Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 30, 1910
Spokane, Washington – “S. O. Chinn Did Not Die in Vain”
From The Spokane Press of March 21, 1910:
VICTIM CHINN DID NOT DIE IN VAIN
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The Workingman’s Paper March 26, 1910
S. O. Chinn did not die in vain.
The funeral of this victim of Sullivan’s brutal methods occurred yesterday, and while Chinn was but a simple worker in the ranks his cortege was one of the most imposing the city has seen in months. It was not an I. W. W. demonstration, for hundreds were there who were not followers of the union; it was the respect of honest men for another man who died for what he held to be principle.
Chinn’s death appears to have bean the turning point, in the sentiment of Spokane regarding the police system. Before Chinn died the recent conflict was generally regarded as merely a fight between authority and anarchy; now that the dust has settled, the average worker is discovering that it was a fight between brutality-senseless brutality run amuck-and devotion to a principle by men who had nothing to gain and everything-even life itself-to lose.
The Portland (Ore.) I. W. W. local on Saturday passed strong resolutions on Chinn’s death [see inset], condemning Mayor Pratt and Acting Chief Sullivan. While these resolutions will have no especial effect in Spokane they will in Oregon, and as they are being sent out to every city and town where the telegraph goes, the result will be that this city will be given a most unfortunate name for needless brutality; all because it had a chief of police, a mayor and a prosecuting attorney who could think of nothing but brutality to quell a disturbance. The I. W. W. conflict could have been settled in two days had the commonest principle of sense and humanity been used. They were not, and a great flare of scandal arose.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 28, 1910
Spokane, Washington – FW S. O. Chinn Gives His Life for Freedom of Speech
From the Industrial Worker of March 26, 1910:
DEAD AS RESULT OF BRUTAL TREATMENT
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Thirty-five Days on Bread and Water Brings On
an Attack of Diabetes and Causes
Death of S. O. Chinn, Spokane Free Speech Fighter.
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Spokane Press of March 17, 1910
Because of Chief Sullivan’s brutal system, S. O. Chinn, who contracted diabetes after being fed on bread and water for a period of 35 days, died at Deaconess Hospital of Spokane on Friday evening, March 18th. This brutal treatment was accorded him because of his participation in the Spokane free speech fight.
Chinn was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World. He had resided at Spokane for a period of two years, and for a time was secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the I. W. W. locals of that city. Those who knew him best knew him to be scrupulously, even fanatically, honest. He never drank, his personal life was clean and he was zealously devoted to what he thought was right.
Chinn went to jail because he believed that the constitution meant what it said; that free speech and free assemblage were inalienable rights; that as a man it was his duty to see that they were not trampled under foot. He caused no disturbance; he demanded merely what he considered were his rights. He believed that constitution meant what it said. But Chief Sullivan and the powers that be in Spokane had decreed otherwise.
Nowhere but in Spokane have men been put on bread and water for 35 days; from three to five days is the army regulation. For the average man a diet of bread and water for ten days, as it was allowed to the imprisoned free speech fighters, means chronic disease, but for 35 days S. O. Chinn was given a bread and water diet, and from the barbarity of the treatment he emerged a wreck and died a lingering death.
The Spokane Press has the following to say on Fellow Worker Chinn’s death:
He was one of the town’s citizens and a quiet, soft-spoken, hard-working man. But he had determination; so had Sullivan to prove that when he said the constitution wasn’t worth a damn, that he knew what he was talking about, so Sullivan kept Chinn on bread and water for 35 days, and so today Chinn, by giving up the struggle and finally dying, admits that Sullivan knew what he was talking about.
Don’t you wonder if Sullivan is real proud and happy of his little victory over S. O. Chinn?
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 27, 1910
Cincinnati, Ohio-Speech of Mother Jones at Miners’ Special Convention
From The Topeka State Journal of March 24, 1910:
SOUNDS CALL TO ARMS.
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“Mother Jones” Arouses Coal Miners
to Great Enthusiasm.
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Cincinnati. O., March 24.-Bituminous coal operators and miners of Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania, entered their subscale meeting this afternoon with almost certainty that a disagreement would be reported to the joint committee, that the joint conference would reach a like disagreement before tomorrow noon and that the International Convention of United Mine Workers would then be asked to say whether it should be industrial peace or war after April 1.
Operators of the three states immediately concerned, held a secret conference all morning and at the conclusion announced that the vote had been unanimous to resist all of the miners’ demand. The attitude of the miners in the international convention was shown during an address by “Mother” Jones when she declared:
If the operators force a fight we are all in trim to give them the hottest fight they ever had in their lives.
The convention was almost stampeded and the cheering did not cease for several minutes.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 26, 1900
Indianapolis, Indiana – Eugene Debs Accepts Nomination for President
From the Social Democratic Herald of March 24, 1900:
DEBS’ SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE
[Social Democratic Party Convention
Indianapolis, March 9th]
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Mr. Chairman and Comrades:— A few moments ago your committee advised me of the great honor conferred upon me by this convention in making me one of the standard-bearers of the party in the great campaign upon which we are now entering. Never in all of my life was I so profoundly impressed with the conviction that there is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will. Yesterday [March 8th, Third Day of Convention] I left this hall under the solemn belief that I could not, under any possible circumstances, accept the nomination tendered me with such enthusiastic unanimity. But with your united voices ringing in my ears, and your impassioned appeals burning and glowing in my breast, and your eyes searching the very depths of my soul, I was soon brought to realize that in your voice in behalf of socialism there was the supreme command of Duty—that I could not disregard it and decline the nomination without proving myself wholly unworthy of the confidence which inspired it.
I felt that I could not decline the nomination, tendered me under such circumstances, without being guilty of treason to the cause we all love so well; and so I come to you this afternoon, obedient to the call voice by your committee, to say that I accept your nomination, and with it all of the responsibilities that the great trust imposes; and with my heart trembling upon my lips, I thank the comrades, one and all, for the great honor your have conferred upon me. I also thank you for having nominated as my associate and colleague so true a socialist, so manly a man as Comrade Job Harriman, and let me assure you that we will stand together, side by side, in the true spirit of socialism, and joining hands, will bear aloft the conquering banner of the Social Democratic Party of America.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 24, 1920
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Steel Workers Offer Resolution of Heartfelt Thanks
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of March 20, 1920:
STEEL WORKERS THANK CLOTH UNION FOR HELP
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(By the Federated Press.)
New York, March 20.-As a mark of gratitude for the magnificent aid given by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America to the steel workers during the great strike of 1919, they have been sent a handsomely drafted resolution of thanks. The document, which is signed by John Fitzpatrick and William Z. Foster, respectively chairman and secretary-treasurer of the committee for organizing the iron and steel workers, thanks the amalgamated for their gift of $100,000 to the strikers’ defense fund.
The amalgamated’s solidarity with the steel workers has created a sensation all over the world. Their gift is the largest sum ever raised by any organization to aid workers in another industry.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 21, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Eugene Debs Speaks at Mass Meeting
From The Philadelphia Inquirer of March 20, 1910:
PRATT AND DEBS AT LABOR MEETING
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Sympathetic strikers crowded Labor Lyceum Hall, at Sixth and Brown streets, when their big mass meeting was called to order at 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon [Saturday March 19th], and the streets about the building were blockaded with hundreds who were unable to enter the hall.
Many policemen, under command of Lieutenants Nippes and Ehrsman, were stationed about the entrance to the hall and along Sixth and Brown streets to prevent possible rioting, and riot wagons from City Hall were placed in near-by streets.
C. O. Pratt, the executive chairman of the carmen’s organization, arrived at the Labor Lyceum soon after 3 o’clock in an automobile, and was cheered by the crowd as he made his way to the entrance. The doors had been ordered closed by the police, but the lieutenant in charge made way for Pratt and the speakers with him. As soon as Pratt was inside the hall the crowd picked him up and passed him along to the platform.
Pratt in his speech exhorted the labor men to stand firm in their demands. In concluding he asked all who would remain out on strike to say “aye.” The answering chorus of “ayes” was heard in the streets.
Eugene [V]. Debs, a former Presidential candidate on the Socialist ticket, also addressed the meeting.
[He said:]
You are waging a class fight. I am not here to philosophize, but to tell you to fight and fight to the end, and you will win. There is nothing to concede, nothing to arbitrate. If you concede anything you will lose all. Fight the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. J. Pierpont Morgan could end the strike in a minute if he wanted to.
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