Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 16, 1900 Anthracite Coalfields of Pennsylvania – Hard Lot of Boys in the Mines
From the Duluth Labor World of November 10, 1900:
BOYS IN THE MINE ———-
HARD LOT OF THE YOUTHFUL SLATE PICKERS. ——-
Philadelphia Inquirer of September 30, 1900 —–
Miners Robbed That the Trust May Monopolize the Coalfields For All Time—At the Mercy of the Barons and Their Rake of Partners—The Public ls More Than Interested in Their Cause. ———-
D. L. Rhone, a resident of Wilkesbarre, Pa., writes as follows to the Philadelphia Times: The total number of employes of the anthracite mines in the year 1899 was 140,583, classified as follows:
In 1899 these 140,583 employes prepared for market 54,000,000 tons of coal. In 1898 it took 142,000 employes to prepare 47,000,000 tons for market, and in 1897 149,000 employes only prepared 47,000,000 tons. This shows a decrease in the number of employes of 7,000 from 1897 to 1899 inclusive and an increase of 7,000,000 tons of coal produced. The men are still going away.
The lot of the coal miner is hard indeed, and that of his laborer is still harder, while no one can uphold the lot of the little mule drivers, the runners and the slate pickers without a sigh of sympathy. The most appalling thing about the whole business is that there are 34,000 of these boys, ranging from 10 years of age upward. These 34,000 infants are confined for ten hours per day in the dark, damp mine chambers fighting, training and driving vicious mules, with no light but the greasy lamp on their caps, or for the same number of hours they are engaged in the roaring, smoking breaker, grabbing out the slate as it rattles over the iron bars.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 27, 1900 Hazleton, Pennsylvania – Mitchell Declares Victory in Great Coal Strike
From the Philadelphia Times of October 26, 1900:
Special Telegram to THE TIMES.
HAZLETON, October 25.
The great coal strike is a thing of the past.
President Mitchell, at 8 o’clock this evening, issued a statement calling the miners to return to work at all operations where the strikers’ demands have been met. The statement follows:
Temporary Headquarters of the United Mine Workers of America, Hazleton, Pa., October 25, 1900.
To the Miners and Mine Workers of the Anthracite Region.
Gentlemen: After carefully canvassing the entire strike situation, we, your officers, district and national, have concluded that your victory is so nearly complete that no good end can be served by continuing the strike longer. The contest has been in progress for thirty-nine days and the companies employing you have, with few exceptions, signified their willingness to pay the scale of wages formulated by the Scranton convention of October 12 and 13.
We are aware that some disappointment and dissatisfaction has been caused by the failure of the operators in Districts No. 1 and 7 to separate the reduction in the price of powder from the advance in wages; but after careful inquiry we are satisfied that each mine employe will actually receive an advance of ten per cent. on the wages formerly paid. In the Schuylkill and Lehigh regions the largest companies have agreed that the sliding scale should be suspended; and that wages should remain stationary at ten per cent. until April 1, 1901, thus removing one of the iniquities of which you have complained for many years.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 13, 1900 Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1900, Part II Found in Pennsylvania Supporting Great Anthracite Strike
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 21, 1900:
POLISH WOMEN ATTACK POLICE —————
From a Staff Correspondent.
HAZLETON, Pa., Sept. 20.-Outside of a little flurry this morning at Shaft 40, the property of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, between a half dozen coal and iron police and a crowd of two hundred Hungarians and Polish women, the most startling thing up to noon was the arrival in Hazleton of Wharton Barker, Jr., and Mother Mary Jones. The former came up for a day’s trip only, to study the situation from the standpoint of a student, of social economics and in its political bearing; the latter will remain over until Saturday to rest up after her speech-making of the last week or so, which has worn down her voice to a whisper.
The trouble at Shaft 40, was directly due to the over officiousness of the coal and iron police in going from house to house to collect boys to work in the breakers. They had gathered in about fifty, and were returning to the shaft by way of East Diamond avenue, when a couple of hundred Hungarian women made a dash to rescue the lads. They were repulsed but made another sortie. There was some torn clothing, but nothing worse. The women got the better end of the conflict, as the discomfited officers were not able to corral more than a dozen of the lads, for duty at the colliery.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 12, 1900 Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1900, Part I Found Working with Pennsylvania Miners Ready to Strike
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 5, 1900:
A WOMAN’S WILL SWAYS THOUSANDS ——- “Mother” Mary Jones, of Chicago, Now Working Hand in Hand With Mine Workers’ Union, at Wilkes-Barre ——-
Special to The Inquirer.
