This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday August 15, 1907
Mother Jones News for July, Part I: Found in Arizona
During the month of July, Mother Jones was found continuing her work in Arizona on behalf of the Western Federation of Miners. She toured the mining districts and spoke to the miners, their families, and supporters. One such speech was described by The Tucson Citizen of July 16th:
Mother Jones, known as the miners’ Joan of Arc, arrived in Tucson yesterday afternoon and last night addressed an open air meeting at the corner of Church and Congress streets. Tremendous magnetism and a certain amount of crude eloquence are the attributes with which Mother Jones has endeared herself to tens of thousands of working people all over the United States. Last night she gave a characteristic address….
Mother Jones went throughly into the Colorado and Idaho situation and lambasted the crowd that is prosecuting Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone. Getting nearer home she paid her stinging compliments to the Copper Queen Mining Company and gave her own version of the strike situation there. She has been at Bisbee since May 15 of this year lending encouragement to the strikers in the interest of the Western Federation of Miners. Her voice rose almost to a shriek as she told the Federation side of the troubles in the Warren district. Frequently during the address the old woman was cheered and exclamation of “God bless you” and “Good for you, Mother,” were heard from among her auditors. Before she finished the speaker was surrounded by a crowd in thorough sympathy with her, and the wonderful power she exerts over large bodies of men was made manifest in the way she swayed her Tucson audience….
———-
Part I: Mother Jones News for July 1907
From The Rocky Mountain News of July 1, 1907:
The News gives a favorable review of the Denver Convention of the Western Federation of Miners which came to close on July 3rd. The Delegates came in for some praise and Mother Jones was mentioned:
Inside Glances at Characters of
Men at Federation Meeting
—–Vincent St. John Probably Most
Interesting of All-
Heslewood Is Conspicuous Delegate.
—–A cursory glance at the body composing the fifteenth annual convention of the Western Federation of Miners reveals the fact that these are picked men. In point of intelligence and of national prominence they will compare favorably with any of their predecessors who have congregated under the same auspices.
During the past year the organization has had a phenomenal growth, and with this growth has come the infusion of new blood and, to a degree, of new ideals. The ambitions were never so great as now, and there is an atmosphere of earnestness about all the proceedings of the convention that augurs well for its future…
The following delegates where commended as union men and brief biographies where offered: Vincent St. John, Fred W. Heslewood, Edward O’Byrne, Teofilo Petriella, Albert Ryan, P. C. Rawlings, Joseph D. Cannon.
The article mentioned Mother Jones:
During their attendance at the convention Mother Jones has been left in charge of affairs at Bisbee.
[Emphasis added.]
Acting President C. E. Mahoney and Acting Secretary-Treasurer James Kirwan also came in for some good press:
Both of these men have had long carers in the experience of organization and their views coincide as regards all important measures of Policy. One of the accomplishments that have been placed to their credit is the selection of the most efficient corps of organizers that has ever been enlisted under the banner of the federation. For these positions they have selected for the most part young men who were not only full of enthusiasm, but who possessed the ability to impart it to others.
From the Daily People of July 2, 1907:
The organ of Daniel DeLeon’s Socialist Labor Party was found extremely unhappy with the position taken by some of the delegates at the W. F. of M. Convention regarding the split now roiling the Industrial Workers of the World. Mother Jones is mentioned in connection with her support of Charles O Sherman. We have no evidence that she has taken any side in the I. W. W. controversy. Her support for Sherman is as a “good union man.”
HAYWOOD POSITIVELLY
STATES THAT HE IS NOT IN ACCORD WITH SHERMAN.
—–
Expresses Wish That W. F. of M. Remain
A Part of The I. W. W.-
Heslewood Nails Kirwan For
Supporting A. F. of L. Scab-Leaders-
Robert Randall’s Traitorous Act.Denver, Colo., June 27.-Delegate F. W. Heslewood continued his speech this morning at the convention of the W. F. M. He read a letter, addressed to himself, from Haywood, in which the latter states positively that he is not in accord with anything emanating from 148 Madison street, Chicago [HQ of the Sherman faction], and expresses his wish that the Federation may remain a part of the I. W. W.
Heslewood read a letter from acting secretary Kirwan, of the W. F. M….[claiming] that the Trautmann faction was not the I. W. W., that the W. F. M. had withdrawn from the I. W. W., that [William E.] Trautmann, was not secretary of the I. W. W…This letter [printed in A. F. of L. paper, the Portland Labor News] had been used by the A. F. of L. scabs in Portland as a justification of their scabbing, using it as evidence that the I. W. W. in Portland was not what it pretended to be. And thus Kirwan has assisted the fakirs in their efforts to break the strike. In spite of such facts the Kirwan element claims neutrality on the question of the I. W. W….
