Author: Janet Raye

Hellraisers Journal: 400,000 New York City Trade Unionists Threaten Sympathetic Strike on Behalf Street Carmen

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, Monday October 9, 1916
New York, New York – The Review Reports on Street Carmen’s Strike

From this month’s edition of the International Socialist Review comes a report on the strike now being conducted by the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employes of America (A. F. of L.) against the Interborough Rapid Transit Company:

New York Street Car Strike, Telephone Girls Ride Home, ISR Oct 1916

THE NEW YORK STREET CAR STRIKE

NEW YORK, the tremendous city of five million inhabitants, has become the Prize Ring in which is being fought one of the most colossal battles ever waged in this country between Capital and Labor. A general strike on the subway, “L” roads and street car lines of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company was declared on September 7th, in spite of the truce signed by the company and the men on August 7th. It developed that the company merely signed to gain time to organize to break the new union which has sprung up so amazingly within the past few weeks.

When it felt that it was in a position to defeat the carmen, the Interborough began to circulate the “master and servant” [individual or yellow dog] contracts the purpose of which was to destroy any benefit that might accrue thru belonging to the union. Union men on the Interborough who refused to sign were immediately discharged and at a rousing mass meeting held by the union men on the evening of the seventh, the crowd declared enthusiastically for a general strike to enforce the right of the street car men to organize into a union.

Almost from the beginning of the strike, the struggle began to take on a political, or class character. The Central Federated Union, combining all the powerful labor unions of the city voted to stand by the strikers to the last man and the last dollar. Longshoremen, firemen, engineers and boat men were among the first to rally to aid the men battling on the street car lines.
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Hellraisers Journal: “Women The Worst” -Easily Led by Mother Jones to “Riot and Revolution”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Never mind if you are not lady like,
you are woman-like.
God Almighty made the woman and
the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the ladies.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal: Sunday October 8, 1916
New York, New York – Mother Jones Blamed for Thursday’s “Riot”

Mother Jones, UMWJ, Feb 10, 1916

When a few of the wives of striking street carmen, out of the 500 in attendance Thursday afternoon at Mozart Hall, left the meeting and proceeded to attack a scab-run railway car, the kept press of New York City decided that this constituted a “riot” and put the blame for the disturbance on the “wild talk” of Mother Jones. There will be no apology forthcoming from Mother Jones who told reporters yesterday:

Let the working women realize what they can do and they will join with the men, and industrial troubles will soon be over.

From the New York Evening World of October 6, 1916:

WOMEN THE WORST

THE rioting women responsible for the disgraceful scenes at Eighty-sixth Street and Third Avenue yesterday afternoon furnish an example of the peculiar danger of letting professional agitators practice upon female audiences.

Even the most militant male advocates have failed to incite the striking car men to any such concerted acts of violence as those indulged in by these hundreds of women after listening to wild talk from Mother Jones.

Women are more easily persuaded to riot and revolution than men. Respect for law restrains them less, and beyond a certain pitch of excitement fear of consequences restrains them not at all.
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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones to Wives of New York Carmen: “You ought to be out raising hell!”

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

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

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday October 7, 1916
New York, New York – Mother Jones Speaks, Blamed for “Riot”

Mother Mary Harris Jones, Logansport, IN, Sept 27, 1916

On Thursday October 5th, Mother Jones spoke to the wives of the striking street carmen of New York City. She spoke at Mozart Hall where she told the women:

You, the wives of the strikers, ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes

A few women left the hall and attacked one of the surface cars of the New York Railways Company resulting in a few arrests. This was termed a “riot” in blaring headlines from The New York Times and others of the kept press.

The Address of Mother Jones

During her speech at Mozart Hall, Mother spoke of the lives of the street car workers and the effect of the long hours of labor upon family life. She advised the women to stop being “sentimental” and to put on their “fighting clothes.”

I know something of what life is like for street car workers. I have talked to men who work on the cars from one end of the country to the next and I know how terribly exploited they are. But none are more exploited than the carmen in this, the leading city of the United States. You know and I know that your husbands have to work seven days a week with no provisions for days off; that their basic work day consists of ten hour time actually spent on a car run, but that it frequently takes 15 hours of working time to receive their ten hours pay. No provision exists for any overtime pay. It is not unusual, as you know, for your husbands to spend upwards of 80 hours a week on the cars. The car runs are frequently not consecutive but are split by three-or four hour breaks. When do your husbands have time for you and your children? The church and the press are worried about families breaking up, but when the workers go on strike to have the time to keep their families together, these same lackeys of the employers denounce them for doing so. And on top this, the wages your husbands bring home for the longest work week of any car workers in the country are the lowest earned by men in this trade anywhere.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Arrives in New York City to Assist Street Car Strikers

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, Friday October 6, 1916
New York, New York – Mother Jones on Scene of Turbulent Strike

Mother Mary Harris Jones, Decatur Herald IL, May 14, 1916

Mother Jones arrived in New York City on Tuesday evening to assist the striking street carmen who are now threatened with the importation of scabs. At noon on Wednesday, she spoke to the strikers at Lyceum hall. According to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, she said, in part:

Boys, I have come to New York to help you win your fight for better homes, to win more time in them and more comfort in them. You’ve been working here for 25 cents an hour for a lot of high class burglars who reward you if you are good boys by giving you another cent and hour. A lot of good a cent will do you.

