Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 11, 1912 Big Bill Haywood Lectures for The Review, Elected to N. E. C. of Socialist Party
From the International Socialist Review of January 1912:
William D. Haywood
The Haywood Lectures. During the National Executive Committee election [of the Socialist Party of America] (not over as we go to press) [see below for results] there has arisen a sudden and peculiar misunderstanding with relation to the routing of Comrade William D. Haywood by this office. Friends may have imagined that Comrade Haywood has yielded to the repeated and urgent requests of former National Secretary Barnes, acting under instructions from the National Executive Committee, to become one of the authorized lecturers on the National Lyceum Lecture Bureau, as did Comrade Frank Bohn under similar pressure, but we are glad to announce that Haywood preferred to continue lecturing under the auspices of the REVIEW.
The statement has recently been published broadcast by Comrade Robert Hunter, that locals securing Haywood were compelled to pay the REVIEW $250 a night. We take pleasure in repeating here the terms we have made ever since Comrade Haywood began to lecture for us. Except in the West, where close dates cannot be arranged at this time, our terms for Haywood dates are the local’s guarantee to take 500 admission tickets to the lecture (each ticket being good for a three months’ REVIEW subscription at 25 cents each, amounting to $125.00.) Out of this sum we pay $25.00 hall rent, supply all advertising material, donate 200 copies of the current REVIEW and pay all Haywood’s expenses.
The State Committee of Ohio is arranging dates in Ohio for Haywood from Jan. 15 to Feb. 15. Arrangements for other states may be made through this office. It might be well if our friends, who believe in fair play, would ask Comrade Hunter upon what foundation he based his published statements in this regard.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From the Baltimore Sun of Jan 1, 1912:
SOCIALIST PARTY ELECTS ———- National Executive Committee And Secretary Are Named.
Chicago, Dec. 31.-A national executive committee and a national secretary for the Socialist party, elected by referendum, the votes being sent to Chicago, were announced yesterday. On the executive committee thus chosen are Victor Berger, Milwaukee; Job B. Harriman, Los Angeles; William D. Haywood. Denver; Morris Hillquit, New York; Alexander Irvine, Los Angeles; Kate Richard O’Hare, St. Louis, and John Spargo, Yonkers, N. Y. John M. Work, of Chicago, was elected national secretary.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 10, 1912 Cartoon by Ryan Walker: “The Necklace of Pearls”
From The Coming Nation of January 6, 1912:
The $500,000 PEARL NECKLACE, 20 YEARS IN COLLECTING Yes, the steel workers have contributed everything to that $500,000 pearl necklace that ex-Judge Gary of the steel trust has given his wife.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 8, 1902 Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1901, Part II Found Ready to Answer Call for Annual Convention of Coal Miners
From The Indianapolis News of December 23, 1901:
TO MINE WORKERS ———- Call for Annual Convention Next Month. ———-
NEARLY A THOUSAND DELEGATES WILL ATTEND.
———- GREAT LABOR ORGANIZATION ———- PRESIDENT MITCHELL ON CIVIC FEDERATION PLAN.
———- He Sees Great Promise in the Proposed Meeting of Capital and Labor.
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[Mother Jones to Take Part.]
The call for the annual convention of the United Mine Workers of America and the joint conference of the miners and bituminous operators of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, who are now represented in the interstate agreement, was issued to-day. The convention of the mine workers will be held in Tomlinson Hall. It will begin January 20, and will continue until January 30, when the miners and operators will begin their joint conference.
President Mitchell said to-day that the convention will be the largest that has ever represented any single body of organized labor. Numerically it will exceed the convention of the American Federation of Labor, held recently at Scranton, Pa., as there will be nearly one thousand delegates.Preparations are being made throughout every bituminous field in the United States now for the meeting. It is also expected that every operator of the four States concerned in the interstate agreement will be represented.
The operators of Virginia and West Virginia, who thus far have refused to meet the miners, have been invited and it is thought that a number of them will be present and will pave the way for a joint agreement between them and their men. Secretary [William B.] Wilson, of the miners, says that Ben Tillett, the famous English labor leader, will be present throughout the proceedings. “Mother” Jones, a national character among labor unions, will also take part in the convention…
At their convention, the miners will determine on the basis for their scale for the coming year and will also prepare other demands to which they will ask the operators to agree. All the proceedings except when the scale is fixed will open to the public. The operators also will probably meet in Indianapolis a few days before the date of the joint conference for the purpose of arranging for the presentation of their side. The night of January 30 at banquet will be given at Tomlinson Hall for the miners and operators.
