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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 19, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1902, Part IV
Judge Jackson Severe on the Miners, Releases Mother Jones with Lecture
From The Pittsburg Press of July 24, 1902:
Parkersburg, W. Va., July 24.-There was the most intense interest in the crowded room of the United States District Court this morning when Judge Jackson began reading his lengthy decision declaring “Mother” Mary Jones, the angel of the miners, and seven other organizers of the United Mine Workers and four Hungarians to be guilty of contempt of disregarding his injunction of June 19, against holding a meeting or creating a demonstration at or near the Pinnickinnick mine of the Clarksburg Fuel Co., or near the residence of miners at work. Judge Jackson, after concluding his decision, sentenced the defendants as follows:
Thomas Haggerty, 90 days in jail; Wm. Morgan, Bernard Rice, Peter Wilson, Wm. Blakeley, George Bacon, Thomas Laskavish, 60 days each. “Mother” Jones’ sentence was passed till afternoon. It is said she will receive a stiff fine and will not be jailed. Albert Repake, Joseph and George Roeski and Steve Teonike, Hungarians, passed until the afternoon session.
Judge Jackson stated that the defendants would not be sent to the same jail. District Attorney Blizzard sprung a sensation by immediately filing an affidavit that Secretary Wilson, of the United Mine Workers of America, had violated the restraining order by making an inflammatory speech at Clarksburg July 7, and at Fairmont July 8. His arrest was asked. Judge Jackson made an order that Wilson be arrested and brought within the jurisdiction of the court. Wilson is said to be in Indianapolis.
Jackson’s huge frame shook with emotion as he dramatically emphasized portions of his decision to “Mother” Jones, who was the center of attraction……
[Photograph added.]
From The Pittsburg Press of July 25, 1902:
LECTURE BY JUDGE TO “MOTHER” MARY JONES.
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Told Her She Most Obey the Law or Suffer.
Parkersburg. W. Va., July 25.-Thursday, after he had suspended sentence on “Mother” Jones, Judge Jackson started to lecture “the miners’ angel.”
“It must be distinctly understood,” he said, “that you must obey this injunction. If ‘Mother’ Jones is the good woman they say she is she will obey law and order. I will not send her to jail to pose as a martyr, nor shall she break into jail.”
Mother Jones arose and dramatically declared that she did not ask the mercy of anybody; she was simply trying to do her duty as she saw it, and whenever the court wanted her it could send for her. “I hope we will both meet on the other side of life when we die,” she finished, and at this Jackson smiled and the audience broke into applause. “Mother” Jones then went to the bench and shook hands with Judge Jackson, both smiling. “Now take my advice and go back home, keep the peace and obey the law,” Jackson softly said to her.
“Oh. but I must keep up the fight as long as I live,” she replied.
“Well, don’t fight In my district,” was the judge’s parting shot.
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Mother Jones Undaunted.
Parkersburg, W. Va., July 25.-Mother Jones says she will continue to work in behalf of the miners of West Virginia [as an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America] in spite of Judge Jackson’s threat that if she does he will have her arrested again and sentenced. She says she is doing her duty and fear of jail will not prevent her from continuing along that line.
[Photograph added.]
From the Parkersburg Daily Morning News of July 25, 1902:
[Judge Jackson Hopes Mother Jones
Will Take Up Charity Work]An unusual incident occurred in the U. S. Court room on Thursday afternoon [July 24th] when there was a spontaneous outburst of applause which lasted for several seconds and which could not be checked by the bailiff.
It was probably the first time that an incident of that kind ever occurred in the august presence of the court and was brought about by remarks that were passed between Judge Jackson and Mother Jones just after the case of the latter had been disposed of.
Judge Jackson in passing on the case said that judging from the interviews with Mrs. Jones that he had seen in the newspapers she desired to go to jail in order to pose as a martyr to the cause, but that he did not propose to send her to jail. The evidence showed that she was guilty of a violation of the injunction and his judgment was that she was guilty, but he would suspend judgment in her case. He hoped she would profit by her experience and would not further attempt to violate the injunction, but that she would devote her time to charitable work, many lines of which were open to her, and wherein she could be very useful. He gave her some further kindly advice.
