You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Monday February 13, 1905
Pawnee, Illinois - Mother Jones Speaks to Laboring Men, Applauded at Every Sentence
Yesterday's
Daily Review of Decatur reported on a recent speech given by Mother Jones in Pawnee:
MOTHER JONES AT PAWNEE.
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Has the Largest Gathering of Labor Men Ever Held in the Town
Mother Jones, the labor Speaker who is to be here Tuesday night at the G. A. R. hall spoke at Pawnee, recently, at the largest gathering of laboring men ever congregated together in that town, there being about 500 present. G. N. Egnor has a letter from a friend in that town, who says that the audience was with her from the beginning to the end. They applauded every sentence and stayed until the finish.
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SOURCE
The Daily Review
(Decatur, Illinois)
-Feb 12, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGE
Mother Jones
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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More on the Transition of Mother Jones from UMWA Organizer to Socialist Speaker:
Despite her opposition to the wishes of her employer, John Mitchell, concerning the separate agreement for the northern miners in the Colorado strike during November of 1903, Mother Jones was still employed by the UMWA as an organizer in the spring of that year.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on May 1st:
INDIANAPOLIS (Ind.), April 30.-The Colorado situation was again taken up at to-day's session of the national executive board of the United Mine Workers of America. Officers announced this afternoon that nothing had been done that my be made public...
President Mitchell has telegraphed to "Mother" Jones, who is being held in quarantine near Price, Utah, directing her to report to him in person in this city as soon as possible. He says that there is no significance attached to this, and that the order was issued because the work in the district 15 at the present time is scarcely suitable for a women.
The Indianapolis News reported on May 3rd of 1904:
Word has been received by President John Mitchell, of the United Mine Workers, that "Mother" Jones is so ill that it will be necessary for her to go to the Pacific coast. The nervous, as well as the physical strain of her work as organizer in Colorado has told upon her severely. She will go at once to the Pacific Coast, But when sufficiently recovered will come to this city to report to President Mitchell.
Despite much searching, there is no further news that I could find about Mother Jones working with the UMWA. Neither could I find any evidence of her meeting with John Mitchell as instructed.
The first we hear of her no longer working for the Miners' Union is from a letter to John Walker, written on January 4th of 1905 from Canton, Illinois:
I resigned [as an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America] because I fought; some of the dirty ignoramuses that represented the national office were against me. I do not want to put John in a position where he would have to oppose them; his fight is hard enough. John Mitchell does not know everything those fellows did out there [in Colorado]. I will fight the cause of the miners anyway, whether I am directly in their service or not. John Mitchell can always depend on me. I know whatever mistakes he has made, he is right at heart.
On Thursday, January 19th, John Mitchell was attacked at the Mine Workers' Convention and blamed for driving Mother Jones out of the organization which she had "labored so faithfully to upbuild." Mitchell replied:
Mother Jones and I worked hand in hand through some of the most stirring strikes this country has ever seen. For several years Mother Jones has been paid a salary by this organization. It is true that when Mother Jones went to Northern Colorado she disregarded the advice given her, and it is true that I said she should not do it again, and that if she expected to be employed by us she must carry out the orders of the National Board and the national convention...[and she] would be in the employ of the organization now if she wanted to be.
It seems, then, that Mother Jones resigned her position as an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America sometime between May of 1904 and January of 1905. Sadly, I will have to leave the question there for others to answer, because, as noted previously,
Hellraisers moves relentlessly forward with the life and times of Mother Jones.
The next question to be addressed concerns the employment of Mother Jones as a Socialist Speaker. Who is she working for?
Fetherling claims that she is now employed by the Socialist Party of Illinois and will later be employed by the national Socialist Party, but offers no source for this assertion. Going forward, Hellraisers will be looking for an actual source and date for this information. Clearly she can be seen giving a tour of Illinois and speaking as a Unionist and Socialist. Hellraisers will now be on the lookout for evidence of her employment, either by the Socialist Party of Illinois or by the Socialist Party of America.
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SOURCES
San Francisco Chronicle
(San Francisco, California)
-of May 1, 1904
The Indianapolis News
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-of May 3, 1904
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M Steel
U of Pittsburgh Press, 1983
Indianapolis News
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Jan 19, 1905
Mother Jones, The Miners' Angel
-by Dale Fetherling
So IL U Press, 1974
See also:
"Hellraisers Journal: The Whereabouts and Activities
of Mother Jones from October 1903-February 1905"
Part I: http://www.dailykos.com/...
Part II: http://www.dailykos.com/...
IMAGE
Mother Jones
http://theadvocateonline.com/...
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The Spirit of Mother Jones - Andy Irvine
Mother Jones, the Miners' Angel must be treated with respect
She's an old fashioned lady, and you never would suspect
That this gown and this bonnet would fill a rich man full of dread
"She's the most dangerous woman in America," they said.
-Andy Irvine
See Also:
Spirit of Mother Jones Festival July 2014
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