Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 27, 1907
From The Labor World: “Labor’s Little Angel” Speaks in Duluth
Mother Jones spoke at the Duluth Armory on Sunday August 18th. With her on the platform where William E. McEwen, editor and publisher of The Labor World, and C. E. Mahoney who served as acting president of the Western Federation of Miners until the recent release of Charles Moyer from jail in Boise.
The striking iron miners of the Mesabi Range were supported by the speakers, and the steel trust and their gunthugs were condemned.
During her speech Mother Jones declared:
When they bring in the guns and the military, they think they have conquered; they rejoice at the thought they have conquered labor. You can conquer the steel trust, you can conquer the paper trust—every other trust in the world, but put it down for the editor in the morning that you can’t conquer the labor trust. If you wipe out the working class, what are the rich people going to do; they can’t even cook a meal of victuals for themselves.
From The Labor World of August 24, 1907:
ARMORY MASS MEETING WAS
MOST SUCCESSFUL
—–
Mother Jones Tells Working People of
Duluth Something About
Labor Conditions.
—–
Large Crowd Turned Out in Spite
of Inclement Weather—
Interest Was Great.
—–The mass meeting at the armory last Sunday evening [August 18th] brought out 300 of the faithful. The weather was most unfavorable. The worst storm of the season was at its height, and even those on the program as speakers didn’t expect to see more than the committee on hand. However, the attendance was good, and spirit was high.
The meeting was called lo order by W. E. McEwen. On the platform with him were Alderman Jos. Shartell, Mother Jones, C. E. Mahoney, acting president of the Western Federation of Miners, and M. Kaplin. The Finnish band opened the meeting with the playing of the Marseilles.
Mr. McEwen in a few preliminary remarks told of the purpose of the meeting. He said that many of his hearers might disagree in tactics, but they were all of one mind as to the ultimate object. He said that the issues in the strike had nothing to do with the behaviour of the public officials. Their use of thugs to act as peace officers was deplorable. The speaker then told of the cowardly shooting of a non-participant in the strike.
Said Mr. McEwen:
Things cannot go on longer as they have for the past two weeks without raising the wrath of every honest man; the mine owners cannot bring into the state of Minnesota those undesirable citizens who go to some private detective agency and hire out as private detectives, sluggers and strike breakers. These “experts,” as the steel corporation calls them, have been shipped into Minnesota contrary to the law; they have been sworn in contrary to the law of the state as deputy sheriffs, and they wear the livery of the state of Minnesota.
Questions Sheriff Bates
I notice our sheriff has made the declaration repeatedly that he has not sworn in as deputies any person except citizens of the state of Minnesota and I often wonder whether Sheriff Bates really means that and tries to make us believe it when it is not true. I have talked in my office with a boy 18 years old who was hired in Chicago for the purpose of working at $2.50 a day. He didn’t know what work he was to do as he came to Duluth and he was shipped to the iron range and there given a rifle and he was told he was wanted to guard the property of the Oliver Mining company. He said the captain told him when the sheriff came to swear him in as deputy to swear his home was in Minnesota. This was an 18-year-old boy and as he described the man who swore him in the description looked very much like a certain official of St. Louis county.
Mr. McEwen gave an account of the shooting down of an ignorant miner on the range by the deputies just because he was walking across the property of one of the mining companies. The miner could not speak English and becoming frightened by the guns of the deputies began to run away, whereupon he was shot and afterwards put into prison badly wounded.
[But said Mr. McEwen:]
No one has been punished for this crime; how would it have been if a party of miners had shot one of the other side. They would have been imprisoned immediately.
M. Kaplan Talks.
Morris Kaplan, a local business man, was next introduced by the chairman and gave an address setting forth how the smaller business men get fooled in regard to the strike and the economic conditions of the country in general. He told of the unfairness of some of the business men on the range and also here in Duluth.
C. E. Mahoney, acting president of the Western Federation of Miners, who is in charge of the range strike at present, gave a review of the battles fought by the federation in the past in the western mining fields and defended the organization as one which does not care for violence, but is always working for the betterment of the laboring man.
He also gave an account of the trial of the miners at Hibbing last week who were arrested on charges of rioting. He claims that not one charge could be proven against them, but nevertheless Judge Brady, had declared the men guilty and had held them to the grand jury.
[Said the speaker:]
Of course, the grand jury can do nothing else but order their acquittal, but it is the injustice of the thing that appeals to us. That is only an instance of the methods employed by the Steel Trust all through the strike.
Chairman McEwen then introduced “Mother” Mary Jones, who in a characteristic speech gave a graphic account of various labor troubles which she had been in, helping the miners throughout the country.
Mother Jones Speaks.
[Said “Mother” Jones:]
I read so much since I have been on the range about the brutality, the villainy of a body of men that were here on the range; I read so much of the wolves that are here; one editor up the road said he was astonished at my coming in here to join hands with the, wolves, the Western Federation of Miners; I want to tell that editor right here and now, I want to be with those wolves; they are the kind I want to mingle with; I have no objection to being classed with that type of humanity. Let us listen when they are talking about wolves and anarchists. I happen to be one of those who went against the guns in the firing line on the Industrial field for years; I don’t belong, to the women who go to church and work Jesus to death. I want to save him the trouble of being worked. I don’t belong to women’s clubs or the charity associations; I want to overthrow charity and help bring justice to the world.
When they bring in the guns and the military, they think they have conquered; they rejoice at the thought they have conquered labor. You can conquer the steel trust, you can conquer the paper trust—every other trust in the world, but put it down for the editor in the morning that you can’t conquer the labor trust. If you wipe out the working class, what are the rich people going to do; they can’t even cook a meal of victuals for themselves.
Roosevelt is Sorry.
