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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 9, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1902, Part I
Embodies Spirit of Revolt; Surrounded by Injunctions in West Virginia
From The Socialist Spirit of August 1902:
“MOTHER” JONES
BY WILLIAM MAILLY
“Mother” Jones has been compared to Joan of Arc, but she is more than that.
The French maid derived her inspiration from the mystical creations of a brain inflamed by religious ecstasy. She was the slave of her own imagination. She fought for the “divine right of kings,” dying a victorious sacrifice to a cause which, dominant in her day, will soon cease to disfigure the world. Her rightful place as the fanatical representative of medieval mummery has already been assigned her.
But “Mother” Jones absorbs inspiration from living men and women; their hopes and fears, their scant joys and abundant sorrows, are hers also to laugh with and to weep over. She deals with things that are, to fashion the better things that will be. And her cause is the one that will release mankind from material subserviency and mental obliquity, to finally rejuvenate and glorify the world.
In this only are they alike: John of Arc was peculiarly the product of the material conditions of her time, just as “Mother” Jones is of the conditions existing to-day. Each would have been impossible at any other period. As Joan of Arc typified the superstition and mental darkness of the people who hailed and followed her as one gifted with supernatural power, so “Mother” Jones is the embodiment of the new spiritual concept and clearer mentality characteristic of the awakening working class of our day. She is the incarnation of the spirit of revolt against modern industrial conditions—the spirit which finds fullest expression in the world-wide Socialist movement.
For “Mother” Jones is, above and beyond all, one of the working class. She is flesh of their flesh, blood of their blood. She comes of them, has lived their lives, and, if necessary, would die to make their lives happier and better. She loves the workers with a passionate love stronger than the love of life itself. Her advent marks the stage of their progress towards emancipation.
[…..]
[Everyone Knew Her]
Recently I traversed the territory where “Mother” had worked for several months organizing. To say her name is a household word is to use a hackneyed phrase for want of a stronger one to express it. Everyone knew her, from the smallest child to the oldest inhabitant. And all blessed her-except the mine-owners and their sympathizers whose hatred she is gratified to enjoy. There were places she entered three years ago where the women-wives of miners-refused to speak to or recognize her. Now her picture occupies a prominent place on the walls of their homes. Nothing could demonstrate more clearly her ability to overcome prejudice and make the workers her friends and confidants, and something more than mere blind followers or stupid worshipers. She represents the cause made up of the tangible realities which compose their daily lives.
[…..]
[Knows of Personal Suffering]
“Mother” has had full share of personal suffering. Coming early in life, with her parents, to Canada, she married, but lost her husband and four children in the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis several years afterwards. Thrown upon her own resources, she taught school for a while, and in pursuit of that vocation journeyed West. In San Francisco she gained her first experience in labor agitation by participating in the movement against Chinese cheap labor, in which Denis Kearney became famous. Then she joined the Knights of Labor, and from that time her activity has never ceased.
[…..]
[Organizing in West Virginia]
It is here where “Mother” has encountered more dangers than in all her experience, for the state has been heretofore entirely under control of the capitalists, and the entrance of agitators has been opposed in every shape and manner. It was for this very reason that “Mother” went there. She has been able to do what no man or any number of men could accomplish, even had they wanted to. The present strike of 20,000 men, after years of abject slavery, is the direct result of her work. Injunction after injunction has been issued against her, but she has gone right on. As I write this the news comes that, after awaiting sentence for several days, following upon being found guilty of contempt of court for violating one of these injunctions, the same judge has dismissed her with a reprimand. In this he showed more wisdom than such as he are usually credited with, but the effectiveness of the reprimand is doubted.
It remained for President John Mitchell to recognize the value of this woman’s great ability and provide the opportunity to put it to full account. Through him she has been a national organizer of the United Mine Workers for the past three years, and her work has more than justified his action. It is conceded and acknowledged by all that she has done more than anyone else to solidify the miners into a strong national organization. She has infected the whole mining industry with her enthusiasm and by her socialist teaching she has turned the thoughts of thousands of workers towards the greater mission in store for them. In view of this it is easy to understand why every one of the thousand delegates to the national convention just adjourned, wept when they bade farewell to her upon her departure to West Virginia to receive sentence from a capitalist court.
Courageous almost to the point of recklessness, she knows no danger when occasion requires it. Her defiance of a court’s injunction is not mere bravado nor shallow “playing to the galleries.” She realizes the probable cost of such action, but she believes it is necessary—some one must do these things, else there will be no progress. Underneath her apparent indifference to injunctions, Pinkerton Thugs and prison cells lies the motive born of a definite purpose. If needs be she would yield her freedom gladly if by so doing she believed the workers would the more quickly gain theirs. Nevertheless, there is nothing incendiary about her; she trusts in the efficacy of the ballot, and has no sympathy with those who teach otherwise.
[Indomitable Energy]
Busy as “ Mother” has been with the miners’ union yet she has found time to help other trades, and to make socialist speeches, as in the presidential campaign two years ago. Her energy is both the concern and wonder of her friends. She never seems to become too tired to answer the call of duty. Sleep is a stranger to her when there’s work to be done. During a strike she is always on the alert and no move of the enemy escapes her. She is as resourceful as she is energetic, and as determined as she is both. Innumerable stories could be told of her sagacity, determination and indomitable energy. None can outdo her in fealty to the task at hand. When necessary she will tramp for miles over mountains and along railroad tracks in the dead of night, and to sleep on the bare floors of miners’ huts is a common occurrence that has long ago lost its novelty. Her food is plain at all times, but she has often gone over a day with only a few crusts to eat, and sometimes with nothing at all. No one lives more in her work and for it than she does……
Her one great desire is activity in the movement, and of the workers, their wrongs and their rights, she never tires. Nothing else will ever take the place of that cause while her brave heart beats.
