Tag: Bristol PA

Hellraisers Journal: From the Burley WA Co-operator: Mother Jones Describes the March of the Mill Children of July 1903

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones to TR, These Little Children, Phl No Am July 16, 1903, Foner p552—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 4, 1904
Mother Jones Describes the March of the Mill Children of July 1903

From The Co-operator of September 1904:

The March of the Children.

Lena Morrow Lewis, in The Socialist, Seattle, Washington, June 19th, 1904. From notes by Mother Jones.

Mother Jones w Army, March of Mill Children, AZ Rpbn p1, July 18, 1903

PHILADELPHIA is famed far and wide as the ” City of Brotherly Love.” Churches abound everywhere, and her people look with holy awe upon the sins and vices of their sister city on Long Island Sound. And an unsuspecting and unobserving public has been quite ready to accept without question all that the City of Brotherly Love has claimed for herself.

It has remained for the wicked labor agitator to ferret out and unearth the criminal conditions that exist in this quiet, peaceful church- going city of Philadelphia, and it is only in a Socialist paper that these facts are permitted to see the light of day.

The writer is indebted to “Mother” Jones for the items contained therein.

Last summer the textile workers of Philadelphia, 125,000 men, women and children, went on a strike. They demanded shorter hours, an increase of wages and better sanitary conditions. Filthy closets and a defective sewerage system produced a very unwholesome atmosphere in which to work. Meanwhile the rest of the world wagged merrily on, and no one seemed to know or care anything about the strike, except a few labor cranks and Socialists and the owners whose profits were being affected. Not a daily newspaper mentioned the cause of the strike, nor the fact that among the strikers were a large number of children. During this time “Mother” Jones “happened” to drop into town and, as is her custom, she began to stir up matters. The public should be forced to know what these people were striking for. But strikes were such common affairs and it would require drastic measures to arouse an indifferent public.

At last she hit upon a plan. She would marshal all the children between the ages of ten and fourteen and take them on a thirty-mile march and they were to stop at every town within that radius and tell the people the story of their wrongs. Many of these children had worked in the factory since they were seven years of age and had never been inside a school room. When they were gone about forty miles they decided to go over to Oyster Bay and present their case to President Roosevelt. There was some risk connected with a project of this kind. If any of the children had sickened or died on the way, that fact would have been heralded all over the country, and “Mother” Jones proclaimed a murderer. The mills could maim and disfigure and kill scores of children annually and no mention be made of the fact. However, “Mother” Jones felt that they could afford to take chances and proceeded with the children.

As they journeyed from town to town, members of the working class provided them with food and shelter.

The children marched thru the streets of the towns, held meetings and, thru their leaders, told the story of their wrongs. Every child was keyed up to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. Every step northward was taking them farther away from Philadelphia. Some of their fathers had voted for President Roosevelt; in their eyes he was the greatest man in the United States and so they went hopefully and merrily on. When they reached Bristol the leader sent a request on behalf of the children for a permit to hold a street meeting and, when it was learned that an army of children was coming into town, a squad of policemen armed with guns were ordered to stand guard on the bridge to protect the city against the children.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Marches On With Her Army of Striking Children from the Textile Mills of Kensington

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Child Labor Silk Mills, WB Dly Ns p1, May 11, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 14, 1903
Mother Jones and Her Army March from Trenton to Princeton, New Jersey

From The New York Times of July 10, 1903:

“MOTHER” JONES’ MARCHING ON
———-
Army of Mill Workers Camped Near Trenton
on Its Way to New York to Air Grievance.

Special to The New York Times.

Mother Jones, March of Mill Children, NY Eve Wld p3, July 8, 1903

TRENTON, N. J., July 9.- Mother Jones and her textile army, composed of workers from the mills of Kensington, Penn., is encamped to-night on the Delaware River in Morrisville, Penn., just across from Trenton.

“Mother” Jones to-night visited the meeting of the Plumbers’ Union and made a speech. She received a donation. Her assistants visited other union meetings, and as Trenton is one of the most solid union cities in the United States quite a sum of money was collected to aid “the army” on its march to New York, where a mass meeting in Madison Square Garden is projected. “Mother” Jones expects to reach the metropolis by the end of the week.

Mayor Katzenbach of Trenton has granted a license  for mass meeting be held here in the shadow of Battle Monument to-morrow night, when the grievances of the strikers will be aired and where Mother will tell her plans against the New York millionaires’ hearts and pocket books. This meeting will be preceded by a concert by the “army band.”

This morning at Bristol sixty men and girls deserted, going back to Philadelphia. There are about 280 left, however.

In the army are ten or twelve boys who are not more than thirteen years old. These little fellows stand up under the great heat and the hard march with commendable bravery. With the marchers there is a band comprised of six fifes, four snare drums, and a bass drum.

[Photograph and emphases added.]

From the New York Tribune of July 11, 1903:

Mother Jones MMC, Rest at Delaware Rv, MJ at Morrisvl PA, Drummers and Banners, NY Tb p1, July 11, 1903

ARMY CROSSES DELAWARE
———-

YOUNG GIRLS SENT HOME
———-
“Mother” Jones Says Her Crusade Is Against Child Labor.

[On the evening of July 10th the Army crossed the Delaware River and entered Trenton. Mother Jones spoke at a meeting of the Central Labor Union of Trenton, and later spoke at an open-air meeting near Battle Monument. On the afternoon of July 10th, a reporter visited the camp at Morrisville Point and described the meal served there. The boy-strikers, all under fifteen, were described by the reporter as “veritable little old men, with stooped shoulders and a serious expression of countenance far beyond their years.” The reporter was able to interview Mother Jones who described Kensington as “one of the worst places in the world for child labor.” She described the hard life of the girls working in “that hellhole.” Mother denied that there had been any “desertions,” stating that some would turn back at various points along the march.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones and the Mill Children March from Torresdale to Bristol and Parade Through the Town

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Blood of Children n Christian Society Women, Toledo Mar 24, 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 10, 1903
Bristol, Pennsylvania – The Army of Mother Jones Parades With Banners Flying

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of July 9, 1903:

Crusaders Reorganized

Mother Jones and Mill Children March into Bristol Pa July 8th, NY Eve Wld p5, July 9, 1903

When “Mother” Jones’ band of marching strikers, en route to New York, awoke in Torresdale Park yesterday morning [July 8th], Charles Sweeney and other members of the strikers’ Executive Committee decided that there should be a reorganization of the crusaders before the march was resumed. The twenty-two girls in the party and five of the boys were sent back to their homes in Kensington, as it was feared that they would not be able to withstand the rigors of the proposed advance upon New York. The strike leaders next turned their attention to the camp followers. After a half hour’s inspection seventy-five men and seven boys, the latter to act as a bodyguard to “Mother” Jones, were selected as most fitted to continue the march, to New York. The rest were sent home. Each man was equipped with a tin cup, dinner plate and a spoon and large supplies of pork and vegetables were placed in the wagon in which “Mother” Jones is making the journey. The marchers left Torresdale about 9 o’clock in the morning, and arrived at Bristol late in the afternoon, where they encamped.

Dinner in Camp

A dinner of corned beef and cabbage and vegetable soup was hastily cooked, and over a field on the outskirts of the town the marchers spread themselves as though they were on a picnic. With flags, banners and music furnished by the fife and drum corps that accompanied them from this city, the marchers, led by “Mother” Jones, paraded through the mill district of Bristol in the evening and then held an open-air meeting, at which “Mother” Jones delivered a lengthy address on the strike situation in Philadelphia. A tour of the town will be made this morning for the purpose of soliciting provisions and funds for the strikers. The marchers will then proceed toward Trenton, where they will try to hold a mass meeting of union workers in that city for the purpose of raising more funds for the striking textile workers. They will halt at various towns between Trenton and New York and hold similar meeting to arouse interest in their cause.

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

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