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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 28, 1903
New York, July 24th: Mother Jones and Amy Relax During Day, Hold Evening Meeting
From the New York Tribune of July 25, 1903:
From the New York Sun of July 25, 1903:
Tag: The Labor World
Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor World: Mother Jones Leads Babes in Crusade to Expose Manifold Evils of Child Labor
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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.
———-
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.]
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Leads Parade of Tender Babes in Philadelphia; Speech Heartens Textile Strikers
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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.
———-
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.
Hellraisers Journal: From The Socialist and Labor Star: Debs, Berger and Germer Investigate Conditions in West Virginia
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 1, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – Socialists Committee Investigates Industrial Conditions
From the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star of May 30, 1913:
From The Coming Nation of May 24, 1913:
Hellraisers Journal: From the Duluth Labor World: Gatling Guns for West Virginia Miners-Peonage, Bullets and Bloodshed
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 27, 1903
West Virginia Miners Face Gatling Guns, Company Guards & Peonage
From the Duluth Labor World of May 23, 1903:
GATLING GUN FOR THE MINERS
———-RIDDLES GREAT TREES IN FOREST
IT IS TRAINED UPON.
———-WORKMEN HELP PRISONERS
———-
Will Resort to More Bloodshed If It Becomes
Necessary to Coerce the Miners.
———-
Labor conditions in West Virginia mines are not enviable. Besides reports of Gatling guns mounted on fortifications to command approaches to the mines, comes the further news that the mining camps are surrounded by armed guards ready to shoot down any of the workers who try to reach the outside world. So, between the guns and the guards, the wage workers of one of the naturally rich states of the Union cannot be said to pass very happy lives.
Though so rich in natural resources-for there are coal and iron mines and virgin forests that have never yet been touched-West Virginia is cursed by monopoly. As a result, the wage workers are not free to employ themselves, but must accept the conditions of those who control the source from which all must draw their subsistence-the land.
For no other reason do the inhabitants of that state submit. Those who are enticed into its boundaries under false pretences, as evidenced by the affidavits of the miners published in the organ of the Mine Workers’ Union; have hard work to get away. They are subdued by their poverty and fear of the armed guards.
The necessity for organizing West Virginia is so apparent that it is a wonder the American Federation of Labor does not flood the state with “agitators” for human freedom and human rights. What the wage workers there need is the knowledge that their own efforts to improve their own condition will be supplemented by the good will and financial assistance of organized labor everywhere. It is a hard proposition, to be sure, to go into territory dominated by such powerful social and political interests, but greater tasks have been accomplished, and it only needs the united power of an aroused commonwealth to bring about great and good industrial changes in that section of the country.
[Newsclip and emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Brought to Charleston, Confers with Governor Hatfield, Not Allowed to Speak in Public
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 12, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – Mother Jones Meets with Governor Hatfield
From The Washington Times of May 8, 1913:
“Mother” Jones Out of Martial Law Zone
———-
CHARLESTON. W. Va., May 8.-For the first time since her arrest last February in connection with the coal mine strike, “Mother” Mary Jones, known as the “Angel of the Mines,” was today outside the martial law zone, although technically under surveillance of the military authorities.
“Mother” Jones was brought to Charleston last night, and had an hour’s conversation with Governor Hatfield. She will talk with the governor again today. The aged woman said today her conversation with the chief executive was purely on economic questions. She is not under guard while here, and will not be placed under strict surveillance unless she attempts to make a speech.
—————-
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From the Duluth Labor World of May 10, 1913:
HATFIELD ADMITS HE’S AN AUTOCRAT
———-
Governor Of West Virginia Attempts to Deny
Charges of Peonage and Tyranny.
———-MOTHER JONES STILL IN MILITARY PRISON
———-
Hatfield Makes Evasive Statement In Which
He Calls His Accusers Liars.
