You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 21, 1917
Mother Jones News for August, Part II: Plans for Labor Day
From the Evansville Press of August 29, 1917:
An advertisement indicates that Mother Jones will be the principle speaker at the Henderson, Kentucky, Labor Day Celebration on Monday September 3rd. The event is being sponsored by the Central Labor Unions of both Evansville, Indiana, and Henderson.
From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of August 27, 1917:
The death of Senator John Worth Kern is an opportunity to recall the role played by the good Senator in freeing Mother Jones from the grip of West Virginia’s Military Bastille during the Cabin Creek-Paint Creek Strike of 1912 & 1913.
JOHN WORTH KERN; AN APPRECIATION
Claude G. Bowers
The death of John W. Kern marked the passing of a rare personality and one of the most lovable of men. Through the sunshine and the shadows of six strenuous years, in the midst of vexations, provocations and infinite worries I saw him day by day, and never once did I find a single trait on which to qualify the general opinion of his lovability. He was as simple in his manner as strength. He was utterly without the pose of pretense with which mediocrity protects itself from exposure. There was an unobtrusive sweetness in his manner toward his friends and associates that one seldom associates with men. And these lovable qualities were so pronounced that they tended to obscure the great power of his mentality to the casual observer…
[Bowers goes on to portray Senator Kern as “an ideal Senate leader,” the soldiers’ friend,” a Lincolnesque orator, a voluminous and artful letter-writer, a statesman indifferent to publicity who wrote his own speeches and was available to visitors from the most prominent citizen to the most lowly.
Bowers describes the role played by Senator Kern as a champion of labor and the good Senator’s part in freeing Mother Jones from the Military Bastille of West Virginia during the Cabin Creek-Paint Creek Strike:]
He believed with all his heart in labor unions, was convinced that there is a sinister force at work to discredit and destroy them, and was firmly convinced that their destruction would result in a system of industrial feudalism. His position on the subject was affected by his love of humanity and country and with no thought of votes. He had a holy hate of injustices and there was not gold enough in the world to gilt a man of plutocratic tendencies. His remarkable fight for the West Virginia investigation is typical. There was something startling in the influences that were brought to bear to persuade him to desist. Great financial kings of Wall street, powerful railroad magnates, importuned and begged. Only once did he lose his temper when with that rare cunning characteristic of the crowd they had an old time friend, now in New York, call him on the phone.
“I’ll see you in hell first,” he exclaimed, as he slammed up the receiver.
In making this fight he took a tremendous risk. He had just been elected leader. The senate had never before stood for labor in a straight out contest. His defeat would have been interpreted by his enemies as evidence of his weakness, and the opposition press was already glorifying over his fall. Tremendous influences were being brought to bear on senators. A powerful lobby crowded into the very corridors of the senate. But after hearing the story of “Mother” Jones, who had been speedily released from jail after Kern’s first notice of her incarceration , he crossed the Rubicon and fought with a furious intensity that he never had equalled. And he won-the first successful battle labor ever waged in that state…
[Bowers’ tribute to Senator Kern concludes:]
Mr. Kern cannot be dismissed from the minds of Indiana democrats with the insulting suggestion that he was “an amiable man.” He was more than that-he was an exceptionally able man. More than that-he played a powerful part in the history of the greatest of administrations. But more than all that-he personified a principle. That principle will live on-and with it the memory of Kern. He personified it as no other public man in the history of Indiana has done-it is the principle of social justice. It made him many and powerful enemies while he lived-it will make him many friends long after the grass has grown on the grave at Kerncliff.
———-
[Photograph added.]
From the United Mine Workers Journal of August 30, 1917:
“Mother” Jones passed through Indianapolis returning from East St. Louis, where she delivered a stirring address Sunday of last week, to the New River and Winding-Gulf fields of West Virginia where she has been, and is still, conducting an organizing campaign that promises to bring about 100 per cent organization in those districts. “Mother” will deliver the Labor Day address at Henderson, Kentucky. She is as active and full of vim as ever.
[Emphasis added.]
From the Illinois State Register of August 31, 1917:
“MOTHER” JONES COMING TO CITY
—–
Noted Woman Labor Speaker Is Scheduled
to Address Meeting Here Tonight
—–“Mother” Jones, known throughout the country for her activities and speeches in centers of labor troubles, is due in Springfield today and is scheduled to speak in carpenters’ hall tonight at 8’o’clock. According to information yesterday, she is coming to Springfield at the invitation of John H. Walker, acting president of the Illinois Federation of Labor, who has interested himself in the conduct of the street car strike.
In view of results which have followed “Mother” Jones’ speeches in other cities, it was rumored that an attempt might be made to prevent her speaking here. Sheriff J. A. Wheeler said last night, however, that nothing of this kind had been planned.
“Any meeting that is orderly can be held in Springfield,” declared the sheriff. “When it ceases to be orderly or it seems that trouble is impending, the meeting will be stopped.”
Sheriff Wheeler refused to comment further on the coming of “Mother” Jones.
According to the handbills distributed yesterday, the meeting tonight is to be open to the public, and it is expected that the hall at Seventh and Adams streets will be filled to its capacity by labor union men and curious spectators who will be drawn by the speakers past reputation.
Members of the striking car men’s union declare that the bringing of “Mother” Jones to the city is the first step in Mr. Walker’s campaign to bring the strike to a close. So far his taking a hand has failed to bring any change in the situation, but the strikers are confident, they say, that he will be able to aid them to a final victory.
The coming of “Mother” Jones to this city, it is said, will be the first meeting between herself and Mr. Walker in many months. The two have been closely associated in several labor fights and have been personal friends for many years. Through this intimacy in labor difficulties “Mother” Jones, it is said, affectionately terms the federation leader “My Boy John.”
Last night Mr. Walker was out of the city, according to advisers at the hotel, and it is thought that the labor leader has left to meet “Mother” Jones and escort her into Springfield. No information could be obtained regarding the time of her arrival, probably because the strikers are suspicious of the intentions of the sheriff and the police, as well as of the construction which will be put on their plans under the present restraining injunction.
It is thought probably that “Mother” Jones, in view of the situation, may arrive in the city unheralded and remain in seclusion until the time of the meeting in the evening at Carpenters’ hall.
———-
SOURCES
Evansville Press
(Evansville, Indiana)
-Aug 29, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/139982514/
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
Fort Wayne, Indiana
-Aug 27, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/29226764
https://www.newspapers.com/image/29226768
The United Mine Workers Journal, Volume 28
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-May 3, 1917 to Oct 25, 1917
https://books.google.com/books?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ
UMWJ Aug 30, 1917
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT425
Mother passes through Indianapolis (HQ of UMWA)
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=3wpOAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT426
Illinois State Register
(Springfield, Illinois)
-Aug 31, 1917, page 5
http://www.genealogybank.com/
IMAGES
MJ Labor Day, Henderson KY, Evl Prs, Aug 29, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/139982514/
John W Kern 1913, Life by Bowers, 1918
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=KBFCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PP10
See also:
The Life of John Worth Kern
-by Claude G. Bowers
Hollenbeck Press, 1918
(search: “mother jones”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=KBFCAAAAIAAJ
Chp XV: Kern’s Fight Against Feudalism in West Virginia
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=KBFCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA296
Autobiography of Mother Jones
Kerr, 1925
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/jones/autobiography/autobiography.html
Chp XVIII: Victory in West Virginia
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/jones/autobiography/autobiography.html#XVIII
Coal Miners Grave – Idaho Silver Hammer Band
Lyrics by Hazel Dickens
WE NEVER FORGET
Francis Estep, Martyr of the
Cabin Creek-Paint Creek Strike