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July 7, 1903 The March of the Mill Children
July 7th 1903 Mary Harris "Mother" Jones begins "The March of the Mill Children", she walks from Philadelphia to President Theodore Roosevelt's home on Long Island to protest the plight of child laborers. her demand: reduce the childrens' workweek to 55 hours.
accompanied by an "army" of children she overcame many obstacles only to have the march turned away by police at the entrance to
Oster Bay (their destination). Mother jones sent her army home except for three children. she evaded police by entering Oyster Bay via railroad, avoiding suspicion through her facade: a mother with her children.
Mother Jones made it as close to President Roosevelt
as his receptionist, where she was refused an audience.
later Mother Jones claimed "Teddy is afraid of me.
"not long afterward the Pennsylvania legislature passed a child labor law that sent thousands of children home from the mills, and kept thousands of others from entering the factory until they were fourteen years of age." from The Autobiography of Mother Jones
thanks to Mother Jones, and others like her, our children may today spend their days in school and play instead of in virtual slavery, yet our schools do not see fit to teach them that this was not always so, nary a sound of how this came to be.
Their history books are filled with wars and battles, presidents and scholars, scientists and inventors, all of the people, places and things that make America great but barely a word about the workers and their struggle for a fair share of of the American Dream.
teach your children well.
http://youtu.be/B9HovM6GII8
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