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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 9, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1909, Part I:
-Found in New York City Speaking to Shirtwaist Strikers
From the New York Call of December 10, 1909:
“This is not a play this is a fight!”
With these ringing words, Mother Jones, the valiant agitator for the freedom of the workers, struck the keynote of the enthusiastic mass meeting, in behalf of the waist strikers, held by Local New York, of the Socialist party in Thalia Theater yesterday afternoon. The big crowd applauded this sentiment to the echo……
Mother Jones Speaks.
Mother Jones, the friend of the miners and champion of all oppressed, was greeted with a very hearty reception by the big crowd. She was in excellent conditions. As she scored the system with sledge-hammer blows of logic and wit, the enthusiasm of the crowd broke into storms of applause.
[Said Mother Jones in opening:]
Through all the ages you have built a wonderful monument of civilization, but you don’t own it. You make all the fine waists, but you do not wear them. You work hard and are poorly paid, and now you have been forced to strike for better conditions of labor, shorter hours and higher wages.
You ought to parade past the shops where you work and up the avenues where the swells who wear the waists you make live. They won’t like to see you, they will be afraid of you!
If I belonged to a union and was on strike I would insist that we parade past the shops and homes of the masters.
You must stick together to win. The boss looks for cheap workers. When the child can do the work cheaper he displaces the woman. When the woman can do the work cheaper he displaces the man. But when you are organized you have something to say about the conditions of labor and your wages. You must stand shoulder to shoulder. The women must fight in the labor movement beside man. Every strike that I have ever been in was won by the women.
Last Great Fight of Man.
[Declared Mother Jones, as she concluded amid storms of applause:]
Whether you know of it or not, this is the last great fight of man against man. We are fighting for the time when there will be no master and no slave. When the fight of the workers to own the tools with which they toil is won, for the first time in human history man will be free.
———-
[Photograph added.]
MOTHER JONES NEWS FOR DECEMBER 1909
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From The Christian Bugle (Hutchinson, Kansas) of December 1, 1909:
Indianapolis, Okla., 11-29, ’09.
Christian Bugle-As I have been reading your splendid little sheet I thought I would say a few words in praise of the grand little Bugle. I tell you every note of the Bugle has a grand sermon in it, and ought to vibrate through every Christian’s heart. For a true Socialist can’t help being a Christian, for it is Christ’s teaching all through the blessed word of God.
I am a converted republican. Was baptized into Christ in 1870; was converted to Socialism in 1903 by the preaching of Mother Jones. I will do all in my power to help blow the grand new Bugle.
D. C. Burton.
From The New York Call of December 2, 1909:
MOTHER JONES ASKS MEXICANS’ RELEASE
—–
[Western?] Agitator Puts Cases of Imprisoned Liberals
Up to President Taft.
—–In an effort to put the case of the Mexican Liberals who are now languishing in American jails because they have dared to try to bring about the establishment of a real republic in Mexico, despite the power of Dictator Diaz, squarely up to President Taft himself, “Mother” Jones, who is now in this city taking part in the general agitation in behalf of the imprisoned Mexicans, has addressed the following open letter to the nation’s executive:
Dear Mr. President: You may remember that I called upon you last April and June and had a personal interview, in which I presented the case of Guerra and his two companions, the Mexican revolutionists who are now lying in the government prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, having been convicted of conspiracy against a friendly power.
I also spoke of the case of the three others who are incarcerated in the government penitentiary at Florence, Arizona, under the same charge. These six men, in my estimation, were moved by exactly the same motives which were felt by Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Patrick Henry and the fathers of our own American Revolution. They are merely striving to institute in Mexico, a sister republic the same free institutions which we presumably enjoy in this country, and it shows how far we have receded from our original ideas of freedom when, instead of giving these men seats of honor in this country, we put them in our jails, and it also shows to what extent the power of international capital has grown when it is oppressing freedom of speech and press in all countries of the world.
However, I am not going into any lengthy defense of their action; you know the facts of the case and if you do not see fit to pardon them I have nothing more to say, but I would remind you when I had my conversation with you that what I dwelt upon was the particular inhumanity of keeping Guerra in prison, for he is shortly to die of consumption. When I left him last April he was in the hospital without any practical hope of recovery.
