Tag: John Fallon

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1902, Part V: Found Speaking in Holyoke and Celebrating Mitchell Day in Wilkes-Barre

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Coming of the Lord, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 19, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1902, Part V
Found Speaking in Holyoke and Celebrating John Mitchell Day in Wilkes-Barre

From the Holyoke Daily Transcript of October 27, 1902:

MOTHER JONES SPEAKS.
———-

LARGE AUDIENCE LISTENS
———-
The Most Successful Socialist Rally
Held Here For Many Years.
———-

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

“Mother Jones, the miners’ friend” who has become well known all over the country for her fierce defence of the miners in the coal strike, and who has been arrested in the mining regions several times for her utterances, lectured in this city at the city hail last evening. That she was one of the persons who gained in popularity for her course was shown by the enthusiastic reception she received here. She was welcomed by the largest audience of any campaign speaker this fall, and the largest which attended a socialist rally for years, in Holyoke. It was attributed to her cause in which she appears to be in sympathy body and soul, and to the active part she has taken in it. “Mother” Jones is a pleasant-faced woman who speaks clearly and convincingly, and at times with the most bitting sarcasm. She made a big hit with the large audience. She has force and eloquence. She has been speaking a week in New England.

E. A. Buckland, the congressional candidate of the Socialist party, in this district, presided and introduced L. F. Fuller of Springfield, as the first speaker.

It was 8.30 o’clock before the speaking began.

Mr. Fuller said that a great case was on trial, a case of dollars against men. “The statement is sometimes made that money always did rule and always will rule. This is not true; as in the case of primeval man, money did not rule, and it is my firm belief that it will not long rule. In this country we do not recognize a governmental despotism, but an industrial despotism has already taken place. Abraham Lincoln placed labor above capital. Even in this country the hardest work is done by those who have the least. Labor is the creator of all values. We notice that the home-owners are disappearing. In the last few years the percentage of home-owners has dropped from 69 to 34 per cent. Socialism demands justice for humanity. The socialist objects to dividing up. If the laboring man was not continually dividing up the profits of his labor, there would be no millionaires in this country.

“Mother” Jones, at her introduction, was received with hearty applause.

One of the most important statements made by Mrs. Jones was that the strike is not at an end. She said the commission appointed by the president was organized because an election was approaching. Mrs. Jones wanted to know why the president took the insults of the coal barons so mildly sometime ago and then consulted with Morgan last Sunday on a yacht. She said the miners went back because of public opinion and public opinion did not care for them until the matter was brought home to the people by empty coal bins.

In speaking for organized labor co-operating with the socialists she said that during her 30 years’ acquaintance with the coal regions not a single clergyman protested against the oppression of the miners until the United Mine Workers entered the district. She said that if there is any Christian religion today it is in organized labor.

In speaking of the operators of Pennsylvania and the manner in which they treat the miners she said the operators can violate the law any time they please and 10 times a day if they desire. They seem to own the world, and all the people thrown in. She pictured the manner in which the coal barons live in contrast with the bare existence of the miners, who are compelled to bring their young children into the mines to help get a living. She made much of the journey of Morgan and some others across the continent when wine costing $35 a bottle was opened.

[…..]

She said the strike will not be settled in the coal regions until the miners get what belongs to them. They did not want charity, they wanted justice. Solidarity of labor, she said, was still in its incipiency. Mention was made of the probability of a strike of engineers and firemen that would overshadow the one now in existence. She said much was being urged against the militia and other weapons of the capitalists, but the greatest danger to the miners is the injunction.

In conclusion she urged the working people to emancipate themselves [by] the power of organized labor and by voting the socialist ticket at the polls.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1902, Part I: Speaks in Iowa, Takes Part in Anthracite Strike Conference in New York

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Coming of the Lord, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 15, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1902, Part I
Found in Colfax, Iowa, and at New York Anthracite Strike Conference

From the Des Moines Registrar and Leader of October 1, 1902:

Mother Jones HdLn Speaks at Colfax IA, DMns Reg Ldr p1, Oct 1, 1902

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

Colfax, Ia., Sept. 30.-(Special.)-Mother Jones, the famous organizer of the miners in the anthracite region, gave an address, tonight at the Methodist church, and urged the miners of the Sixth district to work for John P. Reese of Albia for congress. Mother Jones denounced the capitalists of the country in severe terms, and was bitter against the use of the injunction by the courts. Her address was listened to by a large audience, composed for the most part of miners. Immediately after her speech, Mother Jones started across the country to Prairie City and caught a night train for Albia, where she will speak. She will also deliver an address at Ottumwa and then return east.

