Jones wrote several pieces for The Masses

Jones wrote several pieces for The Masses

Perhaps the most vibrant and innovative magazine of its day, The Masses was founded in 1911 as an illustrated socialist monthly, and it was soon sponsoring a heady blend of radical politics and modernist aesthetics that earned it the popular sobriquet “the most dangerous magazine in America.” The magazine had three editors during its first two years—Thomas Seltzer, Horatio Winslow, and Piet Vlag (the magazine's founder)—but for the remainder of its short life The Masses was brilliantly edited by Max Eastman, who—with Floyd Dell, as managing editor—helped turn it into the flagship journal of Greenwich Village, the burgeoning bohemian art community in New York...

There are digitized copies of the periodical in a number of repositories, but the version at New York University's Tamiment Library's Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University, includes an index from which the following is extracted [links added here].

Jones, Ellis O. “Address to Child Laborers by the Honorable Bumptious Uplift” V, 1, p-11 (Oct 1913) 

-. “Casabianca” (poem) IV, 6, p-12 (Mar 1913) 

-. “Direct and Indirect Action” III, 4, p-8 (Apr 1912) 

-. “Getting Next to Mr. Armour” IV, 7, p-17 (Apr 1913) 

-. “God’s Advice” IV, 9, p-12 (Jun 1913) 

-. “Happy Little Scheme” IX, 3, p-40 (Jan 1917) 

-. “Interview” IV, 7, p-16 (Apr 1913) 

-. “Is Annapolis An Anachronism?” IV, 6, p-9 (Mar 1913) 

-. “Journalistic Poise” V, 6, p-20 (Mar 1914) 

-. “Magazines, Morgan, and Muckraking” I, 4, p-10 (Apr 1911) 

-. “Not Satisfactory” IV, 11, p-15 (Aug 1913) 

-. “Poor Pennsylvania!” V, 1, p-19 (Oct 1913) 

-. “Railroads” I, 2, p-16 (Feb 1911) 

-. “S.C.P.W.G.” [Society for Curtailing the Pleasures of Working Girls] IV, 8, p-17 (May 1913) 

-. “Those Two Bad Bills” IV, 9, p-17 (Jun 1913) 

-. “Trick of the Trade” IV, 3, p-9 (Dec 1912)

In 1919, in partnership with the socialist cartoonist Art Young, Ellis O. Jones founded a political humor magazine called Good Morning. The two had worked together for The Masses, and had tired of not being paid for their work. Good Morning didn't last long. After only a few issues, Jones "became critical of the haphazard management of the business" and resigned.

Escape from a mob in Columbus Ohio

In the Akron daily Democrat, September 16, 1901, Page 8, an article appeared, entitled Gone West:

Editor of the Press-Post in Full Flight

Columbus O., Sept. 16 [1901] -(Spl.)-

Clarence Jones, formerly editor of the Press-Post, who said things editorially about McKinley and escaped a mob Saturday night is now speeding West, destination unknown. His brother, Ellis Jones, says Clarence has retired and he (Ellis) will now do the editing for the paper.

You can see this page in Chronicling America at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84028140/1901-09-16/ed-1/seq-8/

What caused all this fuss you may ask? "Intemperate utterances" in the aftermath of the Assassination of William McKinley. The Washington Times, September 15, 1901 has the story:

MOB THREATENS EDITOR

Police Needed to Escort a Columbus Newspaper Man

COLUMBUS Ohio Sept. 14 [1901]

The police rescued Clarence M. Jones editor and proprietor of the “Press Post”, a Democratic paper of the city from a mob which besieged his office at 6 o’clock this evening and took him to the home of his mother In East Broad Street

Because of intemperate utterances which appeared in three editions of his paper today, and which are insults to the memory of the dead President a mob of several thousand began to assemble In front of the “Press Post” office soon after the third edition appeared on the streets at 4 o clock. Members of the mob grabbed papers from the newsboys and bought as many as they could from newsstands heaped them up in front of the office and made a fire.