After leaving you I called upon the attorney for the Board of Far- dons and he said that an application for Guerra’s pardon was not on file, but on my insistence that it was he looked into it and apologized for his mistake, and said he would give it immediate attention and he thought it was a case that certainly merited action of some sort. I have been waiting patiently for a long while to see what would be done, and certainly thought after my interview with you and with the attorney for the Pardon Board I would at least hear what was the final decision, but so far I have heard nothing.
I make this appeal to you again in behalf of a dying patriot, who some day will be mentioned as one of the martyrs who gave up his life to institute a real democracy in Mexico. I am convinced that we never can sustain our reputation of being a truly Christian nation if we continue in the path of inhumanity marked by our action toward Guerra.
I do not want to bother you with further letters or personal calls, but if you would intimate that you will receive me again so that I can give you further light upon the entire Mexican situation, I am at your command.
Very respectfully yours,
MOTHER JONES.
From the New York Sun of December 3, 1909:
WANTS TO GET TAFT’S EAR.
—–
Mother Jones Would Like to Ask Him
to Free Mexican Insurgents.Mother Jones, the labor agitator who came here several days ago to stir up sentiment in favor of De Fornaro, the cartoonist sentenced for libeling a Mexican editor, has written to President Taft urging the release of the Mexican insurgents who are now in American jails.
Once Mother Jones invaded the White House and asked that the insurgents be set free. In her letter she says that the prisoners are not criminals but patriots, and concludes:
I do not want to bother you with further letters or personal calls, but if you would intimate that you will receive me again so that I can give you further light upon this Mexican question I am at your command.
———-
From Black Hills Daily Register of December 8, 1909:
“Mother” Would Come.
A member of the Lead union [Western Federation of Miners] today received a letter from “Mother” Jones, the aged agitator who delivered the Labor Day address in this city last fall. “Mother” is engaged at the present time in the defense of an author who has been indicted for writing the history of Diaz’s misrule of Mexico. She sends her regards to all her Black Hills friends and says if she can be of any assistance to the Homestake miners she will come, if asked. At the time of writing “Mother” was in New York, but she was about to leave for Kansas City.
From The New York Call of December 10, 1909:
There were no new developments yesterday in regard to arbitration of the Waist Makers’ strike, but five more bosses conceded the union demands and between 400 and 500 more strikers returned to work.
—–
This is not a play this is a fight!
With these ringing words, Mother Jones, the valiant agitator for the freedom of the workers, struck the keynote of the enthusiastic mass meeting, in behalf of the waist strikers, held by Local New York, of the Socialist party in Thalia Theater yesterday afternoon. The big crowd applauded this sentiment to the echo. The spirit of the audience was aroused to a very high pitch of enthusiasm by the pledges of the speakers that the Socialist party would support the strikers morally and financially. The rounds of applause which greeted the appeals to the strikers to stand solidly together until victory crowned their struggle were deafening.
Carrie W. Allen, the well known agitator, presided and spoke briefly but strongly. Mrs. Allen said in part:
In the beginning this strike was an incoherent protest, but it was a protest. Many of you did not know what you wanted, but you knew that conditions were intolerable, and you struck.
Solidarity of Labor.
I understand that about 70 per cent of the strikers are girls. The fact that so many girls joined in striking with the men is a sign of the growing solidarity of labor.
Now you have found it necessary to join the union in order to fight, but you do not appreciate the need of the union at other times. You need the union all the time!
What you win through organization you can only keep through organization. If you do not want your bosses to take away from you what you win you must keep up your union. If you do not want to repeat the battle soon again you must stand by your union. Other wise the boss will take all that you win away from you.
[Declared Mrs. Allen in conclusion:]
This is not a question of sex distinction, nor a question of race distinction, but of class distinction. You workers must stand together all the time. You must fight for better conditions now, and you must stand together until the workers control the world.
[A]nd the crowd cheered her sentiment roundly.
