Tag: October 1900

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1900, Part I: Found in Pennsylvania Working with Mine Workers’ Union

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, If war Shamokin Sep 8, Phl Iq p2, Sept 9, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 12, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1900, Part I
Found Working with Pennsylvania Miners Ready to Strike

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of September 5, 1900:

Mother Jones n Father Phillips w Miners in PA, Phl Iq p4, Sept 5, 1900

A WOMAN’S WILL SWAYS THOUSANDS
——-
“Mother” Mary Jones, of Chicago, Now Working
Hand in Hand With Mine Workers’ Union,
at Wilkes-Barre
——-

Mother Jones Speaks to Miners in PA, Phl Iq p4, Sept 5, 1900

Special to The Inquirer.

WILKES-BARRE, Sept. 4.-The United Mine Workers’ Union here seems to be dominated by “Mother” Mary Jones, of Chicago, and she has full sway in dictating the policy of the union in the labor situation here.

She has not only every member of the United Mine Workers’ Union ready to strike, but her eloquent presentation of the wrongs suffered at the hands of the operator has made many new members, while an equal number are ready to follow the union men out without formally joining the organization.

Mrs. Jones has been working among the soft coal miners of the Meyersdale (Md.) and Central Pennsylvania districts since helping those in Tioga county to win their strike last winter.

Fifty-six years of age, she is bright and active. Her white hair commands respect, while her cheery face and manner hearten up the most morose assemblage.

[She said:]

The condition of the miner is most deplorable. He is the butt of a system of robbery. Of course, there are some good operators-men who would correct the grievances if they dared, but who are governed by others. In New Zealand the operators urge the men to organize, but in this country they shoot them down or get out an injunction and throw them into jail.

In this crisis if the operators don’t make concessions I believe that a strike is inevitable. The law says 2240 pounds make a ton. The operator expects 3300 from the miner. The miners are publicly robbed.

The company doctor is an imposition and ought to be driven out. The company store should not be tolerated. I don’t believe the men want to strike, but if it is their only alternative, I say strike.

I do not approve of strikes, but at times they are necessary and if the operators do not grant the just and equitable demands of the men there is but one thing for them to do-strike, and continue to strike until they gain fair treatment.

—————

[Drawing detail added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Olivia Howard Dunbar of New York Evening News Interviews Mother Jones in Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Rich Women v Miners' Wives, NY Eve Wld p2, Sept 25, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 9, 1900
Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Interviewed by Olivia Howard Dunbar

From the New York Evening World of September 25, 1900:

EVENING WORLD WOMAN INTERVIEWS
“MOTHER JONES.”
—————

Strikers Friend Tells Some Plain Truths About the
Great Struggle Between the Miners and Operators.
——-

NO. IX. OF THE SERIES.
BY OLIVIA HOWARD DUNBAR.

MOTHER JONES, THE STRIKERS’ FRIEND

(Special to The Evening World.)

Mother Jones, NY Eve Wld p2, Sept 25, 1900

MAHANOY CITY, Pa., Sept. 25.-“Please tell all the readers of The Evening World for me that we have succeeded in crippling the operators, that the situation is most encouraging, and that we expect an early victory.”

This was the message that “Mother” Jones intrusted to me to-day, and she smiled hopefully as she said it.
Ceaselessly vigilant, she had come to Mahanoy City to dull any possible echo of the carnival of strife and slaughter that has resounded so menacingly through Shenandoah.

The situation was tense when she arrived, but there had been no outbreak. Outwardly the little city was unruffled. Early in the morning I had found a group of swarthy, eager-eyed Hungarian women applauding an effigy of a non-union workman that had been bound to an electric-light pole on Eighth street.

Their voices were shrill, their gestures violent. The suggestive spectacle had aroused all their fury against the class that they consider selfishly retards the movement that means life or death to them.

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Hellraisers Journal: “There Is Only One Mother Jones” -Found at Wilkes-Barre Fighting for Striking Anthracite Miners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Company Store, St L Pst Dsp p32, Sept 23, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 8, 1900
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – “There Is Only One Mother Jones”

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of September 23, 1900:

Mother Jones PA Strike, MJ in WB, St L Dsp p32, Sept 23, 1900

WILKESBARRE, Pa., Sept. 20.

Special Correspondence of the Sunday Post-Dispatch.

THERE is only one Mother Jones. Her field is all her own.

Clara Barton has her work of mercy, Susan B. Anthony has her equal suffrage. Mother Jones has her “boys”-the great, patient army that sweats and strives and suffers wherever there is labor to be done.

It is a big brood she mothers-a big, toilsome, troublesome brood, scattered all over the face of the land, delving in the earth and under the earth, swarming in mills and factories and sweatshops. There is seldom a time when some part of it is not on the ragged edge of hunger and in need of a mother’s help.

That is the time for Mother Jones. She has been called the stormy petrel of industry. Her appearance is a signal for those who grow rich by grinding the faces of the poor to “go slow,” and if they disregard the warning so much the worse for them and the better for organized labor.

For Mother Jones is the most successful organizer and sustainer of strikes in the country. That is why she is at Wilkes-barre now. That is why the miners expect to win. That is why the mine owners accompany her name with anathemas.

How does she do it? By the greatest of all powers-the power of love. She love her “boys”-be they Polish or Bohemian or Irish or American-and she teaches them to love her. The combination is irresistible. The ranks of the toilers stand firm at her bidding and the strategy dictated by her woman’s intuition does the rest.

It might be thought that she is an Amazon in physique and voice and gesture; that she sweeps her forces along with her by the sheer power of her vitality. Or else that she is endowed with the youth and beauty and mysterious spiritual influence of a Joan of Arc. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “There Is Only One Mother Jones” -Found at Wilkes-Barre Fighting for Striking Anthracite Miners” →