All strikes are alike;
they are a protest against charity,
ignorance, misery, hunger,
individual slavery and jails.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday April 12, 1917
Mother Jones News for March: Found in Chicago and Washington
From the Chicago Day Book
for March 1, 1917:
PETITION ASKS THAT COURTS
BE FORBIDDEN TO
ENJOIN PEACEFUL PICKETINGSigned by several hundred “neutrals,” a long petition asking the legislature to pass a law forbidding the courts from enjoining peaceful picketing of shops where a strike is on has been forwarded to Springfield.
True to the predictions of Mother Jones last Monday, the wholesale arrests of [garment] strikers on orders of Judges Baldwin and Smith aroused public opinion….
From the Duluth Labor World
for March 3, 1917:
MOTHER JONES MET WITH
COPY OF WRIT
—–CHICAGO, March 1.-Officials anticipated activities of “Mother” Jones, 83-year-old labor leader. When she arrived here to participate in the garment workers’ strike she was served with a copy of the injunction prohibiting picketing.
[She declared:]
What a lot of rot. Imagine an old judge issuing anything like that in the twentieth century!
I shall speak in Chicago if I am asked and attend meetings, too. All strikes are alike; they are a protest against charity, ignorance, misery, hunger, individual slavery and jails.
She came from New York, where she saw the [food] riots in city hall park last week.
Miss Gertrude Barnum, who, with Theodore Roosevelt, helped settle the kimona workers’ strike in 1913, also has arrived to help the strikers. Her first word was a protest against the injunction.
———-
From The Day Book for March 5, 1917:
C. F. OF L. DOES NOT BELIEVE IN DUAL SOLIDARITYI. W. W. sympathizers appeared before the [Chicago Federation] of Labor Sunday to plead for permission to go before the different unions and solicit funds for the defense of 73 Industrial Workers who are to be placed on trial for murder as a result of the boat landing disturbance at Everett, Wash….
“We want solidarity,” said Pres. John Fitzpatrick of the C. F. of L. “But the I. W. W. is an opponent of solidarity among workers. It tries continually to undo the good that unions accomplish. It is a dual organization that is fighting union labor and injuring the cause of the workers.”
The I. W. W. request was refused…
“Mother” Jones spoke and told the clothing bosses where they should get off in their scheme to coin millions off of a little capital and a great amount of underpaid woman labor. She criticised judges who issue anti-picketing injunctions.
From the Chicago Daily Tribune for March 5, 1917:
“Mother” Jones Spanks ‘Em
The next speaker [at the meeting of the Chicago Federation of Labor] was “Mother” Jones, who came to Chicago recently to aid in the strike of women’s garment workers. She administered a verbal spanking to union members for “letting capital put it over all the time,” and criticised judges who issue anti-picketing injunctions.
From The Day Book for March 6, 1917:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
TUESDAY
Candy workers, men, women and girls, meet at Hodcarriers’ hall at 7:30 p. m. Mother Jones, John Fitzpatrick and others will speak. Several speeches in foreign languages.
[…..]
From The Topeka State Journal for March 10, 1917:
MOTHER JONES, LEADER
—–
Will Show Police Whether Chicago Women
Can Hold Parade.
—–Chicago, March 10.-The refusal of police to issue a permit for a food parade planned by 1,000 Jewish women from Chicago’s Ghetto will not halt the demonstration today leaders declared. More than 500 at a meeting last night announced that they would parade to the city hall regardless to police remonstrances.
“Mother” Jones, here directing the women garment workers strike, will lead the marchers. Several I. W. W.’s also will take part.
From the Bridgeport Evening Farmer for March 19, 1917:
Great Enthusiasm at “Mother” Jones Meeting
—–“Mother” Jones, the organizer of the Western Federation of Labor, spoke yesterday afternoon at a mass meeting of machinists, and created great enthusiasm. More than 700 persons were turned away from the meeting, it was reported.
The speaker referred to chambers of commerce as the “chambers of crooks” and called big employers ‘high class burglars and robbers.” She said:
“We have been working for and eight-hour day all over the country, and we will soon have it. Many have sacrificed everything for this, but they have not sacrificed in vain. We are not indebted to the charity brigade of any other such society, for they are but auxiliaries of the working class.”
