Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 14, 1907
Mother Jones News Round-Up for October, Found in Utah & Chicago
From Utah’s Eureka Reporter of October 4, 1907:
Mother Jones Will Speak Here Again
—–The Ladies Socialist Club will hold a meeting in the Elks Hall tomorrow evening the program to include an address by Mother Jones who will arrive in town again tomorrow morning. The ladies will probably prepare refreshments for the occasion.
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[Photograph added.]
From The Eureka Reporter of October 11, 1907:
Political [News]
—–From the present indication the voters of Eureka will have to choose between the Republican and Socialist tickets as the Democrats are undoubtedly down and out as far as the coming election is concerned. Some of the prominent members of the party are in favor of putting up a ticket but it would be a hard matter to secure candidates who would willing to dig up for campaign expenses as they realize that there is absolutely no chance to elect anyone upon a Democratic ticket in Eureka. One or two who have taken a prominent part in Democratic affairs here state that they would rather see an endorsement of the Socialist ticket than to allow the matter to go by the board but we believe that the rank and file of the Democratic party here are with the Republicans as they realize that the city is in splendid condition as a result of the clean business like city government which we have had here for the past four years.
—–
The Ladies’ Socialist Club held a meeting at the Elk’s hall last Saturday night [October 5th] and selected the following new officers: Mrs. D. J. Russell, financial secretary, Mrs. Robert Adamson, organizer and Mrs. George A. Udall, recording secretary.
Mother Jones was present and addressed the meeting and after the adjournment of the Miners Union the members of the two organizations enjoyed a nice banquet.
The Ladies Socialist Club will hold regular meetings in the future.
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Hellraisers Journal of October 11, 1907, reported on the death, on Labor Day, of Federal District Judge John Jay Jackson who so famously tangle with Mother Jones during the U. M. W. of A. organizing drive of 1902 in state of West Virginia.
Mother later described her thoughts on her exchange with the “Old Injunction Judge,” whereby, by most accounts, she got the better the him:
Hellraisers Journal of October 13, 1907, reported:
With the recent passing of Judge John Jay Jackson, the Old Injunction Judge, who was the bane of the United Mine Workers of America during their struggles in West Virginia back in 1902, we recall how Mother Jones earned her reputation as a “dangerous woman.” Dangerous she was then, and is yet today, to those seeking to keep the miners beat down and their union broken up, but in the coal camps across the nation, where men labor for long hours at low pay, she is known as “The Miners’ Angel.”
According to some accounts, during the trial of July 24th of that year, the United States Attorney pointed his finger at her and declared:
From the New York Tribune of October 16, 1907:
A NEW SOCIETY.
—–
Woman’s Progressive League
to Study Economics.
Mrs. Rose Pastor Stokes, Mrs. Upton Sinclair, Mrs. Jack London, Mother Jones and several thousand other women all over the United States and Canada are members of a new socialistic organization which held its first annual meeting in New York last Saturday under the presidency of Mrs. Gaylord Wilshire. Although the work of the organization began only last spring, it is already well under way. Plans of work are fairly complete and there ore branch organizations in various parts of the country. Relations have also been established, through the Countess of Warwick, with England, as well as with France. Germany, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Austria and Italy. Lady Warwick Is greatly interested in the society and has promised to keep in constant touch with it. The membership is open to all women interested economic betterment, whether socialists or not, but the officers must be members of the Socialist party. Speaking of the movement yesterday Mrs. Wilshire said:
I am convinced that the thing of greatest importance to the socialistic movement at the present time is to get the women interested. With that idea I published an appeal to women last winter and I was perfectly amazed at the response. I had letters from five thousand women all over this country and Canada, not all of them socialists, but all anxious to do something to promote economic betterment. At first I had no thought of any organization, but the women began clamoring for one as the only way in which they could work. The Women’s National Progressive League is the outgrowth of that cry. I don’t think there has ever been anything quite like it before. After Bellamy’s “Looking Backward” was published there was a somewhat similar movement, but it died out. There has also been an attempt to form a woman’s organization within the Socialist party, but as its membership was open only to members of the party there didn’t seem to be any need for it. The Progressive League admits all women who are sufficiently interested in its aims to want to join.
