Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 9, 1900 Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1900, Part I Found Visiting Jailed Strikers of Georges Creek Coal District
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of August 5, 1900:
STRIKE LEADER GOES TO PRISON
FOR SIX MONTHS
——-
Woman Sympathizer Creates a Sensation
in a Maryland Jail
Special to The Inquirer.
CUMBERLAND, Md., Aug. 4.-William Warner, the strike leader, was sentenced this afternoon to six months in the House of Correction, having been convicted of unlawful assembly during trouble which arose at an anti-strike meeting. Seventeen miners were also sentenced. They were visited at the jail this afternoon by Mother Jones, the woman labor organizer, who created a sensation by proposing three cheers in the jail for the strikers and three hisses “for the blacklegs.” She led the cheering, as well as the hissing. Warner, who is from Pittsburg, took an appeal.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 12, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1900, Part III
Found Returning to Georges Creek Coal District to Assist Striking Miners
From the Washington Times of June 28, 1900:
WARRANTS FOR STRIKERS.
—–
The Lonaconing Editor’s Assailants
to be Arrested.
CUMBERLAND, June 27.-Warrants have been issued for the arrest of Lonaconing rioters. Joseph J. Robinson, editor of the Lonaconing Star, Robert A. L. Dick, who addressed tho anti-strike meeting; Mayor Thompson and others have made information. It is expected that another batch will be sworn out in the case of the brutal assault on James Stapleton, the roadsman yesterday. The region is being patrolled by union miners and a fresh outbreak is expected at any time. “Mother” Jones, the famous woman agitator, has returned to the region and is lending to the excitement.
Hugh Muir, a prominent resident of Lonaconing and a member of the United Mine Workers, was here yesterday to obtain advice regarding entering a libel suit against one of the strike leaders. The charge grows out of a publication by a strike organization. The organization seems to be divided and is believed by many to be disintegrating.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 11, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1900, Part II
Fondly Remembered in Birmingham as “Labor’s Joan of Arc”
From the Birmingham Labor Advocate of June 16, 1900:
MOTHER JONES
—–
“I Have Devoted Myself to Humanity.”
—–
LABOR’S JOAN OF ARC
—–
Comforts the Wife and Child,
Touches as With a Mother’s Hand
the Brow of the Sick,
and Leads the Strikers.
—–
Mother Jones, who is distinguishing herself and honoring her dear old gray head by her efforts in labor’s cause in Pennsylvania and Maryland, is well and affectionately known in Birmingham, where she labored a few years ago, largely in the interest of cotton mill serfs. God bless her. No truer, braver or more devoted champion of the right ever graced the earth.
We are making history, and she will live in its pages. Her life will be held up as an example to emulate in that better day when right shall rule.
The following article is clipped from the editorial page of the Philadelphia North American, illustrated by a double column likeness of our well-beloved sister:
“Mother” Mary Jones comes to the front again, as is evidenced from the reports from the George’s Creek coal mining region of Maryland. By talking to the miners and their families there she has persuaded them to remain on strike. The scenes attending the speech-making of Mother Jones are intensely dramatic, as, indeed, they well might have been, judging by the Meyersdale situation and the character of the woman labor leader.
Mrs. Mary Jones is better known among the workmen of the United States and especially among the miners, as “Mother.” She has earned the title by the truly motherly manner in which she cares for the families of those men who happen to be on strike in her neighborhood. As she says, “the women are great factors in a strike.” By controlling the women and children, Mother Jones is able to win many strikes for the men.
“A man can face the devil.” says Mother Jones, “but he can’t stand out against capitalism and its servants when the wife points to the little children and says there is no bread.”
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 10, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1900, Part I
Found Marching with Striking Miners of Georges Creek Coal District
From the Baltimore Sun of June 1, 1900:
THE MINERS’ STRIKE
—–
Mother Jones Rallies The Union Men
At Knapp’s Meadow.
(Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.)
CUMBERLAND, Md., May 31.-“Mother” Jones, the noted woman organizer of Punxsutawney, Pa., arrived in the George’s creek mining region today accompanied by District President Allan Barber. They had been attending the miners’ celebration at Dubois, Pa. Mother Jones was accorded great honors. She at once took hold of affairs, Organizer William Warner and Thomas Haggerty becoming secondary in importance.
This afternoon over three hundred miners from Frostburg, Eckhart and Vale Summit, headed by Mother Jones, who is regarded as a Joan of Arc in the present struggle, started on a march to Knapp’s Meadow, one mile from Lonaconing, where a meeting had been called today. The circular call was supposed to have been issued from non-union sources and the union men proceeded to capture the meeting. Mother Jones rode in a carriage and Organizers Warner and Haggerty followed on foot. The procession marched to music from a bass drum, a fife and a horn. A number of banners were carried bearing inscriptions demanding 60 cents a ton. The procession marched and countermarched through the main streets of Lonaconing. But few miners of Lonaconing participated in the parade and but few attended the meeting at Knapp’s Meadow.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 9, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January and February 1900
Found in Pennsylvania Receiving “Fervent Ovation” from Arnot Miners
From The Wellsboro Agitator of February 28, 1900:
LOCAL FACTS AND COMMENTS.
