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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 19, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1910, Part I:
-Found in the Thick of the Fight on Behalf of Working Class Men and Women
From the Mt. Vernon, Ohio, Democratic Banner of April 5, 1910:
DROP THEIR PICKS AT STROKE OF TWELVE.
———-
Coal Miners’ Strike Is a Reality.
—–200,000 MEN ARE IDLE
—–
D. H. Sullivan Falls Heir
to Ohio Situation.
—–THINKS SETTLEMENT IN SIGHT
—–
General Belief Is That Suspension
Will Be of Short Duration and That
Country Will Experience No
Serious Result From Shutdown
-Pittsburg Operators Anxious to Sign.
—–Columbus, O., April 1- Dennis H. Sullivan of Coshocton today assumed his duties as president of the Ohio miners’ union, and made the announcement that nearly every union miner in the state is now idle, work at all mines having been suspended in response to the general order to quit work until new agreements are signed between the operators and officials of the union, in accordance with the 5-cent increase demanded as an ultimatum by the miners present at the Cincinnati conference.
Mr. Sullivan said:
The miners of Ohio stopped work at midnight, but this is in accord with an understanding with the operators. Every miner in the state went out, with the exception of cases in which there has been special permission granted for them to run.
Some mines are run to furnish coal for some specific purpose. For instance, there will be a mine whose entire output is taken by certain locomotives or by a furnace. Here is a contract [picking one from his desk] signed by an eastern Ohio operating company. A furnace is absolutely dependent on these mines, and if they were closed the business would so to some other mine, outside the state, or the furnace would close. We’re not driving business from the state; we’re for Ohio. So in all these cases privilege is given to continue work, pending adjustment of local differences at some later time.
Reads Contract.
Mr. Sullivan read the contract in which the agreement is that the new scale be paid, based on the 5-cent advance for pick mining, until the local differences are settled.
Mr. Sullivan was unable to state at just what time a conference between the Ohio operators and miners will be held.
Today, being April 1, will be observed throughout Ohio by miners as a holiday, as it is tho anniversary of the enactment of the eight-hour law. The next day but one being Sunday, the mines would be idle again, so that the walkout, whereby 47,000 miners ceased their labors, is not regarded as significant by the miners themselves.
According to estimates given at the headquarters of the Ohio miners the total number of men involved in the strike is nearly 200,000.
Howard Mannington, secretary of the operators’ association, says it is not a strike, but a suspension, with a full understanding between the miners and operators.
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From The Fort Wayne News of April 9, 1910:
CINCINNATI, April 8.-The appearance on the floor of the Miners’ convention, just closed, of “Mother” Jones, now seventy-six years old, brought the men of the convention to their feet with a cheer. This aged woman is to be found wherever there is a labor convention or labor strike. She has nursed hundreds of unfortunates at mine disasters and led the “boys,” as she calls them, on in face of gatling guns. In spite of her years, she still possesses a keen intellect and an active body, and is a factor in the labor situation today.
From Hellraisers Journal of April 14, 1910:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Mother Jones on Girl Slaves of Brewery Plutocrats
From the Appeal to Reason of April 9, 1910:
It is the same old story, as pitiful as old, as true as pitiful.
When the whistle blows in the morning, it calls the girl slaves of the bottle washing department of the breweries, to don their wet shoes and rags, and hustle to the bastile to serve out their sentences.
It is indeed true, they are sentenced to hard, brutal labor, labor that gives no cheer, brings no recompense. Condemned for life to drudge daily in the wash-room with wet shoes and wet clothes, surrounded with foul mouthed, brutal foremen, whose orders and language would not look well in print, and would surely shock over-sensitive ears, or delicate nerves!
And their crime? Involuntary poverty. It is hereditary. They are no more to blame for it than a horse is, for having the glanders. It is the accident of birth. This accident that throws so many girl workers into the urging, seething mass, known as the working class, is what forces them out of the cradle into servitude-to be willing (?)slaves of the mill, factory, department store, hell or bottling shop in Milwaukee’s colossal breweries.
Here they create wealth for the brewery barons, that they may own palaces, theaters, automobiles, blooded stock, farms, banks and heaven knows what all, while the poor girls slave on, all day, in the vile smell of sour beer, lifting cases of empty and full bottles, weighing from 100 to 150 pounds, while wearing wet shoes and rags; for God knows they can not buy clothes on the miserable pittance doled out to them by their soulless master class…..
Exploited by the brewers! Insulted by the petty bosses! Deserted by the press, which completely ignored me and gave no helping hand to these poor girls’ cause. Had they had a vote, however, their case would likely have attracted more attention from all sides. Poor peons of the brewers! Neglected by all the Gods! Deserted by all mankind! The present shorn of all that makes life worth living, the future hopeless, without a comforting star or glimmer! What avails our boasted greatness, built upon such human wreckage? What is civilization and progress to them? What “message” bears our holy brotherhood in the gorgeous temples of modern worship?
What terrors has the over-investigated white slave traffic for the woman brewery worker of Milwaukee? What a prolific recruiting station for the red light district. For, after all, the white slave eats, drinks and wears good clothing, and to the hopeless, this means living, if it only lasts a minute. What has the beer slave to lose?-the petty boss will make her job cost her her virtue anyhow. This has come to be a price of a job everywhere, nowadays. Is it any wonder the white slave traffic abounds on all sides?
