President Roosevelt and others class
Moyer, Haywood and other labor leaders
as undesirable citizens.
For my part I am glad to be classed with them.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday May 9, 1907
Mother Jones News for April: Found Touring in Texas
During the month of April 1907, Mother was found touring Texas and giving speeches on Socialism, on economic conditions, and in support of Charles Moyer and Bill Haywood who remain imprisoned in Idaho.
From The Fort Worth Telegram of April 3, 1907:
SOCIALISTS PLAN AN ACTIVE YEAR
—–Mother Jones and E. V. Debs
Among Speakers Scheduled
—–To The Telegram:
The Socialists in this city are making plans for a great propaganda work this summer.
Local Fort Worth meets every Sunday at 3 p. m. in Red Men’s hall, and never fails to have an interesting program.
They recently collected $125 to defray expenses of a representative to the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone trial in Idaho. W. M. McClain was chosen to go and left last week for the scene of the impending trial.
The next lecturer to visit Fort Worth will be Mother Jones, who will be here some time during this month.
During the year the Socialists are to have many of the most gifted speakers in the United States, among them Eugene V. Debs.
The Socialists of this state have their headquarters at Tyler, and under the direction of W. J. Bell, state secretary, speakers are kept constantly in the field. Last year there were six at work, speaking and organizing, almost all of the time.
Six grand encampments were held in the state, each lasting six days. They were all well attended and were in every way successes.
This year the Socialists hope to hold twice as many and in every way do more effective work.
The campaign of the Socialist party never ends. It begins again next day after an election and the comrades work as zealously as if they expected speedy personal gains.
No campaign fund is handed out by some boodling corporation, and very few of the Socialists are wealthy (altho we number some millionaires among our membership), but the work is carried on by contributions from the Socialists.
Sums come rolling in in amounts from ten cents to a thousand dollars.
What is going on in this county in the way of Socialist agitation and education is also going on in every civilized country in the world, and the systematic and persistent effort of this great international army of workers cannot fail of success.
The object of this movement is primarily to educate the masses to a sense of their enslaved condition and to bring them to a consciousness of its cause and the remedy. Its purpose is to eventually take by peaceable means possession of the machinery of production and distribution of wealth now in the hands of capitalists, who use them to exploit the toilers and make profit, and restore them to the people to whom they justly belong to be run for use of all.
When the Socialists accomplish the gigantic object for which they are today striving, the world will be redeemed from animalism and consecrated to humanity.
LAURA B. PAYNE.
———-
From The Liberty Vindicator of April 5, 1907:
Mother Jones whose subject of lecture is “socialism” came in from the east Thursday morning and at night expounded the doctrines of that belief in a clear, precise manner to an appreciative audience assembled at the court house.
———-
From the Appeal to Reason of April 6, 1907:
From the Appeal’s Socialist Party News from Texas
-W. J. Bell, State Secretary, Tyler:
-Mother Jones speaks at Chilton April 6th, at Mart April 8th, at West April 9th, at Gatesville April 10th and 11th, at McNeil April 12th and at Belton April 13th.
From the Appeal to Reason of April 20, 1907:
From the Appeal’s Socialist Party News from Texas:
-Dates for Mother Jones are as follows: Walnut Springs neighborhood, April 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd; Cleburne, April 25th, 26th and 27th and 30th; Dallas, May 3rd and 4th; Copeville, May 6th and 7th; Farmerville, May 8th and 9th; Blueridge, May 10th and 11th.
From The Fort Worth Telegram of April 26, 1907:
From The Dallas Morning News of April 29, 1907:
SPEECH BY MOTHER JONES.
—–
Labor Lecturer Addressees Large
Gathering at Fort Worth.SPECIAL TO THE NEWS.
Fort Worth, Tex., April 28.-Mother Jones, the labor lecturer, well known throughout the country and who is now over 70 years old, spoke to a large number of people in the City Hall this afternoon. Mother Jones was severe in her criticisms of capitalists and corporations. She spoke of the Moyer and Haywood case, scoring the Colorado State officials and sympathizing with the men who are imprisoned. At the close of her lecture she took up a collection.