Mother Jones arose and thanked the Court for his advice. She said she was not responsible for what the newspapers said about her, and that she was not posing as a martyr. She had a duty to perform and proposed to perform it on the lines she had laid out, happen what might, and if she was again arrested it made little difference to her. If she had transgressed the law she thought she deserved the same punishment as her brothers [fellow U. M W. organizers]. In conclusion she said that Judge Jackson and herself were old and had not long to stay, but when the end came she hoped they would die good friends.
Judge Jackson replied he hoped they would be good friends and after life’s fitful fever was over he hoped they would meet in the same place in the beyond and that that place would be the right place.
It was at this passage that the outburst of applause occurred.
From the Ruling of Judge Jackson, July 24, 1902
UNITED STATES ex rel. GUARANTY TRUST CO. of NEW YORK
v. HAGGERTY et al.
(Circuit Court, N. D. West Virginia. July 24, 1902.)[Excerpts from Ruling]
The bill alleges that there is a general strike in the anthracite regions of the state of Pennsylvania, in which a large number of persons are involved, said to be 100,000 or more in number; that recently the person or persons at the head of the organization known as the United Mine Workers of America have announced their intention to cause or create a strike among the miners of the soft coal regions of the United States, and more particularly in the state of West Virginia, for the purpose of aiding the strike prevailing in the state of Pennsylvania, and to prevent the shipment of coal to localities that have been heretofore supplied with coal from the anthracite regions in the state of Pennsylvania; that for this reason the defendants Thomas Haggerty, Thomas Burke, Bernard Rice, William Morgan, Edward McKay, and Mary, alias “Mother,” Jones, all nonresidents of the state of West Virginia, who are known as “organizers,” “agitators,” and “walking delegates,” representing the United Mine Workers of America, have come into the state of West Virginia to create strikes among the coal miners or persons engaged in their trades or occupations, and whose particular business it is alleged is to effect a strike among the miners and employes of the said Clarksburg Fuel Company in and about its various mines.
It is alleged that the defendants Haggerty and Jones addressed various meetings composed in part of coal miners, in which they attempted, in connection with the other defendants, to inflame and excite the hatred and animosity of the miners towards the proprietors of the coal mines, especially towards the persons connected with the Clarksburg Fuel Company and the Fairmont Coal Company, and in their speeches advised the miners to quit their work…..
Upon the filing of this bill, and upon the motion of counsel for the Guaranty Trust Company of New York, the court awarded a temporary restraining order restraining and inhibiting the defendants and all others associated or connected with them from in any way interfering with the management, operation, or conduct of said mines by their owners or those operating them…..
A copy of this order was served upon the defendants in this case on the 19th and 20th days of June, 1902, prior to the order of arrest, issued in this case for an alleged contempt in violating the restraining order of this court.
The question for this court now to consider is whether or not the defendants violated its order, and, if so, to determine what punishment shall be imposed upon them for its violation……
In the case we have under consideration the bill alleges that there is a combination of persons who are known as “organizers,” “agitators,” and “walking delegates,” who come from other states for the purpose of inducing a strike in the soft coal fields of the state of West Virginia; that their object and purpose is to induce persons who are not dissatisfied with the terms of their employment, and who are not asking any increase in their wages, to cease work for their employers, thereby inflicting great damage and injury upon them. It is to be observed that a very large portion of the miners in the employ of the Clarksburg Fuel Company do not want, in the language of one of the agitators who is enjoined, “to lay down their picks and shovels and quit work.”…..
While I recognize the right for all laborers to combine for the purpose of protecting all their lawful rights, I do not recognize the right of laborers to conspire together to compel employes who are not dissatisfied with their work in the mines to lay down their picks and shovels and to quit their work, without a just or proper reason therefor, merely to gratify a professional set of “agitators, organizers, and walking delegates,” who roam all over the country as agents for some combination, who are vampires that live and fatten on the honest labor of the coal miners of the country, and who are busybodies creating dissatisfaction amongst a class of people who are quiet, well-disposed, and who do not want to be disturbed by the unceasing agitation of this class of people…...
