The political vaudeville
The union organizer (known in the day as a “walking delegate”) for the Pennsylvania coal miners does a song and dance on a stage for the benefit of striking coal miners. Lurking in the shadows is a man labeled “Manager Jones.” Caption: The walking delegate in his latest popular song, — “No matter what happens, I’m always on top.”
Comments and Context
Mary “Mother” Jones and her husband George had been active in labor organizing and radical politics when, in 1900, they became active in the coal fields of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. She was employed for a time by the United Mine Workers, who were leaders two years subsequent to this cartoon, in the crippling strikes where President Theodore Roosevelt broke precedent and intervened, mediating between mine owners and workers. A feature of the nascent labor movement since the 1880s was the “Walking Delegate,” either a union organizer or union representative — frequently portrayed by opponents (and many cartoonists) as a corrupt, selfish, and arrogant provocateur who bilked laborers as much as fighting corporate forces.
