—————
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 15, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part II
-Speaks at Miners’ Convention, Meets with Socialists
From The Indianapolis Journal of January 22, 1903:
TRIP LIGHT FANTASTIC
———-MINERS’ DELEGATES ATTEND BALL
AT TOMLINSON HALL.
———-
Early Adjournment of the Convention
in Order that the Auditorium
Could Be Cleared.
———-MOTHER JONES MAKES SPEECH
———-[…..]
The dance of the Indianapolis garment workers in Tomlinson Hall last night interfered with the session of the mine workers’ convention that was to have been held during the afternoon. In order that the Janitors might prepare the floor of the hall for the dance the convention adjourned at noon until 9 o’clock this morning, after a motion to omit the afternoon session had carried.
The morning session was a busy one during the earlier hours, but toward noon had resolved itself into speech-making. Mother Jones, the woman friend of the miners, who was enjoined by Judge Jackson’s order prohibiting inflammatory speeches in the coal-mining district, was called on for an address. Her speech was typical of the woman and socialistic in tone. Her recommendation to the miners was that they use their votes as citizens to change conditions In the trade. Mother Jones was pessimistic in her views on the possibility of friendly relations between capital and labor. She thinks there is such a gulf between the two classes that it can never be bridged except by a change in government. The miners could adjust the conditions by their vote, she said, if they voted right. Now miners in America are existing as miserably as the serfs in Russia, and will continue so until all of the changes are made in the government which she suggests, she insinuated in her speech…..
[Photograph added.]
From The Indianapolis News of January 22, 1903:
SOCIALISM’S VOICE IN MINERS CONVENTION
———-EXPRESSION ON GOVERNMENT
OWNERSHIP WANTED.
———-INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM
———-
Miners Voted Unanimously Not to
Incorporate Their Organization
-Question of Co-Operative Stores
———-At the opening of the United Workers’ convention this morning, there was the first clash of the year between the conservatives and the Socialistic factions. It originated in a resolution from an obscure local union, favoring an expression of Government ownership of coal mines and railroads.
A motion on the part of the conservatives to table it brought on a long discussion, and many leaders of the two factions were heard.
The socialistic faction based its arguments on the anthracite strike and the combination of coal companies and railroads and that a tendency not to treat with miners “according to the laws of man or God” made it necessary for the Government to take some such action.
Delegate Walker, of Illinois, in a long speech, said that the coal companies and railroads were now in a combination injurious to the interests of the people, and were holding back coal to boost prices.
Delegate Lusk, of West Virginia, also charged heartless attitude of coal operators and railroads not only to the miners, but to the people.
The controversy was finally ended for the time, on a motion of Chris Evans, of Ohio, to refer the matter back to the committee.
[…..]
William R. Fairley, executive committeeman for the Alabama district, in a speech of some length, laid before the convention a grievance of the Alabama miners on the speech made yesterday by Mother Jones, in which, he claimed, she held them responsible for the appalling child labor conditions in Alabama. Mother Jones made a reply in which she said she did not hold the miners responsible only in so far as they cast votes for and elected members of agricultural classes to the Legislature, who permitted the infants to be worked and murdered by mill and mine owners. She ripped the State of Alabama up and down. At the close of the discussion Patrick Dolan, president of the Pittsburg district, moved that Fairley and Mother Jones kiss and make up. There was a great deal of laughter but no vote was taken…..
From The Indianapolis Journal of January 23, 1903:
THE SOCIALISTIC IDEA
———-IT IS CROPPING OUT IN THE MINE
WORKERS CONVENTION.
———-
Leaders of the Organization Are Using Their
Best Effort to Keep the Question
in the Background.
———-[…..]
The socialistic tendencies of a minority faction of the United Mine Workers of America is beginning to be felt in the convention…..
In the United Mine Workers there are about 6,000 members who are Socialists. These 6,000 men are the readers and thinking laborers who have studied economic conditions until they have arrived at what they think is the only solution of labor conditions-socialism. Their efforts are entirely in this direction and although they were successfully kept out of the convention, there are many delegates who believe similarly. These delegates, coming from locals with socialistic principles, are desirous of introducing matters that may be extremely distasteful to the other delegates. Speeches similar to that of Mother Jones in the convention and Frank Duffy, general secretary of the Carpenter’s Union at the Mitchell reception, have caused the socialistic question to come up and the leaders are anxiously awaiting the arrival of any resolutions that may be dangerous to harmony…..
From The Indianapolis Journal of January 26, 1903:
ADVOCATES OF SOCIALISM.
———-
“Mother” Jones, Rev. E. A. Cantrell
and Henry Meyer Talk.From 7:30 o’clock last night until nearly 11 socialism, in all its phases, was discussed at a mass meeting of Socialists held in Mansur Hall.The meeting was held for the purpose of instruction, and as teachers of economic questions, the Rev. E. A. Cantrell, pastor of the People’s Church; Henry Meyer, a member of the executive board of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, of San Mateo, Cal., and “Mother” Jones, the prominent agitator of the United Mine Workers of America, talked at length.