[…..]
[Courage and Devotion]
Such is she whose courage and devotion has made her the best beloved woman in the labor movement of America. The Social Revolution, of which she is the avant courier, has no purer, more unselfish and dauntless advocate than she. The personification of all that is noble and lofty in the ambitions of the working class, her spirit cannot be broken by persecution, nor, should the experiment over be tried, confined within the limits of a tyrant’s cell. Of her, indeed, in that case, it could be truly said:
“Four walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage!”[Emphasis added.]
From The Clarksburg Telegram of August 1, 1902:
MOTHER JONES FOUND GUILTY
———-
But Judge Jackson Suspended judgment
with an admonition.
———-“Mother” Jones was found guilty Thursday evening of last week by Judge Jackson at Parkersburg for violating his injunction, when she addressed a crowd at the East End several weeks ago and was arrested. He suspended sentence, however, with the admonition that if she re-engaged in agitating in this section, her immediate arrest would follow. She thanked him and also shook hands with him.
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[Yet Another Injunction]
“Mother” Jones went to Flemington Monday and began an open air address to the strikers there that night, but rain broke up the meeting. She was immediately served with an injunction awarded to the Flemington Coal &. Coke Company against John Springer and others. All day Tuesday U. S. Marshal Elliott and his deputies were busy serving these injunctions. Fully fifty people were enjoined that day.
From the Duluth Labor World of August 2, 1902:
WHOLESALE INJUNCTIONS.
———-
Courts of West Virginia and Pennsylvania Issue Them.Down in Pennsylvania and West Virginia the Federal courts are kept busy issuing wholesale injunctions, and incidentally opening the eyes of some of the miners, and making anarchists out of others.
Vice President Purcell and Secretary Wilson have been injoined from purchasing and distributing supplies to the miners, and organizing camps within the vicinity of the mines.
Great Jehovah! Where is this going to end? Is it not disgraceful that the courts should permit themselves to be used by the mine owners to this extent? We always knew that the mine owners expected to starve the miners into submission, but we did not think that they would have the audacity to use the courts to accomplish this purpose, nor did we think that the courts could be used in this manner. There will be a day of reckoning yet. Injustice will not always triumph. This is simply an object lesson, which is making more agitators and adherents to the cause of labor, and which will be followed by intelligent action on the part of the workingmen. The press report of the injunction is as follows:
Charlestown, W. Va., July 29.—Federal Judge Keller has issued an injunction against G. W. Purcell, a member of the national executive committee of the United Mine Workers; W. B. Wilson, national secretary; Chris Evans, national statistician; “Mother” Jones, and five others, at the request of the Gauly Mountain Coal company. It was charged that Purcell, Evans, and the others were purchasing and distributing supplies to feed the strikers in this district.
Purcell, Evans, Wilson and the others against whom the injunction was issued, are enjoined from furnishing supplies to the miners, from organizing camps close to the property of the complainants, and were selected as defendants because they are non-residents and because they were active in providing supplies for miners.
From the Scranton Tribune of August 7, 1902:
JUDGE JACKSON’S DECISION AFFIRMED
———-
The West Virginia Agitators Held for Contempt
of Court Will Be Obliged to Serve Sentences.
———-By Exclusive Wire from the Associated Press.
Clarksburg, W. Va., Aug. 5.-Judge Goff this afternoon, in a lengthy opinion, affirmed the action of Judge Jackson and decided the habeas corpus case against the miners and agitators, and remanded them to the custody of the marshal and sheriff, and they will be removed to Parkersburg to serve the balance of their sentences. The judge said the only question was as to the jurisdiction and that the Guarantee Trust company of New York was entitled to a standing in court and it was not absolutely necessary for the fuel company to be made a party to the suit.
The decision is a great disappointment to the miners, and their counsel says that no other action can be taken, for the present at least.
Judge Goff read his decision from typewritten pages. He occupied twenty minutes in reading the decision, at the end of which he directed that an order be drawn remanding the prisoners to the Wood county jail. “Mother Jones” was an interesting spectator in the audience and seemed to be disappointed at the decision. Marshal Elliott left tonight for Parkersburg with the prisoners, where they will enter the Wood county jail to serve the rest of the sentence imposed by Judge Jackson. At the depot, “Mother” Jones encouraged the martyrs, as she calls them. She said: “Our cause is God’s cause and we will triumph in the end.”
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
The Socialist Spirit
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Aug 1902, page, page 19
(search: mother jones mailly)
https://books.google.com/books?id=wIcuAAAAYAAJ
The Clarksburg Telegram
(Clarksburg, West Virginia)
-August 1, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84037844/1902-08-01/ed-1/seq-2/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84037844/1902-08-01/ed-1/seq-4/
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Aug 2, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1902-08-02/ed-1/seq-4/
Scranton Tribune
(Scranton, Pennsylvania)
-Aug 7, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026355/1902-08-07/ed-1/seq-1/
See also:
Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1902
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Hellraisers Journal: From The Socialist Spirit of Aug 1902:
“Mother Jones” by William Mailly
Part I
Part II
Part III
Tag: UMW West Virginia Organizing Campaign of 1900-1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/umw-west-virginia-organizing-campaign-of-1900-1902/
Tag: West Virginia Coalfield Strike of 1902-1903
https://weneverforget.org/tag/west-virginia-coalfield-strike-of-1902-1903/
Tag: Mother Jones v Judge Jackson 1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mother-jones-v-judge-jackson-1902/
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The Spirit of Mother Jones – Andy Irvine