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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 16, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for May and June, 1908
–Found in Texas on Tour for the Socialist Party of America
During her tour of Texas, Mother was found speaking in the city of Austin where she spoke for two hours and touched on the evils of Child Labor.
From The Austin Statesman of June 17, 1908:
MOTHER JONES LECTURES.
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She Speaks of Economic and
Child Labor Conditions.
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An attentive audience heard Mother Jones last night at the East Austin Fire hall. The lecturer spoke for two hours, dealing in the main with the economic conditions of the country as she has found them, a science of hunger and misery.
She made her topic realistic by picturing experiences in the mines, shops and fields.
Mother Jones is most familiar with the child labor situation. She has worked with the “babies” and is cognizant of their struggles and the impossibility of helping these toilers under the present system. She said that she has faith in the people, and that the laborers are realizing that they must own the tools of production in order to be self-supporting and independent.
Tonight Mother Jones will speak at the court house. She is here under the auspices of the socialist local in this city, and the lecture is given free to those interested in the movement.
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[Photograph added.]
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From the Appeal to Reason of May 2, 1908:
…Speakers’ Dates…Mother Jones-Poetry, May 1-2…
From the Appeal to Reason of May 9, 1908:</strong
TRI-STATE EDITION…Texas…
Very many comrades who have accepted appointment for Mother Jones will have to be disappointed, as she is pledged to go to Kansas and cannot remain to fill half the calls for her. There is but one Mother Jones and there is not enough of her to go around. It is hoped that comrades who will be deprived of her will accept other speakers in her place and keep the work moving in their localities.
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…..Speakers’ Dates…
Mother Jones-Waco, May 9-12…
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From the Montana News of June 4, 1908:</strong
Mother Jones at the age of 72 is agitating and organizing among the labor unions of Texas. She has promised to write the story of her life when the present campaign is over.
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From the Appeal to Reason of June 6, 1908:
TRI-STATE EDITION…Oklahoma…
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Campaign Speakers.Most of the speakers also attended the [national Socialist Party] convention and they are all inoculated with the germs of hard work and enthusiasm. Routes will be prepared and active campaign work commenced as rapidly as I [O. F. Branstetter] can arrange them. Lee Rhoades, of Texas, is to be with us until the middle of July. Comrade Ross starts work immediately, as does Comrades Cumbie and Parker. Pap Davis will be back on the 15th, accompanied by his daughter, who is a violinist, and who will entertain and interest the crowds that Pap is educating in the principles of Socialism. Mother Jones is to be with us in July and the presidential campaign speakers sent out by the national office will be at our service in a short time. The first one of them, Comrade Winfield Gaylord, of Wisconsin, enters the state for a month’s work commencing on the 21st.
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[…..]
Texas…Speakers’ Dates…
Mother Jones-Austin, June 14-16…
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From The Houston Post of June 10, 1908:
“Mother” Jones at Beeville.
(Houston Post Special.)BEEVILLE. Texas, June 6.-Mother Jones, noted socialist lecturer of Chicago, spoke at the court house here last night to a fair sized audience. she speaks again tonight and is billed for two other addresses in the county [Bee County]. The socialist party is getting quite a strong following in the county.
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From The Austin Statesman of June 10, 1908:
MOTHER JONES COMING.
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Well Known Socialist Worker Will
Speak Here Next Week.
—–Mother Jones, who was here a little more than a year ago, will be in the city the first half of next week. She is scheduled to speak at the court house on Monday and Wednesday nights, and at the East Austin fire hall on Tuesday night. Her lectures are given at the invitation and under the auspices of the socialist local in this city.
Mother Jones is touring the state in the interest of the movement in which she is so prominent. As a true friend to labor she has several times been actively connected with the strikes and lockouts in the larger industrial centers, and her information along these lines is first hand.
The socialists met in Chicago last month [at the National Socialist Party Convention], named their candidates, and adopted their platform. Their vote in 1904 was nearly half a million, but they have, considering the increase in their strength in certain states, added quite a large number of supporters since that time.