John Ryan, president of Local 30, George Bowen, business agent of the local and Jasper McLevy addressed the meeting. Mr. Ryan introduced “Mother” Jones. business Agent Bowen and Mr. McLevy talked on [working conditions in Bridgeport.]
A collection was taken up and a large amount of money was obtained.
From The Washington Post for March 23, 1917:
PLEA BY MOTHER JONES
—–
Calls on Car Strikers to Stand
Firm for Their Demands.[…..]
Mother Jones, gray-haired friend of strikers, who arrived in Washington yesterday, issued an appeal to striking employes of the Washington Railway and electric company last night to stand firm until their demands are granted. She will make an address to the strikers at a meeting to be held some time soon. Arrangements for the meeting will be made today.
In her statement, Mother Jones declared that her investigation revealed that the striking employes were not receiving enough to feed their children and give them a chance to go to school. She urged the District commissioners to take over and operate the cars of the company.
Draws Lesson From Russia.
[Said the veteran strike leader:]
Nicholas Romanoff has just lost his throne. The next two potentates who will lose their thrones are Clarence King, of Washington, and William Kaiser, of Germany. If Clarence P. King were a broad-minded man he would tell the strikers to get across the table from him and thrash out the differences. Sane employers are seeing the logic of getting with their employes and coming to understandings, instead of warring with them.
[…..]
From The Washington Times for March 23, 1917:
MOTHER JONES HERE TO HELP STRIKERS
—–
Gentle in Appearance, Labor Agitator Thunders
Denunciations of Capitalists.
—–She is a kindly featured, gentle-looking woman of about sixty-five. Th6 pinkness of her oval face is emphasized by her neatly coiled, immaculately white hair. Her address, as she gave it today, is “Anywhere I can find a good fight.”
Her name is Mary Jones, but nobody knows her by that cognomen. From one end of the country to the other she is known as “Mother Jones.”
She is in Washington to help the striking employes of the Washington Railway and Electric Company. She has no definite program for assisting the strikers, but she announced she intended to make one or more speeches and do anything else she may to enlist support for the strikers.
Her Appearance Deceiving.
“Mother Jones'” appearance is very deceiving. At the Atlantic Hotel today she sat in her room, attired in a black braided skirt, a plum colored waist with a long lace collar and touches of embroidery at her cuffs. She looks to be a gentle, refined, intellectual woman exceptionally well preserved for her years.
As a matter of fact, she is anything in the world but gentle. She is aggressive, militant, and bristling with fight. She possesses a keen sense of humor, but withal she is a most serious person with a great number of advanced ideas and theories.
As she talked to a Times’ reporter she gave every indication of being highly amused at the civilization of today, “dominated,” she said, “by men totally out of step with the march of progress.”
No one who ever talked with “Mother Jones” could entertain the slightest notion that she did not mean what she said. She is a very earnest person, whose stoutish frame shakes as she thunders denunciations and vituperation in the deepest of bass voices.
Hiss Serves As Period.
She speaks in stentorian tones and a person beyond her presence would have every reason for believing a man with a rich Irish brogue was talking. When she ends a sentence she hisses the last word and the sound is like a shrill whistle, in striking contrast with her bass voice.
The libel laws prohibit the publication of much that “Mother Jones” said. She deals in fire and vitriol all the time. There is never any cessation of invectives, expletives, and terms of opprobrium.
She talks generally on capital and labor, but alluded to the local street car strike in characteristic language, and said she was sure the strikers would win.
———-
From The Washington Herald for March 24, 1917:
CONGRESS MAY ACT ON RAILWAY STRIKE
—–
Grievances of Employes Probably
Will Be Aired at Capitol.With neither side disposed to yield, the differences between the Washington Railway and Electric Company and its striking employes, it became apparent last night, will occupy the attention of Congress in the early days of the session which convenes April 2.
That the men feel there is no chance of President Clarence P. King, of the company, consenting to deal with the union officials was evidence by the work which has already begun to line up support for an airing of the grievances at the Capitol.
