by Oscar Langford
This poem appeared in Miner’s Magazine on May 15, 1913.
They’ve put an injunction on old Mother Jones
The language so stung
From the brave woman’s tongue,
And her truth-telling words were so noisy in tones
They’ve tried the suppression of old Mother Jones
The Court has imprisoned old Mother Jones.
She raised such rage
About starvation wage,
The coal baron’s greed and the coal miner’s groans.
That they tried to get rid of old Mother Jones
To thus make a martyr of old Mother Jones
Will encourage the strife
And will quicken the life
Of the struggling workers fighting the drones
Who put an injunction on old Mother Jones.
Do they think an injunction will gag Mother Jones?
It will certainly fail–
Though they’ve put her in jail
Or keep her surrounded by prison wall stones,
There are thousands to speak for old Mother Jones
For the words and the works of old Mother Jones
For downtrodden men
Will be eulogized then
The earth has enshrouded the weary old bones
And a monument built for old Mother Jones.
Then the wonderful spirit of old Mother Jones
May march up and down
Like the soul of John Brown,
Till justice shall vanquish our burdens and groans,
And oppression is buried like old Mother Jones.