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Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 23, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1902, Part I
W. V: Saved from Suspicious Hotel Fire; Ill: Attends Celebration for Mitchell
From The Richmond Dispatch (Virginia) of December 3, 1902:
TO BURN “MOTHER” JONES.
———-
This Seemed the Object of Incendiaries
at Montgomery, W. Va.Mother Jones,
PARKERSBURG, VA., December 3.-(Special.)—”Mother” Jones, the friend of the miners, narrowly escaped with her life from a burning hotel at Montgomery, early this morning.
Mrs. A. R. Wagoner, the wife of the proprietor of the Montgomery Hotel, was aroused from her slumbers and gave the alarm. The room occupied by “Mother” Jones was full of smoke when she wakened, and in a short time she would have been suffocated.
The fire was of incendiary origin, starting in a room that had not been occupied for three days. The hotel has been on fire three times within the past few weeks, and it is supposed that it was because “Mother” Jones was stopping there.
John C. Todd, one of the guests, had a hip fractured by jumping from the third story window. All the guests lost most of their valuables and clothing.
[Photograph added.]
From Hinton Daily News (West Virginia) of December 6, 1902
Mother Jones was at Beckley yesterday and made a speech at the labor meeting.
From the Duluth Labor World of December 13, 1902:
Mother Jones was nearly suffocated in a hotel fire at Montgomery, W. Va., this week. The fire was of incendiary origin. The coal operators would not be sorry to learn that Mother Jones lost her life, and it is not improbable that some of their thugs had something to do with firing the hotel.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean of December 15, 1902:
MITCHELL IS HERE; RECEIVES OVATION
———-
Mine Workers’ Chief Greeted by Chicago Labor Men.
———-HAS LITTLE TO SAY
———-
Refuses to Discuss Matters Before the Commission.
———-
Goes to Spring Valley Today for Reception
and Will Hasten Back to Scranton.
———-John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers of America and the most prominent figure in the labor movement today, arrived in Chicago at 10:30 o’clock last night. He will leave at 9:15 o’clock this morning for his home in Spring Valley, where a public demonstration is planned in his honor by the residents of that city.
The train on which Mr. Mitchell arrived was delayed seven hours on account of a snowstorm, but the friends who had gathered to greet him waited patiently for his arrival. The Cabdrivers’ union sent a carriage to the depot, and he was driven to McCoy’s hotel, where he was given an ovation by the crowd in waiting in the rotunda.
[…..]
“Mother” Jones Here.
At the same hotel is “Mother” Jones, the socialist agitator and organizer of the miners of the country. She will be one of the speakers at the reception at Spring Valley today. Mrs. Jones is almost as popular among the miners as Mr. Mitchell, and while she shakes her head over the probable outcome of the investigation of the commission, she is rejoicing that the actual condition existing in the mines are being held up to the public.
[She said:]
I have been preaching about those conditions for years, but the world refused to listen. It is listening now, and whatever the final outcome may be it cannot fail to be an advantage to the suffering miners.
From The Davenport Times of December 15, 1902:
MITCHELL GIVEN WARM WELCOME
———-MINERS’ LEADER RETURNS TO
HIS ILLINOIS HOME
———-
Citizens, Both Business Men and Union Men,
With Wives and Gaily Attired Children, Turn Out
———-Spring Valley, Ill., Dec 15.-John Mitchell came back to his home today as the hero returns from war and was received in full measure of that appreciation of his fellow citizens which is the meed of men who have fought and won. The rough miners from all sections of this district with many of whom Mitchell had worked side by side with pick and shovel, lined the streets to greet their former fellow workman and present leader. Many brought their wives and children and their shrill cries of welcome mingled with the hoarser shouts of welcome of the men.
The demonstration of affection touched Mitchell deeply, for although to the throng he apparently was as calm as ever, the members of his immediate party noticed a suspicious moisture about his eyes.
Early in the morning the trains brought hundreds of people from the surrounding towns where, as in Spring Valley, business was generally suspended.
Around the City Park, where the parade formed, scores of gaily dressed children mingled with the miners. Shortly before noon the procession moved. Preceding it a committee of business men and union labor representatives rode a few miles out of the city and boarded a Rock Island train on which Mitchell came from Chicago this morning. In the Mitchell party were Mother Jones, W. D. Ryan, secretary of the Illinois Miners’ Union; J. B. Wilson of the executive committee and Thomas I. Kidd, third vice-president of the American Federation of Labor.
From the Decatur Daily Review (Illinois) of December 16, 1902:
MOTHER JONES AIRS HER VIEWS
—–Chicago, Dec. 16– A silver-haired woman rushed into the waiting room of the Grand Central railway at 9 o’clock. Running up to President John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers’ union, threw her long arms round him in an ecstatic hug
“My boy John!” said the old lady.
“Hello, Mother Jones,” gasped John, “you were nearly left that time.”
“You’re a nice lot of fellows, going away without your mother,” said the famous labor lender, and every one joined in the laugh.
While Mr. Mitchell and his companions were making a bee line to the train, Mother Jones was busy sewing in her room at McCoy’s hotel. Her watch showed 8:30 when an excited young man burst into the room and told her she would be left. In spite of her three-score-and-ten the American Louise Michel is a hustler. In a minute she had thrown her belongings into a valise and was sprinting to the station.
MITCHELL HAS LITTLE TO SAY.
“I am not prepared to say what the chances of our success with the arbitration commission are.” said Mr. Mitchell. “It would be manifestly improper for me to talk on the matter, and, besides, one knows the evidence and can judge for himself.”
