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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 23, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part III
Speaks at Charleston, West Virginia: “Oppression of the People Must Go!”
September 21, 1912, Charleston, West Virginia
-Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting Following Parade of Strikers’ Children:
I want to say to those children, they will be free; they will not be serfs. We have entered West Virginia-I have-and a hundred thousand miners have pledged their support to me, “If you need us, Mother, we will be there.” Five thousand men last Sunday night said, “We are ready, Mother, when you call on us.”
The revolution is here. We can tie up every wheel, every railroad in the State, when we want to do it. Tyranny, robbery and oppression of the people must go. The children must be educated. The childhood will rise to grander woman and grander man in happy homes and happy families-then we will need no saloons. We will need no saloons, nor any of your prohibition. As long as you rob us, of course we drink. The poison food you give us needs some other narcotic to knock the poison out of it. They charge you $2.40 for a bushel of potatoes at the “pluck-me” store. Ten pounds of slate in 9700 pounds of coal and you are docked-then they go and “give for Jesus.” “How charming Mr. Cabell is, he gives us $500.00.”
Let us, my friends, stand up like men. I have worked for the best interests of the working people for seventy-five years. I don’t need any one to protect me. I protect myself. I don’t break the law. Nobody molests me, except John Laing. John is the only dog in West Virginia that attacks a woman. He is the only fellow that would do that. I am not afraid of John Laing. I would give him a punch in the stomach and knock him over the railroad. I don’t know who punched him-he lost his pistol. I put my hand on him and told him to go home to his mother. I gave him a punch in the stomach, and he fell over the railroad track and lost his pistol. He didn’t know he lost it until he reached home.
He said, “You are disturbing my miners.” My slaves! Scabs! Dogs!
[…..]
Shame! Forever shame! on the men and women in the State of West Virginia that stand for such a picture as we have here today-[Referring to the children of the coal camps who marched in the parade]-Shame! When the history is written, what will it be, my friends, when the history of this crime, starvation and murder of the innocents, so they can fill the operators’ pockets, and build dog kennels for the workers. Is it right? Will it ever be right?
Now, I understand Mr. White is going to speak at the court house. He will have something to tell you.
This strike ain’t going to end until we get a check-weighman on the tipple. That is the law. It is on the statute books-that your coal will be weighed….
You miners here have stood for it, you have starved your children, starved yourselves, you have lived in dog-kennels-they wouldn’t build one for their dogs as bad as yours. You have lived in them and permitted them to rob you, and then got the militia for the robbers. You can get all the militia in the state, we will fight it to the finish-if the men don’t fight the women will. They won’t stand for it.
Be good, boys, don’t drink. Subscribe for the Labor Argus. If I was sentenced to sixteen months to jail, and these guys found it out I would be in jail longer. I don’t worry about it. I am down at the Fleetwood when ever they want to put me in jail for violation of the law, come along for me, come. There is coming a day when I will take the whole bunch of you and put you in jail. (Applause.)
[Photograph added.]
From the Baltimore Sun of September 22, 1912:
LABOR CONFERENCE VAIN
———-
Refusal To Take Up Kanawha Coal Troubles
Keeps Union Men Away.
———-Charleston, W. Va., Sept 21.-The representatives of the commercial and civic bodies of West Virginia called by Governor Glasscock to consider the labor situation adjourned this afternoon after an exciting session without having accomplished anything.
International President John P. White, of the United Mine Workers of America, with Vice-President Hayes, announced early in the day that they would have nothing to do with the conference because they had learned that it was not the purpose of those in charge of the meeting to permit a discussion of the strike situation in the Kanawha coal field, where 1,200 West Virginia militiamen are maintaining martial law……
Hayes Addresses Strikers.
Vice-President Hayes addressed a large audience of striking miners and their sympathizers, and Mother Jones talked to another audience almost within the shadow of the State Capitol…..
Children Parade Streets.
One of the striking features of the day was the appearance on the streets of 100 children of striking miners, brought down from the mountains by “Mother” Jones.
They paraded the streets to the music of a band and bearing banners with these legends,
We are the babes that sleep in the woods.
We want to go to school and not to the mines.
The children, miners’ leaders say, were among those compelled to live much in the open since martial law was declared.
From the Miners Magazine (Western Federation of Miners) of September 26, 1912:
“MOTHER” JONES has been on the firing line in West Virginia and her work among the coal miners has aroused the slaves from their lethargy and indifference. Though approaching the milepost of four score years, her dauntless spirit and deathless devotion to the working class spur her on, and though her step has lost its elasticity and her eyes the sparkle of youth, yet her heart beats as strongly as ever for the liberty of the disinherited millions.
“Mother” Jones knows no fear in the battle for right and justice. The pistol of the hired thug or the rifle of the uniformed soldier bring no pallor to the features of the “Queen of the Miners,” for she believes with all her soul in the dawn of a new day, when right shall be no longer crucified on the cross of greed.
A few years more, and “Mother” Jones will be sleeping in the bosom of Mother Earth, but when the history of the labor movement is written and there is recorded the glad tidings of labor’s emancipation, the name of “Mother” Jones will shed a halo of lustre upon every chapter that portrays the struggle of man against the despotism of capitalism.
