Tag: Mother Mary Harris Jones

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1912, Part II: Speaks in Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota on Behalf of Harriman Strikers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones, LW p3, Apr 20, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 20, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1912, Part II
Found Traveling Through Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota

From The Butte Miner of April 1, 1912:

HdLn Mother Jones Spks, Btt Mnr p5, Apr 1, 1912

 “Mother” Jones, a national figure in labor circles, a woman who has done a life’s work in the furtherment of the cause of humanity, regardless of position or circumstance, last night, with a vigor at her 89 years that would put to shame the lassitude of her sisters with less milestones to account for, made a stirring address before the Silver Bow Trades and Labor council that, in lasting an hour or more, was considered too short.

She spoke first as an accredited representative of the federated employes of the Harriman system of railroads, now on strike. But she went further and covered details of the labor situation generally that appealed with telling force to her audience. Her talk was frequently interrupted by applause and was given with a spirit of conviction that carried weight…..

—————

From The Fargo Forum of April 9, 1912:

MOTHER JONES SCORED TEDDY
———-

NOTED INDUSTRIAL WORKER’S LECTURER WHO APPEARED AT ASSEMBLY
HALL LAST NIGHT, SCORED ROOSEVELT AND J. P. MORGAN.
———-

“Mother” Jones, 80 years of age and well known the country over as the industrial worker’s lecturer, appeared at the Assembly hall last night in a lecture on Social Conditions, which was heard by a large number of laboring men and others. “Mother” Jones is the official organizer of the United Mine Workers of America, and has traveled the world over in her efforts in this movement. Last night she was introduced “from God Knows where.”

“Mother” Jones took a fling at Col. Theodore Roosevelt in her address last night. She accused him of selling out the coal miners in the strike of 1912 [1902] soon after he came into the White House.

Then she also rapped the Men and Religion Forward movement, which she said was but another scheme of J. Pierpont Morgan to get money from the laboring men and classes he could not otherwise reach. Her speech was a firey one and she electrified her audience with her denunciations of different nation-wide movements.

She was accompanied here to Fargo by Rev. C. H. Doolittle of Chicago, called the workingman’s friend, who opened the meeting last night with prayer which he followed with a short address on the present situation of the strike on the Harriman lines.

Another speaker at the meeting was C. M. Fielder, organizer of the journeymen barbers, who has been here for several weeks, who also talked about the Harriman strikers.

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1912, Part I: Found as Author of Series Telling of Her Experience Among the Coal Miners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Army Strong Mining Women, Ab 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 19, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1912, Part I
Found as Author of Series on Her Work Among Nation’s Coal Miners

From The Kentucky Post of April 1, 1912:

MOTHER JONES, 8O, SENDS WORD TO MINERS
THAT SHE WILL HELP THEM TO WIN STRIKE

Mother Jones on Train, KY Pst p1, Apr 1, 1912

Staff Special.

DENVER. COLO., April 1-Great heavy blankets of snow stretched from Rocky Mountain top to valley below as the Transcontinental Limited plowed on to Denver on its own made-to-fit-the-tracks schedule, going forward when the “beautiful” was’t hugging the streaks of steel too thickly, and standing still, when the snowplows whirled and plastered the landscape with frozen moisture vainly.

In the tourist car a little, old, motherly woman was the only person who didn’t seem to mind this helter-skelter method of running trains from snow pile to snow pile. She was sewing-mending, maybe. The silver-crowned bead bent down over the needle and thread and cloth. Presently she raised her head to thread a needle and I caught the kindly, motherly twinkle of eyes I had seen before. Where? On fields of great industrial battles.

“How are you Mother Jones?” I asked, grasping the worn, wrinkled hand. “What are you doing away up here in this snow-buried country?”

“I am well” she replied, carefully removing her “sewing” from the other half of the seat. “I am traveling along this road preaching ‘in union there is strength’ to the shopmen. You see, they have ‘borrowed’ me from the miners for a short time”

“Mother, I am going East to the coal fields, shall I carry them a message from you?”