———-CHARLESTON, W. Va., May 8.-Gov. Henry Hatfield of West Virginia, in a statement last night, attacked Senator John W. Kern of Indiana, who is expected to bring up a resolution which he introduced some time ago in the United States senate providing for federal investigation of conditions in the West Virginia coal fields. The governor declares the senator has been misinformed; that the coal strike is over; that he intends to arrest any person “aiding and abetting lawlessness, and that he courts a thorough investigation.” In his statement the governor says:
“I am informed that Senator Kern has made a statement that peonage exists in West Virginia and that Mrs. Mary (Mother) Jones has been on trial before a drum-head military court for the last 30 days.
“In reply to the senator’s statement relative to peonage, I wish to say that his allegation is a fabrication. Mrs. Jones is not now, nor has she at any time since her arrest been in prison. She is being detained (and is not in any way confined) at a pleasant boarding house with a private family on the banks of the Kanawha River at Pratt, W. Va.
Sure, He Is a Czar.
“I do not intend to permit Mrs. Jones or any other person to come into West Virginia and make speeches that have a tendency to produce riot and bloodshed, such as was evidenced under the administration of Governor Glasscock. We have evidence in abundance to prove that the kind of speeches made by Mrs. Jones and her co-workers did bring about a riotous state which resulted in murder and the destruction of property. We have a dozen of the same class of people confined in different jails of the state, some of them guilty of murder, others guilty of aiding and abetting by furnishing the necessary firearms and ammunition with which to commit murder.
Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: May Day and the Proletarian Heroine, Mother Jones by Eugene Debs
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 28, 1913
“May Day and Mother Jones” by Eugene Victor Debs
From the Appeal to Reason of April 26, 1913:
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1902, Part II: Found Organizing for the United Mine Workers of America in West Virginia
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 24, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1902, Part II
Found Organizing in West Virginia for the United Mine Workers
From the Clarksburg Daily Telegram (West Virginia) of December 27, 1902:
“MOTHER” JONES VISITS CLARKSBURG
———-
Upon Her Return From the New River District
-On Her Way to Tunnelton
to Make an Address to Miners.
———-Talked Freely of Strike Conditions
in Other Sections of the State
-Compliments Jackson but Has no Flattery for Goff.
“Mother” Jones, the noted strike and labor agitator, arrived in the city Friday evening on No. 12 from the New River district. She reports conditions in that field unsettled and the strike unended. Many miners are residing in camps and there is considerable suffering. She paid her compliments to both Judge John J. Jackson and Judge Nathan Goff. She thinks Judge Jackson has a tender spot in his heart but entertains a different opinion of Judge Goff. Her remarks about the latter were not at all flattering. She left Saturday morning for Tunnelton to address a mass meeting of miners there Saturday night.
She believes the Roosevelt commission’s work will be of much benefit to the miners’cause, especially in the way of moulding public opinion. She also thinks that some beneficial legislation will result from the investigation of the commission. She expressed herself as gratified with what she termed a more liberal spirit on the part of the press toward the miners.
She reviewed briefly prevalent conditions in some sections of the southern part of this state. She says the miners are allowed the regulation weight and the short ton and they have the privilege of buying at the pluck-me store as she terms it or elsewhere. There is nothing compulsory about it. She thought under those circumstances that the strike had been beneficial to the miners.
Inquiry was made by her as to what was doing around here. She made no comment when informed that all was quiet and we were running along in the even tenor of our ways.
“Mother” Jones was in her usual splendid health and was quite talkative and courteous.
While in the city she was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. D. W. McGeorge in Glen Elk.
[Photograph added.]
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1902, Part I: Saved from Suspicious Hotel Fire; Attends Celebration for John Mitchell
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 23, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1902, Part I
W. V: Saved from Suspicious Hotel Fire; Ill: Attends Celebration for Mitchell
From The Richmond Dispatch (Virginia) of December 3, 1902:
TO BURN “MOTHER” JONES.
