Tag: Textile Workers

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Is Guest of Honor at Socialist Picnic at Sulzer’s Westchester Park, States Her Army Will March to Oyster Bay to See the President

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones to TR, These Little Children, Phl No Am July 16, 1903, Foner p552—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 22, 1903
Mother Jones Warmly Welcomed at Socialist Picnic at Sulzer’s Westchester Park

From The New York Times of July 20, 1903:

“MOTHER” JONES IN THE CITY.
———-
She Is Warmly Welcomed by the Socialist
Democrats at Westchester Picnic.

Mother Jones, March of Mill Children, NY Eve Wld p3, July 8, 1903

“Mother” Jones was the guest of honor yesterday [July 19th] at the annual picnic of the Socialist Democratic Party at Sulzer’s Westchester Park.

‘There were 4,000 persons present, and much disappointment in the afternoon when “Mother” Jones did not appear as she had promised. She arrived in the early evening, however, and was given a rousing welcome. Escorted by a committee to the platform in the pavilion, she had to wait some minutes before she could be heard.

[She said:]

I will be here with my children from the textile works Thursday evening, when I will address you at some length. I am too tired to do so now, and as you see, I am very hoarse.

There is one thing I must tell you, and that is, that I am going to complete the journey to Oyster Bay with my army to see the President. The newspapers say he will not see me. I am going there to find out if he is the President of the capitalists only, or whether be is the President of the workingmen too. If he is the President of the capitalists only, he will be wiped out at the next election.

At the conclusion of her remarks “Mother” Jones was escorted about the park. She was deeply interested in the tests of strength, particularly the work with the sledge hammer, and praised the workingmen for the power they showed in their play.

She was attracted by the neatly dressed children for whom many entertainments had been arranged, such as egg races and skipping the rope for prizes. She said she was glad they could play and had a chance to go to school. Watching the many drinking beer, she remarked that if they would save the drink money they would have more with which to win strikes.

The committee in charge promised “Mother” Jones that they would have Cooper Union engaged for her Thursday evening, or Madison Square Garden, if possible. They asserted that if they could get the big garden it would be overcrowded with the union workingmen and women of New York. 

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones and Her Army March from Elizabeth to Paterson; Mother Speaks at Socialist Picnic

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones , March of Mill Children, fr whom Wall Street Squeezes Its Wealth, Lbr Wld p6, July 18, 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 21, 1903
Mother Jones and Her Army Reach Paterson; Mother Speaks at Socialist Picnic

From the New York Tribune of July 18, 1903:

Mother Jones, March of Mill Children, Army Reaches Newark, NY Tb p6, July 18, 1903

From the New York Tribune of July 19, 1903:

Mother Jones, March of Mill Children, Paterson, Army Says It Was Shadowed, NY Tb p14, July 19, 1903

From the New York Tribune of July 20, 1903:

Mother Jones, March of Mill Children, Paterson, MJ to Westchester Co Park, NY Tb p4, July 20, 1903

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor World: Mother Jones Leads Babes in Crusade to Expose Manifold Evils of Child Labor

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones , March of Mill Children, fr whom Wall Street Squeezes Its Wealth, Lbr Wld p6, July 18, 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 20, 1903
Mother Jones Leading Babes to New York in Crusade Against Child Labor

From the Duluth Labor World of July 18, 1903:

LITTLE BABES IN A CRUSADE
———-

MOTHER JONES IS TO STORM WALL STREET.
———-

HEADED FOR NEW YORK CITY.
———-
Wishes to Give the Country a Great Object Lesson
on the Manifold Evils of Child Labor.
———-

Mother Jones, March of Mill Children, NY Eve Wld p3, July 8, 1903

PHILADELPHIA, Pa., July 16.—Many years ago a great crusade was started in Europe for the discovery of Jerusalem and the Savior’s tomb from the Infidels. A hermit rushed through the country calling upon all parents to allow their children to join the Holy crusade which would surely have the help of all the guardian angles in Heaven.

And so a great army of children of rich and poor was gathered together and set out upon a journey, the dangers of which had been sadly misjudged. They died by the way sides by thousands and gradually the great multitude appeared. Jerusalem was still held by the Infidels, while in the homes mothers mourned for their dear little ones who never returned.

“Mother” Jones’ Crusade.

“Mother” Jones believes it is time for another crusade of children. This one, however, is to be directed to storming the hearts of the people by showing them living examples of what child labor does for childhood. So she started for New York one day last week with 400 textile working men, women and children on strike for shorter hours and a wagon load of little girls to show the “sharks of Wall Street,” as she puts it, and the people generally the evils of child labor through these living examples of a child slavery system which seems so firmly fixed on the little ones of Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday morning [Tuesday July 7th] with the fife and drum preceding them, some carrying umbrellas, while others plodded along under the blazing sun, the procession started for New York City. It was a miserable looking lot of babes that strung out over several miles of dusty road.

At Cedar Hill Cemetery the first big defection took place. Nearly 100 footsore and tired men and women sat still when the order was given to resume the march. The girls in the wagon kept singing the entire time. The fife and drum corps played at intervals. Stragglers by twos and threes kept dropping out until Torresdale Park was in sight twelve miles from the starting point. Thus ended the first day’s march.

The fife and drum, especially when “Marching Through Georgia” was being played, cheered the children up a bit, and the arrival of the commissary wagons loaded with canned goods and bread was a welcome sight. “Mother” Jones will be a leader indeed if she succeeds in keeping a quarter of them together by the time she arrives in New York. An immense meeting of workers is planned to be held in Madison Square Garden when the children, reach there.

Plan Great Show.

Part of “Mother” Jones’ plan consists in the use of an assortment of costumes, glass diamonds, megaphones, phonographs and motto-inscribed banners. “Mr. Capital” is to be exhibited dressed in costly raiment. “Mrs. Mill Owner” is to sit beside him, wearing her jewels. Tableaux, charades, plays and dialogues are to be arranged, all bearing on the textile strike. Frequent stops will be made, exhibitions given, and donations asked for.

“Mother” Jones, as commander-in-chief, has full charge of the campaign. After at first opposing it the strike leaders became convinced that it was an excellent plan to stir up the workers and the general public of the United States to lend a hand in the fight for shorter hours. “Mother” Jones has therefore obtained their co-operation, though her power is somewhat restricted.

[Said Mother Jones:]

The sight of little children at work in mills when they ought to be at school or at play, arouses me. I found the conditions in Philadelphia deplorable, and I resolved to do what I could to shorten the hours of toil of the striking textile workers so has to gain more liberty for the children and women. I had a parade of children through, the city—the cradle of liberty—but the citizens were not moved to pity by the object lesson.

No Pity Here, She Says.

The curse of greed so pressed on their hearts that they could not pause to express their pity for future men and women who are being stunted mentally, morally and physically so that they cannot possibly become good citizens. I cannot believe that the public conscience is so callous that it will not respond. I am going out of Philadelphia to see if there are people with human blood in their veins.

When I think of the present and future I fear for my country. The criminal classes keep increasing. Large sums of money are being poured out for almshouses, or refuge, reformatories and schools for defectives, but they are only a drop in the bucket. The disease cannot be cured unless the cause is removed. Keen, unrestrained competition, rivalry for commercial supremacy and lust for wealth tramples on humanity and feels no remorse.

May Visit Roosevelt.

I am going picture capitalism and caricature the money-mad. I am going to show Wall street the flesh and blood from which it squeezes its wealth. I am going to show President Roosevelt the poor little things on which the boasted commercial greatness of our country is built. Not one single Philadelphia minister of Christ’s Gospel has so much as touched on the textile strike in this city. I shall endeavor to arouse sleeping Christians to a sense of their duty toward the poor little ones. 

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor World: Mother Jones Leads Babes in Crusade to Expose Manifold Evils of Child Labor” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones and Her Army of Child Textile Workers Enjoy the Hospitality of the Unionist of Elizabeth, N. J.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones , March of Mill Children, fr whom Wall Street Squeezes Its Wealth, Lbr Wld p6, July 18, 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 19, 1903
Elizabeth, New Jersey – Mother Jones and Her Army Treated to Great Hospitality

From The New York Times of July 17, 1903:

HdLn Mother Jones, March of Mill Children, at Elizabeth NJ, NYT p5, July 17, 1903

From The Cincinnati Post of July 17, 1903:

Mother Jones, March of Mill Children, Signs, Cnc Pst p6, July 17, 1903

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones and Her Army of Child Textile Workers March from New Brunswick to Elizabeth, New Jersey

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones to TR, These Little Children, Phl No Am July 16, 1903, Foner p552—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 18, 1903
Mother Jones’ Army Marches from New Brunswick to Elizabeth, New Jersey

From the New York Tribune of July 15, 1903:

HdLn Mother Jones MMC, July 14 at Rahway NJ, NY Tb p6, July 15, 1903

From the New York Tribune of July 16, 1903:

Mother Jones MMC, July 15 at Elizabeth NJ, NY Tb p4, July 16, 1903

From The New York Times of July 16, 1903:

Mother Jones MMC, July 15 at Elizabeth NJ, July 16, 1903

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Writes to President Roosevelt: “These little children, raked by cruel toil beneath the iron wheels of greed, are starving in this country…”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones to TR, These Little Children, Phl No Am, Foner p—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 17, 1903
Elizabeth, New Jersey – Mother Jones Writes to President Roosevelt

From the Hazleton Plain Speaker (Pennsylvania) of July 16, 1903:

Mother Jones at Elizabeth NJ, Writes to Prz Roosevelt, Hzl PA Plain Spker p5, July 16, 1903

From the Philadelphia North American of July 16, 1903:

Elizabeth, New Jersey
July 15, 1903

Theodore Roosevelt
President of the United States
Dear Sir:

Being citizens of the United States of America, we, members of the textile industry, take the liberty of addressing this appeal to you. As Chief Executive of the United States, you are, in a sense, our father and leader, and as such we look to you for advice and guidance. Perhaps the crime of child slavery has never been forcibly brought to your notice.

Yet, as father of us all, surely the smallest detail must be of interest to you. In Philadelphia, Pa., there are ninety thousand (90,000) textile workers who are on strike, asking for a reduction from sixty to fifty-five hours a week. With machinery, Mr. President, we believe that forty-eight hours is sufficient.

If the United States Senate had passed the eight-hour bill, this strike might not have occurred. We also ask that the children be taken from the industrial prisons of this nation and given their right of attending schools so that in years to come better citizens will be given to this republic.

These little children, raked by cruel toil beneath the iron wheels of greed, are starving in this country which you have declared is in the height of prosperity-slaughtered, ten hours a day, every day in the week, every week in the month, every month in the year, that our manufacturing aristocracy may live to exploit more slaves as the years roll by.

We ask you, Mr. President, if our commercial greatness has not cost us too much by being built upon the quivering hearts of helpless children? We who know of these sufferings have taken up their cause and are now marching toward you in the hope that your tender heart will counsel with us to abolish this crime.

The manufacturers has threatened to starve these children, and we seek to show that no child shall die of hunger at the will of any manufacturer in this fair land. The clergy, whose work this really is, are silent on the crime of ages, and so we appeal to you.

It is in the hope that the words of Christ will be more clearly interpreted by you when he said “Suffer little children to come unto me.” Our destination is New York City, and after that Oyster Bay. As your children, may we hope to have the pleasure of an audience? We only ask that you advise us as to the best course.

In Philadelphia alone thousands of persons will wait upon your answer, while throughout the land, wherever there is organized labor, the people will anxiously await an expression of your sentiments toward suffering childhood.

On behalf of these people, we beg that you will reply and let us know whether we may expect an audience.

The reply should be addressed to “Mother” Jones’s Crusaders, en route according to the daily papers.

We are very respectfully yours,
“Mother” Jones, Chairman

Committee–Charles Sweeney, Edward A Klingersmith, Emanuel Hanson, and Joseph Diamond.

[Emphasis added.]

Note: John Lopez was assigned by the Philadelphia North American to cover the March of the Mill Children, and he has been traveling with them every step of the way.

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Hellraisers Journal: John Spargo on the Struggle of the Kensington Textile Workers; Mother Jones’ Army Enters New Brunswick

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Child Labor Silk Mills, WB Dly Ns p1, May 11, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 15, 1903
John Spargo on Kensington Textile Strike; Mother Jones’ Army Enters New Brunswick

From the New York Worker of July 12, 1903:

Mother Jones MMC Spargo, Philly Textile Strike, NY Worker p1, July 12, 1903

From The Washington Times of July 13, 1903:

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Marches On With Her Army of Striking Children from the Textile Mills of Kensington

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Child Labor Silk Mills, WB Dly Ns p1, May 11, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 14, 1903
Mother Jones and Her Army March from Trenton to Princeton, New Jersey

From The New York Times of July 10, 1903:

“MOTHER” JONES’ MARCHING ON
———-
Army of Mill Workers Camped Near Trenton
on Its Way to New York to Air Grievance.

Special to The New York Times.

Mother Jones, March of Mill Children, NY Eve Wld p3, July 8, 1903

TRENTON, N. J., July 9.- Mother Jones and her textile army, composed of workers from the mills of Kensington, Penn., is encamped to-night on the Delaware River in Morrisville, Penn., just across from Trenton.

