You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Friday March 31, 1905
From The St. Louis Republic: Mother Jones Speaks to Machinists
Mother Jones Speaks to Machinists.
Tonight Mother Jones will address the members of Machinists' Union No. 325 and the general public at the Metal Trades headquarters, No. 1310 Franklin avenue. The meeting will be open to all desiring to attend.
Mother Jones speaks in Bloomington, Ill., Saturday night, but will return to make two speeches on Sunday for the Socialist party.
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SOURCE
The St Louis Republic
(St Louis, Missouri)
-Mar 31, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGE
Ad for a meeting from St Louis Labor (date unknown)
http://www3.niu.edu/...
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Wednesday March 31, 1915
From The Leavenworth Times: Mother Jones Visits Federal Prison
'MOTHER JONES' PAYS A VISIT TO FEDERAL PRISON
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Friend of Laboring Men Obtains Audience
With Several of Convicted Dynamiters.
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TALKS OF INTERVIEWS
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Recounts Conversations Had With
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Andrew Carnegie-
Opportunities Denied Workers.
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"Mother" Mary Jones, 79 years old, heroine of dozens of strikes and the most prominent woman labor leader in the United Stated, called upon Warden Thomas W. Morgan of the Federal Prison yesterday and obtained an audience with the convicted dynamiters. It was Mother Jones, who marched at the head of 10,000 strikers through the streets of Charleston, W. Va., up to the governor's residence. She is the woman who has been at the bedside of hundreds of workmen's wives and children, and it was Mother Jones who through her personality and influence wielded through newspaper publicity sought and obtained interviews with John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Andrew Carnegie. And following that interview a few months ago the multi-millionaire promised to visit the Colorado coal mines and investigate conditions such as were revealed by "Mother" Jones.
A WOMAN OF SPIRIT.
Rather under medium height, slightly inclined to be stout with a face showing many wrinkles but with a step still buoyant and a pair of gray eyes still flashing fire. That describes one's first impression of 'Mother" Jones as she appears today. Her clothes are of good quality but very plain.
Hardly had she begun her conversation with Warden Morgan until one discovered that this quiet, modest appearing woman has an ever-ready spark of oratory, so often displayed on the "picket line," before bivouacs, in labor halls and every place where laboring men congregate to discuss their affairs.
REFUTES JOHN D.'S ASSERTION.
Mother Jones was asked to describe her interviews with Rockefeller and Carnegie. She did so willingly, emphasizing various points in her conversation with gestures.
[She said:]
He told me his wealth had been accumulated by a life of toil...I replied that I could take him to the cemeteries and place my hands on the tombs of hundreds of men from whom he had squeezed his millions, drop by drop.
I want you to understand that I don't work in social settlements, pretending to be in the service of Jesus Christ, but first establishing myself with a home and a big salary and then spending a few of the thousands of dollars gathered in helping the poor.
Continuing "Mother" Jones complained bitterly of the present system of labor and government, which, in her opinion did not give the mass of laboring people, opportunities such as were intended for them. They are given no opportunity to think and educate themselves, she declared.
INCIDENT OF MINES.
[She continued:]
I told John D. Rockefeller Jr., of the wife of a western miner with ten children, who had seen her husband marched away in front of guards...I described her patient labor, her suffering and fortitude that her children might enjoy opportunities she had never had. I described the birth of a child one night, of the mother's suffering and then told how the next morning she arose and prepared breakfast for the family, all for the sake of her children.
"Why didn't you talk to John D., Sr.?" she was asked.
[She said:]
Oh, I wouldn't bother with him...He is old and you couldn't change his mind but the young man still professes to serve Jesus and my every prayer is that he will do something for the poor in Colorado.
And the telegraph wires last evening bore an answer to her prayers. According to dispatch from New York the Rockefeller Foundation has donated $100,000 for the distressed miners of Colorado.
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SOURCE
(Also source for image.)
The Leavenworth Times
(Leavenworth, Kansas)
-Mar 31, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
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The January Conference of Industrial Unionist
A SUMMARY
The Conference of Industrial Unionist met in Chicago from January 2nd to January 4th, 1905. This Conference elected to issue a call for a Convention of Industrial Unionist, said convention to take place in Chicago on June 27th of 1905. This Convention became the founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. The Conference also issued a document which later became known as the IWW Manifesto.