———-
This Seemed the Object of Incendiaries
at Montgomery, W. Va.Mother Jones,
PARKERSBURG, VA., December 3.-(Special.)—”Mother” Jones, the friend of the miners, narrowly escaped with her life from a burning hotel at Montgomery, early this morning.
Mrs. A. R. Wagoner, the wife of the proprietor of the Montgomery Hotel, was aroused from her slumbers and gave the alarm. The room occupied by “Mother” Jones was full of smoke when she wakened, and in a short time she would have been suffocated.
The fire was of incendiary origin, starting in a room that had not been occupied for three days. The hotel has been on fire three times within the past few weeks, and it is supposed that it was because “Mother” Jones was stopping there.
John C. Todd, one of the guests, had a hip fractured by jumping from the third story window. All the guests lost most of their valuables and clothing.
[Photograph added.]
From Hinton Daily News (West Virginia) of December 6, 1902
Mother Jones was at Beckley yesterday and made a speech at the labor meeting.
From the Duluth Labor World of December 13, 1902:
Mother Jones was nearly suffocated in a hotel fire at Montgomery, W. Va., this week. The fire was of incendiary origin. The coal operators would not be sorry to learn that Mother Jones lost her life, and it is not improbable that some of their thugs had something to do with firing the hotel.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean of December 15, 1902:
MITCHELL IS HERE; RECEIVES OVATION
———-
Mine Workers’ Chief Greeted by Chicago Labor Men.
———-HAS LITTLE TO SAY
———-
Refuses to Discuss Matters Before the Commission.
———-
Goes to Spring Valley Today for Reception
and Will Hasten Back to Scranton.
———-John Mitchell, president of the United Mine Workers of America and the most prominent figure in the labor movement today, arrived in Chicago at 10:30 o’clock last night. He will leave at 9:15 o’clock this morning for his home in Spring Valley, where a public demonstration is planned in his honor by the residents of that city.
The train on which Mr. Mitchell arrived was delayed seven hours on account of a snowstorm, but the friends who had gathered to greet him waited patiently for his arrival. The Cabdrivers’ union sent a carriage to the depot, and he was driven to McCoy’s hotel, where he was given an ovation by the crowd in waiting in the rotunda.
[…..]
“Mother” Jones Here.
At the same hotel is “Mother” Jones, the socialist agitator and organizer of the miners of the country. She will be one of the speakers at the reception at Spring Valley today. Mrs. Jones is almost as popular among the miners as Mr. Mitchell, and while she shakes her head over the probable outcome of the investigation of the commission, she is rejoicing that the actual condition existing in the mines are being held up to the public.
[She said:]
I have been preaching about those conditions for years, but the world refused to listen. It is listening now, and whatever the final outcome may be it cannot fail to be an advantage to the suffering miners.
Hellraisers Journal: Supreme Court Sets Aside Pennsylvania Law for Protection of Anthracite Miners, Held to Be Confiscatory
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 31, 1922
Pennsylvania Law for Protection of Anthracite Miners Set Aside by Supreme Court
From the Duluth Labor World of December 30, 1922:
COURT DECLARES LABOR ACT VOID
———-
Pennsylvania Mine Cave-In Law
Held to Be Confiscatory
———-
The United States Supreme court has set aside the Pennsylvania law which prohibited the mining of anthracite coal in a manner that would endanger the lives or injure the property of persons-occupying houses situated on the surface soil. Justice Brandeis dissented.
The court held that the law deprived coal owners of valuable property rights without compensation. Under the decision, coal owners can mine coal without any regard for cave-ins that endanger lives and property, unless the coal that is necessary for props is paid for.
In his dissenting opinion, Justice Brandeis said:
If by mining anthracite coal the owner would necessarily unloose poisonous gases, I suppose no one would doubt the power of the state to prevent the mining without buying his coal field. And why may not the state, likewise, without paying compensation, prohibit one from digging so deep or excavating so near the surface as to expose the community to like dangers? In the latter case, as in the former, carrying on the business would be a public nuisance.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
