Mother Jones Quotes


It is not right for public officials to bring scabs and gunmen into any state. I am directly opposed to it myself, but if it is a question of strike or you go into slavery, then I say strike until the last one of us drop into our graves.


Context

It was fairly common at the time for the management of a company undergoing a strike to hire goons and gunmen to beat up and even murdering strikers to intimidate the strikers. But some state and locall governments supporting private companies began to do that as well. Sometimes they even used the police and the state national guard.


Citations

Mary Harris Jones, 1830-1930, [Mother Jones], Co-Founder, Social Democratic Party and IWW, Labor Organizer, Addressing the strikers of the United Mine Workers Association, Trinidad, Colorado, 1913

Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations

Related Quotes

Mitchell had warned that the strike was coming (see {607760}). The strike lasted 29 days and ended when the miners received a 10% wage increase. President Theodore Roosevelt mediated the dispute.


Most Republicans at the time regarded labor unions as negative forces in American society and backed and passed much anti-union legislation. The labor movement in America considered the Republicans to be their major enemies, yet the Republicans of the era were almost always supportive of labor unions especially if they were an opposing force to communist governments as in Poland.


Mother Jones
Mother Jones
  • Born: August 1, 1837
  • Died: November 30, 1930
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Union Organizer, Community Organizer, Activist, Schoolteacher, Dressmaker

Mary G. Harris Jones, known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She helped coordinate major strikes and co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World.