[During the debate over continued affiliation of the W. F. of M. with the I. W. W. [Trautmann faction, Sherman faction, or neither], Delegate Randall took the floor to take the part of Sherman.]
All his [Randall’s] evidence was that Mother Jones had told him that Sherman was a good union man. Delegate Randall, [a member of the Socialist Party of America] asked for the floor to speak against affiliation with the I. W. W., in plain violation of his instructions from the Local he represents, Goldfield No. 220. Randall held the floor to the time of adjournment, devoting his time to a denunciation of De Leon [leader of the Socialist Labor Party], and warning the convention not to have anything to do with an organization controlled by this man…
Geo. Anderson
———-
[Note: the Convention in Denver ended on July 3rd with the question of affiliation still somewhat up in the air, although, for all practical purposes, it appears that neither faction of the I. W. W. can any longer claim the Western Federation of Miners as the bulk of their “mining department.”]
From the Bisbee Daily Review of July 10, 1907:
Organizers Had Meeting.-There was a public meeting last night held in the Woodmen hall. This meeting was called as a meeting of all those belonging to organized labor in Douglas. The meeting was attended by probably two hundred, about all that the hall would hold. Speeches were made by Cannon, Rawlings, Semple and “Mother” Jones. They were of the usual socialistic kind and nothing was said or done of interest further than the statement that a charter had been received for a Western Federation union here and that organization would be effected later.
——
From the Phoenix Arizona Republican of July 15, 1907:
“MOTHER” JONES COMING SHE WILL BE HERE TODAY
—–
The Joan of Arc of the Miners Will Address
Two Meetings in Phoenix.
—–“Mother” Jones, the Joan of Arc of the miners of the United Stales, will arrive in Phoenix this morning and will remain two days. She will address at least two meetings the first of which will be held at the city hall plaza tonight. She has been at Bisbee since May 15 of this year, lending encouragement to the strike there. Though her tour of the west is being made under the auspices of the socialist party she was in the Warren district in the interest of the Western Federation. She is a close friend of Haywood who is now on trial at Boise for his life.
“Mother” Jones is seventy years old and is strong and vigorous. She is an eloquent talker and appeals especially to women. For years she was the chief lieutenant of John Mitchell in the anthracite field. She embarked in the business of agitation for better conditions for miners about fifteen years ago, but she labored in the eastern fields until about four years go, when she was attracted by the labor troubles in Colorado and Utah.
She has been frequently arrested for activity in strikes and on one occasion at least she was restrained without due process of law. That was in southern Utah soon after she came to the west. Her activity was regarded as pernicious, yet she had committed no overt act, but something had to be done with her. The authorities declared that the house in which she was stopping was infected with smallpox and the other occupants of the house were given time to escape. “Mother” Jones was quarantined and the quarantine was not lifted for forty-two days.
Yet she had an opportunity to agitate within her limited fields, for every evening crowds gathered about the house as near as the regulations allowed and she addressed them from a window.
“Mother” Jones will go from here to Prescott and thence to Humboldt, McCabe and other mining towns and camps in the northern part of the territory, after which she will proceed to California.
———-
From The Los Angeles Times of July 16, 1907:
COURT ENJOINS UNION MINERS.
—–
Arizona Judge Puts Stop to
Work of Pickets.
—–
Mailing of Boycott Letters
Is Prohibited.
—–
“Mother” Jones Included in
Restraining Order.
—–[BY DIRECT WIRE TO THE TIMES]
DOUGLAS (Ariz.) July 15.-[Exclusive Dispatch.] Upon an action brought in the District Court for the Second Judicial District by the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad company against Bisbee Miners’ Union No. 106, the organizers operating in the district, “Mother” Jones, John Doe and many others. Judge Fletcher M. Doan has granted an injunction restraining the pickets operating in the Bisbee district in the interest of the Western Federation of Miners from in any way interfering with the interests of the plaintiff company by inducing in any manner patrons or prospective patrons from keeping away from Bisbee.
The injunction is very comprehensive in scope and it goes to the extent of forbidding the defendants the use of the mails in sending out printed or written matter that would have a tendency to keep people [scabs] away from Bisbee…
From The Tucson Citizen of July 16, 1907:
“MOTHER JONES TALKS”
TO TUCSON PEOPLE
—–
Says Bisbee Strikers Have Just Cause,
Roasts the “Big Stick,” and Says
Socialism Is the Panacea
For all Ills
—–Mother Jones, known as the miners’ Joan of Arc, arrived in Tucson yesterday afternoon and last night addressed an open air meeting at the corner of Church and Congress streets. Tremendous magnetism and a certain amount of crude eloquence are the attributes with which Mother Jones has endeared herself to tens of thousands of working people all over the United States. Last night she gave a characteristic address.
