Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 21, 1919
Mother Jones News for October 1919, Part II
Found in Indiana Encouraging Wives of Steel Strikers to Raise Hell
From The Muncie Morning Star of October 29, 1919:
Elwood District Quiet
Mother Jones with William Z. Foster
Harry B. Dynes, who is the state representative at Elwood, reported to the governor today that everything is going along nicely at Elwood. He said that there are many rumors, but little trouble. Mother Jones spoke there last night, but according to Mr. Dynes, “even the strikers were disgusted with her line of talk.”
Mr. Dynes sent the Governor quotations from her speech. The report said that she declared “this industrial war must be fought to a finish” and that she advised the women “to raise hell.”
[In fact Mother was loudly applauded by her audience, see below.]
[Photograph added.]
MOTHER JONES NEWS FOR OCTOBER 1919
From the Mount Carmel Item of October 16, 1919:
“MOTHER” JONES WILL BE 90 YEARS OLD NEXT MAY
“Mother” Jones, who took a leading part in the anthracite coal strikes here in 1900 and 1902 and is now assisting in the steel strike, will be ninety years old next May.
She made this statement to an audience of Bethlehem steel strikers in the Lyric Theatre at Allentown, where she spoke in support of the tieup.
Introduced as being a “better fighter at 83 than when she was 23,” Mrs. Jones corrected the Chairman and said that she was on the eve of four score and ten.
Approaching 90, she retains her mental and physical faculties to a remarkable degree and is as active as she was during the coal suspension before the Strike Commission put an end to labor troubles in that industry through northeastern Pennsylvania.
She has been in strikes all over the country and has been an organizer of the American Federation of Labor for nearly fifty years.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 20, 1919
Mother Jones News for October 1919, Part I
Found with Steel Strikers of New York, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania
From the New York Daily News of October 1, 1919:
From the Buffalo Courier of October 4, 1919:
USES DISCRETION IN HER UTTERANCES
AT LACKAWANNA
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‘Mother’ Jones Heeds Warning and
Refrains From Fiery Words.
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COUNSELS STRIKERS TO BE CALM
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Companies Say More Men Are
Reporting For Work.
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“Mother” Jones’ visit to Lackawanna yesterday afternoon was the occasions for a display of the police and state constabulary which watched all her movements and never let her get out of their sight.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 31, 1919
Mother Jones News for September 1919, Part III
Her Home? “Wherever there is a good fight for freedom going on.”
From The Pittsburgh Post of September 24, 1919:
‘Mother’ Jones Heard
in Labor Trial
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“Mother” Jones, aged organizer for the United Mine Workers, appearing yesterday as a witness before Judge Richard H. Kennedy, gave her address as “wherever there is a good fight for freedom going on.”
She testified in the hearing of a large number of appeals from fines imposed by Mayor James S. Crawford in connection with a meeting held in Duquesne last September 7.
After leaving the stand “Mother” Jones declared that had been her first experience as a witness in “a regular court trial.” She was one of the organizers arrested, but was not fined. That was the first time, she said, that she had been placed behind bars, although she had been arrested more than once.
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[Photograph added.]
From The Pittsburgh Press of September 24, 1919:
“MOTHER” JONES FREED FOR LABOR ACTIVITY.
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“Mother” Jones was freed today following her arrest in the steel mill districts Sept. 7. She came before Judge Kennedy and was permitted to go without a fine.
“What is your age?” queried the court.
“Ninety on the first day of next May.”
“Where is your home?”
