Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 30, 1921 Miners of Kansas Condemn Suspension of District 14 U. M. W. A.
From The Workers Chronicle of Pittsburg, Kansas, November 25, 1921:
Truth Shall Win —————
Alex Howat
Reports from all over the country are to the effect that organized labor everywhere is condemning the action of one man (John L. Lewis with the assistance of his hired gang of labor crooks) in suspending District 14 and expelling the officers from the U. M. W. of A., at a time when the, crisis is on in the fight against the infamous court of industrial relations law. This contemptible action was taken with controversies at two small strip pits as the basis. One was a lockout and the other a shutdown, and both companies refuse to let the men return to work in accordance with orders given the men by officials of District 14, and pursuant to instructions of the recent national convention of the U. M. W. of A.
But, President Lewis, with malice aforethought, waited until the miners’ leaders were practically isolated from the world-put there by Governor Allen and his infamous misfit legislation-and when 100 per cent of the rank and file of District 14 laid down their tools and resolved to dig no more coal until President Howat and Vice President Dorchy are released from jail, Lewis demands that ALL miners return to work if they want to remain in good grace with HIM. They are to forget all about their noble, self-sacrificing officials, who are cooped up in cold, damp cheerless cells in the Cherokee county jail. They are ALL TO RENIG the positive policy, unanimously declared, of their District Convention in Kansas City, March, 1920. They MUST give up all their personal honor manhood and self-respect, and return to work just because John L. Lewis-backed by a handful of paid stoolpigeons-demands it! Their published howls about, “contract” is rankest camouflage. The miners and officials here have violated no contract in the DEAN and RELIANCE shut-downs. The operators of those two small pits are the only ones violating the contract. And so Lewis himself says, “no condition enters into the expulsion of the officers and members of District 14 except that of the Dean and Reliance controversy.” However he wants not only the employees of those two strip mines to return to work, (in spite of the fact that the operators will not let them return under conditions required, not only by President Howat, but by the National Convention-and the almighty John L., himself) but all miners who are standing pat with the dictates of their District Convention must give up their only efficient weapon against the industrial court law by returning to work and let their leaders rot in jail (for all Snake Lewis cares) while HE fights the law in the courts. He knows, and the miners know, that Labor stands as much chance there as Christ did before Pontius Pilate. So, all his efforts in his publicity campaign in that direction is “grandstand,” pure and simple.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 29, 1921 Slaughter of Workers in Mines, Quarries and Metallurgical Plants Continues
From the Duluth Labor World of November 26, 1921:
2,973 KILLED, 206,000 HURT WORKING MINERALS IN 1920 ————-
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24.-Accidents in mines, quarries and metallurgical plants in 1920, exclusive of blasts furnaces in the United States, caused the death of 2,973 employes and the injury of 206,000, according to the bureau of mines.
Based on a standard of 300 working days per man, the statement said: “For every 1000 employes, 3.19 were killed and 221.25 were injured.”
The figures do not indicate the large number of slight injuries causing loss of time of less than one day. In these industries 1,088,000 were employed last year, with an average of 257 working days per man.
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Note: The deadliest month in mining history was December 1907:
The Monongah W. V. Mine Disaster of December 6, 1907 killed 362 miners. The Darr (Pa.) Mine Disaster of December 19, 1907 killed 239 miners.
The Cherry Mine Disaster, follows only the Monongah Mine Disaster and the Dawson Mine Disaster (263 killed, Oct. 22, 1913) for number of men and boys who perished:
The Cherry Ill. Mine Disaster of November 13, 1909 killed 259 miners.
Hellraisers Journal – MondayNovember 28, 1921 Excerpt from The Voice of the Negro by Robert T. Kerlin
Note: On Saturday we featured a review of Kerlin’s “Voice of the Negro,” which includes a section on the so-called “riot” at Elaine, Arkansas. This deadly event, which we refer to as the Elaine Massacre, was a bloody rampage led by the plantation class, initially against the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America (sharecropper’s union) and later against the entire Afro-American community of Phillips County, Arkansas.
Yesterday we published an excerpt from Kerlin’s book which describedhow the Johnston Brothers were murdered during the Elaine Massacre. Today’s excerpt sets forth how systematic robbery of tenant farmers and sharecroppers led up to the Arkansas Riot.
