Transcriber’s Note:
Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.
Mother Jones’ Latest Photograph
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
MOTHER JONES
EDITED BY MARY FIELD PARTON
INTRODUCTION BY CLARENCE DARROW
CHICAGO
CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
1925
Copyright, 1925, by
CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America
INTRODUCTION
Mother Jones is one of the most forceful and picturesque figures of theAmerican labor movement. She is a born crusader. In an earlier periodof the world she would have joined with Peter the Hermit in leadingthe crusaders against the Saracens. At a later period, she would havejoined John Brown in his mad, heroic effort to liberate the slaves.Like Brown, she has a singleness of purpose, a personal fearlessnessand a contempt for established wrongs. Like him, the purpose was themoving force, and the means of accomplishing the end did not matter.
In her early life, she found in the labor movement an outlet for herinherent sympathy and love and daring. She never had the time or theeducation to study the philosophy of the various movements that fromtime to time have inspired the devoted idealist to lead what seemed tobe a forlorn hope to change the institutions of men.
Mother Jones is essentially an individualist. Her own emotions andideas are so strong that she is sometimes in conflict with others,fighting for the same cause. This too is an old story; the real leadersof any cause are necessarily [Pg 6]individualists and are often impatientof others who likewise must go in their own way. All movementsattract men and women of various minds. The early abolitionists couldnot agree as to methods. In their crusade were found the men whobelieved in constitutional methods, such as Giddings and Lincoln; themen who believed in force, of which John Brown was the chief; thenon-resistant, like William Lloyd Garrison; the lone individualist whohit wherever he found a head to hit, like Wendell Phillips. MotherJones is the Wendell Phillips of the labor movement. Without hiseducation and scholarship, she has the power of moving masses of men byher strong, living speech and action. She has likewise his disregardfor personal safety. After the capture of John Brown at Harper’s Ferry,many real abolitionists were paralyzed with fear and fled from thefield, but Wendell Phillips hurled his phillipics from the housetopsand defied his enemies to do their worst.
In all her career, Mother Jones never quailed or ran away. Her deepconvictions and fearless soul always drew her to seek the spot wherethe fight was hottest and the danger greatest.
I never personally knew anything of her misunderstandings