“Tell my boys that when they strike to get justice,” replied the woman who is known as “the mother of every mother’s son” in the ‘coal mines of America, “tell them that Mother Jones will come and help them if it takes the last hour of her life!”

On May-day Mother Jones will celebrate her eightieth birthday. In the last 35 years of her life she has led the advance guard in so many strikes that the number has long since crept from her memory. Judges have sent her to jail for defying anti-labor injunctions. She has faced the Cossacks of Pennsylvania, the ‘’commercialized bloodhounds” of West Virginia, sheriffs and private detectives the country over.

Born in Ireland in 1832 she was brought to America when six years old. Before she married she taught school. At 35 she was left a childless widow. Then she became a “mother” to the wives and babies of the railway strikers at Pittsburg in the conflict of 1877. Soon the woes of the coal miners drew her to them and to them and their families she has been steadfast ever since.

“I will go to where their ranks are thinnest,” the little old woman said, as she read the strike news in the newspaper I had handed her.

“Will you tell the readers of The Post some of your experience among the coal miners?” I asked.

“Oh, I couldn’t now, it would take too long, but I’ll tell you I what I’ll do. When I get to Denver I will write down some incidents I have seen myself.”

———-

And thus was concluded an arrangement whereby The Post is able to announce a series of articles from the pen of Mother Jones, the best known person, man or woman, in American labor circles. There is hardly a workingman or woman who does not admire her, and many of them love her as a second mother. The first of her articles will appear soon in The Post.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1902: Found Speaking in Streator, Illinois, at Celebration of Eight-Hour Work Day

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Elect Labor Reps, Streator IL Dly Prs p1, Apr 3, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 9, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1902
Found Speaking in Streator, Illinois, at Celebration of Eight-Hour Day

From the Streator Daily Free Press of April 2, 1902:

EIGHT-HOUR WORK DAY.
———-
Various Labor Unions Are Celebrating
Its Fifth Anniversary.

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

The fifth anniversary of the establishment of the eight-hour work day in Streator is being celebrated here today, and an excellent program has been prepared for the occasion by the committee having the affair in charge. Owing to the very disagreeable weather the attendance from the surrounding towns is not as large as was hoped for, although there is a goodly sprinkling of visitors in the city, many of them coming in on the noon trains to hear the addresses in the opera house this afternoon by a number of distinguished speakers.

Among these are “Mother” Jones, of Pennsylvania, and she entertained a constant stream of callers at the Plumb House this morning…..

—————

[Photograph added]

From the Streator Daily Free Press of April 3, 1902:

CELEBRATION A SUCCESS.
———-
Large Audience Hear Addresses
by Good Speakers.
———-

Mr. Chipperfield Talks Against Convict Labor-“Mother” Jones Tells of Conditions in West Virginia, and What Must Be Done There-Secretary Ryan Says Illinois Miners Can Expect No Increase in Scale Until West Virginia is Brought Into Line.

———-

When our report of the celebration of the eight-hour day anniversary closed yesterday Mr. Chipperfield, of Canton Ill., was speaking. He said that great problems confronted the United Mine Workers organization. Among those were the Chinese and convict labor questions. The Chinese exclusion bills should receive the hearty support of the organization. and it should see that the congressmen from this state voted for them. Convict contract labor is also a menace to free labor, and the constitution is violated when such contracts are entered into…..

The speaker closed with a eulogy of the organization, and when the applause ceased the chairman introduced “Mother Jones, who was given a most cordial welcome. She is a gray-haired woman of probably fifty years of age, and is possessed of a fire and spirit which makes her a power among the men in whose cause she is a timeless worker.

“Mother” Jones said that there was one great problem to be settled today, and that was the labor problem. It was an old one, and efforts had been made in olden times to settle it. Labor had always made the advancing step to better conditions. It had lined up its army time and again, and although the arm of the government had been against it in many ways, labor had marched on and upward until the time had come to settle the question forever.

