Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 18, 1900
Arnot, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Ready to Go to Jail with Striking Miners
From The Wellsboro Agitator of January 17, 1900:
STRIKE SCENES
[…..]
Arrests Made of Those Who Took Part in the Parades
-Mother Jones Again on the Scene.
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The Pittsburg Post December 31, 1899 —–
There was a new phase of the strike at Arnot last week. Some 21 of those who participated in the daily parades were arrested on the charge of “unlawful and tumultuous assembling, and making use then and there of opprobrious epithets, shouts, exclamations and other means calculated to inspire the people with terror, and to intimidate the workmen employed by the Blossburg Coal company and to prevent them from continuing work for same Company.”
The persons arrested appeared before Justice Cambers, being represented by Frank S. Hughes, Esq., of Blossburg, and the attorneys for the prosecution were H. F. Marsh and Major G. W. Merrick, of this borough. All were finally allowed to go on their own recognizance for appearance at court.
Early in the week Mrs. Mary Jones, or “Mother Jones,” as she is called at Arnot, returned to the scene and there was a great demonstration among the strikers who look upon her as their leader. Mrs. Jones blustered a good deal about the breaking up of the parades and stoutly asserted that they would be renewed and kept up. Mr. Thomas Haggerty, another leader, and Mrs. Jones decided to call a meeting of the U. M. W. at Blossburg.
On Tuesday evening a large crowd followed the band from Arnot to Blossburg. Halting on Main street “Mother” Jones, dauntless as Joan of Arc,” gray-haired and loquacious, as she is described, mounted a box and talked about maintaining the parades, and threatened that if one of the paraders was jailed they would have to take all of them, including herself. There were a great many women in the crowd, so an open meeting was held. But later the men who belonged to the order [United Mine Workers of America] held a secret session.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 16, 1920
-Mother Jones News for December 1919
Found Lambasting Judge Gary and Standing with Striking Steel Workers
From The Blacksmiths Journal of December 1919:
-Report of International Representative W. A. McArthur
-Gets Well Acquainted with Kaiserism at
the Buffalo Plant of Williams & Co.
-Meets Mother Jones at Lackawanna
Where a Monster Crowd Heard one of
Her Characteristic Talks.
Takes a Fling at Judge Gary.
Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 20, 1919.
Editor Journal:
In company with Brother Carey we have tried our best to make the J. H. Williams Company, Buffalo, see their error in discriminating against our men and as this matter has been reported by Brother Carey and I have previously dwelt upon it will not make any further report. I sincerely hope that the Kaiser of the plant will be made to abdicate.
From Buffalo I went to Lackawanna and addressed the steel workers in that place and while there had the pleasure of meeting Mother Jones. This grand old lady of 86 years’ experience, was also there and delivered one of her famous characteristic talks. She thrilled the crowd repeatedly and at one time caused a tremendous outburst of applause, when she said,
Judge Gary will never make slaves out of Americans, or any foreigners who come to America to make this their home, if I can help it. I hope that when I die, that I will not go where Judge Gary will be.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 15, 1920
Altoona, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Speaks at Mishler Theater, Part II
From the Altoona Times Tribune of January 12, 1920:
Mother Jones Elucidates Theories To Altoona Audience
[Part II of II.]
OVERWORK AND UNDERPAY
She scored the conditions which permit men and women to be overworked and underpaid and results in riots and strikes when women and children are shot by brutes. Under her own personal observation at a time like this in the south, she said, was a case of a woman run down by mounted police who gave birth to a child as she was being taken to the morgue.
[She passionately declared:]
You have no Christianity. If you had conditions like this would not exist.
However, the speaker gave it as her opinion that the workers are becoming educated, getting a different vision; they feel the pulse of the world beating and different days coming. In West Virginia 65,000 men are organized since the inception of the union movement in that section a short time ago. Recently 10,000 of these men marched in a parade which the mayor of the city characterized as the most orderly parade he ever saw. All of which is a good omen.
