The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 9, 1926, Page 18

“Autobiography of Mother Jones.” Chas. H. Kerr & Co., Chicago. A Book Review By WALT CARMON. N all the turbulent history of Ameri- can labor, Mother Jones is really one of the most picturesque figures. Often misguided, confused, unaware of “theories” but courageously throw- ing herself into struggle after strug- gle of her class for fully fifty years, she has witnessed and participated in most of the important events in the history of labor in America since the Civil War. Born in Ireland in 1830, and coming to America in childhood, . she was married in 1861, to (her proud men- tion of this is a pleasure) “an iron moulder and a staunch. member .of. the Iron Moulders’ Union.” Her husband and four children died in a yellow fever epidemic; she came to Chicago to put up a millinery establishment and lost it in the Chicago fire of 18%. From this period her history in the labor movement begins—a history rich in little glimpses of the struggles of her class—a bird’s-eye-view of the suffering and militancy and fight scarcely equalled anywhere. To those unacquainted with the splendid tra- ditions of American workers, we re- commend this personal narative of one who has been in the thick of the struggle for years. In the days following the fire, Mother Jones tells us: “Nearby in an old tumte® down, fire-scorched building the Knights of Labor held meetings. I used to spend my evenings at their meetings, listen- ing to the splendid speakers. Sun- days we went out to the woods and held meetings. “Those were the days of sacrifice for the cause of labor. Those were the days when we had no halls, when there were no high salaried officers, no feasting with the enemies of labor.” From these days her story briefly —all’ too briefly—recounts many memorable-events in Amercan labor history; “the” Haymarket riots and the struggle for the eight-hour day; the struggles of Virginia miners; founding of the “Appeal to Reason”; battles of West Virginia; the Cripple Creek strike; child labor in the South; the “Moyer Haywood, Petti- bone Case”; the steel strike and hun- dreds of minor skirmishes in which she had taken part. “Perhaps no one in the labor move- ment has seen more brutality perpet- rated upon the workers than I have seen,” Mother Jones tells us. “I have seen them killed in industry, worn out and made old before their time, jailed and shot if they - protested. Story after story I could tell of per- secution and of bravery undgualled on any battlefield.” And she tells us of many such stories—stories it would do well for us to learn, stories of the history of our class in this country; of heroic suffering and struggle, of undaunted courage and grim determination to give one a pride in our class—and an assurance and confidence in its fu- ture, Most of her life has been spent among miners—and the picture of their struggles which she made:hers, are most interesting reading and his- tory. “Before 1899, the coal -’fields of Pennsylvania were not organized. . . » Hours of work down ‘under ground were cruelly long. Fourteen hours a day were not uncommon, thir- teen, twelve. The life and limb of the miner was unprotected by any laws. Families lived in company shacks that were not fit for their pigs, Children died by the hundreds due to the ignorance and poverty of their parents. Often I’ haye helped to lay out for burial the babies of miners, and the mothers could scaree conceal their relief at the little ones’ deaths.” This’ grim picture precedes the story of the “Victory at Arnot.” . .. A splendid account of a struggle in which miners’ wiyes played a heroic part—a Story worth repeating: “In Arnot, Pa. a strike had been going on four or five months. The men were becoming discouraged, The coal company sent the doctors, the school teachers, the preachers and their wives to the homes of the min- ers to get them to sign a document that they would go back to work.” Mother Jones went there. The only hotel in Arnot, where she got a room, was owned by the’ coal com- pany and after her first me@ting with the miners she was asked to leave it. She weit to a friend’s house, also company owned, and for allowing Mother Jones to sleep here the whole family was put out. “The family gathered up all their earthly belongings, which weren't much, took down all the holy pic- tures and put them in a wagon and they with all their neighbors, went to the-meeting. The sight of that wa- gon. with the sticks of furniture and the holy pictures and the children, with the father and mother and my- self. walking along thru the streets ‘turned the tide. It made men so angry that ‘they decided not to go hack that.morning to the mines. In- stead, they * ~ Came: to the~ meeting where they determined mot to-give up}: the strike until: they ‘had won the victory. Then the tompany tried ~to bring in scabs.” Knowing she would be _ arrested, Mother Jones did not go to the mines with an army of women she had or- ganized—an army with “mops and brooms” to. charge the scabs. “I selected as leader an Irish wo man who had a most picturesque ap- pearance. She had slept late and her husband had told her to hurry up and get into the army. She had grabbed a red petticoat and slipped it over a thick cotton nightgown. She wore a black stocking and a white one. She had tied a little red figured shawl over her wild red hair. Her face was red and her eyes were mad, I looked at her and felt she could raise a rumpus, . . “Up the mountain side, yelling and hollering, she led the women, and when the mules came up with the scabs and the coal, she began beat- ing on the dishpan and hollering and all the army joined in with her. The sheriff ¢apped her on the sko “‘My dear lady,’ said he; sl ber the. mules. Don’t frighten them.’ “She took the old tin pan and she hit him with it and she hollered, ‘To hell with you and the mules!’ “He fell over and dropped into the creek. Then the mules began to re- bel against scabbing. - They bucked and kicked the scab drivers and start- ed off for the barn. The scabs started runring down hill, followed by the army of women with their mops and pails and brooms. “A poll parrot in a nearby shack screamed at the superintendent, ‘Got hell, did you? Got hell?” So Mother Jones then talked to the farmers and she talked to the Swedes, whom the’ company tried to use against the miners—and the miners held out and the strike was finally won with all demands conceded. “Did you get the use of the hall for us to hold meetings? said the women. “‘No, we didn’t ask for that,’ “*Then the strike is on again,’ said they.” : They got the hall. , . and the union ‘held a‘ victory meeting. . . to. whieh “the women came for miles in’a raging snow storm, little chil- dren trailing at their skirts, and A Woman Who ‘Raised Hell” for Fifty Years MOTHER JONES babies under their shawls. Many of the. minefs had walked miles. A ~ “The: men opened a few of the freight cars on a siding and helped themselves to boxes of beer. Old and young talked and sang all night long. The victory was due to.the army of women with their mops and brooms.” And then to West Virginia with “one night I went with an organizer nemed Scott to a mining town in Fairmont,” a story of real class war, of the blacklist, thugs, guns and mur der. From there to the anthracite: The treachery of John Mitchell; to Colo- radio; the Cripple Creek strike; t Idaho: Moyer, Haywood, Pettibone; to Arizona: The 1913 I. W. W. deport- ations—-a bird’s-eyeview of— “The story of coal which is always the same. It is a dark story. For a second’s more sunlight, men mus fight like tigers. For the privilege of seeing the color of their children’: , eyes by the light of the sun,. father: must fight as beasts in the jungle That. life, may- have_something of de Seency, . somiething of — beauty—a_- pic- ture, a new dress, a bit of cheap lac fluttering in the window—for this men who work down in the mines must struggle and lose, struggle and win.” Mother Jones is aware of the clas: struggle and paints it vividly. Bu the narative, tho interesting, reveal: the aged agitator in all her inconsist- ‘alone their exploiters, but _Jencies, im all her lack of any under tanding of the forces that played and notivated the events in which her life iad been thrown, Thruout the book one notes dis cinetly only @ courage, a disregard at personal welfare and safety—all for ier class, She is proud of her class. 3he swears by it—swears healthily. 3he™would give her life tor it—and iid; “Enemies of her. class are her snemies—dishonest labor leaders are anathema to her, altho confused as she is, she does not always recognize them. “The rank and file,” Mother Jones warns us, “have let their servants be- come their masters and dictators. The workers have now to fight not kewise sheir own leaders who -often betray. hem, who sell them out, who put heir own advancement ahead of ‘that f the working masses, WhO make the unk and file politiedl ‘pawns, - ‘ These types are menacés to the “ad: yaticement of labor.” And yet—only too often have these same “menaces” received misguided support from this eame little woman —only too often she has placed her faith in the government that is an enemy Of, her class. “Whenever things go wrong, 1 generally head for the national governihént with my griev- ances. redress,” she tells us. Mother Jones still has faith in “con- stitutional rights,” she still believes in “liberty” won by our revolution- ary forefathers. .°.and in her un- clear mind she approves these an- cient fables, while she justly approves well, a workers’ government in Rus- sia and—a labor party in the coun- try. Her championship of causes and orograms is not always clearly rea- soned. The book of Mother Jones’ life gives us but little. No estimation of the development of the American la- bor movement, no lessons of the struggle, no program and principles xorn of experience and history to guide @ worker. But it is interes’ ing. It is sworth while ereading it may not be a Valuable history ate labor, Not a narative of a great lead- er, it is the story of one woman’s life -of a woman now 96 years of age, vho once told a suffragette she need- od no vote to raise hell for her class —and who, one of the really pictur- ssque figures of the American labor 1ovement, has “raised hell” for half u century. TWO YEARS IN RETROSPECT By FRED HARRIS. (Worker Correspondent) SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.— For two years now, The DAILY WORKER has been in the field to function in the behalf of carrying on a militant fight against: that institution known as American capitalism, and its near- relative, namely A. F. of L. bureau- eracy. For two years, as a daily, it has brought the class struggle home to the proletariat, for them to under- stand the issue and join the ranks of the revolutionist. Looking over the field today, we can sit back then and say that, as far as the prevailing stagnant conditior permitted it, that our paper has suc- ceeded in both phases, It has brot a situation about, “7 oP commer ative office-holding element and its adherent have become more desperate than ever and have put up a program which leads direct to a labor union . sell-out, and a class collaboration policy. That, being the one side of the story, we find on.the other hand, this ve jf licy has resulted in bring some” ‘of the workers, who used. stand pat or sit on the fence, to’Voice their protest and to align themselves definitely to a radical pro- gram, They are not revolutionists, as yet, but their tendency is very en- couraging, The DAILY WORKER results thus far are not phenomenal. That would be too much to expect, but a success- fal start has been made, ‘which makes as smile with happinéss and say: | More power to The DAILY WORKER. say - Where to Begia er ” BY LENIN (Continued from page 7 of this section) of the population against this or that czarist bashibozuk who oversteps himself, and must help—by means of boycott, baiting, demonstraton, ete.—to teach him such ati a lesson that he will be compelled openly to retreat, It is possible to develop such a degree of fighting prepared- ness only thru a constant activity occupying the regular army. And if we unite our forces upon the conducting of a common newspaper—such work will prepare and will bring forth not only most skilled propagandists but also most skillful organizers, most talented poll- tical leaders of the party, capable at the needed moment to raise the slogan of decisive battle and to guide that battle, In conclusion a few words im order to avoid pos- We spoke thruout only of a sible misunderstanding. as & ism, systematic, planful preparation, but by this we did not desire at all to say that absolutism may fall exclusively sult of a regular siege or an organized storm- - Such a viewpoint would be absurd doctrinair- On the contrary itis entirely possible and his- torically a great deal more probable that absolutism will fall as a result of pressure of one of those ele- mental explosions or unforeseen political ‘complications which are constantly threatening it from all sides, But not*a single political party, if it does not fall into ad- venturism, can base its activity in calculation upon such explosions and complications. in our own way, unswervingly to perform our sys, We must proceed tematic work, and the less we calculate upon the un- expected the more the probability that we shall not be taken unaware by any “historical turns,” I do not find it hard to get ; Nef yf alates