The utterances of “Mother” Jones in her public address at or near the Pinnickinnick mines on the 20th day of June, 1902, should not emanate from a citizen of this country who believes in its institutions. Such utterances are the outgrowth of the sentiments of those who believe in communism and anarchy……
The evidence shows that Mrs. Jones called the miners slaves and cowards; she criticised the action of the court, and said she did not care anything for injunctions; that if they were arrested, or anything done with them, the jails would not hold the agitators that would be there to take their place; that it was the duty of every man there to urge the men that were at work in the mines to lay down their tools; she said that if she or any of the agitators were arrested others would take their place, and the injunction would not stop them; she advised the men to strike; she stated that it was the duty of all of them to influence the men at work to lay down their tools; she further stated that if they would come to Illinois they would be taught how to fight, and then they could come back and take care of themselves; she stated that the judge was a hireling of the coal company, that the coal operators were all robbers, and that the reason that the court stood in with them was that one robber liked another; she said in her speech to pay no attention to Judge Jackson or the court; for them not to listen to Judge Jackson, or any one else, or pay any attention to the court, but just make the miners lay down their tool and come out…..
I cannot forbear to express my great surprise that a woman of the apparent intelligence of Mrs. Jones should permit herself to be used as an instrument by designing and reckless agitators, who seem to have no regard for the rights of others, in accomplishing an object which is entirely unworthy of a good woman. It seems to me that it would have been better far for her to follow the lines and paths which the Allwise Being intended her sex should pursue. There are many charities in life which are open to her, in which she could contribute largely to mankind in distress, as well as avocations and pursuits that she could engage in of a lawful character that would be more in keeping with what we have been taught and what experience has shown to be the true sphere of womanhood.
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote: Mother Jones to HD Lloyd, Apr 19, 1903, Steel, Correspondence
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ
The Pittsburg Press
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
-July 24, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/141914625/
-July 25, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/141915102
https://www.newspapers.com/image/141915023/
Mother Jones Speaks
Collected Writings and Speeches
-ed by Philip S Foner
Monad Press, 1983
(search: judge jackson charitable work)
(pages 81-2-article from Parkersburg Daily Morning News)
https://books.google.com/books?id=OE9hAAAAIAAJ
UNITED STATES ex rel. GUARANTY TRUST CO. of NEW YORK
v. HAGGERTY et al.
(Circuit Court, N. D. West Virginia. July 24, 1902.)
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3556528&view=1up&seq=540&skin=2021&q1=mother%20jones
IMAGES
Judge John Jay Jackson, Cnc Pst p1, July 24, 1902
https://www.newspapers.com/image/761305990
Mother Jones of UMW, NY Tb p6, Image 20, July 6, 1902
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1902-07-06/ed-1/seq-20/
See also:
Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1902
Part III: Found in Cincinnati on Her Way Back to West Virginia to Face Possible Jail Term
Daily Morning News (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1898-1902
https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86092448/
Tag: Mother Jones v Judge Jackson 1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mother-jones-v-judge-jackson-1902/
Tag: West Virginia Coalfield Strike of 1902-1903
https://weneverforget.org/tag/west-virginia-coalfield-strike-of-1902-1903/
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 26, 1902
Parkersburg, West Virginia – Organizers Sentenced, Mother Jones Berated
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 27, 1902
Parkersburg, West Virginia – Judge Jackson Will Not Send Mother Jones to Jail
Hellraisers Journal: United States v Haggerty et al.,
Judge Jackson Rules Against United Mine Workers of America:
Part I
Part II
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
U of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735057897435
-page 36 (87 of 415) for Correspondence of March 1902:
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735057897435/viewer#page/86/mode/2up
July 25, 1902: Mother Jones to John Mitchell, President of UMWA
(as written, except for periods added, where needed, for clarity)
Parkersburg, W. Va.
Noon friday 7-25-1902Dear Comrade
Will write you Tomorrow have just been down to the Jail to see the boys. took them some Med The Jailor and the Marshal are both on my string and they let me take anything I want to the boys. I leave to night for Clarksburg where I shall do my full duty until you call me out
I think they have abandoned the Idea of bringing Sec Wilson [here to jail?] The gang of pirates reconsidered the matter thought it was best not to bother any more
Take care of yourself for the cause needs you now more than ever. I hope you feel better than when you were in the West
Good bye God bless
MotherThe boys were laughing Send you lots of love
I got the best of the Coal barrens
I got a Confidential Tip from a post newspaper man. The Corporation and som influential politians were making a deal with T. L. [Lewis, VP of UMWA] to have me removed from Will [write] you more Tomorrow. Mother
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Mother Jones, No More Deaths For Dollars – Ed Pickford