The day book. [volume], July 25, 1914, LAST EDITION, Image 6

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
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We knowjshe has gone to jail for
the mine workers "of West Virginia
and Colorado; that she has suffered
privation, humiliation and what
amounts to torture for the men, wo
men and children of the working
class. --
Yet a cowardly editor of the sneak
ing "Polly Pry"-ing weekly publica
tion would have, us believe this wo
manly martyr was an inmate of
houses of prostitution when she was
old enough to be a grandmother
for 1889 was only 25 years ago, and
Mother Jones is past 80 now.
But even if it were all true even
if she had fallen in her youth even
if she hid lost caste and was a social
outcast, how could that possibly de
tract from the service she has ren
dered humanity since?
Let us suppose another woman 80
years old a woman who was virtu
ous as maid, wife, mother and grand
mother a woman against whom
'there was never a breath of suspicion
and about whom the venomous
tongue of scandal never wagged a
woman who has lived a long life of
well-bred ease and churchly propriety
-i-a woman who has been devoted to
her family, but has never lifted her
little finger for humanity's uplift or
gone out of her way to alleviate the
sufferhig of the poor and oppressed
would anybody claim that such a
good woman was a better woman
with all her virtue than a woman of
the same age who had sinned and
then starved and served and suffered
for humanity for many years?
Does sin kill all the GOOD in any
of us? If man or woman is 99 per
cent good and 1 per cent evil, don't
we overlook the 99 per cent good and
punish the 1 per cent evil?
If any man or woman is GOOD
NOW, why dig into the past to find
mistake and sin?
Who of us who now pretend to be
bo virtuous can stand the searchlight
ori the youthful days of strong pas
sions, immature judgment and num
Lerless temptations?, - ,
What do we know of the tempta
tions that have made other men and
women fall, when we have stood erect
because we were strongly supported
by protecting arms?
Are we sure that both men and wo
men don't have to sin and suffer
themselves before they can have gen
uine sympathy for others who sin and
suffer?
All this is in my mind when I say
it isn't important whether the vile
charges are true or false; that Mother
Jones must be judged for what she is
now and for the great service she
has rendered those who have far too
few sincere and unselfish friends and
champions.
Despite all such charges that evil
men might make. I believe Mother
Jones to be a good and noble woman;
and if all the charges were" true and
I knew them to be true, I would take
off my hat to her for her great good
ness of heart and unconquerable
courage of mind.
o o
LETTER TO EDITOR
LABOR AND PROGRESS
Editor Day Book: Thursday
night's issue of The Day Book told
how President John Fitzpatrick of
the Chicago Federation of Labor and
those that followed him made some
startling disclosures before the in- ,
dustrial relations commission as to
the conditions prevailing on the In
dustrial field.
In plain though convincing-words
they proved beyond the shadow of a
doubt how omnipotent the employers
are in the power they wield over those
who must toil from day to day.
And yet this terrible evidence and
all that is to follow is as old as slavery
itself, having passed through several
economic phases from serfdom to
capitalism and win persist until the
workers will do their own investigat
ing and, above all, their own "reform
ing." We are well aware of the economic
power of the ruling class with 'its.
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