Mother Jones is now over sixty years of age, her hair being white as snow. Yet she is vigorous and energetic, and speaks with wonderful feeling and eloquence when describing the sufferings of the miners in the anthracite regions. She urged the miners and workingmen to wake up and work for their rights.

[She said:]

You don’t need a gun. Let us bury the bullet and resurrect the ballot.

Wants Iowa to Act.

I want Iowa to be the first state to carry the banner of organized labor into congress and elect a workingman to that body. I want a worker to make laws for me and not a henchman. If ever an awakening comes in this country it must come now. The injunction must be stopped. I plead with you young men; shall you all be slaves or shall you be men? You have got to take hold of this government and run it for all the people. It is your duty to see that the next congressman from this district is a miner so that the next congress shall have a miner in it. When the last injunction bill was up before congress there was no one there to press it, because no one there had felt the sting of the injunction injustice.

I say down with the government that upholds injunctions. I repeat I want to see the next congress have a miner in it. When the corporations see the workingmen waking up and electing workingmen to office they will tremble. You have got to break up this corporate power. The only way to break it up is by legislation. If you men feel that you are too big cowards to do it, stand aside and let us women do it and we’ll show you how. Woman is the greater sufferer from the power of corporate wealth.

Mother Jones, at the outset of her address, spoke of the progress of the human race and the various inventions that have been made.

[She said:]

Yet the workers have not the benefit of these inventions. A few men who have never done anything in their lives have taken advantage of them all and the human race stands aghast and asks “What shall we do?” If these inventions have been produced by society, why should one band of thieves and robbers, and assassins, and plunderers possess them to the detriment of all the rest? That is the great question before the human race. There is no other question before you. You have the labor question to settle, and it will be settled in this century. The men who produce the wealth will have the wealth.

Who has built your magnificent homes and public buildings? Who have gone down into the depths of the earth and toiled sixteen hours a day? The workers. Who live in your palaces? The parasite. Why? Because he has plundered other men of what they produce. When he boasts of prosperity, what is it to 30,000 breaker boys in the anthracite region? That you can make money by scheming doesn’t make a nation prosperous. You can’t have a prosperous nation until the workers prosper. If you give to your nation an illiterate broken down body of workers, ruin will overtake your country.

Mother Jones paid her respects to Morgan for saying he had nothing to arbitrate, and to Baer, who says he owns the earth and is the “steward of the Almighty.”

[She said:]

I wish he would take care of these men and women down in West Virginia, if he is the Almighty’s steward, as he claims.

[And again:]

Every page of every book of every Carnegie library in the country is written with the blood of Homestead.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1902, Part I: Speaks in Iowa, Takes Part in Anthracite Strike Conference in New York” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1902, Part III: Found in Pennsylvania Anthracite Region, Returns to West Virginia

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 11, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1902, Part III
Found in Anthracite Region of Pennsylvania, Returns to West Virginia

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of August 11, 1902:

MOTHER JONES CONDEMNS
———-
She Does Look With Favor
on Certain Statements.

BELIEVES THAT IT IS ONLY A QUESTION OF A SHORT TIME
UNTIL THE MINERS WIN-TRAINMEN UP IN ARMS.
———-

 

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

President Mitchell spent yesterday at Scranton, the guest of friends. His visit was one of pleasure and had no bearing on the strike situation. He returned last evening but had nothing of an interesting nature to disclose. He is still confident of the ultimate results.

Mother Jones still remains in the city and unless the present plans are changed she will deliver an address this afternoon at Nanticoke. Mother Jones has no particular love for Father O’Reilly and believes the latter to be unwise in his assertion about the miners and their organization. She believes that he will profit by his indiscretion. When told that he had delivered another address derogatory to the miners’ cause, she waxed warm, saying that if the occasion permitted; she would go to Shenandoah and tell the miners some pertinent facts.

