Tag: Hearings bf U. S. House Committee on Rules re HJ Res 201 Providing for a Joint Committee to Investigate Alleged Persecutions of Mexican Citizens by the Government of Mexico of June 1910

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1912, Part II: Four Score Hard Winters of Labor’s Heroine Described by Lawrence Todd

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, No Abiding Place, WDC Hse Com Testimony, June 14, 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 28, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1912, Part II
The Four Score Hard Winters of Labor’s Heroine by Lawrence Todd

From The Tacoma Times of February 14, 1912:

Four Score Hard Winters Has Mother Jones Seen,
and She Is a Heroine in Labor’s Ranks Still
———-

BY LAWRENCE TODD.

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912

“Where do you live, ‘”Mother Jones?” asked the chairman of a Congressional investigating committee of a little old woman in rusty black.

She had kindly, determined Irish features and the most piercing and confusing of blue Irish eyes. Brave, kindly, faith-inspiring eyes the old woman had, and a motherly way of speaking when she was not aroused. But this chairman was trying to defend the steel barons from the charge of enslaving their men.

“I live in the United States, sorr,” she replied.

“But where-in what state have you a home?”

“Where the big thieves are wringing their dollars out of the blood and bone of my poor, miserable people, sorr,” came back the reply, in a voice like that of an accusing judge. “Sometimes it is among the slaves of the Alabama iron mines; sometimes with the gold and silver miners of Arizona, where the Southern Pacific has fastened itself on their throats; sometimes with the boys on the northern copper range, and often in the coal miners’ shacks in Pennsylvania or West Virginia. Where you send your militia where men are shot and women driven from their homes at night by armed bullies, there I stay.”

“Mother” Jones is nearly 80 years of age. What she told the corporation congressman is literally true. For more than a generation she has been an organizer for the Western Federation of Miners and for their brothers, the United Mine Workers. Strikes she has seen and taken a part in, since she was a little girl in a southern cotton mill. Once she led 1,500 women of the coal miners’ families against a Colorado sheriff and his deputies. The sheriff for once was driven back from the strikers picket line.

At another crisis, when the children of the Philadelphia factories were crying for protection, “Mother” Jones shocked the community by organizing a great parade of 7,000 crippled and maimed boys and girls, ragged and pale, underfed and haggard as factory children always become, to march through the streets of the fashionable shopping quarter. Always she is making a fight against social wrongs. Usually she is dramatic about it. Always her warm heart and her fearless tongue, and her white forehead that has more than once been pressed by the muzzle of a deputy’s gun, endear her to the wretched people who spend their days in factories and mines.

Just now the miners have lent “Mother” to the striking stoop employes of the Harriman railroads in the western country, where she is making appeals to the women to do picket duty. Incidentally she visited the convention of the California State Building Trades council at Fresno, and urged the delegates to stand by their officials, Tveitmoe and Johannsen, indicted in connection with the alleged dynamiting conspiracy.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America, Held at Columbus, Ohio

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Quote Mother Jones, Grow Big Great Mighty Show CFnI, UMWC p269 Jan 21, 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 23, 1911
Columbus, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks at Miners’ Convention

From the Washington Sunday Star of January 22, 1911:

LIE IS PASSED FREELY AT MINERS’ CONVENTION
—–
“Mother Jones” Makes Address Calling
Supreme Court Judges Real Anarchists.
———

Mother Jones crpd ed, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

COLUMBUS, Ohio, January 21.-Control of the United Mine Workers’ convention came to a severe test in the contest for the seating of delegates from nine locals of district No. 2 of central Pennsylvania. Charges of falsehoods were made freely by each side and the convention finally adjourned to continue the fight Monday.

Expected contests over the seating of President Francis Feehan of the Pittsburg district did not materialize and he was seated without final objection.

“Mother” Jones spoke before the convention. She classes members of the United States Supreme Court and Gov. Harmon of Ohio among “the real anarchists of the country.”

[…..]

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1910, Part II: Found Honored for Her Work on Behalf of the Mexican Political Refugees

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Save Our Mexican Comrades, AtR p3, Feb 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 14, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1910, Part II:
-Found Praised for Her Work on Behalf of Mexican Comrades

From the Appeal to Reason of July 2, 1910:

Mother Jones in Washington.

