The miners need no angel.
They are living in hell
and they want to raise hell.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday October 12, 1916
Mother Jones Found in Indiana During Month of September
Mother Jones spent the much of the month of September 1916 in Indiana campaigning for the re-election of both President Wilson and Senator Kern. But before beginning our coverage of Mother’s activities in Indiana, we found an article from an Arizona newspaper which complained of her campaign on behalf of the re-election of Governor Hunt in that state.
Hellraisers Journal of September 2nd republished an article from the September 1st edition of the Graham Guardian of Safford, Arizona, which expressed much outrage over “The Stormy Petrel” and the bad language use by the supposedly foul-mouthed union agitator at a rally held in Phoenix on August 21st. The Guardian claimed that Mother campaigned as much for whiskey as she did for Governor Hunt.
Hellraisers Journal of September 5th republished two interviews with Mother Jones conducted while she was in Evansville, Indiana, to speak at the city’s Labor Day Celebration. Mother Jones declared herself in favor of the re-election of President Wilson and the Indiana Senator, John Kern. She demanded the six-hour day, and, on the subject women and the economic struggle she stated:
The problem of this age is not suffrage, not feminism, not liquor: it’s the industrial question. That’s the nation’s disease, that has bred nearly every war of mankind, for most wars are wars fought for capital.
You never can change the situation in which those who toil are illfed and ignorant, until woman is awakened to the economic situation in this country. She is by nature more human than man. When she becomes more enlightened to real labor conditions in this country, she will not rest until every child is well fed, well clothed and well educated.
Hellraisers Journal of September 6th republished an article from the Evansville Courier of September 5th which described the speech given by Mother Jones in that city on Monday September 4th, Labor Day. Mother spoke before a crowd of 10,000 and asked her hearers to re-elect President Wilson and Senator Kern. She stated that the miners owe a debt to the good Senator and recounted how he had helped her when she was imprisoned by the Governor of West Virginia during the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike of 1913:
While in jail I saw in a newspaper that Wall street had telegraphed to Senator Kern not to introduce the bill for an investigation of that strike. I immediately wired him and my message was read on the floor of the senate and the bill went through. The miners owe Senator Kern a debt which they can never repay. After the committee made their report on that investigation you can easily see your interest in sending men to congress who are interested in you.
Hellraisers Journal of September 30th republished an interview and a report on a speech from the press of Logansport, Indiana. Mother Jones had come to Logansport to speak at the Convention of the Indiana State Federation of Labor.
The interview was conducted by Helen C. Kuppenheimer and published in the September 27th edition of the Logansport Daily Tribune. This reporter had never heard of the Ludlow Massacre and was asked by Mother if she had never read anything! The reporter could have gained much knowledge about the conditions and the lives of working-class women, but instead insisted on badgering Mother about her views on suffrage, a subject which, according to Mother, is of little interest to women who struggle to put food on the table for their children.
The speech before the Indiana F. of L. Convention was delivered by Mother Jones on September 27th and covered by the Logansport Pharos-Reporter:
“Mother “Jones, one of the most conspicuous women in the labor movement, who has on many occasions been confined in jails and prisons for “agitation,” was present at the meeting this morning and gave an address which covered an hour. During her talk she gave vivid descriptions of various expeditions she had made for the purpose of organizing workingmen to raise them out of alleged slavery. During one instance, when she was telling how in Arizona a “gun man” and others affiliated with the “pirates of organized labor” were kept from bringing in strikebreakers to take the places of union miners out on strike, she suddenly turned on Mayor Guthrie and announced to him that if he would have kept strikebreakers away from Logansport the street car matter would have been somewhat different than at present.
Mother Jones stated she was on her way to Washington D. C., and had planned to go there several days ago, but had deferred her plans in order to be present in Logansport and address the convention “for a purpose.”
During her talk she endorsed President Wilson’s Mexican policy, declaring she honored President Wilson for keeping the United States from being at war, which would be only a benefit for “sewer rats,” as she styled capital and those opposed to organized labor. Her many descriptions of meetings with “sewer rats,” “pirates,” “high-class burglars,” etc., were the means of provoking much mirth. Her talk was spirited throughout and she reviewed the labor situation from its infancy to the present time. She told of how in the city of Chicago the first labor meetings were held and then told of their rapid growth “after the seed had been planted.”
But she also endorsed the re-election of John W. Kerns, Indiana’s senator, for another term, telling how through him a United States investigation was started in the alleged corruptness existing in the state of West Virginia several years ago.
The talk made by Mother Jones is a true example of the spirit of unionism under her own statement that she generally knows what she is talking about. She brought her address to a close at noon by requesting the delegates to stand and give three cheers for senator Kern. The cheers were given with a deafening roar…
SOURCES
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones, The Stormy Petrel, Campaigns for Whiskey and Governor Hunt in Arizona
https://weneverforget.org/hj-9-2-1916-hellraisers-journal-mother-jones-the-stormy-petrel-campaigns-for-whiskey-and-governor-hunt-in-arizona/#more-613
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones in Evansville, Indiana, for Labor Day Celebration, Comes Out for Wilson
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-mother-jones-in-evansville-indiana-for-labor-day-celebration-comes-out-for-wilson/#more-630
Hellraisers Journal: “Educate and Agitate!” Mother Jones Speaks at Labor Day Picnic in Evansville, Indiana
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-educate-and-agitate-mother-jones-speaks-at-labor-day-picnic-in-evansville-indiana/
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Indiana Federation of Labor Convention
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-mother-jones-speaks-at-indiana-federation-of-labor-convention/
IMAGE
Mother Mary Harris Jones, Logansport, IN, Sept 27, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/32403158/