Homestake SD WFM Lockout of 1909-1910

Quote Mother Jones, No master no slave, Speech Dec 9, NY Cl p2, Dec 10, 1909 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 13, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1910, Part II:
-Found Supporting the Miners of the Black Hills in South Dakota

From the Black Hills Daily Register of February 22, 1910:

Mother Jones Sends Money

James Kirwan yesterday received a letter from Mother Jones, who is now in Milwaukee, informing him that she was coming to Lead to take a hand in the fight for the right to organize. She asked no money, but, on the contrary, enclosed a check for one hundred dollars, with these words:

My boys in Lead gave me one hundred and fifty dollars for the 1909 Labor Day speech. Fifty dollars of this sum I gave to the Mexicans and I am sending you the balance for the locked-out Black Hills boys.

Further along in her letter, Mother says:

Tell the boys to keep up that fight. Have no surrender written on the banners of the Western Federation of Miners. I am coming up there to take a hand. The Hearst crowd of blood-suckers are organizing to get more profits. We also have a right to organize to give that crew of blood-suckers less profits. Tell my boys to stand pat. Mother.

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From the Socialist Montana News of February 24, 1910:

[Mother Jones in Milwaukee]

A non-partisan anti-high-price mass meeting was called for Feb. 15 by the Milwaukee Federated Trades Council Among the speakers who addressed the meeting were A. M. Simons, editor of the Chicago Daily Socialist, and Mother Jones. This so hurt the feelings of Senator Stephenson’s organ, the Free Press, that it indulged in several columns of abuse against the meeting. It had a great deal to say about the “poor attendance” of the meeting, although the hall was packed to the doors, and many were obliged to stand.

The real grievance of this capitalist sheet was that the capitalist politician who addressed the meeting cut a poor figure, having no remedy to offer except the enforcement of the law and investigation of facts which our pocket-books already understand all too well, while the Socialist speakers made ringing addresses which were roundly applauded. Resolutions that the people must own the trusts were adopted by the audience without one dissenting vote.

[Paragraph break added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1910, Part II: Found Supporting Black Hills Miners of South Dakota” →

Quote Mother Jones, Parade past swells who wear waists, Speech Dec 9, NY Cl p2, Dec 10, 1909 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 9, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1909, Part I:
-Found in New York City Speaking to Shirtwaist Strikers

From the New York Call of December 10, 1909:

“This is not a play this is a fight!”

With these ringing words, Mother Jones, the valiant agitator for the freedom of the workers, struck the keynote of the enthusiastic mass meeting, in behalf of the waist strikers, held by Local New York, of the Socialist party in Thalia Theater yesterday afternoon. The big crowd applauded this sentiment to the echo……

Mother Jones Speaks.

Mother Jones, the friend of the miners and champion of all oppressed, was greeted with a very hearty reception by the big crowd. She was in excellent conditions. As she scored the system with sledge-hammer blows of logic and wit, the enthusiasm of the crowd broke into storms of applause.

[Said Mother Jones in opening:]

Through all the ages you have built a wonderful monument of civilization, but you don’t own it. You make all the fine waists, but you do not wear them. You work hard and are poorly paid, and now you have been forced to strike for better conditions of labor, shorter hours and higher wages.

You ought to parade past the shops where you work and up the avenues where the swells who wear the waists you make live. They won’t like to see you, they will be afraid of you!

If I belonged to a union and was on strike I would insist that we parade past the shops and homes of the masters.

You must stick together to win. The boss looks for cheap workers. When the child can do the work cheaper he displaces the woman. When the woman can do the work cheaper he displaces the man. But when you are organized you have something to say about the conditions of labor and your wages. You must stand shoulder to shoulder. The women must fight in the labor movement beside man. Every strike that I have ever been in was won by the women.

Last Great Fight of Man.

[Declared Mother Jones, as she concluded amid storms of applause:]

Whether you know of it or not, this is the last great fight of man against man. We are fighting for the time when there will be no master and no slave. When the fight of the workers to own the tools with which they toil is won, for the first time in human history man will be free.

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[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1909, Part I: Found in New York City Speaking to Shirtwaist Strikers” →