Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Storms Stage at United Mine Workers Convention, Ends Bitter Debate

My friends, it is solidarity of labor we want...
We must be together; our masters are joined together
and we must do the same thing.
- Mother Jones

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Friday January 21, 1916
Indianapolis, Indiana - Mother Jones Puts an End to Bitter Debate at Miners' Convention

Mother_Jones__Boston_Globe__Jan_30__1915.png

Newspapers across the nation are describing the dramatic confrontation at the United Mine Workers Convention when Mother Jones arrived to find the delegates embroiled in a bitter debate and hurling bricks at one another. The Tacoma Times declared:

OLD MOTHER JONES STORMS CONVENTION

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 20,-Mother Jones stampeded the convention of the United Mine workers today with an address of unpolished oratory.

She raised 1,500 delegates to a fury of enthusiasm and forced Duncan McDonald to the platform to shake hands with President White, ending a bitter struggle between the two which threatened to disrupt the organization for years.

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From The Indianapolis News of January 20, 1916:

Mother Jones, Indianapolis News, Jan 20, 1916.png

MOTHER JONES
ENDS SQUABBLE
-----

Makes McDonald and Germer
Come to Stags and Shake Hands With White.
-----
DRAMATIC SCENE AT MINERS'
INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION.
-----

DELEGATES ARE SCOLDED
-----

ADMINISTRATION ATTACK TAKES
UP ALL OF MORNING SESSION.
-----

MANY ACCUSATIONS MADE
-----

CHARGES OF THEFT HURLED AT
THE PRESIDENT.
-----

Plea of Mother Jones to End the Debate Finds Favor, and When Vote Is Taken the Resolution Calling for an Investigation of the Books and Records of the Officials Is Rejected by a Storm of Ayes to a Much Smaller Number of Noes.

-----

Mother Jones appeared on the stags in the miners' convention just before noon today and turned a drama into a comedy. She forced the convention of 1,300 hard-fisted men delegates to put a stop to a bitter debate of denunciation and accusation that had raged since Wednesday forenoon between President John P. White, on one side, and Duncan McDonald and Adolph Germer, of Illinois, on the other side.

Germer had introduced a resolution charging the international officials of the United Mine Workers with extravagant waste of the money of the organization, and providing for the creation of a committee to make a thorough investigation of the affairs of the international offices.

It was a direct attack on the administration, and President White fought it to a standstill. McDonald supported Germer, both delivering bitter speeches against the administration.

Action of Committee.

The resolutions committee reported against the adoption of the resolution and the debate was on the committee's report.

It had become evident that the delegates were tired of the long drawn-out discussion, filled, as it was with all of the bitterness that could be injected into it, even to the extent of accusations of theft being hurled by McDonald at President White, because the latter read to the convention a number of letters which McDonald said had been stolen from his office at Springfield, Ill.

McDonald is secretary of the Illinois miners' organization. Delegates all over the hall were shouting to Vice-President Hayes, who was in the chair, to close the debate and take a vote on the adoption of the report of the resolutions committee.

Mother Jones Takes Hand.

It had long been clear that the vast majority of the delegates would vote to support President White and to adopt the report of the committee. But Vice-President Hayes and Secretary-Treasurer William Green [had?] given notice that they wished to speak on the proposition because they, too, were officials of the national administration, and said they had a right to make their defense.

But just at this moment, when the convention was in the throes of a dramatic situation and the participants in the duel of words seemed to have a brick in the other hand, Mother Jones mounted the stage, and asked permission to speak. When she had finished her talk and her performance, Vice-President Hayes announced that he and Green would forego the right to speak , and that a vote would be taken at once.

The report of the resolutions committee, rejecting the Germer resolution, was adopted by a storm of ayes against a much smaller number of noes.

Urged to End Debate.

Mother Jones advised the delegates to quit the debate and settle down to business.

[She said:]

Let's have an end to it...Take a vote on it and squelch it. Then let Duncan McDonald and Adolph Germer come up here on the stage and shake hands with President White.

The delegates went wild with their applause.

[She cried:]

Come up here, Duncan McDonald, and shake hands with John White...come up here, McDonald.

Amid the cheering. McDonald went to the stage, and shook hands with President White, Vice-President Hayes and Secretary Green, with Mother Jones affectionately patting them on the back. The convention was in an uproar of cheers.

Germer Called.

[Mother Jones shouted:]

Come up here, Adolph Germer...come up here and shake hands with John White.

Germer went to the stage and shook hands with White, Hayes and Green, as did McDonald, amid the same kind of scene.

It was the dramatic incident of the convention.

When Mother Jones appeared on the stage she asked permission to speak. She was applauded vociferously, and followed with a characteristic Mother Jones speech.

[She declared:]

You have gone far enough with this fight...Charges have been made back and forth. If you want to find any man in office that does not make mistakes, go to the grave yard, and you will not even find him there.

Talk about expenses, you have spent money enough on this debate to help us to fight the Rockefellers for a year.

I want to say to you. Duncan McDonald, that there is not a dollar in the Illinois treasury that belongs to the Illinois miners. It belongs to all the miners. It belongs to the laboring people, mind that.

~~~~~~~~~~

SOURCES

The Tacoma Times
(Tacoma, Washington)
-Jan 20, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/84711025/

The Indianapolis News
(Indianapolis, Indiana)
-Jan 20, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/39584109/

IMAGES
Mother Jones, Boston Globe, Jan 30, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/image/59031148/
Mother Jones, Indianapolis News, Jan 20, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/39584109/

See also:
John P White
http://www.gompers.umd.edu/fnmorrison.htm
Duncan McDonald
http://sangamoncountyhistory.org/wp/?p=5868
Adolph Germer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolph_Germer
Frank Hayes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Hayes_(unionist)
William Green
http://www.gompers.umd.edu/fnmorrison.htm

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Miner's Life - Kilshannig

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