Wednesday June 6, 1906
Mother Jones Tours Illinois for Socialist Party of America

Today Hellraisers pauses to catch up with Mother Jones and to document her whereabouts and doings for the month of May 1906. We find Mother, at the end of May, on tour as a National Organizer for the Socialist Party of America. The photograph at right was taken by Bertha Howell, who is now married to William Mailly, former National Secretary of Socialist Party.

It was William Mailly who, in April of 1903, first approached Mother with the idea of working as a speaker and organizer for the S. P. A. That offer came before her falling-out with John Mitchell and while she was still employed by Mitchell as an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America. She is now working under the leadership of J. Mahlon Barnes, the current National Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party.

From The Daily People of May 5, 1906:

Hard feelings apparently remain within the labor movement, and are held especially by those unions affiliated with American Federation of Labor, over the role played last summer by Mother Jones and other dissident labor leaders during the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of World. The Daily People, published by the Socialist Labor Party in New York City, printed the following letter:

BELMONT'S LACKEYS TRYING TO DROWN
LABOR'S VOICE.

To the Daily and Weekly People:-On the 25th inst., J. J. Keegan, of the International Machinists' Association delivered a very instructive (sic) lecture to the machinists of Indianapolis; but his desire to discourage any move of the machinists to give ear or encouragement to the I. W. W. was a fatal mistake; as the only result was to arouse interest.

His rage at the thought of any advertisement for the I. W. W. caused him to empty himself on this, as he called it, "New Phase." Mother Jones, ex-Priest Hagerty, Dan De Leon, came in for a share of his vituperation; and he said that the only one he could vouch for as honest was E. V. Debs. Thereupon he showed his conception of honesty by saying sincerely that Debs changed his mind so often that he should not be taken seriously. All of the foregoing he claimed were failures in the labor movement and they had launched a crazy scheme to benefit labor, but like all others (not of his brand) it was doomed to failure....

Let us say in conclusion that the I. W. W. has ten staunch members in this one shop, but there are about 1200 machinists in Indianapolis. Only 400 are organized in the I. A. of M. Despite the odds against us, we will keep them busy, to try to prevent us from giving every machinist the facts and enable them to draw their own conclusions....

Ten Machinists
Indianapolis, April 29.

From North Carolina's Union Republican of May 10, 1906:

Readers of Hellraisers will recall that Mother was considered to be far too radical to speak in the Forsyth County Court House last year. The Local News section of this Winston-Salem newspaper reports that the cautious county commissioners have had a change of heart concerning the speeches of Socialists.

-The County Commissioners evince a repentant spirit by granting permission to J. Fitts, a Socialist, to orate in the Court House on the 11th and 12th insts. It will be remembered that they shut the doors against old mother Jones some time ago.

From The Wichita Beacon of May 18, 1906:

Sadly, we find no evidence that Mother is headed west at this time, and therefore, the good people of Oklahoma City will likely miss out on the hoped-for visit from Mother Jones.

WOULD HEAR MAXIM GORKY
-----
Oklahoma Socialists Also Try to
Get Mother Jones.

Oklahoma City, May 18.-J. E. Snyder, territorial secretary of the socialist party, announces that he will make an effort to have Maxim Gorky, the noted Russian socialist, come to Oklahoma City this summer and deliver a series of lectures in the territory....Mother Jones is now on her way west, and Secretary Snyder looks for her most any time. She intended to stop in Oklahoma City on her way to Colorado, where she will be present at the trials of the union miners.

-----

From The Worker of May 26, 1906:

The Worker is published in New York City by the Socialist Party of America. Under the section "Party News," we find the various speaking schedules of the National Organizers, including that of Mother Jones. Eleven organizers are listed before Mother and eight are listed after her. The S. P. A. has national organizers scheduled to speak in cities and towns in many states across the nation, including Georgia in the South and Arizona and Oklahoma in the West.

NATIONAL ORGANIZERS.

Dates for National Lecturers and Organizers for the week are:

[.....]

Mother Jones: May 27, Joliet, Ill.; May 28, Ottawa; May 29, Streator; May 30, Peoria; May 31, Farmington; June 1, Canton; June 2, Cuba.

Interview on Child Slavery in Chicago:

While in Chicago, Mother was interviewed and spoke about her observations on child slavery in the southern cotton mills. That interview was published in the Duluth Labor World of May 26th and was republished in the May 29th edition of Hellraisers.

SOURCES

The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ

The Daily People
-of the Socialist Labor Party.
(New York, New York)
-May 5, 1906
(Sadly, direct link not possible.)
http://www.genealogybank.com/explore/newspapers/all

The Union Republican
(Winston-Salem, North Carolina)
-May 10, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/80932063/

The Wichita Beacon
(Wichita, Kansas)
-May 18, 1906
https://www.newspapers.com/image/77189398/

The Worker
-organ of Socialist Party (SPA)
(New York, New York)
-May 26, 1906
http://www.genealogybank.com/explore/newspapers/all

"Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones on Hideous Conditions Of Child Slavery in Southern Cotton Mills" by JayRaye
http://caucus99percent.com/content/hellraisers-journal-mother-jones-hide...

IMAGE
Mother Jones by Bertha Howell (Mrs Mailly), ab 1902
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004672082/
Note: source for marriage to William Mailly:
https://books.google.com/books?id=6i3PS8RLEygC&pg=PA185&lpg=PA185&dq=ber...

See also:

William Mailly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mailly

J. Mahlon Barnes followed Mailly as
National Executive Secretary of the SPA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Mahlon_Barnes

Machinists' Monthly Journal of
International Association of Machinists, 1906
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=SjMAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcove...