Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 3, 1914 After Speech by Mother Jones, Kansas Miners Donate Treasury
April 30, 1914, Pittsburg, Kansas -Mother Jones Addresses Convention of District 14, U. M. W. A.
Mother Jones gave a long speech Thursday, April 30th, in Pittsburg, Kansas, at the Convention of District 14, United Mine workers of America. She came seeking donations for the striking miners of Colorado, and, in the end, the miners of Kansas gave her all that she asked for.
MOTHER JONES INTRODUCED TO THE MINERS OF KANSAS
Chairman [John P.] White: Now, this morning I know that I voice the sentiments of this convention when I say that we appreciate the presence here of our great old organizer, Mother Jones. (Applause.)
Yesterday I gave you a pretty strong bump about Colorado, and what you were going to do about the money that you had loaned the national organization, that I plead guilty to being responsible for, so God help you for I put you in the hands of Mother Jones now. (Loud applause.)
A Delegate: I think the brothers ought to put up their pipes, put them in their pockets.
Mother Jones: You should join John D. Rockefeller, you are getting so nice…
The Colorado Coal War
[Mother Jones continued]: You see, my brothers, the trouble with us all is we don’t feel the pains of our fellow beings in the great struggle. I wonder if the nation felt horror of that affair at Ludlow? Why, if that happened in Mexico we would go down to clean up Mexico, and it happened here at home and there is very little said about it, when every man should shoulder his gun and start to Colorado to stop the war there. (Applause.)
Louie Tikas with the Flag of Ludlow
…No time in modern history has there been anything so horrible as this trouble in Colorado. I know those men in Colorado pretty well. No state in the Union has truer, better fellows; they have made a great fight against the men in power. There is no question about it. The poor fellow that got killed, this Greek [Louie Tikas], when I went to Ludlow, when the battle first started, the tears came streaming down his face, and he said, “Mother, they jumped at me to go war, and I got away and let the capitalists fight their own battle. I am here now, and this is my battle, the battle of right for the class that I belong to.” That summed up the whole philosophy of the labor movement. In other words, it was a battle for freedom for the class that he belonged to. And he said, “Mother, I need a gun.” I said, “You will have one, Louie, if Mother has to take her hat off and sell it, you will get the gun.” (Applause.)
Now, those brave men were the ones brought over, most of them, after the last strike that we had in Colorado; Rockefeller sent his agents to Europe and brought those fellows over. He has been able to crush them, rob them, persecute them until he has made his millions out of their precious blood, and then he goes into church on Sunday and is hallowed by the people of this great nation.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 18, 1921
Southeastern Kansas – Art Shields Reports on the Miner’s “Amazon Army”
From the Oklahoma Leader of December 13, 1921:
PITTSBURG, Kan., Dec 13- There is joy and laughter in the coal fields of Kansas for the strikebreakers are on the run before the militant ladles of that Sunflower state.
The fun begun before daylight when the 120 men who have helped themselves to the vacant jobs in the big Jackson-Walker mine No. 17 near South Franklin began to get off the two interurban cars and to get into hot water all at once.
They say there used to be some excitement in the old Amazon days, but it was nothing to the action out there on the Kansas prairie. Seven hundred and fifty lively ladies gave the travelers the liveliest reception they had ever experienced. Young women, old women, blondes, brunettes and every kind began swarming into those wishers for unhallowed work and began ruffing their feelings.
Deputies Looked On.
In the midst of the charming host were the forces of the law, Sheriff Gould and his deputies, to see that nothing happened that ought not to happen, and all they could do was to look on while the cause of the trouble was all removed by the visitors rushing pell mell back into the cars and begging the motormen to drive on.
What could the sheriff do against such a crowd of lovely femininity, all in their best bibs and tuckers, flying the stars and strips from a dozen poles and laughing and singing? One stalwart woman wrapped her country’s banner around the sheriff and gave him three cheers, and they all joined in and gave him three cheers, and gave the inter-urban cars a salvo of hurrahs as they went on with the men who tried to break the strike for the release of Howat and Dorchy.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 30, 1921 Miners of Kansas Condemn Suspension of District 14 U. M. W. A.
From The Workers Chronicle of Pittsburg, Kansas, November 25, 1921:
Truth Shall Win —————
Alex Howat
Reports from all over the country are to the effect that organized labor everywhere is condemning the action of one man (John L. Lewis with the assistance of his hired gang of labor crooks) in suspending District 14 and expelling the officers from the U. M. W. of A., at a time when the, crisis is on in the fight against the infamous court of industrial relations law. This contemptible action was taken with controversies at two small strip pits as the basis. One was a lockout and the other a shutdown, and both companies refuse to let the men return to work in accordance with orders given the men by officials of District 14, and pursuant to instructions of the recent national convention of the U. M. W. of A.
But, President Lewis, with malice aforethought, waited until the miners’ leaders were practically isolated from the world-put there by Governor Allen and his infamous misfit legislation-and when 100 per cent of the rank and file of District 14 laid down their tools and resolved to dig no more coal until President Howat and Vice President Dorchy are released from jail, Lewis demands that ALL miners return to work if they want to remain in good grace with HIM. They are to forget all about their noble, self-sacrificing officials, who are cooped up in cold, damp cheerless cells in the Cherokee county jail. They are ALL TO RENIG the positive policy, unanimously declared, of their District Convention in Kansas City, March, 1920. They MUST give up all their personal honor manhood and self-respect, and return to work just because John L. Lewis-backed by a handful of paid stoolpigeons-demands it! Their published howls about, “contract” is rankest camouflage. The miners and officials here have violated no contract in the DEAN and RELIANCE shut-downs. The operators of those two small pits are the only ones violating the contract. And so Lewis himself says, “no condition enters into the expulsion of the officers and members of District 14 except that of the Dean and Reliance controversy.” However he wants not only the employees of those two strip mines to return to work, (in spite of the fact that the operators will not let them return under conditions required, not only by President Howat, but by the National Convention-and the almighty John L., himself) but all miners who are standing pat with the dictates of their District Convention must give up their only efficient weapon against the industrial court law by returning to work and let their leaders rot in jail (for all Snake Lewis cares) while HE fights the law in the courts. He knows, and the miners know, that Labor stands as much chance there as Christ did before Pontius Pilate. So, all his efforts in his publicity campaign in that direction is “grandstand,” pure and simple.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 26, 1921 Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1921 -Found in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Will Swear as Needed
From The Grand Rapids Press of March 15, 1921:
MOTHER JONES WILL SWEAR
IF IT IS REQUIRED ———-
“Mother” Jones, for many years a labor leader of national repute, arrived in Grand Rapids Tuesday noon for her first visit to this city in 20 years. She was a guest at the Eagle hotel and lunched at noon with a group of local labor leaders and their wives. During the afternoon she spoke at Trades and Labor council hall on general labor conditions in the United States, being introduced to the Grand Rapids audience by D. B. Hovey. Tuesday evening she will give another address at the Railway Workers’ union.
Grand Rapids labor circles greeted the venerated leader in a spirit of tribute for her many years of service in the cause of labor. She is a picturesque figure, but in spite of her flat bonnet and old-fashioned dress the impression the white haired old lady gives is not that of quaintness but of power, for the lines of her face are very strong and certainly she has a mind of her own. Though 85 years old she is more active than many persons much younger.
Mother Jones said she never knows what she is going to say to an audience until she faces it.
[She said:]
I’m not one of those orators that prepare a speech beforehand. I have to see what the folks I’m going to talk to look like first. If they’re a lot of roughnecks like us not I’ll swear at ’em.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 26, 1921 Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1920: –Found in Washington, D. C., Pleading for Release of Debs
From Virginia’s Richmond Times-Dispatch of December 15, 1920:
DEBS MUST SERVE TERM, SAYS PRESIDENT WILSON ———- Socialist Leader Not Included in Christmas Pardons in List From White House. —–
THREE RECEIVE CLEMENCY ———- Executive’s Refusal Is Blow to Aspirations of Liberals, Who Have Been Working to That End. “Mother Jones” Visits Capital.
(By United News.]
WASHINGTON, Dec. 24.-Two men convicted of murder and one man convicted of selling drugs unlawfully, received Christmas pardons today from President Wilson. Eugene V. Debs, choice of a million citizens for President in the recent election, did not. His ten-year term, under conviction of violating the espionage act, still stands, subject only to abbreviation through good behavior….
The President’s refusal to extend mercy to Debs is a blow in the face for Socialists and liberals all over the country. The Socialist party, as such, has not interceded in his behalf, but individual members of the party have been campaigning consistently ever since the signing of the peace treaty eighteen months ago to obtain Debs’ release. The Bureau of Civil liberties has been the center of activity of others working for pardon for him.
Mother Jones, aged friend of the miners, spent some time in Washington last week working in Debs’ behalf….