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From the Appeal to Reason of June 13, 1908:
TRI-STATE EDITION…Texas…Speakers’ Dates…
—–Mother Jones-Bruceville, [June] 20…
Mother Jones, the heroine of the social revolution, is waking things up in Texas. Wherever she holds a meeting you may depend upon results following in its wake. For days and weeks afterwards, Socialism is the theme for discussion on the street corners, in the stores and homes of the community. Comrade Goss, Durango, Texas, reports an enthusiastic meeting on the 14th…
Mother Jones success in Galveston will mark a new era in the movement in that city. She was greeted with tremendous audiences and tremendous enthusiasm. Instead of being interfered with by the police she was granted the freedom of the streets by the chief and was told by him that she could come back there whenever she willed. A policeman who was sent to keep the sidewalk clear became so interested that he forgot there was a sidewalk and drank in her words. This will go far toward securing to us the use of the streets in Galveston in future meetings…
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From The Spokane Press of June 13, 1908:
“COWBOY PREACHER” HERE
—–Rev. Samuel G. Bettes, freewill Baptist parson, known the country over as the “cowboy preacher,” was in Spokane yesterday looking up relatives here. He returned to the coast last night intending to go to California and later to Australia. For the past five years he has been working in the gulf states in the interests of temperance and religion generally. In that time the South has gone prohibition.
Rev. Bettes became nationally famous during the West Virginia coal strike when he worked in company with “Mother Jones” in alleviating the sufferings of the miners. He was included in the blanket injunction issued at the behest of the coal company, but when it was served Rev. Bettes announced that in speaking in public be was in his constitutional rights and displayed a gun, Inviting anybody that wanted to interfere with those same rights to start something. There was no interference just then and when the coal barons heard of it they explained that Rev. Bettes was helping to maintain order by advising the miners to be peaceful. Realizing that he had been too zealous in the cause against the miners the court made no further effort to enforce this particular order and Rev. Bettes was permitted to talk, a rare privelege at that time and place.
While holding a meeting in Louisville, Ky., Rev. Bettes noticed the celebrated Col. Watterson in the audience and invited him to speak. The colonel complied, stating that there was no room on earth for drunkenness, but at the same time combating prohibition.
The “cowboy preacher” earned his title honestly by putting in six years on the Texas ranges. Since his wife died he has worked about the country on his own hook and as he expresses it, has had lots of fun. He is a big sunshiney man, full of humor and evident sincere purpose.
One of the first questions he asked about Spokane was how does it happen that all the magnificent water power of this city is monopolized by one corporation. He seemed to be of the impression that the Creator had not made it especially and exclusively for the financial benefit of the W. W. P. Co., but he, of course, must be visionary on some points.
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From The Austin Statesman of June 15, 1908:
From The Austin Statesman of June 16, 1908:
Mother Jones will speak tonight at the East Austin Fire hall on the “Economical Conditions of the Times.” She will be in the city for several days and will deliver several lectures while here. Mother Jones is well known as a socialist lecturer, and addresses large audiences wherever she appears, having earned a national reputation for her effective and instructive lectures. Notices of time and places of her meetings will be announced each day.
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SOURCES
EVD Quote re Mother Jones, AtR, Nov 23, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587088/
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-May 2, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587292/
-May 9, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587298/
-June 6, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587328/
-June 13, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587335/
Montana News
(Helena, Montana)
-June 4, 1908
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024811/1908-06-04/ed-1/seq-3/
The Houston Post
(Houston, Texas)
-June 10, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/95173107/
The Austin Statesman
(Austin, Texas)
-June 10, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/366372075/
-June 15, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/366373519/
-June 16, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/366373790/
-June 17, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/366373990/
The Spokane Press
(Spokane, Washington)
-June 13, 1908
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085947/1908-06-13/ed-1/seq-1/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Fort Worth Telegram -page 2, Apr 26, 1907
https://www.genealogybank.com/
See also:
The Texas Left:
The Radical Roots of Lone Star Liberalism
-ed by David O’Donald Cullen & Kyle G. Wilkison
Texas A&M University Press, Feb 5, 2010
(search separately: “mother jones” ; “socialist party”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=AZNEAqTauREC
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