You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 13, 1907
Mother Jones News for August, Part II: Travels to Chicago
On August 21st, Mother left Duluth, Minnesota, after concluding her time in Northern Minnesota where she had been traveling the Mesabi Range in support of the striking iron miners and giving speeches alongside of C. E. Mahoney of the Western Federation of Miners. She next traveled to Chicago where she was found speaking in support of the Telegrapher’s Strike. At one union meeting she advised young woman on the issue of keeping company with scabs:
When you find these fellows sneaking back to work, keep him out if you can; if you can’t, renounce them and see that any fellow who calls on you carries a union card or else order him from your door.
Mother also made a short trip to Cincinnati in order to speak at Socialist Picnic in that city.
From The Cincinnati Post of August 23, 1907:
From The Labor World of August 24, 1907:
The Labor World objected to the coverage of Mother Jones given by the kept press of Minnesota.
The mouth pieces of the Steel Trust have shown their lack of gallantry by blackguarding and misrepresenting a noble self-denying woman, “Mother” Jones. Her every thought and aspiration is for the advancement and betterment of mankind.
———-
-Farewell to Mother Jones.
“Mother” Jones Leaves.
“Mother” Jones left Duluth Wednesday evening [August 21] on the limited for Chicago, where she will remain for a few days. She will then go to Utah where she has some work to do among the miners of the Mormon state.
_____
An Iowa paper reports on Mother Jones, August 24, 1907:
TAMMANY MONEY TAINTED.
—–
Striking Telegraphers May Reject
$5,000 Contribution.Chicago, Aug. 24.—The $5,000 contribution which Tammany Hall made to the telegraphers’ strike fund in New York yesterday may be returned as the result of opposition to the acceptance of the money which developed at the strikers’ mass-meeting at Brand’s hall in the afternoon. Speakers declared the money was “tainted” and urged the union leaders not to touch it.
The news that Charles F. Murphy, leader of Tammany Hall, had sent $1,000 to the union officials and was ready to give $4,000 more was the most cheering information that reached the local leaders during the day. They were not prepared for the sentiment that flashed up in the mass-meeting. In the evening there was considerable discussion as to returning the money at once.
“Mother” Jones, the well known labor agitator, was the most bitter in her attack on the Tammany contribution.
“Let Tammany’s money alone,” she shouted to the 500 strikers in the hall.
It won’t do the strike any good. Nothing good ever came out of Tammany hall. The money that comes out of there is a bribe. I hope the union officials won’t accept it.
Her words were greeted with applause, and when the speaker announced her willingness to go out and collect $5,000 herself rather than have the union keep the money the cheers were redoubled….
From The Cincinnati Enquirer of August 26, 1907:
…Shooting at Socialists’ Picnic…
The hundreds of people who were drawn to Highland Grove, on the C. L. and N. Railroad, yesterday by the fact that “Mother” Jones, the well-know labor agitator and intimate friend of the union miners, was to address the Socialists of the city, were thrown into a paroxysm of excitement by an incident that was not down on the bills…
[The article then goes on to describe the circumstances surrounding the non-fatal shooting in which one man, attempting to shoot another, instead, shot himself in the leg and was then arrested. The shooting did not involve Mother Jones nor her audience.]
…Outside of this affair the picnic was a great success and the address of “Mother” Jones was listened to with rapt attention. Her utterances were mild and conservative, but none the less Socialistic. She received a most cordial greeting, and her review of the labor troubles of recent years was most interesting.
———-
From Hellraisers Journal of August 27, 1907:
Hellraisers republished articles from the August 24th edition of the Duluth Labor World. The first recounted a meeting held at the Duluth Armory where Mother Jones spoke and said in part:
When they bring in the guns and the military, they think they have conquered; they rejoice at the thought they have conquered labor. You can conquer the steel trust, you can conquer the paper trust—every other trust in the world, but put it down for the editor in the morning that you can’t conquer the labor trust. If you wipe out the working class, what are the rich people going to do; they can’t even cook a meal of victuals for themselves.
Another article from the same issue of The Labor World declared:
LABOR’S “LITTLE ANGEL” IS WRONGED BY PAPERS
…And we do know “Mother” Jones. Her every heart beat is for the cause of humanity. She may have terse ways of putting facts on the platform, but her life is as pure and sweet as the blooming lily in the valley. She is the “little angel” of the working class, and women of her character do not give bad advice….
A third article relates a story, often told by Mother Jones, of her tangles in West Virginia in 1902 with U. S. District Judge John Jay Jackson.
From Hellraisers Journal of August 29, 1907:
Hellraisers republished several articles from the Duluth News Tribune as examples of how Mother was wronged by the kept press of Minnesota. The Tribune is, by far, the most virulent voice of the Steel Trust in the northern part of the state.
