You, you miserable policemen!
What business have you here?
Your presence is and insult to
the honest workingmen
who are attending this meeting.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday February 15, 1908
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1908:
-Found Speaking with Lucy Parsons in Chicago
On the evening of January 17th, at a meeting for the Unemployed at Brand’s Hall in Chicago, Mother Jones and Lucy Parsons were both found making passionate speeches which were most unfavorably reported by the kept press.
From Indiana’s Fort Wayne News of January 18, 1908:
THE ANARCHISTS WERE RESTRAINED
—–LUCY PARSONS THE LEADING FIGURE IN LAST
EVENING’S DEMONSTRATION IN CHICAGO.
—–
CHICAGO, Jan. 18.-The presence of a score of policemen and an equal number of plain clothes men prevented anarchy from ruling the meeting of the “unemployed” and others at Brand’s hall last night, but there was enough of it to make the occasion lively and cause J. H. Drake, who acted as chairman, to give up in disgust and leave the hall.
Not over 800 persons in all answered the call for the turnout, but it was decided to mass the unemployed next Thursday and march on the city hall to demand work. It was suggested, if no other means presented themselves, to tear down the city hall to furnish the desired work.
Mrs. Lucy Parsons, widow of the noted anarchist, Ben L. Reitman, who makes a comfortable living out of the Brotherhood Welfare association, and “Mother” Jones all took the opportunity to air their opinion of President Roosevelt and capitalists.
[Shouted Mrs. Parsons as she pushed her way to the stand:]
There has been nothing said about unemployed women. I’m unemployed, I demand to be heard. If you place the women and children at the head of your parade it will accomplish results. Block street traffic, defy the police and you’ll win your point. I am willing to stand on the gallows as my husband did twenty years ago. I wouldn’t ask all women to do it. It is easier to sit here and pass resolutions than it is to face the deadly revolvers and clubs of the police.
———-
[Photograph added.]
From The Chicago Daily Tribune of January 18, 1908:
…Then she [Lucy Parsons] took a crack at Louis F. Post, who had advised that the workers accept charity.
[Said she turning to him:]
I didn’t think you’d recommend soup houses. They have thousands of dollars for charity, but not a cent for justice.
The Tribune further reported that Mother Jones directly addressed the policemen present in Brand’s Hall; shaking her fist at them, she shouted:
You, you miserable policemen! What business have you here? Your presence is and insult to the honest workingmen who are attending this meeting. Chief Shippy, I”m ashamed of you! In New York the police are used to protect me when I speak. Here they are used to protect the capitalists.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean of January 19, 1908:
The Brand’s Hall Meeting.
To the Editor.-The meeting of unemployed workingmen at Brand’s hall last night was an orderly one; and even at the end, when thrown open to general speeches from those in the audience, was conducted with less confusion than the average political meeting. There were a number of socialist speeches made, advocating orderly changes by means of the ballot, but no suggestion of violence was offered. Whatever feeling was manifested against the police force was due to the fact that there had been made some suggestion of arresting the speakers at this meeting, called for the legitimate purpose of discussing the needs of the unemployed and the best way of offering relief.
As for the speech of “Mother” Jones, she did not advise drunkenness, but held that hungry men drank to forget their hunger, and that intemperance cannot be cured by speeches and exhortations, but by going to the root of the trouble, which she considers in many cases to be the nervous degeneracy caused by the employment of young children in stores and factories. She was entirely misrepresented in the newspaper report.
While there was some criticism of President Roosevelt, it was no stronger than the condemnation that a number of reputable newspapers have made regarding some of his views, and the “slams” against the local government consisted solely in denunciation of Mayor Busse’s illegal action in removing the radical members of the school board.
L. D. HARDING.
Chicago, Jan. 18.
From the Appeal to Reason of January 4, 1908:
[…..]
