Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1919, Part II: Found in Indiana Encouraging Wives of Steel Strikers to Raise Hell
Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 21, 1919
Mother Jones News for October 1919, Part II
Found in Indiana Encouraging Wives of Steel Strikers to Raise Hell
From The Muncie Morning Star of October 29, 1919:
Elwood District Quiet
Mother Jones with William Z. Foster
Harry B. Dynes, who is the state representative at Elwood, reported to the governor today that everything is going along nicely at Elwood. He said that there are many rumors, but little trouble. Mother Jones spoke there last night, but according to Mr. Dynes, “even the strikers were disgusted with her line of talk.”
Mr. Dynes sent the Governor quotations from her speech. The report said that she declared “this industrial war must be fought to a finish” and that she advised the women “to raise hell.”
[In fact Mother was loudly applauded by her audience, see below.]
[Photograph added.]
MOTHER JONES NEWS FOR OCTOBER 1919
From the Mount Carmel Item of October 16, 1919:
“MOTHER” JONES WILL BE 90 YEARS OLD NEXT MAY
“Mother” Jones, who took a leading part in the anthracite coal strikes here in 1900 and 1902 and is now assisting in the steel strike, will be ninety years old next May.
She made this statement to an audience of Bethlehem steel strikers in the Lyric Theatre at Allentown, where she spoke in support of the tieup.
Introduced as being a “better fighter at 83 than when she was 23,” Mrs. Jones corrected the Chairman and said that she was on the eve of four score and ten.
Approaching 90, she retains her mental and physical faculties to a remarkable degree and is as active as she was during the coal suspension before the Strike Commission put an end to labor troubles in that industry through northeastern Pennsylvania.
She has been in strikes all over the country and has been an organizer of the American Federation of Labor for nearly fifty years.
From The Wheeling Intelligencer of October 16, 1919:
MOTHER JONES AND RADICALS
DENOUNCED AT STEUBENVILLE
—–
Special Dispatch to The Intelligencer
STEUBENVILLE, O., Oct. 15.-The chamber of commerce today adopted resolutions condemning recent speeches made to steel strikers here by Mother Jones as inflammatory, revolutionary and seditious, denouncing all persons defending or being in sympathy with her speech or doctrine, and went on record to use every means in its power to compel the observance and enforcement of law to protect the life, rights and property of citizens.
The distribution here of literature alleged to be un-American and Bolshevistic in tone was also strongly condemned. The resolution was the result of a letter received from the Steubenville striker committee, approving and defending Mother Jones’ language, and claiming she had the support of the eight thousand men on strike in this district.
From Indiana’s Lake County Times of October 22, 1919:
MOTHER JONES ADDRESSES
INDIANA HARBOR STRIKERS
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“Mother” Jones was the attraction of the strike zone in Indiana Harbor [Indiana] yesterday when at the last moment she was secured for a talk in the Auditorium. Mother Jones came from Chicago and is on her way to Gary where she is scheduled to speak today. John Fitzpatrick is expected to address the Indiana Harbor strikers this afternoon but Secretary Howard has not yet received definite word that he will be present.
Mother Jones has made quite a reputation for herself through her activities in the miners’ strikes in West Virginia and Colorado and is now taking an active part in the steel strike. She has made numerous speeches before large gatherings of strikers and has always had a decided influence over them. Authorities in Pennsylvania refused permission to speak but she spoke in spite of them.
Mother Jones appeared on the platform and much applause, her appearance justifying the name of “Mother” which has been given her. She is eighty-four years old and still very active. After two hours talking she seemed to be no more fatigued than when she started.
The gist of her talk was much the same as the talks which are made at strike headquarters daily although set out in a little different manner and gaining added prestige because of being a woman, and that woman Mother Jones. She referred to the capitalists as thieves and robbers, asserted that Pennsylvania was controlled by them and that even the United States government was under their control, and told the men they must get the “scabs” out of the mills and keep them out. She insisted that the women organize and go out and fight for the strikers. She asserted that unless the steel officials come to terms the workers will take the plants over and operate them themselves.
The exceptional quiet continues in the Twin Cities as far as the police are concerned. The plants claim additional gains today and assert that they are operating at almost normal capacity. Workmen coming from the mills assert that it is a matter of only a few days until the mills are operating the same as before the strike. Strike leaders are optimistic and discredit reports of increased activities in the mills.
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Hellraisers Journal of October 25, 1919, reported on the speech made by Mother Jones in Gary, Indiana, on October 23, 1919. The following are quotations from that speech as reported by The New York Times and Chicago Tribune:
From The New York Times of October 24, 1919:
So this is Gary. Well, we’re going to change the name and we’re going to take over the steal works and were going to run them for Uncle Sam. It’s the damned gang of robbers and their political thieves that will start the American revolution and it won’t stop until every last one of them is gone.