Mr. Roosevelt would give a million dollars if he had never made that statement that we are undesirable citizens.
I may come another time to see you; I am going to another market to make it interesting for the other fellows. Keep it up, boys. I have no pet organization; I don’t care whether they organize or not. I am going to try to fight that battle, but I am going to try to get them into an organization that will have a higher civil brotherhood.
“Mother” Jones urged the men to organize and not to scab on one another. She stated that there should be one unit in labor, one grand organization to fight the battles of the workingmen.
A Finnish speaker, Miss Ida Pasanen of Cloquet, spoke for a few minutes in Finnish for the benefit of the Finns who were present.
Although there were not as many present at the meeting as had been expected, the enthusiasm of those who attended was plainly evident. Thunderous applause greeted “Mother” Jones when she began her address, and the storm outside seemed to only assist in making those present more enthusiastic for the cause advocated by the little “Mother.”
———-
More from The Labor World:
LABOR’S “LITTLE ANGEL” IS
WRONGED BY PAPERS
—–
In Proctor Speech She Did Not Advise
Labor to Get Drunk Occasionally.
—–
Mother Jones Says Newspapers in Duluth
Grossly Misrepresented Her.
—–“Mother” Jones spoke at Proctor Tuesday evening [August 20th] to a packed house consisting of railroad employes. Her speech was along the lines of the one delivered at the armory Sunday evening. She spoke to the men as railroad employes; discussed their long hours of labor on the road, and referred to the fact that many of them reached home tired and almost exhausted.
This brought up the subject of temperance, and she discussed the work of temperance societies; how they only worked on the effect, and completely neglected the cause of intemperance. “Mother” Jones held like Francis Willard, the great apostle of temperance, that overwork did much to produce intemperance, and she did not blame exhausted being for taking a drink under such circumstances.
This puts a different construction to her speech as quoted in the daily papers. At the armory she was wrongfully accused by the [Duluth] News Tribune of using profane language. In referring to the treatment by the daily papers of “Mother” Jones, she said:
I have travelled from one end of this country to the other; have been in many a contest on the side of the workingmen, where the newspapers were viciously opposed to labor, and where my utterances have been severely criticised, but never in my experience have I been so grossly misrepresented as I have been by some of the Duluth newspapers.
When they say that I use profane language, you know Comrade, that it is not true. When they say that I advise men to get drunk, it is the height of their blasphemy.
And we do know “Mother” Jones. Her every heart beat is for the cause of humanity. She may have terse ways of putting facts on the platform, but her life is as pure and sweet as the blooming lily in the valley. She is the “little angel” of the working class, and women of her character do not give bad advice.
———-
Mother Tells of Organizing in West Virginia:
INTERESTING STORY IN LIFE
OF MOTHER JONES
—–
She Was Arrested For Violating an Injunction
Issue by Federal Judge.
—–
Declared That Judge Jackson of West Virginia
Scabbed on His Father.
—–“Mother” Jones was a constant visitor at the Labor World office during her stay in Duluth, and we learned to know the good “Mother” better than ever. She is full of interesting anecdotes; which if put into print, would make capital reading for all people interested in the labor struggles of the times.
It will be remembered that Mother Jones was arrested in West Virginia by order of Judge Jackson of the federal court for violating an injunction issued by him during the miners’ strike, in which he attempted to restrain Mother Jones and her associates from feeding the striking miners.
The good little friend of the miners very naturally violated the iniquitous order, and was very promptly notified of her arrest by the United States marshal. The warrant was served while she was delivering an address. After reading the document she retorted in her characteristic manner:
Go and tell your judge that he is the worst scab I know of. He scabbed on his father.
During the trial one of the mine owners’ attorneys asked the good woman if she had not said that Judge Jackson was a scab. Before Mother Jones could reply the aged jurist turned in his chair, and facing the prisoner asked with firmness what she meant by such a charge.
Mother Jones, not to be outdone, proved equal to the occasion.
[She began:]
Well you see judge, it was the first thought that came to me when the warrant was served, and I had to let it out. It didn’t occur to me in 40 years. But away back in the sixties I read one of the Philadelphia papers that President Lincoln had appointed a lawyer by the name of Jackson on the federal bench for West Virginia. I also remember the stir about the appointment, for the papers declared that the initials of yourself and your father were the same, and the commission failed to state whether the appointment was for Jackson, Sr., or Jackson, Jr. It was also stated that your father was out of the country temporarily, and you took the job. It was discovered later that the appointment was intended for your father. That is what I meant when I said, “you had scabbed on your father.”
This reply caused a general laugh in the court room in which the venerable judge participated most heartily.
When the trial was over and Mother Jones was acquitted Judge Jackson sent for her, and in his typical southern style greeted the kindly old lady with, “Judge Jackson wishes to pay his compliments to Mother Jones, and at the same time to assure her that he did not scab on his father.”
[Replied Mother Jones:]
I am glad of it, for it is pleasing to learn that I was not tried by a scab judge.
SOURCES
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Aug 24, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1907-08-24/ed-1/seq-6/
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1907-08-24/ed-1/seq-5/
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday August 11, 1907
Denver, Colorado – Moyer Returns Home; Haywood to Chicago
Charles Moyer Back in Denver; Big Bill Haywood Heads to Chicago for Picnic and Demonstration
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66992169/
See also:
Tag: Mesabi Iron Miners Strike of 1907
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mesabi-iron-miners-strike-of-1907/
For less benign description of Judge Jackson:
Hellraisers Journal: Last Act of Judge Jackson Is to Release the Murderers of Raleigh County Miners
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/3/15/1369643/-Hellraisers-Journal-Last-Act-of-Judge-Jackson-Is-to-Release-the-Murderers-of-Raleigh-County-Miners