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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 29, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1910, Part II:
–Roosevelt, Mitchell and Bishop of Scranton: “Trinity of Sleek Parasites”
From The New York Call of November 14, 1910:
MOTHER JONES’ LATEST VISIT
TO THE ANTHRACITE FIELDSMother Jones, the friend of the miners, the Socialist apostle, is now seventy-seven years old, but her activities in behalf of the oppressed are as vigorous as ever. Only lately she paid a visit to the anthracite fields. Her account of her visit, written for The Call, is as follows:
What I Saw in the Anthracite Fields.
My work in connection with the Mexican cases being completed at Washington, and feeling assured that the victims of this “bloodocracy” would not be rearrested on their liberation from prison, I decided to visit the boys in the anthracite regions, investigate conditions, and see what progress, if any, had been made in the way of organization and education since the last general strike. My visit to the anthracite regions which border on the inferno followed that of Roosevelt and his ex-labor leader, John Mitchell [ex-President of United Mine Workers of America], who had visited the coal fields, so it is said, for the purpose of making some observations and investigations as to the condition of the slaves whose lifeblood is coined into profits that the few may riot in luxury.
When Roosevelt and his bodyguard arrived at Scranton they were received by the Bishop of Scranton, who wined and dined them and who remarked during the meal that it was the first time in his life he had had the honor of sitting between two Presidents. On the right of the bishop sat Mr. Roosevelt, friend of the workingman. It was he who, in order to show his friendship, sent 2,000 guns to Colorado to shoot the miners into subjection and, if they did not obey, blow their brains out, and who, while president of the United States, sent hundreds of messages to Congress, but never one in the interest of the working class. Not even when the explosion in the Monongah mine sent 700 souls, the souls of wage slaves, into the shadows and shocked the civilized world, did he find it in his sterile conscience to send a message to Congress demanding protection for the men whose labor feeds the mammoth maw of industry and warms the fireside of the world. Roosevelt’s real interest in the working class is only aroused when he seeks their votes. On the left of the bishop sat the $6,000 Civic Federation beauty [Mitchell], pet of the mine owners, decorated with diamonds, gifts from the coal barons.
What would Christ have said if he could have looked down upon this trinity of sleek parasites as they sat at the bishop’s table gorging themselves with the richest of food and the finest of wines, while thousands of their brothers down in the valley “had no where to lay their heads”?
Roosevelt and Mitchell made their investigations of the anthracite regions mostly from the comfortable seats of a large touring car. Waiting press representatives at each point were told that prosperity was rampant throughout the coal fields; that the miners never enjoyed to such an extent the good things of life. What an infamous libel on the truth! Careful indeed was the labor scavenger, the well-groomed vassal of the Civic Federation, to avoid Latimer and other points where the misery and wretchedness of the miners defy exaggeration. Here is where twenty-one of his comrades rest in eternal peace, murdered victims of a murderous mine owners association! Upon the breast of these rugged heroes, true to their brothers, loyal to their class even unto death, there flashed no radiant gem as scintillating evidence of servility that thrift may follow fawning!
Had Roosevelt followed my trail through the anthracite regions he would have seen women old and young carrying sixteen gallons of water on their heads across the coal strippings for a distance of a mile. He would have seen the motherhood of the future dwarfed morally, mentally, physically and spiritually in the mills where they are required to work ten hours a day and walk three or four miles each way going and coming from their work for a niggardly pittance. He would have seen the victims of his commission, whose award was so favorable to the coal barons that they have forced upon the miners ever since poverty and degradation.
In Wilkes-Barre, where they were received by a prominent divine, the outside of the house was illuminated by sixty dollars’ worth of electric lights, while the bloodsuckers were feasting inside. There were forty sky-pilots and some public officials at the table, but not a single workingman among them! Mr. Roosevelt was the guest of the distinguished divine all night, and in order that the monkey chaser might have rest they hid his shoes and would not allow him to arise until the sun had cast its charming rays into the room. While all this was going on, my attention was called to a most diabolical act of one of the coal company clerks, who stripped a young boy of eighteen of all his clothing for owing the company $4 that he was unable to pay just at that time, and the child was forced to go home in torn underclothing, walking over a mile before he got from under public gaze. There are many more horrifying sights that Roosevelt and his lapdog might have seen in their tour of investigation, if they had so desired. Roosevelt’s real mission to the anthracite regions was one of spectacular self-exploitation, while Mitchell simply poodled in the interest of his salary-paying master.
(Just before the fall of the Roman empire I heard of such things happening.)
[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph break added.]