BRUTALITY COVERED UP
[She cried:]
We want to give America a well fed humanity, intellectually, morally and physically. If the ministers do not wake up they will be thrown on a scrap heap.
At this point she derided the idea of saying “Your honor” to the governor of a state, who has permitted the murder of women and children in industrial uprisings.
This is the most insidiously brutal age that ever was, but it is covered up.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 14, 1920
Altoona, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Speaks at Mishler Theater, Part I
From the Altoona Times Tribune of January 12, 1920:
Mother Jones Elucidates Theories To Altoona Audience
[Part I of II.]
Yesterday afternoon shortly after 2:30 o’clock, the crowd of workingmen and their women folks who had assembled at the Mishler theatre, were given the privilege of seeing Mother Jones in the flesh and of hearing her speak. At that moment there appeared upon the platform a silver haired motherly looking woman in black, wearing a flowing white lace jabot. Looking on her self-composed, benign countenance, the wonder struck one. Is this the Mother Jones who has created a furore in the whole world, whose impassioned waging of her cause for full economical rights of the working man has caused kings of finance to tremble in fear and who by her own admission says she wants “to raise Hell”?
But a second glance at that sturdy upright figure and one recognized a presence that radiates a dynamic force and vitality which gives the impression that it could conquer all obstacles no matter how great. Her strength and power in look and speech bely that 90th mile stone, which she said would reach May 1 of 1920, by many years.
Introduced by Pres. Charles Kutz, of Machinist Union No. 1008, Mother Jones wasted no time in digression but at once launched upon her theme by saying that this is the great year in the turning tide of oppression. For centuries the greatest agitators were murdered and driven off the earth through the power of money.
CITES CARTHAGE AGITATOR
Referring, by way of illustrations, to the time in Carthage when the rulers feared annihilation at the hands of the agitators, she detailed the incident of the leading one who was brought before the rulers. Asked, “Who are you?” he replied, “I am a man, a member of the human family.” “Why do you persist in this sedition?” “I belong to a class that through the progression of time has been murdered, maligned, imprisoned, roasted and tyrannized over.”
Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 10, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1909, Part II:
-Found in Philadelphia Speaking to Shirtwaist Makers
On Sunday evening, December 19th, Mother Jones spoke to shirtwaist makers of Philadelphia at meetings held at the Labor Lyceum and Mercantile Hall. By unanimous vote and to deafening cheers, a strike was declared and set to begin at 9 a. m. on December 20th.
From The New York Call of December 21, 1909:
[Mother Jones Speaks.]
The action of Director Clay in forbidding the holding of a meeting in the Arch Street Theater, last night, to declare the strike was severely criticised by Mother Jones, in her speeches. She denounced the city administration as roundly as she denounced the bosses, who, she declared, had become wealthy through the toil of the girls before her.
[She said:]
They have an Independence Hall down here on Chestnut street; I wonder what it means to those who, for some deep political purpose, prevented you from having independence in the way of having a meeting to assert your rights? Tomorrow morning I hope every girl in this hall will walk out of the shops and let the employers make the waists themselves. Walk out at 9 o’clock, and don’t wear your Sunday-go-to-meetings clothes.
Let the people see you. Let them see that you are going to strike the shackles of slavery off your body. Get the spirit of revolt and be a woman. It’s not a Mrs. Belmont or an Anne Morgan that we want, but independent workers who will assert their rights.
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.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 29, 1919
Mother Jones News for November 1919, Part II
Found in Washington, D. C., Not Afraid of Judge Anderson
From the Lebanon Daily News of November 14, 1919:
—–
(Special to News by United Press)
Washington, Nov. 14.-With the government acting as mediator, mine operators and representatives of the United Mine Workers came together here today in an effort to settle the dispute over wages and hours which caused the recent coal strike.
As the delegates assembled for this “peace conference,” it appeared there would be a deadlock from the very outset.
The union representatives were prepared to enter the conference at 2:30 this afternoon determined to hold out for an uncompromising victory. Less than complete triumph, they feared, will give the extreme radical element control of the miners-the men will lose faith in their conservative leaders. Acting President Lewis was expected to insist on full compliance with the men’s demands of a 50 hour week and wage increases ranging up to sixty per cent.
