Page:Autobiography of Mother Jones (1925).djvu/11

6 vidualists and are often impatient of others who likewise must go in their own way. All movements attract men and women of various minds. The early abolitionists could not agree as to methods. In their crusade were found the men who believed in constitutional methods, such as Giddings and Lincoln; the men who believed in force, of which John Brown was the chief; the non-resistant, like William Lloyd Garrison; the lone individualist who hit wherever he found a head to hit, like Wendell Phillips. Mother Jones is the Wendell Phillips of the labor movement. Without his education and scholarship, she has the power of moving masses of men by her strong, living speech and action. She has likewise his disregard for personal safety. After the capture of John Brown at Harper's Ferry, many real abolitionists were paralyzed with fear and fled from the field, but Wendell Phillips hurled his phillipics from the housetops and defied his enemies to do their worst.

In all her career, Mother Jones never quailed or ran away. Her deep convictions and fearless soul always drew her to seek the spot where the fight was hottest and the danger greatest.

I never personally knew anything of her misunderstandings with John Mitchell, but it seems only fair for me to say that I was associated with him for many months in the arbitration growing out of the coal strike. We were friends for many years and he always had my full re-