Tag: Pennsylvania Silk Mill Workers Strikes of 1900

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Grants Interview to Reporter after Her Release from Jail at Parkersburg, West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Love Each Other, UMWC Ipl IN, Jan 25, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 24, 1902
Parkersburg, West Virginia – Mother Jones Interviewed at Van Winkle Hotel 

From the Parkersburg Daily Morning News of June 23, 1902:

IF MINERS, THEY Will GAIN
IS VIEW OF “MOTHER” JONES
———-
The Noted Labor Organizer
Talks to Reporter and
Advances Her Theories on
Strike Matters

Mother Jones , Phl Inq p24, June 22, 1902

While in conversation Sunday [June 22nd] with a News reporter, “Mother” Jones, quoted as follows from “Ignatius Donnelly’s Caesar’s Column.”

The world, today, clamors for deeds not creeds; for bread, not dogma; for charity, not ceremony; for love, not intellect.

Society divides itself into two hostile camps; no white flags pass from one to the other. They wait only for the drumbeat to summon them to armed conflict.

The masses grow more intelligent as they grow more wretched; and more capable of cooperation as they become more desperate. The labor organizations of today would have been impossible fifty years ago. And what is to arrest the flow of effect from cause? What is to prevent the coming of the night if the earth continues to revolve on its axis? The fool may cry out: “There is no night!” But the feet of the hours march unrelentingly toward the darkness.

Believing, as I do, that I read the future aright, it would be criminal in me to remain silent. I plead for the higher and nobler thoughts in the souls of men; for wider love and ampler charity in their hearts; for a renewal of the bond of brotherhood between the classes; for a reign of justice on earth that shall obliterate the cruel hates and passions which now divide the world.

Mrs. Jones, after having furnished bond for her appearance at United States court Tuesday moved her quarters from a room in the county jail building to the Van Winkle hotel, where, she will remain until the trial of the agitators take place. She does not seem to be troubled in the least about the outcome of the proceedings as she says she does not believe that either she or the men who were arrested showed any contempt by their actions after the injunction issued a short time ago by Judge Jackson was served.

Mother Jones is an attentive student of human nature. While a woman, she has those observant qualities that give her an opinion on any subject. She has made a life-study of the lives and ways of working men, especially of the miners.

She stated that the agitators, among whom she is considered a member of high standing, have never countenanced the brutality connected with some labor troubles in the past. It is her opinion that fighting does not gain for them the desired end, and that it won’t be long until all troubles of the kind will be settled without compelling the men to overstep the boundaries of prudence.

[Mother Jones stated:]

It should not be necessary at this civilized age for men to battle and cause the loss of life. The time is near when wars will not be the means of settling differences of either nations or men.

It is a fact generally conceded that there are now two classes, each of which could work to the advantage of itself and to the other, but instead they cause agitations that grow and cause disturbances that are widely felt. To make those conditions different it is necessary for the working class to be educated to the realization of its standing, and not until that time comes will there be a a proper feeling between the employers and the employees.

In former years miners were considered a bad class. They came from different countries, and were of the kind that believed in settling all differences by force. Fighting was fun to them. They were not to be blamed for that, for they were educated to that point by those socially and officially their betters. Take for instance the troubles in Ireland years ago. The inhabitants of one county would fight those of the other until there was continual trouble. The same spirit was brought to this country, and, while the hardy miners could stand such hardship and rough treatment at the hands of their employers, they could not stand by and see themselves getting beaten for their wages.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part I: Found Returning to Scranton and Hazleton from St. Louis, Missouri

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Quote Mother Jones, Contented Slave, St Louis Pst Dsp p3, June 17, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 9, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1901, Part I
Found at Scranton and Hazleton, Pennsylvania

FromThe Scranton Times of July 1, 1901:

“MOTHER” JONES IN TOWN.
—-

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

Mother Mary Jones, one of the national organizers of the United Mine Workers of America, is again in the city. She arrived this morning from St. Louis. She intends to remain here only a few days.