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

Mother Jones has for two weeks been in Washington where she went to testify in behalf of the Mexican politician refugees. She has been courteously received even by members of congress who have no special leaning to labor’s cause, and was admitted to an audience with Taft. She said this was a courtesy which was denied her by Roosevelt. After she had laid the case of the Mexican prisoners before the president, Taft remarked:

“Mother, I am afraid if I were to put the pardoning power in your hands, there wouldn’t be any men left in the penitentiaries.”

To this Mother Jones replied:

And, indeed, Mr. President, if this nation spent half as much money keeping men out as she does keeping them in, we wouldn’t need so many penitentiaries.

Mother described her residence to Washington reporters as “wherever there is a labor war,” which is literally true.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for June 1910, Part III: “Friend of Labor” Interviewed in Washington, D. C., by Selene Armstrong

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Quote Mother Jones, Husband Children, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 19, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1910, Part III:
-Interviewed by Selene Armstrong in Washington, D. C.

From The Washington Times of June 18, 1910:

Mother Jones, Home ed, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910Thus spoke Mother Jones, the plucky little white-haired woman, whose home, to use her own words, is “wherever there’s a labor war, and the President of the United States, when she had journeyed across half a continent to lay before him for the first time the cases of a number of political refugees in prison in Arizona, Kansas, and other Western States.

Today and on other days this week, Mother Jones has been busy at the Capitol, where it said that members of certain committees before which she has appeared have gasped for breath and begged for mercy before she had finished outlining to them their duties in regard to the Mexicans whose freedom she seeks from the Government.

Meets Old Friends.

She has hobnobbed with her old friends Representatives Wilson and Nicholls of Pennsylvania, and has made new friends of many other statesmen, who, however little they sympathize with her decided views on this or that public question, cannot harden their hearts against the cheery good humor and keen wit which radiate from her.

When asked by Chairman Dalzell of the Rules Committee of the House, before which she has appeared this week, to state her place of residence, Mother Jones replied:

My home is wherever there a labor war, sir.

The life story of this little woman with the snow white hair, the childlike blue eyes, and the look of perennial youthfulness on her face, would, if it were written, be the history of the of cause of organized labor. For thirty years she has traveled throughout the length and breath of the land in order to stand by the workers in time of stress. In the roughest mining camps of the West, and in the crowded tenement districts of eastern cities, she has brought to the women of the working class a woman’s gentle counsel, and to the men sagacity and keen judgement the equal of a man’s.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for June 1910, Part II: Found Testifying Before House Rules Committe on Behalf of Mexican Refugees

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, No Abiding Place, WDC Hse Com Testimony, June 14, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 18, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1910, Part II:
-Found in Washington, D. C., Testifying Before House Committee

From the San Francisco Call of June 15, 1910:

“MOTHER” JONES DENOUNCES DIAZ
—–
Mexican Refugees Persecuted by American Officers,
She Tells House Committee
—–
Writer Declares Los Angeles Detectives Open
Private Letters in Postoffice
—

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

WASHINGTON, June 14.—”Mother” Jones addressed the rules committee of the house today in behalf of the Mexican refugees, who, it is alleged, are being persecuted in the United States through the agencies of American officers and Mexican government “spies.”

Mrs. Jones related that while she was in Douglas, Ariz., addressing a meeting, of “the unorganized slaves who work in the smelters,” she witnessed the kidnaping of a Mexican refugee, who, she said, was seized, strangled, thrown into an automobile and carried across the line into Mexico.

“Mother” Jones” denounced President Diaz of Mexico for sending “his hirelings across the border to crush the constitution of our country.”

John Kenneth Turner, a magazine writer, and John Murray, a newspaper writer, continued their testimony. The offering of evidence was finished today and the committee will decide within a few days whether an investigation by congress shall be recommended.

Murray testified to the opening of his own mail and that of a large number of other persons by the American authorities.

