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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 8, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1900
Found in Leaving Pennsylvania, Headed for Coal Fields of West Virginia
From the Hazleton Plain Speaker of December 1, 1900:
WITH THE MINE WORKERS.
———-
“Mother” Jones Leaves For Virginia
–Dilcher, Here Next Week.
Fred Dilcher, who is at present doing missionary work in the Lackawanna region will arrive in this city on Monday. Mr. Dilcher’s visit is for the purpose of organizing the brewery employees and clerks in Hazleton. The latter have been organized but very little interest has been taken in the local and not a meeting has been held since the union was formed. Benjamin James was present at the meeting and it was decided by a unanimous vote that a charter be applied for.
Through the Lackawanna, upper Luzerne and the greater part of Schuylkill all tradesmen have been organized and every craft is represented in the great Federation of Labor.
“Mother” Jones who has been among the miners hereabouts for some time is organizing them, leaves tomorrow morning for Montgomery, Virginia, where she will do missionary work.
[She said today:]
Conditions are worse in Virginia than anywhere, and the days of chattel slavery are nothing compared to the methods employed by the mine owners there in forcing their employees into subjugation.
Mrs. Jones informed a reporter today that she would not return to this region for several months, but she leaves Hazleton glad in the knowledge that the miners are happy and contented and that better conditions exist in the anthracite region than for many years…..
[Photograph added.]
From the Carbondale Leader of December 3, 1900:
TO THE MINER.
Miss Kittie Biglin, the twelve year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bartley Biglin is the writer of a poem to the miner which was highly complimented by “Mother” Jones when in this city recently and which that well known labor leader proposes to send to the national paper of the organization for publication. It is as follows:
From the Philadelphia Times of December 3, 1900:
Philadelphia trades unionists are awaking from the lethargic condition which they are generally reputed to be in and propose to get a move on which will bring this city to the fore in the labor movement…..
“Mother” Jones, of coal strike fame, dropped into Philadelphia last night and hunted up a few congenial spirits at the Trades Assembly Hall, 931 Callowhill street. She is on her way to West Virginia, where she will report to President [Henry] Stephenson, of the West Virginia United Mine Workers, for organization work.
The miners of the Mountain State are to be organized during December and January, and the national organization is lending the State organization all possible assistance. The miners along the Kanawha and New rivers are to be unionized first, Mrs. Jones said, after which the organizers will go into the Fairmont district. In regard to conditions in the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania Mrs. Jones said:
The miners in the anthracite region are now well satisfied and everything is going along smoothly. The semi-monthly pay law is being gradually put into effect, and other conditions are being rectified. The miners are all joining the unions and new locals are being formed all through the region.
The girls employed in the silk, mill at Freeland are still on strike and have formed a union. They are determined to win. At Carbondale and Wilkesbarre the silk mill operatives are also on strike, and sent for me in both places. I did what I could to help them, but was not successful. In Wilkesbarre they struck because the boss demanded that they give up their union cards to him, which they refused to do.
* * *
From The Wilkes-Barre Record of December 5, 1900:
ABOUT “MOTHER” JONES.
———-OFF FOR THE WEST VIRGINIA COAL FIELDS.
—–A Philadelphia Bulletin reporter who met “Mother” Jones in Philadelphia write as follows:
“Mother” Jones, the white-haired labor leader who has participated in nearly every great strike in this country during the last decade, was in Philadelphia to-day. By employes her appearance in any locality is regarded as a petrel is regarded by mariners-a sure indication of a storm soon to come. Regarding her present plans, “Mother” Jones said:
I have come from the anthracite coal fields, where I have been since the recent strike organising the men. Then I stopped off at Paterson a few days to help some silk mill girls who are on strike and am now on my way to the West Virginia coal fields.
These fields are the only ones not controlled by the Miner’ Union. The bosses there drive out the union organizer the moment they appear, often using the moat brutal methods. So I have been sent there, as we don’t believe the bosses will dare be cruel to an old woman like myself. It will enrage the men if they are.
The West Virginia coal field must be organized before the mine workers can hope to secure any more concessions from the owners.
I do not think there will be another strike in the anthracite coal fields in April, as many people predict. The worker there are fairly contented with what they have already won.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Hzltn Pln Spkr p4, Nov 15, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/98099248/
The Plain Speaker
(Hazleton, Pennsylvania)
-Dec 1, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/501623503/
Carbondale Leader
(Carbondale, Pennsylvania)
-Dec 3, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/638780714
The Times
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
-Dec 3, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/53784124/
The Wilkes-Barre Record
(Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania)
-Dec 5, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/85403502/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167226270/
See also:
Tag: Great Anthracite Strike of 1900
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-anthracite-strike-of-1900/
Note: re Henry Stephenson, see:
United Mine Workers Journal, Volume 28
United Mine Workers of America, 1918
-page 7: Twenty Years Ago, UMWJ of April 21, 1898
( search: “henry stephenson”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=zOPZeTUDm20C
Note: re Silk Workers of Pennsylvania compared to
Silk Workers of Paterson NJ during 1900, see:
Their Fathers’ Daughters
Silk Mill Workers in Northeastern Pennsylvania, 1880-1960
-by Bonnie Stepenoff
Susquehanna University Press, 1999
(search: paterson 1900)
https://books.google.com/books?id=p504nR3cKXcC
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1900
Part I: Found with Miners of Pennsylvania and with Socialist of Boston
Part II: Found in Freeland, PA, Fighting for Striking Silk Mill Workers
Part III: Found Speaking on Christianity and Anarchy in Vandling, PA
Part IV: Found with Silk Strikers of Wilkes-Barre & Carbondale, Pennsylvania
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They’ll Never Keep Us Down – Hazel Dickens