Mr. Mitchell also refilled to make answer to the statements of Newell Dwight Hillis, who believes the nonunion man is the modern martyr.
The little man in the black slouch hat, with the half-burnt cigar in his mouth, is a born diplomat. When he does answer Mr. Hillis it will be in the nature judicial utterance.
Mother Jones has no such bridle on tongue.
[She queried:]
What do I think of Hillis. Why, that he is an autocrat. He preaches his Jesus’ doctrines in the interest of men like J. Pierpont Morgan. Of course the nonunion men are martyrs. So was Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold and every traitor. They are the martyrs of a bad cause.
MOTHER JONES WARMS UP.
Warming up, Mother Jones let loose her wrath on Mr. Hillis and churches in general.
[She cried out:]
I would like to know what business we had to raise an army to free the slaves, if a man is to be compelled to work for 60 cents a day when it takes at least a dollar to keep his family? The advocates of slavery were martyrs. Of course they were. As for Dr. Hillis’ talk on the iniquity of boycotting, has he not himself boycotted rival churches and religions? What about Protestant boycott of the Catholic church? Didn’t the Christians use to boycott the Jewish religion? Don’t the Methodist of today boycott the Baptists in order to build up their own religion? Are they not all jumping on the Christian Scientists because they are trying to get something out of religion themselves?
You can apply that doctrine all round. It sounds suspiciously like hypocrisy from such men as Dr. Hillis. He is not alone. When the ministers come out in favor of the oppressed and poor they will lose their jobs in the churches of the rich.
The only thing that stopped Mother Jones’ eloquence was the warning of the train that was to bear the party to Spring Valley, where Mr. Mitchell was to receive the demonstration of his life.
From the Duluth Labor World of December 20, 1902:
ONE HALF NOT TOLD.
Discussing the [Pennsylvania anthracite] coal strike, the half has not been told. During the entire dispute the miners withheld for reasons best known to themselves the most pitiable stories of life in the anthracite coal fields. Everyone knows what the miners said about the conditions there. They complained about their wages being insufficient to maintain their families. Their hours of labor were long and tedious. Employment was irregular and uncertain. They were obliged to mine one half more than a ton of coal to get paid for a ton. These were the paramount grievances of the strike. But who ever heard of the grievances of the women and little children? Preachers and lecturers from time to time have attempted to picture their miseries, but they have failed.
No one could tell the stories better than the sufferers themselves. If labor agitators had attempted to picture them, a suspicious public would have said that it was simply the ranting of a morbid set of men.
Poor Mother Jones, the miners friend, tried to do it. For her pains in behalf of the families of the miners she was convicted of contempt of court, and severely lectured by a miserable judge [Judge John J. Jackson]. When she travelled, the newspapers would interview her, and her charges against the mine owners and their abuse of the helpless ones about the mines were from time to time refuted. Still Mother Jones was right, and now she is fully vindicated.
Every reader knows the stories told by the women and children before the strike commission. No one could read them without feeling bitter against those responsible for the suffering. And this is in an age of civilization. This is capitalism fully exposed. It seems that men’s desire for gold is so great that they have lost all regard for those who earn profits for them.
The mine owners have shown themselves to be totally incapable of managing their properties in keeping with the present demands of civilization. How long will the people stand for it? Will they agree with Baer on the divine right theory, or will they soon recognize the God given rights of mankind? An educational campaign is now on. Out of this investigation will come a light which will burn for the reclaiming of that which rightfully belongs to all the people. Then and only then will the mines be operated in the interest of humanity.
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones Mine Supe, Bulldog of Capitalism
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v02n08-feb-1902-ISR-gog-Princ.pdf
The Richmond Dispatch
(Richmond, Virginia)
-December 3, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038614/1902-12-03/ed-1/seq-7/
Hinton Daily News
(Hinton, West Virginia)
-Dec 6, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/667453985/
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Dec 13, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1902-12-13/ed-1/seq-1/
-Dec 20, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1902-12-20/ed-1/seq-6/
The Inter Ocean
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Dec 15, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/34505314/
The Davenport Times
(Davenport, Iowa)
-Dec 15, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/300900233/
The Daily Times
(Decatur, Illinois)
-Dec 16, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/7122426/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902
https://books.google.com/books?id=wIcuAAAAYAAJ
See also:
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1902, Part I
Found Speaking in New York City and Standing with Striking Miners of West Virginia
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1902, Part II
Found in Baltimore, Maryland, and in New River Strike Zone of West Virginia
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 4, 1902
Montgomery, West Virginia – Mother Jones Saved from Hotel Fire
Louise Michel (1830-1905)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Michel
The Anthracite Coal Strike (of 1902)
(-great source, links to Commission Proceedings, testimony, statements, etc)
http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow2/trialsid=12.html
Newell Dwight Hillis (1858-1929)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newell_Dwight_Hillis
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 7, 1903
Divine Rights Baer Explains His God-Given Right to Rule the Working Class
Tag: Mother Jones v Judge Jackson 1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mother-jones-v-judge-jackson-1902/
Tag: Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-anthracite-coal-strike-of-1902/
Tag: Anthracite Coal Strike Commission of 1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/anthracite-coal-strike-commission-of-1902/
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With a spirit strong and fearless, she hated that which was wrong;
She never gave up fighting until her breath was gone.
May the workers all get together to carry out her plan
And bring back better conditions for all throughout the land.