Category: Hellraisers Journal

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1901, Part I: Found Visiting Philadelphia and at Mine Workers’ Convention in Indianapolis

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones, None too low or high, Ipl Jr p3, Jan 21, 1901———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 11, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1901, Part I
Found in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Indianapolis, Indiana

From the Wilkes-Barre Weekly Union Leader of January 11, 1901:

What Mother Jones Has to Say
Regarding the Conditions.

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900

“Mother” Jones, of coal strike fame, dropped into Philadelphia Monday night and hunted up a few congenial spirits at the Trades Assembly Hall, 931 Callowhill street, says the Philadelphia Times. She is on her way to West Virginia, where she will report to President W. C. Stephenson, of the West Virginia United Mine Workers, for organization work.

The miners of the Mountain State are to be organized during January and February, and the national organization is lending the state organization all possible assistance. The miners along the Kanawha and New rivers are to be unionized first, Mrs. Jones said, after which the organizers will go into the Fairmount district. In regard to conditions in the anthracite field of Pennsylvania Mrs. Jones said:

The miners in the anthracite region are now well satisfied and everything is going along smoothly. The semi-monthly pay law is being gradually put into effect, and other conditions are being rectified. The miners are all joining the unions and new locals are being formed all through the region.

The girls employed in the silk mill at Freeland are still on strike and have formed a union. They are determined to win. At Carbondale and Wilkes-Barre the silk mill operatives are also on strike, and sent for me in both places. I did what I could do to help them, but was not successful. In Wilkes-Barre they struck because the boss demanded that they give up their union cards to him, which they refused to do.

———-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1901, Part I: Found Visiting Philadelphia and at Mine Workers’ Convention in Indianapolis” →

Hellraisers Journal: New York City Longshoremen Protest Torture of Fresno Free Speech Fighters by Fire Department

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote Acton Speaks Louder, IW p1, Feb 9, 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 10, 1911
New York City – Longshoreman’s Local Protests Torture of Fresno I. W. W.

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of February 9, 1911:

Fresno FSF, Fire Brigade v IWW, IW p1, Feb 9, 1911

FIRE ENGINES NOT FOR TORTURE
———-

NEW YORK LONGSHOREMEN PROTEST AGAINST BRUTALITY OF POLICE AND OTHER LEGALIZED THUGS IN FRESNO-FIRE DEPARTMENTS ARE NOT KEPT FOR EXECUTIONERS.

To the “Industrial Worker.”

We, the members of Local No. 791, International Longshoremen’s Association of New York, hereby enter our protest against the inhuman, un-American and non-constitutional treatment meted out to the members of the I. W. W. by the city government of Fresno, California.

We protest against the curtailment of free speech to one body of men, when the constitutional right is accorded to others freely, especially when the members of the I. W. W. desire simply to discuss industrial matters or make known their views on industrial conditions.

We protest against the methods used to suppress such meetings and discussions and insist that the right of free assemblage be granted to all lawful meetings, whether of an industrial social or religious character.

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Hellraisers Journal: Jack London Calls Himself a “Chicken Thief” -Supports Comrades of Mexican Revolution

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Jack London, Comrades of Mexican Revolution, Sac Str p1, Feb 6, 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 9, 1911
Jack London Supports “Dear Brave Comrades of Mexican Revolution”

From The Sacramento Star of February 6, 1911:

JACK LONDON CALLS SELF
CHICKEN-THIEF

Jack London, The Comrade p 122, March 1903

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 6-Friends of Jack London, the author, today are expressing surprise over a communication the writer sent to a gathering of Socialist and Mexican revolt sympathizers here last night in which he proclaimed himself a “chicken thief and a revolutionist.” Although used to the radical socialistic expression of London, his friends say be went further last night than ever before. His letter to the meeting follows:

To the dear, brave comrades of the Mexican revolution:

We Socialists, anarchists, hoboes, chicken thieves, outlaws and undesirable citizens of the United State are with you heart and soul in your effort to overthrow slavery and autocracy in Mexico. You will notice that we are not respectable. Neither are you. No revolutionist can possibly be respectable in these days of the reign of property. All the names you are being called we have been called. And when graft and greed get up and begin to call names, honest men, brave men, patriotic men and martyrs can expect nothing else than to be called chicken thieves and outlaws.

