Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 20, 1911 Report on Child Labor in Mississippi by E. N. Clopper, Part II
From The Hattiesburg News (Mississippi) of December 18, 1911:
CHILD LABOR IN MISSISSIPPI ———————- By E. N. CLOPPER, Mississippi Valley Secretary National Child Labor Committee.
III.Why Mississippi Should Adopt the Uniform Child Labor Law.
[Part II of II]
Oyster Shuckers, Beloxi, Mississippi, by Lewis Hine Children as young as ages 3 and 5 years old.
A uniform child labor law was adopted by the United Stales commissioners on uniform laws at their twenty-first annual meeting in Boston, Aug. 25 and 26, 1911, upon the report of their special committee, a distinguished member of which was the Hon. A. T. Stovall of Mississippi. It embodies the best provisions of the child labor laws already in existence in several states.
The uniform child labor law may be summarized thus:
The law prescribes a general age limit of fourteen for practically all employment, except agriculture and domestic service, and for all occupations during the hours when the public schools in the district in which the child resides are in session; an age limit of twelve for newsboys; an age limit of sixteen for certain specified occupations dangerous to life or limb or injuries to the health or morals of the child, the specified occupations to be increased upon order of the state board of health; an age limit of eighteen for children in specified extra hazardous occupations; an age limit of twenty-one for employment of boys in saloons, the employment of girls in mines or quarries, in oiling or cleaning machinery in motion or in any occupation where this employment compels them to remain standing constantly; an eight hour day for boys under sixteen and girls under eighteen, with a fifty-four hour week for boys under eighteen and girls under twenty-one; an age limit of twenty-one for boys in the night messenger service.
Certificates of employment are to be issued by the superintendent schools or by a person authorized by him in writing.
The adoption of this uniform child labor law in its entirety by the state of Mississippi would not only cure the evils of child labor from which the state is now suffering, but would prevent greater evils in the future development and progress of the state, so that industry would be built upon a secure foundation and the children, the future citizens of the state, be fully protected.
Why should not a southern state, why should not Mississippi, with its traditions of high statesmanship, be the first to put this model child labor law into effect?
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 19, 1911 Report on Child Labor in Mississippi by E. N. Clopper -with Photograph of Little Oyster Shuckers by Lewis Hine
From The Hattiesburg News (Mississippi) of December 18, 1911:
CHILD LABOR IN MISSISSIPPI
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By E. N. CLOPPER, Mississippi Valley Secretary
National Child Labor Committee.
III.Why Mississippi Should Adopt the Uniform Child Labor Law.
[Part I of II.]
THE investigations covered in article 2 were made before the Mississippi child labor law went into effect. A more recent study of the conditions in April and May, 1911, was made by L. W. Hine, an agent of the national child labor committee. Fortunately, Mr. Hine was able to secure the aid of the camera in communicating his impressions to others. No anonymous or even signed denials can contradict the proof given with photographic fidelity by the camera that the law is being violated.
There has in recent years grown up another child employing industry in Mississippi which in some of its aspects is as bad as the cotton mill. It is the business of shucking and canning oysters and packing shrimps along the gulf coast. These children, in contrast to the children of the cotton mills, who are almost altogether of Mississippi stock, are mostly foreign children imported from Maryland and Delaware, where they are employed in the great truck gardens and berry fields and the vegetable canneries during the summer months, on account of the effective laws of those states, and then are brought to the gulf coast during the shrimp and oyster season. Thus they get no chance at all at an education. Mr. Hine’s report is as follows:
Feb. 24, 1911, I asked the manager of a certain packing house for permission to take some photos, and he said very emphatically that they permitted no one to take photos around the place while workers were there because of the fact they might be used by child labor people. On my own responsibility, then, I visited the plant at 5 a. m., Feb. 25, 1911, before the manager arrived and spent some time there. They all began work that morning at 4 a. m., but it is usually 3 a. m. on busy days. The little ones were there, too, and some babies—one, off in the corner, with a mass of quilts piled over it. From 4 a. m. the entire force worked until 4 p. m., with only enough time snatched from work during the day in which to take a few hurried bites. The breakfast, got in a hurry and in the dark, was not likely very nourishing. Sound asleep on the floor, rolled up against the steam chest, for it was a cold morning, was little Frank, eight years old, a boy who works some. His sister, Mamie, nine years old and an eager, nimble worker, said: “He’s lazy. I used to go to school, but mother won’t let me now because I shuck so fast.” I found considerable complaint about sore fingers caused by handling the shrimps. The fingers of many of the children are actually bleeding before the end of the day. They say it is the acid in the head of the shrimp that causes it. One manager told me that six hours was all that most pickers could stand the work. Then the fingers are so sore they have to stop. Some soak the fingers in an alum solution to harden them. Another drawback to the shrimp packing is the fact that the shrimps have to be kept ice cold all the time to preserve them. It would seem that six hours or less of handling icy shrimps would be bad for the children especially.
