Tag: Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902

Hellraisers Journal: Part III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Plea for Justice, Not Charity, Quote Mother Jones—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 15, 1904
Part III of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Shines Among Workers

From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904: 

HdLn w Photos Mother Jones Methods, Speech WV 1897, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904
[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904

“MOTHER” JONES’ CONDUCT WITH FRIENDS AND ENEMIES
—————

She Shines Among the Workers.
—

Mother Jones Methods, Listening, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904The mother nature which is so strong in this remarkable woman as to have given her her beautiful soubriquet is not revealed among the ordinary surroundings which come to her during her brief sojourns in Chicago, New York or Washington, but is at once ready to shine forth when she is among the workers whom she calls her children-the girls of the silk mills, the men in the coal fields, or in the humble homes among the mothers and children.

In the strike of 1900 in Pennsylvania she started out one evening from Hazleton to go to Macadoo [McAdoo], to address a local union of miners. On the electric car she sat by the writer quietly observant of the other passengers. No one was as yet aware of her personality. Looking across at a young man and young woman who were sitting closely together, comparing two much thumbed note books with their heads quite close together, Mrs. Jones said: “Look at the dear children; they are comparing their savings. They are lovers, wondering how long it may be before they will be able to marry.”

There was a smile of tenderness on her face which did not wane when at transfer station some noisy youngsters outside discovered her and set up a cry of “Mother Jones! Mother Jones!”

“That’s so, children,” she said, standing up and leaning out of the window to them. “This is old ‘Mother’ Jones going to talk to your fathers and mothers. Are you union boys and girls?”

“You bet we are; hurrah for Mother Jones! Hurrah for Mother Jones!”

The youngsters kept pace with the car, and when the old lady stepped off they made her an escort as she walked to the hall, crowding and pushing to get close to her, to touch her dress, to hold her hand, to look up into her face and to shout the tidings that she was coming. When she reached the hall it was filled with men, who respectfully made way for her, and she passed among them to the platform.

After talking to them for a short time about the progress of the strike, and about a particularly obstinate body of workers at the Coleraine colliery, she told them that she had a plan, and asked them to clear the hall and send the women of their families to her. The men immediately yielded to her suggestion without understanding her intention, for she had worked so long among them as an organizer that they had faith in her judgment.

In about half an hour a strange audience had assembled. there were old, bent women of 70 and young, fresh-faced girls of 16. There were young matrons with babes in their arms, and women faded before their time. The faces that looked up from the rude benches of the strikers’ hall were at first only curious, or somewhat shy and embarrassed.

Walking to the edge of the platform “Mother” Jones stretched out her arms to them, and in her thrillingly sweet voice said, “Sisters!” A perceptible wave of emotion like the breath of wind sweeping the long grasses of downs and meadows passed over her audience. Still the women waited, wondered, watched.

“In the old revolutionary days,” said “Mother” Jones, “your mothers were heroes, as well as your fathers.”

The faces awoke; the souls back of them kindled. For an hour the speaker walked to and fro telling the deeds of mothers of the past, of sisters and wives. The listeners drew nearer. They leaned their elbows on the platform and lifted their faces to drink in her words. Their bosoms heaved and the tears rolled unheeded down their cheeks, but quickly the smiles flashed out again at the will of the speaker. She was explaining to them a plan to march by night through the mountains to surprise at dawn the body of workmen who had refused to strike, and by soft words and cajoleries to woo them to make common cause with their fellows. For who would stop a body of women carrying flags and singing.

“To Colerain-ah!” they whispered among themselves, and then broke out tumultuously: “We’ll go; yes, tonight; to win the boys of Colerain.” Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Part III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald” →

Hellraisers Journal: Part II: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Husband Children, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 14, 1904
Part II of III: “Mother Jones & Her Methods”-Then and Now

From the Boston Sunday Herald of September 11, 1904:

HdLn w Photos Mother Jones Methods, Speech WV 1897, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 1904

Her Appearance and Her History

Mother Jones Methods, Making a Point, Bstn Hld Sun Mag p1, Sept 11, 1904“Mother” Jones is an old woman, perhaps about 62 years of age. Her hair is white as snow, her eyes bright blue. She has a sweet, womanly mouth, and a pink flush in her cheeks. She is robust and healthy in appearance, with a good matronly figure. In dress she is quite plain, often almost shabby; though there is a neatness, almost a daintiness, about her which always gives her an agreeable appearance.