While the mob was shouting and threatening outside, the proprietor who was almost alone in the building sat at his desk In fear. Finally he telephoned for police protection and a carriage. Both arrived at about the same time Chief Tyler with thirty policemen forced his way to the building. Between two rows of stalwart policemen, Jones was brought out and while the crowd hooted cursed and hissed he, was put Into the cab and hurriedly driven away.

Jones utterances today were the most inexplicable of his erratic course as editor of what he himself has called “that queer paper”.

Today the principal headline of the noon edition was a vicious paraphrase of the President’s last words. It reads:

“His last words to his loving wife are said to have been these to wit” ‘lt’s the devil’s own way of trying to circumvent God, amen.’”

On the editorial page in bold faced type was this:

“The spirit of William McKinley, twenty-fifth President of the United States of America has flown to Its white house in the the skies. Requiescat in pace. May it never be impelled to wage merciless war on the spirits of innocent Filipino patriots.”

These and more rabid expressions excited comment following the appearance of the noon edition and on their repetition in subsequent editions indignation became widespread with the above result. Before leaving the scene of the disturbance Chief Tyler locked the doors of the “Press Post” building and said to the mob:

“As you can see the building is dark. No one is inside. I give you my word of honor the “Press Post” will not resume publication. It is understood he was authorized to make this promise by Jones.

 I wonder how often newspapers are threatened by mobs any more. "Intemperate utterances" seem pretty common

[With thanks for research assistance to EOJ]

"Good Morning" Magazine

 

In 1919, in partnership with the socialist cartoonist Art Young, Ellis O. Jones founded a political humor magazine called Good Morning. The two had worked together for The Masses, and had tired of not being paid for their work.

Good Morning was an American political humor magazine published launched in May 1919 by Ellis O. Jones, formerly an associate editor of Life magazine and veteran radical cartoonist Art Young. Both had worked together on the staff of the left wing monthly The Masses. Funded in large part by donations, the magazine was financially troubled from the outset and over time it was forced to decrease in frequency from weekly to semi-monthly to monthly. Costs still continued to outstrip revenues, however, and the publication was terminated in October 1921. An effort by Young to revive the publication in 1922 as the Art Young Quarterly failed after just a single issue.

Establishment

The short-lived magazine Good Morning began early in 1919 through the joint efforts of 53-year old cartoonist Art Young and a former associate editor of Life magazine, Ellis O. Jones. Young sought a new remunerative venue for his ink drawings and charcoal sketches since The Liberator, the primary magazine for which he drew in this period, was chronically short of funds and able to pay those engaged in the physical production of the magazine but not content contributors such as himself...

About five months after the launch of Good Morning Ellis Jones became critical of the haphazard management of the business and resigned from the magazine. This departure left Art Young is sole possession of the franchise as editor and publisher. A steady stream of expenses took their toll, including the cost of a stenographer, paper, printers, and general office costs. Inadequate attention was paid to the selling of advertisements, which further imperiled the magazine’s cash-flow. Circulation stood at about 4,000 copies per issue during the first year, supplemented by income generated by newsstand sales. Additional funds were raised through a series of banquets and dances...

The magazine never succeeded in becoming financially viable and folded in Autumn 1921

The following issues appeared under Jones' name:

• Volume 1, Issue No. 1, May 8, 1919 
• Volume 1, Issue No. 2, May 15, 1919
• Volume 1, Issue No. 3, May 22, 1919
• Volume 1, Issue No. 4, May 29, 1919
• Volume 1, Issue No. 5, June 5, 1919
• Volume 1, Issue No. 6, June 12, 1919
• Volume 1, Issue No. 7, June 19, 1919
• Volume 1, Issue No. 8, June 26, 1919
• Volume 1, Issue No. 9, July 3, 1919
• Volume 1, Issue No. 10, July 10, 1919

An interesting photograph

The source is at: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/scl/x-lpf.0610/LPF0610

The metadata describes it as Jones, Ellis O. With unknown woman, standing next to car, ca. 1920.
In the Joseph A. Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan:

A collection documenting the history of social protest movements and marginalized political communities from the 19th century to the present 

In the 1930s, the U-M Library’s Joseph A. Labadie Collection — the oldest such collection in America — was called “probably the most complete record of the social unrest of our times that has ever been assembled."

