Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1918, Part II-Found in San Francisco on Behalf of Tom Mooney

21st January 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Mission for Mooney, SF EXmr p7, Dec 12, 1918

———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 21, 1919
Mother Jones News for December 1918, Part II
-Mother Found in San Francisco on Behalf of Tom Mooney

From the San Francisco Examiner of December 12, 1918:

‘Mother’ Jones to Aid Mooney
in His Fight for Liberty
—–

Labor Leader Represents 500,000 Workers
in Appeal for Man’s Release.
—–

“Mother” (Mary) Jones, labor leader, arrived in San Francisco last night from Chicago to urge a new trial for Thomas J. Mooney, serving a life sentence for the Preparedness Day bomb murders.

Armed with credentials from the Illinois State Federation of Labor and the Chicago Federation of Labor and a letter from Governor Lowden of Illinois, “Mother” Jones said her first errand will be to obtain an audience with Governor William D. Stephens, who recently commuted Mooney’s death sentence.

“Mother” Jones declared her dissatisfaction with the imprisonment of Mooney, who, she said, was innocent and so held by the great mass of the labor organizations that had sent her here. She said:

I believe this is an issue that goes to the very heart of the judicial system, not only of California, but of the entire nation. That is what I shall try to present to Governor Stephens.

The organizations that sent me to San Francisco number many hundreds of thousands of workers and behind them are 500,000 more, the mineworkers, who are with me on this mission.

The visitor was met by San Francisco and Oakland members of the International Workers’ Defense League at the Ferry building. She went to the Hotel Clark. “Mother” Jones will address some of the labor bodies during her stay in California.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1918, Part I-Found Speaking at Convention of Illinois Federation of Labor

20th January 201930th January 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Kaisers at Home, Speech Bloomington IL FoL, Dec 4, 1918 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 20, 1919
Mother Jones News for December 1918, Part I
-Mother Found Speaking before Illinois Federation of Labor Convention

Mother Jones, Ft Wy Jr Gz p3, Dec 17, 1917

On Wednesday December 4, 1918, Mother Jones was introduced at the Convention by John H. Walker, President of the Illinois State Federation of Labor. She stood before the delegates gathered together in Bloomington for the 36th Annual Convention of the Illinois F. of L. and gave a long and spirited address in which she said, in part:

Your President is not a member of the high class burglars’ association—he wouldn’t welcome me here if he was.

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Workers, we are passing through the greatest change the world’s history has ever undertaken to bring man through. The world is making over, it is making into a new world, and it is up to the workers to say how that world will be shaped for the future destiny of the race. If we are indifferent to the change that is coming the future generations will pay the penalty.

I want to make a statement to you. I don’t live in your club rooms, I don’t belong to your parasitical type of woman, I am not a Sunday School teacher, I don’t work for Jesus—He don’t need me. I want to open the eyes of the workers…..

You and your organizations are up against a stone wall, and the most insidious machine that was ever organized in the human history is organized to break you. Are you going to let them do it? Or will you rise like men and tell them you are at the threshold of a new civilization, the map of the world is changing and you are going to change, too? You went abroad and cleaned up the kaiser, now let us clean up the kaisers at home!….

You know what the women did in New York. I went there to talk to the women. The women came to hear me. The commissioner of police sent a woman there who did not belong to my class. I spotted her immediately. She was one of Mrs. Belmont’s little lapdogs and when I began to talk she said I must be careful. She said she was the president of a number of organizations. One of them was a school decorating organization. I got the women worked up anyhow and they went out and cleaned up the scabs. The cops ran and the women with babies in their arms took the clubs and beat the cops. They were not Sunday School women, they were fighters. If the men had the fight in them those women had we would have won the battle in New York…..

