Month: January 2020

Hellraisers Journal: “The Strike of the Singers of the Shirt” by Rose Strunsky for International Socialist Review, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Clara Lemlich, Cooper Un Nov 22 re Uprising, NY Call p2, Nov 23, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 11, 1910
Rose Strunsky on New York City’s Shirtwaist Uprising, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:

The Strike of the Singers of the Shirt
—–

By Rose Strunsky.
—–

[Part I of II.]

NYC Uprising, 40,000 Shirtwaist Strikers March, ISR p620, Jan 1910

Letter T, ISR p620, Jan 1910

HE Song of the Shirt in chorus! The fact is momentous. The lyric becomes an epic. The plaint becomes a war-song. It becomes a man song.

It is historic. The singer has come out of the garret. She has dropped her needle and bends over her machine in the crowded tenement of a shopkeeper or in the loft of a manufacturer. There are rows upon rows of machines next to her, and she sings the Song of the Shirt in chorus. It is the death of the woman. It is the birth of the sexless laborer.

As woman she was in the field of labor as man’s scab. She underbid him. She was an accident in the field the stones to be picked up for loading the sling of the capitalist.

That this most finely developed industrial country should be the first to turn woman into the laborer was historically logical and to be foreseen, and now this great dramatic and vital birth has happened—happened by the new Singers of the Shirt; by the general strike of the forty thousand shirt-waist makers of New York, which began on November 23rd.

This new-born laborer, this woman per se of yesterday, has taken the slug-horn to her lips and called out her armies upon that battlefield where she had been but a tool these hundred years of industrial transition, and, stern-eyed and intense, has made her first charge against the enemy. The act is impressive and significant and has the beauty which comes with a noble growth and the sadness which accompanies beauty and growth. The outbreak was strong and unexpected though for years the foundations of it were laid by quiet propaganda as well as economic necessity.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Strike of the Singers of the Shirt” by Rose Strunsky for International Socialist Review, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1909, Part II: Found in Philadelphia Speaking to Shirtwaist Makers

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Quote Mother Jones to Philly Shirtwaist Makers Dec 19, NY Call Dec 21, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 10, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1909, Part II:
-Found in Philadelphia Speaking to Shirtwaist Makers

On Sunday evening, December 19th, Mother Jones spoke to shirtwaist makers of Philadelphia at meetings held at the Labor Lyceum and Mercantile Hall. By unanimous vote and to deafening cheers, a strike was declared and set to begin at 9 a. m. on December 20th.

From The New York Call of December 21, 1909:

[Mother Jones Speaks.]

Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909

The action of Director Clay in forbidding the holding of a meeting in the Arch Street Theater, last night, to declare the strike was severely criticised by Mother Jones, in her speeches. She denounced the city administration as roundly as she denounced the bosses, who, she declared, had become wealthy through the toil of the girls before her.

[She said:]

They have an Independence Hall down here on Chestnut street; I wonder what it means to those who, for some deep political purpose, prevented you from having independence in the way of having a meeting to assert your rights? Tomorrow morning I hope every girl in this hall will walk out of the shops and let the employers make the waists themselves. Walk out at 9 o’clock, and don’t wear your Sunday-go-to-meetings clothes.

Let the people see you. Let them see that you are going to strike the shackles of slavery off your body. Get the spirit of revolt and be a woman. It’s not a Mrs. Belmont or an Anne Morgan that we want, but independent workers who will assert their rights.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1909, Part II: Found in Philadelphia Speaking to Shirtwaist Makers” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1909, Part I: Found in New York City Speaking to Shirtwaist Strikers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Parade past swells who wear waists, Speech Dec 9, NY Cl p2, Dec 10, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 9, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1909, Part I:
-Found in New York City Speaking to Shirtwaist Strikers

From the New York Call of December 10, 1909:

“This is not a play this is a fight!”

Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909

With these ringing words, Mother Jones, the valiant agitator for the freedom of the workers, struck the keynote of the enthusiastic mass meeting, in behalf of the waist strikers, held by Local New York, of the Socialist party in Thalia Theater yesterday afternoon. The big crowd applauded this sentiment to the echo……

Mother Jones Speaks.

Mother Jones, the friend of the miners and champion of all oppressed, was greeted with a very hearty reception by the big crowd. She was in excellent conditions. As she scored the system with sledge-hammer blows of logic and wit, the enthusiasm of the crowd broke into storms of applause.

[Said Mother Jones in opening:]

Through all the ages you have built a wonderful monument of civilization, but you don’t own it. You make all the fine waists, but you do not wear them. You work hard and are poorly paid, and now you have been forced to strike for better conditions of labor, shorter hours and higher wages.

You ought to parade past the shops where you work and up the avenues where the swells who wear the waists you make live. They won’t like to see you, they will be afraid of you!

If I belonged to a union and was on strike I would insist that we parade past the shops and homes of the masters.

You must stick together to win. The boss looks for cheap workers. When the child can do the work cheaper he displaces the woman. When the woman can do the work cheaper he displaces the man. But when you are organized you have something to say about the conditions of labor and your wages. You must stand shoulder to shoulder. The women must fight in the labor movement beside man. Every strike that I have ever been in was won by the women.

Last Great Fight of Man.

[Declared Mother Jones, as she concluded amid storms of applause:]

Whether you know of it or not, this is the last great fight of man against man. We are fighting for the time when there will be no master and no slave. When the fight of the workers to own the tools with which they toil is won, for the first time in human history man will be free.

———-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1909, Part I: Found in New York City Speaking to Shirtwaist Strikers” →

Hellraisers Journal: “The Cherry Mine Murders” -Men and Boys Burned and Suffocated in Criminal Fire Trap, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Life Cheaper Than Props, Trinidad CO, Sept 16, 1913, Hse Com p2630———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 8, 1910
Cherry, Illinois – Scene of Mass Murder of Men and Boys, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:

The Cherry Mine Murders.
—–

Why Four Hundred Workers Were Burned and Suffocated
in a Criminal Fire Trap.
—–

By J. O. Bentall.
—–

[Part II of II.]

Cherry MnDs Murders by JO Bentall, Despair, ISR p582, Jan 1920

Little Albert Buckle, 15 years old November 28, who escaped on the last car up, and his mother and sister stood at the ropes all day watching for “Rich,” who was 16 years the 21st of last June, and who had worked in the mine ever since his father was killed three years ago, but poor Richard was not brought up that day. On Monday I went to see the broken-hearted mother but I could not comfort her.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Cherry Mine Murders” -Men and Boys Burned and Suffocated in Criminal Fire Trap, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: “The Cherry Mine Murders” -Men and Boys Burned and Suffocated in Criminal Fire Trap, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Life Cheaper Than Props, Trinidad CO, Sept 16, 1913, Hse Com p2630———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 7, 1910
Cherry, Illinois – Scene of Mass Murder of Men and Boys, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:

Cherry MnDs Murders by JO Bentall, ISR p577, Jan 1920

[Part I of II.]

Letter W, ISR p577, Jan 1920AS your brother one of the four hundred who perished in the Cherry coal mine November 13th? Or was it your father? Your husband? Your son? My brother was there. My father. My son. I helped carry them out. They were cold in death. They were covered with coal dust and swollen from black damp.

I am telling you this story from what I have seen with my own eyes. Not from hearsay.

I went from Chicago right to Cherry. With thousands of others I stood and looked from the outside. Then I broke through the line and joined the volunteer rescuers. I put on overalls, jacket, cap and lamp and went down into the tomb that contained over four hundred victims—a few living, most of them dead.

I helped plug the entries to prevent the fire from spreading. I had a hand in timbering where the roof was loose, or where collars were breaking. I cut legs off the dead mules so we could get them through the passageways and clear the track for bringing out the men. I was with the gang that found nineteen dead in one pile and twenty-one in another, thirty-seven in a third and one hundred and sixty-two in a fourth.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Cherry Mine Murders” -Men and Boys Burned and Suffocated in Criminal Fire Trap, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Rev. Adalbert Kazincy of St. Michael’s Catholic Church Stands with Steel Strikers of Braddock

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Fight for Righteousness n Justice, Gary IN Oct 23, 1919, Ab Chp 24———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 6, 1920
Braddock, Pennsylvania – Father Kazincy Stands with Strikers

From the Topeka Kansas Trades Unionist of January 2, 1920:

STEEL OWNERS FEAR POWER
-PASTOR ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH

[by Edwin Newdick.]

Father Kazincy to WZF Sept1919, GSS p121, 1920

The steel strike has revealed no more glorious devotion to the cause of workingmen than that of Reverend Father Adalbert Kazinci [Kazincy], pastor of St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church at Braddock, Pa., where one of the huge mills of the Carnegie Steel Company is situated and near which are also the big mills of Homestead and Rankin. Today there probably are many more than 10,000 men on strike who would have been cajoled, discouraged or frightened back into the mills but for the clear, fearless stand of Father Kazinci in the teeth of everything which the steel companies could devise to calumniate him, destroy his influence and wipe out his parish.

The end is not yet. The despots of steel never forgive and never forget. Father Kazinci at this moment is calmly facing the possibility that the steel-companies will, whatever the outcome of the strike, employ discrimination and discharge to disperse his congregation. He is too clear visioned not to have realized this possibility from the first; but he is too courageous to waver from any consideration of expediency or personal comfort.

Only a part of the story of blackmail, intimidation and every device or conscienceless desperation employed by the steel magnates against him and his parishioners can be told in the space available. Every friend of labor who reads it should engrave indelibly in his memory the name of an apostle of applied Christianity, a hero-in labors struggle for freedom, Father Kazinci.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Rev. Adalbert Kazincy of St. Michael’s Catholic Church Stands with Steel Strikers of Braddock” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Trouble” with Miners: They Want the Earth, Cartoon by Clive Weed for New York Liberator

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Quote Mother Jones, Strikes are not peace Clv UMWC p537, Sept 16, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 5, 1920
Trouble with the Miners? They Want the Earth, Cartoon by Clive Weed

From The Liberator of January 1920:

Miners Want the Earth by Clive Weed, Liberator p26, Jan 1920 —–

[Details:]

Miners Want the Earth by Clive Weed, D1, Liberator p26, Jan 1920 —–

Miners Want the Earth by Clive Weed, D2, Liberator p26, Jan 1920 —–

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Trouble” with Miners: They Want the Earth, Cartoon by Clive Weed for New York Liberator” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Steel Strike” by Mary Heaton Vorse, “At the beginning of the fourth month…..”

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Quote MHV Immigrants Fight for Freedom, Quarry Jr p2, Nov 1, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 4, 1920
Mary Heaton Vorse Reports from Front Lines of Great Steel Strike

From The Liberator of January 1920:

The Steel Strike

By Mary Heaton Vorse

GSS Arrests at Homestead, Survey p58, Nov 8, 1919—–

AT the beginning of the fourth month of the strike, at a moment when the newspapers have definitely decided that there is no strike, the strike still cripples production of steel 50 per cent. These are figures given by the steel companies to the financial columns of the daily press. One would think that the strike would have been definitely battered down and the account closed for good in at least a few towns.

One would think that the might of the steel companies, backed by the press, reinforced by the judiciary, local authorities and police, and self-appointed “citizens’ committees,” would have finished this obstinate strike. One would think it would have been kicked out, smothered out, stifled out, bullied out, brow-beaten out, stabbed out, scabbed out, but here they are hanging on in the face of cold weather, in the face of abuse and intimidation, in the face of arrests, in the face of mob violence-and these are dark days too.

These are days when the little striking communities are steeped in doubt, when the bosses go around to the women and plead with them almost tearfully to get their husbands to go back to work before their jobs are lost. These are the days when in these isolated places every power that the companies know is brought to bear upon the strikers to make them believe that they and they alone are hanging on, that the strike is over everywhere else and that this special town will be the goat.

People talk of the steel strike as if it were one single thing. In point of fact, there are 50 steel strikes. Literally there are 50 towns and communities where there to-day exists a strike. The communication between these towns is the slenderest, the mills and factories which this strike affects line the banks of a dozen rivers. The strike is scattered through a half a dozen states.

This is something new in the history of strikes-50 towns acting together. Pueblo acting in concert with Gary; Birmingham, Alabama, keeping step with Rankin and Braddock, Pennsylvania. How did it happen that these people; so slenderly organized, separated by distance, separated by language, should have acted together and have continued to act together?

Some of the men have scarcely ever heard a speaker in their own language. Some of the men are striking in communities where no meetings are allowed. Sitting at home, staying out, starving, suffering persecution, suffering the torture of doubt, suffering the pain of isolation, without strike discipline and without strike benefits, they hold on. What keeps them together?

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Steel Strike” by Mary Heaton Vorse, “At the beginning of the fourth month…..”” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “The Shame of Spokane” by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part II

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 2, 1910
Spokane, Washington – The Story of Joseph Thompson, Courageous Newsboy

From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:

The Shame of Spokane
—–

By Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
—–

[Part II of II.]

IWW Spk FSF, Newsboy Joseph Thompson, ISR p615, Jan 1910

This same Judge Hinkle had made himself infamous in connection with the juvenile cases. Perhaps the most disgraceful affair of many connected with the Spokane free-speech fight was the raid on the hall December 1st, resulting in the arrest of eight little newsboys. Simple on the surface, it is a subtle attempt to undermine the right of a parent to teach a child ideas different from the established order. The children were taken to the chief’s office and put through a severe cross examination, after which they were locked up for the night.

“The third degree” on youngsters ranging in years from eight to sixteen is quite a credit to the Spokane detective force. Couldn’t you get evidence from grown-ups, Captain Burns, throwing light on the “secrets” and “conspiracy” of the I. W. W. without scaring it out of a lot of little boys? “The I. W. W. hall is no fit place for them,” said Prosecuting Attorney Pugh of these poor, ragged, little urchins who trudge the streets in their thin little shoes going in and out of saloons and cheap resorts all hours of the day and night. The parents of the boys with that innate respect for law came in fear and trembling to say that they had not sanctioned the children joining. One woman said she was too poor to buy her boy a necktie so let him wear the red one that a man gave him. The parents knew nothing of the I. W. W. and the little youngsters were rather deserted by the very ones who ought to know what’s wrong with conditions that force them to send their little ones on the streets this frosty weather.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “The Shame of Spokane” by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part II” →