[Declared Mother Jones:]

I know the miners are going to win this struggle, and every just man who is a competent observer of the prevailing conditions must be actuated by the same feeling. It is fallacy for even biased persons to harbor the idea that the miners are not steadfast. They show the same determined spirit, are practically speaking, of one mind and will never swerver the least iota from that course, they planned to take. The time is not far distant when the operators must mine coal or else lose their markets. In September the consumers will make an effort to get anthracite, and if they cannot they will look elsewhere and once the grates are changed it will take years, perhaps, before they resume the use of hard coal. If the operators permit it their business ability is not as great as credited. There may be an attempt made to operate the mines with non-union men, but the number will be so decidedly small and the work incompetently done, the effort will be given up with disgust. The operators will, after the trials, comprehend the determination of the men and will make the necessary concessions. The people of this country can rest assured that the miners are going to win this strike.

How about the one in West Virginia? asked the reporter.

[Mother Jones continued:]

We will not give up until the same results are achieved. Some of the places are completely tied up and victory is only a question of a short time. The collieries at Fairmont have not been reached, that I will admit, but do you know that there is a fence built around the town and no one in allowed to enter unless a permit is secured from some company agent. The men of West Virginia are partly paid in script, receive their money every month, sometimes every six weeks, deal in ‘”pluck me” stores and undergo other indignities. No American can or will endure such conditions.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1902, Part II: Judge Jackson, “Poor Old Man With Old Ideas,” and a Poem by O. L. Ford

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones, OL Ford, Typo Jr p86, July 15, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 10, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1902, Part II
Mother Jones Describes Judge Jackson; “Mother Jones” by O. L. Ford

From The Scranton Times of August 8, 1902:

POOR OLD MAN WITH OLD IDEAS
———-

SO “MOTHER” JONES SPEAKS WHEN REFERRING
TO JUDGE JACKSON, OF WEST VIRGINIA.
———-

HE MEANS ALRIGHT BUT HE’S
OLD FASHIONED
———-

The Distinguished Woman Arrived in the City at Noon Today to Address a Meeting in North Scranton-Will Leave for West Virginia Tomorrow, Where She is Positive Miners Will Score a Victory.

Mother Jones, Coal Miners, Cnc Pst p6, July 23, 1902

“Mother” Jones, probably the second strongest force in the United Mine Workers’ organisation, arrived in the city at noon today. “Mother” Jones came from West Virginia, where she has been a conspicuous figure in the labor troubles in that state. This afternoon she is making an address to a mass meeting of strikers in St. Mary’a hall, North Scranton.

John Fallon, of Wilkes-Barre, a member of the executive board of the Miners’ union, accompanied “Mother” Jones. He was also one of the speakers at the North End meeting this afternoon.

When seen at the Delaware & Hudson depot by a Times reporter “Mother” Jones expressed herself as greatly pleased to be in Scranton again. During the past sixteen months she has been working among the miners of West Virginia.

“Mother” Jones will return to West Virginia.

[She said in this interview:]

We have not given up the fight there. The majority of the residents of West Virginia never really knew what a laboring man’s organization was, and now we are attempting to enlighten them.

I am sure we will win out there. It cannot be denied that we have a very formidable obstacle in our path as regards the weapon the capitalists have found in the courts-injunction proceedings-but we have the grit and the determination, and we will win. They are good fighters in West Virginia, that is, the laboring men there are.

“Mother” Jones was asked what she thought of Judge Jackson, the West Virginia jurist who sentenced a number of miners to a lengthy period in jail.

[Said Mother Jones:]

Oh, Judge Jackson means all right. He is an old man, however, and he has old ideas. He never knew what a laboring organization was, and when he sentenced these men his old-fashioned ideas prevented him from viewing the matter in a just manner. As I said in Indianapolis, he means well, but the poor man has been asleep for 40 years. Some day he will awake.

“Mother” Jones called attention to the important admission made by a prosecuting attorney in one of the West Virginia courts. “We have had the militia and the iron and coal police here,” said this man in arguing an injunction proceeding, “but injunctions have proven to be the strongest aid to the coal operators.”

District President Nichols met “Mother” Jones and Board Member Fallon at the depot and accompanied her to her hotel.

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1902, Part II: Judge Jackson, “Poor Old Man With Old Ideas,” and a Poem by O. L. Ford” →