The mother of three-year-old Mary said she really does help considerably. So does a five-year-old sister, but they said the youngest was the best worker.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 18, 1921
Southeastern Kansas – Art Shields Reports on the Miner’s “Amazon Army”
From the Oklahoma Leader of December 13, 1921:
PITTSBURG, Kan., Dec 13- There is joy and laughter in the coal fields of Kansas for the strikebreakers are on the run before the militant ladles of that Sunflower state.
The fun begun before daylight when the 120 men who have helped themselves to the vacant jobs in the big Jackson-Walker mine No. 17 near South Franklin began to get off the two interurban cars and to get into hot water all at once.
They say there used to be some excitement in the old Amazon days, but it was nothing to the action out there on the Kansas prairie. Seven hundred and fifty lively ladies gave the travelers the liveliest reception they had ever experienced. Young women, old women, blondes, brunettes and every kind began swarming into those wishers for unhallowed work and began ruffing their feelings.
Deputies Looked On.
In the midst of the charming host were the forces of the law, Sheriff Gould and his deputies, to see that nothing happened that ought not to happen, and all they could do was to look on while the cause of the trouble was all removed by the visitors rushing pell mell back into the cars and begging the motormen to drive on.
What could the sheriff do against such a crowd of lovely femininity, all in their best bibs and tuckers, flying the stars and strips from a dozen poles and laughing and singing? One stalwart woman wrapped her country’s banner around the sheriff and gave him three cheers, and they all joined in and gave him three cheers, and gave the inter-urban cars a salvo of hurrahs as they went on with the men who tried to break the strike for the release of Howat and Dorchy.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 17, 1911 Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1911, Part III
Found in Fresno Speaking on Behalf of McNamara Brothers
From The Fresno Tribune of November 16, 1911:
From The Fresno Tribune of November 20, 1911:
MOTHER JONES TALKS FOR M’NAMARAS
Mother Jones, famous for her work throughout the country for strikers, Saturday night addressed a large gathering at union hall in behalf of the McNamara defense fund. Mother Jones is 79, yet her white hair is all that would show her age, for she is youthful in talk and actions.
Mother Jones pleaded for funds for the McNamara defense. She declared that union men would never stoop to blow up the Times building.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 16, 1911 Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1911, Part II
Found in California Speaking on Behalf of McNamara Brothers
From The Sacramento Bee of November 14, 1911:
“MOTHER” Jones, known throughout the country as a forceful speaker on Socialistic and Labor questions is coming to Sacramento. She will be he principal speaker at the “Capital and Labor” drama that is to be staged in the Clunie Theater to-morrow night. It is announced in local labor circles that Mother Jones is to speak in defense of the McNamara Brothers, now on trial in Los Angeles for the alleged dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times.
The drama “Capital and Labor” that is to be played at the Clunie Theater to-morrow night is in the nature of a benefit for the strikers in the local shops. It will be under the personal direction of Paul Gerson who will be supported by William A. Lowery member of the Blacksmith’s Local of San Francisco, who will appear in the role of the black smith in the play.
The receipts from the play, it is understood, will go into an emergency fund. From this fund relief will be given those unskilled laborers who were not organized at the time the strike was called and who hence are not entitled to strike benefits.