WILKES-BARRE, Sept. 4.-The United Mine Workers’ Union here seems to be dominated by “Mother” Mary Jones, of Chicago, and she has full sway in dictating the policy of the union in the labor situation here.
She has not only every member of the United Mine Workers’ Union ready to strike, but her eloquent presentation of the wrongs suffered at the hands of the operator has made many new members, while an equal number are ready to follow the union men out without formally joining the organization.
Mrs. Jones has been working among the soft coal miners of the Meyersdale (Md.) and Central Pennsylvania districts since helping those in Tioga county to win their strike last winter.
Fifty-six years of age, she is bright and active. Her white hair commands respect, while her cheery face and manner hearten up the most morose assemblage.
[She said:]
The condition of the miner is most deplorable. He is the butt of a system of robbery. Of course, there are some good operators-men who would correct the grievances if they dared, but who are governed by others. In New Zealand the operators urge the men to organize, but in this country they shoot them down or get out an injunction and throw them into jail.
In this crisis if the operators don’t make concessions I believe that a strike is inevitable. The law says 2240 pounds make a ton. The operator expects 3300 from the miner. The miners are publicly robbed.
The company doctor is an imposition and ought to be driven out. The company store should not be tolerated. I don’t believe the men want to strike, but if it is their only alternative, I say strike.
I do not approve of strikes, but at times they are necessary and if the operators do not grant the just and equitable demands of the men there is but one thing for them to do-strike, and continue to strike until they gain fair treatment.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 9, 1900 Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Interviewed by Olivia Howard Dunbar
From the New York Evening World of September 25, 1900:
EVENING WORLD WOMAN INTERVIEWS “MOTHER JONES.” —————
Strikers Friend Tells Some Plain Truths About the Great Struggle Between the Miners and Operators. ——-
NO. IX. OF THE SERIES. BY OLIVIA HOWARD DUNBAR.
MOTHER JONES, THE STRIKERS’ FRIEND
(Special to The Evening World.)
MAHANOY CITY, Pa., Sept. 25.-“Please tell all the readers of The Evening World for me that we have succeeded in crippling the operators, that the situation is most encouraging, and that we expect an early victory.”
This was the message that “Mother” Jones intrusted to me to-day, and she smiled hopefully as she said it. Ceaselessly vigilant, she had come to Mahanoy City to dull any possible echo of the carnival of strife and slaughter that has resounded so menacingly through Shenandoah.
The situation was tense when she arrived, but there had been no outbreak. Outwardly the little city was unruffled. Early in the morning I had found a group of swarthy, eager-eyed Hungarian women applauding an effigy of a non-union workman that had been bound to an electric-light pole on Eighth street.
Their voices were shrill, their gestures violent. The suggestive spectacle had aroused all their fury against the class that they consider selfishly retards the movement that means life or death to them.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 8, 1900 Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – “There Is Only One Mother Jones”
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of September 23, 1900:
WILKESBARRE, Pa., Sept. 20.
Special Correspondence of the Sunday Post-Dispatch.
THERE is only one Mother Jones. Her field is all her own.
Clara Barton has her work of mercy, Susan B. Anthony has her equal suffrage. Mother Jones has her “boys”-the great, patient army that sweats and strives and suffers wherever there is labor to be done.
It is a big brood she mothers-a big, toilsome, troublesome brood, scattered all over the face of the land, delving in the earth and under the earth, swarming in mills and factories and sweatshops. There is seldom a time when some part of it is not on the ragged edge of hunger and in need of a mother’s help.
That is the time for Mother Jones. She has been called the stormy petrel of industry. Her appearance is a signal for those who grow rich by grinding the faces of the poor to “go slow,” and if they disregard the warning so much the worse for them and the better for organized labor.
For Mother Jones is the most successful organizer and sustainer of strikes in the country. That is why she is at Wilkes-barre now. That is why the miners expect to win. That is why the mine owners accompany her name with anathemas.
How does she do it? By the greatest of all powers-the power of love. She love her “boys”-be they Polish or Bohemian or Irish or American-and she teaches them to love her. The combination is irresistible. The ranks of the toilers stand firm at her bidding and the strategy dictated by her woman’s intuition does the rest.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 29, 1900 Hazleton District, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Organizing Women in Strike Zone
From the Philadelphia Times of September 24, 1900:
UNION OF THE WOMEN NOW TO BE FORMED ——- Mother Jones Tells the Plans to Organize the Wives and Daughters of Coal Miners Into an Auxiliary Association. ——-
(Written for The Times by “Mother” Mary Jone, the famous woman Labor Leader.)
