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Saturday February 10, 1906
Greensboro, North Carolina - Mother Jones Interviewed, Tells of Children in the Mills

The following is an interview with Mother Jones which was published in the February 8th edition of the Greensboro Daily Industrial News:

NO STRIKE COMING SAYS MOTHER JONES
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Noted Socialist Thinks General Uprising
Will Be Avoided by Both Sides.
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SPEAKS OF CHILD LABOR AND
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
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Amusing Anecdotes Related By Her Show Her Fearlessness and
Sense of Humor as Well as Her Lack of "Respect of Persons."
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Mother Jones leading the March of the Mill Children, 1903
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Sunday February 6, 1916
From the United Mine Workers Journal: John M. O'Neil on Colorado Justice

From the Journal of February 3rd:

The Triumph of Law and Order"
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IT WAS NO CRIME TO KILL AN ORGANIZER.
(By John M. O'Neil.)
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Gerald Lippiatt (Center), Union Organizer & Martyr
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Nearly all the daily journals of the State of Colorado have frequently attempted to defend the fair name of the State and have declared that it was only the pen of the muck-raker that has traduced the reputation of a commonwealth whose people believed in the majesty of the law. The "kept press" has howled with indignation when men, permeated with the spirit of justice, have raised their voice in denunciation of wrong garbed in the veneer of law and order.

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Saturday February 5, 1916
From the United Mine Workers Journal: Imported Gunthug Walter Belk Acquitted

From the Journal of February 3rd:

Justice Ravished
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Organizer Gerald Lippiatt, Center
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In our last issue, commenting on the action of the miners' convention in pledging moral and financial support to the miners whom the men in power in the State of Colorado are attempting to condemn to felons' cells for daring to resist the oppression of the economic masters and their henchmen, their hired armies, we remarked that the counties of that State where the coal mines are located "were not ruled, but terrorized."

In the last week we have had further proof of the truth of that statement.

Walter Belk, imported from West Virginia to Colorado and there employed because of his reputation as a mankiller who could be depended upon to use his ready gun any time in the service of those who would pay him his price, was acquitted, on the instruction of the judge on the bench to the jury, of the charge of killing Gerald Lippiatt, union organizer, on the streets of Trinidad just before the opening of the strike in Southern Colorado in the fall of 1913.

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Tuesday February 1, 1916
Indianapolis, Indiana - Mother Jones Addresses Convention of United Mine Workers, Part II

Yesterday's Hellraisers presented part one of the speech delivered by Mother Jones during Saturday's afternoon session of the United Mine Workers Convention, now coming to a close in the city of Indianapolis. Today we are pleased to present part two of her speech wherein we hear her response to a mine owner who longs for her death.

You have made more progress in government, boys, in the last three years than you had made in 125 years prior to that. We have got more recognition in the last three years than in all that time. The Secretary of Labor, who is a member of the President's cabinet, was in Pennsylvania when the strike at Arnot took place. That was before the anthracite strike. I was sent for and went there. The men were going to work next morning. I addressed a meeting that afternoon. Nobody went to work next morning, but I was thrown out of the hotel at eleven o'clock at night—I was an undesirable citizen. I went up the mountain. I saw a light and kept crawling up until I got there. When I got to the house a man there said, “Did they put you out of the hotel?” I said, “Yes, but I will put them out before I get through with them.”

The president of District No. 2 worked day and night and gave ail he had to that strike. One night I sat in W. B. Wilson's house. He was there with his feet bare. About eleven o'clock at night we were talking about a move I was going to make when a knock came on the door. Wilson opened it. I left the room. Three men came in, sat down and discussed the strike. One of them said, “Say, Wilson, we can make it twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars if you go away and let this fight fall to pieces. You can take the old woman with you.”

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Monday January 31, 1916
Indianapolis, Indiana - Mother Jones Addresses Convention of United Mine Workers, Part I

Yesterday Hellraisers reported on the speech delivered by Mother Jones during Saturday's afternoon session of the United Mine Workers Convention, now in session in Indianapolis. Today we are pleased to present part one of her speech; we will offer part two in tomorrow's edition of Hellraisers.

ELEVENTH DAY-AFTERNOON SESSION The convention was called to order at 1:30 p.m., Saturday, January 29th, Secretary Green in the chair......

Secretary Green—.....President White will not be here for a little while and, with your permission, we will pause for just a few minutes in our regular order to hear from Mother Jones. She is planning to leave soon and wants to say something to the boys before she leaves.

Mother Jones—Boys, I have looked over this convention from the platform, and I want to give expression to the feeling that in this gathering are men of the most highly developed brains this country can produce. You have come from the picks, but you are developing, and I want to say to you to keep on.

