Tag: Georges Creek Coalfield MD

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1900, Part I: Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Shoulder to Shoulder, Blt Sun p10, July 26, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 9, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1900, Part I
Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of August 5, 1900:

STRIKE LEADER GOES TO PRISON
FOR SIX MONTHS
——-
Woman Sympathizer Creates a Sensation
in a Maryland Jail

Special to The Inquirer.

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

CUMBERLAND, Md., Aug. 4.-William Warner, the strike leader, was sentenced this afternoon to six months in the House of Correction, having been convicted of unlawful assembly during trouble which arose at an anti-strike meeting. Seventeen miners were also sentenced. They were visited at the jail this afternoon by Mother Jones, the woman labor organizer, who created a sensation by proposing three cheers in the jail for the strikers and three hisses “for the blacklegs.” She led the cheering, as well as the hissing. Warner, who is from Pittsburg, took an appeal.

—————

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1900: Found Speaking for Striking Miners of Georges Creek Coal District

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Shoulder to Shoulder, Blt Sun p10, July 26, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 8, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1900
Found Speaking in Baltimore for Striking Miners of Georges Creek Coal District

From the Baltimore Sun of July 26, 1900:

MOTHER JONES FOR MINERS
—————
She Denounces The Courts And
The Federation Gives $25.

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

The courts of Cumberland are God Almighty in the State of Maryland, and there is no justice for the laborer in them. They are dirty, contemptible courts, and a lot of “my boys” have been brought up before them for standing up for their rights. You know how much justice they will get. The poor man has no rights any more, and all we workers will get will be what we stand shoulder to shoulder and fight for, miners and all other workingmen included. The man or woman who will not fight for his or her rights is unworthy to be a father or mother.

With these words “Mother” Jones, the female labor agitator, opened a speech at the regular weekly meeting of the Federation of Labor last night. She had two young men, striking miners, with her, whom she called her “boys,” and said she had brought them along with her to appeal to the labor unions of Baltimore for financial aid for the strikers of the George’s Creek region. Every union in the city will be visited and asked to contribute. The Federation of Labor, at the suggestion of President Sullivan, headed a subscription for the striking mine workers with $25.

In describing the alleged deplorable condition of some of the mine workers in [West?] Virginia, where she had been endeavoring to organize unions, “Mother” Jones said:

If you could be there and see little children coming up out of the mines, you would not want to be missionaries to China, but would become missionaries to the coal fields. If those fellows over there in China had stayed at home and minded their own business they would be better off, and so would we. I don’t blame the Boxers a bit.

We had a visit from a sort of a missionary not long ago. He was looking after himself, though. This Roosevelt, the Rough Rider, comes down from New York, and, say, what happened? Why, every mine workman was made to turn out and cheer for him. Roosevelt wants a job.

The speaker made a stirring appeal for money to help the men now on strike, and alleged that the fight against the “money power” was just the same, whether conducted in Baltimore or in Cumberland.

Charles Dold, of Chicago, general organizer of the Piano Workers’ Union, stated that on Saturday he had organized a local union of 60 members. Union-made pianos are hereafter to have union labels upon them.

The nominations for officers, to be balloted for at a later meeting, were as follows:

For president, J. M. Sullivan; for first vice-president, William Biggins and George D. Simpson; for second vice-president, William H. O. Thompson and J. Pearson; recording secretary, H. L. Elchleberger; financial secretary, George Greisman; treasurer, John W. Ringrose.

—————

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1900, Part III: Mother Jones Returns to Georges Creek District to Assist Striking Miners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote JA Wayland, Mother Jones, AtR p1, Mar 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 12, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1900, Part III
Found Returning to Georges Creek Coal District to Assist Striking Miners

From the Washington Times of June 28, 1900:

WARRANTS FOR STRIKERS.
—–
The Lonaconing Editor’s Assailants
to be Arrested.

Mother Jones, Atlanta Constitution p9, June 8, 1900CUMBERLAND, June 27.-Warrants have been issued for the arrest of Lonaconing rioters. Joseph J. Robinson, editor of the Lonaconing Star, Robert A. L. Dick, who addressed tho anti-strike meeting; Mayor Thompson and others have made information. It is expected that another batch will be sworn out in the case of the brutal assault on James Stapleton, the roadsman yesterday. The region is being patrolled by union miners and a fresh outbreak is expected at any time. “Mother” Jones, the famous woman agitator, has returned to the region and is lending to the excitement.

