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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 13, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1910, Part II:
-Found Supporting the Miners of the Black Hills in South Dakota
From the Black Hills Daily Register of February 22, 1910:
Mother Jones Sends Money
James Kirwan yesterday received a letter from Mother Jones, who is now in Milwaukee, informing him that she was coming to Lead to take a hand in the fight for the right to organize. She asked no money, but, on the contrary, enclosed a check for one hundred dollars, with these words:
My boys in Lead gave me one hundred and fifty dollars for the 1909 Labor Day speech. Fifty dollars of this sum I gave to the Mexicans and I am sending you the balance for the locked-out Black Hills boys.
Further along in her letter, Mother says:
Tell the boys to keep up that fight. Have no surrender written on the banners of the Western Federation of Miners. I am coming up there to take a hand. The Hearst crowd of blood-suckers are organizing to get more profits. We also have a right to organize to give that crew of blood-suckers less profits. Tell my boys to stand pat. Mother.
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From the Socialist Montana News of February 24, 1910:
[Mother Jones in Milwaukee]
A non-partisan anti-high-price mass meeting was called for Feb. 15 by the Milwaukee Federated Trades Council Among the speakers who addressed the meeting were A. M. Simons, editor of the Chicago Daily Socialist, and Mother Jones. This so hurt the feelings of Senator Stephenson’s organ, the Free Press, that it indulged in several columns of abuse against the meeting. It had a great deal to say about the “poor attendance” of the meeting, although the hall was packed to the doors, and many were obliged to stand.
The real grievance of this capitalist sheet was that the capitalist politician who addressed the meeting cut a poor figure, having no remedy to offer except the enforcement of the law and investigation of facts which our pocket-books already understand all too well, while the Socialist speakers made ringing addresses which were roundly applauded. Resolutions that the people must own the trusts were adopted by the audience without one dissenting vote.
[Paragraph break added.]
From the Black Hills Daily Register of February 25, 1910:
[Mother Jones Uplifts Her Class]
Doc. Grace of the [Lead Daily] Call suggests that Mother Jones must be making considerable out of the “mothering” business, in view of the fact that she received $150 for making the 1909 Labor Day speech in Lead. All that Mother Jones gets out of the workers for her labors in their behalf is a mean living. Of the money given her for her Lead speech she gave $50 o a fund to keep the republican party from sending Mexican patriots back to Mexico to be shot by Diaz and his Doc. Graces for supporting the cause of the down-trodden workers of Mexico. The balance of the sum given by the Black Hills unionists she has returned to them. Any profit in that transaction, Doc?
To the Register that looks like very poor financiering. You, Doc, have certainly done better than that by fighting the workers for the past four years. You have by voice and pen and vote supported the political party that was willing to send those Mexican patriots back to Mexico for doing just what Patrick Henry and his colleagues did in this country in their day. You support the political party that tried to hang Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone for crimes committed by Orchard, McPartland and other “detectives” similar to those now in the employ of the Homestake company. You support the political party that passed the iniquitous and cruel military bill in this state two years ago. The support of men like you of the capitalist class makes Mother Joneses, ‘Gene Debses and Fred Warrens necessary. Don’t, if you have any sense of decency, try to belittle the work of a woman like Mother Jones, who has given her life to the uplifting of her class. Don’t, for the sake of your reputation for half-way intelligence, accuse that poor old woman of grafting.
[Paragraph break added.]
From the Black Hills Daily Register of February 26, 1910:
[Mother Jones Coming]
Local socialists have been informed that it is possible to secure ‘Gene for the second week in March if he is wanted and the matter will be taken up for consideration next Thursday evening. It is also expected that Mother Jones will be here about that time, in case the [Homestake] lockout is not settled in the meantime.
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Speech Dec 9, NY Cl p2, Dec 10, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-new-york-call/1909/091210-newyorkcall-v02n304.pdf
Black Hills Daily Register
(Lead, South Dakota)
-Feb 22, 1910
https://www.newspapers.com/image/91658420/
-Feb 25, 1910
https://www.newspapers.com/image/91658444/
-Feb 26, 1910
https://www.newspapers.com/image/91658451/
Montana News
(Helena, Montana)
-Feb 24, 1910
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024811/1910-02-24/ed-1/seq-3/
IMAGE
Organ D2 WFM, Black Hills Dly Rg p2, Feb 22, 1910
https://www.newspapers.com/image/91658422/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 12, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1910, Part I:
-Found Fighting for Working Women of Philadelphia and Milwaukee
Lead Miner’s Union Collection 1909-1911
https://www.deadwoodhistory.com/images/docs/5010_Lead_Miners_Union_Collection_Finding_Aid_1.pdf
Miners Magazine (Western Federation of Miners), 1909-1911
(search:homestake lockout)
https://books.google.com/books?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ
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They’ll Never Keep Us Down – Hazel Dickens