The August 19th edition of the Tribune headlined its article on Mother Jones:
If such headlines were meant to disparage Mother Jones, we find them rather to demonstrate the typical courage with which Mother is known to face off against the gunthugs. We further believe that the rich would do well to heed the advice she gave them.
On August 21st, the Tribune gave the following account (in part) of a meeting in Proctor:
She said that the question of temperance did not enter into the labor question; that it was all bosh, it was good for a man to get drunk once in a while, said “Mother” Jones, and she would get drunk herself if it did not make her sick.
She stated that there are 18,000 men starving on the range, and for this condition she blamed the United States Steel corporation. The business men of the range, she said, blamed only the strikers, but not the corporation.
The only way to settle strikes and grievances between the working class and capital, she said, was to have all the men “stick together.”
During the month of July, the Tribune had been having fits about strikers carrying the Red Flag during their marches and parades-and not only RED, but BLOOD RED!! In its August 11th edition the Tribune announced that Mother Jones was heading into the strike zone, the Mesabi Iron Range, and reported that she had said this about the dreaded Red Flag:
Well, about the red flag, over which so much fuss is made, indicating that it is an emblem and insignia of anarchy: Let me tell you that the red flag was the first to float over the American forces at the battle of Bunker hill. A patriot, when the British were giving way, tore his red shirt from his body, and, putting it on his bayonet point, waved it and his fellows shouted for liberty.
From Idaho’s Lewiston Evening Teller of August 29, 1907:
MOTHER JONES TAKES A HAND
—–CHICAGO, Aug. 29.—Deserters from the ranks of the striking telegraphers who have returned to work have been placed on the unfair list of the girl operators. Several engagements have been broken off and a union card is the only calling card which the striking girls will recognize. They pledged themselves in a meeting in Brand’s hall this afternoon, on the advice of Mother Jones, to renounce sweethearts who did not wear the emblem of trades unionism.
[Said Mother Jones:]
When you find these fellows sneaking back to work, keep him out if you can; if you can’t, renounce them and see that any fellow who calls on you carries a union card or else order him from your door.
Mother Jones told the strikers a few other things that roused them to a high pitch of enthusiasm. She told them that this was a brutal, diabolical civilization and urged them to keep on striking until the exploiters were wiped off the face of the earth.
Fresh from a campaign among the striking miners in the Mesaba range, Mother Jones was ever more radical in her utterances than she is accustomed to be. She told her audience that she believed in pulling down every church in the country to compel the preachers to go to work and earn an honest living. She also wanted the government to seize the telegraph wires, but did not bother going into details as to how it could be done.
———-
SOURCES
The Cincinnati Post
(Cincinnati, Ohio)
-Aug 23, 1907, page 4
MJ, Ad Speech, Cinc Post p4, Aug 23, 1907
https://www.genealogybank.com/
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Aug 24, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1907-08-24/ed-1/seq-4/
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1907-08-24/ed-1/seq-8/
The Evening Times-Republican
(Marshalltown, Iowa)
-Aug 24, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85049554/1907-08-24/ed-1/seq-1/
The Cincinnati Enquirer
(Cincinnati, Ohio)
-Aug 26, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/33339373/
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 27, 1907
From The Labor World: “Labor’s Little Angel” Speaks in Duluth
Mother Jones Comes to Duluth to Support Striking Mesabi Iron Miners
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Aug 24, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1907-08-24/ed-1/seq-6/
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1907-08-24/ed-1/seq-5/
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday August 29, 1907
Duluth, Minnesota – News Tribune Reports on Mother Jones
Duluth News Tribune, Mouthpiece of Mine Owners, Reports on Visit of Mother Jones
Duluth News Tribune
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Aug 19, 1907 -page 1
-Aug 21, 1907 -page 7
-Aug 11, 1907 -page 7
-July 8, 1907 -page 5
-July 22, 1907 -page 1
(Also source for images of text.)
http://www.genealogybank.com/
Lewiston Evening Teller
(Lewiston, Idaho)
-Aug 29, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86091109/1907-08-29/ed-1/seq-3/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Tacoma Times, Sept 19, 1904
https://www.newspapers.com/image/68052998/
See also:
Tag: Mesabi Iron Miners Strike of 1907
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mesabi-iron-miners-strike-of-1907/
Tammany Hall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall
The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History
-by Aaron Brenner, Benjamin Day, Immanuel Ness
M.E. Sharpe, 2009
(Search: telegraph strike 1907.)
https://books.google.com/books?id=EHzk54IjNpEC
Commercial Telegraphers Union of America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Telegraphers_Union_of_America
Labor World on Telegraphers’ Strike of 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?lccn=sn78000395&dateFilterType=range&date1=08%2F01%2F1907&date2=08%2F31%2F1907&language=&ortext=&andtext=telegraph+strike&phrasetext=&proxtext=&proxdistance=5&rows=20&searchType=advanced&sort=date