From the Hinton Independent-Herald Weekly of September 26, 1912:
“MOTHER” JONES MAY BE JAILED
It is charged that the performances of “Mother” Jones, in West Virginia are in direct violation of an order of Judge Jackson’s court, made several years ago, following her conviction on a charge of contempt, and that in consequence she may be arrested and required to serve six months in jail. When Judge Jackson sentenced her he suspended the jail sentence on her promise to leave the state and never return. She is now in Fairmont region, making anarchistic speeches, and it is likely that her arrest will be ordered.
From the Baltimore Sun of September 30, 1912:
GLASSCOCK VISITS CAMP
———-
“Mother Jones” Accused Of Advising
Miners To Keep Arms.
———-MAY BE CALLED TO ACCOUNT
———-
Militia Doing Duty In The Martial Law District
Of West Virginia Now Number 1,572 Men.Charleston. W. Va., Sept. 29.-Governor Glasscock this afternoon visited the military headquarters at Paint Creek Junction, conferred with the officers and witnessed a drill of four companies.
“They are the finest set of men I ever saw,” he said tonight, “and if there is no change in the situation many of the boys will be starting home Thursday.”
It was reported here tonight that “Mother” Jones addressed the miners at Boomer this afternoon and asked them not to surrender their arms, as they had been asked to do by citizens of the town in the morning and as had been promised the Governor Saturday.
It is expected this action on the part of the aged agitator will be taken cognizance of tomorrow either by citizens or the authorities.
There are 1,572 militiamen doing duty in the martial-law district. The mining investigating commission tomorrow will hear the mine owners, who will endeavor to disprove the charges made against them by the miners.
From the Clarksburg Daily Telegram of September 30, 1912:
“MOTHER JONES” STIRS UP SOME NEW TROUBLE
———-
When Peace Dove Appears She Calls
a Lot of Coal Miners to Arms.
———-CHARLESTON, Sept. 30-Just as the situation pointed to an early withdrawal of troops, or at least a part of them, from the martial law district, and when an effort was being made to put into execution the promise of some miners and business men of Montgomery, Boomer, Harewood and other places on the north side of the Kanawha river, adjacent to the military zone, that they would use their efforts to have the miners surrender their firearms and thus avoid extending the martial law boundary to take in practically the remainder of the Kanawha coal district, “Mother” Jones made her appearance at Boomer, gathered together a majority of 1,400 Italian and other foreign miners and urged them not to surrender their firearms and told them they would need them a little later.
The action of the aged woman who has such a wonderful influence over the foreign and Socialistic elements among the miners is a blow to the miners’ officials here, the business men along the river and the governor and military authorities. In all probability her efforts to again prevent an adjustment of the situation that will permit the withdrawal of troops will bring her before the courts.
Should the miners persist in refusing to surrender their firearms, it is practically certain the martial law boundary will be thrown around those sections and the firearms taken by the militia….
Note: Emphasis added throughout.]
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SOURCES
Quote re Mother Jones, Halo of Lustre, John ONeill,
Mnrs Mag p3, Sept 26, 1912
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112043506432&view=2up&seq=611
The Speeches and Writings of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988
https://books.google.com/books?id=vI-xAAAAIAAJ
-page 115 (136 of 360), Quote by Mother Jones on page 116.
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735035254105/viewer#page/136/mode/2up
Note: we have a stenographer, hired by the coal operators, to thank for the text of Mother’s speeches delivered in West Virginia during August and September of 1912. See Steel, page 57.
Mother Jones Speaks
Collected Writings and Speeches
-ed by Philip S Foner
Monad Press, 1983
-page 214
https://books.google.com/books?id=T_m5AAAAIAAJ
The Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland)
-Sept 22, 1912
https://www.newspapers.com/image/legacy/372959116/
-Sept 30, 1912
https://www.newspapers.com/image/372965425/
Miners Magazine
(Denver, Colorado)
-Sept 26, 1912
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112043506432&view=2up&seq=611
The Independent-Herald Weekly
(Hinton, West Virginia
-Sept 26, 1912
https://www.newspapers.com/image/667505120/
The Daily Telegram
(Clarksburg, West Virginia)
-Sept 30, 1912
https://www.newspapers.com/image/353627401/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, NE State Jr p2, Sept 19, 1912
https://www.newspapers.com/image/313903955/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 22, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part II
Found Speaking at Wheeling, West Virginia, Thrills Thousands
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 23, 1912
Charleston, West Virginia – Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting
Tag: Mother Jones v Judge Jackson 1902
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mother-jones-v-judge-jackson-1902/
Report of West Virginia Mining Investigation Commission,
appointed by Governor Glasscock on the 28th day of August, 1912
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008910210
https://books.google.com/books?id=HQM9AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=snippet&q=%22report%20of%20the%20commission%20appointed%20by%20the%20governor%22&f=false
Tag: Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1912-1913
https://weneverforget.org/tag/paint-creek-cabin-creek-strike-of-1912-1913/
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Mining Camp Blues – Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard