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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 17, 1919
Mother Jones News for April 1919, Part II
-Found Speaking in Peoria, Illinois
On Sunday April 6th, Mother Jones spoke at the Peoria Coliseum on behalf of Tom Mooney. She shared the stage with Duncan MacDonald and T. H. Tippett, both of whom also delivered addresses.
Sunday April 6, 1919, Peoria, IL
Mother Jones Speaks at “Mooney Day” Event
Friends, fellow workers, we are living today in the greatest age the world has ever passed through in human history. The whole world is ablaze with revolt. The uprising among the unfortunate workers is suppressed in the daily press. I took a clipping while in New York the other day, out the New York World, which said that the human race has never in human history passed through an age like this.
There was once back in Greece, a young man, two hundred years after the world’s greatest agitator was marred, crucified, hung, maligned, vilified, by the powers there. There arose in Carthage an agitation and the courts became uneasy. They sent down to Carthage in those days a force that arrested all those who were in the agitation movement which was eighteen hundred years ago. We have not changed the program very much since. We have talked a lot about Christianity, but we have never seen any Christianity yet. There has never been any Christianity on the earth and there is not going to be any for a while yet! They held them in slavery or sold them, if they did not need them, and so, they brought them into court.
Among those was a young man and the judge said to him “Who ar you?” He said, “I am a man,” a member of the human family. The judge asked, “Why do you carry on this agitation” The boy replied, “Because I belong to a class that in human history have always been crucified, robbed, murdered, jailed, maligned, vilified, starved and because I belong to that class, I feel it is my duty to awaken that class to their power and their duty.” He was sentenced, of course.
I wish I could convey that spirit that this pagan slave, eighteen hundred years ago, possessed. He was not a Christian in the modern cave. He was a Christian to Christ’s philosophy. He felt the wrong to fight fellow workers. My friends, we have worked down eighteen hundred years and never in human history did we pass through such a treacherous, insidious, brutal age as this. It is in a different form, but it is the most insidious age that human history has ever passed through. Capitalism sits in the saddle and she is riding it to a finish.
Now I want to show you something. I just came in from Pennsylvania; I went in there from West Virginia. I went up to an old battle ground and I got an inspiration that woke me up; I though that the cyclone was coming. We must get ready for it. There was twelve thousand men marching up there, where the great steel robbers who robbed the people and murdered them, then tried to cover their hypocrisy by giving a thousand dollars to Billy Sunday. As they marched along, among them were almost three thousand uniformed soldiers. The war has not been in vain. It has taught our boys to come home. This march, my friends, was the most remarkable scene that I have witnessed in many years. It was a terrible cold day, but these boys, cold, ragged, and some of them hungry, marched on. The mayor said we could not have any speaking, we could march, but no speaking.
“What are we going to do, Mother?” “We will talk,” I said. “He will put us in jail.” “What if he does,” said I. “We have been in jail before and when we get sense enough we will put the other fellow in jail. So I am going to talk, he can put us in jail; there never was a man made that could stop a women from talking.”
As we passed by the cement walls of the steel works, the American Steel Works, I took notice of the walls. There were holes where one could shoot the bullet out from the inside of the barricade. We sent our boys abroad under the impression that that they were going to war for democracy. Their mothers wet the clay with tears; they gave them up generously, believing it was going to bring a better civilization to their children yet to come. Their bones are weathering on the soils of France. Today you are walking over their flesh. We have not achieved democracy yet.
Our workers are being picked up, taken before a capitalist judge, sentenced to ten or twenty years in the penitentiary. Ninety-five working men were sentenced in Chicago by the judge for five to ten years in the penitentiary [some were sentenced to twenty years]. I want to ask the audience what was the matter with that judge’s head! If he could take twenty-nine or thirty dollars as a fine, he would have set them free. He imposed upon the workers because they went by the name of the Industrial Workers of the World. My friends, in every great movement that humanity has ever had, there has been advanced ideas, people have taken their lives in their hands, gone out to carry those ideas, though we do not put on airs, and cast them into jail.
I went into that jail, I was coming from the west, I saw large bodies of men, many of those men have talked with me on the great industrial battle. No better men are to be found. I gave them money in front of the court the day I left. Let me analyze this thing for a moment here is a judge who has never worked a day in his life, just sits upon the bench. Here is a prosecuting attorney, here is a jury-with poisoned mind-none of these have any conception of law or justice. They are no better than high class burglars. The judge renders the sentence on these ninety-five American citizens that develop the industries and go out into the lumber yards. He sentenced these men to go to jail, they who have wives and children. There is no one to provide for them.
The little girl works in the department or dime store, she comes home, finds the mother lying on the bed, sick; the little baby crying for papa. She is hungry. Their papa was taken away from them. The little girl sells that which is most sacred to woman, to get bread for mother, and then she must wear a label on her back-the Fallen Woman. You should rise to grander womanhood and put a stop to this damnable thing. If they had a little humanity in them they would not think of rendering those decisions.
My friends, I look at this thing, for I have had experience in the horrors of this awful system! In New York I went to see a senator, I’ve been all through the west and I got next to Congress to introduce a bill to repeal this espionage act and let those men be turned out of jail. What working man who lived in America would ever dream of throwing the bomb to murder his own class? Don’t I see the horrors? The rottenness of the whole thing! I went myself to see the governor; I don’t pay very much attention going to see those people because I realize that every governor and public official is elected by the big business.
I did not expect to get anything from the governor but I went down more for the agitation, more for the honor of courts, more for the preservation of our institutions that are revolutionized. Mooney is only one man but the court represents the nation. When the court can be prostituted in the interest of dollars, what is there for the interest of people? The court is a bulwark of American institutions and when the American working man loses confidence in those courts, where are we going? That is the question to be asked. That is what I went to California for. You working men, I place the responsibility on you, not on the judge, you are the powers. The judge, the president, the governor, the legislature is not the majority. We, the people, are.
Some of the governors ought to be electrocuted, but I don’t mean Governor Lowden, because that fellow has got some humanity in him. I know that governor of Colorado is a member of the Steel Trust. The women had the ballot there three years and they burned up their children [Ludlow, Colorado on Aril 20, 1914]. Their sons, their husbands, burned the children alive and the women had the ballot and they put those governors in. Colorado bid fair to be one of the revolutionized states in the union and the women got the ballot and since then it is reactionary.
I want every symbol of justice given to the woman but I want to tell you that the worst of all the brutal attacks made upon me has come from the women. I am going to be honest with you because the woman has the power to change the nation in one year if she wants to do it. But she won’t do it; she belongs to too many clubs, neglects her home, and is not educating the coming generation. My friends in uniform, I want to talk to the women because I know the power of women-if they will stop being little Sunday School parasites. Now, there is that woman who lost her three children [Mary Petrucci] She went out to get protection and lost her senses. Children were burned up. Five persons were murdered there. The jails were filled. The courts were busy.
I myself have spent over three months and twenty-six days and nights on a cement floor under the court house [Huerfano county courthouse at Walsenburg, Colorado, spring 1914]. When the fool sheriff took me off the train, “Where are you going to put me?” I asked. “In the basement under the court house,” said he. “Do you want fire?” “Not particular about it, I want the chimney,” said I. “What do you want the chimney for if you don’t want the fire?” “I have a trained pigeon that brings me messages from Congress and I send messages back.” And he believed it. Think of a woman raising an idiotic thing like that, putting a bayonet in his hand and telling him to go out and shoot the workers and their children. Don’t you think civilization has gone mad? I want to wake you up. He will let loose and the other fellow will do something. Yes, it is a tragedy.
I went to New York to see some parties there before I came into Pennsylvania. There are one hundred fifty women that they are going to deport. Our prejudice comes down to the citizens of a nation in a great age. These people are to be deported because they said something that did not suit interests. The children of these women must go into the mines to work. These women, whose husbands rebelled, were thrown out on the mountains. The children of the coming generations came into the world with only the stars for a shelter, the clay for a pillow, their fathers dead, and their people in subjection. I will give you the history as I gave it [to] the government. Because I have known for years what these rascals have done to make their money for destroying the nation. In West Virginia they took the roofs off the houses, stole the food that they had, and now people blame the mothers there if they say they don’t like America. Now they are going to be deported for that. They don’t deport the rascals that deceive and rob them. That is what you are up against, men. The governor said I must not go down to the courts and talk to those fellows. When they get into an office they think they own the whole nation.
I would have all the officials know that my fathers fought for several long years and waded through their blood and it’s a proof for what they stood for and fought for. They lead me to stars and stripes and it is not going to perish, for we will fight as patriots should to take care of that flag. We have other nations that we have to fight. If you starve these men and women for dollars what are you going to do? I looked out and saw the children coming out of the school room doors. Many of those children will never again cross the school room door, they will have to go out and fight for bread. They may wind up in a penitentiary or an asylum. The parents are robbed for Liberty Bonds, for Y. M. C. A. funds, for the War Saving Stamps, for Red Cross, for Knights of Columbus, and for the Salvation Army. Those that were not able to buy the food to give them vitality, they are still paying those Liberty Bonds. Now while these people are held in subjection, still they talk about democracy. It takes four hundred million dollars a year to pay the police bills and the workers are robbed to pay that. At the time of the civil war, that was the greatest industrial battle ever fought in America.
When I was in Washington, I heard the word Bolsheviki and I wondered what it meant, so I went to the library to find out and I found that Bolsheviki stood for the majority taking over the industry. The industry belongs to us. We run them. They don’t belong to the other fellow. He stole them. He is a high class burglar. If that is the definition, then I am a Bolsheviki, rule by majority. One of these days, Mr. Judge, it is coming when you will never sit on the bench to decide the destinies of the working man until you have worked ten years as a working man. Today, my friends, change is coming! Our boys are coming home in their uniforms. We sent them abroad to shoot the Kaiser. Let me tell you, we are going to get some Kaisers here at home.
I don’t care about political parties. I went down to the Greenback parties, to the Populist party, in fact I went through them all. I found some of the parties most powerful weapons, but money interest prostitutes them all. Nowhere have you elected a man in this last election that represents your interest. I do not care what political party you put in power because we are of the economical power. We have the power to do and we will do it! They are not going to fool us there.
It was not the political party that gained the eight hour day for the railroad man. They had met in New York, both sides, spent thousands of dollars. They came down to Washington, sat in the cabinet office, president at the head, discussed the matter, didn’t come to any agreement, the railroad magnates wouldn’t concede anything, declared it unconstitutional, went to the higher courts, was held up by the supreme court and was passed at midnight and the supreme court is not afraid of its job. I don’t care who is in the White House, they have a life job.
Look at this watch of mine. Two hands there, nice looking, but let me take the hands out and it will be no good. It would be useless too, and your two hands are like unto the hands of the watch. You are the tools that move the nation. The Salvation Army, the Y. M. C. A., we build their institutions, pay for them, feed the people and everything. We are going to change that. The page is turned. The world is a moving magnet; a new civilization is coming; the pendulum is swinging as it has never swung before. It behooves us to do our duty.
Men leaders, call your organization together, get a fellow to lead you to hell or to heaven. Let us call your employers together and you lead them. You will get the inspiration out of their school after a while. You will get sense. The nation can’t do without you. You are the ones that moved the industry. The ones that freed all wealth. It is our duty to take a day off and stand together. I want Mooney pardoned and we must get him a new trial and that is what I am after. I want the courts of our nation vindicated! They might put me in jail for saying this but they can do so for all I care, for they will have to feed me then. Mooney is a man that would hurt a child! There is not a more loyal citizen in America than Mooney! And now, Mr. Judge, you might as well take a night off the day before you sentence Mooney again, for you will soon be the working man.
[Emphasis, paragraph breaks, and photograph of Tom Mooney added.]
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SOURCES
The Speeches and Writings of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988
https://books.google.com/books?id=vI-xAAAAIAAJ
Speech by Mother Jones at Peoria, Illinois, on April 6, 1919
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735035254105/viewer#page/216/mode/2up
re April 6, 1919 by Gorn
Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America
-by Elliott J. Gorn
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Jun 2, 2015 –
(search: “tom mooney” peoria “mother jones”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=9gRpCAAAQBAJ
pages 250n56; 377n56
re April 6, 1919-Speech in Peoria IL for “Mooney Day”
-also speeches by Duncan MacDonald and T. H. Tippett
-pamphlet: “Mooney Day, Held at Coliseum, Peoria Ill” (np, nd)
-available in MI Division (of War Depart) Correspondence, 1917-1941, rg 165, box 2864, file 10110-G-4-1
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones
for April 1919, Part I-Found in Pennsylvania and Illinois
Tag: Tom Mooney
https://weneverforget.org/tag/tom-mooney/
Re Duncan McDonald/MacDonald
http://sangamoncountyhistory.org/wp/?p=5868
By Tom Tippett: When Southern Labor Stirs
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015041353304;view=2up;seq=10
Category: Mary Petrucci
https://weneverforget.org/category/mary-petrucci/
Note: I am reasonably convinced, but not absolutely convinced that this speech took place on April 6, 1919. I have not been able to confirm with contemporary newspaper account, despite much searching. Nor have I been able to locate the above pamphlet online. More research needed.
Posted to Flickr by Washington Area Spark:
Mother Jones Fair Trial for Tom Mooney
Note: This photo is likely taken April 6, 1919 at Peoria. Again, I am not yet absolutely convinced, altho reasonably certain.
Mother Jones Fair Trial for Tom Mooney
The photograph hangs in the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House at 503 Rock Creek Church Road NW, Washington, D.C. in the house formerly occupied by Knights of Labor Grand Master Workman Terrence Powderly in Washington, D.C.
The small sign hanging around the driver’s neck reads, “A Fair Trial for Mooney,” referring to labor leader Tom Mooney who was wrongly convicted in the San Francisco Preparedness Day Bombing in 1916. He served 22 years in prison before being pardoned in 1939. His case was the subject of a long campaign by labor and radical leaders for his release.
Note from username “Mother Jones”
I’ve got this photo in a pamphlet, with identifiers. It’s from Peoria Illinois, and it’s Duncan McDonald for sure on the left with Mother Jones. I am not 100% sure, but pretty sure that the driver is Tom Tippett. It’s from 1919 after a big Tom Mooney meeting in that town.
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