Vol. 73/No. 7      February 23, 2009

BY MOTHER JONES  
Brothers of this convention, perhaps never in the history of the mine workers was there a more important convention than this. The eyes of the world are resting today and all other days you are in session on this hall. The master class is watching your convention with keen interest. And so I say to you, be wise, be prudent in your actions. Think before you act. Don’t give the master class any weapon to strike you with and laugh about. Let us have the laugh on them.

Now, my brothers, the last year has been a trying year for organized labor all along the line. There have been some wonderful fights on the industrial field. It has not been alone the miners, it has not been alone the steel workers.¹ For the first time, perhaps, the women in the industrial field have begun to awaken to their condition of slavery. In New York and Philadelphia the women arrayed themselves in battle, and they gave battle fearlessly. They were clubbed, they were jailed, they were insulted, but they bore it all for the principle they believed in.² Never can a complete victory be won until the woman awakens to her condition. We must realize that the woman is the foundation of government; that no government is greater or ever can be greater than the woman. It was once asked of Napoleon how the French nation could become a great nation. He considered a moment and then said: “Never until you have a great motherhood. When you have that you have a great nation.”

And so it is with us in this nation. Never as long as the women are unorganized, as long as they devote their time to women’s clubs and to the ballot, and to a lot of old meow things that don’t concern us at all and have no bearing on the industrial battle, can we succeed, and the men will have to make the battle alone. But the century is here when the woman is going to take a mighty hand in these battles, and then we will fight it out and fight it to a finish. Put that down, Mr. Reporter!

Now I want to call your attention to some things. The industrial war is on in this country. Why? Because modern machinery plays a greater part in the production of wealth in this nation than it does in any other nation of the world. The class that owns the machine owns the government, it owns the governors, it owns the courts and it owns the public officials all along the line. There may be an exception, but on the whole it is true. It certainly owns the Governor of Ohio. Put it down, Mr. Reporter, that I said so! First the Governor of Ohio brought out his dogs of war to turn them on the steel workers. That cost this State $250,000. Then he brought them out and turned them on the street car strikers and undertook to lick them into submission. I want to serve notice on the Governor of Ohio that he has never licked labor into submission and never will, and by the eternal gods we will lick him into submission before we are through! …

Now, I am going to speak to you on this question of machinery, and I want to draw your attention to the fact that they have reached into China and are developing the industries there. Capitalism is in business for profit, and wherever it is going to realize the most profit out of human blood there it is going. So they have reached into China, where they can hire men for eight cents and ten cents a day. The result is we are feeling it here all along the line. The merchants in Westmoreland county, at Greensburg, called the Council together and asked them if they would not pass an ordinance demanding that the mounted constabulary be placed in Greensburg. They wanted one place in each hotel to take care of the hotelkeepers. They said the miners were in a terrible way and the scabs were afraid to come into town. The scabs were not a bit afraid to come into town, but the merchants were so full of greed and avarice they did not realize where they were struck. They wanted the constabulary to protect them against a handful of miners, but they never thought of calling in the constabulary to see after the Standard Oil, that has taken over eighty-four of the great department stores of this country. It is the onward march of civilization. And so it must be with us; we must centralize our forces in one great, mighty column.

If there is an organization in this land or in any other land the master classes are afraid of, if there is an organization they want to split in two, it is the United Mine Workers of America.³ They are putting up every sort of game to divide our forces, but they are going to get left, my friends. We may have a little housecleaning, we may have a little jawing and chewing the rag; but when the time comes we will line up and give the master class what they have been looking for.

2. The reference is to the uprising of the waistmakers which took place in Philadelphia as well as in New York City.

3. In 1911 the United Mine Workers of America was the largest union in the United States, with a membership close to 300,000.  
 
 
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