The company which is to stage the play is made up of professional talent and a good production is expected.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 15, 1911 Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1911, Part I Found Involved in Conflict Between Madero and Magón
From the Appeal to Reason of November 4, 1911:
Mexico.-The history of the Mexican revolution is too well known to need discussion here. Following the successful overthrow of Diaz there have appeared two tendencies of the working class movement in our sister republic. One of these, lead by [Ricardo Flores] Magon, is semi-anarchistic, while the other is socialistic. The Socialists have established a labor paper at the city of Mexico and both the Western Federation of Miners and the United Mine Workers have gone into the republic to organize the miners. Mother Jones is now there for that purpose, as is also Charles Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners. Madero has promised his protection. It is too early to make predictions as to the result.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From Regeneración of November 4, 1911 -Page 4, English Section:
…..Our readers must pardon us for piling up, week after week, the evidence of Madero’s complete subjection to the money power, and we ourselves feel that every mind open to conviction must have become persuaded long ago of the truthfulness of the charges we have been making for the last eight months. Unfortunately such women as “Mother Jones” apparently can be still won over by a handshake from Wall Street’s president-elect, and communications from men who are intriguing day and night for Madero are still played up in Socialist publications. For the most part, however, the Socialist press has dropped the Mexican revolution like a hot potato, it will have to take it up again, and, it is to be hoped, from an amended standpoint…..
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 14, 1911 From Yale, Oklahoma, Frank Little Exhorts Men Not to Scab on Fellow Workers
From the Payne County Farmer (Yale, Oklahoma) of December 13, 1911:
The Explanation.
Editor Payne Co. Farmer: In the issue of Dec. 6 there was a letter from Texas, by Mrs. J. B. MacClain. She states that, in that county, the sawmills are idle for the want of men.
The sawmill worker of Texas and Louisiana have been fighting the lumber trust, trying to force them to pay living wages. There has been a strike on in that country for some time. All working men should stay away. Be men. Don’t be a scab.-F. H. Little, organizer of the I. W. W.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 12, 1921 Los Angeles, California – Fellow Workers Found Guilty of Criminal Syndicalism
From The Los Angeles Times of December 8, 1921:
Nine defendants in the I.W.W. criminal syndicalism, case in Judge Willis’s court were found guilty last night. The Jury found Manuel Engdal not guilty since he not only denied membership in the organization, but a membership card in his name was not produced. The eleventh defendant, Thomas Bailey, was dismissed several days ago.
The defendants acted as their own attorneys. Most of them were charged with two counts, membership in the I.W.W. and treasonable propaganda. They will be sentenced tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. The convicted men are William Baker, Ben Whittling, R. Bendig, Abraham Shocker, Henry Matlln, James Olson, W. I. Fruit, Louis Allen and Edward Peters. The case has been under way since November 10. Dep. Dist.-Attys. Turney and McCartney conducted the prosecution.
“I regard this conviction as one of the most important ever secured in the courts of this country,” said Dist.-Atty. Woolwine last evening. “It serves notice upon the Reds of the world that they cannot with impunity enter America and here hatch plots and schemes for the overthrow of our government and institutions.”
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 11, 1911 Socialists Throughout the Grieve Deaths of Paul and Laura LaFargue
From The Coming Nation of December 9, 1911:
Death of the LaFargues
Paul LaFargue
That Paul LaFargue, the keen thinker, Jovial writer and cheerful companion, and his wife, Laura Marx LaFargue, the genial hostess, and co-worker of her husband have committed suicide is the startling news that has brought sorrow to hosts of Socialists throughout the world.
Those who had enjoyed the hospitality of their home at Draveil, near Paris, who knew their remarkable personalities and especially their apparently unfailing good humor and optimism the news seems incredible.
The reason given is that for years he had been suffering from a mysterious incurable disease that baffled the skill of even the greatest physicians of Paris to diagnose. Sixty-eight years of age, it seems that he, with his wife, looked upon the world and decided that for them the time had come to leave it and they acted upon that decision bravely and frankly.
Laura Marx LaFargue
For almost half a century Paul LaFargue has been known as a revolutionist. From the time when in 1866 he was expelled from the French University for having taken part in an anti-military demonstration, this expulsion sent him to England where he met Karl Marx, whose daughter Laura he married.
The story of his life has been the story of the revolutionary movement of Europe. Exiled from France, for activity in the Commune he returned to become a member of the Chamber of Deputies. With Jules Guesde he built up the strongest and the most intelligently revolutionary wing of the French Socialist party.
His writings have been translated into almost every language, and their sharp, biting wit, keen analytic power, shot through with that gentle humor so much needed and so seldom found in Socialist writings will go on for many years fighting the cause to which he and his wife gave so many years.
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