Algernon Lee, who spoke next, reviewed the strike situation, and he was roundly applauded when he declared:
The general strike of the waist makers, which has been going on for two weeks, or a little over, I believe, is the first of its kind in the history of the American labor movement. In fact, I do not know whether such a thing has ever happened anywhere in the world before.
Must Treat Women as Equals
After briefly previewing the changes in social relations which has forced women into industry and showing how the bosses use women whenever they possibly can do so to lower the wages of men and to defeat men when they strike, Lee declared:
The labor movement must organizes women treat them as sisters, as comrades and equals!…..
Mother Jones Speaks.
Mother Jones, the friend of the miners and champion of all oppressed, was greeted with a very hearty reception by the big crowd. She was in excellent conditions. As she scored the system with sledge-hammer blows of logic and wit, the enthusiasm of the crowd broke into storms of applause.
[Said Mother Jones in opening:]
Through all the ages you have built a wonderful monument of civilization, but you don’t own it. You make all the fine waists, but you do not wear them. You work hard and are poorly paid, and now you have been forced to strike for better conditions of labor, shorter hours and higher wages.
You ought to parade past the shops where you work and up the avenues where the swells who wear the waists you make live. They won’t like to see you, they will be afraid of you!
If I belonged to a union and was on strike I would insist that we parade past the shops and homes of the masters.
You must stick together to win. The boss looks for cheap workers. When the child can do the work cheaper he displaces the woman. When the woman can do the work cheaper he displaces the man. But when you are organized you have something to say about the conditions of labor and your wages. You must stand shoulder to shoulder. The women must fight in the labor movement beside man. Every strike that I have ever been in was won by the women.
Last Great Fight of Man.
[Declared Mother Jones, as she concluded amid storms of applause:]
Whether you know of it or not, this is the last great fight of man against man. We are fighting for the time when there will be no master and no slave. When the fight of the workers to own the tools with which they toil is won, for the first time in human history man will be free.
Albert Abrahams, who was the last speaker, made an impassioned plea to the strikers to stand together until they win all of their demands…..
In conclusion, let me say that your cause is just, you were forced to fight, to strike, and if you stand together you will win! Let the watchword be: “Solidarity and victory!”
The meeting broke up at 5 o’clock and the audience left the hall with courage and inspiration in their hearts…..
———-
Note: emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
The New York Call
“Devoted to the Interests of the Working People.”
(New York, New York)
-Dec 10, 1909, pages 1-2
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-new-york-call/1909/091210-newyorkcall-v02n304.pdf
-Dec 2, 1909, page 3
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-new-york-call/1909/091202-newyorkcall-v02n296.pdf
The Christian Bugle
(Hutchinson, Kansas)
-Dec 1, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/420566927/
“Devoted to the Restoration of New Testament Christianity,
Christian Socialism and Reform Work
MOTTO, “HEW TO THE LINE, LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY.”
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
-For letter from Mother to Pres. Taft, see page 73
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735057897435/viewer#page/124/mode/2up
The Sun
(New York, New York)
-Dec 3, 1909
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1909-12-03/ed-1/seq-8/
Black Hills Daily Register
(Lead, South Dakota)
-Dec 8, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/91657986/
Mother Jones Speaks
Collected Writings and Speeches
by Philip S Foner
Monad Press, 1983
– re Dec 9th speech, see page 136 (search: thalia theater)
https://books.google.com/books?id=T_m5AAAAIAAJ
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909
The Elkhart Daily Review
(Elkhart, Indiana)
-July 19, 1909, page 2
https://www.genealogybank.com/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 21, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1909, Part I:
-Found Speaking for the Socialist Party in the Lone Star State
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 22, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1909, Part II:
-Found Speaking in New York City on Behalf of Carlo de Fornaro
Category: New York Waistmakers Uprising of 1909-1910
https://weneverforget.org/category/new-york-waistmakers-uprising-of-1909-1910/
Tag: Mexican Revolutionaries
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mexican-revolutionaries/
Lead Miners Union No 2 WFM
https://www.deadwoodhistory.com/images/docs/5010_Lead_Miners_Union_Collection_Finding_Aid_1.pdf
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Bread and Roses – Bronwen Lewis