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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 14, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1910, Part II:
-Found Praised for Her Work on Behalf of Mexican Comrades
From the Appeal to Reason of July 2, 1910:
Mother Jones in Washington.
Mother Jones has for two weeks been in Washington where she went to testify in behalf of the Mexican politician refugees. She has been courteously received even by members of congress who have no special leaning to labor’s cause, and was admitted to an audience with Taft. She said this was a courtesy which was denied her by Roosevelt. After she had laid the case of the Mexican prisoners before the president, Taft remarked:
“Mother, I am afraid if I were to put the pardoning power in your hands, there wouldn’t be any men left in the penitentiaries.”
To this Mother Jones replied:
And, indeed, Mr. President, if this nation spent half as much money keeping men out as she does keeping them in, we wouldn’t need so many penitentiaries.
Mother described her residence to Washington reporters as “wherever there is a labor war,” which is literally true.
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[Photograph added.]
From The World Brotherhood of July 8, 1910:
Martin Irons
Pioneer Labor LeaderMother Jones is going to head a movement in the near future to honor a great martyr to the cause of organized labor. In a lonely spot in Bruceville, Texas, marked only by a piece of an old shovel, is the grave of Martin Irons, the labor pioneer, who is unhonerd, unsung and unremembered. It was largely due to the great south west strike, led by Martin Irons, that the present railway brotherhoods were formed. The old hero was virtually hounded to death by the Gould plutocrats and their satellites.
Mother Jones, intends to have the remains removed to Mt. Olivet, Ill., and interred in the cemetery of the martyred miners, who gave up their lives in the battle at Virden and made the present powerful miners’ union a possibility.
From the Black Hills Daily Register of July 23, 1910:
Their Tribute to Mother Jones.
To the grandest, most noble woman in the world today, the following tribute was paid by the Mexican refugee prisoners:
Despite all restrictions calculated to keep us from reading socialist papers, we have succeeded in obtaining information about your splendid work. You arc setting a noble example and teaching a lesson humanity should not forget. You, an old woman, are fighting with indomitable courage; you, an American, are devoting your life to free Mexican slaves.
And they will be freed in the near future, and they will learn to call you mother.
You are confirming the beautiful thought of Lamartine: “There always is a woman at the foundation of every great movement.” You are the woman at the foundation of this tremendous struggle for the emancipation of our country and you will live forever in the hearts of all liberty loving Mexicans.
With best wishes, we are, yours for the Revolution,
R. F. Magon,
ANTONIO I. VILLARREAL,
LIBERADO RIVERA.———-
[Newsclip added.]
From the Miners Magazine of July 28, 1910:
LABOR PROGRESSING.
—WORKERS OF TODAY DO THEIR OWN THINKING,
DECLARES “STORMY PETREL.”The workingmen of this country are at last beginning to think for them selves.
These significant words came from the lips of Mother Jones, the gray haired labor agitator, who for the last thirty years has participated in every labor struggle of any prominence, whose presence on the field of action inspires courage and hope among the workers, and strikes terror to the hearts of the masters.
[Said Mother, as she is fondly called by the millions of her boys:]
In the years gone by, the workers were absolutely helpless and dependent on the ability and loyalty of the leaders. Today the leaders are absolutely helpless and dependent on the strength and intelligence of the rank and file.
The work of the old warriors of the labor movement, who have blazed the way with sacrifices for a cause that burned their souls, is bearing fruit. The workers are at last fired with the spirit of revolt and religiously and industriously they are working out their own salvation.
With the force and strength characteristic of the “Stormy Petrel,” and with a sudden brightening of her kindly face, she transmitted to her interviewer the thoughts that were stirring her soul when she uttered, “They are working out their own salvation.”
[Continued Mother Jones:]
There are any number of plain workingmen, who for clearness and logic in analyzing and understanding economic questions can give cards and spades to any senator or representative in Washington.
Workingmen of today exchange ideas and discuss important problems in the workshops, at their union meetings, and in the ever-growing labor press. These are the most promising signs of the times.
Mother Jones has spent the last ten days in Washington, doing her utmost to secure a congressional investigation of the persecution of the Mexican political refugees in this country. When she was called upon to testify at the hearing on Representative‘s resolution for an investigation of these outrages before the House committee on rules, Chairman Dalzell asked her to state the place of her residence.
I live wherever the workers are fighting the robbers
-she replied to the surprise and embarrassment of a number of corporation men who are members of the committee.
Although seventy-six years of age, Mother Jones has no thought of retiring.
[She says:]
I am still in the fight. From here I am going to New York City and see what I can do for those bakery boys who are there on strike. From there I am going to the anthracite region, and from there I don’t know.
Working to the limit of her strength for those who are living, Mother Jones has not forgotten those “old warriors who have blazed the way.”
[Feelingly said Mother Jones:]
In a lonely spot in Bruceville, Texas, marked only by a piece of an old iron shovel, is the grave of Martin Irons, the labor pioneer, who is unhonored, unsung and unremembered.
Martin Irons, on whose bleached bones the railroad brotherhoods have been built, the man who was hounded to death by the Goulds and their satelites is buried in an obscure spot in the little cemetery of that small Texas town. When I visited his grave these words came to my lips:
“Here lies the hero of the industrial battle. He lies alone and yet not alone, for the mocking-birds are singing their love-songs to their mates.” In the near future I am going to have his remains moved to the cemetery of the martyred miners in Mount Olive, Illinois, and there Martin irons will sleep with fellow soldiers who have given their lives for humanity’s greatest cause.
—Iron City Trades Journal.
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones Save Our Mexican Comrades, AtR p3, Feb 20, 1909
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/090220-appealtoreason-w690.pdf
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-July 2, 1910
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/100702-appealtoreason-w761.pdf
The World Brotherhood
“Published in the Interest of Humanity”
(Bellefont, Kansas)
-July 8, 1910
https://www.newspapers.com/image/428058145
Black Hills Daily Register
“Official Organ District Miners’ Union No. 2, W. F. M.”
(Lead, South Dakota)
-July 23, 1910
https://www.newspapers.com/image/91659109
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-July 23, 1910
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/100723-appealtoreason-w764.pdf
Miner’s Magazine
-June 3, 1909-Jan 19, 1911
Western Federation of Miners, 1911
https://books.google.com/books?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ
-Miners Mag of July 28, 1910
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.RA1-PA443
Page 15: Mother Jones-“Stormy Petrel”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA457
IMAGE
Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1910-06-18/ed-1/seq-5/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 13, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1910, Part I:
-Found with Miners of Hazleton and Coleraine, Pennsylvania
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 16, 1910
Washington, District of Columbia –Mother Jones Testifies before House Committee on Behalf of Persecuted Mexican Refugees, Denounces Diaz
Tag: Mexican Revolutionaries
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mexican-revolutionaries/
Tag: Martin Irons
https://weneverforget.org/tag/martin-irons/
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