Turner said he had discovered city detectives in the Los Angeles postoffice examining the mail of Mexican residents there. He also told of the suppression by the authorities of many small newspapers published by Mexican refugees in various cities in Texas, California and Arizona.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones, the Stormy Petrel, Interviewed in Washington D.C., Remembers Martin Irons

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Quote Mother Jones re Martin Irons Sleeps, AtR p4, May 11 1907———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 25, 1910
Washington, District of Columbia – Mother Jones Remembers Martin Irons

From The Labor Argus of June 23, 1910:

Labor Progressing, Says Mother Jones
—–

Workers of Today Do Their Own Thinking Declares
“Stormy Petrel” In Special Interview
—–

Mother Jones, ed Cameron Co PA Prs p1, Apr 7, 1910

Washington, D. C., June 22.-“The workingmen of this country are at last beginning to think for themselves.”

These significant words came from the lips of Mother Jones, the gray-haired labor agitator, who for the last thirty years has participated in every labor struggle of any prominence, whose presence on the field of action inspires courage and hope among the workers, and strikes terror in the hearts of the masters.

[Said Mother, as she is fondly called by the millions of her boys:]

In the years gone by, the workers were absolutely helpless and dependent on the ability and loyalty of the leaders. Today the leaders are absolutely helpless and dependent on the strength and intelligence of the rank and file.

The work of the old warriors of the labor movement, who have blazed the way with sacrifices for a cause that burned their souls, is bearing fruit. The workers are at last fired with the spirit of revolt and religiously and industrially they are working out their own salvation.

With the force and strength characteristic of the “Stormy Petrel,” and with a sudden brightening of her kindly face, she transmitted to her interviewer the thoughts that were stirring her soul when she uttered, “They are working out their own salvation.”

[Continued Mother Jones:]

There are any number of plain workingmen, who for clearness and logic in analyzing and understanding economic questions can give cards and spades to any Senator and Representative in Washington.

Workingmen of today exchange ideas and discuss important problems in the workshops, at their union meetings, and in their ever growing labor press. These are the most promising signs of the times.

Mother Jones has spent the last ten days in Washington, doing her utmost to secure a congressional investigation of the persecution of the Mexican political refugees in this country. When she was called upon to testify at the hearing on Representative Wilson’s resolution for an investigation of these outrages before the House committee on rules, Chairman Dalzell asked her to state the place of her residence.

“I live wherever the workers are fighting the robbers,” she replied to the surprise and embarrassment of a number of corporation men who are members of the committee.

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Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Mother Jones before House Committee on Behalf of Persecuted Mexican Refugees, Part II

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Quote Mother Jones, No Abiding Place, WDC Hse Com Testimony, June 14, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 18, 1910
Washington D. C. – Mother Jones Before House Rules Committee, Part II

Washington D. C., June 14, 1910-During the morning session of the Hearings before the House Rules Committee on H.J. Res. 201, “Providing for a Joint Committee To Investigate Alleged Persecutions of Mexican Citizens by the Government of Mexico,” Mother Jones continued her testimony as follow:

STATEMENT OF MRS. MARY JONES

[Part II of II.]

Mother Jones re Mex Rev, Lebanon PA Dly Ns p7, June 15, 1910
Lebanon Daily News
June 15, 1910

I left there [Arizona] then, but in 1908, immediately after the campaign. I learned from those men in jail at Los Angeles their condition [Ricardo Flores Magon, Librado Rivera, and Antonio I. Villareal]. They were without money, without aid, and I felt that they were just like Kosciuszko, Carl Schurz, Kossuth, and Garibaldi, and men of that kind, who received protection in our country from the tyrannical governments which they fled from, and I felt they were entitled to some protection, and that if they were without money, but were in the fight for liberty, a fight against the most bloody tyrant that has been produced, I would protect them; and so, although I was not in very good health, I went out and raised $4,000. I sent it West to get stenographers, hire attorneys, and bring witnesses to Tombstone, Arizona, where they were to be tried. I did not expect any great amount of mercy from the court at Tombstone, because Judge Doan is not very humane man. People who are feasting and eating and drinking with those who own the fleshpots of Egypt are not generally very humane characters. But I still felt that probably through the efforts we were making, and the publicity we were giving it, they would not be turned over to be murdered, and if they could be saved from being murdered that would satisfy me, knowing that some day we would get them out of the clutches of the tyrant. And so they were tried and sentenced to eighteen days in Yuma. From there they were moved to the new prison.

