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Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 12, 1914
Mother Jones Invades Canada to Support Miners of Ladysmith and Nanaimo
From The Winnipeg Tribune of June 5, 1914
-Called to Aid Nanaimo Strikers, Mother Jones Insists, “I’ll go in spite of you!”
The coal miners of Nanaimo, British Columbia put out a call to Mother Jones to come and assist them with their strike. They are members of the United Mine Workers of America who have been on strike since August of last year. They have suffered all the usual consequence of the striking coal miner: military despotism and mass arrests. In March, many of those arrested were sentenced, some to six months, and some to four years in prison.
Mother Jones was labeled a “disturbing element” by the chief of the provincial police of British Columbia and was prevented, from boarding a steamer for Victoria by Canadian immigration officers and told that she was barred from Canada.
Labor Secretary William B. Wilson, former official of the U. M. W. of A., was contacted by Frank Farrington, western representative of the mine worker’s union, and Wilson sent a message requesting that Mother Jones “be accorded every right she is entitled to as an American citizen.
“Mother Jones made this statement regarding her status as a “disturbing element” threatening the peace of the citizens of Canada:
I am past 80 years and have never been charged with a crime, and so I cannot understand why I am prevented from entering a friendly nation. I never quarrel and I believe in law and order, and I do not blame the man who stopped me, for he had his order from higher up. He is merely carrying out a policy that means “You shall not educate my slaves,” but it is a mistaken view and is bound to fall finally. I had been invited to go to British Columbia and did not know that I was committing any wrong in accepting the invitation of the mine workers there.
Efforts continued on behalf of Mother Jones to enable her to go to the aid of her boys in Nanaimo.