Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 8, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1908, Part 1:
–Found Speaking to Unemployed in Cincinnati, Fort Wayne & Racine
On March 2nd Mother Jones was found speaking to the unemployed in Cincinnati, where, it was reported, she was met by an enthusiastic audience.
From the Cincinnati Post of February 3, 1908:
MOTHER JONES STIRS HEARERS
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Have you ever stopped to think that for the $12, $15 or $18 you have been earning each week for the past five or ten years, you have been producing for the man who employed you four or five times that sum?
-was the question asked an enthusiastic audience of 1500 at Central Turner Hall Sunday [March 2nd] by “Mother” Jones, Socialist worker.
Did you know that he has been stocking up for years the overplus of your production, so that he can make a clean profit from it without the expense of paying you wages?
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[Photograph added.]
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Mother Jones News Round-Up, February 1908, Part 1
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From the Appeal to Reason of February 1, 1908:
[…..]
[…..]
With the Organizers.
…..Mother Jones-Texarkana, Feb. 1; Atlanta, 3-5; Hooks, 6-11; Moss Springs, 12……
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From The Cincinnati Enquirer of February 2, 1908:
UNEMPLOYED
—–
Will Be Addressed By “Mother” Jones
on “Question of Bread.”An invitation has been issued to the unemployed of the city and to the public in general to attend a mass meeting to be held at 2 o’clock this afternoon at the Central Turner Hall under the auspices of the Socialist party. The object of the meeting is primarily to discuss the present economic situation and determine whether or not there has been any improvement in local conditions the past month. Another object is to discuss President’s Roosevelt’s message.
The principal speaker will be “Mother” Jones, the well-known woman Socialist and labor leader, often called “the Miners’ Angel.” “Mother ” Jones will arrive to-day from Indianapolis, where she has been attending the convention of miners. She will speak on “The Question of Bread.”
Nicholas Klein and Walter J. Millard will also address the meeting.
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From the The Cincinnati Enquirer of February 3, 1908:
BREAD!
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Was Cry of Mother Jones.
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Charged President With Spending Thousands
on Foreign Duke
While Home People Went Hungry.
—–[Y]esterday afternoon “Mother” Jones, one of the best-known national characters in socialist and labor circles, in an impassioned address on “The Question of Bread” before an audience of about 1,500 at the Central Turner Hall, [declared:]
Society, is founded upon the principles of human right. Man should have every liberty that does not interfere with the pursuit after happiness by his fellow-man, and upon the pretext of regulating this comparative liberty, a small body of men has at various times made laws binding upon the social community. Of the classes that constitute society one small clique has managed, by circumventing the laws, to concentrate into itself the forces that represent economic progress; they have taken unto themselves the wealth of the land, and by means of it they control the other classes. Upon the other classes they have placed the yoke of bondage. The willingness with which the other classes appear to wear this yoke is the reins with which the money class drives the country. It is up to the money class whether we shall eat or drink.
You who have known the pangs of hunger, and look for work; you who have starving wives and families in your homes, have you ever stopped to think why these things are? Have you ever stopped to think that for the twelve, fifteen or eighteen dollars you have been earning each week for the past five or ten years you have been producing for the man who employed you four or five times that sum; that he has been stocking up for years the overplus of your production that he could not then place upon the market, so that now he can make a clear profit from it without the expense of paying you wages?
At Washington sits your chameleon-hued President. Ask him why you lack for bread. Perhaps he can tell you why Congress last year voted thousands upon thousands to entertain a foreign Duke, while 2,000 children I led to the White House to ask for bread were driven away by his orders. If you want bread why do you not appeal to your lawmakers to regulate conditions so that you can get it? It is not a crime in these days for a man to steal bread; yet men of our class are thrown into prisons for it, while the minions of the law suffer a few men to grab millions and go free.
About three hundred unemployed present were given a lunch of hot soup and bread. Other speakers were Nicholas Klein and Walter J. Millard.
William D. Haywood, former Secretary of the Western Federation of Miners, whose trial at Boise, Idaho, recently for alleged complicity in the murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg, of Idaho, brought him into national prominence, is expected in the city the latter part of this week. He will make an address, probably at Music Hall, if that building can be secured for the occasion. Next Sunday Prof. George R. Kirkpatrick, of the University of Wisconsin, who is prominently identified with the Socialist party, will speak in the city.
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From Indiana’s Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of February 3, 1908:
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From The Fort Wayne Sentinel of February 3, 1908:
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From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of February 4, 1908:
MOTHER JONES TALKS SOCIALISM
—–ADDRESSED LARGE AUDIENCE OF UNEMPLOYED
AT COURT HOUSE.
—–
Delivers Harangue Against the Corporations and
Their Methods of Mistreating the Laboring Classes
-Offers Socialism As Remedy.
—–The announcement of the committee that “Mother” Jones, the noted socialist leader, would address a meeting of the unemployed men in the assembly room of the court house served to gather together a large crowd, not all of whom belong to the above category. Many women were present and gave the little woman their closest attention, especially when she mentioned her fight for the children she found laboring under unsanitary conditions in the factories and rails of Philadelphia. Her description of the reception of her army of young boys and girls which she marched from Philadelphia to Oyster Bay several years ago to pay a call on the president was greeted with laughter.