Tom Mooney has been sentenced by order of the capitalists, the chamber of crooks, of California, to life imprisonment. I know Mooney, I know his wife, I know his mother. He has been a good fighter. He may have made a great noise at times, just as I have, but I know he had no more hand in the crime he is charged with, nor did any other working man, than I had, and I was a thousand miles away from San Francisco at that time. I am going to tour the nation and arouse the people to the injustice of that trial…..

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1908; Found in Springfield, Illinois, Speaking to UMW Locals

12th January 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Spgfld IL Jr, Dec 20, 1908

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 12, 1909
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1908
Found with Locals of U. M. W. in Springfield, Illinois

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

During the month of December 1908, we found Mother Jones in Springfield, Illinois, where it was reported by the December 17th edition of the Illinois State Register that:

“Mother” Jones, a noted leader among the miners’ organization of the country, addressed the Springfield sub-district quarterly meeting [U. M. W.] at Arion hall yesterday afternoon [December 16th], and in consequence the meeting was very largely attended. “Mother” Jones is engaged in soliciting assistance for Mexican workingmen who are engaged in a struggle against the despotism of the Mexican government, and who, when their plans became apparent to that government escaped to the United States, their extradition now being sought. The efforts of “Mother” Jones has the endorsement of the Illinois executive board of the United Mine Workers of America [John H. Walker, President], and it is her intention to make a tour of the state visiting the miners’ locals in behalf of these men.

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Hellraisers Journal: Save Our Mexican Comrades is Message from Mother Jones & Big Bill Haywood in Appeal to Reason

10th January 201911th January 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

[The Mexican Patriots] appeal to us
from their prison cells.
We hear their cry and, by the eternal,
we are with them and the dogs of Diaz
shall not tear their flesh.
-J. A. Wayland

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 10, 1909
Big Bill Haywood & Mother Jones Rally Support for Mexican Patriots

From the Appeal to Reason of January 9, 1909:

———-

CHAPTER OF HORRORS

THE Appeal is in the fight to thwart the conspiracy of the United States and Mexican governments to have the Mexican patriots now lying in jail at Los Angeles surrendered to the cannibal Diaz to be shot for treason. It is a burning disgrace that they are in jail at all. They are men and that is their crime in Mexico. The bloody butcheries of Diaz shocked and horrified them and they took up the cause of their mutilated and agonizing countrymen and hurled their defiance at the monster who posed as president. From that time to this they have been hunted like beasts. They have suffered everything and sacrificed every thing in the cause of freedom.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones News for November 1918 -Favorite Authors: Voltaire, Hugo, and Thomas Paine

21st December 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones re Hugo, Montgomery WV, Aug 4, 1912 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 21, 1918
Mother Jones News for November 1918
-American Revolutionary, Thomas Paine, Among Favorite Authors

From The New Appeal of November 30, 1918:

Mother Jones and Debs

This morning’s mail has brought The New Appeal Book Dept. orders for Voltaire’s “Candide” from Mother Jones and Eugene V. Debs. Mother Jones writes:

I want Voltaire’s greatest work, “Candide.” You know he is a very great writer. He and Victor Hugo and Thomas Paine were my favorites when the late J. A. Wayland and I used to sit up at night and talk these great writers over.

Mother Jones knows that Voltaire’s “Candide” is worth reading. Do you? If you don’t, then be sure to order this beautifully printed and exquisitely bound edition, which we are selling, postpaid, for only 80 cents. This is a low price and cannot remain that low very long. But we will fill your order if we receive it in the near future.

[Photograph added.]

Ad for Voltaire’s Candide:

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1918 -Found Campaigning for Democratic Senate Candidate in West Virginia

20th December 201820th December 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Praying Swearing, UMWC, Jan 17, 1918

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 20, 1918
Mother Jones News for October 1918
-Mother Found Campaigning for Coal Baron in West Virginia

Mother Jones, DRW small, St L Pst p3, May 13, 1918

It seems our dear Mother Jones has left off swearing when she talks to the mighty coal barons and commenced to campaigning for them. Such is the case in West Virginia, where we found her, during the month of October, campaigning for Colonel Clarence Watson, head of the Consolidated Coal Company and Democratic candidate for U. S. Senate. Not everyone was pleased with that state of affairs as the following demonstrates.

