Author: Janet Raye

Hellraisers Journal: Anna Louise Strong on Everett’s Bloody Sunday: “Does Might Make Right—Legally?”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday January 28, 1917
From The Survey: “The boys in jails are a cheerful lot.”

The boys in jail are a cheerful lot….When they disliked their food, says a conservative newspaper, they went on strike and “sang all night.” Sang all night! What sane adults in our drab, business-as-usual world would think of doing that? Who, in fact, could think of doing it but college boys or Industrial Workers of the World, cheerfully defying authority?

So says Anna Louise Strong in the latest issue of The Survey. The entire article from the January 27th edition can be found below:

Everett’s Bloody Sunday

A Free Speech Fight That Led to a Murder Trial

By Anna Louise Strong

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY SEATTLE COUNCIL OF SOCIAL AGENCIES

Anna Louise Strong, 1885-1970, Spartacus

THE biggest “labor trial” in the history of the country is now on in Everett, Wash. Seventy-four men are accused of first-degree murder-seventy-four workers who participated in a conflict in which five workers and two deputies were killed. The side which lost the most men is also the side charged with murder. “Might makes right—legally,” explains the I. W. W.

Everett’s “bloody Sunday” is already a familiar word, almost a byword, throughout the labor press. Yet the occurrences in Everett are little noticed by daily papers or magazines of general circulation, much less the causes that led up to it.

Everett is a small city to the north of Seattle. Its main business is lumber. The big mill-owners control its Commercial Club. Eighteen months ago wages were reduced in the shingle mills of Everett, this in the face of the increasing cost of living. The promise was made that when the market improved wages would be raised again. Early last year shingle prices rose, but wages did not follow, and on May 1 the shingle-weavers went out on strike. The usual complications resulted: a group of employers refusing to meet the officers of the union; a picket line; imported strike-breakers, better known for their fighting ability than for their working skill; minor altercations in which the power of the law was used practically invariably against the workers. Such was the background of the I. W. W. free speech fight.

During all this time the I. W. W. organization had maintained a small headquarters in Everett, but had made little headway. It had no connection with the shingle-weavers, and had made little impression upon them. But the I. W. W. started a street-speaking campaign and leaped into public notice as soon as the police and special deputies began dragging them from their soap-boxes to jail. It is stated that the first arrest made was of a man who was reading from the United States Industrial Relations Commission report. “That sort of stuff don’t go here,” said the outraged policeman, overhearing the terrific indictment of working-class conditions in America. Arrested men were beaten and severely handled; they were made to run the gauntlet between rows of deputized citizens, and the old, old, always unsuccessful policy of suppression of speech by violence was attempted.

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Hellraisers Journal: Debs Indeed on Deck of Appeal to Reason, Calls for Action: “We Must Fight!”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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If they hang Moyer and Haywood,
they’ve got to hang me.
-Eugene Victor Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday January 27, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: “We Must Fight! by Eugene V. Debs

HMP, We Must Fight, EVD, AtR, Jan 26, 1907

THE supreme court and the president of the United States have left us no other alternative. We have got to stand up like men or crawl on our bellies like cravens.

There is no compromise.

The class struggle is as clearly reflected in the supreme court decision and the president’s action as if traced in the skies in letter of fire. All the powers of capitalism, from Standard Oil down, are combined against Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, and find expression along the political line all the way from Ruzvlt [Roosevelt] to McPartland [McParland] and along the judicial line all the way from the supreme court of the United States to a police magistrate in Idaho.

It is not a case of punishing crime that law may be vindicated, but the violation of law that crime may be committed.

The case against our comrades is notorious in court annals for the utter defiance of all law, state and national, statutory and constitutional, that has marked its proceedings from its inception. Indeed, the case, to be properly understood, must be traced back at least as far as the purchase by the mine owners and smelter trust of the legislature of Colorado, at the current Colorado rates per head, thereby defeating the eight-hour amendment which the people of that Guggenheim state by a clear majority of nearly 50,000 votes had commanded these political perverts to enact into law. This was followed by the military despotism of the infamous Peabody and his sodden satraps, who emblazoned the escutcheon of his murderous administration with the immortal shibboleths: “To hell with the constitution,” “To hell with habeas corpus” and “To hell with any court that decides against us.” These are some of the foundation stones of the fabric of law and order which Ruzvlt sent Taft out to Idaho to commend to the people of that state.

This law and order cry issues from the brazen throats of political hirelings, the tools of capitalism, to conceal its own crimes.

When such monsters as Peabody and Gooding and such misshapen degenerates as McPartland talk about law and order in the lurid light of their own crimes, and President Ruzvlt sends his fat special emissary to the scene of these crimes to give them the backing of the national administration, all in the name of law and order, and this in the very shadow of a dungeon in which innocent kidnaped American citizens are guarded by criminal body-snatchers-when it comes to this, then, indeed, has justice fled to brutish beasts, all law is miserable mockery, and even hypocrisy, used as she is to sickening saturnalia, is nauseated and deserts the scene.

That our comrades have been kidnaped and are unlawfully held by legalized brute force is admitted; there is no question about it, not even by the supreme court. That the preconceived purpose is to do them to death, regardless of their innocence, has been apparent from the start.

It is not as individuals that these workingmen are to be murdered, but as the incarnation of class-conscious organized labor that they must be annihilated.

That makes the issue my issue and their cause my cause.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones to Mrs. Palmer, Remembers Lattimer: “In this fight I wept at the grave of nineteen workers…”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday January 26, 1907
From Chicago, Illinois – Mother Jones Writes to Mrs. Palmer

The following letter, from Mother Jones to Mrs. Potter Palmer, Chicago socialite, was published in the January 24th edition of the Miners Magazine, official organ of the Western Federation of Miners.

43 Welton Place, Chicago, Ill.,
January 12, 1907

Mrs. Potter Palmer,
100 Lake Shore Drive,
Chicago, Ill.
Dear Madam:

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

By the announcement of the daily press I learn that you are to entertain a number of persons who are to be present as representatives of two recognized classes of American citizens-the working class and the capitalist class, and that the purpose of this gathering is to choose a common ground on which the conflicting interests of these two classes may be harmonized and the present strife between the organized forces of these two classes may be brought to a peaceful and satisfactory end.

I credit you with perfect sincerity in this matter, but being fully aware that your environment and whole life has prevented you from seeing and understanding the true relationship of these two classes in this republic and the nature of the conflict which you think can be ended by such means as you are so prominently associated with, and with a desire that you may see and understand it in all its grim reality, I respectfully submit these few personal experiences for your kind consideration.

I am a workman’s daughter, by occupation a dress-maker and school teacher, and during this last twenty-five years an active worker in the organized labor movement. During the past seventy years of my life I have been subject to the authority of the capitalist class and for the last thirty-five years I have been conscious of this fact. With the years’ personal experience-the roughest kind best of all teachers-I have learned that there is an irrepressible conflict that will never end between the working-class and the capitalist-class, until these two classes disappear and the worker alone remains the producer and owner of the capital produced.

In this fight I wept at the grave of nineteen workers shot on the highways of Latterman [Lattimer], Pennsylvania in 1897. In the same place I marched with 5,000 women eighteen miles in the night seeking bread for their children, and halted with the bayonets of the Coal and Iron police who had orders to shoot to kill.

Lattimer Massacre of 1897, Locomotive Firemen's Mag, Nov 1897

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones to Mrs. Palmer, Remembers Lattimer: “In this fight I wept at the grave of nineteen workers…”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Families Gather at Mouth of Primero Mine As Search for Bodies Continues

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones,
quoting a mine superintendent:
“Dagos are cheaper than props.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday January 25, 1907
Near Trinidad, Colorado – Explosion at Primero Mine

Primero Mine Explosion, Ottawa (KS) Dly Rpb, Jan 24, 1907

From the Cherryvale, Kansas, Daily Republican of January 23, 1907

TWENTY MINERS KILLED.
—–
Explosion in C. F. & I. Mine
at Primero, Colorado.
—–

By the Associated Press.

Trinidad. Colo., Jan. 23.-An explosion occurred in the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., mine at Primero early this morning. Twenty miners, all believed to be foreigners, are reported killed. The explosion was in the main entry and is supposed to have been caused by a windy shot. The roof of the mine later caved in making it impossible for rescuers to enter. Great excitement prevails among women and stricken relatives of the entombed men who are gathered at the mouth of the pit.

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Dream of Debs” by Jack London, Fictional Account of a General Strike

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal Wednesday January 24, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: A Story by Jack London

The pen of Jack London, perhaps our greatest Socialist writer, was silenced by death last November. And, therefore, we were pleased to find London’s fictional account of The General Strike republished in this month’s edition of the Review.

Jack London with sig 10-28-1915, ISR January 1917

ISR Dream of Debs by J London, January 1917

I awoke fully an hour before my customary time. This in itself was remarkable, and I lay very wide awake, pondering over it. Something was the matter, something was wrong-I knew not what. I was oppressed by a premonition of something terrible that had happened or was about to happen. But what was it? I strove to orient myself. I remembered that at the time of the Great Earthquake of 1906 many claimed they awakened some moments before the first shock and that during these moments they experienced strange feelings of dread. Was San Francisco again to be visited by earthquake?

I lay for a full minute, numbly expectant, but there occurred no reeling of walls nor shock and grind of falling masonry. All was quiet. That was it! The silence! No wonder I had been perturbed. The hum of the great live city was strangely absent. The surface cars passed along my street, at that time of day, on an average of one every three minutes; but in the ten succeeding minutes not a car passed. Perhaps it was a street-railway strike, was my thought; or perhaps there had been an accident and the power was shut off. But no, the silence was too profound. I heard no jar and rattle of wagon wheels, nor stamp of iron-shod hoofs straining up the steep cobble-stones.

Pressing the push-button beside my bed, I strove to hear the sound of the bell, though I well knew it was impossible for the sound to rise three stories to me even if the bell did ring. It rang all right, for a few minutes later Brown entered with the tray and morning paper. Though his features were impassive as ever, I noted a startled, apprehensive light in his eyes. I noted, also, that there was no cream on the tray.

“The Creamery did not deliver this morning,” he explained; “nor did the bakery.”

I glanced again at the tray. There were no fresh French rolls-only slices of stale graham bread from yesterday, the most detestable of bread so far as I was concerned.

“Nothing was delivered this morning, sir,” Brown started to explain apologetically; but I interrupted him.

“The paper?”

“Yes, sir, it was delivered, but it was the only thing, and it is the last time, too. There won’t be any paper to-morrow. The paper says so. Can I send out and get you some condensed milk?”

I shook my head, accepted the coffee black, and spread open the paper. The headlines explained everything-explained too much, in fact, for the lengths of pessimism to which the journal went were ridiculous. A general strike, it said, had been called all over the United States; and most foreboding anxieties were expressed concerning the provisioning of the great cities.

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for Everett Defense: “Now is the time to defend yourselves in the persons of those 74.”

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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The heritage we leave to
the next generation
will be in the conditions
that we make now.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday January 23, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Miss Flynn Speaks at Dreamland Park

From The Seattle Star of January 22, 1917:

MORE THAN 5000 HEAR
ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN
—–

EGF, Everett Northwest Worker, Jan 18, 1917

Before a record-breaking crowd at the Dreamland rink, Sunday afternoon, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, noted woman labor speaker, and H. Scott Bennett, former labor member of the Australian parliament, spoke under the auspices of the Everett Defense league, in behalf of the 74 I. W. W. held for murder.

Charles Ashleight [Ashleigh] presided.

Forceful, vigorous, speaking with intense feeling, Miss Flynn fired volley after volley against the capitalistic system, which, according to her, permitted the murder of five I. W. W. at Everett.

Bennett also carried tremendous force in his remarks as he reviewed the labor struggle.

Resolutions asking a federal investigation of the affair at Everett were passed, and a collection netted $331.52 for the defense fund. More than 5,000 attended the meeting.

A dance in the evening netted $200.

———-

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for Everett Defense: “Now is the time to defend yourselves in the persons of those 74.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Expects to Die Fighting “in the trenches, with my boys, facing the machine guns.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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My whole life has been spent
on the economic field
fighting the battles of the workers,
and it will close there.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday January 22, 1917
From The New York Call: Letter to the Editor of the Forum

The following letter from Mother Jones was published yesterday in the Forum section of The New York Call:

Indianapolis, Indiana

Editor of the Forum:

Mother Jones, Colorado Military Bastile, March 1914

My attention was called to an article that appeared on December 9 [17th] in the New York Call, written by one Edward Meyer. It seems that he had a spasm and called for house cleaning in the Socialist party. His criticism was entirely misleading. He said that while languishing in the prison cells I had asked the Socialists to secure my liberty. I have never in my life asked the Socialists for any personal favor, and I have never received any that I know of.

He further said that I solicited votes for Woodrow Wilson. That is not true. I made some speeches in Indiana coal camps for Senator Kern. I would do it again, if every one in the United States stood against me. In my opinion he is one of the truest and noblest of men within the walls of the nation. I did incidentally pay my respects to President Wilson for leaving the White House and going down to the Senate and notifying the committee that they could not adjourn until the clild labor bill was passed. I would do that again and apologize to no man.

The child of today is the future citizen of tomorrow; and any man, whether he be president or otherwise, who considers the welfare of the child against dollars will receive my indorsement to the end.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Expects to Die Fighting “in the trenches, with my boys, facing the machine guns.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in Seattle to Aid Everett Prisoners’ Defense; Speaks at Dreamland Today

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday January 21, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Arrives

EGF, Everett Northwest Worker, Jan 18, 1917

The best woman labor speaker in America is in Seattle. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, “the Joan of Arc of the Labor Movement,” will devote the next few weeks of her time to the defense of the 74 men in jail in Everett charged with murder.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn has been an agitator since her fifteenth year. She has been brought up in the atmosphere of the working class movement and it has entered right into her soul. Her vivid and appealing oratory can sway thousands of workers because it proceeds out of an intense sincerity.

She has been in nearly every great fight the Industrial Workers of the World have engaged in for the last seven years. In Spokane, Wash., during the Free Speech Fight in 1909, she was arrested. Since then her arrests have been many; Philadelphia, Paterson, New York, Missoula and other towns have known her in the clutches of the law for her upholding of the rights of Free Speech and labor organization.

The great strike of 20,000 iron ore miners in the Mesaba Range in Minnesota was the last scene of Miss Flynn’s activities. There she was a power in the building up of the miners’ solidarity. She is known from coast to coast and every place that she visits there is a revival of enthusiasm among the workers for the cause of labor.

Miss Flynn will be the principal speaker at a great demonstration to be held at the Dreamland Rink on Sunday, Jan. 21st, at 2 p. m. This meeting is called in the interests of the Defense of the 74 men in jail in Everett for their active advocacy of free speech for labor.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Comes Aboard Appeal to Reason in Behalf of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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If they hang Moyer and Haywood,
they’ve got to hang me.
-Eugene Victor Debs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday January 20, 1907
Girard, Kansas – Good News From the Appeal to Reason!

HMP, Kidnap Anvrsy Ed, AtR, Jan 19, 1907

HMP, Debs on Deck, AtR, Jan 19, 1907

Eugene Debs, Wilshire's Magazine, Nov 1905

After the first forms of the edition for this issue were on the press the following letter came by special delivery from Comrade Eugene V. Debs. Every APPEAL reader will throw up his hat, yell for Debs, and go in for the greatest fight ever waged by the working class on its own behalf.

The toilers of the world have heretofore fought all the battles of the ages and have handed the spoils over to the masters.

Today the working class stands united and will make the last glorious fight in its own behalf!

Listen to Debs’ burning words and make up your mind to enlist under his banner:

I am getting over my rheumatic attack and I leave for Cincinnati Monday, where a specialist will treat my throat. I expect to be out in a few days. As soon as I get through with this and am in physical shape I will come to Girard and stay until the kidnaping edition is made up, and take a hand at helping you on the APPEAL. I am full of fire and want to pour it into the APPEAL. I would like a chance to edit the APPEAL for a couple of weeks, or help you edit it, or help in any way to do the thing that this supreme hour tells me must be done.

Now is the time to strike!

A few weeks more and it will be too late. I have a rush of ideas and want to fuse them with yours and I believe that in combination we can raise hell with the capitalist plans, so far as Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone are concerned. I believe furthermore, that we can do work in three or four weeks’ time that will give you a hundred thousand more subscribers and after the trial begins send it up to half a million and climbing towards a million. I say I believe this can be done and I would like a chance to try it. Should the trial be announced while I am in Girard I could go from there straight to Caldwell, for I propose to be in the center of the fight.

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Day of Blood” by the Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee. The True Story of November 5th.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Everett Massacre, Quote, Pamph Bloody Sunday, Def Com, Nov 1916

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday January 19, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Pamphlet Tells of “Everett’s Bloody Sunday”

On Wednesday we presented one of two pamphlets, published by the Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee, which told the actually story of events leading up to the Everett Massacre. Yesterday we featured part one of the second pamphlet which reveals the horrific vigilante terror at Beverly Park just a few days before the Massacre. Today we present part two of the second pamphlet which documents that terrible day in Everett, now known far and wide as “Bloody Sunday.”

EVERETT’S BLOODY SUNDAY
———-

THE TRAGEDY THAT HORRIFIED THE WORLD!
———-

A STORY OF OUTRAGED TOILERS
[Part Two.]

The Day of Blood.

Everett Massacre, Verona Returns to Seattle, ISR Dec 1916

It was decided to hold a meeting in Everett on Sunday, November 5th, at 2 p. m. A big attendance of friendly citizens was promised by local sympathizers. A handbill was widely distributed in both Everett and Seattle which read as follows:

CITIZENS OF EVERETT!
Attention!

A meeting will be held at the corner of Hewitt and Wetmore Aves., on Sunday, Nov. 5th, 2 p. m. Come and help maintain your and our constitutional rights.

-Committee.

The above was given out some days before the event. It certainly does not appear as though desperadoes, plotting a dark deed of murder, would advertise the fact by means of handbills! Yet, the bosses would characterize this simple announcement of a peaceful meeting as “inciting to riot” and “intent to resist lawful authority!”

The steamer “Verona” left the Seattle docks with some 250 men on board. About forty left later on the S. S. “Calista,” but never reached their destination.

The men aboard the “Verona” had all paid their passages in the regular manner, entitling them to a landing in Everett. They were cheerful on the boat, and full of enthusiasm. The conquest of free speech seemed assured. They never for a moment considered that the Everett mob,-at whose hands they had previously suffered such grievous outrage,-would dare to continue their criminal tactics in the light of day and before a host of conscientious citizens.

Therefore, they sang, that day on the boat, and made merry. They were class-conscious men, enlightened workingmen who believed in the glorious future of their class and who were willing to give their all in the great fight of the workers for bread, happiness and liberty. Little did they think, that bright morning, that the hour was so near in which some of them would be called upon for the supremest of all sacrifices,-life itself.

There were men of many trades and callings on the boat: laborers, loggers, railroad clerks, seamen, farm-hands; members of the Longshoremen’s Union, the I. W. W. the Truckmen, the Seamen’s Union and others. But they were all united in the one common desire: the desire to see established free expression of the voice of labor.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Day of Blood” by the Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee. The True Story of November 5th.” →