The declaration of independence was the opening wedge to labor. If any class is entitled to enjoy the luxuries of life, it is the laboring class, for it makes them all. If it was not for labor there would be no luxuries. She told of the awful condition prevailing in the mining districts in West Virginia. where men and children work ten, twelve and fourteen hours in the mines, and the scale was a low one. It was that field which made it impossible for the miners of other states to get the scale increased, as the operators there can sell coal so much cheaper than the operators of Illinois. Now, said the speaker, if you will furnish ammunition we will make the fight and bring the miners up with you.

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We Never Forget: Mother’s Day 2022: “Suffer the Little Children”-Mother Jones on the Evils of Child Labor in America

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones on the Evils of Child Labor in America

From the Social Democratic Herald of March 9, 1901

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

From Pennsylvania’s Carbondale Leader of November 30, 1900:

Quote Mother Jones Children Suffer PA Silk Mills, Cdale Ldr p6, Nov 30, 1900

From the International Socialist Review of March 1901:

Quote Mother Jones re Child Labor AL 1896, ISR p539, Mar 1901

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of May 11, 1901:

Quote Mother Jones, Child Labor Silk Mills, WB Dly Ns p1, May 11, 1901

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor World: Mother Mary Jones in Duluth, Speaks to Large Meeting at the Head of the Lakes

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones, LW p3, Apr 20, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 21, 1912
Duluth, Minnesota – Mother Jones Speaks at Lincoln Park Auditorium 

From The Labor World of April 20, 1912:

HdLn Mother Jones at Head of Lakes, LW p1, Apr20, 1912

Mary Jones, the little mother of the miners, and familiarly known throughout the country as Mother Jones, was a visitor in Duluth Monday and Tuesday. She delivered an address Monday evening at the Lincoln Park Auditorium in the interest of the shop employes of the Harriman lines who are on strike.

Mother Jones has been sent out by the United Mine Workers’ Union to help the striking railroad men. She is meeting with much success in soliciting funds. A fairly good collection was taken up at the Lincoln Park meeting.

During her visit to Duluth, Mother Jones spent much of her time in the office of the Labor World. We have’ known her for almost twenty years, and blamed if she does not look younger today than she did two decades ago. She attributes her youthful appearance to the fact that she has not been in jail lately nor has she been quarantined for smallpox.

Is Eighty Years of Age.

Mother Jones will be eighty years of age on May first. She is as active and as sprightly as a woman of thirty. She never looked better in her life. Her complexion is as clear as that of a baby and there is not the sign of a furrow on her kind old face.

Fight? When she is asked a question about labor conditions in the mining regions of America, her eyes flash, her mouth is set firm, her fist is clenched and she stretches out her arm with the vigor and force of an athlete. She tells a story of social injustice that reaches the heart of the most hardened.

In her speech at Lincoln Park the daily newspapers dwelled only upon the shafts she hurled at men and women of the toady type who “bend the cringing hinges of the knee that thrift may follow fawning.”

Knows the Labor Movement.

Mother Jones understands the philosophy of the labor movement. She has a peculiar way, which is distinctly her own, of driving her points right to the hearts of her listeners. For a moment she will philosophically discuss the growth and development of production; then like a flash she will clinch her argument with a militant attack upon both men and women who are responsible for injustices that have been permitted to creep into the industrial system.

Mother Jones is said to be without fear. During her strenuous life she has been cast into prison, confined in bull pens, driven at the points of bayonets, and once or twice has had a pistol aimed close to her face by willing servants of the capitalistic class.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1912, Part II: Found Speaking in Spokane, Washington and in Missoula and Butte, Montana

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Awaken to Power, Spk Chc p6, Mar 28, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 16, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1912, Part II
Found in Spokane, Washington and in Missoula and Butte, Montana

From The Daily Missoulian of March 28, 1912:

Mother Jones Ad, Dly Missoulian p2, Mar 28, 1912

From the Spokane Daily Chronicle of March 28, 1912:

WOMAN SUFFRAGE, BAH! SAYS MOTHER
———-
“Mother Jones” Has No Use
for Equal Rights Issue.
———-

“Woman suffrage-bah! The mere thought of the movement makes me tired.”-“Mother” Jones.

“Mother” Jones, who has championed the interests of working men, women and children for over a quarter century and who has promoted strikes in various sections of the nations is a socialist but by no means a suffragist.