Organizing the Conference:
A letter was sent out to:
Chas. Moyer, A. M. Simons, David C. Coates, William E. Trautmann, Isaac Cowen, Victor Berger, Eugene V. Debs, J. W. Vincent, W. J. Pinkerton, J. E. Fitzgerald, W. J. Bradley, John L. Murphy, William D. Haywood, Thomas J. Hagerty, Clarence Smith, Joseph Proebstel, M. E. White, Max Hayes, Chas. O. Sherman, Michael Berry, Daniel McDonald, A. V. Raley, W. C. Walsh, W. F. Fox, John M. O’Neil, J. A. Wayland, Geo. Estes, Julius Zorn, W. L. Hall, J. W. Slayton, Edward Boyce, Mother Jones, Wade Shurtleff, Thomas De Young, O. Lorenzo, Dr. A. J. Swing, Frank Bohn, Frank McCabe, F. D. Henion, John Guild, Frank Krafft, C. G. Kirkpatrick.
The letter stated, in part:
We invite you to meet with us at Chicago, Monday, January 2, 1905, in secret conference, to discuss ways and means of uniting the working people of America on correct revolutionary principles, regardless of any general labor organization of past or present, and only restricted by such basic principles as will insure its integrity as a real protector of the interests of the workers.
The letter was signed by William E. Trautmann, George Estes, W. L. Hall, Eugene V. Debs, Clarence Smith, and Charles O. Sherman.
Note: Debs did not attend the conference. A letter was written by Debs explaining that he could not attend "on account of illness."
January 2, 1905, Day One:
The Conference was called to order at 10:30 AM. William D Haywood was elected Chairman and George Estes was elected Secretary.
The roll call was read which revealed 22 members of the conference, all men. Four more men arrived later in the day and were admitted to the conference as members, bringing the number of members to 26. Communication were read from those who favored the purposes of the conference but were unable to attend (including that of Eugene Debs). A communication was read from Max S. Hayes who was not present and was unfavorable to the purposes of the conference.
Members of Conference Present on First Day
From the Roll Call:
Daniel McDonald, President A. L. U., Chicago, Room 3, Haymarket Building.
Clarence Smith, General Secretary-Treasurer A. L. U., Chicago. Room 3,
Haymarket Building.
Thomas J. Hagerty, of the A. L. U., Chicago, Room 3, Haymarket Building.
Western Federation of Miners Button
Chas. Moyer, President W. F. of M., Denver, Room 3, Pioneer Building.
W. D. Haywood, Secretary, W. F. of M. Denver, 3, Pioneer Building.
John M. O’Neil, Editor Miners’ Magazine [WFM], Denver, Room 3, Pioneer Building.
W. L. Hall, General Secretary-Treasurer U. B. R. E., Chicago, Room 3,
Haymarket Building.
Frank McCabe, First Vice-President U. B. R. E., Chicago, Room 3, Haymarket Building.
W. J. Bradley, Third Vice-President U. B. R. E., Minneapolis, 25 Central avenue.
J. E. Fitzgerald, Fourth Vice-President U. B. R. E., Ft. Worth, General Delivery.
Thomas De Young, member General Executive Board, U. B. R. E., Houston,
1314 Bingham.
F. D. Henion, member U. B. R. E., Minneapolis, 1115 Adams street, N. E. Minneapolis.
Geo. Estes, of the U. B. R. E., Chicago.
W. E. Trautmann, Editor “Brauer Zeitung [journal of the brewery workers],”
Cincinnati, Ohio, Odd Fellows Temple.
Frank Krafft, member of the Brewery Workers’ Union, Chicago, 226 East North avenue.
A. M. Simons, Editor International Socialist Review, Chicago, 6 Fifth avenue.
W. J. Pinkerton, of the Switchmen’s Union, Kansas City.
Frank Bohn, Organizer S. L. P. and S. T. & L. A., New York.
John Guild, of the Bakers’ Union, Chicago.
Chas. O. Sherman, General Secretary United Metal Workers, Chicago,
148 W. Madison street.
C. G. Kirkpatrick, of the United Metal Workers, Chicago.
Dr. A. J. Swing, of the A. F. of M., Cincinnati. [American Federation of Musicians]
Arrived later:
W. G. Critchlow, General Secretary International Laborers’ Union.
W. Shurtleff, Secretary of the International Musical Union.
M. E. White, member of the General Executive Board, A. L. U.
Joseph Schmitt, Editor of the Bakers’ Journal
A Committee was elected for the purpose of developing a plan of procedure for the Conference. The members of the Committee were: Simons, O’Neil, Trautmann, Hagerty, Haywood, Sherman, Estes, Moyer, Smith, and Hall.
It was then decided that the Committee on Procedure would meet the next morning and that the Conference would reconvene the following afternoon to take up the Committee's Report.
January 3, 1905, Day Two:
The Committee on Methods and Procedure met at Wostas Hall and was called to order at 9 AM. Haywood and Estes were elected Chairman and Secretary of the Committee.
The Committee adopted 11 points of procedure to be recommended to the Conference (see below).
The conference reconvened at 1:50 PM with Haywood in the chair. Mother Jones (the only woman) arrived bringing the number of members of the Conference to 27.
The Report of the Committee on Procedure was accepted and debated. All eleven points of the Committee (with a few amendments made) were adopted as "paragraphs." One more paragraph was added (the Fourth), bringing the number to twelve. These are the final paragraphs adopted which were later incorporated into the Manifesto:
First—The committee recommends the creation of a general industrial union,
embracing all industries.
Second—That the proposed organization shall embrace the following principles:
Craft autonomy, locally; industrial autonomy, internationally; working class unity,
generally.
Third—That the plan of organization be founded on the recognition of the class
struggle, and that the general administration thereof be conducted in agreement
with the recognition of the irrepressible conflict between the working class and
the capitalist class.
Fourth-That this Union be established as the economic organization of the working class
without affiliation with any political party.
Fifth—That all power rest in the collective membership.
Sixth—That local, national and general administration, including transfers,
labels, buttons, badges, initiation fees and per capita tax shall be uniform.
Seventh—That transfers of membership without additional initiation fee,
between all unions, local, national or international, shall be universal.
Eighth—That all members shall hold membership in the local, national or
international unions having jurisdiction over the industry in which they are
employed.
Ninth—That the general administration issue a publication at regular intervals
to all members, representing the organization and its principles.
Tenth—That a central defense fund, to which all members contribute equally,
shall be established and maintained.
Eleventh—That a general convention be called at a date and place to be fixed
by this conference for the purpose of organizing a movement along lines herein
set forth.
Twelfth—That eligibility to participation in the convention include all who
subscribe to the plans and principles set forth in the declaration accompanying
the call.
The convention date was set for the fourth Monday in June, 1905. Chicago was chosen as the place for the convention.
A Committee on Manifesto was chosen: the Committee on Procedure plus Bohn and Mother Jones.
It was decided that the Committee on Manifesto would meet the following morning at Wostas Hall and that the Conference would reconvene in the afternoon.
January 4, 1905, Day Three:
No minutes of the morning meeting of the Committee on Manifesto can be found. However, I believe that we can safely assume that the Committee did meet as planned since the proposed Manifesto was taken up by the Conference that afternoon. Most of the members of the Committee were allied with the Socialist Party of America. Members of the Committee on Manifesto were:
A. M. Simons, Editor International Socialist Review, Chicago, 6 Fifth avenue.
John M. O’Neil, Editor Miners’ Magazine (Western Federation of Miners), Denver,
Room 3, Pioneer Building.
W. E. Trautmann, Editor Brauer Zeitung, journal of the brewery workers,
Cincinnati, Ohio, Odd Fellows Temple.
Thomas J. Hagerty, of the American Labor Union, Chicago, Room 3, Haymarket Building.
W. D. Haywood, Secretary, W. F. of M. Denver, Room 3, Pioneer Building.
Charles O. Sherman, General Secretary United Metal Workers, Chicago, 148 W. Madison Street.
George Estes, of the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes, Chicago.
Charles Moyer, President Western Federation of Miners, Denver, Room 3, Pioneer Building.
Clarence Smith, General Secretary-Treasurer A. L. U., Chicago. Room 3, Haymarket Building.
W. L. Hall, General Secretary-Treasurer U. B. R. E., Chicago, Room 3, Haymarket Building.
Frank Bohn, Organizer Socialist Labor Party and Socialist Trades & Labor Alliance,
New York.
Mother Jones, had recently left her employment as an organizer for the United Mine Workers
and, at the time of the conference, appeared to be employed by the Socialists of
Illinois (connected with the Socialist Party of America.)
The Conference reconvened at 1:30 PM with Haywood in the chair. The Committee on Manifesto reported. It was moved, seconded, and carried that the chair appoint a committee of three to re-write the Manifesto. Those chosen by the chair were Simons, Trautmann and O’Neil.
An Executive Committee was elected whose purpose it was to "conduct the necessary business incident to the calling of the coming convention in June." Elected to this committee were: Haywood, Hall, Simons, Trautmann and Smith.
Apparently the Manifesto had been rewritten by this time, for it was adopted by the Conference "as rewritten."
Manifesto and Convention Call Sent Out to Press
This is the earliest publication that I could find of the entire Manifesto and Convention Call. Eugene Debs is not yet listed as a signer, although, by the time of the June Convention, his name is included.
From the Appeal to Reason of January 28, 1905:
Manifesto of the New Trades Unionism
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At a conference held in Chicago, January 4th, the following signed manifesto and call for a convention was issued. It throws down the gage of battle to the old form of trade unionism, and it would be well for every working man and woman to study carefully the propositions laid down in the following manifesto:
MANIFESTO.
William E Trautmann
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John O'Neil
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Social relations and groupings but reflect mechanical and industrial conditions. The great facts of present industry are the displacement of human skill by machines and the increase of capitalist power through concentration in the possession of the tools with which wealth is produced and distributed.
Because of these facts trade divisions among laborers and competition among capitalists are alike disappearing. Class divisions grow ever more fixed and class antagonisms more sharp. Trade lines have been swallowed up in a common servitude of all workers to the machines which they tend. New machines ever replacing less productive ones wipe cut whole trades and plunge new bodies of workers into the ever-growing army of tradeless, hopeless unemployed. As human beings and human skill are displaced by mechanical progress the capitalists need use the workers only during that brief period when muscles and nerves respond most intensely. The moment the laborer no longer yields the maximum of profits he is thrown upon the scrap pile to starve alongside the discarded machine. A dead line has been drawn and an age limit established, across which in this world of monopolized opportunities means condemnation to industrial death
The worker, wholly separated from the land and the tools, with his skill of craftsmenship rendered useless, is sunk in the uniform mass of wage slaves. He sees his power of resistance broken by craft divisions, perpetuated from out-grown industrial stages. His wages constantly grow less as his hours grow longer and monopolized prices grow higher. Shifted hither and thither by the demands of profit-takers the laborer’s home no longer exists. In this helpless condition he is forced to accept whatever humiliating conditions his master may impose. He is submitted to a physical and intellectual examination more searching than was the chattel slave when sold from the auction block. Laborers are no longer classified by differences in trade skill, but the employer assigns them according to the machines to which they are attached. These divisions, far from representing differences in skill or interests among the laborers, are imposed by the employers that workers may be pitted against one another and spurred to greater exertion in the shop, and that all resistance to capitalist tyranny may be weakened by artificial fratricidal distinctions.
While encouraging these outgrown divisions among the workers the capitalists carefully adjust themselves to the new conditions. They wipe out all differences among themselves and present a united front in their war upon labor. Through employers’ associations, they seek to crush, with brutal force, by the injunctions of the judiciary, and the use of military power, all efforts at resistance. Or when the other policy seems more profitable, they conceal their daggers beneath the Civic Federation and hoodwink and betray those whom they would rule and exploit. Both methods depend for success upon the blindness and internal dissensions of the working class. The employers’ line of battle and methods of warfare correspond to the solidarity of the mechanical and industrial concentration, while laborers still form their fighting organizations on lines of long-gone trade divisions.
The battles of the past emphasize this lesson. The textile workers of Lowell, Philadelphia and Fall River; the butchers of Chicago, weakened by the disintegrating effects of trade divisions; the machinists on the Santa Fe, unsupported by their fellow-workers subject to the same masters; the long-struggling miners of Colorado, hampered by lack of unity and solidarity upon the industrial battle-field, all bear witness to the helplessness and impotency of labor as at present organized.
This worn-out and corrupt system offers no promise of improvement and adaptation. There is no silver lining to the clouds of darkness and despair settling down upon the world of labor.
This system offers only a perpetual struggle for slight relief within wage slavery. It is blind to the possibility of establishing an industrial democracy, wherein there shall be no wage slavery, but where the workers will own the tools which they operate, and the product of which they alone will enjoy.
It shatters the ranks of the workers into fragments, rendering them helpless and impotent on the industrial battle-field.
Separation of craft from craft renders industrial and financial solidarity impossible.
Union men scab upon union men; hatred of worker for worker is engendered, and the workers are delivered helpless and disintegrated into the hands of the capitalists.
Craft jealousy leads to the attempt to create trade monopolies.
Prohibitive initiation fees are established that force men to become scabs against their will. Men whom manliness or circumstances have driven from one trade are thereby fined when they seek to transfer membership to the union of a new craft.
Craft divisions foster political ignorance among the workers, thus dividing their class at the ballot box, as well as in the shop, mine and factory.
Craft unions may be and have been used to assist employers in the establishment of monopolies and the raising of prices. One set of workers are thus used to make harder the conditions of life of another body of laborers.