So be it. But I, for one, wish that there were more chicken thieves and outlaws of the sort that formed the gallant band that took Mexicali, of the sort that is heroically enduring the prison holes of Diaz, of the sort that it fighting and dying and sacrificing in Mexico today.

I subscribe myself a chicken thief and revolutionist.

JACK LONDON.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Williamson, Mingo County, West Virginia: “Sid Hatfield and Tom Felts Size Each Other Up in Court”

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Sid Hatfield, re Gunthugs n Right to Organize, Altoona Tb Lbr Ns p10, Sept 3, 1920————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 8, 1921
Williamson, West Virginia – Hatfield and Felts Size Each Other Up in Court

From the Baltimore Sun of February 6, 1921:

Sid Hatfield And Tom Felts Size
Each Other Up In Court
———-

Principal In Mingo Trial Engages In Duel Of Eyes With
Head Of Detective Agency, As Process Of Securing
Jury Slowly Drags Along.
———-

(By a Staff Correspondent of The Sun.)

Sid Hatfield, ed Labor News, Altoona Tb PA p10, Sept 3, 1920Williamson, W. Va., Feb. 5.-This has been a day of speculation and rumors and of desperate struggle on the part of everyone, except Sid Hatfield and the 20 others on trial for the Matewan murders, to be reasonably cheerful and comfortable. Court adjourned before noon today without having added to the jury panel and left all of those in attendance upon the case with nothing to do except talk and wander about muddy streets in a dismal rain, with bare, scarred, cut-over hills rising at one’s elbows, it seemed, to press down the gloom.

Out of all that came to the front stories from quarters favorable to the defense that the prosecution is deliberately trying to prevent a jury being selected in this county. The theory is that there is little hope of any Mingo county jury convicting Hatfield and the others, while there may be some hope that a jury from another county will do so, if the West Virginia Legislature passes the bill permitting juries to be drawn in murder cases from other counties. Also the theory is that the desire of the prosecution to get the case before a jury where there would be more chance to convict is based upon more than the usual ardor of the prosecution for success, or even that ardor plus the anxiety of the Williamson coal operators for conviction.

Added to all of that is the blood feud created by the killing of Albert and Lee Felts in the Matewan battle. They were brothers of Tom Felts, manager of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. Tom Felts, known in these parts as “the man-hunter extraordinary,” a suave gracious-mannered man, and next to John J. Coniff, chief counsel for the defense, the most impressive and distinguished looking man connected with the case, is on the spot, surrounded by a large number of trusted operatives. He is supposed to be paying part of the large force of lawyers assisting Prosecuting Attorney Bronson, and he wants blood for the blood of his brothers.

Melodrama in life is had when he appears in court. Sid Hatfield occupies his consciousness, and he occupies that of Hatfield. After he had directed attention of the court to Hatfield’s possession of guns in court, and thereby led not merely to disarming the mountain fighter, but to the frisking of everyone entering the courtroom, including reporters, who do not know which end of a pistol goes off, the absorption of the two men in each other, when Felts is in court, became more pronounced. Each concentrated upon the other, is moved by an almost boyish craving to emphasize by physical proximity lack of fear.

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Hellraisers Journal: Coal Companies Paid Westmoreland County Sheriff to Employ Private Army of Deputized Gunthugs

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote fr Westmoreland Strike by James Cole, ab Aug1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 7, 1911
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania – Sheriff Paid to Recruit  Private Army

From the Appeal to Reason of February 4, 1911:

A PRIVATE ARMY.
———-

PA Miners Strike, Family of J Potlar, ISR p142, Sept 1910

Investigations at Greensburg, Pa., showed that the coal companies paid Sheriff Shields $143,147.42 for deputy service during the coal strike. Deputies were paid from $3 to $15 a day each. While the constitution says that no private army shall be maintained, these coal companies hired a private army and gave it official sanction by hiring it through the sheriff. The deputies were all thugs from the outside, hired like Hessians, used as Hessians, and they acted like Hessians.

