Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 29, 1919
History of I. W. W. Written with “Drops of Blood” and “Bitter Tears of Anguish”
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of September 27, 1919:
By WM. D. HAYWOOD.
Ever since the I. W. W. was organized in June, 1905, ther has been an inquisitorial campaign against its life and growth, inaugurated by the chambers of commerce, profiteers, large and small, and authorities of state and nation in temporary power.
The Industrial Workers of the World is a labor organization composed of sober, honest, industrious men and women. Its chief purposes are to abolish the system of wage slavery and to improve the conditions of those who toil.
This organization has been foully dealt with; drops of blood, bitter tears of anguish, frightful heart pains have marked its every step in its onward march of progress…..
[Emphasis added.]
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Appeal for Funds by Wm. D. Haywood
-on Behalf of I. W. W. General Defense Committee
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 27, 1919
Leavenworth, Kansas – Wire City Weekly, Prison Magazine
From The Liberator of September 1919:
A Prison Magazine
THE latest and most daring enterprise in American radical journalism is-or doubtless we should say was-the Wire City Weekly. It is the product of a group of men whom the United States Government has imprisoned, tortured, and some of whom it has killed, in the effort to break their spirits. It is the last and most flagrant proof of the failure of that effort. It has already been extinguished by the huge hoof of American militarism; but it has existed, and should not be without honor among us.
The Wire-City Weekly. Published every week at Wire City, Kansas. Circulation-secret. One of the 1,500 Bolshevik papers in America. Barred from the Postoffice as First Class Matter.
So runs the description at the top of the editorial page. It is the organ of the Soviet in the United States Disciplinary Barracks, the military prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.
“We’ll hang Don Chafin to sour apple tree…”
-Miners of West Virginia
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 26, 1919
Charleston, West Virginia – Don Chafin Shot at District 17 Headquarters
From The West Virginian of September 24, 1919:
William Petry
LOGAN DEPUTY SHOT IN
MINE WORKERS’ OFFICES
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Vice President Petry, of United Mine Workers,
District Seventeen, Fatally Wounds Deputy
Sheriff Armed With Warrants.
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(By Associated Press)
CHARLESTON, Sept. 24–Don Chafin, deputy sheriff of Logan county, here to make the arrest of a man wanted for trial in Logan county was shot and seriously wounded here today in the offices of the headquarters of district No. 17, United Mine Workers of America, by vice president Petry of the Mine Workers organization. Chafin who was shot over the heart, was taken to a local hospital where it is said his condition is critical. Petry was arrested and taken before a justice of the peace where he gave bond in the sum of $10,000 for his appearance before the Grand Jury.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 24, 1909
Farmers Come from Miles Around for Oklahoma Socialists Encampments
From the International Socialist Review of September 1909:
The Oklahoma Encampment
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SOCIALIST ENCAMPMENTS. Three meetings a day, five days a week for four weeks, makes a total of sixty red hot propaganda meetings a month, with an attendance of from 500 to 10,000 at each lecture. This is what they are doing at the Oklahoma Socialist Encampment.
Successful encampments have already been held at Waurika, Snyder, Elk City, Aline and Woodward and the country for miles around has been showered with literature. The big canvass tent with a seating capacity of 1,000, is always pitched in a shady, well-watered grove, and from every pole top a red flag floats toward freedom.
Scores of covered wagons file into camp during Monday and far into the night, so that by the time the speaking begins on Tuesday, we find ourselves in the midst of a big, happy and seriously-minded family, happy because they have given the capitalist system the slip for a few days and serious because they realize that they are becoming landless farmers.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 22, 1919
Nationwide Steel Strike to Commence at Midnight
From The Washington Times of September 21, 1919:
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ONLY MIRACLE ABLE TO STOP WALKOUT,
SAY ALL OFFICIALS
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BY FRED S. FERGUSON.
United Press Staff Correspondent.
PITTSBURGH, Pa., Sept. 21–Plans are complete for what may prove the greatest industrial battle this country has ever known, according to officials of the twenty-four steel workers unions, which will strike at midnight.
They declared it would be a fight to the finish for the right of collective bargaining, an eight-hour day, and an increased in wages.
The reports from all steel centers indicated that nothing short of a miracle would stop the strike.
Leaders of both sides declared President Wilson had taken no steps thus far to persuade steel corporation officials to meet the strikers committee.
Posses Sworn In.
State and municipal officials have taken every precaution to guard against public disorders. Posses of deputy sheriffs [deputized company gunthugs] have been sworn in many towns and cities ready for instant action. The state constabulary [Pennsylvania Cossacks] in the Pittsburgh district has been mobilized and given explicit orders.
William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor, who is vacation at Bloomsburg, Pa., declared he had received no communication from President Wilson regarding a settlement of the steel strike.
Leaders of the steel workers’ unions reiterated their statements that they will close up every mill owned by or subsidiary to the U. S. Steel Corporation. Officials of the steel company were equally confident the strike would be a failure and declared so small a number of workers were unionized that there will be little suspension of work. They said, however, that wherever any widespread disloyalty to the company was evident, plants would be closed.
Prepared to Hold Out.
Union leaders said the men were prepared for as long a strike as was necesary to win the demands. Finances, according to W. B. Rubin, general counsel for the workers, have been provided to take care of a long drawn out fight.
Hundreds of women have begun the work of stiffening the morale of the wives and children of the workers.
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