“Mother” Jones to-night visited the meeting of the Plumbers’ Union and made a speech. She received a donation. Her assistants visited other union meetings, and as Trenton is one of the most solid union cities in the United States quite a sum of money was collected to aid “the army” on its march to New York, where a mass meeting in Madison Square Garden is projected. “Mother” Jones expects to reach the metropolis by the end of the week.

Mayor Katzenbach of Trenton has granted a license  for mass meeting be held here in the shadow of Battle Monument to-morrow night, when the grievances of the strikers will be aired and where Mother will tell her plans against the New York millionaires’ hearts and pocket books. This meeting will be preceded by a concert by the “army band.”

This morning at Bristol sixty men and girls deserted, going back to Philadelphia. There are about 280 left, however.

In the army are ten or twelve boys who are not more than thirteen years old. These little fellows stand up under the great heat and the hard march with commendable bravery. With the marchers there is a band comprised of six fifes, four snare drums, and a bass drum.

[Photograph and emphases added.]

From the New York Tribune of July 11, 1903:

Mother Jones MMC, Rest at Delaware Rv, MJ at Morrisvl PA, Drummers and Banners, NY Tb p1, July 11, 1903

ARMY CROSSES DELAWARE
———-

YOUNG GIRLS SENT HOME
———-
“Mother” Jones Says Her Crusade Is Against Child Labor.

[On the evening of July 10th the Army crossed the Delaware River and entered Trenton. Mother Jones spoke at a meeting of the Central Labor Union of Trenton, and later spoke at an open-air meeting near Battle Monument. On the afternoon of July 10th, a reporter visited the camp at Morrisville Point and described the meal served there. The boy-strikers, all under fifteen, were described by the reporter as “veritable little old men, with stooped shoulders and a serious expression of countenance far beyond their years.” The reporter was able to interview Mother Jones who described Kensington as “one of the worst places in the world for child labor.” She described the hard life of the girls working in “that hellhole.” Mother denied that there had been any “desertions,” stating that some would turn back at various points along the march.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From Philadelphia North American: Mother Jones to Lead Child Workers on March to New York

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Quote Mother Jones, Children Build Nations Commercial Greatness, Phl No Amn, Foner p487—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 9, 1903
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Interview with Mother Jones

From the Philadelphia North American of July 7, 1903:

“Mother” Jones Will Lead Textile Child Workers
Through Country to Win Sympathy.
———-

Army of 400 Boys and Girls in Living Appeal for Aid.
———-

Mother Jones, March of Mill Children, NY Eve Wld p3, July 8, 1903

“Mother ” Jones will lead a second “children’s crusade” from this city today. It will be composed of 400 striking juvenile textile workers and an equal number of adult strikers. It starts from the Kensington Labor Lyceum, Second Street, above Cambria, at 11 o’clock this morning.

The object of the “crusade” is to appeal to the people of the country to support the 75,000 textile strikers in their “demand” for a 55-hour-work-week. Sufficient money to support the strikers indefinitely is expected to come in as a result of taking the children throughout the country. So far as possible, parents will accompany their children. Two members of the strikers’ executive board and their wives will help in caring for the “crusaders.”

“Mother” Jones, as commander-in-chief, has full charge of the campaign. After at first opposing it, the strike leaders have become convinced that it is an excellent plan to stir up the workers and the general public of the United States to lend a hand in the fight for shorter hours. “Mother” Jones spoke about the project to this reporter last night:

I desire the textile strikers of Philadelphia to win their fight for shorter hours, so that more leisure may be obtained, especially for children and women.

The herding of young children of both sexes in textile mills is the cause of great immorality.

As the result of the competitive and the factory systems, the nation is being stunted, physically, morally, and mentally.

I do not blame the manufacturers individually, but I do blame the community at large for making no effort to abolish these evils.

The employment of children is doing more to fill prisons, insane asylums, almshouses, reformatories, slums, and gin shops than all the efforts of reformers are doing to improve society.

I am going to rouse the Christian fathers and mothers of this country if there is human blood in their veins.

If the manufacturers cannot afford to give their employees a living wage and shorter hours of work, then the system of making goods for profit is wrong and must give way to making goods for use.

The sight of little children at work in mills when they ought to be at school or at play always rouses me. I found the conditions in this city deplorable, and I resolved to do what I could to shorten the hours of toil of the striking textile workers so as to gain more liberty for the children and women. I led a parade of children through the city-the cradle of Liberty-but the citizens were not moved to pity by the object lesson.

