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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 9, 1920
-Mother Jones News for March 1920, Part III
Jim Seymour Describes Labor Defense Meeting in San Francisco
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of March 29, 1920:
—–
Bulletin’s “Minister Without Portfolio”
Attends Interesting Gathering of
“Vicious Syndicalists.”
—–BY JIM SEYMOUR.
(Special to the Bulletin.)
Frisco (known bourgeoiseally as San Francisco), March 20 (By Mail).-Last night [Friday, March 19th] California hall was filled to “S. R. O.” by specimens of the various breeds of workers and a very few others. William Cleary, attorney for a number of vicious criminal syndicalists, and some woman called “Mother Jones,” were billed to speak under the auspices of the Labor Defense league. Cleary jimmed the meeting by exercising his prerogative as a member of the bar and coming late. The trial was kept waiting for him until several of the chairs got too hot for the comfort of the sitters, whereupon Robert Whitaker, ex-sky pilot [preacher] and chairman of the meeting, who seems too good-natured to be named anything more dignified than Bob, delivered a serm-an opening address in which he mentioned the names of Anita Whitney, Kate O’Hare and one Eugene Debs. The applause percentages follow: Whitney, 96; Debs, 72; O’Hare, 49. Collection for defense of criminal syndicalists, for which the Lord be praised, $148.03.
The Rev. Bob then addressed us a few remarks that convinced us that the white-haired old woman on the stage was really Mother Jones and that nobody was trying to palm off a ringer on us. I don’t know just what it was, but Whitaker said something that Mother Jones didn’t quite agree with; and I don’t know just what Mother Jones’ reply was, but she gave him a good-natured bawling out that seemed to amuse the audience but failed to disturb the equanimity of the man who had just collected $148 for the cause. And so long as it didn’t harm him, or us, or the boys in jail, we will remark that it served him jolly well right-he should have known better than to pull that absurd burgeoise stunt of introducing a speaker that is better known than Jesus Christ. [Note: Mother Jones as a devote Catholic would certainly dispute that description of her fame.]
I can’t write shorthand, so I’m going to say that I couldn’t hear very well from where I sat. How can you expect a common stiff to tell you all that a woman said, and an Irish woman at that? Anyway, there was a lot of her characteristic electrocuting sarcasm and some slams at the senate, the Y. M. C. A. and “the rotten gang of thieves that infest Wall street.” She told of the children shot in Ludlow by order of one John D. Rockefeller, Jr., a sanctimonious Baptist hypocrite, whose church still tolerates him and accepts his pew rent and while the minister drones the words of the Sixth commandment.
She told us natives that when we had brains enough and became American enough we would can the grafters. This brought her considerable applause from several hundred ignorant foreigners who were present out of idle curiosity or to associate with their betters, and who put the most money in the collection baskets to keep us from getting wise to them.
She then very cleverly secured an ovation from the male members by telling the women they should be ashamed of having brought children into the world that would consent to be jailers. Women were responsible for a great many things. “You make ’em go and scab,” she shouted. “You want an extra feather for your hat. The men will be all right when the women are all right. When you are women-not ladies.”
This brought more applause from the males, including some whose women had compelled them to scab.
The old woman lambasted all charity organizations, clubs, and social welfare work in general, but most strongly those who did business in the name of Christ.
[She said:]
You never had any Christianity and you never will till you rise like men and bring it here.
There being no Christians present, everybody applauded, even the secret servicers.
[Said the speaker:]
You people in California are all asleep; the weather is too fine.
And one member of the Chamber of Commerce held his hands in position and looked puzzled, but decided to applaud.
The sacred courts also came in for a good drubbing. They are miasmic swamps, poisonous and pestilential. We should take possession of them aid drain them. And most public officials are a disgrace to civilization. (Secret service men may have applauded; I didn’t notice.) The chief of police is a pie-counter loafer. (Nods of approval from city dick and two cops.)
This walloping of our public institutions led to the advocacy of political action as a means of relief. The applause was scattered and polite. It is quite evident that this proletarian audience is not interested in politics.
