That old blood sucker,
the kaiser, ought to
be kicked off his throne.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 22, 1917
Mother Jones News for November, Part II: Supports President Wilson
From the Pittsburg, Kansas, Sun of November 15, 1917:
MINERS VOTE TO REJECT THE
AUTOMATIC PENALTY
—–MAJORITY WAS 18 WITH KANSAS MINERS
OUTVOTING THE OTHER DISTRICTS.
—–Howat Stands Pat in a Fiery Speech
—–President John Wilkinson and “Mother Jones”
Urges Miners to Vote for Wilson
and Against the Kaiser
—–
Kansas City, Nov. 14.-Delegates representing the coal miners of Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas in convention here tonight voted to reject the automatic penalty clause insisted on by Dr. H. A. Garfield, federal fuel administrator, as a part of their working agreement. The vote was 185 to 167…
Kansas Outvoted Others.
…It was announced that the vote by districts was as follows: Kansas, for the resolution, 129; against, 11; Oklahoma-Arkansas, for 22; against, 105; Missouri, for, 34; against 51.
Howat for Rejection.
The adoption of the resolution came at the end of a day of debate in which “Mother Jones” and John Wilkinson, president of district 21, counseled against the rejection of the clause and Alexander Howat, president of district 14, vehemently urged its rejection.
“Mother Jones” and Wilkinson urged the acceptance of the clause on the ground of patriotism.
[Mother Jones declared:]
It’s our to stand by the president and the nation in this crisis. Our business now is to help the government lick hell out of the Kaiser and then we will lick hell out of the operators. President Wilson and Dr. Garfield will see that no injustice is done you through the working of this hateful clause. And I pledge myself to go before the president and Mr. Garfield and obtain relief if you want me to.
As “Mother Jones” left the platform she said:
Vote for the clause, boys, it’s a vote for Wilson and he’ll vote for you.
…Howat denied that to reject the clause was to oppose the government, asserting that the operators were responsible for the present situation and that the miners were fighting only them. He charged that the mine operators were attacking him through the press and other mediums for the purpose of defeating him for reelection as president of district 14, in order that they may “get a weak one” in his stead.
President Howat tonight refused to comment on the rejection of the penalty clause beyond declaring that his counsel to the men would be “to fight.” “I do not say strike,” he added.
———-
[Photograph added.]
From the Buffalo Labor Journal of November 24, 1917:
“MOTHER” JONES’S PLATFORM.
—–A majority of the delegates to the Southwestern Coal Miners’ convention at Kansas City voted against accepting the settlement proposed by Fuel Administrator Garfield.
One of the strongest advocates of Mr. Garfield’s plan was “Mother” Jones, usually a firebrand of radicalism. In the course of her remarks she said:
It is our duty to stand by the President of the nation in this crisis. Help the government now to lick the Kaiser and then we’ll lick hell out of the operators.
Perhaps others have clothed the duties and aims of patriotic workingmen in choicer language, but as a labor-union platform for war this is the most comprehensive that we have yet seen.
———-
SOURCES
The Sun
(Pittsburg Kansas)
-Nov 15, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/210021195/
Buffalo Labor Journal
(Buffalo, New York)
-Nov 24, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/255292888/
IMAGES
Alex Howat, UMW Dist 14 Prz, crpd, Sun Ptt KS, Dec 12, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/71358704/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal, Friday December 21, 1917
Mother Jones News for November, Part I: Attends District Miners Convention
Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1917, Part I: Found in Connecticut, New York City and Kansas City