Month: December 2017

Hellraisers Journal: New York Tribune Article Paints Haywood as “American Bolsheviki” Bent on “Reign of Terror”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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The mine owners did not find the gold,
They did not mine the gold,
They did not mill the gold,
But by some weird alchemy
All the gold belonged to them!
-Big Bill Haywood

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 31, 1917
New York, New York – Kept Press Waxes Hysterical on Big Bill

From the New York Tribune of December 30, 1917:

BBH American Bolsheviki Terror, NYTb p22, Dec 30, 1917

The article, authored by Theodore Knappen, is a long one and describes Fellow Worker Haywood’s long history of service to the working class as an effort to seek “the destruction of the existing system of government and industry by means of direct action.”

Interesting that the same author seems to hold no such outrage for the enslavement of children in mine and mill, for the thousands of men who perish each and every year in the mines, for the strikers and their wives and children murdered at Ludlow, Calumet, Roosevelt and other scenes of massacres too numerous to mention, nor for the millions thrown onto the scrap heap to face homelessness and starvation when they can no longer work or find work. One might conclude that such an “existing system” deserves to be replaced with a system which honors and respects the working men, women and children who provide the labor that keep it running.

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Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason: Eugene Debs on “Panic Philosophy” & “widespread poverty, misery & despair.”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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While there is a lower class, I am in it,
While there is a criminal element, I am of it,
And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 30, 1907
#630 of Appeal to Reason Addresses “A Stupendous Crisis”

From the Appeal of December 28, 1907:
The following is the contribution made by Debs to the “Panic Edition”-

Panic Philosophy by EVD, AtR Dec 28, 1907

HMP, EVD, Eugene OR Guard, May 30, 1907

THE average man understands in a vague way that there is a panic, so-called, and he is more or less concerned about it according as it affects his business or his employment. But he has never studied economics and knows nothing about the laws governing social development. The panic distresses him, it is true, but he is not philosophic enough to inquire into its cause; he simply wants to get rid of the plague.

And so the average man falls easy prey to the political quack in the service of the industrial baron who glibly rings the changes on “financial stringency,” “elastic currency,” “lack of confidence,” “tariff revision,” “trust regulation” and like meaningless twaddle.

It is a fact to be deplored that the average man is a mental child; reads little and that mostly vapid nonsense; thinks less, and reasons not at all.

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Hellraisers Journal: Socialist Editor, Ida Crouch-Hazlett, Visits with Mr. & Mrs. George Pettibone in Ada County Jail

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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To advocate peace with things as they are
is treason to humanity.
This is a class struggle and on class lines
it must be fought out to a finish.
-Ida Crouch-Hazlett

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 29, 1907
Boise, Idaho – With George Pettibone in Ada County Jail

From the Socialist Montana New of December 26, 1907:
Editor Ida Crouch-Hazlett describes visit with Mr. and Mrs. George Pettibone-

In Pettibone’s Cell.

HMP, Pettibone, & wife, Current Lit June 1907

Saturday afternoon [December 14th] after the court session was over I went down to see Pettibone to get his picture for several of the papers I was correspondent for. He was lying on a cot, seemingly wearied after the demands of the day. His wife was sitting by him. The watchfulness of the sheriff’s office has been wonderfully relaxed since the Haywood trial. At that time visitors could hardly gain admission to the accused, and when they were allowed in the cell, a guard was in constant attendance at every conversation. Now, upon a simple request you are shown into the main room. There are no guards, the door is unlocked and the iron door not closed at all. Half a dozen of us were in this large room at the same time with no officials present whatever.

Pettibone, although looking ill and worn and wasted is still full of his quips and gibes. It is wonderful the way these men have stood this awful confinement.

Darker and more strenuous days than these though are before the working class before it comes into its own.

Ida Crouch-Hazlett.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Socialist Editor, Ida Crouch-Hazlett, Visits with Mr. & Mrs. George Pettibone in Ada County Jail” →

Hellraisers Journal: Poems for Our Boys in France from the United Mine Workers Journal

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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That old blood sucker,
the kaiser, ought to
be kicked off his throne.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday December 28, 1917
“In Flanders fields the poppies grow…”

From the United Mine Workers Journal of December 27, 1917:

“In Flanders Fields” by John McRae-

UMWJ Cover, Poem Flanders Field, Dec 27, 1917

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Tragic Story of Loss From Darr Mine Disaster, Mrs. Kroboth Loses Husband & Two Sons

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday December 27, 1907
Jacob’s Creek, Pennsylvania – Women Wait and Weep at Darr Mine

From The Pittsburgh Press of December 22, 1907:

Darr MnDs, Ptt Prs p13, Husband and 2 Sons, Dec 22, 1907

—–

A Pathetic Case of Bereavement as Result
of Mine Catastrophe Illustrated
by Mrs. George Kroboth
—–
ONE BOY A SUBSTITUTE ON THE FATAL DAY
—–

BY C. H. GILLESPIE,
Staff Correspondent.

Jacobs Creek, December 21.-In the terrific Darr mine explosion, the husband and two sons of Mrs. George Kroboth were snatched away.

She is not only triply bereaved, but deprived of all support, and her condition is most piteous. Her husband, George Kroboth, by years of thrifty living and constant labor, had provided a comfortable little home, and there today she sits alone with her great grief, mourning for her “man’s” cheery, comforting presence and shedding bitter tears for the two fine young sons so full of solace for her old age.

Her baby, George, was only 16 years old, but large and manly for his age, and Joe, aged 19 years, was a son any mother might well be proud of. But for the transient sickness of a neighbor, Max Sprecht, Joe would likely be alive today, instead of lying, charred and disfigured, in the far recesses of the mine workings.

In Sprecht’s absence, Joe took his place as a machine worker, and gladly availed himself of the chance to get a couple of days’ work. He was doing Sprecht’s work when the fatal explosion occurred.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Tragic Story of Loss From Darr Mine Disaster, Mrs. Kroboth Loses Husband & Two Sons” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Duluth Labor World: “Women Convicts Sold,” Dark Age Practice Persists in Alabama

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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WEB DuBois quote 1901, Slavery Convict Lease

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday December 26, 1917
Birmingham, Alabama – Women Convicts Sold for 15 Cents a Day

`
From the Duluth Labor World of December 22, 1917:

WOMEN CONVICTS BEING SOLD
FOR 15 CENTS A DAY
—–
Vicious Practice of the Dark Ages
Still Obtains in Alabama.
—–

Clarissa Olds Keeler, Convict Lease System, 1907

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Dec. 20.— Women convicts in this state are sold to contractors for 15 cents a day and are housed in filthy stockades while candidates for the governorship talk of the “gradual” removal of this glaring evil, declares the Monthly Bulletin of the Alabama state federation of labor.

This publication says:

Under a recent date line, Escambia county, state of Alabama, rises to remark that Escambia county has made a most advantageous contract with a certain employing concern, where the county has leased its women convicts for two years for the munificent sum of 15 cents per day. Such things make us wonder if we are still in the dark ages, with all the blind ignorance of human instincts, with all the intollerant cruelty of the old savage slave dealer and buyer, and this happened in the enlightened state of Alabama. Women, sold into slavery to the highest bidder, to do whatever that bidder desires; work, slave, toil through the days; rest in stockades, filthy and unfit, for the nights; truly a picture upon which every Alabamian should look with pride; and candidates for the governorship favor the “gradual” removal of convicted persons from the mines and lumber camps.

For years and years labor has fought this system of slavery in the state. Governors have promised to abolish it, legislatures have promised to abolish it; the people have demanded its abolishment, but when it comes to weighing the human soul against the almighty dollar the dollar wins every time. Poor, indeed, must be that state which has to sell its legal slaves into involuntary servitude that it may use the revenue thus obtained to pay its teachers, to pay its officers, to pay its expenses in other ways, to pay the jurors who send the unfortunates to the mines; to pay the judges who pronounce sentence.

And not a man offers for office in the state but who will wink at this inhuman traffic in human souls; not one of them will come out flatly for the abolition of this traffic.

[Photograph added of “Crime of Crimes” by Clarissa Olds Keeler.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Duluth Labor World: “Women Convicts Sold,” Dark Age Practice Persists in Alabama” →

Hellraisers Journal: Monongah, West Virginia, “A Picture of Despair” by Dorothy Dale; 35 Boys Pulled from Mine

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Child Labor Man of Six Snuff Sniffer

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December, 23, 1907
Monongah, West Virginia – Women Weep for Husbands and Sons

From the Kansas Pittsburg Daily Headlight of December 21, 1907:

A PICTURE OF DESPAIR.
—–
Thirty Five Boys Among the
Fairmont Mine Victims.
—–
(By Dorothy Dale.)

