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Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 21, 1913
Mother Jones Travels to Boston and Baltimore Accompanied by J. W. Brown
From The Boston Globe of November 17, 1913:
From the Baltimore Sun of November 20, 1913:
Tag: Boston MA
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Reporter in Denver, Describes Conditions in the Coal Camps of Southern Colorado
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 16, 1903
Denver, Colorado – Mother Jones Describes Conditions in Southern Coalfields
From The Denver Post of November 13, 1903:
Hellraisers Journal: “Oklahoma Kate” Calls for Marriage and Motherhood Strike until Industrial Conditions for Women Improve
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 26, 1912
Boston, Massachusetts – Kate Barnard Calls for Strike on Matrimony and Motherhood
From the Duluth Labor World of December 21, 1912:
TOO MANY BABIES IN AMERICA NOW?
———-
Oklahoma Kate Tells Effete Boston There Is
No Need for More Race As It Is Now.
———-OVER-WORKED MOTHERS FIRST
CAUSE OF CRIME
———-
Calls Strike On Matrimony and Motherhood Until
Women Are Granted Better Conditions.
———-
BOSTON, Dec. 19.—”Don’t get married, girls; go on a mother strike until industrial conditions for women are better,” was the appeal made here today by Miss Kate Barnard, prison commissioner of Oklahoma, where she is sometimes called “Oklahoma Kate.”
[Miss Barnard declared:]
We have no need for more of our race as it is at present. I have decided not to marry until women are far better off industrially and politically, and I’m not an old woman, either.
Miss Barnard is—well, perhaps she might be 30—or thereabouts—and she is very pretty.
Where Crime Starts.
[Said Miss Barnard;]
The first cause of crime is the overworking of mothers and those who some day will be mothers.
She told how Oklahoma got its child labor law, which has been a model for 17 states since, and said this and the compulsory education law were aimed directly at conservation of humanity and reduction of crime.
[She declared:]
It’s a farce to pass a child labor law or a compulsory education law unless you provide against poverty, keeping children out of school.
She told how her bill provides that if a widow has children at work, they can be taken from the mill and sent to school and the state will pay their wages, just as though they were at work. There are 5,461 children now at school in Oklahoma under this provision.
”Last” But Five Years.
Miss Barnard described child labor in glass factories where little workers “last” from three to five years.
[She cried:]
And I say that the American girls have no time for matrimony until this is changed. We don’t need any more of the race until we can clear up what we have.
Ida Tarbell, the well known magazine writer, also spoke. She has concluded that married women and girls who enter industrial life without pressing need form one of the worst dangers to civilization in this country.
Miss Tarbell has been paying special attention to the question of the minimum wage for women and today declared:
The minimum wage for women in Boston should be set at $9 while in New York it should be $1 higher. I’d hate to have any girl I cared about working in New York for less than $10.
Discussing the observations she has made while gathering material for a new series of articles on the new business ethics of today. Miss Tarbell said:
How They Live a Mystery.
Plenty of girls in New York are living on $6 a week and are keeping straight on it, too. It can be done, but how the girls do it is a mystery. Those girls living on those few meager dollars and living right are the heroines of the age.
The girl who lives at home and accepts a position for $5 or $6 a week is the girl who makes it hard for the homeless and self-supporting girl to make a living—makes it hard for her to remain a good girl.
The woman who works for less than a living wage is the woman who marries and continues to work. She is the most vicious element in a workaday world. We’ve got to realize that marriage and the home are something more than two people living together and supporting themselves. We’ve got to realize what a function it is in the great scheme of things.
The whole basis, of our social development is the family. In the first place there are children to be considered. A woman must give up her work or race suicide is the result. Of course from the economic view point the couple are much better off if the woman stays at home and the man works. If they are both working the aggregate earnings are more, but the aggregate expenses are comparatively greater also and there is no conserving done; none of the countless things that make a dollar have a dollar’s purchasing power.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1902, Part IV: Found Speaking on Behalf of Striking Miners at Boston’s Apollo Garden
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 18, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1902, Part IV
Boston, Massachusetts – Found Speaking on Behalf of Striking Coal Miners
From The Boston Globe of October 20, 1902:
“Mother” Jones, who has become famous all over the country as a result of her work in behalf of the coal miners, addressed a gathering of more than 7000 yesterday afternoon at the open-air meeting at Apollo garden, Roxbury. The meeting was in behalf of the striking miners, and was under the auspices of the general committee of the socialist party.
It is said that more than 8000 tickets were sold and a good sum was realized, which will be forwarded for the assistance of the strikers. The meeting was also addressed by Representative James F. Carey and Ex-Mayor Chase of Haverhill, the latter socialist candidate for governor.
The meeting was an enthusiastic one and every telling point scored by the speakers brought forth ready approval. In the gathering was a fair sprinkling of women. The speakers stood on the balcony of the old house, which had been decorated free of charge, and the grove was given free of charge also.
The principal interest centered about the appearance of “Mother” Jones. She sat on the balcony while the other speakers were talking. She was dressed in a plain gown of black cloth and wore no hat. She looks to be more than 50 years old, and her hair is almost snow white. Her keen, small eyes look out from under rather heavy brows, and she has a voice of remarkable power, her address easily being heard at the other side of the grove.
She is a fighter for her “boys,” as she terms the men who work in the mines, and it was easy for those in the audience to see how she has come by the loving term of “mother.”
She told in a quiet, easy manner of her work among the miners, of their toil in the bowels of the earth, their attempts to keep their little families from starving, and of their grinding down by the coal barons. “Mother” Jones evidently knows whereof she speaks, for she told of her visits to the mines underground, and her control over the miners was illustrated by a story she told of a recent occurrence in the present strike, when she led a gathering of 7000 strikers and many women over the mountains in the coal region and their meeting with the armed militia.
———-
Respects the Law.
The keynote of her address was that the people had made the government, and must obey the law and abide by its decisions. When she was being introduced by the presiding officer, Patrick Mahoney, a man on the balcony interpolated the remark that “She also defied Judge Jackson.” She was hardly on her feet before she made a denial of the statement, saying that Judge Jackson represented the law, and she never defied the law.
Representative James F. Carey of Haverhill was the first speaker. He said the coal strike would have been a failure but for the fact that it has taught the miners a lesson. It has opened the eyes of the people. The class in economic power, he continued, always controls the government, and socialists, knowing that, have tried to bring to the attention of the voters the absurdity of voting for the representatives of capital…..
John C. Chase, socialist candidate for governor, was received with cheers. He said that if the strikers had to go back without gaining a single thing it would show one thing, and that is that the working class must stand together in industrial matters and politics…..
“Mother” Jones was the next speaker, and there was a wave of applause as she came forward. She spoke clearly and distinctly and rather slowly. At no time till she grow heated, but the pathos of her voice showed clearly that the interests of the striking miners were her interests.
She said she largely was responsible for the miners’ organization.
[She said:]
For ages men had been struggling to right the wrongs of the world. In this country we first had the civil struggle, and we settled that. Now at the beginning of the 20th century we have the industrial struggle.
Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part IV
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 6, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part IV of IV
From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:
ONE BIG UNION WINS
By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD
In the eighth week of the strike the bosses made an offer of five per cent wage increase. The A. F. of L. scabs accepted it and went back. The I.W. W. strikers turned it down flat. The offer was made on a Thursday, and it was hoped that thousands of strikers would break ranks and stampede to the mills on the following Monday. When the mills opened they had actually fewer scabs, and looked out on a picket line numbering upwards of twenty thousand.
At the end of the following week the bosses discovered they meant an average increase of seven, and later seven and a half per cent, and that they would amend the premium system, paying fortnightly instead of by the month as had been the practice, resulting in the loss to a large part of the workers of the entire premium. Again on the following Monday the mills had still fewer scabs, and the picket line was stronger than ever.
When the Committee of Ten left for Boston on March 11th, for the fourth and final round with the bosses, every one realized that the crisis had been reached. Led by the indomitable Riley the Committee forced the mill owners to yield point by point until the final surrender was signed by the American Woolen Company.
The Committee reported at ten o’clock at Franco-Belgian Hall the next day. The headquarters were packed and hundreds stood on the outside. Words are weak when it comes to describing the scenes which took place when the full significance of the report became known. For the workers, united in battle for the first time in the history of Lawrence, had won. The mill owners had surrendered—completely surrendered.
A great silence fell upon the gathering when Haywood arose and announced that he would make the report for the sub-committee in the temporary absence of Chairman Riley. He began by stating that tomorrow each individual striker would have a voice in deciding whether the offers made should be accepted. He said:
Report of Committee.
The committee of 10 reported in brief that the workers will receive a 5 per cent increase for the higher paid departments and 25 per cent for the lower paid departments. There will be time and a quarter overtime and the premium system has been modified so that its worst features are eliminated.
Your strike committee has indorsed this report and has selected a committee to see all the other mill owners who will be asked to meet the wage schedule offered by the American Woolen Company. In the event that the other mills do not accede to the demands, the strike on those mills will be enforced.
You have won a victory for over 250,000 other textile workers, which means an aggregate of many millions of dollars each year for the working class in New England. Now if you hope to hold what you have gained you must maintain and uphold the Industrial Workers of the World, which means yourselves.
Hellraisers Journal: Haywood’s Statement Regarding Militia’s Order That No More Strikers’ Children May Leave Lawrence
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 20, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Big Bill Haywood Replies to Order of Col. Sweetser
From The Boston Daily Glob of February 19, 1912:
HAYWOOD IN DEFIANCE
———-
Hurls His Shafts at Col Sweetser.
———-
Defends Lawrence Strikers
Who Sent Children Away.
———-
Criticizes Militia for Its Severity.
———-
LAWRENCE, Feb. 19.-William D. Haywood issued a statement today in reply to the criticism relative to sending strikers’ children to distant cities and to the notice given by Col E. Leroy Sweetser, in charge of the troops here, that he would prevent more leaving the city unless it was’shown the parents had given their consent. The statement follows:
The fact that some of the striking textile workers of Lawrence, Mass., have seen fit to send their children away to be taken care of in New York and elsewhere has raised a mighty howl among the “plutes” of cultured Back Bay.
No language has been too strong to condemn the action of the strikers who have accepted the invitation of the working people to care for their dependent children until the conclusion of the industrial war in Lawrence.
It was not until the first consignment of children had been sent away that the aristocrats of Boston, many of whom roll in wealth at the expense of the luckless parents of these little ones, found their voice. Back Bay’s polite society and the daily papers that cater to their ilk have been deaf, dumb and blind as to the conditions under which children are brought into the world, and drag out their miserable existence in the textile towns of Massachusetts.
Afraid of losing their little slaves, in whom they have only a material interest, our smug Boston exploiters and their ladies now sound the alarm.
The yellow journals are busy. Representative Hayes of the Massachusetts Assembly has introduced a bill intending to prevent children being transported from their homes, making certain such actions as felony, punishable by fine and imprisonment. Then, in boots and spurs, comes Brig Col E. Leroy Sweetser, a vest pocket edition of the now forgotten Gen Sherman Bell of Colorado fame. Sweetser is the commanding officer in the war zone of the Bay State.
With mighty proclamation, a most formidable document, the said Brig Col E. Leroy Sweetser announces to the wide world that he will permit no further shipments of children from Lawrence.
And he lets himself down with the significant words, “without the consent of their parents.” The colonel, in maudlin mockery, says that it is inhuman to take the children from their happy homes, but well not discuss the question of inhumanity with the colonel, as he really doesn’t know the definition of the word, or he would apply it to the militiamen under him, who, with wheel spokes and loaded rifles, with fixed saber bayonets, are prepared to carry out all orders.
This omnipotent officer has already issued orders to shoot to kill, and the militia have killed innocent workers and committed many grievous wrongs against the strikers in their firm desire to serve the mighty textile trust. The armed forces of the State, furnished by a Democratic administration to break the spirit and subdue the strikers, are not the only support of the kings of wool and cotton. They also enjoy the comfort of the sheltering wing of the Republican party at Washington, where they bask in the benign influence of schedule K.
With the Democratic administration ready to shoot down the slaves of the mill at Lawrence and a Republican administration holding up the tariff at Washington. The trusts have reason to feel secure, and would if it were not for the fact that their “hand” had found their heads and organized in “one big union,” and nothing but empty stomachs can drive them back into the mills.
—————
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: 175 Boys and Girls, Children of Lawrence Textile Strikers, Sent to New York City for Care and Safekeeping
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 11, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Strikers Children Sent to New York City
From The Boston Daily Globe, Evening Edition, of February 10, 1912:
Upper Picture-Strikers’ Children from Lawrence in
South Station [Boston], Waiting to Board a New York Train.
Lower Left Hand-Child of a Striker. Lower Right Hand-
Miss Florence Sawyer, with One of the Youngest in the Party.
———-One hundred and seventy-five boys and girls, children of textile strikers in Lawrence, were brought to Boston this morning on their way to New York city, where they are to be cared for by different families until the strike is settled. The children left at noon for New York. They were to have departed on the 10:03 train out of the South Station, but they reached the North Station too late to make the connection. They went to the South Station by an elevated train, and from the time of their arrival at 10:30, until their departure, at 12, made the waiting room of the great terminal building lively with their songs and pranks.
The children were in charge of five women and 10 men. The man who conducted the party described himself as being Henry Lindworth, a Frenchman, who said he was “a comrade” and was “secretary in charge of the party.” Lindworth had a pocket full of letters from Socialist Democrats and plain Socialist in New York applying for one or more of the juveniles, whom they promised to give homes during the pendency of the strike. Each of the children had pinned to his or her garments a slip of paper on which was written the name, age and address of the child.
The children ranged in age from 4 to 14, and all of them seemed to be comfortably dressed, although the clothing of most was of rather poor quality, and some of them wore patches, but the little ones all seemed happy, and looked upon their trip as a great lark. They were ever ready to burst into song when Lindworth called on them to do so, which he frequently did. The song they most sang at the South Station was “La Internationale,” which Lindworth said was the hymn of those who are opposed to society as it is now constituted.
Hellraisers Journal: Joe Ettor Addresses Mass Meeting on Behalf of Lawrence Textile Strikers at Boston’s Faneuil Hall
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 29, 1912
Boston, Massachusetts – Joe Ettor Speaks on Behalf of Lawrence Strikers
From The Boston Daily Globe of January 27, 1912:
ETTOR SPEAKS IN FANEUIL HALL
———–
Joseph J. Ettor was the star of the great meeting in the interest of the Lawrence strikers which was held last evening in Faneuil Hail under the auspices of the socialist party of Boston. His picturesque looks and his vivid description of conditions in Lawrence contributed in part to the applause which greeted him.
This man differs in appearance from any labor leader that has ever been seen in this part of the world before. He has a face on him which at first impresses you as being feminine, but which becomes masculine and full of expression when he talks. His skin looks as soft as a girls and his eyes are as black as coals.
More than $200 was taken up in a collection for the benefit of the strikers. The hall was crowded, though not uncomfortably so, and the rather large force of policemen found nothing to do but listen. There was a band of music, which kept the crowd entertained until 8:20, when a great cheer went up as the red Socialist flag and the American flag were borne up the center aisle and behind them came Ettor, James P. Carey and a number of people who were to sit on the platform.
The meeting was called to order by George D. Hall, who said he had personally visited all the textile cities in New England and had found nowhere more miserable conditions than existed in Lawrence.
———-
Woman Striker Speaks.
Miss K. S. Hanscom, one of the Lawrence strikers, addressed an audience for the first time and found a little difficulty in expressing herself. But she was so deeply impressed with the thing she wanted to say that she found no difficulty in making herself understood. She wanted to express first her admiration for the courage of the poor people who went out on strike, but more especially for the Italian women who were the first to walk out of the Wood Worsted mill. The average wage of most of the men and women, she said, was $5 a week, and they were compelled to do three and four times more work than formerly. The weavers and spinner do not average $9 a week.
Chairman Hall announced that the Boston Socialist Club proposed through a committee of 300 to collect by means of a house-to-house campaign clothing and funds for the strikers.
———–
Ettor Speaks of Wood.
Joseph J. Ettor was loudly cheered when he was introduced and it took considerable protesting with his hand to stop the applause.
This evening I was an conference with Mr. William M. Wood and he assured me that while I represented 20,000 workers he had 14.000 investors. Some of them live on the Riviera. (Laughter).
[Continued Ettor with a laugh:]
That’s way off in Russia, I guess. You see the capitalist class know no East nor West, nor any other boundary.
The important thing today is that 20,000 mill workers of Lawrence are out on strike. The other side has done all in its power to crush out every effort that has been made by these people in the past to express themselves. The one who made a complaint was always made the victim of oppression by bosses and superintendents.
———-
Learn They Are Not Slaves.
An attempt is being made to bring the workers back to the mills, that they may be able to weave their lives into cloth on the old terms. John Golden with Billy Woods, say that in Lawrence we have no strike-we have a revolution. Well, where it is a question of life and death it is sure a revolution.
Twelve days ago the strikers were slaves, with nobody to speak for them-slaves attached to the looms who did not dare to raise their heads. All that has been changed in 12 days. These people have discovered that they are not slaves to superintendents or agents of mills.
Hellraisers Journal: Miss Flynn Speaks before New England Civil Liberties Committee on Behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 14, 1921
Boston, Massachusetts – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks for Sacco and Vanzetti
From The Boston Daily Globe of March 12, 1921:
MISS FLYNN RAPS “RED” HYSTERIA
———-
Criticises Method Used in
Prosecuting “Holdup Men”
———-
Asks Twentieth Century Club if
Justice Is Being Done Immigrants
———
In defending Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the two Italians who are to be tried for the murder and robbery of a paymaster in East Braintree some months ago, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, at the Twentieth Century Club last night [March 11th], denounced the methods used in prosecuting them, warmly upheld the foreign born workmen, or their children, as the victims of gross misconceptions among the so-called “American” population, excoriated this same attitude as unjustified, stupid and cruel-the product of fear and the “Red” hysteria.
Miss Flynn spoke before the New England Civil Liberties Committee.
[Said Miss Flynn:]
If a man is active in the labor movement and is trying to bring about better working conditions in industry, we have been taught to look behind charges brought against him. The Mooney case taught us to investigate before conviction, not afterward. We are willing to assume that men interested in labor movements are not of the criminal type.
That may not be a good reason in law, but it is perfectly true. No one with a studious, thoughtful mind can on the spur of the moment plan a crime requiring the skill of practiced criminals.
Touching on the popular prejudice against the alien element, she said she had read a sketch by Owen Wister, in which Mr. Wister compared aliens to guests within our house, who. if they did not like our ways, are privileged to leave, but not privileged to break up our home.
[She said:]
Yes, but they are not guests who sit in the parlor playing the piano while we are out in the kitchen doing the work. Not by a good deal. We are sitting in the parlor and they are washing the dishes, scrubbing the floor, fixing the furnace and doing all the drudgery we can load on them. If they were really guests we might expect them to reciprocate; but we expect them to do all the work and have nothing to say about the conditions under which they do it.
John S. Codman presided.
———-
[Invitation and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1900, Part I: Found with Miners of Pennsylvania and with Socialist of Boston
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 17, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1900, Part I
Found Celebrating Victory with Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Miners
From Pennsylvania’s Allentown Morning Call of November 1, 1900:
HAZLETON, Oct. 31.-All the collieries in the Hazleton district, with the exception of those of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, Milnesville and Derringer, are in operation to-day. The Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Company is ready to resume at once but as to-morrow is a Catholic holiday which is observed generally by Catholics, it is not likely that resumption will begin until Friday. All hands are satisfied and practically a full force of men will report for duty. Derringer is idle because of the inauguration of another strike on account of minor grievances, but it is expected that the colliery will be in operation as usual tomorrow…..
BIG MEETING AT M’ADOO.
The mine workers of the entire South Side held a parade and a big mass meeting at McAdoo to-night. Several visiting mine workers’ locals participated. Addresses were delivered by President Mitchell, George Purcell, John Fahey, “Mother” Jones and others. This was the greatest jollification meeting ever conducted on the south Side. President Mitchell was the first speaker. He concluded in time to make the 9.05 train leaving Hazleton for Mauch Chunk and points west.
MEETING AT LEADER’S GRAVE.
A monster mass meeting of miners will be held at the grave of John Siney, the great labor leader, at St. Clair on Saturday. President Mitchell and members of the national board will speak……
[Photograph added.]