The mine workers compose the largest labor organization in the world. The membership is now above 275,000.
President Mitchell, who has just returned from New York, where he attended the meeting of the National Civic Federation, says the work it contemplates is the greatest thing of the kind ever attempted, and that its magnitude can not be overestimated. He thinks that the fact that men like Senator Hanna and President Schwab, of the steel corporation attended the meeting is an acknowledgment of the fact that there is a labor problem to solve. He is also encouraged because men like Senator Hanna expressed a willingness to meet with representatives of organized labor in joint conference for the purpose of signing annual agreements. It is the opinion of President Mitchell that the Federation will try to work out a scheme whereby representatives of labor and capital everywhere may meet and perfect an annual agreement, “Whenever the representatives of capital and labor meet on an equality,” he declared, “then they will reach at agreement.”
President Mitchell thinks it probable that the Civic Federation will have another meeting in New York in February.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 7, 1902 Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1901, Part I Found in Old Virginia Organizing Miners for U. M. W. of A.
From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of December 2, 1901:
NONE WILL GO.
One of the agents who has been endeavoring to secure miners to go to Stonege [Stonega, near Norton] , Va., told a reporter Saturday that his mission was unsuccessful. Not one miner of ability consented to go.
Mother Jones is now at Stonege organizing the miners. She is not meeting with much success, but the fiery little woman never knew defeat.
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[Photograph added.]
From the Reynoldsville [Pennsylvania] Star of December 4, 1901:
Mother” Jones Friday Night.
“Mother” Jones, of Chicago, organizer for the U. M. W. of A., will deliver an address in Centennial hall Friday evening of this week, December fifth, in the interests of the Trades Unions of Reynoldsvllle. Everybody is invited to attend this meeting, as it will be a public meeting.
From The Richmond Dispatch [Virginia] of December 4, 1901:
MINERS’ STRIKE AT NORTON. ———- The Situation in Wise County…
WISE, VA. , December 2.-(Special.)-The strike at the mines of the Norton Coal, Company, Norton, Va., still continues. One hundred and fifty men are out.
The strike is said to have been caused by the action of the superintendent in discharging several employees who had joined the recently-organized union at that/mine.
A general strike in this section of the coal-fields is thought to be imminent. It is almost the sole topic of conversation around the mining towns. It is said that the operators at the other mines will dispute the right of the miners to organize, as the Norton Coal Company has done.
On the other hand, the general meeting of the union at Huntington, W. Va., ratified the Norton strike, thus showing their determination to organize in these fields.
In view of these facts, it. is hardly probable that a strike can be avoided…
From the Reynoldsville [Pennsylvania] Star of December 11, 1901:
“Mother” Jones, the labor organizer, who was to have delivered an address in Centennial hall last Friday evening, was called to Old Virginia on account of labor troubles there and could not come to this place. Thomas Haggerty said to representative of THE STAR that he expected to arrange to have “Mother” Jones come to Reynoldsvllle the latter part of this month.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 6, 1912 The New York City Street Cleaners Strike of November 1911, Part II
From the International Socialist Review of January 1912:
THE STRIKE OF THE SCAVENGERS
By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD
[Part II of II.]
The city officials made every effort to break the strike, and although they resorted to the brutal tactics the employing and ruling classes are accustomed to use everywhere in like cases, they met with little success.
Detective agencies were enlisted and were paid $5 for each man they secured, the strikebreaker receiving for his services $3 per day. It requires at least three scabs to do the work of one husky garbage driver, in addition to the number of police required for guard duty. The change was an expensive experiment on the part of the city authorities.
There were many bitter popular demonstrations against the strikebreakers. One man was knocked senseless by a brick thrown from a near-by roof, and was then run over by a wagon that broke both of his legs. He died shortly after being taken to the hospital. A child was run over and killed by one of the mayor’s scabs. Some policemen were injured, but this is not worthy of particular mention, as they are all still alive. Many arrests were made and strikers were cruelly beaten.
One of the chief lessons to be learned is the inefficiency of scab labor. This is obvious on every hand. While no particular skill is required in the collection of garbage and sweeping of streets, it requires a certain physical standard that is not reached by the casually employed, who do the work slowly, gingerly, spilling at least a third on the street in their clumsy efforts. This same inefficiency prevails in every shop strike, but there the bosses are able to furtively conceal their helplessness behind closed doors. The spirit of many a strike has been broken by apparent success which perhaps is as much of a failure as New York’s strike-breaking department.
