Mary Harris Jones surely didn't have to look for strikes to participate in. She lived during a time when people were standing up for their rights. Many strikes were going on in her time. Some of these strikes include: The Railroad Strikes, The Haymarket Affair, The Homestead Strike, and the Pullman Strike. Mary Harris Jones lived in a period of time when America was becoming known all over the world and big corporations were trying to take advantage of their workers by paying them little causing many strikes. At the time child labor was common and working children were abused, paid little, had very bad working conditions and long hours. An example of these mistreated kids are the Breaker Boys. These boys worked by taking stones out of "rivers" of coal which were moving downhill very quickly. The boys often had missing fingernails and would get beaten with brooms if they didn't take out the rocks quick or well enough.
During Mary Harris Jones' time, the government was starting to take action fighting the big corporations and bosses who mistreated their employees. Different reforms and laws like Roosevelt's Square Plan which broke up monopolies and large trusts. Mary Harris Jones was born at the perfect time and had plenty of opportunities to do what she did best, argue and protest for what she thought was right.
During Mary Harris Jones' time, the government was starting to take action fighting the big corporations and bosses who mistreated their employees. Different reforms and laws like Roosevelt's Square Plan which broke up monopolies and large trusts. Mary Harris Jones was born at the perfect time and had plenty of opportunities to do what she did best, argue and protest for what she thought was right.
"I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he
had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator."
-Mary Harris Jones