Mother Jones is nearly 90 and I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had collapsed. But she’s tough as hell, and speaking acts on her like a good mulligan on a jungle buzzard. Her voice is as strong as ever and she’s a good old warhorse yet. She is returning to West Virginia, and she bade her audience what she evidently believes is her last goodby. “But I’ll fight to the bitter end.” she said.
There was a long-continues ovation and I’m sure that Mother Jones realizes that a great many of those for whom she has fought are sincerely hoping that the end will not be bitter.
I said that Cleary jimmed the meeting. He did-so far as his part of it was concerned. I have heard him before. He is a good clear speaker and usually supplies us with facts that are new to us. But Mother Jones is an older friend and it is in the nature of things that Cleary should have spoken first. As it was, the audience was ready to leave when Cleary began to talk. Also, there four counts in the indictment against him, and when a fellow is indicted he’s guilty. Cleary (1) came late. Said Cleary (2) is a lawyer. He (3) took a drink of water. He (4) called us ladies and gentlemen. And later another count was added to the indictment. He (5) repeated the phrase, “May it please Yoour Honor.”
He recovered caste somewhat by opposing political action.
[He said:]
Before you kick the politicians out of Washington, you’ve got to kick the politicians out of your unions.
He then stated that one of the Bisbee deportation herders recently made a political speech for himself under auspices of the Oil Workers of Bakersfield.
[He said:]
The workers are chloroformed by leaders who get part of their pay from the Chambers of Commerce.
Cleary told us quite a lot of things about courts that we didn’t find it difficult to believe. His expression, “That’s the law,” is fraught with contempt such as every honest and well-informed person must feel. And when he said, “Miss Whitney was convicted solely because she furnished bail for an I. W. W.,” yours truly softly murmured, “That’s the law.”
Cleary seems to think that courts in general are crooked and I know that he had at least one in his audience who agreed with him.
His speech was fairly well received, considering the ball-up, but it is to be hoped that next time he will be on time.
As you pass out you may purchase a copy of Soviet Russia at the door.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From the San Francisco Examiner of March 19, 1920:
‘Mother Jones’ to Talk On Syndicalism Law
“Mother” Jones will protest against the criminal syndicalism law at a public meeting tonight.
William Cleary, who has been the attorney for most of the men tried under this law, will also address the meeting. He will tell of the actual workings of the law in court.
“Profiteering and Criminal Syndicalism” is the subject announced by “Mother” Jones for her talk.
The meeting, which will be held at the California hall, Turk and Polk streets, will begin at 8 p. m. Admission is free.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, NYT p1, Oct 6, 1916
-re Raising Hell
The Butte Daily Bulletin
(Butte, Montana)
-Mar 29, 1920
(Butte, Montana)
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1920-03-29/ed-1/seq-4/
San Francisco Examiner
(San Francisco, California)
-Mar 19, 1920
https://www.newspapers.com/image/457638410/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Chg Tb p120, Oct 26, 1919
https://www.newspapers.com/image/355273232/
See also:
Charlotte Anita Whitney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Anita_Whitney
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 5, 1919
Justice in America? Kate Richard O’Hare Is Still in Prison.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 5, 1920
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary – Eugene V. Debs, Our Candidate for President
WE NEVER FORGET the Men, Women and Little Children
Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause
at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914
Tag: Bisbee Deportations of 1917
https://weneverforget.org/tag/bisbee-deportation-of-1917/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So Where Was Mother Jones During February of 1920?
The whereabouts of Mother Jones cannot, thus far, be located thru the press of the day. We do have some pretty strong indications, however, that she began the month in Chicago and then traveled to Los Angeles in late February or early March.
January 26, 1920: Mother Jones, writing from Charleston, WV, to Otto Branstetter in Chicago, states that she will be in Chicago the “last of this week.”
re February and March 1920: Gorn (p266) states:
In February 1920, she shared a stage with Jane Addams and John Fitzpatrick as ten thousand people attended the “All Chicago Liberty Demonstration Protesting against Raids, Deportations and Other Infringements of American Civil Liberties.” In March, she spoke before San Francisco‘s striking shipyard workers. That same month, she had the distinction of being one of several dozen radicals-including Eugene Debs, Big Bill Haywood, “Nicholas Lenine,” John Reed, Karl Marx, Tom Mooney, and Leon Trotsky-whose names and photographs appeared on a memo circulated within the war Department. [Emphasis added.]