For the first time I will attempt to write a short letter to the comrades through the greatest paper on earth: Comrade M. A. Smith delivered one of his masterful speeches at Wolfe City the 14th, and the words came like thunderbolts to a good-sized audience and were received with the greatest enthusiasm. We, the Mt. Carmel local, are going to lead, if possible, all locals in Texas. We are thirty in number now and aim to have fifty by the time we are one year old, in next April. Now, I want to tell you boys we are going to rush Hunt county, and especially Wolfe City precinct, for our people. I am sending for 100 of the special edition to give to 100 of the wayfaring of this community that are convicted and seeking Socialism. Now, boys, is the time to work hard, talk hard and scatter literature, for there never was a time when people were so interested as now. The Socialists in these parts are all smiles. We can hardly get an argument here now. We are making arrangements for Mother Jones when she makes her tour through Texas. Hoping that this won’t go to the waste-basket, but will be received and printed, for it is my first letter to a paper, with best wishes for the Socialist party, on with the Revolution-W. A. Headrick, Secretary Local Mt. Carmel.
——
[…..]
With the Organizers.
[…..]
Mother Jones-Beginning at Texarkana February 1.
[…..]
———-
Note: The Appeal to Reason of Jan 18th stated that Mother would be in northeast Texas beginning Feb. 1st. The Appeal to Reason of Jan. 25th stated that Mother would visit Texarkana Feb. 1st, and that visits were planned for the following Texas towns: Atlanta, Hooks and Moss Springs, and perhaps Longview, Texas, as well.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean of January 6, 1908:
PETTIBONE FREED; STILL MOTHER JONES SCORES LAW
The acquittal of Charles A. Pettibone caused the promoters of the “Mother” Jones protest meeting to turn it into a meeting in which charity, justice, and law could all be condemned. About 500 socialists and anarchists crowded into Oriental hall, 122 La Salle street, and for an hour and a half listened to an arraignment of present social and political creeds by Mother Jones, the agent of the Western Federation of Miners.
[Declared Mother Jones:]
No laboring man can receive a cup of coffee and a bun from the hand of a capitalist without stultifying himself. It is more honorable to starve, if you have not the moral courage to take what belongs to you, than to become a puppy whining for a bone from the men who have stolen your opportunity to the meat.
When times get hard because the money, or master, class want to let up on exploiting human flesh, you laboring people who have been creating the wealth must get in line like a lot of cattle and receive rations from the hand that has robbed you.
A collection was to have been taken up to aid in the defense of the miners on trial in Idaho, but the acquittal of Pettibone made it impossible to receive cash on such a pretext. The collection, however, was necessary and some other excuse was mede that would answer, and the hat was passed. About $20 in small change was dropped into the hat.
—–
From the New York Worker of January 11, 1908:
From The Cincinnati Enquirer of January 29, 1908:
…Next Sunday Mother Jones, “the miners’ angel” will make an address [in Cincinnati]. She is now attending the miners’ convention at Indianapolis…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
The Fort Wayne News
(Fort Wayne, Indiana)
-Jan 18, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/28937593/
The Chicago Daily Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Jan 18, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/350234826/
The Inter Ocean
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Jan 19, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/34631268/
-Jan 6, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/34543416/
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Jan 4, 1908
Tri-State Ed, Texas, AtR Jan 4, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587132/
-Jan 18, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587147/
-Jan 25, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587159/
The Worker
(New York, New York)
-Jan 11, 1908, page 12
MJ, EVD, Socialist portraits, Wilshires, NY Worker p12, Jan 11, 1908
https://www.genealogybank.com/
The Cincinnati Enquirer
(Cincinnati, Ohio)
-Jan 29, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/35068243/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66992169/
See also:
1908 UMWA Convention Proceedings
Indianapolis, Indiana
-Jan 21 to Feb 3, 1908
Note: search with “Mother Jones” gives no results. Which, of course, doesn’t mean that she wasn’t there, just that no participation was recorded. She was not an employee of the UMWA in 1908.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924002274920;view=2up;seq=450