Page:Autobiography of Mother Jones (1925).djvu/10



Mother Jones is one of the most forceful and picturesque figures of the American labor movement. She is a born crusader. In an earlier period of the world she would have joined with Peter the Hermit in leading the crusaders against the Saracens. At a later period, she would have joined John Brown in his mad, heroic effort to liberate the slaves. Like Brown, she has a singleness of purpose, a personal fearlessness and a contempt for established wrongs. Like him, the purpose was the moving force, and the means of accomplishing the end did not matter.

In her early life, she found in the labor movement an outlet for her inherent sympathy and love and daring. She never had the time or the education to study the philosophy of the various movements that from time to time have inspired the devoted idealist to lead what seemed to be a forlorn hope to change the institutions of men.

Mother Jones is essentially an individualist. Her own emotions and ideas are so strong that she is sometimes in conflict with others, fighting for the same cause. This too is an old story; the real leaders of any cause are necessarily indi-