As I have remarked In THE TIMES before, the greatest force in this strike, besides the men themselves, is the women of the coal regions, and we now are going to organize this force so that it can be used to greater advantages. National Organizers Mederiel, Dilcher and myselfhave already gone to work in the matter, and women’s auxiliaries have been organized in McAdoo and elsewhere. This work will be continued until every mother, wife, sister and daughter of the miners are part of the union.
The encouragement thus given to the men will hold them together in such solidity that no one can break the ranks. The position taken by the women in this strike has aroused the union working women in all parts of the country, and, owing to this, offers of help are pouring in from unions in every State. This shows that the united labor of the country is behind the 132,000 men who are on strike, and how hopeless is the struggle of the operators to defeat our organizations.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 27, 1900 Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Leads Army of Women from McAdoo to Coleraine
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 23, 1900:
Sketched on the Spot by an Inquirer Staff Artist. —————
WOMEN FIRED TO FRENZY MARCH ON MINES AND HUGGING THE WORKERS THEY FORCE THEM TO LEAVE THEIR POST ——- Females Led by Mother Jones Form a Strange and Remarkable Procession-Shouting and Waving Their Arms They Dance to Martial Music
From a Staff Correspondent.
HAZLETON, PA., Sept. 22-Unless there is a speedy close down of the mines whose operators persist in keeping them running with armed protection, there s going to be trouble in this district. When it comes, the women will be at the bottom of it. In the early hours this morning they swooped down upon Coleraine and Beaver Meadows. They were led by Mother Jones. They marched with a band at their head, the men falling back in the rear. In the journey some of the party were girls, who gave way to the wildest abandon and danced and shouted, waving their arms in the air.
On arriving at Coleraine, emotional frenzy reached its limit. The men who on their way to work were seized, When cold argument failed some of the women threw their arms about the miners’ necks and exercised all their powers of pleading. Unable to resist the demonstrative actions of the women, the miners gave in, and consented to return to their homes.
Flushed with victory, the raiding party proceeded on to Beaver Meadow. There were about a hundred women in it, and male recruits had been picked up all along the road, so that the entire aggregation numbered five or six hundred. They reached Beaver Meadow too late for any demonstration with the miners, as they were in the colliery at work.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 21, 1900 Mother Jones in Pennsylvania: Great Strike Forced by Starvation Conditions
From the Philadelphia Times of September 17, 1900:
NO “FULL DINNER PAIL” FOR ANTHRACITE MINERS
——-
Mother Jones Says the Great Strike Was Forced on
the Workmen by Actual Starvation and Suffering.
——-
Written for The Times by “MOTHER” MARY JONES, the Woman Labor Leader
CARBONDALE, September 16.
Questions have been asked by hundreds, who are not familiar with the matter, why the miners have struck. After visiting nearly every mine in the anthracite region I think I am enabled to write intelligently on the subject, and I can say truthfully that they were forced to act by starvation.
For years the wages of the men have been falling lower and lower, while the combinations of capital have been forcing the prices of the necessities of life upwards, until, taking these two facts jointly, the mine worker to-day does not get more than one-half of what he did a few years ago for his labor. In fact, the trusts and combinations have made the conditions such that the miner had to strike or starve.
In every town I have visited I found that it is with only an economy so rigid that it is unknown outside of the coal fields, that the majority of the families manage to exist at all. The “full dinner pail” is something that is unknown in this region. The term “full dinner pail” suggests plenty of meat and bread and vegetables. It suggests thorough and robust living, but as are many other things related of the mine workers, the assertion that they have such food is miserably false. The “full dinner pail” means that, though the tin may shine throughout the furnishing of a tidy house wife, inside, instead of roast beef and vegetables and other things, there are usually a couple of slices of dry bread and a small piece of ham or pork. The whole would make a poor sandwich. The wife has to strive hard to make even this meagre fare last through the month. With flour fifteen per cent. higher than four years ago, beef ten per cent. higher, sugar two and three cents a pound more, pork ten per cent. higher, and all other food as costly, and with average wages down to less than one dollar a day for the year around, the readers of The Times have the real cause of the strike.
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