The hall was well filled and the audience made up of members of labor organizations in the city. The sentiment of the crowd was entirely with the speakers as evidenced in the hearty applause which greeted particular tirades against capitalists. Several women were in the audience and their applause and approval of the remarks of the speakers were as frequent as the men and their ejaculations of “Hear, Hear” showed that they were conversant with the faith.
Henry Meyer, the first sneaker, showed himself antagonistic to organized labor. He said that although a workingman himself and a trades unionist he did not believe the labor unions were accomplishing their purpose. He said that he belonged to a labor union because it was the only weapon with which he could defend himself and secure just treatment from his employers. He said the original purpose of organized labor, as he understood it, was to combat capital and bring about a better condition in the United States. Now he said organized labor merely strives to maintain friendly relations with capital and all strikes against it are ended as soon as a few minor concessions are made to the demands which caused the strike.
“Mother” Jones, in a talk lasting three-quarters of an hour, told of some of her experiences while in the anthracite district in the interests of the coal miners. Amusing incidents, as well as pathetic ones, showing the condition of the miners’ children and the poorer classes who were ruined by the great strike, which she said was caused by the heartlessness of the employers, were related. “Mother” Jones devoted much of her talk to the subject of injunctions. She advocated the restriction of the enjoining power of federal judges, and, although her personal experience with Judge Jackson was not mentioned, it was evident that she remembered it from the way in which she criticised “government by injunction.”
The Rev. Mr. Cantrell delivered a socialistic talk in which he argued that the conservatism of socialism was the great argument in its favor. He said a mistaken impression that the Socialist party was a radical political organization hurt the party. The conservatives of the country would in time become Socialists, Mr. Cantrell said. He predicted that a revolution in the political parties of the United States was imminent, and he advised the workingmen of the country to take the initiative and provoke it. He criticised the philanthropy of certain millionaires and said that the money with which the gifts of these men were made possible was collected by them at the expense of the laborers of the country. He described his view of the methods of Huntington in the California land and railroad work and said that Huntington had ruined hundreds of men in order that he might satisfy his desire for money. The only remedy for present conditions, Mr. Cantrell said, was to vote the Socialist ticket. He said it is a minister’s right to go into politics when he believed it to be for the good of men.
From The Indianapolis News of January 26, 1903:
WORK OF CONVENTION DISPOSED OF
———-MINERS HAVE A LITTLE TIME ON THEIR HANDS.
———-WHAT CONFERENCE HAS DONE
———-The United Mine Workers fourteenth annual convection will adjourn Thursday. The convention has handled its business so expeditiously this year that almost all of the most important questions were disposed of the first week….
The miners all consider their last week’s work with considerable satisfaction. Among the prominent actions taken were:
Formulating the wage demand of 20 per cent. increase.
Committing the organisation against socialism, Government ownership and other tenets.
Ruling against saddling a co-operative stores system on the organization.
Advancing all of the officers’ salaries.
Deciding to push to the limit the campaign against non-unionism in West Virginia during the coming year, and deciding to ask the co-operation of the organized railroaders in that State.
Committing the organization repeatedly against employment of children in mines and mills and planning a campaign on State legislation along these lines.Declaring Against Injunction
Declaring against the present scope of the power of Federal courts and the present use of the injunction in the cases of labor, and, addressing a memorial to Congress and planning to bring pressure on local Congressmen through local organizations…..
The 200 socialists that are among the delegates do not measure up to the public conception of socialists. They are temperate men and women, who preach the doctrine of peace and the use of the ballot instead of the use of weapons.
Meeting in Mansur Hall.
The socialists, as a rule, attended the churches yesterday morning. In the evening they gathered in Mansur Hall, where they held an interesting meeting, in which subjects along their lines of thought were discussed by the Rev. E. A. Cantrell, of the People’s church; Henry M. Heyer, of San Mateo, Cal., a member of the executive board of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and “Mother” Jones. Last evening the White Wing male quartet serenaded “Mother” Jones and the miners at the Occidental Hotel…..
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 Indianapolis Journal
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Jan 22, 1903
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015679/1903-01-22/ed-1/seq-10/
-Jan 23, 1903
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015679/1903-01-23/ed-1/seq-8/
-Jan 26, 1903
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015679/1903-01-26/ed-1/seq-3/
The Indianapolis News
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Jan 22, 1903
https://www.newspapers.com/image/40149428/
-Jan 26, 1903
https://www.newspapers.com/image/40149547/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902
https://books.google.com/books?id=wIcuAAAAYAAJ
See also:
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
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/
-Sadly, not yet found published online:
Minutes of the Fourteenth Annual Convention
of the United Mine Workers of America
Held in the City of Indianapolis, Indiana
January 19 to 27, 1903, Inclusive
-United Mine Workers of America
Hollenbeck Press, 1903
https://books.google.com/books/about/Minutes_of_the_Fourteenth_Annual_Convent.html?id=SJTJzQEACAAJ
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