I’ll be 90 years old the first of May, but by God if I have to, I’ll take ninety guns and shoot hell out of ’em. For every scab on the mills there is a woman that reared him. Women, the destiny of the workingman is in your hands. Clear hell of every damned scab you can lay hold of. We’ll hang the bloodhounds to the telegraph poles. Go out and picket.
You went abroad to clean up the Kaiser, and the bones of 50,000 of your buddies lie bleaching on the battlefield of France. My God, ain’t you men enough to come over and help us get the Kaisers at home? We’ll have an army as big as yours and you’ll be with us and we’ll lick hell out of ’em. We’ll give Gary, Morgan, and the gang of bloodsuckers a free pass to hell or Heaven.
God Almighty never made a man that could stop a woman from talking. You can arrest me, but I’ll be free. I can raise more hell in jail than out. If Bolshevist is what I understand it to be, then I’m a Bolshevist from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head. All the world’s history never produced a more brutal and savage time than this, and Mr. Soldier, I’m ready to prove my statement that we’ve got to change or this nation will perish. This is the century of the worker.
All through human history man has been toiling and dreaming to this day. Christ was the world’s greatest agitator, but I defy any one to tell me Christianity reigns. A lot of hypocrites an trying to hypnotize us to get down on our knees to the robbers. For Christ’s sake be men and women.
From The Chicago Daily Tribune of October 24, 1919:
We’re going to take over the steel mills and run them for Uncle Sam.
Women, the destiny of the workingman is in your hands. Clean out every nonunion man you can lay hold on. We’ll hang the bloodhounds to the telegraph poles and go out and picket.
God Almighty never made a man that could stop a woman from talking. You can arrest me, but I’ll be free. If bolshevik is what I understand it to be, then I’m a bolshevik from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head.
From the Coffeyville [Kansas] Union Advocate of October 26, 1919:
MOTHER DESIRES TO KNOW
—–
WHETHER JUDGE GARY OR
—– PEOPLE OWN AMERICA
—–
Declares When There’s An Upheaval
Like the Steel Strike
There’s a Cause.
—–
At a recent meeting in Wheeling, W. Va., before a crowd of over 15,000 people, Mother Jones, the “angel of the miners,” delivered one of her characteristic red hot, sizzling speeches on the great steel strike.
She said in part:
It is not Judge Gary, my friends, that we have got to play on so much. The world today is in the remaking. She is in the birth pains of another civilization. That is one point we have got to center on. Our boys went away overseas and fought and they fought for the overthrow of the kaiser and they fought for industrial and political democracy. They overthrew the kaiser, and now the economical conflict is on, and so, my friends, this war has wrought a great change in the thoughts of men. Gary is only one man in the great upheaval. The political phase has played its part and now comes the economic conflict and it is not alone in America that the struggle is making itself felt.
We have some people in office and they tell about and talk about agitators and they raise a big fuss-those poor, half-starved, benighted tools of the corporation. You know that America was founded on agitation. Don’t you know the revolutionists of this country, our forefathers, were all agitators and we are going to keep on agitating and they haven’t got guns enough or sabers enough or ammunition enough to stop us. The first strike that ever took place in this country was a movement on the part of men who had the right ideas and who believed in a square deal for all the human race.
They are dwelling today too much on the Senate. The majority of them in those high offices are there in the interest of the high-class burglars. They lose sight of the interests of the people. When the President of this great nation, to ward off this upheaval, requested Mr. Gary to see the committee representing the steel workers-nothing doing. Then when he sent a personal representative to see him, to ask Judge Gary to meet the committee on account of the fact that he saw that the pulse of the nation was beating at fever heat and that something must be done and done quick-what was the answer? Nothing doing.
Now the question is whether Gary owns America or one hundred and ten million people own it. This is the question you are up against, “Who owns this nation, one hundred and ten million people or one Gary?”
They have dominated the nation and dictated to the people for twenty-five years. Now we are going to do a little dictating. The New York Sun says the strike is lost. Well, let me tell you one thing. Before that comes true the New York Sun will be a daughter, I can tell you that. The strike is only begun and the strike will be won, have no fear of that.
There is a great struggle on and when you have an upheaval like this, you must look for a cause. There must be a cause back of it all. The man in the tower knows there is cause and he knows the cause. He knows that before the thunderbolt there is a clash of the clouds. There is a cause back of all this that perhaps even Mr. Gary has not taken into consideration.
———-
[Paragraph break added.]
From Indiana’s Lake County Times of October 27, 1919:
WOMEN AS PICKETS, ARE ACTIVE
—–
As the big steel strike entered its sixth week in Gary this morning, pickets were found more active than they have been for some time. A large number of women pickets were doing duty at the mill entrances. Urged on by Mother Jones in a speech in Gary last week when she told the women to get into the fight, the wives of strikers have taken action.
