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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 12, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May 1901, Part II
Found Organizing in Pennsylvania and West Virginia
From The Muncie Daily Times of May 16, 1901:
SERVANT GIRLS’ UNION.
———-
Mother Jones’ Rules For Kitchen
and Nursery Work.
“Mother” Jones is preparing to organize a servant girls’ union at Wilkes-barre, Pa., as well as in Scranton and has drawn up these rules, says the New York World, which the union will enforce at each, “place:”
Ten hours’ work a day and no more.
An increase in wages according to the the size of the house and the work required.
No one shall work for less than $3 a week.
Cooks shall not act as ladies maids or take care of babies.
Nursegirls shall not be required to act as cooks.
It shall not be necessary to stay in nights while the mistress goes out.
If more than ten hours work a day shall be required, a double shift must be employed.
An amusement room shall be furnished for the girls so that they shall not be required to sit in the kitchen all the time.
Visitors shall be allowed to call upon them any night they are off duty.
Wages must be paid every week.
They shall have the privilege of putting their clothes in the family wash.
Their meals shall be the same as those of the family.
Bedchambers shall be large, airy and well heated.
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[Photograph added.]
From the Appeal to Reason of May 18, 1901:
Christian Zeal Off the Track.
When human beings make idiots of themselves the most extraordinary things are sometimes done by those who think they are doing good.
“Mother Jones,” who interests herself in working people and their condition, declares that she attended Sunday school at Birmingham, Ala., and heard a teacher address the following remarks to a class of little millhands ten or twelve years old:
“God put it in the heart of Mr. B— to build a factory so that you little children can have work and earn money, so that you can put a nickel in the box for the poor little heathen Chinese children.”
That kind of thing is apt to make the devil suffer from the effects of too violent laughter.
“Mr. B—” spoken of by the foolish Sunday school teacher is, of course, one of the most dangerous elements in civilization. He exploits child life in his money-making process. In the midst of a poor community he establishes a factory, knowing that want will induce parents, when the opportunity offers, to force their little children to work long hours in crowded rooms.
Mr. B— gets his money by killing just so many children a year, and stunting the growth of all of them.
It would be far better for the world if, instead of building a factory and employing a thousand children, he would erect a gallows and hang five hundred. That would a least give the remaining five hundred children some kind of chance for normal development.
As long as there are persons like Mr. B— to build factories in which children shall be worked to death, and foolish, ignorant teachers to talk like the one quoted here, this world cannot call itself civilized.
-New York Journal.
———-
From the Philadelphia Times of May 21, 1901:
Mother Jones Visits Philadelphia
“Mother Mary Jones was in the city for a few hours yesterday on her way from Scranton to West Virginia, where she will assist in organizing the miners along the New river.
From The Knoxville Sentinel of May 23, 1901:
SERVANT GIRLS WILL FORM STRONG UNION.
———-
Famous Mother Jones, of Scranton, is Taking a Hand
Helping Girls to Get Together.
———-From Philadelphia North American. [Date?]
Scranton, Pa.-A union is to be formed by the domestic servants of Scranton. Hundreds of them will meet at the miners’ headquarters tomorrow night [re meeting held on Thursday May 9th?]. Mother Jones is to organize them.
Concerning the movement. Mother Jones says:
We want to organize the girls for their mutual benefit. In becoming conversant with the economic question, they will aid materially in stopping strikes and in making conditions better for their fellow-workers in other crafts. They can also benefit the union label by calling for union-made goods and by patronizing union butchers, and so on.
The girls’ grievances are many. I know of no craft whose hours of labor are longer, and some girls are forced out when they become ill. By forming a union steps may be taken to provide a home for them. A place where they may assemble for recreation instead of being compelled to sit in kitchens will also be secured.
Philanthropists should interest themselves a little more than they do in this matter. By being banded together the servants can keep one another informed as to who is the humane mistress and who is the tyrant. Many mistresses devote their time to criticising workers in general when they ought to do all in their power to make their paths more pleasant.
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From The Clarksburg Telegram of May 24, 1901:
“Mother” Jones Coming.
———-“Mother” Jones, a national character and famous labor, agitator will address a labor meeting at the court house at 7:30 o’clock next Monday evening. A large crowd is expected to be present, as many besides those directly interested have a curiosity to see and hear the woman, who exercises such great influence in labor affairs.
