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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday August 24, 1918
Mother Jones News for July 1918, Part III: Found in West Virginia
From the Fairmont West Virginian of July 25, 1918:
UNION MINERS HOLDING SCALE CONVENTION HERE
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Meetings at Willard Hall Are Expected
to Last Several Days.
—–MOTHER JONES HOT SHOT
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W. M. Rogers Makes Plea for Big
Labor Day Celebration.
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The scale convention for the mines of the Fairmont field which have no contract with the United Mine of America is being held at Willard Hall this week, and opened at 10:30 this morning. The morning session was devoted to the adoption of the call, the filing of credentials and addressees by “Mother” Jones and W. M. Rogers, president of the State Federation of Labor.
Frank Keeney. president of District No. 17…called the meeting to order. P. F. Gaitens [Gatens], international board member for District No. 17, acted as secretary in the absence of Mr. Mooney, who is expected to be here on the morrow…
“Mother” Jones’ address was filled with interesting discussion of social and economic questions, as well as talk on coal mining and union organization.
W. M. Rogers made a plea for a big Labor Day celebration in spite of the fact that coal operators were opposing it. “They argue that a day’s production will he lost. I say that you can work a Sunday or extra hours for several days-that labor is entitled to one big day all its own.”
“Civilization never advances beyond he women.” declared “Mother” in her address to the scale convention. “The great danger is when the hog is developed in the woman instead of the human.”
“Mother” Jones, introduced as the most beloved labor leader in the world by Frank Keeney, president of District No. 17, was discussing the duty that lay before the coal miner delegates assembled for this convention.
[She told the miners’ delegates:]
You have only entered the kindergarten of the labor movement as yet. You are going to have a full course of school. You will graduate from one class to another. I want you to study hard, to read, and think. The labor movement is the most instructive school in this country. It has done more than anything else to advance the nation. The world is indebted to the labor movement for what has been accomplished in the last few months. It is the labor movement that has gotten food for the children, playgrounds for the young; it is the labor movement that is keeping the child out of jail and out of other capitalistic institutions. You have many things to learn and many duties to perform. You want to put men in the legislature and in congress who will stand for labor and for the honor of the nation.
Your most important duty at this minute is to educate your wives and children as to what is right. Civilization never advances beyond the woman. I have been all over the country and there is one thing that I particularly notice here. The women and children need education. I have noticed here more than in any other part of the country the deficiency in good manners. I have been down in Mexico among the [sadly a derogatory epithet is here used], clear down as far as Vera Crux but I never saw a place where they did not get up on street cars and give seats to old men and women with children till I came here. The high sense of womanhood has not been properly developed in this section. I have seen awful things happen on the street cars between here and Clarksburg. A crippled old man with two crutches would win no consideration. And the worst offenders are the snips that some of you mistake for women. The real women’s club is in the home. That is where she belongs. That is where she can accomplish most.
[She said at another time:]
Don’t be always stabbing the superintendent. I wouldn’t take the job of a superintendent for all the money in the world. The job is not a desirable one boys, so make his life run just as smoothly as you can. Remember he has troubles enough. These men who are appointed superintendents are not all wrong.
If the government wants you to work ten, twelve or fifteen hours a day, I say do it. I claim that you should do anything you can to help the boys over there. If the government say it is short of coal you boys get it out no matter how long you work.
As a general rule “Mother” Jones made it plain that she opposed more than eight hours work but thought the point could be waived when the country was engaged in serious war.
[She said:]
The government has taken over the telephone and telegraph companies now. I am only waiting the time when the government conscripts the wealth of the Rockefellers and others. They have had their day, ten thousand dollars a year is enough for anyone to live on. Let them have that amount and let the rest of their fortunes go to the government.
“Mother” Jones advised the miner to send a wire to President Wilson and frequently approved of his course as to the war and to labor. Every mention of the President brought applause. Once only she mentioned Roosevelt, “he goes to Africa to chase monkeys,” declared, “and that is about as much as he knows.” (Laughter.)
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From the Fairmont West Virginian of July 26, 1918:
Yesterday’s Speakers.
“Mother” Jones was the principal speaker at the scale convention yesterday, speaking both in the morning and in the afternoon. She started speaking at the very start of the convention when it was thought the proceedings would be delayed by the fact that the official stenographer from Indianapolis had not arrived. She was in the midst of her speech when this lady came in. “Mother” Jones stopped at once, observing:
“I’ll quit. You have heard enough of me.”
But the convention ruled otherwise and she spoke at length in the morning and again in the afternoon, keeping at it during a hard storm late in the afternoon. “Mother” Jones said the northern West Virginia miners might not hear her again for some time as she was leaving for Illinois to attend a big Mooney meeting there with other engagements in the future….
From the Fairmont West Virginian of July 29, 1918:
Praise for Keeney
“Mother” Jones is frank to a fault, blunt to a degree that can hardly be realized without hearing her engaged in one of her appeals to mine workers. She spoke so freely at the scale conference at Fairmont this week that Frank Keeney, president of District No. 17, was noticeably embarrassed.
[She told the Fairmont region men:]
This district has not always had good officers. I want you to elect good officers right along. Some men are elected organizers who can’t wash a dish clean. Don’t let any such get into power by your vote. Don’t vote for a man for office in the organization because he is your friend if he is not competent. Report any organizers to the national organization if they don’t do right down here. Select men to represent you who are smart enough to guard your interests.
“Mother” Jones paid a strong compliment to Frank Keeney, the president of the organization at this time. She says he is the first really good president the district has had. Three or four times she returned to Keeney’s merits until he made some excuse and got out of the hall.
[She exclaimed:]
He is a fine young man. He don’t drink, he don’t gamble and he is on the level.
“Mother” Jones said some of the board members of the United Mine Workers had not been honest, and warned the miners against letting such men in authority again. She said she had been persecuted and maligned by officers of the United Mine Workers who wished to get everything in sight.
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SOURCES
The West Virginian
(Fairmont, West Virginia)
-July 25, 1918
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072054/1918-07-25/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072054/1918-07-25/ed-1/seq-8/
-July 26, 1918
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072054/1918-07-26/ed-1/seq-1/
-July 29, 1918
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072054/1918-07-29/ed-1/seq-8
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Ft Wy Jr Gz p3, Dec 17, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/29086040/
See also:
Mother Jones
The Most Dangerous Woman in America
-by Elliott J. Gorn
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Jun 2, 2015
(search altogether: “mother jones” “west virginia” 1917 1918)
https://books.google.com/books?id=9gRpCAAAQBAJ
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