Month: April 2021

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1901, Part I: Found Writing for The Review and Marching with Striking Silk Mill Workers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Child Labor AL 1896, ISR p539, Mar 1901———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 10, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1901, Part I
Found Writing for The Review and Marching with Striking Silk Workers

From the International Socialist Review of March 1901:

ISR Mar 1901

Civilization in Southern Mills
———-

T Graphic, ISR p539, Mar 1901

The miners and railroad boys of Birmingham, Ala., entertained me one evening some months ago with a graphic description of the conditions among the slaves of the Southern cotton mills. While I imagined that these must be something of a modern Siberia, I concluded that the boys were overdrawing the picture and made up my mind to see for myself the conditions described. Accordingly I got a job and mingled with the workers in the mill and in their homes. I found that children of six and seven years of age were dragged out of bed at half-past 4 in the morning when the task-master’s whistle blew. They eat their scanty meal of black coffee and corn bread mixed with cottonseed oil in place of butter, and then off trots the whole army of serfs, big and little. By 5:30 they are all behind the factory walls, where amid the whir of machinery they grind their young lives out for fourteen long hours each day. As one looks on this brood of helpless human souls one could almost hear their voices cry out, “Be still a moment, O you iron wheels or capitalistic greed, and let us hear each other’s voices, and let us feel for a moment that this is not all of life.”

We stopped at 12 for a scanty lunch and a half-hour’s rest. At 12:30 we were at it again with never a stop until 7. Then a dreary march home, where we swallowed our scanty supper, talked for a few minutes of our misery and then dropped down upon a pallet of straw, to lie until the whistle should once more awaken us, summoning babes and all alike to another round of toil and misery.

I have seen mothers take their babes and slap cold water in their face to wake the poor little things. I have watched them all day long tending the dangerous machinery. I have seen their helpless limbs torn off, and then when they were disabled and of no more use to their master, thrown out to die. I must give the company credit for having hired a Sunday school teacher to tell the little things that “Jesus put it into the heart of Mr. – to build that factory so they would have work with which to earn a little money to enable them to put a nickel in the box for the poor little heathen Chinese babies.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1901, Part I: Found Writing for The Review and Marching with Striking Silk Mill Workers” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: Citizen’s Mass Meeting Stands for Factory Fire Prevention after Triangle Disaster

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Rose Schneiderman Quote, Life So Cheap, NY Met Opera Hse, Apr 2, Survey p84, Apr 8, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 9, 1911
Mass Meeting at Metropolitan Opera House Stands for Fire Prevention

From The Survey of April 8, 1911:

The Survey Social Charitable Civic, Apr 8, 1911

THE COMMON WELFARE

PREVENTION OF FACTORY FIRES

Prevention was the keynote of the whole week in discussion of the Triangle factory fire in New York and in other industrial cities which have begun to take stock of their risks. There were many meetings, chief of which was the citizens’ mass meeting at the Metropolitan Opera House, reported on succeeding pages, which resulted in the appointment of a committee of five made up of Eugene A. Philbin, chairman; Mary A. Dreier, Edward T. Devine, William Jay Schieffelin, Lillian D. Wald, and Peter Brady. The New York American has organized a committee on prevention of which Ernest Flagg, an eminent architect, is chairman and the other members are Fire Chief Croker, P. Tecumseh Sherman, formerly state commissioner of labor, and William Archer, a builder.

A conference under call of R. Fulton Cutting, president of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, appointed a committee consisting of Mr. Cutting, Franklin B. Kirkbride, Leopold Plaut, Homer Folks and John A. Kingsbury which, in conjunction with the mass meeting committee, is organizing a permanent body on fire prevention.

On Wednesday (after this issue had gone to press) public burial was given the eight unclaimed bodies and the workers of the city planned an enormous silent parade in their honor.

One of the events of the week was the opening of the Triangle Waist Company in another building. A violation of the law was immediately filed against it for installing a row of sewing machines in front of the exit to the fire-escapes. The proprietor asked the Ladies ‘ Shirtwaist Union to organize his shop, but no action was taken.

Real Triangle by Sloan re Fire, Survey p81, Apr 8, 1911 Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: Citizen’s Mass Meeting Stands for Factory Fire Prevention after Triangle Disaster” →

Hellraisers Journal: Women’s Trade Union League Joins Mass March for the Unidentified Victims of the Triangle Fire

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Rose S, Triangle Fire Mourners March, Girls at Top of Buildings, NY Tb p2, Apr 6, 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 8, 1911
Women March in Cold Rain for Unidentified Victims of Triangle Fire

From the New York Tribune of April 6, 1911:

Triangle Fire, March in Downpour for Unidentified Victims, NY Tb p1, Apr 6, 1911

Triangle Fire, Rose S re We Marched by Buildings, NY Tb p1, Apr 6, 1911

There was majestic silence and sullen rain. But it was a silence that spoke. Their fellow workers to the number 145 had been launched into eternity as the result of the Asch Building fire on March 25. And so [thousands] marched in murmurless protest through the principal streets of the city yesterday.