Naturally, as she is touring the west under the auspices of the Socialist party, her talk last night was of a Socialistic nature. “The Relation of Capital and Labor” was the subject of her argument but Mother Jones did not strictly confine herself to the subject by any means. For instance she stated that Sheriff Jack White of Cochise county had said she ought to be run out of the territory. Then she proceeded to dissect Sheriff Jack White and the tongue lashing she gave that absent individual was about the most vitriolic thing that has been heard in Tucson in many moons.
She switched from White to the subject of the “Big Stick.” She said the “Big Stick” was an enemy of labor. She proceeded to roast a Distinguished Personage to a fine dark frazzle ending up with an anecdote as follows:
He says to you working men not to drink. He says liquor is bad and he hates to see a two bit jag. Just the same, fellow working people, when Adolphus Busch cheated the Almighty of his carcass by recovering from a recent illness the “Big Stick” wired Busch “I’m very glad you’re well.”
See the inconsistency of the man. He tells you working people not to drink but his heart goes out in thankfulness when the millionaire that makes the beer recovers from an illness.
The above is a very fair sample of the style of logic doled out by Mother Jones last evening. She insisted that the working people were building palaces for millionaires which should be built for themselves. She said that whereas thirty years ago a workingman got 57 per cent of the proceeds of his toil he now got less than 10 per cent. She claimed that John D. Rockefeller and other millionaires were cornering the wealth of the world and that soon all who were not plutocrats would be slaves. Then she sketched some of the great battles of labor and capital from the view point of one who was on the “firing line.”
Mother Jones went throughly into the Colorado and Idaho situation and lambasted the crowd that is prosecuting Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone. Getting nearer home she paid her stinging compliments to the Copper Queen Mining Company and gave her own version of the strike situation there. She has been at Bisbee since May 15 of this year lending encouragement to the strikers in the interest of the Western Federation of Miners. Her voice rose almost to a shriek as she told the Federation side of the troubles in the Warren district. Frequently during the address the old woman was cheered and exclamation of “God bless you” and “Good for you, Mother,” were heard from among her auditors. Before she finished the speaker was surrounded by a crowd in thorough sympathy with her, and the wonderful power she exerts over large bodies of men was made manifest in the way she swayed her Tucson audience….
“Mother” Jones will go from here to Phoenix…
———-
Mother Jones Dresses Down Sheriff White
While traveling with a prisoner by train from Tombstone to Tucson, Sheriff Jack White of Cochise county encountered Mother Jones at Benson. The Tucson Citizen of August 16th reports the following:
While Sheriff White was at Benson, for three hours between trains he was the subject of a verbal attack by “Mother” Jones, the female union agitator who spoke here last night. She charged him with being a hireling of the Copper Queen company, pouring out her wrath on the head of White, as well as all other who in any way held the union leaders in check during the recent strike in Bisbee. White had to keep his mouth shut and take from a woman what he might have resented had it been a man talking. “Mother” Jones evidently realized this.
—–
SOURCES
The Rocky Mountain News
(Denver, Colorado)
-July 1, 1907, page 3
https://www.genealogybank.com/
Daily People
Organ of the Socialist Labor Party
(New York, New York)
-July 2, 1907, page 1
https://www.genealogybank.com/
Bisbee Daily Review
(Bisbee, Arizona)
-July 10, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024827/1907-07-10/ed-1/seq-3/
The Arizona Republican
(Phoenix, Arizona)
-July 15, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020558/1907-07-15/ed-1/seq-4/
The Los Angeles Times
(Los Angeles, California)
-July 16, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/155871299/
The Tucson Citizen
(Tucson, Arizona)
-July 16, 1907, page 8 & 4
https://www.genealogybank.com/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Tacoma Times, Sept 19, 1904
https://www.newspapers.com/image/68052998/
See also:
Official Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Convention
Western Federation of Miners of America
-Held in Odd Fellows Hall at Denver, Colorado
June 10-July 3rd, 1907
(Search with names above.)
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=wq03AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA1
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 23, 1907
Denver, Colorado – Report from W. F. of M. Convention
Western Federation of Miners Hands “Lemon” to Industrial Workers of the World
Note: it was Delegate P. W. Galentine who brought up Mother Jones in regards to her opinion of Sherman as a good union man, not Delegate Randall.
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=wq03AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA662