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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 9, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1902, Part I
Embodies Spirit of Revolt; Surrounded by Injunctions in West Virginia
From The Socialist Spirit of August 1902:
“MOTHER” JONES
BY WILLIAM MAILLY
“Mother” Jones has been compared to Joan of Arc, but she is more than that.
The French maid derived her inspiration from the mystical creations of a brain inflamed by religious ecstasy. She was the slave of her own imagination. She fought for the “divine right of kings,” dying a victorious sacrifice to a cause which, dominant in her day, will soon cease to disfigure the world. Her rightful place as the fanatical representative of medieval mummery has already been assigned her.
But “Mother” Jones absorbs inspiration from living men and women; their hopes and fears, their scant joys and abundant sorrows, are hers also to laugh with and to weep over. She deals with things that are, to fashion the better things that will be. And her cause is the one that will release mankind from material subserviency and mental obliquity, to finally rejuvenate and glorify the world.
In this only are they alike: John of Arc was peculiarly the product of the material conditions of her time, just as “Mother” Jones is of the conditions existing to-day. Each would have been impossible at any other period. As Joan of Arc typified the superstition and mental darkness of the people who hailed and followed her as one gifted with supernatural power, so “Mother” Jones is the embodiment of the new spiritual concept and clearer mentality characteristic of the awakening working class of our day. She is the incarnation of the spirit of revolt against modern industrial conditions—the spirit which finds fullest expression in the world-wide Socialist movement.
For “Mother” Jones is, above and beyond all, one of the working class. She is flesh of their flesh, blood of their blood. She comes of them, has lived their lives, and, if necessary, would die to make their lives happier and better. She loves the workers with a passionate love stronger than the love of life itself. Her advent marks the stage of their progress towards emancipation.
[…..]
[Everyone Knew Her]
Recently I traversed the territory where “Mother” had worked for several months organizing. To say her name is a household word is to use a hackneyed phrase for want of a stronger one to express it. Everyone knew her, from the smallest child to the oldest inhabitant. And all blessed her-except the mine-owners and their sympathizers whose hatred she is gratified to enjoy. There were places she entered three years ago where the women-wives of miners-refused to speak to or recognize her. Now her picture occupies a prominent place on the walls of their homes. Nothing could demonstrate more clearly her ability to overcome prejudice and make the workers her friends and confidants, and something more than mere blind followers or stupid worshipers. She represents the cause made up of the tangible realities which compose their daily lives.
[…..]
[Knows of Personal Suffering]
“Mother” has had full share of personal suffering. Coming early in life, with her parents, to Canada, she married, but lost her husband and four children in the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis several years afterwards. Thrown upon her own resources, she taught school for a while, and in pursuit of that vocation journeyed West. In San Francisco she gained her first experience in labor agitation by participating in the movement against Chinese cheap labor, in which Denis Kearney became famous. Then she joined the Knights of Labor, and from that time her activity has never ceased.
[…..]
[Organizing in West Virginia]
It is here where “Mother” has encountered more dangers than in all her experience, for the state has been heretofore entirely under control of the capitalists, and the entrance of agitators has been opposed in every shape and manner. It was for this very reason that “Mother” went there. She has been able to do what no man or any number of men could accomplish, even had they wanted to. The present strike of 20,000 men, after years of abject slavery, is the direct result of her work. Injunction after injunction has been issued against her, but she has gone right on. As I write this the news comes that, after awaiting sentence for several days, following upon being found guilty of contempt of court for violating one of these injunctions, the same judge has dismissed her with a reprimand. In this he showed more wisdom than such as he are usually credited with, but the effectiveness of the reprimand is doubted.
It remained for President John Mitchell to recognize the value of this woman’s great ability and provide the opportunity to put it to full account. Through him she has been a national organizer of the United Mine Workers for the past three years, and her work has more than justified his action. It is conceded and acknowledged by all that she has done more than anyone else to solidify the miners into a strong national organization. She has infected the whole mining industry with her enthusiasm and by her socialist teaching she has turned the thoughts of thousands of workers towards the greater mission in store for them. In view of this it is easy to understand why every one of the thousand delegates to the national convention just adjourned, wept when they bade farewell to her upon her departure to West Virginia to receive sentence from a capitalist court.
