The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-10-07
MOTHER" JONES DESCRIBES
LIFE IN COAL FIELDS.
HAVE HEAVEN FOR 4 ROOF
Women and Helpless Children Com
PEELED to Live in Open Like
Animals.

Chicago, Oct. 3.-"If Christ came to
America, took advantage Of the best
university education the country af-
fords, then went into the anthracite
and West Virginia mining regions
he never would be able to write a
book which could properly convey to
the minds of its readers the horrors
that surround the lives of miners. The
human tongue cannot tell of the mis-
cries that blast the lives of those
who earn a living in the bowels of
the earth, nor Of the sufferings of
their unfortunate wives and children.
My hair is white and l am burdened
with the weight Of many years, but
while | have strength enough left to
use my voice it will be lifted in be-
half of those miners whose lives have
been ruined and who have been made
slaves through the avarice of those
who not only believe but declare bold
ly they have a divine right to the
earth and the fullness thereof"
A woman of small stature, credited
with having spent three-score years
and ten on earth, spoke as above to
a reporter. Her hair is white, but her
form is erect. Fire flashed from her
Eyes and her voice trembled with
emotion as she told of her expert
ences with the miners.
II have spent years with Them"
she said. 81 have lived in their homes,
have partaken Of their scant, coarse
fare, have wept with them by the
deathbeds of their loved ones, have
shared their sorrows, but alas, I can
not say l ever rejoiced with them.
Joy is unknown in the mining regions
ers and their unfortunate families
are concerned"
The speaker was Mother Jones,
the idol of the miners, who has spent
the greater part Of her life in an eff
fort to organize them and improve
their conditions. She arrived in Chi
cago last night and left today for
Iowa, where she will lecture in sever
al towns on the conditions of the
miners in the anthracite regions of
Pennsylvania and in West Virginia.
Any reference to West Virginia
reused the champion Of the miners.
When asked How do the miners
get along in West Virginia." she an
swered: ..-
How do they live? They don't live
they exist. Harriet Beecher Stowe
never drew a picture Of slavery that
compares with the conditions of the
miners in West Virginia. The wage
slavery of that state is the blacklist
page in American history. l tell you,
you people in the north can't realize
the amount of human misery that ex-
lists among the unfortunates with
whom I have made my home for
years.
Homes Of the Wretched.
How are the miners housed?" she
was asked.
Housed? Housed, did 0 say?"
she cried. why, cattle may have
decent roofs over them, but the
shacks they call houses among the
mines Of West Virginia would not be
tolerated in the worst sections OF
your city. They are not houses
they consist of six boards. a bundle
of chi,,r1nc orH ha1f a mound Df noi1c
Such are the homes of the West Vir-
ginia miners when they are working,
but many of them at present have
only heaven for a roof and the ground
for a pillow.
sThe coal operators do not propose
to let the strikers indulge in the lux
ury of a board roof, and men, women
and children have been driven out to
die on the mountain sides. At Piney
Ridge three weeks ago I saw a moth
err with her babe, 6 months old, thrown
out Of the shack called home by the
officers of the law. An old, gray-head-
ed grandmother was thrown out with
them.
THE feeble old grandmother took
the babe on her lap and with tears
streaming down her cheeks said: My
pool babe, how soon they have begun
to persecut you!'
Three hours later the babe died
under Gods sunlight. I could recite
hundreds Of cases just as bad as this.
They thought they would break their
spirits when they threw them out of
the shacks, but the women and chill
dren in many cases have been given
shelter in barns and the men can live
on the mountain sides until the fight
is won.
Children Worst Sufferers.