Operators were solidly in favor of refusing to surrender anything to the workers, according to early indications. They stood pat on the “Washington wage agreement,” contending it runs until the end of the war, and that the war is not ended. Some of them were disposed to emphasize that comparatively few of the miners have returned to work in obedience to their leaders instructions, and it was expected the union chiefs would be asked about this at the outset of the meeting.
Secretary of Labor Wilson, who called the conference, has invited Dr. Harry A. Garfield, Fuel Administrator, to participate in the hope that if an agreement cannot he reached within a reasonable time the government may be able to offer a compromise. Any compromise will probably carry with it an increase in the price of coal to the consumer, so the operators will have increased revenue to pay higher wages.
Garfield, who is in charge of coal prices, was in a position to give expert advice on just what a raise in pay to the workers will mean to the coal market.
That Lewis and his colleagues will not be left in doubt as to how radical labor stands on the miners’ case, “Mother” Jones, of Colorado fame, and Andy Furuseth, head of the Seamen’s union, are here to let them know. Both are emphatic in their disapproval of Lewis’ compliance with Federal Judge Anderson’s order to end the strike.
“The strike should never have been called off,” said Furuseth. “The miners won’t return to work, and I approve of it.”
[Mother Jones Defies John L. Lewis.]
[Said Mother Jones:]
This is a free country, but it would starve people. This is what Judge Anderson’s order means to the miners who are fighting for their freedom and a living.
Next Monday I am going down into West Virginia and urge the miners to stay out until they win. I am not afraid of Judge Anderson. He can send me to jail or he can hang me, but he will have to do it.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 28, 1919
Mother Jones News for November 1919, Part I
Found in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Washington, D. C.
From The Survey of November 8, 1919
-taken from “Closed Towns” by S. Adele Shaw:
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[One] evening I went to a meeting of strikers [held in Braddock, Pennsylvania]. All was quiet as I made my way toward the river. Down a poorly lighted street, so dark I could scarcely see the curb, I found the men standing, filling the vacant lot before the door of the hall which was packed, and on the sidewalks and street, but not blocking either. There was neither noise nor excitement. “Mother Jones goin’ to speak.” “Come on, lady.” And the men held up their arms to open a passage for me. The hall was jammed. Sweat stood on every forehead.
The first speaker was J. G. Brown of the Pittsburgh strike committee. I had heard him the summer before in the mill towns telling the men what the eight-hour day would mean for them and their families, urging them to take out their papers and become citizens, and never failing to impress upon them the necessity of obeying the laws of the town, state and the country. Then came the deep clear voice of a woman, filling every corner of the hall. I stood on tiptoe and saw the grey hair of Mother Jones, the woman agitator of the mining districts of Colorado and West Virginia, who with the rough speech and ready invective of the old-time labor spell binder, has exerted a powerful influence over the striking steel workers. At her first words there was complete silence. Though practically all were foreigners, not a man in the hall appeared to miss a word.
[Mother Jones said:]
We’re going to have a hell of a fight here, boys. We are to find out whether Pennsylvania belongs to Gary or to Uncle Sam. If it belongs to Gary we are going to take it away from him. We can scare and starve and lick the whole gang when we get ready…The eyes of the world are on us today. They want to see if America can make the fight…Our boys went over there. You were told to clean up the Kaiser. Well, you did it. And now we’re going to clean up the damned Kaisers at home…They sit up and smoke seventy-five cent cigars and have a lackey bring them champagne. They have stomachs two miles long and two miles wide and we fill them…Remember when all was dark in Europe and Columbus said, “I see a new land,” they laughed. But the Queen of Spain sold her jewels and Columbus went to it…He died in poverty, but he gave us this nation and you and I aren’t going to let Gary take it from us…If he wants fourteen hours he can go in and work it himself…We don’t want guns. We want to destroy guns. We want honest men to keep the peace. We want music and play grounds and the things to make life worth while…Now, you fellows go on out. I want to talk to the other boys.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 22, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1909, Part II:
-Found Speaking in New York City on Behalf of Carlo de Fornaro
From the New York Sun of November 29, 1909:
DEMAND DE FORNARO’S PARDON
—–
Protest Against the Cartoonist’s Imprisonment
Voiced at the Berkeley Theatre.