The steady downpour did not divert girls  who were without umbrellas, without hats, without overshoes and rubber coats from their determination to show public honor to fellow workers who had perished…..

If the day had been filled with sunshine the funeral procession would have been impressive. Perhaps, however, there would then have been the chance to minimize the intensity of feeling existing among the marching members of the sympathizing unions. Only a high devotion and sense of duty could be responsible for yesterday’s protest.

Low hanging clouds and fog shrouded the tops of buildings. The Metropolitan tower was invisible above its clock. There was the suggestion of smoke in the atmosphere. The streets were filled with puddles of water. Women in lamb’s wool coats, accustomed to ride in automobiles, were splashed by passing vehicles as they trudged along in the beating rain, anxious to demonstrate the sympathy felt by the Woman Suffrage party. Hundreds of thousands stood on the sidewalks, their umbrellas appropriately indicating unbroken borders of black. Policemen, mounted and afoot, wore regulation black raincoats.

There was no playing of plaintive music, no muffled drum beat. The spectacle was without ostentation, flourish or display. Banners bore the legend “We mourn our loss” in black and white. There was a solemn expression on the faces of those who marched and those who watched from office buildings, stores and private houses. Flags on public buildings were at half-mast; thousands of other structures were draped in funeral decorations.

Triangle Fire, We Mourn Our Loss, NYC Apr 5, ISR p670, May 1911

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Women’s Trade Union League Joins Mass March for the Unidentified Victims of the Triangle Fire” →

Hellraisers Journal: One Hundred Thousand Mourners March for Unidentified Victims of Triangle Fire

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ruth Rubin, Ballad Triangle Fire, 1968—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 7, 1911
New York City – 100,000 Parade in Tribute to the Unidentified Dead

From the New York Evening World of April 5, 1911:

Triangle Fire, 100,000 Mourners, Parade for Unidentified, NY Eve Wld p1, Apr 5, 1911

Triangle Fire, Mighty Host Honors Unidentified Dead, NY Eve Wld p1, Apr 5, 1911

The funeral of the unidentified victims of the Washington place disaster this afternoon was made memorable by parades of mourning in which probably 100,000 members of labor unions took part in Manhattan, and 5,000 in Brownsville and East New York. Owing to the confusion attending the formation of the Manhattan parade it was late in starting. Once it got under way business generally came to a halt in the district between Washington Square and Thirty-fourth street in and adjacent to Fifth avenue….

The great massing of men and women preparatory to the start of the parade, the many mourning emblems, the evident depth of the sorrow of the marchers, the silent determination of the moving throngs would have been impressive enough on a bright, cheerful New York spring day. In the gloom of fog, with a misty rain falling and the streets sticky and slippery, the slowly passing columns, sombre in black garments and partially concealed from the view of those above by black, shining umbrellas, took on a sullen aspect almost awe-inspiring…..

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: One Hundred Thousand Mourners March for Unidentified Victims of Triangle Fire” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The New York Call: “We are slain on the altar of Greed, and burned to the image of Graft.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Irwin Tucker Poem Triangle Fire Sacrifice, NY Cl p1, Apr 5, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 6, 1911
New York, New York – “The Sacrifice” by Irwin Tucker and Gordon Nye

From The New York Call of April 5, 1911:

Triangle Fire, The Sacrifice, Poem Tucker, Drwg Nye, NY Cl p1, Apr 5, 1911

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The New York Call: “We are slain on the altar of Greed, and burned to the image of Graft.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Dramatic Story of Eugene Debs’ Unguarded Visit to Washington to See Attorney General

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD if Crime to oppose bloodshed, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 5, 1921
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary – Debs Returns After Unguarded Visit to Washington

From the Appeal to Reason of April 2, 1921:

Dramatic Story of Debs’ Sensational Visit
to Attorney General Daugherty

BY SAMUEL CASTLETON 
Personal Attorney for Eugene V. Debs
and member of Debs Amnesty Lobby.

By Telegraph to the Appeal.

