The strike is serious.
Get together and you will beat the Herzogs
and help every toiler of the sweatshops.
-Mother Jones
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Wednesday August 23, 1905
From the Appeal to Reason: Missouri Tour by Mother Jones Met with Enthusiasm
The
Appeal of August 19th carried this report on the recent tour of Missouri made by Mother Jones:
"MOTHER" JONES' TOUR.
-----
"Mother' Jones' tour of Missouri has evidently stirred the comrades of that neck of the woods to renewed activity. Reports coming in from the various points scintillate with enthusiasm and faith in an early victory for the principles of international socialism. At Novinger a wonderful meeting was held, and the activities of Local Secretary L. A. Wise were well rewarded; 1,500 people attended the meeting. The miners as might be expected, predominated, but bosses, ministers, mine owners and others could be seen, all anxious to hear the news of the good time coming. At Bevier a successful meeting was held in the park. Here is where Hy Thompson and his fighting band stand by the guns in good days and bad. It was a day never to be forgotten. "Mother" Jones was at her best, and fairly burned the truth into her hearers. The miners of Bevier had only worked five days in five weeks during the period of professed prosperity, and were in splendid condition to accept the plain facts handed out by "Mother" Jones.
At Sedalia a large delegation of the ladies of the "Labor League" met "Mother" at the depot and formed a body guard that was different from the one she had at Cripple Creek, and escorted her to a hotel instead of a bull-pen. An immense meeting was held in the courthouse. At Kansas City "Mother" spoke in Industrial Hall to a packed house. Her speech bristled with epigrams and scathing sarcasm, and was well received. It was a new gospel to many.
-----
The New York Times of August 18th reported that Mother joins will soon be in New York:
"Mother" Jones Coming Here.
"Mother" Jones, the woman organizer of the coal mining districts, will reach New York in about two weeks to address meetings in support of the candidacy of Algernon Lee, the Socialist candidate for Mayor, and Morris Brown, the Socialist candidate for President of the Board of Aldermen. She will remain for several weeks, endeavoring to make recruits for the Social Democratic Party.
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Aug 19, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-Aug 18, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGE
Mother Mary Harris Jones, Miners Angel
http://www.biography.com/...
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Monday August 23, 1915
Chicago, Illinois - Mother Jones Surprises Garment Workers at Strike Meeting
From The Day Book of August 20th:
The police who arrested Florence Cohen In front of the Herzog factories last night while she was picketing the place get their orders from the Herzogs.
This was the shot fired by Edward Nockles, secretary of the Chicago Federation of Labor, In defense of the striking glovemakers.
They acted as though they were paid by the Herzogs and not by the city. The police did not come to the factory to protect life and property; they came to use their guns and clubs in the interest of Nathan Herzog. They used their clubs to break the strike, not to protect the Interests of the people.
Nockles was hot over the arrest of Florence Cohen, girl picket at the Herzog factory. Florence got into an argument with a non-union worker and was promptly seized by a policeman.
Patrick Berrell, standing by, saw that the "scab" was more to blame than the picket and remonstrated to the police. They turned their clubs to him and he was badly beaten before being locked up.
Police clubs and police cells have few terrors for the girls of the sort that have been working in the elegant Herzog sweatshops at Congress and Throop sts.
Six hundred more walked out of the Herzog factory just before lunch hour. They are practically all of the ladies' waist and dress makers. Their arrival at the strike headquarters in the West Side Auditorium swelled the Herzog strikers' numbers to 850.
In a monster meeting last night the garment workers decided to walk out today and form a union. Then they would be in a position to ask decent wages and union working conditions.
Meanwhile their pickets have joined those of the glove workers. Arrests, no matter how great the number, will not prevent picketing of the Herzog factories now.
Perhaps it was the fiery speech of Mother Jones, the angel of the Colorado miners, which nerved them to strike. She surprised the striking glove workers yesterday and made a talk, urging them to join unions.
[Mother directed the sweatshop girls:]
Organize!
Join the unions. That's your only chance to fight the power of money. It's a serious business.
Don't think that you can forget this strike and get married at any time. Perhaps if you do you will have to come back to work with a husband and babies to support, others will, even if you don't.
The strike is serious. Get together and you will beat the Herzogs and help every toiler of the sweatshops. If you were not contributing to the wealth of Nathan Herzog he would be out with you today fighting to make a living.
If the Herzogs fight you fight them back. But get together.
Keep away from the charity workers. Let them spend their time junketing to The Hague conference and the like. They are busy trying to make peace in Europe.
When we had hell in Colorado, did they try to make peace? When unborn babes were kicked to death, in, West Virginia did they call a conference or spend train fare to aid? At Calumet, where women and babes were burned to death, did they junket? In New Jersey, where men were shot down by a private army, did they interfere?
No.
Let them alone. Fight your own battles together.
John Fitzpatrick and Edward Nockles swung the machinery of labor behind the struggle of the girls yesterday. The Women's Trade Union League offered its support to the girls at the meeting yesterday. The executive council of the powerful organization will meet today.
Financial aid, the most needed, will be given the girls immediately. Members of the league have already put up bail for every union girl arrested. Unofficial contributions to the girls at their headquarters have been numerous.
-----
POLICE DRAG MOTHER AND HER
THREE CHILDREN TO JAIL
Twenty more garment workers went out yesterday. The Royal Waist factory, at 1825 W. 12th st. is being picketed.
Mrs. Etta Lesnefsky, 1832 Washburne av., a widow with three children, was arrested yesterday and held over night with her three babies at the Maxwell st. station. This morning she was released on bonds. She asked for a jury trial.
She is one of those who worked in the sweatshop on 12th st. When wages were cut 25 per cent and the girls were put on piecework, she could not support her three children.
According to the strikers at this factory, all wages of $9 a week were cut to $7 and those who had been getting $6 a week were cut to $5. They were given the alternative of working on piecework. When some of them tried to make a living at this they found that they were only paid 55 cents for a dozen waists, where 85 cents had always been paid. Then they struck.
They started picketing and police were called. It was easy for them to start disorder and Mrs. Etta Lesnefsky was taken to a cell with her three children.
The shirt waist makers are going to organize.
-----
[Photograph of Mother Jones added.]
SOURCE
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Aug 20, 1915, Last Edition
(Also source for image of headlines.)
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Boston Glob, Jan 30, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
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Dear Readers of Hellraisers,
This year for my vacation, Hellraisers will not be as scaled back as it was for the past two vacations. This happy change is due to my new & much faster computer.
The big change that my readers will see, starting July 16th, will be the shorter length of the postings along with fewer links.
When my readers find unfamiliar names, places, or events, please use the tags along with JayRaye (in diarist section of search feature). Or just leave a question for me in the comments and I will get back to you.
When I actually leave for Minnesota, I'll let everyone know.
Solidarity,
JayRaye
Note: Vacation has started! Until Aug 7th, I'll be able to check in about twice a day. From Aug 8-30th, I'll be checking in only 2 or 3 times per week. Hope everyone keeps on Raising Hell (with the corporate powers, not with each other) until my return from Minnesota.
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The Death of Mother Jones-Gene Autry
O'er the hills and through the valley
In ev'ry mining town;
Mother Jones was ready to help them,
She never turned them down.
On front with the striking miners
She always could be found;
And received a hearty welcome
In ev'ry mining town.
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