No other context for the photograph is offered, but I'll see what I can discover.

If the date is correct he would be about 47 years of age.

[n.b. 15 January 2015. The archivists tell me there is no further identification or useful contextualization of the photograph]

"Impeachment Of Presidtnet [sic] Roosevelt By A People's Congress"

A kind reader and collector of ephemera passed along this image of a broadside promoting an important day for the subject of this blog

From the collection of Allison Burnett

Yale Class of 1899 - 50th Reunion, 1949

He graduated from Yale in 1899, at age 26. He seems to have spent some time earlier at Ohio State.

On the occasion of the fiftieth reunion of his class he wrote a poem. (There were other poems for other reunions - I'll have to gather them all eventually)

Those Hopeful Oldsters

So now it's full two score and ten
Of episodic years since when
The gallant crew of Ninety-nine
Did sally forth to rise and shine.
To battle on the fields of strife
And learn the mystery of life.
Full armed with crackling parchment each
Did look for things within his reach,
For what to seize and what to do
And what ambition to pursue.
Full armed with Prexy Timothy is homily,
With Irvie Fisher's fancy formulae,
With Billy Sumner's pregnant facts,
And Billy Phelps's lively tracts,
Full stocked with academic lore
They gazed upon the distant shore
Where hung the plume of light and win,
To combat evil, conquer sin.
Full armed with varied erudition
In the best old Yale tradition.
And as the rapid years rolled on
Two wars have come and two have gone
(Or nearly so, I dare to say,
I haven't read the news today.)
One war to stop the next that came
Another war to do the same.
And now of course we're better off,
A fact at which some cynics scoff.
We've learned to hate a lot since then.
We've learned to hate and love again.
We've learned to ride in motor cars.
We've learned the way of cocktail bars.
We've learned to soar the atmosphere.
Without a doubt or single fear.
We've weathered Prohibition's joke.
Our women folks have learned to smoke.
We've mastered bridge, likewise gin rummy,
And all the joys of double dummy.
We've witnessed pictures start to move
And talk and teach the art of love,
And then from Hollywood of course
We've learned the value of divorce.
We've learned to golf, we've learned to ski.
We've learned about the fickle she.
We've learned to foxtrot, learned to jive.
We've seen the radio come alive.
We've met a lot of varied jerks.
We've gone the limit, shot the works.
We've had a lot of great adventures,
Such as getting our new dentures.
And some are here and some are there
And some have left this scene of care.
And some are thin and some are stout,
And all are gray as all get out.
Arteriosclerosis grim
Has slowed the pace of many a limb.
We've looped the loop, we've fed the kitty.
We've tried the country, tried the city.
When the teeth fall out and the cheeks fall in,
When the nose grows down to meet the chin,
When wrinkled phiz looks like a griddle,
And comes a bulge in the old south middle,
When the old pump lags with weakened beat
And skimps the blood to hands and feet,
When bladders, kidneys, livers, lights
Disturb the days and vex the nights,
When sundry things like these and those
Demand attention, swell our woes,
Why then to all it doth occur
We're not as young as we once were.
But even so, you'll all agree
We're not as old as we hope to be.

(Presented by the author at the 50th Reunion of the Yale Class of 1899. June 1949)


This was the same year and month as the wedding of Anna and Ollie Jones.

"From the Boys"

Here is the inscription on the the gold-handled walking stick

New Year 1884
E. O. Jones
From the Boys

Given the date, I suppose this was given to Ellis Oliver Jones (1833 - 1894), rather than to Ellis Oliver Jones (1873 - 1967), who would have been about ten years old in 1884. I've always assumed that the boys were his three sons.

Click to Embiggen