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Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 12, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1900, Part I
Found Working with Pennsylvania Miners Ready to Strike
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 5, 1900:
A WOMAN’S WILL SWAYS THOUSANDS
——-
“Mother” Mary Jones, of Chicago, Now Working
Hand in Hand With Mine Workers’ Union,
at Wilkes-Barre
——-
Special to The Inquirer.
WILKES-BARRE, Sept. 4.-The United Mine Workers’ Union here seems to be dominated by “Mother” Mary Jones, of Chicago, and she has full sway in dictating the policy of the union in the labor situation here.
She has not only every member of the United Mine Workers’ Union ready to strike, but her eloquent presentation of the wrongs suffered at the hands of the operator has made many new members, while an equal number are ready to follow the union men out without formally joining the organization.
Mrs. Jones has been working among the soft coal miners of the Meyersdale (Md.) and Central Pennsylvania districts since helping those in Tioga county to win their strike last winter.
Fifty-six years of age, she is bright and active. Her white hair commands respect, while her cheery face and manner hearten up the most morose assemblage.
[She said:]
The condition of the miner is most deplorable. He is the butt of a system of robbery. Of course, there are some good operators-men who would correct the grievances if they dared, but who are governed by others. In New Zealand the operators urge the men to organize, but in this country they shoot them down or get out an injunction and throw them into jail.
In this crisis if the operators don’t make concessions I believe that a strike is inevitable. The law says 2240 pounds make a ton. The operator expects 3300 from the miner. The miners are publicly robbed.
The company doctor is an imposition and ought to be driven out. The company store should not be tolerated. I don’t believe the men want to strike, but if it is their only alternative, I say strike.
I do not approve of strikes, but at times they are necessary and if the operators do not grant the just and equitable demands of the men there is but one thing for them to do-strike, and continue to strike until they gain fair treatment.
—————
[Drawing detail added.]
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 7, 1900:
MOTHER JONES INCITES MINERS
——-
MEN ARE READY TO LAY DOWN TOOLS
TO-MORROW NIGHT, IF NECESSARY
——-Special to The Inquirer.
SHAMOKIN, Sept. 6-Thousands of miners, organized and unorganized, are anxiously awaiting word from Indianapolis to-night as to whether shall be a strike…..
A big mass meeting was held at Brady to-night, Mrs. Mary Jones, the well-known labor agitator, making a spirited address, in which she told the men to strike if needs be.
—————
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 8, 1900:
BOTH SIDES VERY ACTIVE
——-
Operators and Labor Leaders Alike Are Preparing
for Strike, Which Seems Certain
——-Special to The Inquirer.
SHAMOKIN, Sept. 7.-There was great activity among coal operators and United Mine Workers here to-day, each side getting in readiness for the pending strike…..
Over 1500 miners attended a mass meeting in Coal township tonight, the principal speaker being Mother Jones, the labor agitator.
—————
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 9, 1900:
OPERATORS FIRM, MEN DETERMINED
From a Staff Correspondent.
SHAMOKIN, Pa., Sept. 8.– I have made an important discovery since my arrival in Shamokin. A man does not like to be called a beggar unless he is one. Poverty is not beggary. There is quite a considerable amount of intelligence among the miners of this district, and they do not like to be referred to as devoid thereof. These discoveries are likely to have a more important bearing upon the coming troubles in the anthracite coal regions than appears upon the surface…..
“I do not think, and this is my candid opinion.” said Mrs. Mary Jones, better known as Mother Jones, to me this afternoon,
I do not think it will come to a strike. The men do not desire one unless they are forced to it, and I believe that the operators will concede at least some of the things asked, sufficient to stave off trouble for the present, it cannot be expected that everything will be granted from one end of the anthracite coal regions to the other. It will be the biggest strike that has ever been. I do not think there will be any bloodshed. I hope there will not be any. Men are too far advanced in civilization nowadays to kill each other. But if war there must be, it will be like war, and the miners will come out the winners.
[…..]
T.L.R.
—————
From the Philadelphia Times of September 12, 1900:
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 14, 1900:
MINERS WAITING AND HOPING
——-
In the Shamokin Region They Do Not Want to Strike
——-From a Staff Correspondent.
SHAMOKIN, Pa., Sept. 13.-“We are waiting now-waiting and hoping that the mine operators will change their minds and hold a conference with the mine workers.” [So says] John Fahy, president of the Ninth district of the United Mine Workers…..
[A]nd no one is more anxious to avoid a strike than President John Mitchell…..
This evening Mother Jones was one of the speakers at a mass meeting at Locust Gap, about seven miles from here, where it is said the men are not so well organized as in other sections…..
T. L. R.
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From the Philadelphia Times of September 15, 1900:
WOMEN IN FAVOR OF THE STRIKE
—————
Wives, Daughters and Sweethearts of Miners
Are as Much in Earnest as the Men.
——-
Dictated for The Times by MOTHER MARY JONES,
the Great Woman Labor Leader.
——-Mahanoy City, September 14.
Since my departure from Hazleton I have made a point of visiting every coal mining village in the whole coal mining district from Shamokin to Pittston, and I have found that the spirit of the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of the men who are going to quit work on Monday [September 17th] is Spartan in steadfastness. All who know the effect of strikes are aware that families suffer just the same as do the men themselves, and when the women of the coal fields are willing for a strike to take place one can decide that the struggle will be one that a great money power will have hard work to win.
I have found that the 200,000 women and girls who will be involved in the strike were just as much determined as were the men folks. They advised that the strike take place, a fact that certainly is unusual, and one on which I base my belief that this strike is bound to be a success. As a rule long established, women have been found against anything that might tend to create disturbances between the men and coal operators, but this time they are behind the mine workers, heart and soul, and will stand out to the last. They will put courage into the hearts of the weaklings and will sustain the determination of the more dogged.
The support of a wife or mother is a great factor in any contest. When women of the household have reproach in their eyes, when they continually din into the ears of the men on strike that they had no right to quit work, it is safe to say that the strike will not last long.
Another thing that I have seen is that the women have been quietly preparing for the strike as well as the men. The flour barrel in every little home is filled, and in the more prosperous households an extra barrel has been laid away. Provision chests and closets are well stored. Winter clothing is ready. Stout feminine hearts have prepared as well as they have been able.
As to the men, I have found only a grim determination to win the strike. The leaders are correct in their assertions that fully 95 per cent. of the men in the whole region will strike. I have talked with thousands of them and know thoroughly what I am saying. The operators will be grievously mistaken as to their figures on the number of men who are going out. They say that at least 20 per cent. will remain at work.
While in the Coxe and Markle mines at Highlands, Drifton and elsewhere, within fifteen or twenty miles from Hazleton, 20 per cent. of the men may remain in the shafts, this is not true of all other districts, and these mines will have no effect on the others.
There is, I see, the usual fear of violence. None will come from anyone connected with the United Mine Workers. I know this positively. Union miners will protect the mines to the last extremity, because they know it is to the advantage of the organization. Then, too, the women will be more prominent in the strike than in any heretofore, and their influence is peaceful.
The United Mine Workers will win this strike, for the reason that for the first time in the history of the struggles in the hard coal regions [anthracite] the workers have an organization of great national scope behind them. This means that there is an inexhaustible fund to draw upon, as thousands of men at work will contribute to the support of those out, so long as they are on strike.
MARY JONES.
———-
From the Philadelphia Times of September 17, 1900:
NO “FULL DINNER PAIL” FOR ANTHRACITE MINERS
——-
Mother Jones Says the Great Strike Was Forced on
the Workmen by Actual Starvation and Suffering.
——-
Written for The Times by “MOTHER” MARY JONES,
the Woman Labor LeaderCARBONDALE, September 16.
Questions have been asked by hundreds, who are not familiar with the matter, why the miners have struck. After visiting nearly every mine in the anthracite region I think I am enabled to write intelligently on the subject, and I can say truthfully that they were forced to act by starvation.
For years the wages of the men have been falling lower and lower, while the combinations of capital have been forcing the prices of the necessities of life upwards, until, taking these two facts jointly, the mine worker to-day does not get more than one-half of what he did a few years ago for his labor. In fact, the trusts and combinations have made the conditions such that the miner had to strike or starve.
