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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 13, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1909, Part II:
-Hard at Work for Release of the Mexican Political Refugees
From St. Louis Labor of June 26, 1909:
Washington, D. C.,
June 17, 1909.Editor [G. A.] Hoehn,
St. Louis, Mo.
Dear Comrade:
I have been hard at work for a week, working for the release of the Mexican Political Refugees. Yesterday the President gave me an audience. I presented a sworn statement from Gue[r]ra, who has been sentenced to the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. Warden McCloughery was extremely courteous and sympathetic in every way.
T. V. Powderly, one of the early fighters for Labors’ rights in the stormy days of the past, arranged a meeting with the attorney of the Board of Pardons; he gave me a very respectful hearing, and promised to send the papers to the President as soon as possible.
When the President and I met, his salutation was: “Mother Jones, it seems to me that you are always working in behalf of the friendless?” I replied:
Well Mr. President, those who got many friends do not need my assistance.
I explained my mission to him; he said: “I am afraid that if the pardoning power was invested in you, there would be no need of jails and penitentiaries.”
Well, Mr. President, I remarked, if we would direct half of our money in making people good, that we are in making criminals, we would be better off!
The President said: “There is some truth in that, Mother!” I showed up the case to the President, and that these men were not getting a square deal in the West. The President promised to take the matter up as soon as possible, and he would let me know the results.
I have every reason to believe from the President’s expression on the matter that the man Silva from El Paso will receive his pardon; he has been hounded by the tyrannical Diaz and his dogs of war for twenty years. He is now perishing in the federal penitentiary.
The case of Gue[r]ra I showed the President that Joseph Priest, the secret service man in San Antonio, was the man most responsible for this poor fellow’s conviction, he misrepresented the statement of his own lawyer and told him to plead guilty, much against his own convictions he did so. I think the President will take action in the matter.
I must state that the President seems to be an entirely different type of an American than his predecessor. I don’t think when he retires from office, he will go out to kill monkeys way off in the jungles of Africa.
I hope that justice will be done to these poor refugees, and I believe that President Taft will see that justice is done.
However, we must keep up the agitation in behalf of justice, keep the matter everlastingly before the public.
Yours truly,
Mother Jones.[Photograph added.]
From Pennsylvania’s New Castle News of June 25, 1909:
On Sunday the Amalgamated Leaders Will
Make Their Final Effort to
Bring About a Strike
—–
Socialist hall has been turned over to the heaters of the Greer and Shenango works of the American Sheet & Tinplate company for their meeting Sunday afternoon, when some action will be taken in regard to the cut in wages, which the company proposes to give the men after July 1. The heaters, or some of them, at least, intend to fight the cut, as they claim they have the hardest work in the mill, and are the most poorly paid. It is claimed that the company will be unable to operate their plants here, unless the heaters work, as it will be imposible to fill their palaces…..
Announcement is also made today that “Mother Jones,” one of the nations’s unique strike agitating characters, will be here Sunday, and will make an address Sunday evening in the Airdome…..
From the Appeal to Reason of June 26, 1909:
From page 3:
[…..]
Matters are well lined up for the [Socialist] encampment season, speakers’ routes being prepared so as to get thaem in line for the various camps. A large corps of speakers are available, among them…Mothers Jones…
From page 4:
LATEST advices from Leavenworth and Washington say that the report recently sent out by the Associated Press to the effect that President Taft pardoned Col. Encarnacion Diaz Guerra, the aged Mexican patriot who was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment from Del Rio, Tex., is erroneous, and that Guerra is still doing time in the penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan. Guerra, it will be remembered, was tricked into pleading guilty to the charge of violating the neutrality laws of the United States during a mock trial in the federal court at Del Rio about six weeks ago. His inability to understand English and the inability of his attorney to understand Spanish enabled the government officials to deceive the old Mexican prisoner into walking into the trap they had set. Mother Jones is in Washington city with papers and evidence which throw light on the Del Rio transaction, and earnest efforts are being made to have Taft investigate the matter with the view of pardoning the victim of this instance of official malfeasance.
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From the New Castle Herald of June 28, 1909:
[…..]
“MOTHER” JONES ADMIRES TAFT
—–TELLS GREAT THRONG AT AIRDOME OF
MEETING WITH PRESIDENT TAFT
-SPEAKS OF STRIKE HERE
—–Fully 1,000 people attended the meeting of “Mother” Jones at the Airdome last night, and stayed throughout the entire meeting although a rain storm was threatening all evening. “Mother” Jones has gained a national reputation on account of her aggressiveness in the different labor strikes for the past 20 years, and this perhaps accounts for the large attendance at her meeting here last night.