EVD Returns to Pen ed crpd, Perth Amboy NJ Eve Ns p12, Rck Isl IL Arg p15, Apr 1, 1921

Atlanta, Ga.—In spite of the mysterious secrecy that shrouded Gene Debs’ dramatic departure for Washington to hold his conference with the United States Attorney General, a leak was sprung from the effort to suppress all information about his movements when it became rumored a few hours after his departure that he had been pardoned and had left the city.

I immediately telegraphed to the Appeal’s Amnesty Lobby in Washington for Verification at the department of Justice. The rumor also had reached the city editors of the three Atlanta newspapers and reporters went scurrying to the federal penitentiary in taxi cabs and to the office of the Warden. Some of them even went at midnight to the Federal prison farm on the McDonough road ten miles from the outskirts of the city, over almost impassable highways. All communication with the prison officials was completely shut off and it was impossible to obtain either a verification or denial of the rumor. An error of the Western Union Telegraph Company caused my message to Washington to miscarry and I was unable to learn anything from that source.

The next day the Attorney General issued a statement relating to the conference between Debs and himself. Then it became known in Atlanta that the rumor of the day before was partially based on facts and that Gene had been extended an invitation by the Attorney General to clarify misunderstandings.

I was certain that this administration, well as the preceding one, knew that Gene was adamant and uncompromising in his principles and ideals and that the administration did not summon him for the purpose of the decantation of his convictions or retraction of his views.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Dramatic Story of Eugene Debs’ Unguarded Visit to Washington to See Attorney General” →

Hellraisers Journal: Metropolitan Opera House: Rose Schneiderman Speaks to Public: “We Have Found You Wanting”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Hellraisers Journal: Metropolitan Opera House: Rose Schneiderman Speaks to Public: “We Have Found You Wanting”———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 4, 1911
New York, New York – Rose Schneiderman Speaks at Metropolitan Opera House

From The New York Times of April 3, 1911:

MASS MEETING CALLS FOR NEW FIRE LAWS
———-
Metropolitan Opera House Gathering Decides to
Name a Standing Committee on Protection.
———-

WORKERS NOT IN ACCORD
———-
Woman Union Leader Says They Have Lost Faith
In the Public and Must Rely on Themselves.
———-

Triangle Fire, Compliance Fire Escape by B Robinson, NY Tb p1, Mar 28, 1911

More people went to the Metropolitan Opera House yesterday to participate in the council on the Asch Building fire disaster than could find seats in the grand tier, where the boxes were reserved, or in the orchestra and galleries, where they were open to all. Those in the grand tier came in automobiles, and were admitted at a special side entrance opened thirty minutes before the other doors. Those in the orchestra floor for the main part were from the upper west side, while the east siders overflowed one gallery after another until they had packed the house.

The meeting, which lasted from 3 o’clock until 5:20, proved to be more cosmopolitan than harmonious. The men in the upper galleries, instead of applauding the programme brought forward by the leaders to obtain better fire protection laws, reserved their loudest cheers for those who dissented from the programme, on the ground that citizens’ committees were incapable of doing any real good and had always proved a failure.

The outcome of the meeting was the adoption of resolutions by a partial vote calling for the creation of a permanent committee to advocate new legislation and see that there is no official neglect to enforce such laws as now exist.

The dissenters from this programme held that there would be no improvement for the working classes until in class solidarity they demanded it at the polls and through committees of their own. They advocated the organization of working people into Assembly district committees and the giving of fire inspectorship privileges to labor union officials.

The Speakers Interrupted.

Rose Schneiderman,ed, LOC, see Chg Un Lbr Adv p26, Jan 1909

Every little while from the topmost gallery shouts from Socialists interrupted the speakers, and once the meeting got away from the Chairman’s control while those upstairs cheered for the interrupters and those below attempted to hiss them down. There was one moment when feeling grew tense to a snapping point, and the audience was held too closely by the speaker’s words to interrupt or applaud as the girl who had been speaking went back up the stage to her seat.

Rose Schneiderman, who led the workers out of the Triangle factory in their strike two years ago and bailed them out after being arrested, found words difficult when she tried to speak. She stood silent for a moment, and then began to speak hardly above a whisper. But the silence was such that everywhere they carried clearly……

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Metropolitan Opera House: Rose Schneiderman Speaks to Public: “We Have Found You Wanting”” →

Hellraisers Journal: The Ladies’ Garment Worker: “We Mourn the Death of Our Members at the Triangle Waist Company”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Morris Rosenfeld, Mayn Rue Plats, see Silverman, 2010—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 3, 1911
International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union in Mourning

From The Ladies Garment Worker of April 1911:

Triangle Fire, We Mourn, ILGWU, LGW Jr p1, Apr 1911

When ready to go to press we learn of the awful calamity at the Triangle Waist Company. While most of the garment manufacturing establishments in New York City are not any better as far as fire protection is concerned, it is significant that the worst calamity happened at the Triangle, known among the workpeople in the trade as the “prison.” The name is probably due the extraordinary discipline with poor earning for which the firm is famous.

