Month: December 2022

Hellraisers Journal: Supreme Court Sets Aside Pennsylvania Law for Protection of Anthracite Miners, Held to Be Confiscatory

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Life Cheaper Than Props, Trinidad CO, Sept 16, 1913, Hse Com p2630—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 31, 1922
Pennsylvania Law for Protection of Anthracite Miners Set Aside by Supreme Court

From the Duluth Labor World of December 30, 1922:

COURT DECLARES LABOR ACT VOID
———-
Pennsylvania Mine Cave-In Law
Held to Be Confiscatory
———-

Spangler MnDs Death Pit, Wlgtn DE Eve Jr p1, Nov 9, 1922

The United States Supreme court has set aside the Pennsylvania law which prohibited the mining of anthracite coal in a manner that would endanger the lives or injure the property of persons-occupying houses situated on the surface soil. Justice Brandeis dissented.

The court held that the law deprived coal owners of valuable property rights without compensation. Under the decision, coal owners can mine coal without any regard for cave-ins that endanger lives and property, unless the coal that is necessary for props is paid for.

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Brandeis said:

If by mining anthracite coal the owner would necessarily unloose poisonous gases, I suppose no one would doubt the power of the state to prevent the mining without buying his coal field. And why may not the state, likewise, without paying compensation, prohibit one from digging so deep or excavating so near the surface as to expose the community to like dangers? In the latter case, as in the former, carrying on the business would be a public nuisance.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Women Workers of the Mills of Little Falls Testify Before the State Board of Arbitration; Live in Abject Poverty

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EGF Organize Women, IW p4, June 1, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 29, 1912
Little Falls, New York – Women Working in Textile Mills Live on Slave Wages

From the Binghamton Press and Leader of December 27, 1912:

ARBITRATORS HEAR HOW WOMEN
SLAVE IN LITTLE FALLS MILLS
———-
Eating While Working, Wool Winder
Has Made as Much as $7 in a Week
———-

Little Falls, Strikers at Slovak Hall, Matilda Rabinowitz, ISR p459, Dec 1912

Little Falls, Dec. 27.-Three members of the State Board of Arbitration, acting as mediators in the Little Falls textile strike, which has lasted for months, began taking testimony today.

The strikers were heard first, all witnesses being members of the union. They declared they had quit work because their wages were hardly sufficient for them to live on.

Mary Sroka, two years in America, testified that by working from 7 a. m. to 6 p. m. and taking very little time for luncheon, she had once made $6 in a week of five days. Sometimes, she said, she made only $2.50 and $3. She was an inspector in the finishing room of the Phoenix Mills.

Mrs. Suie Mizerak, a winder of wool, testified that she worked from 6 a. m. to 8 p. m., eating her meals as she worked, and made from $5 to $7 a week.

Stanislawa Cououn, an 18-year-old girl, testified that she received $1 a day for her work as a folder.

Agnes Kalolaka, a spinner, said she received $7 a week before the 54-hour law went into effect; thereafter, she received $6.37.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Women Workers of the Mills of Little Falls Testify Before the State Board of Arbitration; Live in Abject Poverty” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: New Pamphlets Now Available from IWW Headquarters

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 28, 1912
New Pamphlets Now Available from I. W. W. Headquarters in Chicago

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 26, 1912:

Ad for Pamphlets: Firing Line, Ettor n Giovannitti bf Jury, IW p7, Dec 26, 1912

On the Firing Line

Extracts from the Report of the General Executive Board
to the Seventh Annual Convention
of the Industrial Workers of the World
Held in Chicago, Ill., Sept. 17 to 27, 1912
-I. W. W. General Executive Board: Thomas Halcro
F. H. Little, Ewald Koettgen, George Speed

Ettor and Giovannitti Before the Jury
          at Salem, Massachusetts, November 23, 1912

IWW pamphlets Firing Line, Ettor n Giovannitti Jury, from Ad IW p7, Dec 7, 1912

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: New Pamphlets Now Available from IWW Headquarters” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Little Falls Textile Strikers Send Their Children Away to Schenectady

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Helen Schloss, Women w Hungry Souls, Black Hills Dly Rg p2, July 15, 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 27, 1912
Little Falls, New York – Textile Strikers Send Children to Socialists in Schenectady

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 26, 1912:

SENDING THEIR CHILDREN AWAY
[-by Phillips Russell]
———-

Article Little Falls Strikers Send Children Away, IW p1, Dec 26, 1912

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: Little Falls Textile Strikers Send Their Children Away to Schenectady” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Oklahoma Kate” Calls for Marriage and Motherhood Strike until Industrial Conditions for Women Improve

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote T Roosevelt Letter re Race Suicide to Marie Van Horst Oct 18, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 26, 1912
Boston, Massachusetts – Kate Barnard Calls for Strike on Matrimony and Motherhood

From the Duluth Labor World of December 21, 1912:

TOO MANY BABIES IN AMERICA NOW?
———-
Oklahoma Kate Tells Effete Boston There Is
No Need for More Race As It Is Now.
———-

OVER-WORKED MOTHERS FIRST
CAUSE OF CRIME
———-
Calls Strike On Matrimony and Motherhood Until
Women Are Granted Better Conditions.
———-

Kate Barnard, Marriage Strike, NY Eve Wld p24, Dec 19, 1912

BOSTON, Dec. 19.—”Don’t get married, girls; go on a mother strike until industrial conditions for women are better,” was the appeal made here today by Miss Kate Barnard, prison commissioner of Oklahoma, where she is sometimes called “Oklahoma Kate.”

[Miss Barnard declared:]

We have no need for more of our race as it is at present. I have decided not to marry until women are far better off industrially and politically, and I’m not an old woman, either.

Miss Barnard is—well, perhaps she might be 30—or thereabouts—and she is very pretty.

Where Crime Starts.

[Said Miss Barnard;]

The first cause of crime is the overworking of mothers and those who some day will be mothers.

She told how Oklahoma got its child labor law, which has been a model for 17 states since, and said this and the compulsory education law were aimed directly at conservation of humanity and reduction of crime.

[She declared:]

It’s a farce to pass a child labor law or a compulsory education law unless you provide against poverty, keeping children out of school.

She told how her bill provides that if a widow has children at work, they can be taken from the mill and sent to school and the state will pay their wages, just as though they were at work. There are 5,461 children now at school in Oklahoma under this provision.

”Last” But Five Years.

Miss Barnard described child labor in glass factories where little workers “last” from three to five years.

[She cried:]

And I say that the American girls have no time for matrimony until this is changed. We don’t need any more of the race until we can clear up what we have.

Ida Tarbell, the well known magazine writer, also spoke. She has concluded that married women and girls who enter industrial life without pressing need form one of the worst dangers to civilization in this coun­try.

Miss Tarbell has been paying special attention to the question of the minimum wage for women and to­day declared:

The minimum wage for women in Boston should be set at $9 while in New York it should be $1 higher. I’d hate to have any girl I cared about working in New York for less than $10.

Discussing the observations she has made while gathering material for a new series of articles on the new business ethics of today. Miss Tarbell said:

How They Live a Mystery.

Plenty of girls in New York are living on $6 a week and are keeping straight on it, too. It can be done, but how the girls do it is a mystery. Those girls living on those few meager dollars and living right are the heroines of the age.

The girl who lives at home and accepts a position for $5 or $6 a week is the girl who makes it hard for the homeless and self-supporting girl to make a living—makes it hard for her to remain a good girl.

The woman who works for less than a living wage is the woman who marries and continues to work. She is the most vicious element in a workaday world. We’ve got to realize that marriage and the home are something more than two people living together and supporting themselves. We’ve got to realize what a function it is in the great scheme of things.

The whole basis, of our social development is the family. In the first place there are children to be considered. A woman must give up her work or race suicide is the result. Of course from the economic view point the couple are much better off if the woman stays at home and the man works. If they are both working the aggregate earnings are more, but the aggregate expenses are comparatively greater also and there is no conserving done; none of the countless things that make a dollar have a dollar’s purchasing power.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Oklahoma Kate” Calls for Marriage and Motherhood Strike until Industrial Conditions for Women Improve” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Coming Nation-Alfred Segal: Striking Miners Are Winning the Fight at Eskdale, West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Revolution Is Here, Speech Cton WV, Sept 21, 1912, Steel Speeches p116—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 23, 1912
American Flag Stands Tall Over Miners’ Tent Colony at Eskdale, West Virginia

From The Coming Nation of December 7, 1912:

Winning the Fight at Eskdale
———-

By Alfred Segal
———-

WV Eskdale Tents Flag, Cmg Ntn p5, Dec 7, 1912

THERE was a tremendous excitement in the little village of Eskdale, W. Va.

An American flag waves over the main street of Eskdale (perhaps to give assurance that Eskdale is really in America and not in Russia); but on the same street you see little children barefoot, now in November, because they haven’t any shoes, and you see the families of striking miners, evicted and driven into the highways by the Coal Dukes, living under tents because they have no homes. You are ashamed to enjoy the meager comforts of your hotel room after you have lived a day with the misery of Eskdale.

Two rods from the tents stand the coal hills with their fabulous wealth-the fine tables set by nature for all her children and yet within sight of the feast they are starving.

Well, the heart of Eskdale was beating like a trip-hammer. Word had come down through the hills that the governor had declared martial law over the strike district and that the soldiers were coming.

The echoes of gun-shots were rolling down into the valley. They came into Eskdale like the rumble of cannon. Somewhere up in the hills there was another battle on between miners and mine guards-one of those fights that make the quickly-dug, rude graves that you can find in lonely places in the coal hills.

Oh, yes, it’s lawlessness all right. But you can see it and hear it and some people can understand it. For years and years West Virginia has been ruled by respectable, invisible lawlessness which controlled courts, ran the legislatures and elected United States senators and is now responsible for the barefoot little children and the homeless exiles in the tents.

The soldiers were coming.

It runs through Eskdale’s mind that what it wants is a living wage, justice and fair-dealing and here the governor was sending the soldiers.

The shot echoes crashed without pause down the valley, waking sleeping babies under the tents and arousing strange stirrings in the hearts of the men and women of Eskdale, needing bread, but hungering only for freedom.

And then the distant toot of the engine which was pulling the martial law special and the soldiers, broke upon the village. Eskdale crowded to the railroad track. The train rumbled past toward the depot.

In the first car were the soldiers, guns held firmly in front of them, ready for work.

And in the second car-

“Scab, scab,” cried a boy, shrill-voiced.

He pointed at a window in the second car-at a face, soiled, weary-eyed, unshaven, crowned with a battered hat. And behind this face there was another and another-a whole car-load of such faces.

“Scab, scab”-the men and women took up the cry. They could not understand that these men were like themselves the dupes of the system.

Martial law had come into the strike zone with a shipment of strike-breakers whom it was protecting, with orders to shoot to kill if one of them was molested. The state of West Virginia had become a strike-breaking agency.

And to the inhabitants of its hills, the state had given so little protection through all these years. They had asked for laws that would emancipate them from the tyranny of the mine guard system-and had been denied. They had asked for compensation laws that would protect their families against the consequences of fatal accident in the mines-and had been denied.

And here were the strike-breakers come to take their jobs and to live upon their hills under protection of their militia.

“Scab, scab,” they jeered.

[Hunger Squad Pitched Against Hunger Squad]

I was there and spoke to the strike-breakers-men and boys recruited from the hunger squads of the East Side of New York, none of them miners, weary with the futile search for work at their trades, and desperate enough to throw themselves at adventure as strike-breakers for the sake of a job.

