Out of labor's struggle in Arizona came better conditions for the workers, who must everywhere, at all times, under advantage and disadvantage work out their own salvation
Mother JonesWhat one state could not get alone, what one miner against a powerful corporation could not achieve, can be achieved by the union.
Mother JonesI know that there are no limits to which the powers of privilege will not go to keep the workers in slavery
Mother JonesLittle girls and boys, barefooted, walked up and down between the endless rows of spindles, reaching thin little hands into the machinery to repair snapped threads
Mother JonesBut in Shimabukuro's hands, as he breaks out experimental jazz, lays down a steady blues train, or shreds on rock anthems, this little jumping flea becomes a melodic monster.
Mother JonesI am Mother Jones. The Government can't take my life and you can't take my arm, but you can take my suitcase.
Mother JonesI am not blind to the shortcomings of our own people. I am not unaware that leaders betray, and sell out, and play false. But this knowledge does not outweigh the fact that my class, the working class, is exploited, driven, fought back with the weapon of starvation, with guns and with venal courts whenever they strike for conditions more human, more civilized for their children, and for their children's children.
Mother JonesI want you to pledge to yourselves in this convention to stand as one solid army against the foes of human labor. Think of the thousands who are killed every year and there is no redress for it. We will fight until the mines are made secure and human life valued more than props. Look things in the face. Don't' fear a governor; don't fear anybody. You pay the governor; he has the right to protect you. You are the biggest part of the population in the state. You create its wealth, so I say, let the fight go on; if nobody else will keep on, I will.
Mother JonesWhat is a good enough principle for an American citizen ought to be good enough for the working man to follow.
Mother JonesSometimes it seemed to me I could not look at those silent little figures; that I must go north, to the grim coal fields, to the Rocky Mountain camps, where the labor fight is at least fought by grown men
Mother JonesMy friends, it is solidarity of labor we want. We do not want to find fault with each other, but to solidify our forces and say to each other: We must be together; our masters are joined together and we must do the same thing.
Mother JonesI want to hold a series of meetings all over the country and get the facts before the American people
Mother JonesI went West and took part in the strike of the machinists - the Southern Pacific Railroad, the corporation that swung California by its golden tail, that controlled its legislature, its farmers, its preachers, its workers.
Mother JonesI am not afraid of the pen, or the scaffold, or the sword. I will tell the truth wherever I please.
Mother JonesI nursed men back to sanity who were driven to despair. I solicited clothes for the ragged children, for the desperate mothers. I laid out the dead, the martyrs of the strike.
Mother JonesIn Georgia where children work day and night in the cotton mills they have just passed a bill to protect song birds. What about the little children from whom all song is gone?
Mother JonesSlowly those who create the wealth of the world are permitted to share it. The future is in labor's strong, rough hands.
Mother JonesMy address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong.
Mother JonesI believe that no man who holds a leader's position should ever accept favors from either side. He is then committed to show favors. A leader must stand alone.
Mother JonesI believe that movements to suppress wrongs can be carried out under the protection of our flag.
Mother JonesI asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.
Mother JonesSome day the workers will take possession of your city hall, and when we do, no child will be sacrificed on the altar of profit!
Mother JonesYou ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
Mother JonesYour ancestors fought for you to have a share in that institution over there. It's yours. See the school board, and every Friday night hold your meetings there. Have your wives clean it up Saturday morning for the children to enter Monday. Your organization is not a praying institution. It's a fighting institution. It's an educational institution along industrial lines. Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!
Mother Jones