Gorn’s sources (p381-n10)=FBI Investigative Files, 1908-1922, and Military Intelligence Division Correspondence.
February 8, 1920: The nearest I could come to matching the “All Chicago Liberty Demonstration” protest meeting was from The Chicago Daily Tribune of February 9th which states:
A large crowd attended a meeting called at the Coliseum yesterday as a protest against the alleged restrictions on free speech in America.
According to estimates nearly half of those present were members of various organizations affiliated with American Federation of Labor, while John Fitzpatrick, leader of the Chicago Federation of Labor, acted as chairman.
On the speaker’s platform were the leaders of every radical organization in the city….. [Emphasis added.]
Note: Neither Mother Jones nor Jane Addams were mentioned by name in the article, but there are indications that Jane Addams was very much involved in the planning of the meeting (see below).
March 7, 1920: The Los Angeles Times of March 11th states that “last Sunday” Mother Jones was found speaking at the Labor Temple.
March 9, 1920: Mother Jones, writing from Los Angeles, CA, to John H. Walker in Springfield, IL, states she was sorry not to have seen him while she was in Chicago.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ
-Page 196 (248 of 416)
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735057897435/viewer#page/248/mode/2up
Mother Jones
The Most Dangerous Woman in America
-by Elliott J. Gorn
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Jun 2, 2015
(search: “february 1920”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=9gRpCAAAQBAJ
The Chicago Daily Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Feb 9, 1920
“Free Speech is Used in Plea for Free Speech”
https://www.newspapers.com/image/369977714/
The Los Angeles Times
(Los Angeles, California)
-Mar 11, 1920
https://www.newspapers.com/image/380417913/
IMAGE
GSS, Mother Jones, Survey p64, Nov 8, 1919
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MoEbAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA64
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 7, 1920
-Mother Jones News for March 1920, Part I
Found Supporting Shipyard Strikers of San Francisco and Vicinity
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 8, 1920
-Mother Jones News for March 1920, Part II
Found in Denver Conferring with Local Labor Leaders
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 17, 1920
-Mother Jones News for January 1920
Found Speaking in Johnstown and Altoona, Pennsylvania
Re Jane Addams and Fight for Civil Liberties
-January and February of 1920:
Jan 24, 1920 – Chicago Tribune p2
Jane Addams Planing Feb 8th Protest at Coliseum:
Jan 25, 1920 – Chicago Tribune p7
re Jane Addams’ “Pink Radicals”
Feds to Investigate Protest on Deportations
-DOJ will “cover” Feb 8th mass meeting at Coliseum:
Feb 23, 1920 – Chicago Tribune p17
Jane Adams re Deportations at Auditorium Recital Hall Feb 22nd:
Feb 24, 1920 – Chicago Tribune p8
Letter fr Addams re Recital Hall Mtg, dated Feb 23rd:
From The Survey of Jan & Feb 1920:
The Survey, Volume 43
(New York, New York)
-Oct 1919-March 1920
Survey Associates, 1919
Note: Jane Addams was a contributing editor of The Survey.
https://books.google.com/books?id=MoEbAQAAMAAJ
Jan 31, 1920 – The Survey p479
-p480 “A New Civil Liberties Union”
re American Civil Liberties Union replacing the National Civil Liberties Bureau.
Jane Addams on National Committee of Fifty.
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MoEbAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA480
Feb 7, 1920 – The Survey
-p524 “Nationalism, a Dogma?” by J Addams
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MoEbAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA524
-p535-8 Photos of Keepers of Faith
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MoEbAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA535
-p537 Jane Addams
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MoEbAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA537
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Feb 21, 1920 – The Survey p623
AD re ACLU Organizing Campaign
Note: Labor Defense League of San Francisco
-on list of Affiliated District Organizations:
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MoEbAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA623
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Children of Mother Jones – Pete Duffy