O, boys, boys, there are so many of you and so few of the high class burglars. Get together and you can lick —- out of them. You can do it without the women but to make sure, have the women with you.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mesabi Defendants Must Face Trial; Cronaca Sovversiva Sends Aid

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, Wednesday October 4, 1916
Virginia, Minnesota – I. W. W. Defendants Must Stand Trial

From The Duluth News Tribune of September 19, 1916:

I. W. W.’S DENY MURDER CHARGE
—–
Must Stand Trial in Myron Case, as
Court Overrules Quash Motion.
—–

Funeral of John Alar, IWW Leaders, Virginia MN, by GR Dawson, June 26, 1916

Overruling all motions to quash indictments against Carlo Tresca, Sam Scarlett, Philip Masonovich and other I. W. W.’s charged with the murder of Deputy Sheriff James Myron at Biwabik, July 2, Judge Bert Fesler in district court yesterday ruled that all defendants would have in face trial. Formal pleas of not guilty were then entered by all.

Attorney John Keyes at the conclusion of the hearing announced that on Wednesday morning before Judge Martin Hughes at Virginia that he would make a motion for continuance, Assistant County Attorney I. L. Boyle then stated that every effort would be made by the state to force trial immediately and that riot cases would be moved for trial next Monday.

In making the argument for the freedom of Tresca, Scarlett and Schmidt, Attorney Keyes pointed out that these men were miles away from the scene of the crime at the time of happening and argued that if they were held it should be on a charge of conspiracy and not of murder.
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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on Tour on Behalf of Mesabi Defendants

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Your welfare ain’t on that rich man’s mind.
-Hazel Dickens

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 3, 1916
Miss Flynn to Hold Meetings in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas

IWW Metal Mine Workers IU No. 490, Hibbing MN, June 19, 1916

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is currently on tour on behalf of Mesabi I. W. W. defendants who are charged with first degree murder-we refer our readers to the recent article by Eugene Debs in the International Socialist Review.

Before leaving northern Minnesota, Miss Flynn spoke with Joe Ettor at a meeting in Virginia, Minnesota, where she said:

Tresca, Scarlett, Smith and the others are in jail for your sake, remember them.

She also spoke to the Ministerial association at the Duluth Y. M. C. A. where she declared:

A very large majority of the workers on the iron range are foreigners, and they have no friends except among their kinsmen and fellow-workers. If the American-born people would only co-operate, and enlighten the lives of these poor unfortunates, all these disturbances and misfortunes would be done away with.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Protests Frame-Up of Organizers & Strikers on Mesabi Range

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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By the Gods, it shall not be!
The bloated, beastly Steel Trust pirates
shall not murder our innocent
comrades and fellow-workers!
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday October 2, 1916
From the International Socialist Review: Support Mesabi Range Rebels!

From the current edition of the Review, Comrade and Fellow Worker Eugene Debs calls upon unionists and socialists everywhere to support the Minnesota iron ore strikers and I. W. W. organizers who are now under indictment for first-degree murder:

Eugene Victor Debs, ISR, Oct 1916

Murder in the First Degree

By EUGENE V. DEBS

TRUE bills against four strikers and one woman and against Carlo Tresca and two other leaders of the striking iron workers on the Mesabe Range in Minnesota charging them with murder in the first degree, have been returned by a Steel Trust grand jury.

Not one of the accused is guilty. On the contrary, they are all absolutely innocent of the crime charged against them.

It is another case of punishing the workers for the crimes committed against them by their masters. Let us briefly review the facts in this extraordinary strike on the Mesabe Range.
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Hellraisers Journal: The Agricultural Workers Organization (IWW) Is Coming Back to Stay

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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SABOTAGE
-the conscious withdrawal of
the workers’ industrial efficiency.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

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

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday October 1, 1916
From Solidarity: The A. W. O. Marches on to Industrial Freedom

AWO & Black Cat, Ralph Chaplin, Bingo, Solidarity, Sept 30, 1916

Solidarity, organ of the Industrial Workers of the World, in this week’s edition, published the above cartoon by “Bingo” along with the good news that 1916 has been a year of great success for the army of organizers sent out into the harvest fields by the Agricultural Workers Organization. In August the A. W. O. gained over 800 members and in in the first three week of September 2000 more were issued their red cards.
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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Indiana Federation of Labor Convention

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I reside wherever there is a good fight against wrong-
all over the country.
Wherever the workers are fighting the robbers
I go there.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday September 30, 1916
Logansport, Indiana – Mother Jones: Interview and Speech

From the Logansport Daily Tribune of September 27, 1916:

Mother Jones, Logansport Dly Tb IN, Sept 27, 1916

Comes to Address Federation of Labor
and Grants Testy Interview
—–
STILL VIGOROUS AT AGE OF 86
—–
(By Helen C. Kuppenheimer.)

Mother Mary Harris Jones, Logansport, IN, Sept 27, 1916

Mother Jones arrived in the city last evening. The office sent me out to hunt her up and get an interview. These were the directions: “You’ll find her in one of the down-town restaurants-she’s a little, sweet-faced women with white hair and just as kind as she looks.”

I found her down at a Broadway restaurant sitting at a table with three men. I knew her because she was little and white-haired and sweet-faced, just like the office said she would be. I walked over to the table confidently, even boldly-here at least was one interview over which I need feel no timidity or trepidation-because she was as kind as she looked.

She was talking to the men at the table with her and I stopped beside her chair until she would give me an opportunity to speak to her. Finally she glanced up at me and then down at my feet and back up again-and then, very sharply, “Well?” I told her rather hurriedly who I was and what I wanted.

“An interview? What for? The paper? No I am going home and go to bed. I have nothing to say.” All these rapid fire remarks were made in a voice which might easily have reached to the farthest corner of a large hall. While her voice is as strong as a fog horn, it is as nothing compared to the quality of her glance which first pierces and then shrivels the person upon whom it is directed.

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