Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1902, Part IV: Found Speaking on Behalf of Striking Miners at Boston’s Apollo Garden
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 18, 1902 Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1902, Part IV Boston, Massachusetts – Found Speaking on Behalf of Striking Coal Miners
From The Boston Globe of October 20, 1902:
“Mother” Jones, who has become famous all over the country as a result of her work in behalf of the coal miners, addressed a gathering of more than 7000 yesterday afternoon at the open-air meeting at Apollo garden, Roxbury. The meeting was in behalf of the striking miners, and was under the auspices of the general committee of the socialist party.
It is said that more than 8000 tickets were sold and a good sum was realized, which will be forwarded for the assistance of the strikers. The meeting was also addressed by Representative James F. Carey and Ex-Mayor Chase of Haverhill, the latter socialist candidate for governor.
The meeting was an enthusiastic one and every telling point scored by the speakers brought forth ready approval. In the gathering was a fair sprinkling of women. The speakers stood on the balcony of the old house, which had been decorated free of charge, and the grove was given free of charge also.
The principal interest centered about the appearance of “Mother” Jones. She sat on the balcony while the other speakers were talking. She was dressed in a plain gown of black cloth and wore no hat. She looks to be more than 50 years old, and her hair is almost snow white. Her keen, small eyes look out from under rather heavy brows, and she has a voice of remarkable power, her address easily being heard at the other side of the grove.
She is a fighter for her “boys,” as she terms the men who work in the mines, and it was easy for those in the audience to see how she has come by the loving term of “mother.”
She told in a quiet, easy manner of her work among the miners, of their toil in the bowels of the earth, their attempts to keep their little families from starving, and of their grinding down by the coal barons. “Mother” Jones evidently knows whereof she speaks, for she told of her visits to the mines underground, and her control over the miners was illustrated by a story she told of a recent occurrence in the present strike, when she led a gathering of 7000 strikers and many women over the mountains in the coal region and their meeting with the armed militia.
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Respects the Law.
The keynote of her address was that the people had made the government, and must obey the law and abide by its decisions. When she was being introduced by the presiding officer, Patrick Mahoney, a man on the balcony interpolated the remark that “She also defied Judge Jackson.” She was hardly on her feet before she made a denial of the statement, saying that Judge Jackson represented the law, and she never defied the law.
Representative James F. Carey of Haverhill was the first speaker. He said the coal strike would have been a failure but for the fact that it has taught the miners a lesson. It has opened the eyes of the people. The class in economic power, he continued, always controls the government, and socialists, knowing that, have tried to bring to the attention of the voters the absurdity of voting for the representatives of capital…..
John C. Chase, socialist candidate for governor, was received with cheers. He said that if the strikers had to go back without gaining a single thing it would show one thing, and that is that the working class must stand together in industrial matters and politics…..
“Mother” Jones was the next speaker, and there was a wave of applause as she came forward. She spoke clearly and distinctly and rather slowly. At no time till she grow heated, but the pathos of her voice showed clearly that the interests of the striking miners were her interests.
She said she largely was responsible for the miners’ organization.
[She said:] For ages men had been struggling to right the wrongs of the world. In this country we first had the civil struggle, and we settled that. Now at the beginning of the 20th century we have the industrial struggle.
Continuing she said:
I have no hope of political office. I am working for the children yet unborn. Because I realize that the workers must get into politics, I am a socialist. I have gone into their huts and into their mines where they work. I know they are slaves. I love all my boys. They delve beneath the soil for 12 long hours a day and for why? That this nation may grow greater.
Then I look at the coal baron in his special car and I say that but for my boy down in the mine his car would not be able to move, and sit there on the track. Before the coal baron in his yacht or special car could move, the coal must be mined. Then why should these miners stand and beg their masters for legislation in their favor.
The constitution was born 126 years ago and Liberty bell rang out saying to the people of the old world, “When oppression attacks you come over here.” Today the statue of Liberty says “Leave behind all liberty if you come in here.”
Men have in their hands the power that no court can control, that no U. S. marshal can control and yet they throw the ballot on each election day to defeat themselves. We stand together on all points until election day and then we divide.Come to Homestead and see the stockades. Who built them? Labor built them to keep labor locked up.
I don’t blame the governor for sending the troops out, for the people on election day vote for it.
[Photograph added.]