She has been devoting her entire time for the past three months to giving publicity to the tyrannical government of Mexico. She said “she did not get her information second handed, but had crossed the border line herself and investigated conditions for herself,” she said
[T]he Hearst and Harriman interests control about 6,000,000 acres of land and minerals in that country and the reason they were investing their capital in that country was because they could receive larger returns there in the form of dividends on their money than they could in this country.
She said
[T]hey can hire peace labor there for 20 and 25 cents a day, and work them for 14 and 16 hours a day, and that a condition of that kind makes things very prosperous for our big capitalists.
She spoke of the terrible atrocities practiced there on this peon labor under the “Iron Rule Diaz,” and the treatment received by those who protested against this “Iron Rule.”
She spoke of how a liberal political party had been organized there and how its leaders had been railroaded to the penitentiary, and even how they were hounded after they crossed the border line into this country. She scored our government for holding these political refugees, and declared she would keep up this agitation until they were set free, as was Rudouitz [Christian Rudowitz] and Porine [Jan Pouren], the Russian refugees in Chicago some months ago. She said
I have collected $4,000 already for the defense of these patriots from different unions I have visited and we are employing the best legal profession to defend them.
Last week I called on the president, who gave me a very courteous treatment. When the president and I met, his salutation was: “Mother Jones, it seems to me that you are always working in behalf of the friendless?” I replied: “Well, Mr. President, those who have many friends do not need my assistance.” I explained my mission to him, he said: “I am afraid that if the pardoning power was invested in you there would be no need for jails and penitentiaries.” “Well Mr. President,” I remarked,”if we would direct half of our money in making people good, that we are in making criminals, we would be better off!” The president said: “There is some truth in that, Mother.” I showed the whole case up to the president, and he promised to take the matter up as soon as possible and see that these refugees got a square deal.
In speaking of her impressions of the president, she said:
I must state that the president seems to be an entirely different type of an American than his predecessor. I don’t think when he retires from office he will go out to kill monkeys away off in the jungles of Africa.
In her lecture she touched on the “open shop” frequently. She said that it was quite natural the employers of labor would demand conditions that would yield larger dividends, and that the “open shop” seemed to be a necessity to them now.
She scored the workers for being led to believe that prosperity was in store for them last fall when they voted for the continuation of the present system.
From The Pittsburgh Post of June 30, 1909:
[Mother Jones Stops Over in Pittsburgh]
…..”Mother” Jones much heard of in the newspapers during coal strikes, it developed yesterday, was in Pittsburgh during the [street car] strike, but she took no active part. On Sunday she delivered a lecture at New Castle. She will probably leave Pittsburgh to-day…..
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SOURCES & IMAGES
St. Louis Labor
(St Louis, Missouri)
-June 26, 1909
From page 69:
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAA
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735057897435
New Castile News
(New Castle, Pennsylvania)
-June 25, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/72635275/
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-June 26, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66981968/
New Castle Herald
(New Castle, Pennsylvania)
-June 28, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/140360274/
The Pittsburgh Post
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
-June 30, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/86416790
https://www.newspapers.com/image/86416807
IMAGE
“Mother Jones Sees President
Seeking Pardon for Prisoner”
Oakland Tribune
(Oakland, California)
-June 24, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/72433665/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for June 1909 Part I: Found Meeting with President Taft
The Autobiography of Mother Jones
-ed by Mary Field Parton
Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Company, 1925
Chp 16: The Mexican Revolution
(wherein she describes meeting with Taft)
https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/jones/autobiography/autobiography.html#XVI
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/16
Re G. A. Hoehn, see:
“Words of History”
(re SPA Local St Louis)
-by G. A. Hoehn
St Louis MO, Dec 1908
http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1908/1213-hoehn-wordsofhistory.pdf
https://archive.org/details/WordsOfHistory–St.LouisSocialism
Tag: Russian Revolutionaries
https://weneverforget.org/tag/russian-revolutionaries/
Re “[Socialist] Encampment Season, see:
The International Socialist Review, Volume 10
(Chicago, Illinois)
July 1909—June 1910
C. H. Kerr & Company, 1910
https://books.google.com/books?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ
Sept 1909-ISR
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA193
page 278-Socialist Encampments (also called Chautauquas)
–with photo of Debs speaking at Snyder OK encampment
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA278
Oct 1909-ISR
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA289
page 376-T. A. Hickey Writes re Lone Star State:
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MVhIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA376
One of the brilliant features of the movement in Texas is the Socialist encampments—great open-air gatherings, at which from six to ten thousand people were three thousand votes cast. In 1908 attend for a week to ten days. Enormous quantities of literature are distributed and the ablest speakers from all parts of the country attend. Eight of these encampments were held last year, this year twelve.
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The Death of Mother Jones – Bobbie McGee
“Mother Jones was ready to help them; she never let them down.”