[Said Mother Jones:]
Get out and help win this strike. When you find one of these dam “scabs” jump on him beat him up and if you have to string him up to a pole. Don’t be afraid. They can’t hurt you. Because your a woman.
Consequently since Saturday, women pickets have outnumbered the men. They are going to the extreme in campaign and are not only insulting the workmen calling them vile names, but are attempting to cause disruption among the troops doing guard duty.
“We do not mind these women doing picket duty, but they are going to keep within the bounds of law and order,” said Col. Mapes this morning. “We have a stockade over there,” he said, pointing to the bull pen across from the city hall, “and if it comes to it we will put them in there if they do not behave themselves. We are going to treat them just like men.” …..
From The Elwood [Indiana] Call Leader of October 28, 1919:
MOTHER JONES SOME SPEAKER
—–
Famous Labor Agitator Injects Some Oratory
Into Local Strike History.
—–
ADDRESSED TWO AUDIENCES
—–
With the arrival of two famous labor agitators, “Mother” Jones, known all over the country as the most potent labor leader the mill operatives have to combat, and H. S. McCluskey, member of the executive board of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers [formerly Western Federation of Miners], both of whom spoke to muss meetings of the strikers yesterday afternoon and last night. In the afternoon meeting about three hundred people were present, the Socialist hall where the meeting was held, being crowded.
Thomas Billings, head of the local ledge of the Amalgamated Union, made the opening address and summed up the local strike situation after which he introduced H. S. McCluskey.
Rosy View for Strikers.
Mr. McCluskey told of the varying conditions over the country and declared that they were all tending toward the strikers’ favor. He stated that the present strike is not alone on the question of hours, of wages or of living conditions, but for the very existence of the union……
No Fear of Governor.
Mr. Billings introduced “Mother” Jones with the statement that she once said to a judge when asked where her home was and she replied, “Wherever there is a strike.” As the old lady stepped to the front, applause and cheers from the room could be heard on the streets below.
In the first few sentences she announced that a representative of Governor Goodrich was in the hall and she wanted to state for his benefit that she was not afraid of either him or his governor who had sent him to watch her. This statement was greeted with cheers and meaning glances at Captain Dyne, the governor’s representatives, who was in the hall. This was the first of many jibes at the governor and his representative, each of which was greeted with cheers by the crowd. Captain Dynes remained in the hall in spite of the ridicule directed at him until the meeting was dismissed.
Industrial War Bitter.
“Mother” Jones declared that there is no war more bitter than the war of industry and that the laboring classes mean to fight it out to the very end. Many of the statements made were greeted by cheers as the point of her arguments were driven home by vigorous gestures and illuminative profanity.
She declared that this country was bought by the blood of those trying to escape opposition and not by “Gary or any of his damn bunch.”
We entertain the Belgain rulers and fill their stomachs while our own children starve. Damn the royalty!
Near the end of her speech she raised her arms and cried,
You condemn the Bolsheviki! Yet if Bolshevism will remove the methods now in effect, I am a Bolshevist! Tell that to the governor.
She declared,
The governor sends a man here to watch me. I am ninety-years old, what do I care for a governor?
Near the conclusion of her speech she declared that men were sent to Europe to down the kaiser and then returned to be ruled by industrial kaisers over here.
At the conclusion of the speech it was announced that another meeting would be held at 7:30 in the evening. This meeting was held in the auditorium of the city building, which was filled to overflowing. In general the trend of the evening speeches were similar to those of the afternoon meeting, and seemed to suit those who heard them.
———-
From The Muncie Morning Star of October 29, 1919:
Elwood District Quiet
Harry B. Dynes, who is the state representative at Elwood, reported to the governor today that everything is going along nicely at Elwood. He said that there are many rumors, but little trouble. Mother Jones spoke there last night, but according to Mr. Dynes, “even the strikers were disgusted with her line of talk.”
Mr. Dynes sent the Governor quotations from her speech. The report said that she declared “this industrial war must be fought to a finish” and that she advised the women “to raise hell.”
From the New York Sun of October 30, 1919:
[…..]
“Mother” Jones to Take Part.
Emphasis was laid by [U. M. W. A. President John L.] Lewis and others on the fact that they have not received a single official word from Washington. They say that even the President’s statement demanding that they stay at work came to them only through the press.
There was not a single voice raised in defence of the President at either of the meetings to-day. Every speaker who referred to him either asserted that he had been misinformed or that his statement was a mere attempt to bolster up the operators side.
“It was calculated to create resentment rather than to smooth things out,” said Ellis Searles after the meeting.
“Mother” Jones, the famous woman strike agitator, arrived at the national headquarters to-day. She came [to Indianapolis] from Gary, where all her agitation of the steel strikers had come to naught. But she was still breathing fire.
[She said:]
Its going to be a great fight.
Asked if she expected trouble, she replied:
You can’t tell about that. The boys have still got the stuff in them.
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