This is the first visit of “Mother” Jones to this city since the settlement of the silk mill strike, which was brought about through her untiring efforts. She appears to be in the very best of health. 

—————

[Photograph added.]

From the Hazleton Plain Speaker of July 3, 1901:

Celebration at Nuremburg.

One of the biggest Fourth of July celebrations in the region will be held at Nuremburg, where the United Mine Workers, who are at the head of the affair, have left nothing undone to make it an occasion long to be remembered by the citizens of the town. National Secretary Wilson, of the United Mine Workers, and “Mother” Jones, the lady organizer who is known to every miner in the anthracite coal fields, will be the speakers. Large delegations of Mine Workers from this city and the surrounding towns will attend.

“Mother” Jones in Town. 

“Mother” Jones, who will be among the speakers at the Nuremburg demonstration tomorrow arrived in town today. 

—————

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Hellraisers Journal: Striking Silk Mill Girls of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Want Counsel and Good Advice of Mother Jones

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Quote Mother Jones, Fight n Keep On, Hzltn Pln Spkr p4, Nov 15, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 16, 1901
Scranton, Pennsylvania – Striking Silk Mill Girls Await Mother Jones

From the Philadelphia Times of February 14, 1901:

HdLn Mother Jones to Help Scranton Silk Strikers, Phl Tx p4, Feb 14, 1901

Special Telegram to The Times.

Scranton, February 13.

“Mother” Jones did not arrive in the city to-day, contrary to expectations, but her presence is expected at almost any time, and the strikers are anxiously looking forward to the time when they will have her counsels and good advice.

While not admitting that the noted leader had been summoned to visit the city, they will not deny that she is coming here, and that she will assist them. One of the local papers to-night confirms the exclusive story published in The Times this morning to the effect that the woman would be here.

There is no sign of a break to-night, and several enthusiastic meetings of the girls from the various mills were held at different places this afternoon. There are no new developments in the strike, although the girls are feeling very good over the fact that they have won their first battle in preventing the manufacturers from having what raw material they had on hand woven at outside mills, and in that manner saving themselves from any material loss in having the mills shut down.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Coming to Scranton to Help Striking Silk Mill Girls; Her Arrival Anxiously Awaited

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Quote Mother Jones, Fight n Keep On, Hzltn Pln Spkr p4, Nov 15, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 15, 1901
Scranton, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Coming to Help Striking Silk Mill Girls

From the Philadelphia Times of February 13, 1901:

Mother Jones to Help Silk Mill Girls of Scranton, Phl Tx p4, Feb

Special Telegram to THE TIMES.

SCRANTON, February 12.

The fact that “Mother” Jones, the woman who was so prominent during the great anthracite strike last fall, is coming here to help the striking silk mill girls, has served to give a new impetus to the young women and their supporters. To-day everything was quiet here, but underneath the surface could be seen a suppressed excitement and “Mother” Jones’ arrival is very anxiously awaited.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1901, Part I: Found Visiting Philadelphia and at Mine Workers’ Convention in Indianapolis

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Quote re Mother Jones, None too low or high, Ipl Jr p3, Jan 21, 1901———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 11, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1901, Part I
Found in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Indianapolis, Indiana

From the Wilkes-Barre Weekly Union Leader of January 11, 1901:

What Mother Jones Has to Say
Regarding the Conditions.

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900

“Mother” Jones, of coal strike fame, dropped into Philadelphia Monday night and hunted up a few congenial spirits at the Trades Assembly Hall, 931 Callowhill street, says the Philadelphia Times. She is on her way to West Virginia, where she will report to President W. C. Stephenson, of the West Virginia United Mine Workers, for organization work.

The miners of the Mountain State are to be organized during January and February, and the national organization is lending the state organization all possible assistance. The miners along the Kanawha and New rivers are to be unionized first, Mrs. Jones said, after which the organizers will go into the Fairmount district. In regard to conditions in the anthracite field of Pennsylvania Mrs. Jones said:

The miners in the anthracite region are now well satisfied and everything is going along smoothly. The semi-monthly pay law is being gradually put into effect, and other conditions are being rectified. The miners are all joining the unions and new locals are being formed all through the region.