Had the coal miners wisdom enough to elect a Socialist sheriff, that sheriff would have protected the property of the mines, yes-but he would have hired every striking miner, paying them three dollars a day each, armed them, and kept them so long as the strike lasted. The miners, getting three dollars a day could have waited a long time for the strike to end-as long as the operators. But the working people votes for the capitalist sheriff and judges, and they get just what they vote for.

How long, O Lord, how long will you workers vote to be the beasts of burden for corporation. Socialism will give you freedom, will give you a living that free men deserve, will make you masters instead of wage slaves. Wake up. 

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Hellraisers Journal: Frank Keeney Seeks Senate Investigation of Conditions in Coalfields of Mingo County, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 6, 1921
Washington, District of Columbia – President Keeney Seeks Senate Investigation

From The Washington Times of February 5, 1921:

URGES SENATE QUIZ IN MINGO
———-

Mine Workers’ Chief Says Constitution
is in Discard-Gunmen in Power.
—–
By DAVID M. CHURCH.
International News Service.

 

Declaring that “the Constitution has been kicked into the discard in West Virginia,” Frank Keeney, president of District No. 17 of the United Mine Workers of America, is here today seeking a Senatorial investigation of labor troubles in the West Virginia coal fields.

“GOVERNED BY GUNMEN.”

Keeney, Prz UMW D17, Lbtr p9, Aug 1920

[Said Keeney:]

The time has come for civil government to be restored in Mingo county and other West Virginia fields. We want a Senate committee to investigate this situation. The miners want them to come into the fields, see conditions as they are, investigate present and past troubles, and let the chips fall where they may.

Keeney today conferred with a number of Senators and laid before them evidence of what he termed “the brutal government of gunmen.” He stated that he had assurances that a resolution would be introduced in the Senate shortly authorizing a complete investigation of the West Virginia troubles.

[Said Keeney:]

The fact that the troops are in West Virginia is prima facia evidence that civil government has been destroyed there. We are tired of these shooting affrays and lawlessness, and we can prove that the blame for these shooting affrays can be laid at the door of the operators’ gunmen. We have evidence to back up all of our statements, and we are confident that this evidence will stand the scrutiny of any fair committee.

MINERS ARE DISARMED.

Why, all the miners have been disarmed by the troops, yet it is claimed that the miners are doing some of the shooting. They say that some of the troopers have been shot at as many as forty times. Let me tell you that those miners are crack shots, and it they ever shot at a trooper more than twice he wouldn’t be alive. We are willing for a committee of Senators to decide who is doing the shooting.

The Winchester rifle and the gun is the law in West Virginia coal fields now, and the gunmen aren’t at all backward in telling you so, either.

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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers of America Will Support Mountaineers on Trial at Williamson, West Virginia

Janet RayeBattle of Blair Mountain of 1921
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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p230———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 5, 1921
United Mine Workers of America to Support Matewan Defendants 

From the United Mine Workers Journal of February 1, 1921:

Union Will Support the
Twenty-four Mountaineers

CRTN BF Thugs Law n Order in WV, BDB p1, Sept 29, 1920

WASHINGTON, January 23.-The twenty four mountaineers who go on trial on a charge of first-degree murder Wednesday at Williamson, W. Va., will have the complete support, moral and material, of the United Mine Workers of America, according to an announcement here tonight by William Green, national secretary and treasurer of the organization.

The trial is the result of a sensational gun battle in the main street of Matewan on May 19th last, which resulted in ten deaths, including the mayor of the city and seven Baldwin-Felts guards. The fight is said to have had its origin in the attempts of the guards to arrest Sid Hatfield, chief of police of Matewan. Hatfield, a descendant of the feudists of Hatfield-McCoy fame, is the most prominent in the group of defendants, which includes special police deputies of Matewan and members of the miners’ union.