No wonder the working class has lost all faith in God. Hell itself has no terrors worse than a term in industrial slavery. I will give these brewery lords of Milwaukee notice that my two months investigation and efforts to organize, in spite of all obstacles placed in my way, will bear fruit, and the sooner they realize their duty, the better it will be for themselves. Will they do it?
From the Duluth Labor World of April 16, 1910:
From The Pittsburgh Post of April 16, 1910:
MINERS’ COMMITTEE WRESTLING ON SCALE.
———-
Report is Expected at Session To-Day
-John Mitchell and “Mother” Jones Speak.
—–Pending the deliberations of the scale committee of district No. 5, United Mine Workers of America, addresses by prominent labor leaders constituted a great part of yesterday’s sessions of the twenty-first annual convention of the organization in Moorhead hall. The scale committee held another meeting last night to further discuss the policy to be presented to the convention, following the disagreement with the operators during the joint conference. It is expected the committee will be able to report to the delegates to-day.
It is likely the principal recommendation will be to allow operators who are willing to grant the demands to sign contracts and resume operations, providing a further conference with the operators cannot be obtained.
“Mother” Jones, known throughout the United States as a labor leader, received an ovation by the delegates yesterday afternoon when she entered the hall. Mrs. Jones will address the delegates this morning.
Several sections of the district constitution were amended at the afternoon session. John Mitchell, former National president of the miners’ organisation, addressed the delegates at the morning session, telling of mining conditions throughout the country. Sheriff Judd H. Bruff, W. J. Burke, chairman of the Baltimore & Ohio system of the Order of Railway Conductors, and James Heffner, a former member of the miners’ organization, also spoke.
From Hellraisers Journal of April 17, 1910:
Mother Jones Calls on Men and Women of America to Defend Mexican Comrades
From the Appeal to Reason of April 16, 1910:
To men and women of the United State I stand pleading. There are in our federal prisons some eight or ten Mexican revolutionists who have been silently railroaded to the American bastiles at the behest of the worst tyrant which ever cursed God’s earth-Diaz of Mexico. He can reach across the line, handle our courts and force them to do anything he wants to.
Some humane congressmen have introduced a bill of inquiry asking the attorney general to explain why as revolutionists these men are held. The American nation was founded on revolution. I beg of you in the name of freedom to flood Congress with letters demanding that this investigation be pushed to the end. No pigeonholing. Don’t loose any time, or your hands will be red with the blood of martyrs, as are the hands of Diaz.
Don’t fail, the cause of justice falls on you to hear the pleading of our brothers from behind the bars of the capitalist bastiles.
Oh men, and women, move at once and save these brave revolutionists!
[Photograph and paragraph breaks added.]
Also from Appeal to Reason of April 16, 1910:
A Tribute.
She sleepeth well who knows no waking. A brave comrade has been called home to rest. Her home was in El Paso Texas. It was my good fortune to meet her four years ago. A grander soul was not in the social revolution. She lived, for the cause she loved. She hoped the sunshine of a more glorious civilization would shine for the children yet to come. She talked of the fond mother who would sing the lullaby to the citizen of the future. She was true and noble and great. The world will miss her; it was that much better off because she lived therein. To her companion in life I tender my deepest sympathy, but your loss is her gain. I speak of Comrade Mrs. Love, of El Paso, Texas. May the world be multiplied by such truly great women.
Mother Jones.
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Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Young Again, Special UMWC Cinc OH p62, Mar 24, 1910
https://books.google.com/books?id=JkA6AQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=it+makes+me+young+again
The Democratic Banner
(Mt. Vernon, Ohio)
-Apr 5, 1910
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88078751/1910-04-05/ed-1/seq-7/
The Fargo Forum
(Fargo, North Dakota)
-Apr 8, 1910
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042224/1910-04-08/ed-1/seq-1/
The Fort Wayne News
(Fort Wayne, Indiana)
-Apr 9, 1910
https://www.newspapers.com/image/28832110/
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 14, 1910
Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Mother Jones on Girl Slaves of Brewery Plutocrats
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Apr 16, 1910
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1910-04-16/ed-1/seq-1/
The Pittsburgh Post
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
-Apr 16, 1910
https://www.newspapers.com/image/86610505
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 17, 1910
Mother Jones Calls on Men and Women of America to Defend Mexican Comrades
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Apr 9, 1910, page 2
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/100409-appealtoreason-w749.pdf
-Apr 16, 1910, page 2
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/100416-appealtoreason-w750.pdf
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 15, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1910:
-Found Visiting Girard, Kansas, and Speaking to Miners at Cincinnati
Mexican Revolutionaries
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mexican-revolutionaries/
Note: re “Tribute” to “Comrade Mrs. Love” of El Paso
-this could be a Mrs. Fannie Love who became ill in February of 1910
and passed away in March, see:
El Paso Herald of Feb & Mar 1910, with death reported March 29th:
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88084272/1910-03-29/ed-1/seq-2/
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The Spirit of Mother Jones – Andy Irvine