“Wherever there is a good fight for freedom going on,” replied the old lady, vigorously.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 30, 1919
Mother Jones News for September 1919, Part II
Cleveland, Ohio – Mother Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers
From the New York Tribune of September 17, 1919:
Mine Workers Urged To Aid Steel Strike
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Appeals Made to Convention by Fitzpatrick
and “Mother” Jones, Who Oppose Delay
CLEVELAND, Sept. 16.-John Fitzpatrick, chairman of the national committee for organizing the iron and steel workers, and “Mother” Jones, the aged mine worker representative, appealed to-day to the convention of the United Mine Workers of America to support the steel workers in the projected steel strike. “Mother” Jones argued openly against any postponement, telling the miners to pay no attention to contrary reports, because the strike would come off as arranged next Monday. Rescinding of the strike call, she declared, would wreck the confidence of the steel workers in their organization.
Fitzpatrick refrained from mentioning the question of possible postponement, except indirectly, in his speech, but in conversations with delegates he declared himself firmly opposed to postponement of the walkout beyond Monday as weakening the chances of success.
Hellraisers Journal –Wednesday October 29, 1919
Mother Jones News for September 1919, Part I
Duquesne, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Arrested for Organizing Steel Workers
From the New York Sun of September 8, 1919:
RAID ENDS MEETING OF STEEL WORKERS
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Mother Jones and Other Organizers
Seized in Duquesne.
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Special Dispatch to THE SUN.
PITTSBURG, Sept. 7.-Duquesne was the scene of much excitement on the part of the police and union organizers this afternoon when Police Chief Thomas Flynn and a squad of patrolmen appeared at an open air meeting at Linden and River avenues, where more than 1,000 steel workers had assembled, and arrested four labor organizers, including “Mother” Jones, the veteran organizer, and forty steel workers. The organizers were charged with holding a public meeting without a permit and the workmen were charged with illegal congregating. After staying in the Duquesne police station four hours they were released on forfeits for a hearing to-morrow.
Mother Jones with William Z. Foster
The organizers arrested besides “Mother” Jones were William Z. Foster, secretary of the national committee for organizing iron and steel workers; J. L. Beaghen, president of the Pittsburg Bricklayers Union, and an American Federation of Labor organizer, and J. M. Patterson, vice-president of the Brotherhood of Railway Car Men.
The organizers said the meeting was being held on a vacant lot, the owner of which had given permission.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 27, 1919
Report from Front Lines of Great Steel Strike by Mary Heaton Vorse
From the Duluth Labor World of October 25, 1919:
[Part II.]
STATE TROOPERS TOOLS OF STEEL
—–
Cossacks Break Into Homes,
Interfere With Church Worship
and Assault Women.
[By MARY HEATON VORSE.]
We must remember that in the steel towns people have been arrested wholesale because they have committed the crime of striking. There are charges such as obstructing traffic, unlawful assembly, etc., which make it impossible to run a striker in without his having committed any real offense.
Suppression and oppression have been the father and mother of this strike and terror its godfather. But, when the company used terror, they forgot the old saying that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
There hasn’t been a home searched or an illegal arrest made that hasn’t helped the strike. There hasn’t been a club that has come down on a defenseless mill worker that hasn’t sent men hurrying to get out their union cards.
Take the case of Clairton for instance—this was the town where the union had got no foothold—the watchful authorities had kept the “agitators” out. (“Agitator” is the company’s name for all members of the A. F. of L. who try to get their fellow workers to join a union.)
There were no halls in Clairton that could be rented. All permits were denied and street meetings were broken up. That is to say, the fundamental rights of Americans were sweepingly denied. There is no right of free speech and free assembly in the steel towns. When the people in Farrell want to go to a meeting they have to go over the Ohio state line into America—and the other evening 4,000 of them walked over to hear Foster speak.
There are plenty of steel towns not in America and Clairton is one of them.