Her maiden name was Mary Harris. When she was a child of 10 she came to this country with her father and brother from Ireland. They lived for time in Provincetown, and afterward went to Canada. She was educated in the common and normal schools of Toronto, where her brother became a priest, and is now the dean of the archdiocese. She went to teach in a convent in Monroe, Mich., and later, going to Memphis, Tenn., to teach, she met an iron moulder, whom she married. They had two [four] children. She lost husband and children after a brief six years of married life in the yellow fever epidemic in the south.

After the war she went to Chicago, where she lived from 1867 until 1874, taking part in the relief work of the great fire as one of her first experiences in public work. She was a dressmaker in Chicago, as she was in San Francisco, where she lived for five years. In San Francisco she became interested in socialism, and took part in the anti-Chinese movement. When she returned East it was Mrs. George Pullman who secured her transportation. She had sewed for many women of wealth in Chicago, and had a large circle of friends among them.

Her life thus far had been comparatively simple. As a daughter she was obedient and studious, as a young woman a modest, retired teacher, as a wife, faithful and loving. She says of her married life that it was like that of most devoted wives. She wept if her husband drank a glass of beer after the day’s work or went to a union meeting at night. Yet she had enough intelligence to interest herself in his labor views, and imbibed her first notions of unionism from the protestations of her husband against her too devoted solicitude, and a great part of her effort in later years was to make women understand what she failed to understand in those early days, that the wife must care for what the husband cares for, and that every man loves freedom, even freedom from domestic tyranny.

Her remedy for lonely wives is a broader interest in the affairs of life. As a young widow she took pride in the trade she learned, and today she still loves to walk for an hour through the shops and look at beautiful silks and fine laces.

But though a good teacher and skillful dressmaker, it was not sufficient for this woman to provide for herself a good living and take no further thought of the world. She was aware that there were questions troubling the minds of men, and she wanted to help solve them. And somewhat later it came to her that she had the gift of eloquence. She discovered this in the old trades and labor assemblies in the West, where, when rising to take part in a discussion, a torrent of words would rise to her lips and her hearers would sit spellbound.

She belonged to the old Knights of Labor, and later took part in the organizing work of the American Railway Union, and became the friend of Eugene Debs. She was active in Chicago at the time of the Pullman strike, unmindful of the old-time friendliness of Mrs. George Pullman. Some years later she was able to secure a pardon for some of the men involved in the labor troubles of that great railroad strike by a personal interview with President McKinley at the White House.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Part II: “Mother Jones & Her Methods -Personality & Power of This Aged Woman”-Boston Sunday Herald” →

Hellraisers Journal: Goodwin’s Weekly: Polly Pry, in Recent Issue, Pays Her Respects to Mother Jones, “Hideous Hag”

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Quote re Mother Jones Lioness Angel, LW p4, Dec 5, 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 7, 1903
Polly Pry Pays Her Respects to Mother Jones, “The Hideous Hag”

From Goodwin’s Weekly of December 5, 1903:

Polly Pry re Mother Jones Hideous Hag, Gdwn Wkly p7, Dec 5, 1903

From the Duluth Labor World of December 5, 1903
-Mother Jones, Lioness, Miner’s Angel and Patron Saint:

Mother Jones Angel, LW p4, Dec 5, 1903 Mother Jones Opposes Mt, DP p1, Nov 22, 1903

[Photo from Denver Post of November 22, 1903]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Goodwin’s Weekly: Polly Pry, in Recent Issue, Pays Her Respects to Mother Jones, “Hideous Hag”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Reporter in Denver, Describes Conditions in the Coal Camps of Southern Colorado

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 16, 1903
Denver, Colorado – Mother Jones Describes Conditions in Southern Coalfields

From The Denver Post of November 13, 1903:

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p1, Nov 13, 1903Mother Jones Interview re CO Coal Strike, Dnv Pst p1n3, Nov 13, 1903 Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Reporter in Denver, Describes Conditions in the Coal Camps of Southern Colorado” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Organized Labor” by John Mitchell, President of the U. M. W. A., Reviewed by The Wall Street Journal

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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MJ Quote Solidarity—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 31, 1903
Review of John Mitchell’s Book, “Organized Labor”
-from The Wall Street Journal of October 28, 1903

Organized Labor; Its Problems, Purposes, and Ideals
and the Present and Future of American Wage Earners
-by John Mitchell, President of the United Mine Workers of America
American Book and Bible House,
Philadelphia, PA, 1903

John Mitchell, Book Organized Labor, 1903

Prominently placed in the October 28th issue of The Journal is a long review of “Organized Labor,” the recently released book by Mr. Mitchell. The review takes up a full column of the front page and about a quarter of a second column, and contains a surprising amount of praise for the labor leader, if not for all of his ideas:

Mr. John Mitchell, president of the united mine workers of America, has published a book entitled “Organized Labor.” It is interesting, first because its subject is now uppermost in the attention of the public, and secondly, because its author has within a year loomed large in the public eye, by reason of the great anthracite coal miners’ strike of 1902. Mr. Mitchell’s book, therefore, deserves more than the merely perfunctory and passing notices which it has received in the press generally.

