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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 16, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1912, Part II
Found in Spokane, Washington and in Missoula and Butte, Montana
From The Daily Missoulian of March 28, 1912:
From the Spokane Daily Chronicle of March 28, 1912:
WOMAN SUFFRAGE, BAH! SAYS MOTHER
———-
“Mother Jones” Has No Use
for Equal Rights Issue.
———-“Woman suffrage-bah! The mere thought of the movement makes me tired.”-“Mother” Jones.
“Mother” Jones, who has championed the interests of working men, women and children for over a quarter century and who has promoted strikes in various sections of the nations is a socialist but by no means a suffragist.
[She asserted at Machinists’ union headquarters this afternoon:]
The woman’s place is in the home, molding the character of her children, if she has any, and preparing them to meet the issues that will confront them later in life-educating them to the economic problems that affect them,” she asserted at Machinists’ union headquarters this afternoon.
Why, the men haven’t learned yet to vote intelligently and just the same as men are now selling out their votes for a schooner of beer to cunning politicians, the woman’s vote will be influenced with a bouquet or a box of candy.
Calls It Worthless Cause.
Women are simply wasting their time upon a worthless cause in their struggle for the ballot, for as soon as the economic system has become straightened out the way it ought to be, woman will be the equal of man anyway.
That time will come when the great army of working people have become awakened to their power and have taken possession of the machinery of production and the greedy capitalistic class that is now grinding out the lives of the little children of the poor for profit have been made to step down and out.
The employing class is scared almost to death of the working men and women of the nation right now, and if the workers only knew it, they would not be in want over night.
While the working people of the world are no more than a day or two from the poorhouse the year round, as a rule, the poodle doge of the rich are having banquets given in their honor and are treated better than children of the poor.
Prohibitionists say that the prevalence of the drinking habit among the working people is the cause of so much poverty, yet government statistics show that the average workingman has but $12 a year to spend for such luxuries as an occasional drink of liquor.
She 80 Years Old.
All over the nation the working people are gradually waking up and though I will be 80 years old on the first of May, I hope to see the time that the economic system has changed completely and that the working class is in power.
“Mother” Jones spoke in behalf of the striking shopmen on the Harriman railway system Wednesday night at the armory building and will leave tonight over the Great Northern for the east, expecting to be in Minneapolis in a short time.
Despite her advanced age, “Mother Jones is a splendid specimen of vigor and health and her voice is still steady and strong.
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From the Spokane Daily Chronicle of March 29, 1912:
“MOTHER” JONES HELPS STRIKERS
———-
Raises Money for Harriman Shopmen,
Who She Declares Will Win Fight.
———-Thousands of dollars for the benefit of striking shopmen on the Harriman railroad system will be raised by “Mother” Jones as the result of her tour throughout the west and Pacific northwest this month, according to present indications.
[Mother Jones declared while in Spokane:]
Member of the Shopmen’s Federation of the Harriman railroads will, I believe, win a complete victory in their present strike for an increase in wages and better working conditions should other railroad employes who are working give them financial assistance and a little more encouragement.
The strike is practically won right now, and I am trying to induce railroad men all over the country, who are not affected by the strike to donate one day’s wages to the strike fund of the shopmen. I have met with much success in this movement and I hope to raise much more money for the boys making the fight.
“Mother” Jones, who spoke at the armory building Wednesday night, left Thursday night over the Great Northern for Minneapolis, but she expects to stop in Montana cities and several other points along the way, to speak in public for the benefit of the Harriman railroad strike.
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From The Daily Missoulian of March 30, 1912:
UNION MEN ASKED FOR AID
———-MOTHER JONES APPEALS FOR MONEY TO SUPPORT
STRIKERS ON HARRIMAN SYSTEM.
———-Mother Jones, a labor leader of national fame, just at present an organizer for the Western Federation of Miners, spoke in Bennett hall before an audience of 150 people last evening. Her appeal to the laboring men of Missoula was for aid for the striking men of the Harriman system and she asked each union man of this community to donate one day’s wages to the cause.
Besides giving her general lecture on unionism, Mother Jones urged the principle of closer organization and approved the plan of the local unions to bring every commodity handled in Missoula under union label and every worker under a union card.
[Said Mother Jones:]
The time is here for labor to solidify its forces. The cunning class above has found its strength in combining their forces. We can only fight back in the same way. Don’t be halfway union men in this fight. I know some of you fellows who will trot around here with a union card in your pocket and a cud of scab tobacco in your jaw. Some of you are not fighting for principle; you wouldn’t belong to the union except for the fact that the union has raised your pay. When we fight for the dollar in this way we are as bad as our oppressors. Our fight is for a principle. I’d rather associate with a rat than with a scab’s wife. Women in this industrial battle are the greatest factors for its success. I want to see a woman’s branch of unionism organized here.
The general address of Mother Jones was interesting. She is an eloquent speaker, direct, aggressive, graceful and at times fiery. The things of which she talked were mostly those of which she knew from personal experience-an experience that has meant her life work. Mother Jones is almost 80 years of age, but she talks with all the vigor of youth.
[Said the speaker:]
For the first time in history we are entering the century of the people of which Hugo spoke. There is an awakening of the human intellect; even the uneducated are using their God-given brains. At last they have awakened to the fact that there is only one way out from under the slavery that for years has been forced upon them by the cunning, moneyed class of power above-to fight combination with organization. The fight must be carried to the seat of government, to the courts and even to the pulpits themselves. I want to take issue with any man who tells me he is a Christian. You couldn’t be a Christian, as Christianity was taught by Christ and His disciples, if you wanted to, under these conditions. Capitalistic Christianity is all that is possible now.
Mother Jones did not forget to attack the militia.
[She said:]
I have no respect for the woman who raises a son, puts a gun in his hand and dresses him in a capitalistic uniform and sends him out to kill the worker.
Her closing words were an appeal for aid for the striking railroaders.
[She said:]
The strike on the Harriman system is one of the greatest in our history. It must be won.
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From The Anaconda Standard of March 31, 1912:
“MOTHER” JONES IN BUTTE.
“Mother” Jones, the aged woman orator, arrived in the city yesterday from Missoula. She is touring the West in the interest of the striking employes of the Illinois Central railway. She will speak this evening at the Silver Bow Trades and Labor assembly. Her last visit to Butte was about seven years ago.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
The Daily Missoulian
(Missoula, Montana)
-Mar 28, 1912
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025316/1912-03-28/ed-1/seq-2/
-Mar 30, 1912, p12
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025316/1912-03-30/ed-1/seq-12/
Spokane Daily Chronicle
(Spokane, Washington)
-Mar 28, 1912, p6
https://www.newspapers.com/image/562140897/
-Mar 29, 1912, p25
https://www.newspapers.com/image/562140978/
The Anaconda Standard
(Anaconda, Montana)
-Mar 31, 1912, p9
https://www.newspapers.com/image/354274293/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1912
Part I: Found Speaking in Illinois, Denver, Colorado and Tacoma, Washington
Tag: Illinois Central and Harriman Lines Strike of 1911 to 1915
https://weneverforget.org/tag/illinois-central-and-harriman-lines-strike-of-1911-to-1915/
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Children of Mother Jones by Pete Duffy