The girls employed in the silk mill at Freeland are still on strike and have formed a union. They are determined to win. At Carbondale and Wilkes-Barre the silk mill operatives are also on strike, and sent for me in both places. I did what I could do to help them, but was not successful. In Wilkes-Barre they struck because the boss demanded that they give up their union cards to him, which they refused to do.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers: We must learn to bear each other’s burdens.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Love Each Other, UMWC Ipl IN, Jan 25, 1901 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 29, 1901
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks to Miners, Part II

January 25, 1901-Convention of United Mine Workers of America:

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900In New York they are going to give a charity ball. I suppose it is a kind of restitution to the people they have been robbing for years. They will spend thousands and thousands of dollars for decorating their old carcasses, and they go into a hall and admire one another; and if we were to sit up in the gallery and venture to look at them they would wonder what such a lot of Wops wanted in the world anyhow. Then some smart newspaper man will take his gilt pen and sit down and write of the beautiful Mr. So and So who was there, and of the beautiful Mrs. So and So who was there, and how they were dressed, and how splendid it all was.

Splendid! Yes, my friends, but they are dancing on the minds and hearts of the men and women they have robbed, dancing on the hearts of the little children who are working in their factories and of the boys and girls working everywhere.

In Freeland [Pennsylvania] I held a meeting for the boys and girls from the silk mills. They were on a strike and one morning they tried to keep the scab children from working. The children went into the factory to work, and the poor little outside ones entered a protest and called them “Blackleg,” and “scab,” and a burly policeman took one girl by the hair of the head and dragged her to the police station and she was put under three hundred dollars bond. The bond was furnished and they took her home, but the fright and ill treatment had made her ill, and she had three hemorrhages of the lungs. There was not a dollar in the house to get food or medicine or a doctor for her. Think of that.

When the children stood on the platform of a hall we had hired for them to expose the corporations one little boy of twelve came to the front and told us that he worked thirteen hours at night, that they paid him one cent an hour; but that these same people had gone to the church and put in a magnificent stained glass window in it. Did you ever hear a minister say one word about the condition of these children? We did not find one minister to defend these children.

In the Scriptures they can see where the Master said, “Suffer little children to come unto me.” My friends, I believe we should clasp our hands and come out together in defense of these little children. I can see an appeal in their eyes which seems to ask what they have done that they should be battered and knocked about as they are. There are children under age in those factories.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers: “You have traveled over stormy paths.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Stormy Paths, UMWC Ipl IN, Jan 25, 1901 ———–

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 28, 1901
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks to Miners, Part I

January 25, 1901-Convention of United Mine Workers of America:

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900

President Mitchell: Ladies and gentlemen: There are few persons in the Industrial movement who have impressed themselves upon the toilers as has the one who will address you this afternoon. During the long years of struggle in which the miners engaged they have had no more staunch supporter, no more able defender than the one we all love to call Mother. I don’t believe there is a Mine Worker from one end of the country to the other who does not know her name. It gives me great pleasure to pre- sent to you this afternoon Mother Jones.

Mrs. Mary Jones: Fellow toilers, it seems strange that you should have selected the month of January for your conventions. It has a lesson by which you may well profit, and no craft needs more to profit by that lesson than the miners. The month of January represents two seasons, a part of the dead winter and a part of the beautiful coming spring. I realize as well as you do that you have traveled over stormy paths, that you have rubbed up against the conflict of the age, but I am here to say that you have come out victorious, and in the future you will stand as the grand banner organization. My brothers, we are entering on a new age. We are confronted by conditions such as the world perhaps has never met before in her history.