[She asserted at Machinists’ union headquarters this afternoon:]

The woman’s place is in the home, molding the character of her children, if she has any, and preparing them to meet the issues that will confront them later in life-educating them to the economic problems that affect them,” she asserted at Machinists’ union headquarters this afternoon.

Why, the men haven’t learned yet to vote intelligently and just the same as men are now selling out their votes for a schooner of beer to cunning politicians, the woman’s vote will be influenced with a bouquet or a box of candy.

Calls It Worthless Cause.

Women are simply wasting their time upon a worthless cause in their struggle for the ballot, for as soon as the economic system has become straightened out the way it ought to be, woman will be the equal of man anyway.

That time will come when the great army of working people have become awakened to their power and have taken possession of the machinery of production and the greedy capitalistic class that is now grinding out the lives of the little children of the poor for profit have been made to step down and out.

The employing class is scared almost to death of the working men and women of the nation right now, and if the workers only knew it, they would not be in want over night.

While the working people of the world are no more than a day or two from the poorhouse the year round, as a rule, the poodle doge of the rich are having banquets given in their honor and are treated better than children of the poor.

Prohibitionists say that the prevalence of the drinking habit among the working people is the cause of so much poverty, yet government statistics show that the average workingman has but $12 a year to spend for such luxuries as an occasional drink of liquor.

She 80 Years Old.

All over the nation the working people are gradually waking up and though I will be 80 years old on the first of May, I hope to see the time that the economic system has changed completely and that the working class is in power.

“Mother” Jones spoke in behalf of the striking shopmen on the Harriman railway system Wednesday night at the armory building and will leave tonight over the Great Northern for the east, expecting to be in Minneapolis in a short time.

Despite her advanced age, “Mother Jones is a splendid specimen of vigor and health and her voice is still steady and strong.

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1912, Part I: Found Speaking in Illinois, Denver, Colorado and Tacoma, Washington

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Master Class Creates Violence, LA Rec p4, Dec 21, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 15, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1912, Part I
Found in Illinois, Denver, Colorado and Tacoma, Washington

From The Sibley Journal of March 1, 1912:

Walker to Head Miners.

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912

The closing day of the Illinois Mine Workers’ state convention was featured by the announcement of election from the vote held December 14, 1911.

It was generally thought at that time that all the officers would be re-elected. There was but one exception in this, Paul Smith defeating Adolph Germer for the vice presidency. President Walker and Secretary Treasurer McDonald were re-elected by large majorities…..

Aside from the announcement of the election results, a two-hour address by ”Mother” Jones, a woman, eighty years old, who is a Socialist lecturer of national prominence and called the “Miners’ Mascot,” in which she denounced woman suffrage, was the feature. She declared that women are not mentally equipped to acquire a proper knowledge of politics, and she attributed the defeat of the recall in Colorado to the women voters. In closing her address, “Mother” Jones detailed the conditions brought about by the railroad strike in Colorado and asked the miners of Illinois to donate a benefit fund of $1,000 to the strikers. A committee was named to investigate the matter…..

[Photograph added.]

From The Illinois State Journal of March 2, 1912:

Mother Jones, IL State Jr p2, Mar 2, 1912

From the Denver Rocky Mountain News of March 5, 1912:

NORTHERN COLORADO COAL
STRIKE ENDS IN 8 MINES
———-

6 KILLED, 10 MAIMED 100 BEATEN,
BLOODY RECORD OF WAR
———-
Strikebreakers’ Refusals to Quit Fields Cause
of Most Serious Outbreaks.
———-

“Six men killed, ten maimed for life and more than 100 waylaid and beaten.” This is the record of bitterness between the opposing forces of the labor war in the Northern coal were from the ranks of both strikers and strike breakers…..

One of the striking features of the struggle occurred a few months ago, when “Mother Jones,” a well known national figure in the labor world, went into the district to organize the wives and sisters of the striking miners. She received an enthusiastic reception, but when the women attempted to carry out their ideas the strikers objected so strenuously that they were forced to abandon their militant plans for a campaign.