It became known recently that Attorney-General Palmer, who has been considered opposed to clemency for Debs, actually had recommended to the President that the grant the pardon. Partly because this fact was rumored among those working for Debs’ release and because of the frequent revival of the report that the President planned to grant the pardon at Christmas time, the general feeling In this city had been that the Socialist leader would be a free man Christmas Day. The statement that this would not be the case, made Thursday by the United News, was a profound shock, and many still clung to hope until the issuance of the pardon list by the Attorney-General’s office Friday revealed only the three names given above.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 22, 1919
Mother Jones News for December 1918, Part III
-Mother Found in Taft, California, Organizing Oil Field Workers
Following her audience with the Governor of California on behalf of Tom Mooney, Mother Jones spoke in and around the San Francisco area urging working men and woman to take action to free Mooney and all other political and class-war prisoners. Mother then traveled to Taft, near Bakersfield, at the request of the oil field workers there with the intention of organizing them into the United Mine Workers of America.
We next find her in the pages of the The Kalamazoo Gazette as the author of a “Message to Women in Industry.” Here she states that the organization of women into “men’s” unions will strengthen organized labor for both working women as well as for working men:
Women ought to join men’s unions-not organize separate unions of their own. The battle against unpatriotic greed, the struggle for a free America, is no sex matter.
An infusion of women into men’s unions works for good to both men and women. Man has studied the disease longer than woman; he has a broader vision of society’s problems. Woman is less indifferent to suffering than man. She will contribute energy and inspire to action.
A woman will not see the hair torn from the scalp of a ten-year-old girl by unprotected cog-wheels, without wanting to do something about it.
Note: the photograph above is from The Buffalo Enquirer of December 26, 1918.
She is the same dear little old Mother Jones
and if she has lost any vigor
in the past two years I can’t see it.
-An Iowa Miner, 1918
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday April 19, 1918
Mother Jones News for March 1918: Found in Kansas and Iowa
We begin our Mother Jones news round-up for March 1918 with a report of Mother listening to A. F. of L. President Samuel Gompers pleading for the Eight Hour Day before the Chicago Alschuler Hearings. We next find her speaking before district conventions of the United Mine Workers held in Kansas and in Iowa.
From Springfield’s Illinois State Register of March 1, 1918:
GOMPERS SAYS SHORTER DAYS WILL WIN WAR
—–
Long Hours and Low Wages Drive Men to Drink,
Is Plea of Labor Chief at Chicago
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MOTHER JONES LISTENS
—–
Chicago, Feb. 28.-Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor made a stirring appeal today in behalf of an eight-hour day for employes in the meat packing industry at the stockyards wage arbitration. He appeared as a witness for the employes and his testimony was eagerly listened to by “Mother” Mary Jones, an organizer for the United Mine Workers and several hundred other representatives of organized labor from all sections of the country…..
From the Kansas Pittsburg Daily Headlight of March 11, 1918:
DISTRICT MINERS’ CONVENTION STARTS
—–
MOTHER JONES IS ON HAND TO ADDRESS
KANSAS COAL DIGGERS
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President Howat’s Report Was Read
at Opening Session-
Excluded Two Papers From Hall.
—–
Hellraisers Journal, Friday December 21, 1917
Mother Jones News for November, Part I: Attends District Miners Convention
Mother Jones began the month of November in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she was found addressing a meeting of the employes of the Locomobile Company who were seeking organization with the machinists union.
We next found her in New York City at the headquarters of the Democratic Party where she shook hands with Mayor-elect Hylan.
At near mid-month we found her in Kansas City attending the convention of the miners of the Southwestern districts, whose delegates were there assembled to debate the “automatic penalty clause,” a bone of contention within the United Mine Workers of America. Regardless of her stand on that issue, Mother remains much beloved by the miners. She was welcomed into the convention on the arm of the President of District 14 (Kansas):
Howat entered the hall with Mother Jones on his arm. He introduced her as the “angel of the miners,” after she had been heartily cheered.
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“Mother” Jones, for many years a labor leader of national repute, arrived in Grand Rapids Tuesday noon for her first visit to this city in 20 years. She was a guest at the Eagle hotel and lunched at noon with a group of local labor leaders and their wives. During the afternoon she spoke at Trades and Labor council hall on general labor conditions in the United States, being introduced to the Grand Rapids audience by D. B. Hovey. Tuesday evening she will give another address at the Railway Workers’ union.
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