It is on the whole well written, temperate in its criticisms, moderate in its claims, and fair in its general judgments. Conservatism is very much the keynote throughout, and the work as a whole serves to strengthen the opinion formed by most fair minded people after the coal strike that Mr. Mitchell may be counted among the ablest most responsible, and most far-sighted of the labor leaders in power to-day. His book is in the main a plea for the principles of trade unionism….

[Emphasis added.]

The Journal then goes on to list Mr. Mitchell’s principles of trade unionism as:

1) Trade unionism seeks to represent the interest of the working class, the workingman should identify his union with his class, and the working man owes duties to his class just as to his country.

2) Trade unionism stands for collective bargaining and is opposed to the individual contract.

3) Trade unionism seeks to secure a “definite minimum standard of wages, hours and conditions of work” for all workers  in any given trade.

4) Trade unionism demands equal rights with employers “in determining how, when, with whom, at what time, and under what conditions work shall be carried on.”

5) “The trade unions..have nothing which is not free to all, which may not be shared by any and every capable workman.”

6) Trade unionism seeks to enforce the union shop in order to protect the union contract. (Or, as The Journal put it, trade unionism seeks “the monopolization of work for union men by enforcing the union shop..”)

7) Trade unionism seeks permanent industrial peace by means of trade agreements (the union contract.)

The Journal supports the right of the workingman to organized and bargain collectively, but is greatly troubled that allegiance to class should be valued as highly by a worker as allegiance to country, and calls this idea “a deep and dangerous fallacy.” The Journal also takes a stand against the “union shop,” failing to understand that without a “union shop,” the union contract that they so laud as leading to industrial peace, cannot be enforced.

The review ends with this recommendation:

While we totally disagree with Mr. Mitchell on the points discussed above, we can safely recommend his book to those who desire to inform themselves respecting the whole question. If we have in any way misrepresented his position we regret it heartily. We are fully as anxious to understand him as he is to be understood.

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Organized Labor” by John Mitchell, President of the U. M. W. A., Reviewed by The Wall Street Journal” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Stops Over in Cincinnati, States Optimistically: “The laboring man is advancing every day.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Live f Justice n Love, Carbondale Dly Ns p2, Nov 24, 1900—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 20, 1903
Mother Jones Stands with Working Men and Women

Saturday October 17, 1903
Cincinnati, Ohio – Mother Jones, “The laboring man is advancing every day.”

Mother Jones was in Cincinnati for a few hours yesterday on her way to Chicago. This famous old labor agitator travels alone. While in Cincinnati she made this statement:

Mother Jones on Workingman, Cnc Eq p16, Oct 17, 1903
The Cincinnati Enquirer
October 17, 1903

To advance the cause of labor and laboring people is my only object. I have for years studied carefully the labor question, and in all my speeches to the miners and others I advocated peace and efficient work as the sure road to success. My idea is that every laborer, man or woman, should be worthy of their hire. They should, out of each week or month’s salary, save a few pennies, dimes or dollars. I am in hearty sympathy with the workingman, and in times of strikes or lockouts I make it my duty to go to the scene of trouble and lend my aid to the laborer and his family. They are my personal charges.

I think the day will come when capital will learn to respect laborers enough to pay them in proportion to the services they render. I am at all times an advocate of peace when disagreements arise between employer and employees, for that is the laborer’s stronghold. If he can only hold out and remain peaceable the victory is won. It is a rare occurrence that anything is accomplished by the working men who cause strife and bloodshed. They lose the respect sympathy of those who would otherwise be with them in time of need.

I think the laboring man is advancing every day, and it will be my life work to aid in this advancement.