———-

No CO Coal Strike Chronc, Rky Mt Ns p2, Mar 5, 1912

From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of March 21, 1912:

“MOTHER” JONES LEAVES DENVER.
———-

“Mother” Jones, who has been in Denver for several days, addressed the Federated Shopmen in their convention in Machinists’ hall this week. She is preparing to tour the northwest in the interests of the shopmen. She will go to Tacoma and then travel East as far as St. Paul. 

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1902, Part II: Found Speaking in Huntington, West Virginia, and Terre Haute, Indiana

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones Mine Supe Bulldog of Capitalism—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 8, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1902, Part II
Found in Huntington, West Virginia, and Terre Haute, Indiana

From the Baltimore Sun of March 20, 1902:

MINE WORKERS ARE STRONG
———-
Half The Miners In The Virginias
Said To Belong To Union.

(Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.)

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

HUNTINGTON, W. Va., March 19.-Reports today made to the United Mine Workers of Virginia and West Virginia, in session here, showed a membership of more than 14,000. This is said to be more than half the number employed in the two States.

The election of officers this evening resulted as follows:

President, John Richards, of Loup Creek; vice-president, L. H. Jackson, of Norwood; secretary, Clark Johnson, of Montgomery; member of national executive committee, J. W. Carroll, of Glen Jean.

Headed by the famous Temperance Brass Band, of Sewell, W. Va., the miners, together with all organized labor of the city, gave a street parade, after which a big labor mass-meeting was held. “Mother” Mary Jones, of national fame, was chief speechmaker.

The sessions of the convention will probably close tomorrow.

—————

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1902, Part I: Praised for Her Work on Behalf of the Socialists of Erie, Pennsylvania

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Quote JA Wayland, Mother Jones, AtR p1, Mar 17, 1900—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 7, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1902, Part I
Praised for Her Efforts on Behalf of the Socialist Party of Erie, Pennsylvania

From the New York Worker of March 2, 1902:

 

HdLn re Mother Jones to Erie PA Feb, NY Wkr p1, Mar 2, 1902———-

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

The city campaign in Erie, Pa., closed on Tuesday, Feb. 18, after more than two months of the most energetic work, and the results are such as to satisfy the most sanguine. The vote for Mayor stands:

Hardwick, Rep, 4,291.
Warde, Socialist, 3,164.
Warfel, Dem., 1,512.
S. L. P., 163.

The campaign has been one of “boring from within” in the trade union movement-that is, it has been a campaign of education on the Socialist view of the labor question, carried on in the closest harmony with the trade unions, without fear and without compromise. The ticket was composed of men tried in the work of the unions and proven true, headed by Geo. N. Warde of Cigar Makers No. 107, Jas. Wilson, Jr., of the Pattern Makers, H. C. Gould of Typographical No. 77, Julius Erstfeld of the Machinists’ Union, T. H. Mosher of the Carpenters, and G. F. Hibeck of the Molders.

The campaign was waged entirely on educational lines. Meetings were held every night, and in nearly every union hall in the city, and the addresses of the candidates and other speakers were of the straight, uncompromisingly Socialist order. The efforts of the local comrades were most effectively supplemented by Comrades Nic Geiger, A. M. Simons, August Klenke, and Mother Jones. Geiger was with us for ten days, Simons a week, and Klenke two weeks. Mother Jones stopped over with us three days, insisted on paying all her own expenses, and made two of her characteristic speeches, which were of incalculable value to the movement, one at the big labor carnival, the other in C. L. U. hall. The services of these comrades cost us nothing-because they were Socialists.

And Mrs. A. M. Simons [May Wood Simons] should not be omitted. She was with us for two weeks and did effective work for the cause, besides speaking a number of times. We could not utilize her to the extent she desired; because at this stage most of our meetings were held at noon time in the shops; but these two noble women have dispelled the prejudice against “women agitators,” and prepared the field for comrades of their sex. Mrs. Simons made the address at the carnival on ladies’ night. It was pronounced a masterly effort. She also made a deep impression at a big mass meeting in the Second Ward…..

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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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

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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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