The despair of hunger, you see, knows no state lines. It recruits the strike-breaker in New York. It scourges to violence the striking miner of West Virginia. Hunger squad is pitched against hunger squad.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Coming Nation-Alfred Segal: Striking Miners Are Winning the Fight at Eskdale, West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Miners, Wives and Children, of Pennsylvania Anthracite, Brings Commissioners to Tears

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Evicted Miners Baby Dies on Roadside, Evl Jr Ns p3, Sept 28, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 21, 1902
Scranton, Pennsylvania – Misery of Miners’ Lives Describe Before Coal Commission

From the Butte Labor World of December 19, 1902:

PA Miners Slave Pens, Btt Lbr Wld p1, Dec 19, 1902

The other day members of the strike commission wept when a miner told his simple, straightforward story of incredible ill-treatment-of inhumanity that astounded the judges.

The veil was raised a few inches higher-and the commissioners were astonished as they looked beyond. Bishop Spalding swung around in his chair, turning his back upon the courtroom to hide his tears. Assistant Recorder Mosely made no attempt to hide his. Judge Gray’s face was white and there were hard, indignant lines about his mouth as he echoed the words of the coal trust lawyer: “Yes, that is all,” adding, “and it is enough!”

If there be lower depth of human misery than those in which these miners live they have never been fathomed.

Millions have wept over the sorrows that plied upon Jean Valjean, but Victor Hugo’s hero was never a more heartrending type of misery than was old Henry Coll [Call] as he told how he had bent his back under the brutal yoke of men who have posed before the country as philanthropists and claimed a God-given right to this positions as employers of labor.

Coll had had every bone in his body, except his neck, broken in the service of these people; and after the strike had been turned out of his house-a poor place, it is true, but the only home he knew-with a sick wife, her hundred-year-old mother, his son and the children to two comrades who had been killed at work, and with whom he in his charity had shared his home. They had been turned out at a moment’s notice into the cold street to perish. His wife had died as the result of the exposure and he had just come from burying her to tell his story.

Then there was the tale of Kate Burns. Her husband had been killed also working for these taskmasters, and to live she had sent her little boys to the breakers. There they had slaved for 78 cents a day, but never received a cent of pay in fourteen years, their earnings being applied by the company to paying the rent, while she, by washing and scrubbing, had earned barely enough to support the little family.

It is the rich men who imposed hardships like these upon those who work for them that refused to arbitrate and insulted the president when he suggested it.

But the veil is up and the horrors behind it are being laid bare for all the world to see.-N. Y. American.

—————

MARKLE’S SLAVES TELL OF THE EVILS
———-

Tuesday, December 9, was a day of horrors at Scranton, Pa., for those who listened to the evidence before the strike commission. The pathetic stories of the former witnesses were almost forgotten as the stories of still more unfortunate slaves of the miners were told.

John Markle, who had almost achieved the reputation as the philanthropist of the coal field, was not present to contradict, the stories of his employes, nor was there any legal representative to attempt to discredit these stories or to soften their influence upon the members of the commission…..

[Emphasis added.]

Note: the article goes on to describe testimony from:

Mrs. Kate Burns, widow: husband killed in mines, children forced to work in mines,  forced to go to work washing and cleaning as soon as baby born.

Henry Coll: Evicted with wife, children and very elderly mother-in-law, had been severely injured in mines, wife ill when family evicted and died shortly thereafter.

Michael Baker: age 18, had frequently been clubbed, beaten and sworn at by breaker boss.

Ella Chippe [Chippa], widow: husband died in mines, son (Andrew) forced to work as breaker boy, son’s pay taken to pay debts, baby born after death of husband.

Mary Ann Raber, widow: husband killed in mines with Mrs. Chippe’s husband, four children to support, son sent to work in mines,

Testimony given by miners proves that they are over-charged for doctor’s fees, for powder, and underpaid for the coal they mined due to coal cars continually increasing in size. Price of groceries increased by 30% since 1900.

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Testimony of Miners, Wives and Children, of Pennsylvania Anthracite, Brings Commissioners to Tears” →