Of course, women have always been prominent n th Socialist party, and we believe in men and women working together as far as possible. But at present it is only the exceptional woman who can share equally with men in general work and join in general discussion. The average woman has not yet freed herself from her heritage of silence and inactivity. Given the opportunity of feeling her own strength in an inconspicuous way with other women, she will more quickly acquire confidence to become actively useful in work with men. That is what the Woman’s National Progressive League aims to do.
And, judging from our experience up to the present time, we shall find the best of material to work with. I have been amazed at the intelligence of the women with whom I have been brought into communication through this movement. I have had hundreds of letters from women so illiterate that I had my secretary reproduce their letters in ordinary spelling before I attempted to read them. But their intelligence and the clearness of their ideas staggered me. About forty or more women living on farms or other isolated places where they could not form a local organization have joined na members at large.
One of the things which the league intends to do is to collect statistics about women and children—legislative measures affecting them, their wages and living conditions, the expenses and conditions of household work, etc.
[Said Mrs. Wilshire:]
It is an astonishing fact that nothing is known scientifically about the way women live and spend their time.
The society will also co-operate with any movement for economic betterment which is consistent with socialistic principles.
The Women’s Trade Union League is actively interested in the new organization, and various societies interested in social reform, such as tho William Morris Club of San Francisco, have affiliated with it. The officers are Mrs. Gaylord Wilshire, president and secretary; Mrs. Andre Tridon, vice-president; Miss Sadie Walling, treasurer, and Miss Anna Maley, organizer.
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From The Chicago Sunday Tribune of October 20, 1907:
“DOUBLE CROSS,” SAYS SMALL
—–[….]
Sylvester J. Small, deposed president of Commercial Telegraphers’ union, will appear before the mass meeting of the striking operators this afternoon to defend himself and his action in calling off the strike.
If indications point to anything, the meeting will be a stormy one and will resolve itself into a tilt between the former president and the general excutive board.
In a statement issued last night, Mr. Small expressed hope that the general officers who have opposed his policy, as well as all members of the local union, might be present. He charged the action of the board in deposing him was in the nature of a “double cross,” and the members as much as himself were responsible for his action in calling of the strike….
The meeting today will be of further interest from the fact that President Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor will be in Chicago and will attend. Whether the simultaneous appearance of President Gompers and President Small have particular significance could not be learned last night.
“Mother” Jones Addresses Strikers.
All reports that the operators will stampede back to work tomorrow morning were discredited at the mass meeting yesterday. Strike benefits were paid as usual, and the strikers seemed as determined as ever. The feature of the meeting was the appearance of “Mother” Jones, over 70 years old, known as a leader of many strikes. Her remarks were received with cheers save once when she referred to President Roosevelt as having sold out the anthracite coal miners to the mine owners on the installment plan. The statement was hissed.
Coming upstairs I heard a woman say, “I’m going back to work on Monday if I don’t get what I want,” she said. “If that’s the kind of woman you are, go back tonight, ask for a job and wipe the officials’ boots. You aren’t fit to associate with strikers.”
Go Out and work do anything decent and honest, and don’t depend upon your organization to feed and clothe you. If you support yourselves on strike you’ll win.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean of October 20, 1907:
Strikers Get Benefits.
Yesterday was “pay day” over at Uhlich’s hall. The amount of benefits were kept a secret, but is said to have been small. The mass meeting was a love feast for socialists. the only two speakers, besides Chairman Frank Likes, were “Mother” Jones, aged 71 years, and known wherever socialism is known, and George Koop, delegate to the late Rockford convention of the Illinois State federation of labor, who failed signally in stampeding the convention to socialism.
—–
SOURCES
The Eureka Reporter
(Eureka, Juab County, Utah)
-Oct 4, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/290169855/
-Oct 11, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/290170206/
Hellraisers Journal, Friday October 11, 1907
Old Injunction Judge, John J. Jackson, Passed Away on Labor Day
Remembering Judge Jackson Who Famously Tangled with Mother Jones in 1902
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday October 13, 1907
Remembering Mother Jones in West Virginia in 1902
How Mother Jones Became Known as “The Most Dangerous Woman in America”
New York Tribune
(New York, New York)
-Oct 16, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1907-10-16/ed-1/seq-4/
The Chicago Sunday Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Oct 20, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/28569164/
The Inter Ocean
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Oct 20, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/34541157
IMAGES
Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66992169/
Mrs G Wilshire, Womans Nat Prog Lg, NY Tb, Oct 16, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1907-10-16/ed-1/seq-4/