Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part III: Speaks at Meeting of Indianapolis Central Labor Union Against Stag Banquets

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 16, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part III
-Speaks at Meeting of Indianapolis Central Labor Union

From The Los Angeles Record of January 27, 1903:

“MOTHER JONES” TO THE MINERS

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

Mother Jones, the woman champion of the United Mine Workers, stirred their convention in Indianapolis by a speech denouncing the use of the pistol in labor disputes. She said:

You old gray beards are going to see a new epoch. You have been crying that we are in a country without liberty, but you have not gone out and fought to get it. That you are going to do and you won’t use pistol to get it either. We will shoot such men as Judge Jackson off the bench, and it won’t be with a gun.

Good for “Mother Jones.”

She is talking Americanism straight from the shoulder. No one can charge this white-haired old woman with incendiarism when she sticks to the ballot box.

The pistol is a relic of barbarism-a barbarism from which the Anglo-Saxon has not yet emerged.

Capital is shrewd. Sometimes it employes “private detectives,” not so much to guard property, as to provoke violence. The strikers oppose pistol to pistol. They lose public sympathy and the strike.

“Mother Jones” knows this and the miners are coming to know it, as is attested by their applause at the utterance.

Two so-called gospels have distinguished the last decade or so, each diametrically opposed to the other:

Nietache’s gospel is the gospel of brute force.
Tolstoi’s gospel is comprehended in “Resist not evil.”

So long as men and women are as they are either of these doctrines run to its legitimate extreme is absurd.

We must resist evil, not by brute force, but by education, agitation and finally, and forcefully, at the ballot box.

That is civilization.

That is the evolution of society.

[Photograph added.]

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 27, 1903:

CENTRAL LABOR UNION
———-

RESOLUTION FAVORING SUNDAY
BASEBALL ADOPTED.
———-
Women Object to Being Excluded
from the Banquet to Miners
To-Morrow Night.
———-

The Central Labor Union at a meeting held last night, adopted a resolution favoring the passage of the bill now before the Legislature legalizing Sunday baseball. The resolution was introduced by John L. Feltman, who spoke briefly in explanation of it.

President George A. Custer was absent last night and the chair was occupied by Vice President Edgar A. Perkins.

[…..]

The report of the committee, which arranged the miners’ banquet to be given Thursday night, by William F. Ewald precipitated a storm. The report described the programme of entertainment and furnished the names of the men who will serve on the committees to entertain the miners and operators. It concluded with the statement that the banquet was to be for the men delegates only, and the women delegates to the body, as well as the women in the Label League, would be entertained subsequently in a little affair to be planned for them. Delegates immediately objected to this and declared that women ought to be admitted and they could see no reason for their exclusion. After a long discussion of the merits and demerits of the last banquet and the possibility of a recurrence of several unpleasant features, “Mother” Jones, who was a guest of the evening, made a talk which smoothed over the obstacles to peace, and the report of the committee was concurred in. The women were still unsatisfied, however, and several of them voiced their disapproval by saying that they thought it was a shame that they could not go to the banquet.

“Mother” Jones was given a chance to speak during the meeting, and quickly drifted into socialism……

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part III: Speaks at Meeting of Indianapolis Central Labor Union Against Stag Banquets”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1902, Part II: Found Speaking at Convention of the United Mine Workers of America

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Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 17, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1902, Part II
Found Speaking at Indianapolis United Mine Workers Convention

From The Indianapolis News of January 21, 1902:

MOTHER JONES TALKED.
———-
A Speech to the Convention While
Waiting for Miss Meredith.

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

While the convention awaited the coming of Miss Meredith to make charges against the national officers, this forenoon, the committee called for “Mother Jones” and she responded in a stirring speech.

She said it was a critical time for the miners’ organization, and she urged cautious and intelligent action on the part of the organisation in order to accomplish its purposes. She related, in an interesting way, her experiences in strikes and in the mining districts in the East.

One characteristic incident was of a time when a strike was on and the mining company’s policeman called on her to keep her from taking the miners’ part.

“Who are you?” she asked the policeman.

“The company’s watchman,” the officer replied.

“Well,” replied “Mother” Jones, “the company doesn’t own me. I’m responsible to God Almighty and He and I stand in on this question.”

This met with vigorous applause from the miners.

She urged greater respect for the Mine Workers’ organization, and censured the man who refused to pay dues to the national organization.

[She exclaimed:]

You poor, benighted, brainless creature that you are. You poor, ignorant, slaving serf. If the company offered you a barrel of beer, you would take it and fill your stomach; but won’t pay 25 cents to help the national organization.

She said the miners must be intelligent enough to emancipate themselves.

You have emancipated the mules that work with you and demanded that they shall be turned out to grass, but you nave not emancipated yourselves. The mule enjoys the air and grass, while you still toil down in the bad air of the mine working more than eight hours a day.

In a pathetic way she told of miners’ children, and in conclusion she said:

I plead with you men to go home and do your duty as men. Young men miners who work in the mines all day long and come out at night and never read a book. You don’t seem to study your coal trade only over men whom you have to deal with. Study your work and be prepared to take your post. You must be ready to go to jail, and must be willing to face bullets or even be hanged for your principles.

[Note: Miss Meredith charged that President John Mitchell and Secretary-Treasure William B. Wilson had minimized embezzlement committed by ex-Secretary W. C. Pearce, which charges were unanimously rejected by the Convention]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1901, Part III: Found in Indianapolis Speaking on Evils of Child Labor in Pennsylvania

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Quote Mother Jones re School for Little Breaker Boys, Ipl Ns p3, Jan 29, 1901———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 13, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1901, Part III
Found Speaking in Indianapolis on Evils of Child Labor in Pennsylvania

From the Indianapolis Sunday Journal of January 27, 1901:

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail Crpd, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900

“Mother” Jones and Mr. Debs.

Eugene V. Debs and “Mother” Jones will deliver public addresses in the Criminal Court room to-morrow night. Mrs. Jones will speak especially to the women, and particularly to women who belong to labor or trades organizations. To-morrow afternoon Mr. Debs will speak to the miners at their convention.

———-

[Photograph added.]

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 29, 1901:

OFFICERS’ REPORT 
[-from Miners’ Convention]

In the afternoon many resolutions, principally of importance to the miners only, were passed then the committee on officers’ reports was heard. After some discussion the report was adopted by sections. Of important bearing was the adoption of President Mitchell’s recommendation to organize a woman’s auxiliary union. The convention adopted the recommendation and gave the power of appointing an organizer to President Mitchell. It is understood that “Mother” Jones will be appointed organizer…..

———-

DOWN IN THE COAL MINES.
———–
“Mother” Jones Graphically Describes
Child Labor In Pennsylvania.

“Mother” Jones addressed a meeting of mine workers and their friends in the Criminal Court room last evening on the subject of “Employment of Child Labor in the Mines.” Although her address was primarily intended to be in the interest of the miners, she made a general plea for all branches of labor. Quite a number of working girls were present and the eloquent appeals made in their behalf met with hearty applause from them. The speaker described the condition which prevails among the breaker boys of the mines of Pennsylvania, where boys of eleven years work thirteen hours a day for a wage scale of 1 cent an hour.

The miners and their families, she declared, are the helpless slaves of the great combinations of capital and the operators who own and control the mines. In those regions when a child is born, the day is eagerly looked forward to when he will be old enough to do a day’s work, and when that day arrives he is taken by his father to the operator of the mine, to whom his services are offered for a pittance. Some of the worst details of the present system were gone into and the need of organization among all the miners of the country was strongly urged.

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