In every town I have visited I found that it is with only an economy so rigid that it is unknown outside of the coal fields, that the majority of the families manage to exist at all. The “full dinner pail” is something that is unknown in this region. The term “full dinner pail” suggests plenty of meat and bread and vegetables. It suggests thorough and robust living, but as are many other things related of the mine workers, the assertion that they have such food is miserably false. The “full dinner pail” means that, though the tin may shine throughout the furnishing of a tidy house wife, inside, instead of roast beef and vegetables and other things, there are usually a couple of slices of dry bread and a small piece of ham or pork. The whole would make a poor sandwich. The wife has to strive hard to make even this meagre fare last through the month. With flour fifteen per cent. higher than four years ago, beef ten per cent. higher, sugar two and three cents a pound more, pork ten per cent. higher, and all other food as costly, and with average wages down to less than one dollar a day for the year around, the readers of The Times have the real cause of the strike.
MARY JONES
—————
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 18, 1900, page one:
An Army of Miners Begins Monster
Strike in This State
———-
[…..]
According to President Mitchell 112,000 mine workers are on strike in the anthracite region. 72,000 are in District No. 1; 30,000 in District No. 9 and 10,000 in District NO. 7.
Labor leaders contend that the strike sentiment is becoming more universal, and that large numbers who went to the mines yesterday will join the suspension to-day.
The men appear determined to continue on strike until their demands for justice have been acceded to. The number of men now out exceeds that of any other industrial contest in the history of our country.
HAZLETON, Pa., Sept. 17.-The great struggle between the anthracite coal miners of Pennsylvania and their employers was formally begun to-day. Each side is confident of winning and neither of the contending forces shows any disposition to yield…..
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 18, 1900, page six:
MEN HAVE MORAL SUPPORT
——-Special to The Inquirer.
ASHLAND, Pa., Sept. 17.-The employes of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company in this vicinity did not go out on strike to-day, and every colliery in the Ashland and Girardville district worked as usual…..All the collieries in Locust Gap are working as usual. No trouble of any kind and none looked for is the condition of things there. Mother Jones addressed the men there last evening.
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From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 19, 1900
–T.L.R. reporting from Shamokin, Pa., as continued on page two from page one:
MINERS’ BIG STRIKE
———-[Clergyman Finds Mother Jones Too Revolutionary]
“Mother” Jones addressed a small meeting of miners at Trevorton last evening, but she was not well received, and when she declared that the men ought to be forced to strike, some one flung an egg at her, but it missed its mark and hit one of the other speakers.
As a matter of fact, Mother Jones is entirely too revolutionary for the vast of the men in this district, and this may be gathered from what a clergyman here said to me on Sunday evening, when he heard that she had not spoken at the Gompers meeting in the afternoon. “I am sorry she did not speak,” he said. “If she would only talk a little more in the same strain as she has been using, there would be no strike in Shamokin, and the miners’ wives would visit her in a body and request her her to leave the town. Summing up the situation from every point that I have visited to-day, I gather that the strikers are more than ever determined to win…..
T. L. R.
—————
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 20, 1900:
Mines at Shenandoah Working.
Special to The Inquirer.
SHENANDOAH, Pa., Sept. 19.-The situation concerning the strike in this section remains indefinite. All the collieries here worked full-handed to-day. Mother Jones addressed a meeting here last evening and a meeting is being held to-night. The Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company announce that the increase of 25 cents per ton in the price of coal will not affect their employes. Mine workers wages will be increased 8 to 10 per cent.
—————
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Shamokin Sep 8, Phl Iq p2, Sept 9, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167217933/
The Philadelphia Inquirer
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
-Sept 5, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167216825/
-Sept 7, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167217380/
-Sept 8, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167217380/
-Sept 9, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167217933/
-Sept 14, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167220424/
-Sept 18, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167222830/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167222961/
-Sept 19, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167223263/
-Sept 20, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/167223810/
The Times
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
-Sept 12, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/53319880/
-Sept 15, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/53319916/
-Sept 17, 1900
https://www.newspapers.com/image/53319961/
See also:
Tag: September 1900
Note: Majority of posts for this month reported on Mother Jones and the Anthracite Strike in Pennsylvania. View “see also” section of these posts for more links for further study.
https://weneverforget.org/tag/september-1900/
Tag: Great Anthracite Strike of 1900
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-anthracite-strike-of-1900/
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 9, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1900, Part I
Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 10, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1900, Part II
Found Visiting Massacre Site at Lattimer, Pennsylvania
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Which Side are You On?
– Florence Reece / The Almanac Singers
Lyrics by Florence Reece