From The Savannah Tribune of October 23, 1919:
SYSTEMATIC ROBBERY CAUSE OF RIOTS
ARKANSAS NEGROES HAD NOT PLANNED MASSACRE
The cause of the disturbances in Arkansas was systematic robbery of Negro tenant farmers and share croppers. For years Negroes have been working the farms of white owners on shares and when the time came for a settlement, owners have refused to give them itemized statements of their accounts. Negro tenant farmers and share croppers must buy their supplies during the year from the plantation store or some designated store. The system kept the Negro continually in debt and it is an unwritten law in Arkansas as in many parts of the South that the Negro may not leave the plantation until the debt is paid.
“The Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America” was formed by Negro share croppers and the dues paid were to go into a common fund to employ a lawyer. The lawyer was to make a test case in court of one tenant farmer’s inability to obtain an itemized statement of his account.
On October 6 tenant farmers on 21 plantations were to ask the owners for a settlement. It appears that, failing a settlement, the Negroes were going to refuse to pick the cotton then in the field or to sell cotton belonging to them for less than the market price. Trouble, however, was precipitated when W. A. Adkins, a special agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, Charles Pratt, a deputy sheriff and a Negro “trusty” were fired upon, so it is claimed, by Negroes in a church at Hoop Spur [where Union members were gathered]. Adkins was killed and Pratt severely wounded. A statement of one of the persons in the church at the time, however, shows that Adkins and Pratt fired into the church without provocation and that their fire was returned with the above-mentioned results. That precipitated the trouble.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 27, 1921
Excerpt from The Voice of the Negro by Robert T. Kerlin
Note: On Saturday we featured a review of Kerlin’s “Voice of the Negro,” which includes a section on the so-called “riot” at Elaine, Arkansas. This deadly event, which we refer to as the Elaine Massacre, was a bloody rampage led by the plantation class, initially against the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America (sharecropper’s union) and later against the entire Afro-American community of Phillips County, Arkansas.
From Kerlin’s introduction to article:
The outstanding incident of the “Arkansas pogrom” was the slaying of the Johnston brothers. From The National Defender and Sun (Gary, Ind.), October 25, I take an article that appeared in substance throughout the colored press:
From The National Defender and Sunof October 25, 1919:
ALMOST ENTIRE JOHNSTON FAMILY IS MURDERED
BY FIENDISH HELL-HOUNDS OF ARKANSAS
(Special to the Defender and Sun.)
Helena, Ark., Oct. 24. [1919]-The report that the four Johnston brothers who were outrageously murdered near Elaine, Ark., met death in a riot at the latter place, is not true. The four brothers, one of whom. Dr. L. H. Johnston of Cowweta, Okla., who was there visiting his other brothers, had been hunting and were peacefully returning home with their game when they were intercepted by a white man, supposed to be a friend of the Johnston boys, and told that a race riot was in progress in Elaine and advised them not to go in that direction, but to return to a point below Elaine, leave their guns to avoid suspicion, and take the train for Helena. After considerable persuasion on the part of their supposed white friend, the Johnstons followed his advice, trying to avoid trouble that they knew nothing of.
When the train on which they were riding en route to Helena reached Elaine, their good white “friend” led a mob aboard the Jim Crow coach and with guns drawn commanded the Johnston boys to throw up their hands, according to eye-witnesses, and in a few seconds had handcuffed three of the boys, evidently not recognizing Dr. L. H. Johnston as one of the brothers, and was marching them out of the train when Doctor Johnston spoke to the men, saying: “Gentlemen, these men are my brothers, and I want to know why you are taking them from this train.” In reply, one of the men said: “If you are their brother you’d better come along with them.” To this Dr. L. H. Johnston retorted: “Well, I will certainly go,” whereupon he was handcuffed, and the four forced at the point of guns to get in a waiting auto and hurriedly driven off. That night about eleven o’clock the bodies of the four brothers, riddled with bullets and mutilated with knives or other sharp instruments, were found by the roadside. They had been murdered in cold blood!
The perpetrators of this gruesome atrocity then issued a statement to the effect that one of the Johnstons took a gun from a deputy sheriff and killed him, causing the posse to fire on the four brothers, killing all of them instantly.
