You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Sunday May 31, 1914
Seattle, Washington - Labor's Memorial Day Honors Martyrs; Mother Jones Speaks
A grand parade, sponsored by the Central Labor Council and the local Socialist Party, was held yesterday in Seattle to honor those who have died as martyrs in the cause of Labor. Mother Jones was the honored guest and the featured speaker at the mass meeting held at the corner of Third and Blanchard Street where the parade ended. She rode at the head of the parade in an automobile which was followed by a thousand coal miners who had been invited to Seattle for that purpose. Following the miners, came marching members of all the various trade unions of Seattle. Some estimates are that six to eight thousand unionists marched in the parade.
-
LABOR'S MEMORIAL DAY PARADE
From today's Post-Intelligencer of Seattle:
Their banners and emblems draped in mourning, and each wearing a tag bearing a picture of Mother Jones, noted labor leader, who was the guest of honor and speaker of the day, in their coat lapels, thousands of members of organized and unorganized labor turned out yesterday in a monster parade and mass meeting to memorialize their fellow workers who have died in fighting industrial battles. It was the first observance of its kind ever held in the United States, and the huge success which it met prompted those in charge of the project to stamp it an annual affair...
The appearance of Mother Jones, familiarly called "the most devout friend of labor," was the feature of the program. The aged labor leader addressed two large open air meetings at Third Avenue and Blanchard...
From today's
Seattle Daily Times:
The central figure of the parade was "Mother" Mary Jones, the noted coal strike leader who was the orator of the day. She rode in an auto with six children and A. Hutcheson, secretary of the joint [trade union and Socialist] committee.. and was cheered early and often along the line.
Three floats, covered in flowers, lead the three sections of the parade. One was dedicated to the memory of the "The Children of Calumet," another honored "The Women and Children of Ludlow," and a third remembered "The Heroes of Labor Who Have Lost Their Lives in Industrial Battles."
THE SPEECH OF MOTHER JONES
Before she rose to speak, Mother Jones was honored by the reading of poem written by Edward Bance Cooke (see below). Mother than delivered the main address of the day. We offer a few quotes from her speech:
During the Civil War the emancipation of the slaves in the South was brought in as one of the leading measures. Today there is another war - a great war with a bunch of high-class burglars and looters, and the measure of this conflict is the emancipation of the mine workers and the nationalization of the mines. Why should we permit a bunch of burglars to own the mines? Nature did not put that mineral in the bottom of the earth for them. It was put there for the use of the people.
Mother Jones at the Ludlow Tent Colony
She spoke of that terrible day at Ludlow, of the machine-gun fire which tore through the tents, of the women and children whose bodies were taken from the death pit:
This happened right here in America, not in Russia or in Mexico, but right here under the American flag.
The peculiar thing about it all is that the public in general has not been aroused to a very noticeable extent. It seems that the public has to be struck by a cyclone before it will come to the realization of the actual state of affairs.
While I was down in Washington not very long ago, a Congressman asked me if I told the mine workers to buy guns. I replied that I certainly had told my boys to arm themselves and to do it in a hurry. And I am still appealing to mine workers and other workers all over the United States to arm themselves and be prepared to protect their families and their property. I would not be a fit woman to live in America if I did not tell my boys to be men and not cowards.
Get together, is my message to labor. The worker who has a label on him is not true to the working class. I was a member of the old Knights of Labor, and went into the American Federation of Labor when the Knights disbanded, and I will live and die in the Federation for it represents 2,500,000 workers.
I have been a Socialist for more than twenty-nine years, but I am not one of those who believe that individual freedom is going to drop down from the clouds-while we sleep. The fight can be won, and will be won, but the struggle will be long and education, agitation and class solidarity all must play a part in it. I have no patience with those idealists and visionaries who preach fine spun theories and cry down everybody but themselves. Let us keep our feet on the ground.
[emphasis added]
The Solution in Colorado
Yesterday's Post-Intelligencer published a report of an interview with Mother Jones conducted by Roy Alden which took place in her hotel on the evening of May 29, shortly after her arrival in Seattle. On the subject of a solution for the troubles in Colorado, Mother Jones had this to say:
Mother Jones says that the only effective solution of the situation in Colorado, in which she took an active part, is for the government to take over the mines.
"But I am not in favor of the government paying $10,000 for the mines," she continued. "I wouldn't sanction a move to give 10 cents for them. Nature did not put that coal there for a bunch of national looters and burglars to hold. I want the United States to simply take the mines over without making any compensation. Enough compensation has been paid already."
Mother Jones contends that the conflict between labor and capital will never end until the United States has taken over all industries, which she thinks will eventually result. Inauguration of the parcel post system, she said, is a step in this direction.
[emphasis added]
Mother Jones At Eighty-Two
-by Edmund Vance Cooke
Mother Jones, at eighty-two,
I toss my hat for you,
Mother Jones.
Your old body holds the spirit
Of the freedom we inherit.
Was our Declaration signed
To be spat on and maligned
By some epauletted hind?
Is our Constitution void
When a corporate power's annoyed?
Is our history a lie
To forget, or to deny?
Mother Jones, at eighty-two,
We forget it--but not YOU,
Mother Jones.
Mother Jones, at eighty-two,
What they tell me may be true,
Mother Jones.
For your manners may be crude
And your tongue at times imbued
With a twang the world calls rude.
Mother Jones, at eighty-two,
Are they never rude - to you,
Mother Jones?
Mother Jones, at eighty-two,
I would rather fare with you,
Mother Jones.
Fare with you, succeed or fail,
Win the fight, or win the jail,
Than with officers, gold-laced,
Than with judges, snugly placed.
History will yet acclaim
Yours the honor, theirs the shame.
Theirs? Nay, ours!
We free men pause,
We desert the holy cause
Of the LAW against the laws;
Leaving all the fight to you,
Heroine - at eighty-two!
Mother Jones!
Note: The poem was previously published in the May 23rd edition of the Seattle Union Record, the official organ of the Central Labor Council.
SOURCES
Mother Jones Speaks
-ed by Philip S Foner
NY, 1983
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-of April 1, 1914
-Note: the poem is basically the same here as in Foner,
but name of author appears to be in error in Foner, and here there are stanza
breaks.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
Photos:
1). Seattle's Labor Memorial Day Parade of May 30, 1914
-from the July 1914 issue of the International Socialist Review
2). Mother Jones at the Ludlow Tent Colony
http://motherjonesmuseum.org/...
3). Mother Jones
http://theadvocateonline.com/...
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
We Have Fed You All For A Thousand Years-Jack Herranen and the Lower 9th Ward
We have fed you all for a thousand years-
For that was our doom, you know,
From the days when you chained us in your fields
To the strike of a week ago.
You have taken our lives, and our babies and wives,
And we're told it's your legal share;
But if blood be the price of your lawful wealth
Good God! We have bought it fair.
-by Unknown Proletarian, 1908
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````