—–
Recent Haps and Mishaps in this County and Its Vicinity.
[…..]
–Arnot miners, who sought work elsewhere after the strike began, are now coming home.
[…..]
–Mrs. Mary Jones, of Pittsburg, the striking miners’ champion, left this county on the 19th instant to go to Toby valley whither she had been summoned. The night before her departure there was a fervent ovation in her honor at the opera-house in Blossburg. Mr. W. B. Wilson, of Blossburg, President of the 5th District United Mine Workers of America, presided and paid Mrs. Jones a glowing tribute. Mrs. Jones’s remarks were very affecting.
[…..]
———-
[Inset added from Elmira Gazette of October 7, 1899.]
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 24, 1900
Blossburg, Pennsylvania – Arnot Miners and Families Bid Mother Jones Farewell
From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of February 17, 1900:
STRIKE DECLARED OFF.
BLOSSBURG, Pa., Feb. 16.-The strike at the Arnot and the Landrus mines of the Blossburg Coal Company, which began eight months ago, was officially declared of to-day, when all the demands of the miners were conceded by the company. The men will be put to work as fast as places can be made for them. One thousand men are affected. During the strike forty families were evicted from company houses at Arnot. There were daily demonstrations and parades and many were arrested charged with riot, true bills being found against 35 persons, including several women.
———-
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From the Mansfield Advertiser of February 21, 1900:
-Mrs. Jones, of Pittsburg, otherwise “Mother Jones,” was given a rousing farewell at Blossburg Opera House last Saturday by the miners, late on strike, among whom she has labored so unceasingly the past few months.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 23, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for the Year 1899
-Part II: Found with Striking Coal Miners of Arnot, Pennsylvania
From the Philadelphia Times of October 9, 1899:
MINERS EVICTED
FROM THEIR HOMES
—–
Blossburg Miners Are Facing
Starvation by Reason
of Their Strike.
—–
WILL NOT YIELD A POINT
—–
Special Telegram to The Times.
Arnot, October 8.
The strike situation hereabouts is becoming serious, and the sufferings of the miners will be severe if an agreement is not soon reached with the Blossburg Coal Company. During the past week the company has discharged its superintendent, ordered the mules sold and made preparations to close down the mines permanently.
Although the strikers have been out sixteen weeks, and are facing certain starvation, they are as determined as ever not to “cave in” to the company, as they term it. The action of the miners in deciding to return to work, and then changing their minds after hearing the harangues of Mrs. Mary Jones, a woman labor agitator of Pittsburg, has apparently aroused the ire or the officials of the company.
Evicted Their Tenants.
As soon as the intention of the miners to remain out became known the company took steps to evict the men who occupied houses belonging to the company for non-payment Thus far thirty-six families have been forced from the houses which they have occupied for years. The evictions were effected by Sheriff Johnston and a force of deputies from Wellsboro. There was no show of force. Those who had no place to go were taken in by neighbors who own their own houses, and are therefore out of reach of the company’s eviction process.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 18, 1900
Arnot, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Ready to Go to Jail with Striking Miners
From The Wellsboro Agitator of January 17, 1900:
STRIKE SCENES
[…..]
Arrests Made of Those Who Took Part in the Parades
-Mother Jones Again on the Scene.
—–
There was a new phase of the strike at Arnot last week. Some 21 of those who participated in the daily parades were arrested on the charge of “unlawful and tumultuous assembling, and making use then and there of opprobrious epithets, shouts, exclamations and other means calculated to inspire the people with terror, and to intimidate the workmen employed by the Blossburg Coal company and to prevent them from continuing work for same Company.”
The persons arrested appeared before Justice Cambers, being represented by Frank S. Hughes, Esq., of Blossburg, and the attorneys for the prosecution were H. F. Marsh and Major G. W. Merrick, of this borough. All were finally allowed to go on their own recognizance for appearance at court.
Early in the week Mrs. Mary Jones, or “Mother Jones,” as she is called at Arnot, returned to the scene and there was a great demonstration among the strikers who look upon her as their leader. Mrs. Jones blustered a good deal about the breaking up of the parades and stoutly asserted that they would be renewed and kept up. Mr. Thomas Haggerty, another leader, and Mrs. Jones decided to call a meeting of the U. M. W. at Blossburg.
On Tuesday evening a large crowd followed the band from Arnot to Blossburg. Halting on Main street “Mother” Jones, dauntless as Joan of Arc,” gray-haired and loquacious, as she is described, mounted a box and talked about maintaining the parades, and threatened that if one of the paraders was jailed they would have to take all of them, including herself. There were a great many women in the crowd, so an open meeting was held. But later the men who belonged to the order [United Mine Workers of America] held a secret session.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 17, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1909, Part II:
-Found Speaking at Convention of United Mine Workers of America