The importance of the least considered, even the scavenger in the machinery of modern living is another lesson to be learned. If this strike had occurred in the summer season the sweltering heat enveloping the piles of filth on the streets would have borne this home with deadly emphasis.
But the piles of garbage in the streets of America’s greatest city grew higher and higher. Abominable enough in other parts of town, the stench in east side streets was almost unendurable. So bad did the situation become that the Merchants’ Association issued an appeal to “good citizens” to come out and take the strikers’ places.
So frightened did the city officials become that they allowed the piles of garbage to be set afire, though this could not fail to do great damage to the streets and endanger lives and dwellings from flying sparks. Gaynor and Edwards declared they would never take the strikers back, but would turn over the street cleaning to· private contractors. Such is the deal handed to the workers under capitalist “municipal operation.”
The Socialist Party was quick to take a hand in the fight and held a big mass meeting in Cooper Union at which the treatment accorded the strikers was denounced.
The teamsters’ and truck drivers’ unions also pledged their “moral support,”but they didn’t give the strikers the kind of support they needed most. A general walk-out of all the teamsters in the city-“a stoppage of everything on wheels,” as one speaker put it-would have ended the fear of pestilence and won the garbage collectors’ strike for them in about one day. But that though “threatened,” never came.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 5, 1912
The New York City Street Cleaners Strike of November 1911
From the International Socialist Review of January 1912:
[Part I of II.]
If 4,000 Wall street brokers or 4,000 assorted employers suddenly left their offices or were carried off by a pestilence in New York, the life and activities of that city, after the first sensation, would go on much as usual. Society and industry would proceed with but little interruption. But when 4,000 humble street cleaning employes suddenly quit work in the metropolis in the second week in November [1911] the entire administration of the second greatest city in the world was upset and for a time demoralized. High-salaried officials could do little but gnash their teeth be carried out. Rich and powerful merchants shrieked and groaned at the sight of the piles of odoriferous garbage standing untouched in front of their palaces of profit. Comfortable and well-fed householders and property owners held their noses and begged the agitated city government to do something. Four million people were threatened with pestilence and disease, which inevitably would have been widespread had not these despised and usually silent workers chosen a cold and freezing period in which to strike.
On the night of November 8 these garbage wagon drivers went out, their demand being a return to the daylight collection of garbage instead of the continental system of night work recently installed by Mayor Gaynor. The men contended that they were imposed upon by this continental system, the work at night being much more of a strain, and that in addition the hours had been increased from eight to ten or eleven without any additional pay.
When the demand for a change was first made of Commissioner Edwards the garbage cleaners received the following bulldozing reply, duly expressive of the feelings of a politician toward his underlings:
I understand that there is some dissatisfaction on the· part of the drivers on account of night work. I want the drivers in the Department of Street Cleaning to thoroughly understand that night work will go on as usual, and any absentees or men failing to· go to work will be dismissed from the Department of Street Cleaning and never be allowed to return.
Stable foremen will suspend any men failing to go to work and will forward charges to the main office.
WILLIAM H. EDWARDS,
Commissioner.
This reply was backed up by the following communication from Mayor Gaynor to Edwards:
Sir: In regard to the threatened strike of the drivers and garbage collectors of your department, be so good as to notify them at once by general order to strike just as soon as they see fit. And see to it that not one of the strikers gets back into the city employment again.We can get along without them. It will inconvenience the householders for a few days, but they will stand it patiently. Let the contract system be resorted to, if necessary.
The city pays the men of your department the highest wages for the shortest hours, and in addition, a pension law was passed for them last winter. If they think they can make the city conform to their dictation by striking they will find themselves grievously mistaken. The city’s business has to be done as the charter prescribes, and no strike can force it to be done in any other way. The city is not in a position of a private employer and able to make any terms with its employes it sees fit.
W. ]. GAYNOR,
Mayor.
In the face of official opposition and stern determination as expressed by the foregoing communications, the men themselves stood firm, with at least the result that the political scientists have a practical lesson to help solve as well as discuss.
Thousands of wagon loads of garbage were piling up in the streets, and in the congested districts of the east side there were some streets almost impassable. Extraordinary efforts were made to remove garbage from business centers and elite residential districts. It is in this instance as in all others that the poor and uninfluential are discriminated against. The fashionable localities looked fairly clean, while just a few squares away in the tenement districts the fermenting piles of cast-off filth were breeding disease germs that would first attack the poor, but that might indeed ravage the city.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 4, 1922
Walter F. White on Social Equality and “The Negro Question in America”
From The Liberator of January 1922:
What is Social Equality
Walter F. White
No speech uttered in the past decade on the Negro question in America has created such nation-wide comment as that of President Harding recently at Birmingham in which he declared that there must be complete economic, political, educational and industrial equality between white and colored people in the United States, but there must and can never be any “social equality.” “Men of both races may well stand uncompromisingly,” he said, “against every suggestion of social equality.”