We have in the last century solved one great problem that has confronted the ages in the mighty past. It had ever been the riddle of the people of the world. The problem of production has been solved for the human race; the problem of this country will lie with the workers to solve, that great and mighty and important problem, the problem of possession. You have in your wisdom, in your quiet way, with a little uprising here and a little uprising there solved the problem of the age. You have done your work magnificently and well; but we have before us yet the grandest and greatest work of civilization.

We have before us the emancipation of the children of this nation. In the days gone by we found the parents filled with love and affection. As the mother looked upon her new-born boy, as she pressed him to her bosom, she thought, “Some day, he will be the man of this nation; some day I shall sacrifice myself for the education, the developing of his brain, the bringing out of his grander, nobler qualities. But, oh, my brothers, that is past, that has been killed! Today, my friends, we look into the eyes of the child of the Proletariat as it enters into the conflict of this life, and we see the eyes of the poor, helpless little creature appealing to those who have inhabited the world before it. Now when the father comes home the first question he asks is “Mary, is it a boy or a girl?” When she answers, “It is a boy, John,” he says, “Well, thank God! he will soon be able to go to the breakers and help earn a living with me.” If it is a girl there is no loving kiss, no caress for her for she cannot be put to the breakers to satisfy capitalistic greed.

But my friends, the capitalistic class has met you face to face today to take the girls as well as the boys out of the cradle. Wherever you are in mighty numbers they have brought their factories to take your daughters and slaughter them on the altar of capitalistic greed. They have built their mines and breakers to take your boys out of the cradle; they have built their factories to take your girls; they have built on the bleeding, quivering hearts of yourselves and your children their palaces. They have built their magnificent yachts and palaces; they have brought the sea from mid-ocean up to their homes where they can take their baths—and they don’t give you a chance to go to the muddy Missouri and take a bath in it.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1900: Found Leaving Pennsylvania on Her Way to Organize Miners of West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones, Fight n Keep On, Hzltn Pln Spkr p4, Nov 15, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 8, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1900
Found in Leaving Pennsylvania, Headed for Coal Fields of West Virginia

From the Hazleton Plain Speaker of December 1, 1900:

WITH THE MINE WORKERS.
———-
“Mother” Jones Leaves For Virginia
–Dilcher, Here Next Week.

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900

Fred Dilcher, who is at present doing missionary work in the Lackawanna region will arrive in this city on Monday. Mr. Dilcher’s visit is for the purpose of organizing the brewery employees and clerks in Hazleton. The latter have been organized but very little interest has been taken in the local and not a meeting has been held since the union was formed. Benjamin James was present at the meeting and it was decided by a unanimous vote that a charter be applied for.

Through the Lackawanna, upper Luzerne and the greater part of Schuylkill all tradesmen have been organized and every craft is represented in the great Federation of Labor.

“Mother” Jones who has been among the miners hereabouts for some time is organizing them, leaves tomorrow morning for Montgomery, Virginia, where she will do missionary work.

[She said today:]

Conditions are worse in Virginia than anywhere, and the days of chattel slavery are nothing compared to the methods employed by the mine owners there in forcing their employees into subjugation.

Mrs. Jones informed a reporter today that she would not return to this region for several months, but she leaves Hazleton glad in the knowledge that the miners are happy and contented and that better conditions exist in the anthracite region than for many years…..

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1900, Part IV: Found with Silk Strikers of Wilkes-Barre & Carbondale, Pennsylvania

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Quote Mother Jones Children Suffer PA Silk Mills, Cdale Ldr p6, Nov 30, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 20, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1900, Part IV
Found Standing with Silk Mill Strikers of Wilkes-Barre and Carbondale

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of November 27, 1900:

HdLn Mother Jones in Town f Silk Mill Strkrs, WB Ns PA p3, Nov 27, 1900

Mother Jones, Scranton Tx p1, Oct 13, 1900The trouble at the Hass-Goldsmith Silk Mill is causing a great deal of discussion in labor circles. Mother Jones, one of the most prominent agitators in this  country, arrived in town last evening and had lengthy conference with the employes. She expressed a desire that the young women should arrange for a mass meeting, to which the public will be invited.