Mrs. Mercy Johnston, mother of the unfortunate quartette, who lived in Chicago in a home purchased for her by her sons, was at the time in Pine Bluff, visiting relatives. She accompanied by relatives and friends, her heart all but breaking over the sad occurrence, went to claim the bodies of her loved ones, that she might at least pay a mother’s last tribute, even though that should be in tears and heartache, but rank insult was added to injury when she was compelled to pay a ransom for the dead bodies. She paid the price, however, and followed the remains to their last resting place in Little Rock. The funeral was the biggest and most impressive ever seen in that city. No man was quite strong enough to look upon this terrible scene. The great wonder is that any black should witness such a scene and be free from that which makes men desperate.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 26, 1921 Mary White Ovington Reviews “The Voice of the Negro” by Robert T. Kerlin
From the Chicago Broad Ax of November 19, 1921:
BOOK CHAT-BY MARY WHITE OVINGTON -CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE….. —————
“THEVOICE OF THE NEGRO” By Robert T. Kerlin ——-
(Published by E. P.Dutton & Co., 681 Fifth Ave., New York City, Price $2.50, postage 12 cents.)
Mr. Robert T. Kerlin, professor at Virginia Military Institute, last June wrote a letter to the Governor of Arkansas, in which he declared it would be a crime against the Creator, if the six colored men [The Moore Defendants-six of the Elaine 12] condemned to death, were executed. “Were they to suffer death,” he said, “they would be crucified.” Shortly after this statement, he was asked to resign by the Board of Virginia Military Institute. Refusing to do this, he was dismissed. This courageous letter to the Governor of Arkansas was the culmination of a number of acts sympathetic to the Negro, that had evidently grated against the sensibilities of the Board of Virginia Military Institute.
Probably “The Voice of the Negro,” the book which Mr. Kerlin’s publishers put out in 1920, was one of his heinous offenses. This book presents to the reader a careful synopsis of Negro opinion, as voiced through its press for four months succeeding the Washington riot. To quote from the preface, “virtually the entire Afro-American press consisting of two dailies, a dozen magazines, and nearly three hundred weeklies, has been drawn upon.” “When I told the publisher,” Mr. Kerlin goes on to say “that I was making this compilation, he remarked that my book would make disagreeable reading. There are worse things than disagreeable reading.”…..
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[Photograph added.]
Note: By last June, when Kerlin wrote to the Arkansas Governor, the Elaine 12 had become the Ware Defendants and the Moore Defendants (6 in each group). The Ware Defendants had won another retrial, scheduled for June 1921, but since postponed. The Moore Defendants were scheduled for execution on June 10th, which execution was delayed by one brave judge. As of this date, the Ware defendants are yet awaiting their 3rd trial. The Moore Defendants have won a hearing before the U. S. Supreme Court.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 23, 1921 West Virginia Citizens Want Schools Not Gunmen
From the Duluth Labor World of November 19, 1921:
HUNTINGTON, W. Va., Nov. 17.-Citizens of this county are circulating petitions calling on state officials to oust the cossack system and use the money for public schools and road improvements. The petition declares:
“On account of the number of unemployed in our county, and because of the long-felt need for better roads, and in order to extend our sympathy, and put the same into action for the 20,000 children or more deprived of the privileges and benefits of school in our state, we, the undersigned, offer this as our request that the state police be discharged from further service in our county, and the expense of keeping up same be used to employ teachers and building roads, thereby giving employment and education to the needy. We do not believe the service of the state police is needed in this county.”
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 22, 1921 Bay County, Florida – Union Organizer Seized by Thugs, Left for Dead
From the Duluth Labor World of November 19, 1921:
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.-Officials of the A. F. of L. have called the attention of the department of justice to the flogging of John E. Winstanley by a Florida mob, who took the unionists from a train and after beating him, threatened his life and left him for dead.
Winstanley is a representative of the International Union of Timber Workers. While on a train near Sherman, Florida, he was seized by a mob, thrown into an automobile, followed by an another auto, filled with thugs. After a journey of several miles Winstanley was taken from the auto and placed across a railroad tie, when he was flogged. The leader of the mob said:
“—— —— you, we’ll show you we don’t want no union organizers in Bay county.” After the mob left him, Winstanley crawled to a house where he was cared for and later driven 14 miles to a small hamlet where a deputy United States, marshal placed him in a hotel.
It is believed the mob can be punished by federal authorities for violating the United States law against the forceful removal of a passenger from an interstate train.
Note: According to the Palatka Daily News of November 4, 1921, Winstanley was hospitalized at Marianna, Florida.
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