From The Denver Post of October 18, 1903
-Mother Jones, Joan of Arc, Expected Soon in Denver:

Mother Jones Joan of Arc, Dnv Pst p25, Oct 18, 1903

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Stops Over in Cincinnati, States Optimistically: “The laboring man is advancing every day.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Editorial on the Report of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Clarence Darrow re Tears of RR Pres for Breaker Boys, Chg Tb p2, Feb 13, 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 4, 1903
Editorial by Algie M. Simons: “The United Mine Workers’ Victory”

From the International Socialist Review of April 1903:

The United Mine Workers’ Victory.
—–

Anthracite Coal Commission, Deseret Eve Ns p1, Oct 27, 1902

At last the long delay and deliberation are over and the arbitration committee has brought forth its report, and the capitalist press unanimously hail it as a victory for the miners.

The main point on which this cry for victory is based is in the 10 per cent rise, in the reduction to eight hours for a few favored laborers, the right to have check weighmen and a few similar articles. That this is a gain no one will deny, that it is in many senses of the word a victory is also true, but the further conclusion which practically every one of these papers draw, that the victory was attained through the methods of arbitration, we are unable to see.

Some months ago when the arbitration committee was first elected we pointed out that the miners would receive just what the proletariat has always received in a contest with its masters,—what it was able to take. There is, at least, some doubt if in this case the United Miners have not received even less than they could have taken had the fight gone on. We now know that there was nearly a million dollars still remaining in their treasury with funds pouring in from all over the world. We now know that a few weeks more of the strike would have brought on a coal famine that would have paralyzed the industries of this country. The great capitalists probably knew this at the time the arbitration committee was appointed. They must have known something of the probable effect of such a coal famine on the permanency of exploiting institutions. It is pretty safe to say that in view of this knowledge they would have been willing to have conceded the full demands originally made by the strikers rather than to have permitted the strike to have gone on to much greater length.

Every day that passed during the closing weeks of the struggle gathered new converts for the miners’ cause. At the same time the Socialists were using the material which was developing from day to day with tremendous force as an indictment against the entire system of capitalism. Under these conditions it is at least questionable whether Mitchell showed good tactics, considered from a trade union point of view, in accepting a Committee of Arbitration whose membership was so decidedly capitalistic. While considering what they have granted to the miners, the question comes up, could they have given much less and had any surety that another strike would not at once follow? It seems hard to believe that men living in the conditions that it has been shown the miners of Pennsylvania were living, and who had just been able to show such marvelous solidarity and organized resistance, would have remained quiet had they received much of anything less than what the Commission awarded them.

On the other hand, it must be at once admitted that the investigation of the Commission has not been without its value. Its proceedings when published will throw a flood of light upon industrial conditions in one of the greatest of American industries. This information will be of the greatest value in every battle which is waged against exploitation.

It is certain that the Pennsylvania Socialists who have shown such remarkable growth during and since the strike will derive new ammunition from this report for future battles. But neither of these things offers any argument in support of the arbitration of industrial disputes.

———-

Just how sincere the capitalist press have been in declaring the decision to be a great victory for the strikers is seen by an extract from a private telegram which has come into our hands, which was sent out by a well known firm of Wall street brokers to their customers. After giving the terms of the Commission report they say of the demands: “All of these, particularly five, six, eight and nine, are absolutely in favor of operators. The first and second clauses were offered by Mr. Baer three months ago. This looks like favorable news for PENNSYLVANIA, ERIE FIRST and D. & H.”

The “five, six, eight and nine,” which they favor, are the clauses concerning check weighmen, directing the payment by operators directly to mine laborers, condemnation of boycott and of blacklist. So much for the present. When we come to consider the future we are confronted with the proposition stated above that the contending parties will get exactly what they are able to take. There is no power outside of either of the parties to enforce the decisions of the Commission. In so far as governmental power will be called into use it is upon the side of the operators. There will undoubtedly be another fight before this recognition is granted.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Editorial on the Report of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part I: Arrives in Indianapolis for Convention of United Mine Workers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, God s Cause, Scranton Tb p1, Aug 7, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 14, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part I
-Arrives in Indianapolis for Convention of United Mine Workers

From The Clarksburg Telegram (West Virginia) of January 2, 1903:

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

“MOTHER” JONES VISITS CLARKSBURG

“Mother” Jones was in her usual splendid health and was quite talkative and courteous.

While in the city she was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. D. W. McGeorge in Glen Elk.

[Photograph added.]

From the Appeal to Reason of January 3, 1903:

From the Kingwood West Virginia Argus of January 8, 1903:

The election of Samuel B. Montgomery to the office of Mayor of Tunnelton for another term, is quite a compliment to this rising young orator who is called the “Patrick Henry of West Virginia,” by Mother Jones. Mayor Montgomery has a good strong ticket with him composed of the leading men of the Coal Center.