Now I want to call your attention to a few things. Away back in the old Roman age, two hundred years after the world’s greatest agitator was murdered by the ruling class, there arose in Carthage a tremendous agitation among the oppressed, the exploited, those who had borne the burden for ages. The Romans began to be disturbed and thought they would go down to Carthage and capture those who were responsible for the agitation. They went down. All they captured in those days they retained as slaves or sold into slavery. Among the group that was captured was one youth. The Roman judge asked, “Who are you?” The youth said, “I am a member of the human family.” “Why do you agitate?” asked the judge. “Because I belong to that class that has been crushed, robbed, murdered and maligned in all the ages, and I want to break the chains of my class.”

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Sunday January 30, 1916
Indianapolis, Indiana - U. M. W. of A. Convention Pauses for a Poetical Tribute

Before adjourning for the day on Saturday January 22nd, delegates at the Miners' Convention were entertained with a bit of poetry:

Delegate McAlester, District 12–Delegate Loftus has written a poem upon the occurrence here the other day and we would like to have him read it.
Delegate Loftus—Delegate McDonald's name and Delegate Germer's will appear. I would like to know if they have any objections to having it read. No objection being offered, Delegate Loftus read the following:

THE PEACEMAKER.

It was just a little resolution,
Didn’t amount to very much
Brought on a very wordy war
'Mongst the Irish, Scotch and Dutch.

They used many personalities,
Which I always deemed a curse;
Had Mother not just happened in
It might have been much worse.

We have thirteen hundred delegates
Who represent labor's cause,
And many joined in the chorus
By giving great applause.

When the battle raged the fiercest—
Words shot back and forth like stones—
In stepped a goodly lady,
Our splendid Mother Jones.

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Monday January 29, 1906
From The Labor World: John Mitchell Again Elected President of U. M. W.

The Scene in Tomlinson Hall, John Mitchell Presiding.
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The Convention of the United Mine Workers, held recently in Indianapolis, Indiana, has once again elected John Mitchell as President. This was reported by The Labor World on page three which followed a report on page two concerning Mitchell's response to attacks upon his leadership and his involvement in the National Civic Federation.

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Sunday January 28, 1906
From The Labor World - John Mitchell Attacked at U. M. W. of A. Convention

From the latest edition of the Duluth Labor World:

JOHN MITCHELL IS ANGRY
AT HIS ACCUSERS
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Again Brands As False The Accusation
That He Sold Out the Miners.
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INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 22.-There was a sensational scene in convention today which was an echo of the attack made on John Mitchell by Robert Randall, of Dietz, Wyo., in last year's convention. Randall charged Mitchell at that time with having sold out the miners in the Colorado strike and Mitchell made reply, branding the statement as a lie. Randall was expelled from the organization as a result.

Today a delegate named A. F. Germoi [Adolph Germer] of Mount Olive, Ill., made the charge that some of Randall's statements were correct. He presented a letter from Secretary Heywood [Haywood] of the Western Federation of Miners, in which Heywood denied the statement made in Mitchell's address of Saturday that Western Federation members were taking the places of the United Mine workers on strike.

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Tuesday January 25, 1916
From the Chicago Day Book: Report on an Interview with Mother Jones

Mother Jones was recently in the city of Chicago and was interviewed by a reporter on various topics. Monday's Day Book gave the following account of what Mother had to say:

"MOTHER" JONES CALLS FOR HAPPY HOMES
IN AMERICA
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There will be no strike in the soft coal fields if the present demand for soft coal keeps up, Mother Jones told a Day Book reporter Sunday. She says operators are expected to give in to the demands of the unions this spring. "Mother" left Chicago Sunday for Indianapolis, where last week she brought the two warring factions of United Mine Workers of America together.

[She says:]

The outlook is not so promising in anthracite fields...Operators are not expected to give in to demands of miners. Strike is likely.

Thousands of tons of coal have been stored away by railroads. Some industries have contracted for delivery for months in advance, fearing an industrial struggle.

Mother Jones is hopeful in general. She sees better wages and better working conditions for American workingman. She thinks the "little revolt" in Youngstown taught money kings a lesson. She expects more voluntary increases like 10 per cent raise in steel industry.

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Sunday January 23, 1916
Indianapolis, Indiana - Mother Jones Speaks at U. M. W. of A. Convention, Part II

Friday's Hellraisers featured newspaper accounts of "Old Mother Jones" "storming" the stage at the Mine Workers' Convention, now ongoing in Indianapolis. Once on stage, Mother put an end to a bitter dispute between the international officers and Delegates McDonald and Germer of Illinois.

The acrimonious debate was fueled by the union's financial difficulties which no doubt stem from the long and hard fought struggles of the past four years, for example: brutal strikes in West Virginia and Colorado. Expenses continue to mount in Colorado due to legal cases involving more than 400 union men (John R. Lawson included) who are yet entangled in the courts of that state.

Mother called Duncan McDonald and Adolph Germer to the stage and, in the end, handshakes were exchanged all around.

Yesterday we presented part one of the speech given by Mother Jones and we conclude today with part two.