Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1910, Part I: Found Fighting for Working Women

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Quote Mother Jones, Ladies Women, NYT p3, May 23, 1914———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 12, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1910, Part I:
-Found Fighting for Working Women of Philadelphia and Milwaukee

From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:

Fighting to Live
—–

By Tom A. Price.
—–

* * *

[Mother Jones in Philadelphia.]

Mother Jones. This little woman whose heart is as big as the nation and beats wholly for humanity, came to Philadelphia while the trumpet was still reverberating after the call to arms had been sounded. Under her bold leadership the fighters were organized before the manufacturers had fairly realized that their workers had at last been stung to revolt by the same lash which had so often driven them to slavery.

Mother Jones, ISR Cover crpd p673 ed, Feb 1910

In impassioned speech after impassioned speech Mother Jones urged the girls on to battle. Shaking her gray locks in defiance she pictured the scab in such a light that workers still shudder when they think of what she would have considered them had they remained in the slave pens of the manufacturers. Every man and woman and child who heard her poignantly regrets the fact that her almost ceaseless labors at last drove her to her bed where she now lies ill.

But she had instilled into the minds of her followers the spirit which prompted her to cross a continent to help them. That spirit remains and is holding in place the standard which she raised. It is leading the girls to every device possible to help the cause. Many of them are selling papers on the street that they may earn money to contribute to the union which they love.

* * *

[Photograph from cover of February Review.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Philadelphia Shirtwaist Strikers Fighting to Live, Part II -from the International Socialist Review

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Quote Mother Jones, Spirit of Revolt, Philly Dec 19, NY Call Dec 21, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 8, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Shirtwaist Strikers Fight to Live, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:

Fighting to Live
—–

By Tom A. Price.
—–

[Part II of II.]

[Mother Jones in Philadelphia.]

Mother Jones. This little woman whose heart is as big as the nation and beats wholly for humanity, came to Philadelphia while the trumpet was still reverberating after the call to arms had been sounded. Under her bold leadership the fighters were organized before the manufacturers had fairly realized that their workers had at last been stung to revolt by the same lash which had so often driven them to slavery.

Mother Jones, ISR Cover crpd p673 ed, Feb 1910

In impassioned speech after impassioned speech Mother Jones urged the girls on to battle. Shaking her gray locks in defiance she pictured the scab in such a light that workers still shudder when they think of what she would have considered them had they remained in the slave pens of the manufacturers. Every man and woman and child who heard her poignantly regrets the fact that her almost ceaseless labors at last drove her to her bed where she now lies ill.

But she had instilled into the minds of her followers the spirit which prompted her to cross a continent to help them. That spirit remains and is holding in place the standard which she raised. It is leading the girls to every device possible to help the cause. Many of them are selling papers on the street that they may earn money to contribute to the union which they love.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Philadelphia Shirtwaist Strikers Fighting to Live, Part II -from the International Socialist Review”

Hellraisers Journal: Philadelphia Shirtwaist Strikers Fighting to Live, Part I -from the International Socialist Review

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Quote Mother Jones, Spirit of Revolt, Philly Dec 19, NY Call Dec 21, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 7, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Shirtwaist Strikers Fight to Live, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:

Fighting to Live
—–

By Tom A. Price.
—–

[Part I of II.]

Letter H, ISR p673, Feb 1910 ARRASSED by a subsidized police force which drives them from corner to corner at the behest of their employers, disputing their right to live and move and exercise free speech upon the streets once resonant with the peal of Liberty’s bell; lashed by the slave whip of necessity in the hands of manufacturers who grudge them a paltry dole sufficient to keep body and soul together, three thousand girls in Philadelphia are fighting against tremendous odds for the privileges which, according to the frequent boast of American orators, are elementary—the common heritage of all.

It is no longer a question of higher wages, important as that feature of the struggle is and has been from the beginning. It is a question of emancipation from something infinitely worse than hunger, a condition far more distressing than want.

Philly Shirtwaist Strike, Strikers n Cop, ISR p674, Feb 1910

Without sympathy save among those of their own order; without resources; without a knowledge in many cases of our language, much less our laws, these girls have shown a heroism, a devoted self-sacrifice, which should command the admiration of all men. With fear of neither confinement nor bodily harm in their minds they go forth every day to do picket duty under the very eyes of the police whom they know are against them, not only as a matter of policy but as a matter of absolute necessity.

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