After a time the organizer hired a vacant lot from one of the mill workers. But a man in Clairton can’t ask a few friends to a lawn party on his own property—the Cossacks rode down the strikers and broke up the meeting. The mill workers didn’t know that it was un-American to strike and they had put up an American flag—this the Cossacks tore down and the flag was trampled under the horses’ hoofs. This started trouble, for there were some ex-service men there as there are in all workingmen’s crowds. The affidavits sent to the senate abound in statements like:
The state troopers rushed on the lot and the people started to run away but when said state troopers rushed to the platform and tore down our flag, the men became incensed and some ex-soldiers, seeing our flag being insulted and defiled, rushed at said troopers in defense of our flag and started the excitement and almost caused a riot and loyal citizens were greatly incensed. There was no provocation for said interference and riding over women and children.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 26, 1919
Report from Front Lines of Great Steel Strike by Mary Heaton Vorse
From the Duluth Labor World of October 25, 1919:
[Part I.]
MEN SHOW DOGGED ENDURANCE;
-EVERY RIGHT IS DENIED THEM
—–
State Troopers Serve Masters of Steel-Break up Meeting
-Search Homes Without Warrant-Override Children Playing
in Streets, But Men Are Determined to Win Out at Any Cost.
—–
By MARY HEATON VORSE.
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 23.—(Special to The Labor World.)—The other day a man came in to Foster’s office. He had been on strike three weeks, and now he had about 90 cents left. He had some chickens, he had good neighbors, that had given him vegetables and things from their gardens. The man was a foreigner, a young married man, and what he had come for was not to ask strike benefits. He wanted advice and the moral support of encouragement.
He wanted to know how he was going to get along. He came rather deprecatingly, smiling in an embarrassed sort of fashion over his difficulties. Then he went away, still with his smile, his only assets his friends, his 90 cents and his indomitable will to stick out.
The strike is based on people like this; people full of faith; people full of endurance; people full of sacrifice—thousands and thousands of them.
Thousands of them looking upward and forward to a better life for themselves and their children—for these people are striking for a right to be considered as men. They are striking for the right of a little leisure. They want an end put to this de-humanizing double shift.
The other day in Braddock a mill superintendent stopped an old timer on the street. “Aren’t you working?” he asked.
“No, I am not working. I’m on strike; I’m taking a holiday. I am paying myself back those 20 Christmases I worked for the company,” said the man.
That has been the situation with the mill workers. No Sundays, no Christmas. Work that took it out of a man so that he was old at 40. Work that left him so tired at the end of a day that he wasn’t a human being any more. And now these people are willing to sacrifice to change this sort of thing, for themselves, for their children, and for the workers of all time.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 25, 1919
Gary, Indiana – Mother Jones: “Fight for Righteousness and Justice on Earth”
Mother Jones at Gary, Indiana, October 23, 1919:
Christ himself would agitate against [the Steel Barons]. He would agitate against the plutocrats and hypocrites who tell the workers to go down on their knees and get right with God. Christ, the carpenter’s son, would tell them to stand up on their feet and fight for righteousness and justice on the earth.
[Emphasis added.]
From The New York Times of October 24, 1919:
-The kept press is suddenly concerning itself with strike violence. Not a word, have they, of course, for the strikers and organizers (including Mrs. Fannie Sellins) slaughtered thus far, before and during the strike. But should the strikers decide to get off their knees and stand up and fight for their lives, well, that’s another matter altogether.
MOTHER JONES URGES STRIKERS TO VIOLENCE
—–
Col. Mapes Says Situation in Gary Is Serious
and Orders Troops to Shoot Rioters.
—–
Special to The New York Times.
CHICAGO, Oct. 23.-Making the first public appeal for violence since the steal strike started in the Calumet region and declaring herself a Bolshevik, Mother Jones stirred to enthusiasm some twelve hundred strikers and their wives in Turner Hall, Gary, Ind., today following the refusal of the authorities to permit her to speak in East Side Park.
Mother Jones with William Z. Foster -from New York Daily News of October 1, 1919
[Said Mother Jones, who was cheered for five minutes:]
So this is Gary. Well, we’re going to change the name and we’re going to take over the steal works and were going to run them for Uncle Sam. It’s the damned gang of robbers and their political thieves that will start the American revolution and it won’t stop until every last one of them is gone.
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