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Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Mother Jones before House Committee on Behalf of Persecuted Mexican Refugees, Part I

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Quote Mother Jones, No Abiding Place, WDC Hse Com Testimony, June 14, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 17, 1910
Washington D. C. – Mother Jones Before House Rules Committee, Part I

Washington D. C., June 14, 1910-During the morning session of the Hearings before the House Rules Committee on H.J. Res. 201, “Providing for a Joint Committee To Investigate Alleged Persecutions of Mexican Citizens by the Government of Mexico,” Mother Jones was called to the stand by Congressman William B. Wilson of Pennsylvania. Mother testified as follow:

Mr. Wilson: Mr. Chairman, I would like to have Mother Jones speak.
The Chairman [Representative John Dalzell of Pennsylvania]:
Mother Jones, please give the stenographer your name and residence.

STATEMENT OF MRS. MARY JONES

[Part I of II.]

Mother Jones re Mex Rev, Lebanon PA Dly Ns p7, June 15, 1910
Lebanon Daily News
June 15, 1910

[Questioned by Chairman Dalzell:]

My name is Mary Jones. I live in the United States, but I do not know exactly in what place, because I am always in the fight against oppression, and wherever a fight is going on I have to jump there, and sometimes I am in Washington, sometimes in Pennsylvania, sometimes in Arizona, sometimes in Texas, and sometimes up in Minnesota, so that really I have no particular residence…No abiding place, but wherever a fight is on against wrong, I am always there. It is my pleasure to be in the fray.

[Mr. Wilson questions Mother about the kidnapping of Manual Sarabia from Douglas, Arizona, during summer of 1907:]

I was in Arizona at that time. We had a strike on there with the Philip Dodge copper interest. The smelters, the men, or the slaves, rather, working in the smelters, had not been organized, and I went down there in Douglas to help organize those workers.

[Wilson asks Mother if she would rather sit down] I am so accustomed to standing when I am talking that I am uncomfortable when sitting down. That is too easy. [Laughter.]

Well, I was holding a meeting on the streets of Douglas on Sunday night for the workers that were in the smelters. An automobile was run out from the jail, from what I learned afterwards and this young Sarabia was thrown into it.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Testifies before House Committee on Behalf of Persecuted Mexican Refugees

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Quote Mother Jones Save Our Mexican Comrades, AtR p3, Feb 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 16, 1910
Washington, District of Columbia – Mother Jones Denounces Diaz

From The San Francisco Call of June 15, 1910:

“MOTHER” JONES DENOUNCES DIAZ
—–
Mexican Refugees Persecuted
by American Officers,
She Tells House Committee
—–
Writer Declares Los Angeles Detectives
Open Private Letters in Postoffice
—–

Mother Jones re Mex Rev, Lebanon PA Dly Ns p7, June 15, 1910
Lebanon Daily News
June 15, 1910

WASHINGTON, June 14.—”Mother” Jones addressed the rules committee of the house today in behalf of the Mexican refugees, who, it is alleged, are being persecuted in the United States through the agencies of American officers and Mexican government “spies.”

Mrs. Jones related that while she was in Douglas, Ariz., addressing a meeting of “the unorganized slaves who work in the smelters,” she witnessed the kidnaping of a Mexican refugee [Manuel Sarabia], who, she said, was seized, strangled, thrown into an automobile and carried across the line into Mexico.

“Mother” Jones denounced President Diaz of Mexico for sending “his hirelings across the border to crush the constitution of our country.”

John Kenneth Turner, a magazine writer, and John Murray, a newspaper writer, continued their testimony. The offering of evidence was finished today and the committee will decide within a few days whether an investigation by congress shall be recommended.

Murray testified to the opening of his own mail and that of a large number of other persons by the American authorities.

Turner said he had discovered city detectives in the Los Angeles postoffice examining the mail of Mexican residents there. He also told of the suppression by the authorities of many small newspapers published by Mexican refugees in various cities in Texas, California and Arizona.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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