It is not strange that in this most democratic of all countries in the world the employers can so easily use the arm of the law to protect themselves against any inconveniences which their workpeople may cause them, but the law is nowhere when the life and limb of the worker is to be protected.

The writer of these lines, when approaching the factory some two years ago in an attempt to organize the workpeople of that firm, was pounced upon by two plain clothed policemen and taken to the police cell. No one, however, knows whom to blame for this calamity.

It is evident that the worker can expect next to nothing in the way of protection from the legal authorities. Whether it is the Supreme Court or the good people who are interested in the architectural beauties of the city, nothing will be done until the workers will begin in earnest to attend to their own business. They must declare a strike at all such fire traps until adequate protection is provided.

Pickets should be posted at the entrance of such places with sign boards bearing the following inscription: Please do not go to work in this place until proper fire protection is provided for the workpeople.

Let the authorities find our action contrary to the Sherman Anti-Trust Laws or any other of the innumerable laws provide to safeguard the interest of the capitalists, and which the authorities are ever ready to guard jealousy. We will cheerfully go to prison but there will be no more fire traps. Such a strike will put an end to such a state of things within 48 hours.

———-

There are in the same building a number of cloak shops, who before the general strike, worked until 6 o’clock on Saturdays. Thanks to the change in hours all these left at 1 o’clock, otherwise the victims would have been more numerous.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Ladies’ Garment Worker: “We Mourn the Death of Our Members at the Triangle Waist Company”” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Fred Mooney Reports on Trip to Mexico City with Mother Jones

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 2, 1921
Secretary-Treasure Fred Mooney Reports on Trip to Mexico City

From the United Mine Workers Journal of April 1, 1921:

Circular Sent Out by Secretary-Treasurer Mooney

UMW D17, Fred Mooney, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

Fred Mooney, secretary-treasurer of District 17, has sent a circular letter to all local unions of that district entitled, “An Open Declaration of War,” in which he tells of the great attack that is being made on organized labor by that element of employers opposed to labor unions. He shows that the declaration of these employers in favor of the open shop is a declaration of war against labor. He calls upon organized labor everywhere to stand together in this crisis. He urges more thorough organization of workers into unions, so that they may be in position to meet the attack and defeat the effort that is being made to destroy labor unions.

Another circular which Secretary Mooney has sent out deals with his recent trip to Mexico City as representative of District 17 to the Pan-American Labor Congress. Among the interesting passages in this circular is the following:

Progress was reported from every quarter of Mexico and for many independent countries of South America. Four states of Mexico reported the election of Socialist or Labor Party Governors; in four different states of Mexico it constitutes a violation of law for an employer to hire non-union labor when union men are on strike to better their conditions. The federal constitution of Mexico provides that any employer who discharges an employe for union activities shall pay the employe three months’ wages in advance.

Mexico today has one of the most liberal and friendly governments towards the workers that is in existence on the Western Hemisphere, and the workers are building up a strong labor movement, their chief desire is to be let alone to work out their own destiny. The Mexican Regional Confederation of Labor has a membership of 450,000, among which are 82,000 railroad men, 7,000 munition workers, 18,000 carpenters, 3,000 miners, the remainder is composed of different trades. Luis N. Morones, president of the Confederation of Labor, is also chief of Military Commissariat, and one of the reservations made by him when accepting government appointment was that his service to his government should not interfere with his activities in the Federation of Labor, and that every employe under him must be permitted to join the Federation of Labor if they so desired; this was granted. Every member of the Federation of Labor who is elected or appointed to any government position must pay one-sixth of his salary each month into the treasury of the Federation of Labor. Morones is well educated, a born leader, knows no fear when fighting for his class—he was sentenced to be shot four different times during the revolution.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the New York Evening World: “Some of the Girl Victims of Washington Place Fire Trap”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote William Shepherd, Triangle Fire, Shirtwaist Strikers of a Year Ago, Mlk Jr, Mar 27, 1911, Cornell—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 1, 1911
New York, New York – Some of the Many Girls Who Perished in Triangle Fire

From the New York Evening World of March 27, 1911:

Triangle Fire, Some Girl Victims, NY Eve Wld p3, Mar 27, 1911

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the New York Evening World: “Some of the Girl Victims of Washington Place Fire Trap”” →