You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Friday July 17, 1903
From the Newark Evening News: A Letter to President Theodore Roosevelt
The Evening News published this letter yesterday. The letter is an appeal from Mother Jones to the President on behalf of the little children who spend their days in the industrial prisons of the nation rather than in school:
President Roosevelt relaxing
at Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay
To Theodore Roosevelt
President of the United States
Dear Sir:
Being citizens of the United States of America, we, members of the textile industry, take the liberty of addressing this appeal to you. As Chief Executive of the United States, you are, in a sense, our father and leader, and as such we look to you for advice and guidance. Perhaps the crime of child slavery has never been forcibly brought to your notice.
Yet, as father of us all, surely the smallest detail must be of interest to you. In Philadelphia, Pa., there are ninety thousand (90,000) textile workers who are on strike, asking for a reduction from sixty to fifty-five hours a week. With machinery, Mr. President, we believe that forty-eight hours is sufficient.
If the United States Senate had passed the eight-hour bill, this strike might not have occurred. We also ask that the children be taken from the industrial prisons of this nation, and given their right of attending schools, so that in years to come better citizens will be given to this republic.
These little children, raked by cruel toil beneath the iron wheels of greed, are starving in this country which you have declared is in the height of prosperity-slaughtered, ten hours a day, every day in the week, every week in the month, every month in the year, that our manufacturing aristocracy may live to exploit more slaves as the years roll by.
We ask you, Mr. President, if our commercial greatness has not cost us too much by being built upon the quivering hearts of helpless children? We who know of these sufferings have taken up their cause and are now marching toward you in the hope that your tender heart will counsel with us to abolish this crime.
The manufacturers has threatened to starve these children, and we seek to show that no child shall die of hunger at the will of any manufacturer in this fair land. The clergy, whose work this really is, are silent on the crime of ages, and so we appeal to you.
It is in the hope that the words of Christ will be more clearly interpreted by you when he said "Suffer little children to come unto me." Our destination is New York City, and after that Oyster Bay. As your children, may we hope to have the pleasure of an audience? We only ask that you advise us as to the best course.
In Philadelphia alone thousands of persons will wait upon your answer, while throughout the land, wherever there is organized labor, the people will anxiously await an expression of your sentiments toward suffering childhood.
On behalf of these people, we beg that you will reply and let us know whether we may expect an audience.
The reply should be addressed to "Mother" Jones's Crusaders, en route according to the daily papers.
We are very respectfully yours,
"Mother" Jones, Chairman
emphasis added
Oyster Bay is the location of Sagamore Hill,
the home of the President Roosevelt.
This letter was also published yesterday by the Philadelphia North American. According to this paper, the letter was written July 15th in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The committee, of which Mother is the "chairman," consists of Charles Sweeney, Edward A Klingersmith, Emanuel Hanson, and Joseph Diamond. John Lopez was assigned by this paper to cover the Children's Crusade, and he has been traveling with them every step of the way.
And from Indianapolis News we have this:
Otster Bay, N.Y., July 17-Plans have been perfected quietly to prevent "Mother" Jones and her so-called "army of textile workers" from visiting Oyster Bay. The matter is in the hands of the secret service and the New York Police department.
Thanks be to Goodness! that the President of the United States has so much protection from an old woman and the little children of the textile mills! But, we ask, who protects these little children?
SOURCES
Evening News
(Newark, New Jersey)
-of July 16, 1903
The Indianapolis News
(IN)
-of July 17, 1903
Mother Jones Speaks
-ed by Philip S Foner
NY, 1983
See also:
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M Steel
U of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
The Children's Crusade Summary
Day 10: Thursday July 16, 1903
In Elizabeth, NJ
(Use with "get directions" on google maps to follow general route of march.)
Thursday July 17, 1913
Washington D.C.- Railroad strike now appears imminent.
Attempts to avert a strike of 100,000 conductors and trainmen have hit a snag. The railroad managers are insisting that the arbitration board consider their demands for contract changes which would have the effect of reducing wages. The union men charge that the committee of railroad managers have violated the letter of understanding which brought the two parties to the White House Conference. That conference resulted in passage by congress of the Newlands bill providing for arbitration between the railroads and the Brotherhoods.
The danger of a strike is now imminent.
SOURCE
The Indiana Gazette
(Indiana, PA)
-of July 17, 1913
Wednesday July 17, 2013
Have you signed the NAACP petition yet?
From the NAACP web site:
A jury has acquitted George Zimmerman, but we are not done demanding justice for Trayvon. Sign our petition to the Department of Justice today.
The Petition:
Attorney General Eric Holder,
The Department of Justice has closely monitored the State of Florida's prosecution of the case against George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin murder since it began. Today, with the acquittal of George Zimmerman, it is time for the Department of Justice to act.
The most fundamental of civil rights — the right to life — was violated the night George Zimmerman stalked and then took the life of Trayvon Martin. We ask that the Department of Justice file civil rights charges against Mr. Zimmerman for this egregious violation.
Please address the travesties of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin by acting today.
Thank you.
Sign the petition requesting that the DOJ
open a Civil Rights case against George Zimmerman:
http://www.naacp.org/...
Playing For Change is keeping hope alive
through song-Grandpa Elliott, Clarence Bekker, Titi Tsira, Mermans Mosengo.
The PFC Band's "Back To Your Roots" tour played venues across North America in the Spring of 2012. This performance of "A Change is Gonna Come" was one of the highlights of an amazing show, Live at Folsom, CA. Grandpa may be a blind man, but he sees the light!
Playing for Change
A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke
Lyrics