In his statement here tonight Mr. Green declared:

The United Mine Workers of America are prepared to afford full support, both moral and material, to the twenty-four defendants in the murder trial at Williamson, W. Va., this week. This trial is a direct result of the barbarous warfare waged on members of the United Mine Workers by the coal operators of Mingo county. And, so long as lives of members of our organization are at stake, we intend to put at their disposal every means for establishing their innocence of the charge. The court, of course, will determine their fate. But we will offer the defense every facility in our power.

The United Mine Workers are determined to see justice done the locked-out miners of Mingo county. These men and their families were evicted from their homes for the “crime” of joining the union. The operators employed professional gunmen to hasten the evictions. We are insistent that the use of gunmen in West Virginia mining areas shall cease. It is time that a republican form of government, as ordained by the constitution, should be restored in Mingo county and the arbitrary rule of the coal barons brought to an end.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “Last Days With John Reed” -Letter to Max Eastman from Louise Bryant in Moscow

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote John Reed, to LB Moscow Autumn 1920, Lbtr p11, Feb 1921———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 3, 1921
Louise Bryant Writes from Moscow on Death of John Reed

From The Liberator of February 1921:

Last Days With John Reed

A Letter from Louise Bryant

Moscow, Nov. 14, 1920

Dear Max:

I knew you would want details and a story for the Liberator–but I did not have either the strength or the courage. As it is–I will be able to write only a very incoherent letter and you may take from it what you wish. Jack’s death and my strenuous underground trip to Russia and the weeks of terror in the typhus hospital have quite broken me. At the funeral I suffered a very severe heart attack which by the merest scratch I survived. Specialists have agreed that I have strained my heart because of the long days and nights I watched beside Jack’s bed and that it is enlarged and may not get ever well again. They do not agree, however, on the time it will take for another attack. I write to you all these stupid things because I have to face them myself and because it must be part of the letter. The American and German doctors give me a year or even two, the Russians only months. I have to take stimulants and I am not in a bit of pain. I think I have better recuperative powers than they believe–but, anyway, it is a small matter. I once promised Jack that I would put all his works in order in case of his death. I will come home if I get stronger and do so.

John Reed, Louise Bryant at Coffin, Lbtr p13, Feb 1921

All that I write now seems part of a dream. I am in no pain at all and I find it impossible to believe that Jack is dead or that he will not come in this very room any moment.

Jack was ill twenty days. Only two nights, when he was calmer, did I even lie down. Spotted typhus is beyond description, the patient wastes to nothing under your eyes.

But I must go back to tell you how I found Jack after my illegal journey across the world. I had to skirt Finland, sail twelve days in the Arctic ocean, hide in a fisherman’s shack four days to avoid the police with a Finnish officer and a German, both under sentence of death in their own countries. When I did reach Soviet territory I was at the opposite end of Russia from Jack. When I reached Moscow he was in Baku at the Oriental Congress. Civil war raged in the Ukraine. A military wire reached him and he came back in an armored train. On the morning of September 15th he ran shouting into my room. A month later he was dead.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Pick and Shovel Pointers” -Big Bill Haywood on Unholy Alliances

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH One Fist, ISR p458, Feb 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 2, 1911
Some thoughts on agreements with capitalists from William D. Haywood.

From the International Socialist Review of February 1911:

PICK AND SHOVEL POINTERS

BY WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD

AGREEMENTS with capitalists are the death warrants of labor.

There can be no closed shop as long as the boss has the keys.

BBH, One Finger or One Fist, ISR p458 459, Feb 1911

There is no chivalry in the work shop. Capitalism compels sex equality.

Every new invention of machinery makes the journeyman of today the apprentice of tomorrow.

Trade unionists keep men out of the union and then wonder why the Manufacturers’ Association can get scabs.

Labor organizations should be free to fight for their class interests at all times.

You recognize this fist as a fighting weapon. It is made up of five members, five organizations. They can all work independently when necessary but when called upon can become a united force.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: “Pick and Shovel Pointers” -Big Bill Haywood on Unholy Alliances” →