The speaker, who is a woman of apparently sixty-five, has spent years in her chosen work of going about the country addressing meetings of laboring men in the interest of socialism, and has gained a certain ability of holding the attention of her hearers, and judging from the manner in which her remarks last night were interrupted by applause carried her points in a decisive manner. She painted a dark picture of the present social condition, saying that 44,000,000 people in this country are landless, while one man alone owns seventy-five square miles of land in the single state of Arkansas. In this same connection Mrs. Jones made the statement that 90 per cent. of the wealth is controlled by 10 per cent. of the people.
She spoke long and earnestly of the terrible conditions existing round the mine regions of West Virginia, saying that the coal companies have a system of labor employment which is worse than the ante-bellum slavery. Calling the minor officials of the companies “bloodhounds” and higher ones murderers, she completed a tirade against the alleged peonage system with an appeal for the children for the sake of future generations that, from its earnestness, caused many wet eyes in the audience. Charging the men in office with the responsibility of this present lamentable condition of affairs, this modern Joan of Arc harangued her audience to vote out at the next presidential election the men who are now in power and elect in their places men chosen from the working classes, such as nominated by the socialist party. After the address the little woman shook hands with many of those present and the women in the audience seemed especially eager to greet the member of their own sex, who has worked for many years among the laboring classes.
“Mother” Jones will leave to-day for Kenosha, Wis., where she has been called by the striking metal workers to address several meetings. She was in Cincinnati yesterday morning, and owning to the snowstorm the train she was to have made the trip to this city on was annulled, for which reason she was unable to reach here until 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon, too late for the afternoon meeting. The latter gathering was addressed by E. J. Wilkinson, of this city, who spoke on socialism, which question he has given some little study within the past few years. The afternoon and evening meetings planned for Wednesday will be addressed by the Rev. Strickland, of this city, who performed a similar work on January 2, when the first meeting of unemployed men was held is the court house.
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From the Appeal to Reason of February 8, 1908:
From the Tri-State Edition-
[…..]
Dear Comrade Bell-It will be an utter impossibility for me to get down to Texarkana before the 10th of the month at least. Owing to the fact that I am attending protest meetings for the Western Federation of Miners all along the line and the meetings being all billed, it is imposible for me to cut them out without doing much damage to the cause. I will get in there about the 12th of the month and remain with you for four or five months. We have bank failures, business failures and unemployed and rent strikes and everything else. Don’t get out of patience with me. Tell the comrades I am doing what good I can, and will start so as to get in by the 12th of the month. Give my love to all the Revolutionists.-I am fondly yours for the Cause, Mother Jones.
[…..]
With the Texas Organizers.
…Mother Jones-Texarkana, Feb. 13-15; Hooks and neighborhood. 17-21; Moss Springs, 22; Atlanta, 24-26….
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From The Racine Daily Journal of February 10, 1908:
MOTHER JONES’ BITTER ATTACK.
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Denounces So-Called Enemies of Labor
and Lauds Socialism.Mother Jones made an address to some 300 persons at the Trades and Labor council Saturday evening. Her address was on the subject of “The Cause and Cure of Hard Times.” Mother Jones is known, throughout the country as the “Miners’ Angel,” of Pennsylvania. Her activity for the cause of labor has made her a national figure. Although nearly 72 years of age she is a most vigorous woman and possesses a pair of lungs with power to be heard half a block and naturally creates enthusiasm among those who share in her beliefs. In the bitterest terms she denounced the methods which she said were employed by capital to grind down labor and wreck unions.
It was her idea that the capitalists had the money, courts, district attorneys, government, militia and everything else on their side and that instead of the union men and laborers bringing about the riots and disturbances which have been so prevalent in the manufacturing and mining districts, it was the capitalists, their object being to make the world believe that the working men, did it, and grind down their wages.
Mother Jones attacked the Standard Oil company, also Roosevelt for calling Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone undesirable citizens. A history of strikes and panics for a number of years was gone into. She declared labor never can be crushed and said the good times previous to the recent flurry were deceiving as laboring men were no further ahead because prices were so high. She paid her respects to ministers and banks, the former for what she termed their false preaching and the latter for speculating with the workingmen’s money.
In speaking of the unions she claimed that the capitalists had detectives in their ranks to report every movement made and thus the unions were playing into the hands of the wealth.
Socialism was touched upon and she said it was here to stay. To date it has been recognized, now it was about to be received. She advised them to take hold of politics, claiming that here-to-fore capitalists and enemies of the unions were elected to the offices.
The conflicts between unions and Citizens’ Alliance was touched upon also the recent decision of the United States supreme court against Gompers and others.
She denounced the word conservatism, and said it was simply a scheme to play into the hands of the capitalist. She assured her hearers that she would work in the interests of unionism, labor and Socialism as long as she lived.
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SOURCES
Cincinnati Post
(Cincinnati, Ohio)
-Feb 3, 1908, page 3
https://www.genealogybank.com/
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Feb 1, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587167/
-Feb 8, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587175/
The Cincinnati Enquirer
(Cincinnati, Ohio)
-Feb 2, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/35069341/
-Feb 3, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/35069791/
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
(Fort Wayne, Indiana)
-Feb 3, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/29042452/
-Feb 4, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/29042570/
The Fort Wayne Sentinel
(Fort Wayne, Indiana)
-Feb 3, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/29263695/
The Racine Daily Journal
(Racine, Wisconsin)
-Feb 10, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/334102908
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Fort Worth Telegram-page 2, Apr 26, 1907
https://www.genealogybank.com/