From The Fort Worth Telegram of April 29, 1907:
MOTHER JONES AT CITY HALL
—–
Aged Labor Leader Discusses
Economic Conditions
—–“Mother Jones,” the most widely known woman advocate of labor, spoke at city hall Sunday afternoon. Mother Jones has taken active part in labor struggles all over the country for many years and is positive in her assertions.
In the address Mother Jones did not deal with socialism as much as with economic conditions of the country. Some of her positive statements were:
President Roosevelt and others class Moyer, Haywood and other labor leaders as undesirable citizens. For my part I am glad to be classed with them.
One per cent of the population owns 99 percent of the country’s wealth and the laboring class is the 99 per cent population that owns only 1 per cent of the wealth. This is the reason that 600,000 girls are driven to shame and 5,000,000 women to work. Of these millions of women workers there are 2,000,000 women who work in the dingy unwholesome and unhealthy shops and factories. More than this, these women are poorly paid and underfed; this drives thousands to degradation annually.
In referring to the prohibition campaign, Mother Jones did not place the blame on the drinkers; instead she suggested that the cause be remedied. As causes she referred to poisonous foods sold wholesale, the poverty and unattractive homes, all of which make men know little happiness unless they be drinking.
General Sherman Bell and his methods during the Colorado labor trouble were given condemnation. Mother Jones spoke from experience, for she herself was deported from the state during the trouble. She referred to the remarks credited to certain high officials who should have stood for the enforcement of the laws, but who, when the time came, she said failed utterly and absolutely refused to do their duty.
[She declared:]
Economic conditions are growing faster than the laws. The laboring class does not have opportunity to keep pace with the rapid economic progress of the country; therefore they are oppressed and driven as badly as the chattel slaves of old.
Toward the close of her address Mother Jones made an appeal for the disarming of the forces. She plead for peace, not for violence; she asked for reforms and justice; asked that every worker learn to think and to realize what it meant to be a voter for the same men who oppress him. She plead for the homes of workers, for the mothers and children who work long hours in terrible places.
———-
From The Dallas Morning News of April 30, 1907:
MOTHER JONES ARRIVES.
—–
Socialist Speaker to Deliver an
Address Here Tomorrow.Mother Jones, who will aid the Socialists in their local campaign, arrived in the city yesterday morning. Tonight she will speak at Lewisville. Tomorrow and the following day she will address meetings in Dallas.
———-
SOURCES
The Fort Worth Telegram
(Fort Worth, Texas)
-Apr 3, 1907, page 7
-Apr 26, 1907, page 2
-Apr 29, 1907, page 6
http://www.genealogybank.com/
The Liberty Vindicator
(Liberty, Texas)
-Apr 5, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/52530057/
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Apr 6, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67586845/
-Apr 20, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67586853/
The Dallas Morning News
(Dallas, Texas)
-Apr 29, 1907, page 7
-Apr 30, 1907, page 4
http://www.genealogybank.com/
IMAGES
Mother Jones, Tacoma Times, Sept 19, 1904
(This source identifies the woman next to Mother
as Mrs Max Hayes.)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/68052998/
Mother Jones, Mrs Max Hayes, Fort Worth Telegram, Apr 26, 1907
(See above for link.)
See also:
Tag: Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case
https://weneverforget.org/tag/haywood-moyer-pettibone-case/
The Texas Left:
The Radical Roots of Lone Star Liberalism
-by David O’Donald Cullen, Kyle G. Wilkison
Texas A&M University Press, Feb 5, 2010
(search with: laura b payne)
https://books.google.com/books?id=AZNEAqTauREC
The Cripple Creek Strike:
“A History of Industrial Wars in Colorado, 1903-4-5; Being a Complete and Concise History of the Efforts of Organized Capital to Crush Unionism”
-by Emma Florence Langdon
Great Western Publishing Company, 1905
(search with: sherman bell)
(search with: mother jones)
https://books.google.com/books?id=olgpAAAAYAAJ
The Spirit Of Mother Jones – Andy Irvine