From The Wheeling Intelligencer of October 14, 1918:

Intelligence received from Charleston advises that Mrs. Clarence W. Watson and “Mother” Jones held a conference with Governor Cornwell a few days ago. It is learned since then that “Mother” will campaign among the “boys” up on Cabin Creek, as well as in the Fairmont region. It will be recalled that Colonel Watson, after years and years of antagonism to union labor, and particularly to the union miner, a few months ago “let down the bars” he had erected against unionism and invited the miners to organize. “Mother” Jones was made his principal mouthpiece in that little bit of political strategy, and she served her new master well in, making public Colonel Clarence’s handspring in the direction of union labor votes. She extolled him to the skies, christened him “the friend of the miner,” and told he “boys” that he ought to he elected to the United States senate.

Will she fool ’em? Hardly. The West Virginia miner is not so green as he used to be when “Mother” first introduced herself to him. They cannot so soon forget the Watsonian antagonism, the manner in which the Watsons treated organizers who were sent to that field, the Watson’s “special police patrol of the mines to keep organization.” Colonel Watson will have to prove his case, with them first, and they will hardly aid him to get to the senate and then run the risk of the “proof” falling down, being relegated to the rear or transported to the isles of the sea of oblivion.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1908, Found in Kansas and in Chicago

14th December 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones re Vote SPA, Coffeyvl KS Dly Jr p6, Nov 2, 1908

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 14, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1908
Found in Kansas: “Pioneer Socialist woman in the revolutionary movement…”

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

During the early days of November, we found Mother Jones* assisting the Kansas Comrades to wind up the 1908 election campaign on behalf of the Socialist Party. The Coffeyville Daily Journal described her speech in Coffeyville:

One of the most powerful Socialist lectures ever delivered in Coffeyville was given in the Coliseum Saturday night. “Mother Jones,” the pioneer Socialist woman in the revolutionary movement, was the orator. A large number of people were out to hear the speech on economics, despite the counter attractions.

“Mother” Jones has been trying to improve the industrial conditions of the working class for nearly four decades. She has particularly devoted her energies along the line of unionism. For nearly a score of years before the Socialists put out a ticket in this country she was going from coast to coast talking unionism to the wage workers. This she is still doing but her scope of work is now much larger than before she embraced international scientific Socialism. She is not only assisting in liberating those who work for wages but she is equally intent on emancipating the entire human race.

The Appeal to Reason credited her contribution:

Mother Jones lined up a great crowd of miners at Weir and Chicopee.

In Parsons:

“Mother” Jones, noted Socialist, spoke to a good sized audience at Edward’s opera house on Sunday afternoon [November 1st].

By November 20th, we found Mother back in Chicago where Clarence S. Darrow and Peter Sissman were part of the legal team engaged in a desperate fight to prevent the Russian Government from extraditing Christian Rudowitz, Russian revolutionist. Describing the court scene, the New York Sun stated:

Mother Jones and several other Socialists were also there.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1908, Found in Kansas and Missouri

9th November 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

Quote Mother Jones re Child Labor in AL, AtR p2, Oct 24, 1908
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 9, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1908
Found in Kansas: “working with her sleeves rolled up…”

Other than a brief appearance in St. Louis, Missouri, at a campaign event for Eugene Debs, Mother Jones was found, during the month of October, mostly in the Girard area of Kansas campaigning for the Socialist candidates of the Third District. The Kansas Edition of the Appeal described her activities there as “working with her sleeves rolled up.”

From the Appeal to Reason of October 31, 1908:

[…..]

MOTHER JONES MEETINGS.