Mother Jones is in the best of health and spirits and feels elated over the success of the miners’ strike. She is an intelligent woman, and despite the fact that many disagree with her on questions agitating the public mind, they must acknowledge that she is a very clever woman. Mrs. Jones was interviewed yesterday afternoon at Hotel Hart by a News reporter. Among other things she said:

The employes of the Hess-Goldsmith mill sent for me and this evening they will come to my hotel and we will have a conference. From what I can learn the women, boys and girls, have just cause to complain. They are treated something similar to the children at the Freeland silk mills. There one boy received one cent per hour and worked 13½ hours per day. Do you wonder why the employes complain? It is not unusual to see a boy or girl prematurely aged. What is the reason? It is plain to be seen. These little ones are driven from daylight till dawn by a crowd of slave drivers who have not the slightest conception of the honor or respect due womankind. The factories steal from the parents the most desirable jewel, the light, the joy of the home-those bright faced little children. There was a time-I am sorry to say that it is fast disappearing-that she first thing asked a child in the morning by the mother was: “Dear, do you know your lessons?” But this is changed now to, “You must work hard and earn a few cents to-day.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1900, Part II: Found in Freeland, PA, Fighting for Striking Silk Mill Workers

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Quote Mother Jones, Fight n Keep On, Hzltn Pln Spkr p4, Nov 15, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 18, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1900, Part II
Found in Freeland, Pennsylvania, Fighting for Silk Mill Strikers

From the Hazleton Plain Speaker of November 13, 1900:

Mother Jones on Silk Strike, Hzltn Pln Spkr p3, Nov 13, 1900

The Silk Mill Strike.

Mother Jones, Scranton Tx p1, Oct 13, 1900

The [Freeland] Grand Opera House was packed last evening with men, women and children who came to hear “Mother” Jones discuss the silk mill strike. The lack of system, cohesive organization, and sympathy, that characterized this strike in its incipient stage was amply atoned for by last night’s meeting, for “Mother” Jones appeared at her best and her pathetic appeal for justice for the little army of frail and youthful girls that sat upon the stage, touched a responsive chord in the large audience.

The boys and girls, many of whom appeared very young, were arranged on the stage with good effect, and the speaker lost no time in getting down to the core of her subject. She exhibited a little boy before the floodlights whom she claimed worked in the Freeland silk mill for one cent per hour. She next brought forward a pale-faced frail little girl who received $1.10 per week and pointed out in forcible language the decay of the Republic and the degeneration of the race if the mothers of the men of the future were permitted to be thus enslaved. The speaker gave a brief history of the abolition of child labor in England, and denounced the silk mills as vile hell holes where cursing and foul language was the order of the day. She denounced the men who employ babes in violation of the law and make money by their labor as “commercial cannibals” who would find it difficult to justify their stewardship when called to answer before the Supreme Judge.

She compared the conduct of a mother living at Upper Lehigh who flogged her little girl back to work in the silk mill with the conduct of the negro mother who in the days of chattel slavery clung to her offspring with a maternal affection that the tortures of the masters lash could not sever. The speaker became dramatic as she exhibited the frail little girls that the local authorities could not control without the aid of deputy sheriffs and her sarcasm in denouncing the men who brought them here was withering and eloquent. She “roasted” a local merchant who it is alleged said that the girls should be arrested and appealed to the manhood of her audience to abolish profanity in the mill and appoint a committee to confer with the management and intercede for better conditions for the girls. She told her audience that she would personally appeal to the state factory inspector to enforce the law and closed with an earnest appeal to the men to save their money and keep away from the saloons, “You will need it all” she said “for we are on the eve of the greatest panic in the history of the world.”

“Within the next two years” she said “a financial crash will take place that will paralyze industry from ocean to ocean, and the working men should carefully husband their earnings as they will then need it.” She prophesied a social revolution with the close of the century, that will upset existing conditions and free the human race from the curse of competitive slavery.

[Photograph added.]

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