From The New York Times of October 21, 1902:
“MOTHER” JONES AT COOPER UNION: A CORRECTION. ———-
To the Editor of The New York Times [from John Spargo]:
I am confident that you have no desire to be unfair in reporting the sayings or doings of Socialists or trade unionists. Usually, at any rate, your reports are characterized by a sense of fairness conspicuously lacking in most of your contemporaries.
But in your report of the speech of “Mother” Jones at the Social Democratic Party meeting, held in Cooper Union on Saturday evening, appears such an odious misrepresentation of what was said that I trust you will give prompt insertion to this correction. “Mother” Jones is represented as having said that she brought about the intoxication of a number of miners in order to get them into the union on the principle that “they were better organized drunk than unorganized sober.”Permit me to say that this is entirely inaccurate. What “Mother” did say was that the mine managers had sent to the agencies here in New York and obtained a lot of newly arrived immigrants, (Hungarians,) for whom they provided a plentiful supply of beer as a means of keeping them, but that she had succeeded in organizing them into the union. Since she roundly denounced this action of the mine agents I am sorry to say that I cannot think of the statement in your report as an “error.”
Of less importance, but still showing the animus of your scribe and his determination to misrepresent Mrs. Jones and the Social Democratic Party which she represented, are several other things in the report. No reference was made to Chauncey M. Depew, whether as a “peach” or otherwise, by Mrs. Jones, nor did she make that atrocious pun that, on account of the number of policemen present, Cooper Union should be called “Copper” Union. I escorted Mrs. Jones from her hotel to the meeting, was present on the platform throughout her whole speech, and spoke after her, and I am quite positive no such remarks, nor any resembling them, were made.
JOHN SPARGO, Editor of The Comrade. New York, Oct. 20, 1902.
From The Boston Globe of October 22, 1902:
“Mother” Jones Speaks in Lynn.
LYNN. Oct. 21-“Mother” Jones and Ex-Mayor Chase of Haverhill were the speakers at a socialist rally in Lasters’ hall tonight. Harry R. Page presided and there were about 300 present. Both speakers dwelt on the coal strike, Mrs. Jones reiterating her previous speeches in Boston.
From The Boston Globe of October 23, 1902:
DEFENDS MITCHELL. ———- “Mother” Jones Criticizes Statement Made by a Western Alleged Labor Leader.
“Mother” Jones, the staunch friend of the miners’ cause, takes exception to the statements of W. L. [D.] Haywood, secretary-treasurer of the Western federation of miners, who said in Denver on Monday that be believed John Mitchell was an emissary of the coal barons and that he sold out and filled his own pockets by the coal strike.
“Mother” Jones said yesterday:
That was a very singular statement for a labor official to make, as tomorrow the same thing might be said of any of their officials. The operators never pay out any money when they are beaten, as they clearly were in this case.
Never before in the history of labor where as large a body of men have been on a strike for five or six long months have they won a victory. Really, this is the first of the kind.
I have known John Mitchell for years and years, and I never knew him to be anything but one of God’s own nobleman. I do know that if there ever was an honest man in the labor movement that honest man was John Mitchell.
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“Mother” Jones and Ex-Mayor Chase of Haverhill Speakers at Rally.
BROCKTON, Oct. 22-“Mother” Mary Jones and Ex-Mayor John C. Chase of Haverhill, socialist candidate for governor, spoke at a rally in Massasoit hall tonight.
Ex-Mayor Charles H. Coulter of this city presided. “Mother” Jones was greeted on her arrival here by a committee from the Woman’ socialist alliance, and was entertained.
She told the story of the miner and their struggles and ambitions in a straightforward manner, which was received with enthusiasm by the 900 persons present. Ex-Mayor Chase gave a straight socialistic talk and asked for Brockton’s support in his gubernatorial contest.
From The Boston Globe of October 24, 1902:
“Mother” Jones at Quincy.
QUINCY, Oct. 23-The local socialist party entertained “Mother” Jones, “the miners’ friend,” in Music hall tonight with a varied program. LeviH. Turner the party’s candidate for the legislature, called the meeting to order. There was music by an orchestra, followed by vocal selections by the Granite City quartet. The speakers were Mrs. L. H. Merrifield of Boston and “Mother” Jones.
From The Boston Globe of October 26, 1902:
Mother Jones at Worcester.
WORCESTER, Oct. 27-Mother Jones addressed a socialist rally of about 350 voters in A. O. H. hall tonight, urging them to support John C. Chase tor governor.
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