“Mother Jones,” the aged and militant leader of the miners of America, who is here to aid the carmen, made this further apparent when she declared last night that the practical solution of the difficulty is Federal control of the street railway lines in the District…
From The Washington Times for March 24, 1917:
RUMORS AGAIN END STREET CAR STRIKE
—–
But Company and Union Men
Agree in Denying Them.
—–[…..]
Warns of “Mother Jones”
At the office of the company it is said that practically normal schedules have been restored on all the lines and that the company is getting new and permanent men daily to take the places of the strikers.
The interest of the strikers today was divided between the efforts being made to prevent “Mother Jones” from speaking in Washington in behalf of the strikers, and conference on the circulation of a city-wide petition to Congress for Government ownership of the local traction systems.
Major Pullman today received a letter from the Washington Detective Bureau, incorporated, which is furnishing the strikebreakers, calling his attention to the activities of Mother Jones” in various parts of the country for a number of years.
Officials of the strike breaking agency, who have crossed swords with “Mother Jones” in other cities, stated today that if she speaks “there will be trouble.” They have complied all the information obtainable on the life and activities of “Mother Jones,” from her girlhood to the present day, and placed them in the hands of Major Pullman.
May Address Two Meetings.
Although no definite speaking date for “Mother Jones” has been arranged, it is understood that she will deliver one of her characteristically strenuous addresses at a meeting of the International Machinists’ Association next Wednesday night and another at a meeting of the striking street car employes on the first Thursday in April….
Hellraisers Journal of March 28, 1917 featured articles from the March 27th editions of Washington’s Herald, Post and Times which reported on the speech given by Mother on Monday evening, March 26th, at a mass meeting held in the National Rifles’ Armory. Mother urged the striking street carmen and their wives to “stick together” and to “get some red blood and fight!”
From the Washington Evening Star for March 29, 1917:
STRIKERS’ SIDE EXPLAINED.
—–
Machinists Hear Speakers at Meeting-
Carmen Get Allowance.The side of the striking employes of the Washington Railway and Electric Company was explained last night to the members of the Washington local of the International Association of Machinists at the Naval Lodge Hall, 4th street and Pennsylvania avenue southeast. The speakers were George A. Wilbert, Edward McMorrow and “Mother” Jones.
The paying of the men their weekly allowance of$5 each from the national association of car men was continued today. The payment will be completed this afternoon, it was said at the headquarters.
SOURCES
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Mar 1, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1917-03-01/ed-1/seq-21/
-Mar 5, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1917-03-05/ed-2/seq-31/
-Mar 6, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1917-03-06/ed-1/seq-32/
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Mar 3, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1917-03-03/ed-1/seq-3
The Chicago Daily Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Mar 5, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/28649739/
The Topeka State Journal
(Topeka, Kansas)
-Mar 10, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016014/1917-03-10/ed-1/seq-3/
Bridgeport Evening Farmer
(Bridgeport, Connecticut)
-Mar 19, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84022472/1917-03-19/ed-1/seq-11/
The Washington Post
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Mar 23, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/28860650/
-Mar 27, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/28863340/
The Washington Times
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Mar 23, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1917-03-23/ed-1/seq-7/
-Mar 24, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1917-03-24/ed-1/seq-7/
-Mar 27, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/79898973/
The Washington Herald
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Mar 24, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045433/1917-03-24/ed-1/seq-2/
-Mar 27, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045433/1917-03-27/ed-1/seq-2/
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday March 28, 1917
Washington, District of Columbia – “Get Red Blood and Fight!”
-Mother Jones Speaks at Rally for Striking Street Carmen
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-get-red-blood-and-fight-mother-jones-speaks-at-rally-for-striking-street-carmen/
The Evening Star
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Mar 29, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1917-03-29/ed-1/seq-2/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Garment Strike, Chg Dly Tb, Feb 26, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/28698633/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for February 1917: Found in New York City & Chicago Fighting for Working-Class Women
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-whereabouts-doings-of-mother-jones-for-february-1917-found-in-new-york-city-chicago-fighting-for-working-class-women/