From the Appeal to Reason of November 12, 1910:
Mother Jones Good Work.
On Sunday afternoon, October l6th, in Nimisilla park, Canton, Ohio, Mother Jones addressed an audience of between 2,500 and 3,000 people. Although she is 76 years of age, the fire of her eloquence burns as brightly as ever. The immense crowd was with her, heart and soul, from the beginning to the end of her speech. She did the Socialist movement in this city an immense amount of good. She woke up many worker who had been asleep for many years. She has also spoken in Akron, Youngstown, New Castle and other points in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania doing much good wherever she has gone. May her life be spared for many years is the wish of everybody in this section of the country.
Canton, Ohio.
ALLEN COOK.
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From the Miner’s Magazine (W. F. M.) of November 17, 1910:
THE TOILERS’ “MOTHER.”
—–It would require a large stretch of the imagination for the average person to picture their grandmother traveling from town to town, throughout the length and breadth of the country, making speeches in public halls and on street corners, visiting the sick and unfortunate in hovels, tenements and prisons, interviewing congressmen, public officials, corporation heads, and even the president of the United States, never tiring, always cheerful, with a zealousness that would be a credit to a girl of 20.
Yet there is such a woman, and what is more, she is in Akron today [during month of October], carrying on the work for the evolution and revolution of mankind in the same indefatigable way that has made her known from coast to coast as the mother, sister and friend of the workers of America and earned for her the name of “Mother” Jones.
A reporter went to see “Mother” Jones at the home of F. N. [and Marguerite] Prevey, 140 S. High street, where she is staying during her sojourn in Akron. He had expected to meet an old woman hardened by contact with the seamy side of life. Instead, he met a quiet, well-mannered, kindly gentle-woman, who at three score and ten, shows greater mental activity than many a young woman of 25.
“Mother” Jones is a miracle. No other word will properly describe her, mentally or physically. She is seventy years old, her hair is as white as snow, but her eyes have lost none of their brightness nor her checks the fullness of her youth.
She received the reporter with the easy cordiality of one who has spent many years meeting strange people. She was attired in a black skirt, flannel dressing jacket and black knit house slippers. Her white hair was plainly arranged.
[She said:]
So, you have come to interview me. I’m glad always to see any representative of the press. Most of you fellows, you reporters and your editors, are pretty good people. I have seldom met any members of your profession who were not fair minded and honest.
Organization is the real answer to the problem which is facing the masses of the country today. The money oligarchy is organizing to crush out opposition of the masses, and the workingmen must organize quickly and well to protect themselves.
“Mother” Jones is not only interested in the battle between capital and labor, she preaches it. When her conversation turned to that topic her eyes blazed, her voice dropped to a lower pitch, and the words of condemnation of the money interests seemed to spring from her lips of their own volition.
[She said:]
I don’t blame the capitalists. So long as they fight me in the open I am satisfied, because I love the fight against them. They are only following out inborn instincts in their money grabbing. They are parasites who must be exterminated before we can call this country the “land of the free” and follow out the doctrines of Patrick Henry, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
-Akron Press.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, AtR p2, Nov 5, Mnrs Mag p11, Nov 17, 1910
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/101105-appealtoreason-w779.pdf
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.RA78-PA11
The New York Call
(New York, New York)
-Nov 14, 1910, page 6
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-new-york-call/1910/101114-newyorkcall-v03n318.pdf
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Nov 12, 1910, page 2
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/101112-appealtoreason-w780.pdf
Miner’s Magazine
“Published Weekly by the Western Federation of Miners”
-June 3, 1909-Jan 19, 1911
WFM, 1911
https://books.google.com/books?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ
Miner’s Magazine of Nov 17, 1910
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.RA78-PA1
“The Toilers’ Mother”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.RA78-PA11
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 – Wednesday December 28, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1910, Part I:
–Blames Roosevelt for State of Miners Union in Anthracite Field
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 15, 1910
“What I Saw in the Anthracite Fields” by Mother Jones
From The New York Call of November 14, 1910
-scroll down to “see also” section for notes on this article.
Tag: Westmoreland County Coal Strike of 1910–11
https://weneverforget.org/tag/westmoreland-county-coal-strike-of-1910-11/
“Toilers’ Mother” from Appeal to Reason of Nov 5, 1910, page 2
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/101105-appealtoreason-w779.pdf
For more re Mother Jones in Canton and Akron during Oct 1910:
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 13, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1910, Part II:
–Found in Akron, Ohio, Speaking on Socialism at Central Labor Union Hall
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Guerrilla Radio, Turn That Shit Up! – Rage Against The Machine