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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 14, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part I
-Arrives in Indianapolis for Convention of United Mine Workers
From The Clarksburg Telegram (West Virginia) of January 2, 1903:
“MOTHER” JONES VISITS CLARKSBURG
“Mother” Jones was in her usual splendid health and was quite talkative and courteous.
While in the city she was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. D. W. McGeorge in Glen Elk.
[Photograph added.]
From the Appeal to Reason of January 3, 1903:
From the Kingwood West Virginia Argus of January 8, 1903:
The election of Samuel B. Montgomery to the office of Mayor of Tunnelton for another term, is quite a compliment to this rising young orator who is called the “Patrick Henry of West Virginia,” by Mother Jones. Mayor Montgomery has a good strong ticket with him composed of the leading men of the Coal Center.
From the Bisbee Daily Review of January 9, 1903:
LABOR IS CAPITAL; CAPITAL IS LABOR
By “Mother” JONES. Friend of Striking Miners
WE are in a battle of class against class. Pierpont Morgan can go abroad-to Germany, to Russia, to England-and when he arrives he is entertained by his class, his own class, though you sometimes forget it in America-the class that oppressed you in Europe and that is growing more and more powerful and oppressive here. CAPITAL AND LABOR ARE THE SAME THING. LABOR IS CAPITAL, AND CAPITAL IS LABOR. WHAT WE’RE FIGHTING IS NOT CAPITAL, BUT CAPITALISTS. When the fight is won, this third element will be missing, and capital and labor will be joined without separation.
In the last 160 years there has been an economic revolution. What would you have thought years ago if some one had told you that all these coalfields would be held and operated by one combination. That sort of thing is what you must defend yourself against.
THERE IS A TREMENDOUS CHANGE GOING ON; AND YOU MUST CHANGE TO MEET IT.
From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of January 12,1903:
NEXT SCENE ACTION
———-
President Mitchell Will Organize
West Virginia Miners.
———-THE OPERATORS HAVE FLAUNTED THREATS
AND EVEN GIBES AT THE UNION.
———-West Virginia promises to be the next scene of action for President John Mitchell and his lieutenants of the United Mine Workers of America. For years the operators have flaunted threats and even gibes at the miners’ union, and, backed up by the courts and injunctions, have been steadily grinding down with oppression the poor miners.
Mother Jones and the other principal organizers sent into the district have been enjoined from all their work, and, as Mother Jones herself said, have been “enjoined from standing anywhere but in the river.”
President Mitchell says that the rights of the miners in West Virginia will be demanded and intimates that a great struggle is to be held there soon…..
From The Indianapolis Journal of January 19, 1903:
MINERS BEGIN TO-DAY
———-JOHN MITCHELL WILL OPEN CONVENTION
IN TOMLINSON HALL.
———-[…..]
At 9 o’clock this morning the fourteenth annual convention of the United Mine Workers of North America will begin in this city. At that hour President John Mitchell will convene one of the most important conventions of the organization’s existence in an annual convention immediately following the termination of one of the greatest strikes known to the United States and one prosecuted and supported by the men represented by the one thousand delegates who will be in attendance.….
Many national trades union characters will be here for the convention. Included in these will be Mother Jones, the woman champion of the mine workers…..
From The Indianapolis News of January 19, 1903:
MOTHER JONES ARRIVES.
———-Mother Jones, the miners friend, arrived to-day, and is stopping at the Occidental, where she was received in elaborate style by her admirers. A Mother Jones button has appeared. It bears her photograph, over which is printed. “The Miners’ Friend.”
From The Indianapolis News of January 21, 1903:
MINERS CONSIDERED MANY RESOLUTIONS
———-ONE LOCAL UNION WANTED TO
BUY MITCHELL A HOME.
———-[…..]
The United Mine Workers’ convention settled down to business this morning, and the delegates hurried business so fast that they ran out of work at 10:30. Only the committee on resolutions was ready to make a report, and it was only a short one, consisting of resolutions passed by the locals and referred to the committee to bring before the convention.
One of the most interesting of these was a resolution presented by a local union in Illinois, asking the convention to set aside $10,000 for the purchase of a permanent home in Indianapolis for President Mitchell. The matter attracted considerable attention during its reading, but it was short-lived, for the committee on resolutions reported that it was not concurred in and it was buried. President John Mitchell said to The News at noon: “I am heartily opposed to any expenditure or movement such as this.”
[…..]
Mother Jones’ Speech.
“Mother” Jones was present at the morning meeting, and she was called on for a speech. In the course of her remarks she said: “I don’t believe there can be any harmony between the forces of capital and labor.” She said that the labor organizations were the real, true Christian churches that teach Christianity. She said there was not a department of the Government that was not throttled by capital, and that she did not believe that there was a nation on the earth in which exists such slavery as can be found under the Stars and Stripes. She made contrasts between the miners’ lot in unorganized districts, and the lot of the serfs of Russia.
She said that the miners must organize as they never organized before, and, that they must fight. She said she never carried a pistol and believed that Congress should imprison every man that made a pistol, and should put into insane asylums all who carried them. She advocated the ballot instead of violence. Her speech throughout was socialistic in its tendency…..
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, God s Cause, Scranton Tb p1, Aug 7, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026355/1902-08-07/ed-1/seq-1/
The Clarksburg Telegram
(Clarksburg, West Virginia)
-Jan 2, 1903
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84037844/1903-01-02/ed-1/seq-2/
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Jan 3, 1903, page 3
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/030103-appealtoreason-w370.pdf
West Virginia Argus
(Kingwood, West Virginia)
-Jan 8, 1903
https://www.newspapers.com/image/827923150/
Bisbee Daily Review
(Bisbee, Arizona)
Jan 9, 1903
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024827/1903-01-09/ed-1/seq-3/
Wilkes-Barre Daily News
(Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania)
-Jan 12,1903
https://www.newspapers.com/image/425949937/
The Indianapolis Journal
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Jan 19, 1903
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015679/1903-01-19/ed-1/seq-8/
The Indianapolis News
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Jan 19, 1903
https://www.newspapers.com/image/40149333/
-Jan 21, 1903
https://www.newspapers.com/image/40149402/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902
https://books.google.com/books?id=wIcuAAAAYAAJ
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1902
Part I: Saved from Suspicious Hotel Fire; Attends Celebration for John Mitchell
Part II: Found Organizing for the United Mine Workers of America in West Virginia
Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 5, 1903
Poem for Mother Jones, Champion of the Striking Miners of West Virginia
Tag: Sam Montgomery
https://weneverforget.org/tag/sam-montgomery/
Tag: West Virginia Coalfield Strike of 1902-1903
https://weneverforget.org/tag/west-virginia-coalfield-strike-of-1902-1903/
Tag: Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-anthracite-coal-strike-of-1902/
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