Fairmont, W. Va., Dec. 21.-O God! It was the cry of supplication. It was the cry of horror. It was the cry of despair. It was the one, a comprehensive cry of mercy, which could be heard.

There is still some doubt about the exact number of lives snuffed out. But there is no doubt about the windows and orphans, to one who has seen Monongah the scene of the disaster.

“You’ll find it tough,” they said. I found it tough. Monongah at best is a little weather-beaten wooden village straggling in the mud of the West Virginia hills. It lies on two sides of the river, now known as the morgue side and the mine side. On the morgue side an endless chain of women and children pass all day past the coffins.

Monongah MnDs, Morgue, Dec 1907

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Monongah, West Virginia, “A Picture of Despair” by Dorothy Dale; 35 Boys Pulled from Mine” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1917, Part II: Found at Miners’ Convention at Kansas City

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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That old blood sucker,
the kaiser, ought to
be kicked off his throne.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 22, 1917
Mother Jones News for November, Part II: Supports President Wilson

From the Pittsburg, Kansas, Sun of November 15, 1917:

MINERS VOTE TO REJECT THE
AUTOMATIC PENALTY
—–

MAJORITY WAS 18 WITH KANSAS MINERS
OUTVOTING THE OTHER DISTRICTS.
—–

Howat Stands Pat in a Fiery Speech
—–

President John Wilkinson and “Mother Jones”
Urges Miners to Vote for Wilson
and Against the Kaiser
—–

Alex Howat, UMW Dist 14 Prz, crpd, Sun Ptt KS, Dec 12, 1917

Kansas City, Nov. 14.-Delegates representing the coal miners of Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas in convention here tonight voted to reject the automatic penalty clause insisted on by Dr. H. A. Garfield, federal fuel administrator, as a part of their working agreement. The vote was 185 to 167…

Kansas Outvoted Others.

…It was announced that the vote by districts was as follows: Kansas, for the resolution, 129; against, 11; Oklahoma-Arkansas, for 22; against, 105; Missouri, for, 34; against 51.

Howat for Rejection.

The adoption of the resolution came at the end of a day of debate in which “Mother Jones” and John Wilkinson, president of district 21, counseled against the rejection of the clause and Alexander Howat, president of district 14, vehemently urged its rejection.

“Mother Jones” and Wilkinson urged the acceptance of the clause on the ground of patriotism.

[Mother Jones declared:]

It’s our to stand by the president and the nation in this crisis. Our business now is to help the government lick hell out of the Kaiser and then we will lick hell out of the operators. President Wilson and Dr. Garfield will see that no injustice is done you through the working of this hateful clause. And I pledge myself to go before the president and Mr. Garfield and obtain relief if you want me to.

As “Mother Jones” left the platform she said:

Vote for the clause, boys, it’s a vote for Wilson and he’ll vote for you.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1917, Part II: Found at Miners’ Convention at Kansas City” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1917, Part I: Found in Connecticut, New York City and Kansas City

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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EVD Quote re Mother Jones, AtR, Nov 23, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday December 21, 1917
Mother Jones News for November, Part I: Attends District Miners Convention

Mother Jones, IL State Rgstr p2, Springfield, Sept 1, 1917

Mother Jones began the month of November in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she was found addressing a meeting of the employes of the Locomobile Company who were seeking organization with the machinists union.

We next found her in New York City at the headquarters of the Democratic Party where she shook hands with Mayor-elect Hylan.

At near mid-month we found her in Kansas City attending the convention of the miners of the Southwestern districts, whose delegates were there assembled to debate the “automatic penalty clause,” a bone of contention within the United Mine Workers of America. Regardless of her stand on that issue, Mother remains much beloved by the miners. She was welcomed into the convention on the arm of the President of District 14 (Kansas):

Howat entered the hall with Mother Jones on his arm. He introduced her as the “angel of the miners,” after she had been heartily cheered.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1917, Part I: Found in Connecticut, New York City and Kansas City” →