Craft divisions hinder the growth of class consciousness of the workers, foster the idea of harmony of interests between employing exploiter and employed slave. They permit the association of the misleaders of the workers with the capitalists in the Civic Federations, where plans are made for the perpetuation of capitalism, and the permanent enslavement of the workers through the wage system.
Previous efforts for the betterment of the working class have proven abortive because limited in scope and disconnected in action.
Universal economic evils afflicting the working class can be eradicated only by a universal working-class movement. Such a movement of the working class is impossible while separate craft and wage agreements are made favoring the employer against other crafts in the same industry, and while energies are wasted in fruitless jurisdiction struggles which serve only to further the personal aggrandizement of union officials.
A movement to fulfill these conditions must consist of one great industrial union embracing all industries, providing for craft autonomy locally, industrial autonomy internationally and working class unity generally. It should be founded on the class struggle, and its general administration must be conducted in harmony with the recognition of the irrepressible conflict between the capitalist class and the working class.
It should be established as the economic organization of the working class, without affiliation with any political party.
All power should rest in the collective membership.
Local, national and general administration, including union labels, buttons, badges, transfer cards, initiation fees, and per capita tax should be uniform throughout.
Workingmen bringing union cards from industrial unions in foreign countries should be freely admitted into the organization.
All members should hold membership in the local, national or international union covering the industry in which they are employed, but transfers of membership between unions, local, national, or international, should be universal.
The general administration should issue a publication representing the entire union and its principles which should reach all members in every industry at regular intervals.
A Central Defense Fund, to which all members contribute equally, should be established and maintained.
CALL FOR CONVENTION.
All workers, therefore, who agree with the principles herein set forth, will meet in convention at Chicago the 27th day of June, 1905, for the purpose of forming an economic organization of the working class along the lines marked out in this manifesto.
Representation in the convention shall be based upon the number of workers whom a delegate represents. No delegate, however, shall be given representation in the convention on the numerical basis of an organization unless he has credentials - bearing the seal of his union, local, national, or international, and the signatures of the officers thereof, authorizing him to install his union as a working part of the proposed economic organization in the industrial department in which it logically belongs in the general plan. Lacking this authority, the delegate shall represent himself as an individual.
Thos. J. DeYoung, of the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes, Houston, Texas;
Thos. J. Hagerty, of the American Labor Union, Chicago;
Chas. O. Sherman, of the United Metal Workers, Chicago;
Fred D. Henion, of the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes, Minneapolis;
M. E. White, of the American Labor Union, Denver;
Ernest Untermann, Chicago;
W. J. Bradley, Minneapolis;
W. J. Pinkerton, of the Switchmen's Union of North America, Argentine, Kan.;
Frank Krafft, International Union of United Brewery Workmen, Chicago;
A. G. Swing, of the American Federation of Musicians, Cincinnati;
A. M. Simons, Editor International Socialist Review, Chicago;
J. E. Fitzgerald, Fort Worth, Texas;
Wade Shurtleff, of the International Musical Union, Cleveland, Ohio;
William D. Haywood, of the Western Federation of Miners, Denver;
Mother Jones, Chicago;
Frank M. McCabe, Chicago;
John M. O'Neill, Editor Miners' Magazine, Denver;
Charles H. Moyer, Western Federation of Miners, Denver;
William E. Trautmann, International Union Brewery Workmen, Cincinnati;
W. L. Hall, Chicago;
Jos. Schmitt, International Union Bakery and Confectionery Workers, Chicago;
Clarence Smith, Chicago;
John Guild, International Union Bakery and Confectionery Workers, Chicago;
Daniel McDonald, Chicago;
Frank Bohn, New York City;
Geo. Estes, Chicago.
Permanent Executive Committee-
William D. Haywood, Chairman;
W. E. Trautmann, Secretary, Odd Fellows' Temple, Cincinnati;
Clarence Smith,
W. L. Hall
A. M. Simons.
CHICAGO, JANUARY FOURTH, 1905
[Photographs added of the men chosen by the Conference to rewrite the Manifesto.]
SOURCES
See links above &
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Jan 28, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
AM Simons, editor of the International Socialist Review
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
William E Trautmann, Editor Brauer Zeitung (journal of the brewery workers)
https://libcom.org/...
John M ONeil, editor of the Miners Magazine (WFM)
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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There Is Power In The Union - Utah Phillips
There is power, there is power,
In a band of working folks
When they stand hand in hand.
That's a power, that's a power
That must rule in every land,
One Industrial Union Grand!
-Joe Hill
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