From the Bisbee Daily Review of January 9, 1903:

LABOR IS CAPITAL; CAPITAL IS LABOR

By “Mother” JONES. Friend of Striking Miners

WE are in a battle of class against class. Pierpont Morgan can go abroad-to Germany, to Russia, to England-and when he arrives he is entertained by his class, his own class, though you sometimes forget it in America-the class that oppressed you in Europe and that is growing more and more powerful and oppressive here. CAPITAL AND LABOR ARE THE SAME THING. LABOR IS CAPITAL, AND CAPITAL IS LABOR. WHAT WE’RE FIGHTING IS NOT CAPITAL, BUT CAPITALISTS. When the fight is won, this third element will be missing, and capital and labor will be joined without separation.

In the last 160 years there has been an economic revolution. What would you have thought years ago if some one had told you that all these coalfields would be held and operated by one combination. That sort of thing is what you must defend yourself against.

THERE IS A TREMENDOUS CHANGE GOING ON; AND YOU MUST CHANGE TO MEET IT.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part I: Arrives in Indianapolis for Convention of United Mine Workers” →

Hellraisers Journal: From McClure’s Magazine: “Children of the Coal Shadow” by Francis H. Nichols, Part III

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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 12, 1903
Children of Pennsylvania’s Anthracite “Coal Shadow”
-Part III of article by Francis H. Nichols, with illustrations by Frank E. Schoonover

From McClure’s Magazine of February 1903:

CHILDREN OF THE COAL SHADOW

BY FRANCIS H. NICHOLS

Illustrated by Frank E. Schoonover

[Part III of III]

Children of Coal Nichols Schoonover, Girls Forelady, McClures p439, Feb 1903

Where the Daughters Work

While the miner’s son is working in the breaker or mine it is probable that his daughter is employed in a mill or factory. Sometimes in a mining town, sometimes in a remote part of the coal fields, one comes upon a large, substantial building of wood or brick. When the six o’clock whistle blows, its front door is opened, and out streams a procession of girls. Some of them are apparently seventeen or eighteen years old, the majority are from thirteen to sixteen, but quite a number would seem to be considerably less than thirteen. Such a building is one of the knitting mills or silk factories that during the last ten years have come into Anthracite…..

Through a district organizer I was enabled to interview under union auspices a number of little girls who were employed in a knitting mill. One girl of fifteen said that she was the oldest of seven children. She had worked in the mill since she was nine years old. Her father was a miner. As pay for “raveling” she received an amount between $2.50 and $3 every two weeks. Another thirteen-year-old raveler had worked since the death of her father, two years before, from miner’s asthma; her brother had been killed in the mine. The $3 she received every two weeks in her pay envelope supported her mother and her ten-year-old sister…..

The breaker boss finds at the mill or factory a counterpart in the “forelady.” This personage holds a prominent place in the civilization of Anthracite. It is taken for granted that the forelady must be habitually hateful, and in all controversies side with the proprietor against the rest of the girls. It is her duty to crush incipient strikes, and to do all in her power to “break” the union. She enjoys being hated by every one, and leads an isolated life of conscious rectitude for about $5 a week…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From McClure’s Magazine: “Children of the Coal Shadow” by Francis H. Nichols, Part III” →

Hellraisers Journal: From McClure’s Magazine: “Children of the Coal Shadow” by Francis H. Nichols, Part II

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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 11, 1903
Children of Pennsylvania’s Anthracite “Coal Shadow”
-Part II of article by Francis H. Nichols, with illustrations by Frank E. Schoonover

From McClure’s Magazine of February 1903:

CHILDREN OF THE COAL SHADOW

BY FRANCIS H. NICHOLS

Illustrated by Frank E. Schoonover

[Part II of III]

Children of Coal Nichols Schoonover, Breaker Boys, McClures p438, Feb 1903

The School of the “Breaker”

The company’s nurseries for boys of the coal shadow are the grim black buildings called breakers, where the lump coal from the blast is crushed into marketable sizes…..Between the [coal] chutes are boys. All day long their little fingers dip into the unending grimy steam that rolls past them…..

Children of Coal Nichols Schoonover, Breaker Boss, McClures p442, Feb 1903

…..In front of the chutes is an open space reserved for the “breaker boss,” who watches the boys as intently as they watch the coal.

The boss is armed with a stick, with which he occasionally raps on the head and shoulders a boy who betrays lack of zeal…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From McClure’s Magazine: “Children of the Coal Shadow” by Francis H. Nichols, Part II” →