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Sunday February 11, 1906
Greensboro, North Carolina - Mother Jones Speaks on Child Labor

From the Greensboro Daily Industrial News of February 9th:

"MOTHER JONES" ON CHILD LABOR
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Socialist Declares That Factories Are Responsible
for Mental Degenerates
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LABOR AND CAPITAL ARE DULY COMPARED
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Laboring Man's Champion Speaks to a Small Audience
in Labor Union Hall But Holds Her
Hearers' Interest to the End.
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Mother Jones talked in Labor Union Hall last night to an audience made unfortunately small by the inclemency of the weather. But the few people who were there were profoundly interested and were besides very greatly taken with the "spunky" little woman who tried to stir up in them the revolutionary spirit and to implant in them a firm purpose to benefit their brothers and help them forward to a higher civilization.

Mother Jones related first the history of the tool, told how it had become a machine, and how its change, and its ownership by the few had brought about the present economic conditions. She told about how young men used to go West to escape the servitude of labor, but now, she said, the conditions were the same everywhere.

Cuba appealed for relief from Spain, said she, and could have had it without war, but in the interests of capital war was brought about. Then capital went on to the Philippines, to work up that country. In the Far East, before the gates of Pekin, Militarism and Capitalism for the first time in history, joined their interests and worked together. The whole thing means that we are face to face with a competition as the world has never known it before.

Calls Child Labor Murder.

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Wednesday January 24, 1906
From the Reading Times: Mother Jones Speaks to Large Gathering on Socialism

A large crowd gathered in Reading, Pennsylvania, Monday evening to hear Mother Jones speak. Tuesday's Reading Times reported the event:

LABORS' STRUGGLE FOR AN EXISTENCE
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THEME OF EARNEST APPEAL MADE BY "MOTHER" JONES,
BEFORE LARGE AUDIENCE IN THE COURT HOUSE.
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The main room of the Court House was scarce large enough to accommodate the crowd of citizens who gathered there last evening to hear "Mother" Jones expound her theories of socialism. The meeting was held under the auspices of Local Reading, of the Socialist party, and, although the meeting was announced for 8 o'clock, half an hour before that time men and women began to gather and before the hour of opening, every seat in the auditorium was taken and as many were standing as could crowd into the aisles. The space within the bar was also filled with men and women.

As the clock struck the hour of 8, T. J. Netheary, who presided during the session, called the gathering to order and briefly stated the purpose of the meeting. He felt highly honored by so large and intelligent an audience having gathered to hear live issues discussed. The meeting, he said, was being held under the auspices of Socialists, who had met to give vent to the opinions held by millions of people today. Socialism is the same the world over, and represents the only philosophy which, if put into practice, will bring relief to down-trodden mankind. To attain liberty and freedom is the goal of all well thinking people. The only difference is in the method to reach this end. The Socialist is not a pessimist, but verily believes the dawn is coming and is striving heartily to hasten that day.

Youngstown was one of the hubs of the steel industry in 1916.
The mills hummed with activity as they tried to meet the demand from the war in Europe.
The steel unions had been crushed in the 1890's. The shantytown slums on the town outskirts were filled with recent immigrants from eastern Europe who were willing to work in those dangerous jobs with long hours and little pay.

It was a good time to be a capitalist.

[The 1946 coal strike] is the most momentous event in the country's peacetime history."
- Evansville Courier, 1946

When most people think of labor unrest in America they think of the 1930's, or the various major strikes of the 19th Century. The fact is that no year, before or since, saw so many strikes, and such a large percentage of people on strike, or so many industries effected by strikes, as 1946.
Never before had labor unions flexed so much muscle.

On a Dreary Morning in May of 1920 Seven Men Carrying Winchesters and pistols boarded the Norfolk and Western's No. 29 at Bluefield, West Virginia, bound for the little mining town of Matewan on the Kentucky border.
- Robert Shogan