devoting her whole time to bettering the condition of the oppressed.
Mother Jones although more than three score and ten with snow white hair, still she retains that vim and energy that was hers when she first became known in the labor movement some thirty odd years ago.
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From the Dunkirk Evening Observer of April 27, 1909:
MOTHER JONES COMING.
Mother Jones, the well known labor advocate, will give a talk in the Women’s Union Hall in Central avenue Friday evening of this week at 8’o’clock. Mother Jones is one of the most unique characters in the labor movement, and although more than three score years and ten, she retains the energy that was hers when she first became known in the labor movement over thirty years ago.
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From the Elmira Star-Gazette of April 28, 1909:
“MOTHER JONES” IS PESSIMISTIC
—–
She Gives Socialistic Talk in Which She Says
Laboring Men are Little Better Than Slaves.
—–A women, well along in years, who styles herself “Mother Jones” gave an address in the assembly room in the City Hall last evening to a fair sized audience.
“Mother Jones” has the usual socialistic “line of talk,” tending to show that there should be more just relations between capital and labor. She did not strike a responsive chord, however, when she said,
Time was when to be under the Stars and Stripes meant safety and home, but all that is changed. In many labor centers, largely among miners and mill workers the laborers are little better off than were the black slaves of the South before the war.
“Mother Jones” said that she could see a great awakening throughout the country. The present relation between capital and labor was compared by her to that of the slave owners toward the slave population. She gave a prediction that within a few years the sentiment would change and the brotherhood of the human race would be recognized.
“Mother Jones” said that we should not send any more missionaries to China until we do missionary work right here in our own land for humanity’s sake.
However, there were many in the audience who thought, after hearing “Mother Jones” that she should “Look at the doughnut, not at the hole.”
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Note: Emphasis added throughout.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Injunction Shroud, Bff Exp p7, Apr 24, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/344471675
Olean Evening Times
(Olean, New York)
-Apr 19, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/35554487/
-Apr 21, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/35554554/?terms=%22mother%2Bjones%22
Buffalo Evening News
(Buffalo, New York)
-Apr 20, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/351768566/
Buffalo Evening Times
(Buffalo, New York)
-Apr 23, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/442018949/
Buffalo Express
(Buffalo, New York)
-Apr 24, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/344471675/
Binghamton Press and Leader
(Binghamton, New York)
-Apr 26, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/252516207/
Elmira Star-Gazette
(Elmira, New York)
-Apr 26, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/275789503/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/275789575
-Apr 28, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/275790993/
The Evening Observer
(Dunkirk, New York)
-Apr 27, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/35909874/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908
https://www.genealogybank.com/
See also:
Re missed visit to Olean during Feb 1909, and Mother’s regrets sent from Denver, dated March 4, 1909, see:
Tag: Olean NY
https://weneverforget.org/tag/olean-ny/
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones
for April 1909, Part I: Found Speaking in Dayton, Ohio
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Children of Mother Jones – Pete Duff