There can be no objection raised to many of the utterances of Mr. Harding on that occasion. Much credit is due him for daring to say them in the South. The one point on which intelligent Americans will question his wisdom is the dragging in of that Southern shibboleth which has been used for a half-century to cover countless lynchings, the robbery and exploitation of nine million Negroes through the peonage system, the nullification to all practical intents and purposes of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, and the denial of common justice to Negroes in the South. That weapon which the South has used so effectively, especially in hoodwinking and gulling the North, is the charge that any Negro who attempts to better his own condition or that of his race is seeking to place himself as a social equal with the white people of that community.
But what is this thing called social equality? Herbert J. Seligmann, in his able analysis of the race question, “The Negro Faces America,” says:
What does the white American mean by social equality? To take the words at their face value, one would suppose he meant association of colored and white persons in the home, personal intercourse without regard to race. In practice the denial of social equality is not confined to personal relations, but includes civil procedure. The socially inferior Negro is exploited on the farm because white lawyers will not take his case against white planters. As soon as the bar of social inferiority is broken down the Negro threatens the white man with competition. Every demand for common justice for the Negro, that he be treated as a human being, if not as a United States citizen, can be and is met with the retort that the demand is for social equality. Instantly every chord of jealousy and hatred vibrates among certain classes of whites-and in the resulting atmosphere of unreasoning fury even the most moderate proposals for the betterment of race relations takes on the aspect of impossibilism. By the almost universal admission of white men and white newspapers, denial of social equality does not mean what the words imply. It means that Negroes cannot obtain justice in many Southern courts; it means that they cannot obtain decent education, accommodation in public places and on public carriers; it means that every means is used to force home their helplessness by insult, which, if it is resisted, will be followed by the administration of the torch or the hempen rope or the bullet.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 3, 1902 San Juan, Porto Rico – Organizer Santiago Iglesias Sentenced to Two Years in Prison
From the International Socialist Review of January 1902:
THE WORLD OF LABOR
By Max. S. Hayes.
[…..]
Santiago Iglesias, who was sent to Porto Rico on an organizing expedition by the A. F. of L., and who was arrested the moment he stepped on shore for having led a strike, was sentenced to three years imprisonment [two years, three months, eight days].
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 2, 1902 Guy H. and Theodocia Lockwood Travel in Wagon, Lecture for Socialism
From The Comrade of January 1902:
How to reach the vast population scattered in the towns and small cities-is certainly a problem worthy of any socialist consideration. To be sure, the Socialist movement in the United States has not as yet assumed that proportion in the large, industrial centers to make propaganda in the country a matter of pressing necessity. But the movement, although small, must from the very start take cognizance of all kinds of conditions and lay the foundations accordingly.
It is in this light that recognition must be given to Guy H. Lockwood and wife, who are at the head of a movement to build and equip automobile lecture wagons, designed to travel from town to town in the service of the socialist movement. To spread Socialism is, of course, the aim. The Lockwoods are convinced that much propaganda can be carried on among the farmers, provided socialism is presented to them in an “acceptable” form. The automobile, it is claimed, is the cheapest and most attractive means to accomplish the work.
Guy H. Lockwood is very enthusiastic over his scheme. He feels quite sure that it will be a success, and his experience during the past few years ought to count for much. Since 1897 he has been travelling in a wagon drawn by a pair of horses and preaching Socialism under great diversity of circumstances.
The “van method” of reaching the masses is not by any means original with the Lockwoods. In California the socialists have tried it with much success. Previous to his going East, Job Harriman, Vice-Presidential candidate of the S. D. P. in 1900, was in full charge of a well-equipped wagon mission, and his splendid work as speaker and organizer was a great factor in giving the socialists of the Golden State a handsome increase of votes in 1898.
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The call for the annual convention of the United Mine Workers of America and the joint conference of the miners and bituminous operators of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, who are now represented in the interstate agreement, was issued to-day. The convention of the mine workers will be held in Tomlinson Hall. It will begin January 20, and will continue until January 30, when the miners and operators will begin their joint conference.
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