The curse of greed so pressed on their hearts that they could not pause to express their pity for future men and women who are being stunted mentally, morally, and physically, so that they cannot possibly become good citizens. I cannot believe that the public conscience is so callous that it will not respond. I am going out of Phiadelphia to see if there are people with human blood in their veins.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Leads Parade of Tender Babes in Philadelphia; Speech Heartens Textile Strikers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 29, 1903
Mother Jones Speaks to Philadelphia Textile Strikers

From the Duluth Labor World of June 27, 1903:

TENDER BABES IN LARGE PARADE.
———-

BURNING DISGRACE OF PENNSYLVANIA
MANUFACTURERS.
———-

TEXTILE WORKERS FIRM FOR 55 HOURS.
———-
Mother Jones Makes Many Impassioned Speeches
and Heartens Her Hearers.
———-

Mother Jones Leads Child Workers in March to City Hall, Phl Iq p2, June 18, 1903

Philadelphia, June 26.- The events of the week here, in the textile strike, were the speeches of “Mother” Jones to crowds and the parade of the men, women and children who are heroically striving for a shorter work-day. In one day Mother Jones addressed three large meetings of textile workers, and she did much to put heart into the movement and cheer the men and women engaged in the struggle. Her impassioned addresses are just what these workers need. They hang on to her sentences, and one cannot listen to a group of strikers without hearing her terse sentences repeated.

To Strike is Honorable.

[She told them in one of her speeches:]

Americans are strikers by inheritance. The Pilgrim Fathers and the Colonists were strikers. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were the great strikers of their day, and you workingmen and women of Philadelphia need not be ashamed to strive and struggle for what is yours by right, and what must be won by you if you expect to be worthy of the inheritance handed down by your fathers.

[She continued:]

This is a city of “Brotherly Love,” indeed. There’s a whole lot of that here. Rather, it’s a city of brotherly thieves! Yes; I came here to hammer you, and I am going to do it. It serves you right that you are on strike today to get a reduction in your working hours. You elect the same old crowd year after year.

I sat in the Senate Chamber in Washington not long ago, and in one hour seven bills were passed conferring still greater powers on railroad corporations. Compare that incident with the action of some of your own representatives when the poor miners went to them to see if they couldn’t do something for the cause of labor. You should have seen the looks of cold disdain with which they were treated. They were told plainly that it was no use for them to come there and were advised strongly to go back to work.

While 147,000 miners were strike in Pennsylvania and 40,000 in West Virginia the last Congress went into the pocket of the American workingman and took $45,000-think of it, $45,000-to defray the expenses of a six weeks’ tour of a prince around the country, just because he was of royal blood! How greatly Senators Quay and Penrose and all the rest of them venerate royal blood! Fifty thousand dollars offhand for the entertainment of a prince, but not a single piece of legislation that would be likely to better the condition of the American workingman.

But it’s your own fault. Whenever you get tired of these things you’ll remedy them.

Mother Jones closed by advising the strikers to remain idle until their demands had been granted.

[She said:]

You need not fear starvation. They thought to starve the miners out, but they didn’t succeed. You are going to have plenty to eat, even if you are on strike.

Thomas Fleming, chairman of the executive committee, who, with several other strike leaders, accompanied Mother Jones to Frankford, in introducing her referred to her as “the old lady.”

Mother Jones, in reply, said:

I am not so old that I do not expect to live long enough to see you and your wives and children live as free men should, not as slaves.

Parade of Striking Children.

The parade of the strikers, Wednesday, was an object lesson that will long be remembered by those who saw it. There may have been 25,000 in line, but this was not so remarkable as was the sight of regiment after regiment of little children, some of them so small that they had to be provided with conveyances, for they could not otherwise have been in the procession. All kinds of vehicles had been tendered from the stylish coupe to the common express wagon. Many of the poor little tots were not old enough to realize what all the excitement was about. They were the living representatives of a system so cruel and merciless that future generations will wonder what sort of beasts employers were in the beginning of the twentieth century that they could for a single moment allow their machinery to be manipulated by the wan and immature flesh of what were not much better than suckling babes.

Banners That Mean Something.

The transparencies carried were plentiful and appropriate. Many touched on the question of shorter hours and of child labor. One elderly man staggered along with a banner reading:

Let God’s curses dwell with employers or parents who consign
little children to the living death of factory life.

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