Mother Jones is in the third district. She is working with her sleeves rolled up and is going after the democrats and republicans in her usual way showing them both to be the tools of an exploiting class. At Galena the opera house was full and a good spirit prevailed; but the meeting at Scammon was great. Mother was in her element, having a hall crowded to the doors with miners, and you may be sure that she delivered the right kind of goods and the democrats that thought that the party for which he works, stands for labor, was disillusioned by the recital of the terrible conditions in democratic Alabama. Mother is to spend the time in the mining and industrial centers until after election and expects to see Ben Wilson come in under the wire a winner.

———-

[Photograph of Mother Jones added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Socialist in St. Louis: Debs Speaks to 6000 Inside Armory While Mother Jones Speaks to 4000 Outside

28th October 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

Pettibone was hounded to his death by Taft.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 28, 1908
St. Louis, Missouri – Eugene Debs and Mother Jones Speak to 10,000

From the St Louis Post-Dispatch of October 24, 1908:

—–

Eugene V. Debs, Socialistic candidate for the presidency of the United States, speaking at the First Regiment Armory Friday night [October 23rd], tore into Taft and Bryan to the huge delight of an audience of 6000 people, presumably Socialists, or at least those with Socialistic tendencies, and when he finished his 50-minute speech he retired bathed in perspiration, trembling with exhaustion and tottering from weakness.

He went to the arms of his devoted wife, who hurried him between rows of young militiamen away from his shouting, applauding admirers to a room in the back of the hall, where he descended a ladder to a carriage that was awaiting him in an alley and was driven to his private car and to bed. He was thoroughly exhausted.

Debs arrived in St. Louis at 6:15 Thursday night [Oct 22nd], several minutes late, and his private car was switched out of the Union Station and to a sidetrack along Clark avenue east of Eighteenth street.

Glimpse of Debs Impossible.

On Clark avenue several hundred Socialists with a banner waited to see him, but he was so carefully guarded that his admirers did not get even a glimpse of his car, and after waiting for some time they departed.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “Mother Jones in Alabama” -Infants Betrayed in Their Infancy

27th October 20189th November 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Alabama Child Labor, AtR p2, Oct 24, 1908 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 27, 1908
Mother Jones Visits Girard; Reports on Child Labor in Alabama

From the Appeal to Reason of October 24, 1908:

—–

When Mother Jones returned from her recent trip to Alabama she stopped in Girard long enough to write the following story of her experience for the Appeal and its readers, and then hurried on to other fields to continue her work of agitating and organizing workers to battle for their emancipation.

T HAD been thirteen years since I bid farewell to the workers in Alabama and went forth to other fields to fight their bitter battles. I returned again in 1908 to see what they were doing for the welfare of their children. Governor Comer, being the chief star of the State, I went out to Avondale, on the out skirts of Birmingham, to take a glance at his slave pen. I found there some where between five and six hundred slaves. The governor, who in his generous nature could provide money for Jesus, reduced the wages of his slaves first 10 per cent, and then 16.

As the wretches were already up against starvation, a few of them struck, and I accompanied an organizer and the editor of the Labor Advocate to help organize the slaves into a union of their craft. I addressed the body, and after I got through quite a large number became members of the Textile Workers’ Union. I returned again inside of an other week, held another meeting with them and another large number joined. I was also going to complete my work on Monday, the 12th, but I had to leave for southern Illinois. He has not yet discharged any of them nor has he threatened to call an extra session of the legislature to pass the vagrancy bill in case they struck against the last reduction. Of all the God-cursed conditions that surround any gathering of slaves, or slave pen, Comer’s mill district beats them all. As you look at them you immediately conclude they have been lashed into fear, but they still have some spirit of revolt in them. They work all of thirteen hours a day. They are supposed to go in at 6 in the morning, but the machinery starts up soon after five, and they have to be there. They are supposed to get forty-five minutes for dinner, but the machinery starts up again after they are out for twenty minutes and they have to be at their post.

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Tag: Mother Mary Harris Jones