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While child labor was never far from the mind of Mother Jones, she was busy with other tasks for several years with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA).  When she attempted to organize miners in West Virginia in 1902, she was arrested, though not sentenced to jail time.  At that point Jones left West Virginia to focus her attention on textile workers in Philadelphia who were striking for a reduction in working hours.

Of the thousands who went out on strike, a significant number were children. In July 1903, Jones came to support the strikers, particularly the children. The situation afforded Jones the opportunity to focus once again on the child labor issue, and she decided to take full advantage.

She planned a march of mill children from Philadelphia to New York City in order to highlight the problem with the general public, and also to show New York financiers and business owners what their corporations were doing to the childr