Hugh Muir, a prominent resident of Lonaconing and a member of the United Mine Workers, was here yesterday to obtain advice regarding entering a libel suit against one of the strike leaders. The charge grows out of a publication by a strike organization. The organization seems to be divided and is believed by many to be disintegrating.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones is “one of the most conspicuous figures in the strike of the Maryland coal miners.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote JA Wayland, Mother Jones, AtR p1, Mar 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 30, 1900
Georges Creek Coal Region, Maryland – Mother Jones Organizing Coal Miners

From Wisconsin’s Kenosha Evening News of June 26, 1900:

MOTHER TO STRIKERS
—–

Mother Jones, Matronly Woman Organizer, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

One of the most conspicuous figures in the strike of the Maryland coal miners is Mrs. Mary Jones, who is popularly known in labor circles as “Mother” Jones. She is an organizer and is apt to be found anywhere in the country during a strike.

“Mother” Jones is a matronly looking old lady of 60, with plump, red cheeks, pleasant blue eyes and abundant white hair.

As a writer,speaker and propagandist for socialistic doctrines, “Mother” Jones has been successful. She has been in reform movements for 20 years, mostly in the west, and for some time has been a newspaper correspondent, but her penchant is a strike, the harder the better. No matter where the trouble comes, there she goes-some way, somehow. She always refuses to take pay for her work and says she does not “help the boys” for what little money she can get.

Four years ago she stumped the state of Georgia for the child labor bill, and she tells some interesting stories about the children between 6 and 10 years working 14 hours a day for about 10 or 15 cents.

She took part in the coal miners strike of 1894, the American Railway union strike, the textile workers’ strike and countless other smaller strikes. When the miners were practically beaten in Arnatt [Arnot] last year, she went and organized the women and children. How she did it no one knows, but for nine months she held those miners together and finally won a settlement. When she left there a few weeks ago, the whole little coal region turned out in a body to see her go. Mrs. Jones says she will not leave the George’s creek coal region until the operators consent to meet the miners.

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Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason: Mother Jones Doing Good Work for Striking Coal Miners of Lonaconing

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote JA Wayland, Mother Jones, AtR p1, Mar 17, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 29, 1900
Lonaconing, Maryland – Mother Jones Stands with Striking Coal Miners

From the Appeal to Reason of June 23, 1900:

Mother Jones, Kenosha Ns WI p7, June 26, 1900

Mother Jones has been doing her usual amount of good work with the coal miners of Lonaconing, Pa [Maryland]. A local paper says in an account of a strike meeting: “Mother Jones was then introduced and proved herself beyond question a remarkable woman. She received liberal applause, and a number of ladies were present to hear her.”

[Drawing and emphasis added.]

From the Washington Times of June 23, 1900:

VIEWS OE MOTHER JONES
—–
Woman Labor Leader Explains Her
Interest in the Cause.

BALTIMORE, June 22.-“Mother” Jones, the widely known labor leader, was in Baltimore today in the interest of the striking coal miners of the Georges Creek region. The Federation of Labor is arranging a series of mass meetings for the near future to be addressed by her.

Mrs. Jones does not look like the fiery agitator that she has been described. A motherly, good natured face is lighted by kindly blue eyes and crowned by silver hair. She is evidently over the half-century mark, but is as active as a young girl. “I love my work and it loves me,” she said when her physical vigor was commented upon. She speaks deliberately, with a pleasant voice suggestive of an ancestry to be credited to Ireland, and uses excellent language.

“Why shouldn’t a woman take part in all efforts for the benefit of labor?” she asked in response to a question. ”

Labor is the basis of all society. A woman should surely be interested in her surroundings and her home and do her part to uplift both. When did I begin this work? So many years ago that I have forgotten. I go wherever I think I can be of use. I have taken part in strikes all over the country, and have always urged peaceful methods. All these complex problems will be solved peacefully in time through the molding of public sentiment and the ballot box.

Am I a woman’s suffragist? Well, I have never been identified with the movement or belonged to any organization that was. I think beneficial results have always followed the placing of the ballot in woman’s hands. The excellent labor laws of Australia and New Zealand came only after women began to vote. Colorado, where women vote, is the only State that has taken steps to investigate the labor laws of Australia and New Zealand with a view of adopting them.

A woman becomes no less a woman when she studies social and political conditions and takes part in public affairs. A broadened intellect teaches her to love her home better. Such a woman, as a rule, loves her home and family better than the society woman who hands her children over to hired people to rear.

“Mother” Jones returned to western Maryland today, but will come to Baltimore again next week to make several speeches.

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