A meeting to protest against the imprisonment of Carlo de Fornaro, a cartoonist, for libeling a Mexican editor was held at the Berkeley Theatre last night. This resolution was adopted:
We the citizens of New York city in mass meeting assembled, herewith resolve that we regard the conviction of Carlo de Fornaro of libel and his sentence of one year’s imprisonment at hard labor as an unprecedented and unconstitutional attack upon free speech and the freedom of the press. We demand that our Legislature repeal that part of the libel laws which gave an excuse for the action of the court and we call upon the governor of New York for the immediate and unconditional pardon of Carlo de Fornaro.
First of all reporters were introduced to Heriberto Barrow, who says he’s the Democratic candidate for President of Mexico, running against President Dias. He was a member of the House of Representatives, he said, and about a year ago introduced to Mexico to the New Idea party of young men, or Democratic party. In September he fled, fearing persecution. He says posters announcing his candidacy in big red letters are being torn down by the police in Mexico and any one that dares to indorse him openly is being thrown into prison by Diaz.
[Then followed, as speakers, Gaylord Wilshire, chairman of the meeting, and George Edwin Joseph, attorney for De Fornaro.]
Mother Jones, the Socialist propagandist, then took the centre of the stage and scanning the audience shouted that she had no fear of any Pinkerton dogs who were present and worked for Diaz. She was as ready to die to-night as any time in her fight for liberty.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 21, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1909, Part I:
-Found Speaking for the Socialist Party in the Lone Star State
From the International Socialist Review of November 1909:
MOTHER JONES was in to see us a few days ago. We asked if she had any message to send the readers of the Review and she replied:
FIRST, last and ALWAYS, of, for and BY the wage-workers.
Paste this motto in your hat. There never was any other one-half so good as this. Mother Jones infused this office with enough courage and ginger to keep us going till the next time she comes to see us.
[Photograph added.]
From the Appeal to Reason of November 13, 1909:
From page 4:
SHALL HE BE MURDERED?
—–
BY LUELLA TWINING.
—–
While in Los Angeles, Calif., I visited Comrade L. Guterrez DeLara, and his wife, Hattie Elliot DeLara. Comrade DeLara is charged with being an alien, an anarchist. He can prove by hundreds of witnesses that he is neither, but his trial before the Immigration Official Ridgway is to be secret, and as an official in Tucson inadvertently said, “Diaz has a long arm.” Our officials have too long been ready to do the bidding of that murderer, Porfirio Diaz, for us to trust them.
I learned to love the DeLaras dearly, and my heart bleeds for them. Every spare moment while I was with them we talked of the social questions and conditions in Mexico and America. With his black eyes blazing with the fire of the revolution DeLara said many, many times: “I must work and work and work to educate my people. That is our only hope. Diaz has stolen the money that should be used for schools and my people are in ignorance. I can not tell you in a few days of the suffering of the Mexican workers. They must be taught that Socialism is the remedy. They learn very easily if given an opportunity.”
It is this man who is charged with being an anarchist.
[…..]
Comrade DeLara said of the Appeal to Reason: “The Mexican workers appreciate the work the Appeal to Reason has done for them. They love Eugene V. Debs and Mother Jones, too.”
From page 5:
—–
Lone Star Notes.
[…..]
Few speakers can awaken the workers as can Mother Jones. Her meeting at Troupe, where dense prejudice has existed, will be of great and lasting benefit to the movement. Some of the most prejudiced opponents of the movement there came to her at the close of the meeting and assured her that they were Socialists henceforth and contributed liberally for the expense of the meeting. Comrade Butler writes: “God bless Mother Jones; her memory will be enshrined in the hearts of the people long after Taft, Roosevelt and company are forgotten.”
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