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From the Appeal to Reason of May 25, 1901:
Mother Jones to Organize New York Servant Girls
Mother Jones is organizing the servant girls in New York. The dainty wives and daughters who do nothing but look pretty, should pay the female slaves well who spend their lives waiting on them. The girls can easily get $20 a week if they will combine, for the women mentioned would not do so vulgar a thing as to work, no matter the cost.
—————
From the Bluefield Daily Telegraph of May 29, 1901:
Mother Jones to Organize Miners
Wheeling, May 28-Mother Jones, who has been sent here by the United Mine Workers to try to organize the miners in the Clarksburg and Fairmont districts, held a big meeting at the opera house tonight. All previous efforts to organize the miners have failed.
———-
From The Clarksburg Telegram of May 31, 1901:
“MOTHER” JONES MAKES ADDRESS.
———-
Indulged In Bitter Denunciations of Capitalists
and Advised Unions.
———-Mrs. Mary Jones, of Chicago, otherwise and commonly known as “Mother” Jones, the labor agitator, spoke to an audience of about one hundred and fifty at the court house Monday night. She was introduced by Attorney H. T. Houston, and spoke for an hour or more on the labor question. She denounced bitterly combinations of capital in their various forms and decried the present system of government, advocating in lieu thereof principles of government in conformity to the system in a measure advocated by Henry George. She urged the wage-earning class to form labor unions and pictured the benefits of such organizations.
Her speech, as a whole, was somewhat of the socialistic order and was calculated to incite unrest and to unsettle present prosperous conditions. Her leading declaration was that machinery had reduced man’s wages. Then came another reduction by the introduction of female labor and still another by child labor. The meeting was free to everybody and no attempt was made to raise funds except to offer some pamphlets for sale, the money derived from which, “Mother” Jones said, is to be expended in giving youthful employes in Pennsylvania a day’s outing.
[Paragraph break added.]
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Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES
The Muncie Daily Times
(Muncie, Indiana)
-May 16, 1901
https://www.newspapers.com/image/576042469
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-May 18, 1901, page 4
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/010518-appealtoreason-w285.pdf
-May 25, 1901, page 1
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/010525-appealtoreason-w286.pdf
The Times
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
-May 21, 1901
https://www.newspapers.com/image/52836856/
The Knoxville Sentinel
(Knoxville, Tennessee)
-May 23, 1901
https://www.newspapers.com/image/585844166/
The Clarksburg Telegram
(Clarksburg, West Virginia)
-May 24, 1901
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84037844/1901-05-24/ed-1/seq-1/
-May 31, 1901
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84037844/1901-05-31/ed-1/seq-1/
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
(Bluefield, West Virginia)
-May 29, 1901
https://www.newspapers.com/image/18575752/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/social-democratic-herald-us/010309-socdemherald-v03n38w140.pdf
See also:
Tag: Mother Jones Organizing Servant Girls 1901
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mother-jones-organizing-servant-girls-1901/
Mother Jones
Fierce Fighter for Workers’ Rights
-by Judith Pinkerton Josephson
Twenty-First Century Books, Jan 1, 1997
(search: “trouble in west virginia 1901”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=EYf5UNb2lbwC
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones to Clarksburg & Fairmont Districts WV
From the Bluefield Daily Telegraph of May 29, 1901:
-Mother Jones Arrives in West Virginia to Organize Coal Miners
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1901
Part I: Found Standing with Silk Mill Strikers and Servant Girls of Pennsylvania
Map: from Scranton Pa to Philly PA to Fairmont and Clarksburg WV
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Scranton,+PA/Philadelphia,+PA/Fairmont,+WV/Clarksburg,+WV/@38.9972397,-78.141974,7z/data=!4m26!4m25!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c4d93a77484bbb:0xfff27920ab9bfae8!2m2!1d-75.6624122!2d41.408969!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c6b7d8d4b54beb:0x89f514d88c3e58c1!2m2!1d-75.1652215!2d39.9525839!1m5!1m1!1s0x884a7ddaaa5f7171:0xda7771214d47916b!2m2!1d-80.1425781!2d39.4850848!1m5!1m1!1s0x884a67cb09eb7e77:0x5de91ece70cc47e0!2m2!1d-80.3445341!2d39.2806451!3e0?hl=en
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Song of the Domestic Workers – Guillermina Castellations
¡Vámonos para luchar!