———-
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 18, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1900, Part II
Found in Freeland, Pennsylvania, Fighting for Silk Mill Strikers
From the Hazleton Plain Speaker of November 13, 1900:
The Silk Mill Strike.
The [Freeland] Grand Opera House was packed last evening with men, women and children who came to hear “Mother” Jones discuss the silk mill strike. The lack of system, cohesive organization, and sympathy, that characterized this strike in its incipient stage was amply atoned for by last night’s meeting, for “Mother” Jones appeared at her best and her pathetic appeal for justice for the little army of frail and youthful girls that sat upon the stage, touched a responsive chord in the large audience.
The boys and girls, many of whom appeared very young, were arranged on the stage with good effect, and the speaker lost no time in getting down to the core of her subject. She exhibited a little boy before the floodlights whom she claimed worked in the Freeland silk mill for one cent per hour. She next brought forward a pale-faced frail little girl who received $1.10 per week and pointed out in forcible language the decay of the Republic and the degeneration of the race if the mothers of the men of the future were permitted to be thus enslaved. The speaker gave a brief history of the abolition of child labor in England, and denounced the silk mills as vile hell holes where cursing and foul language was the order of the day. She denounced the men who employ babes in violation of the law and make money by their labor as “commercial cannibals” who would find it difficult to justify their stewardship when called to answer before the Supreme Judge.
She compared the conduct of a mother living at Upper Lehigh who flogged her little girl back to work in the silk mill with the conduct of the negro mother who in the days of chattel slavery clung to her offspring with a maternal affection that the tortures of the masters lash could not sever. The speaker became dramatic as she exhibited the frail little girls that the local authorities could not control without the aid of deputy sheriffs and her sarcasm in denouncing the men who brought them here was withering and eloquent. She “roasted” a local merchant who it is alleged said that the girls should be arrested and appealed to the manhood of her audience to abolish profanity in the mill and appoint a committee to confer with the management and intercede for better conditions for the girls. She told her audience that she would personally appeal to the state factory inspector to enforce the law and closed with an earnest appeal to the men to save their money and keep away from the saloons, “You will need it all” she said “for we are on the eve of the greatest panic in the history of the world.”
“Within the next two years” she said “a financial crash will take place that will paralyze industry from ocean to ocean, and the working men should carefully husband their earnings as they will then need it.” She prophesied a social revolution with the close of the century, that will upset existing conditions and free the human race from the curse of competitive slavery.
[Photograph added.]
Mill Strikers’ Meeting.
When the meeting held at the Grand opera house on Monday evening in the interest of the silk mill strikers was called to order every seat was filled. The introduction of “Mother” Mary Jones was loudly applauded. The address of this noted labor organizer was listened to attentively, and the many strong points of her speech were enthusiastically received.
Upwards of fifty of the striking girls occupied seats on the stage, and formed a very pretty background for the orator of the evening. The justice of the girls’ demands was shown by Mrs. Jones, and those who oppose them and endeavor to defeat the strikers’ efforts to better their condition were denounced in scathing language.
———-
The Hazleton Plain Speaker of November 15, 1900:
TO GO BEFORE LEGISLATURE.
—–
“Mother” Jones to Advocate Better
Enforcement of Factory Laws.“Mother” Jones spent this afternoon at Freeland in an effort to appoint a committee to confer with the silk mill officials toward settling the present difficulty between the employees and the firm. At a recent meeting Mrs. Jones advised the appointment of this committee. In speaking of her work here Mrs. Jones said today:
Within the next few days I will call upon the clergymen of every denomination in this region with the request that they appeal to their congregation to take their children from the factories and give them an education. I purpose to use every honest effort to organize the factory employees.
An investigation of conditions a they exist in the various factories in the coal regions is sufficient to appeal to the heart of every man and woman. Within the confines of these industries children are employed whose ages, I am sorry to say, range between six and fourteen years.
When the next session of the legislature convenes I will go to Harrisburg and take the platform in the assemblage, point out to the members the non-enforcement of the compulsory education act and the daily violations of the factory law. I will fight for belter conditions and will keep on fighting until they are granted.
———-
From the Freeland Tribune of November 19, 1900:
A mass meeting of the United Mine Workers of Freeland and vicinity was held yesterday afternoon at the Grand opera house. Addresses were delivered by Thomas Duffy, of McAdoo, president of District No. 7, and by “Mother” Jones.
President Duffy stated that the purpose of the meeting was to interest the miners and others of Freeland in the strike at the silk mill. He went on to show that labor’s battle in any industry should receive support of every legitimate character from organized labor, and predicted that if the miners’ union does its duty now the mill strike will soon be won.
“Mother” Jones followed the district president. She explained that she was called to other parts of the region last week, otherwise the movement which was begun at last Monday evening’s meeting would not have been allowed to lag.
She outlined the causes which led to the strike, pointed out the abuses to which the mill employes are compelled to submit, the injustice of permitting children to work for the wages paid, and called upon the miners to stand by the little girls and boys of the town in their struggle against the mill owners.
She made a passionate appeal to the members of the United Mine Workers to take active stops at once to bring the strike to a successful ending. She repeated her denunciation of those who oppose the strikers and who are assisting the mill owners to defeat them.
At the conclusion of her address those not members of the United Mine Workers were requested to withdraw, and a joint meeting of members of all the local unions of the vicinity was held.
The mill strike was thoroughly discussed at this meeting, and the men were again addressed by President Duffy and “Mother” Jones, also by Organizer Benj. James, of Jeanesville.
A plan of campaign was mapped out and committees were appointed to do the work decided upon, after which the meeting adjourned.
Last evening a number of those employes who did not strike were called upon and requested to remain away from work until the strike is over. Later a committee called upon A. W. Bleckley, manager of the silk mill, and discussed tho matter with him.
Prominent members of the Mine Workers declare that the strikers’ demands will be vigorously upheld henceforth, and that if the first plan fails it will be followed by other measures which the Silk Mill Company will find not so easy to overcome.
The report from the mill today is that the usual number of hands, excepting a few, reported for work this morning.
New developments in the strike may now be expected daily.
———
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES & IMAGES
The Plain Speaker
(Hazleton, Pennsylvania)
-Nov 13, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/501623118/
-Nov 15, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/98099248/
Freeland Tribune
(Freeland, Pennsylvania)
-Nov 14, 1900
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87080287/1900-11-14/ed-1/seq-1/
-Nov 19, 1900
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87080287/1900-11-19/ed-1/seq-1
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Scranton Tx p1, Oct 13, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/534727906/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1900
Part I: Found with Miners of Pennsylvania and with Socialist of Boston
Search: Freeland Tribune, Nov 1900, Silk Strike
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/results/?lccn=sn87080287&dateFilterType=range&date1=11%2F01%2F1900&date2=11%2F30%2F1900&language=&ortext=&andtext=silk+strike&phrasetext=&proxtext=&proxdistance=5&rows=50&searchType=advanced&sort=date
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Working Girl Blues – Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard