Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 3, 1909
Missoula, Montana – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the Victory for Free Speech
From the International Socialist Review of November 1909:
FREE SPEECH FIGHT. Missoula, Mont., Oct. 3.—Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, organizer of the Industrial Workers of the World, was arrested here tonight for persistently attempting to hold an advertised open-air meeting in the business section.
The plan of action outlined by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was to select leaders of small squads and distribute them about town, giving each a chance to gather a crowd before the police might become cognizant of the movements of the I. W. W.
At the police station Mrs. Flynn said the I. W. W. could not be suppressed and that the work would be carried on as outlined if 10 men are jailed every day.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 2, 1919
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – Steel Strikers’ Fight for Freedom Goes On
From The Quarry Workers Journal of November 1919:
CONDITIONS AMONG COAL STRIKERS
AS SEEN BY A WOMAN
—–
By Mary Heaton Vorse,
Author of “The Prestons.” Etc.
—–
[Part II.]
Life is hard enough under ordinary conditions for the steel workers’ wives. They live in joyless towns, their men never had a chance to get really rested; there is always a new baby, and most of them remain forever strangers for they never have time or opportunity to learn English.
Lately the senators have talked about Americanization of the foreign workers. They will have to humanize the steel industry first. They will have to teach such men as Judge Gary the elementary things concerning Americanism.
In times of strike, terror and suspense are added to the lives of the women. Fear of want is their constant companion. How do they stick it out? How can they have such endurance and fortitude? In every town the men are constantly being arrested. The shadow of the constabulary is forever over the strikers.
The bosses make house to house canvasses and play upon the fears and credulity of the women, and yet you find them-like the mother of the laughing children-ready to wait two or three weeks more so that someone needier than herself would have first chance at commissary stores. Holding on in the face of sneering threats, holding on with want just around the corner, holding on with hunger waiting in ambush. Holding on in spite of the appealing hands of children plucking forever at their skirts, reminding them that it is they in the last analysis who are going to suffer.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 1, 1919
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – The Steel Strikers: Courageous Men, Enduring Women
From The Quarry Workers Journal of November 1919:
CONDITIONS AMONG [STEEL] STRIKERS
AS SEEN BY A WOMAN
—–
By Mary Heaton Vorse,
Author of “The Prestons.” Etc.
—–
[Part I.]
This week the commissary stores are being opened in all the steel towns. For six weeks the strikers had nothing. They have been living on their savings; some who have had no savings, have existed from hand to mouth, picking up a chance bit of work here and there and being helped out by their friends.
The first strike relief which will have been given will be the groceries given out twice a week from the commissary stores. Not everyone can have these groceries. They are for those who are starving or on the edge of want, for it would be unthinkable at this stage of organized labor that any one should be forced to scab by hunger.
You do not need much imagination to understand what endurance it has taken on the part of the rank and file to stay out on strike for six weeks without strike benefit or relief. It is going to take even more endurance from now on, when the narrow line will have to be drawn between those actually in want and those nearly in want.
Yesterday I saw how that was being done. When a striker applies for re lief, one of the strike committee goes around to talk the matter over with the family. I went out in Pittsburgh with a Polish fellow-worker who was going out to make such visits of investigation.
We had some difficulty in finding the house where the strikers live. We went down back alleys, past refuse dumps that seemed as venerable as the dilapidated meeting house on the corner. Like everything else in this neighborhood, it was falling to pieces. The paint had scaled from its pillars, but it spoke of a former day before all the mild red brick of the houses had been defiled with the grime soot, and when the well to do, comfortable families lived a family in a house, instead of a family in a room.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 31, 1919
Mother Jones News for September 1919, Part III
Her Home? “Wherever there is a good fight for freedom going on.”
From The Pittsburgh Post of September 24, 1919:
‘Mother’ Jones Heard
in Labor Trial
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“Mother” Jones, aged organizer for the United Mine Workers, appearing yesterday as a witness before Judge Richard H. Kennedy, gave her address as “wherever there is a good fight for freedom going on.”
She testified in the hearing of a large number of appeals from fines imposed by Mayor James S. Crawford in connection with a meeting held in Duquesne last September 7.
After leaving the stand “Mother” Jones declared that had been her first experience as a witness in “a regular court trial.” She was one of the organizers arrested, but was not fined. That was the first time, she said, that she had been placed behind bars, although she had been arrested more than once.
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[Photograph added.]
From The Pittsburgh Press of September 24, 1919:
“MOTHER” JONES FREED FOR LABOR ACTIVITY.
—–
“Mother” Jones was freed today following her arrest in the steel mill districts Sept. 7. She came before Judge Kennedy and was permitted to go without a fine.
“What is your age?” queried the court.
“Ninety on the first day of next May.”
“Where is your home?”
“Wherever there is a good fight for freedom going on,” replied the old lady, vigorously.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 30, 1919
Mother Jones News for September 1919, Part II
Cleveland, Ohio – Mother Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers
From the New York Tribune of September 17, 1919:
Mine Workers Urged To Aid Steel Strike
—–
Appeals Made to Convention by Fitzpatrick
and “Mother” Jones, Who Oppose Delay
CLEVELAND, Sept. 16.-John Fitzpatrick, chairman of the national committee for organizing the iron and steel workers, and “Mother” Jones, the aged mine worker representative, appealed to-day to the convention of the United Mine Workers of America to support the steel workers in the projected steel strike. “Mother” Jones argued openly against any postponement, telling the miners to pay no attention to contrary reports, because the strike would come off as arranged next Monday. Rescinding of the strike call, she declared, would wreck the confidence of the steel workers in their organization.
Fitzpatrick refrained from mentioning the question of possible postponement, except indirectly, in his speech, but in conversations with delegates he declared himself firmly opposed to postponement of the walkout beyond Monday as weakening the chances of success.
Hellraisers Journal –Wednesday October 29, 1919
Mother Jones News for September 1919, Part I
Duquesne, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Arrested for Organizing Steel Workers
From the New York Sun of September 8, 1919:
RAID ENDS MEETING OF STEEL WORKERS
—–
Mother Jones and Other Organizers
Seized in Duquesne.
—–
Special Dispatch to THE SUN.
PITTSBURG, Sept. 7.-Duquesne was the scene of much excitement on the part of the police and union organizers this afternoon when Police Chief Thomas Flynn and a squad of patrolmen appeared at an open air meeting at Linden and River avenues, where more than 1,000 steel workers had assembled, and arrested four labor organizers, including “Mother” Jones, the veteran organizer, and forty steel workers. The organizers were charged with holding a public meeting without a permit and the workmen were charged with illegal congregating. After staying in the Duquesne police station four hours they were released on forfeits for a hearing to-morrow.
Mother Jones with William Z. Foster
The organizers arrested besides “Mother” Jones were William Z. Foster, secretary of the national committee for organizing iron and steel workers; J. L. Beaghen, president of the Pittsburg Bricklayers Union, and an American Federation of Labor organizer, and J. M. Patterson, vice-president of the Brotherhood of Railway Car Men.
The organizers said the meeting was being held on a vacant lot, the owner of which had given permission.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 28, 1899
Cincinnati, Ohio – Presidents Samuel Gompers and Edward Boyce Speak
From The Indianapolis Journal of October 27, 1899:
MILITARISM DENOUNCED
—–
PROTEST AGAINST THE TREATMENT OF
COEUR D’ALENE MINERS.
—–
Mass Meeting at Which Samuel Gompers Spoke,
and Strong Resolution Were Adopted.
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CINCINNATI, Oct. 26.-An enormous meeting was held to-night at Music Hall, the officers of which were of the Central Labor Council of Cincinnati and the speakers were Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, and Edward Boyce, of Butt Mont., president of the Western Federation of Miners. Fully 6,O00 men remained during the two long speeches. The announced purpose of the meeting was to protest against the treatment of prisoners held in the Couer d’Alene region in the “bull pen.”
Before the speaking began the resolutions were read. The first resolution was a demand of the President of the United States to enforce the Constitution, especially in the sixth section, which, they claim, has been violated. The second resolution demanded of the President the withdrawal of the United States troops from Shoshone county.The next resolution demanded a court-martial of General Merriam and his subordinate officers. The last resolution was that all the federal, the military and civil officers responsible for the alleged illegal acts committed by them should be held to the strictest accountability.
President Gompers said the present afforded a great opportunity for laboring people. He said this enormous attendance and the passage of these resolutions would have a far-reaching effect and would do much to relieve the oppressed in Idaho and to bring the oppressors to Justice. President Gompers said that he was in the mountain region near the scene of the uprising in Shoshone county but a few days before it occurred. He said that by conversation with men who knew about the situation he learned the condition of affairs at Wardner, Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines. He vehemently denied that labor organizations had anything whatever to do with that uprising. The labor unions had been locked out by the operators, who went outside and brought in inferior and dangerous nonunion men and set them to work in the mines. These ignorant miners, unused to the ways of the union, demanded union prices and were denied.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 27, 1919
Report from Front Lines of Great Steel Strike by Mary Heaton Vorse
From the Duluth Labor World of October 25, 1919:
[Part II.]
STATE TROOPERS TOOLS OF STEEL
—–
Cossacks Break Into Homes,
Interfere With Church Worship
and Assault Women.
[By MARY HEATON VORSE.]
We must remember that in the steel towns people have been arrested wholesale because they have committed the crime of striking. There are charges such as obstructing traffic, unlawful assembly, etc., which make it impossible to run a striker in without his having committed any real offense.
Suppression and oppression have been the father and mother of this strike and terror its godfather. But, when the company used terror, they forgot the old saying that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
There hasn’t been a home searched or an illegal arrest made that hasn’t helped the strike. There hasn’t been a club that has come down on a defenseless mill worker that hasn’t sent men hurrying to get out their union cards.
Take the case of Clairton for instance—this was the town where the union had got no foothold—the watchful authorities had kept the “agitators” out. (“Agitator” is the company’s name for all members of the A. F. of L. who try to get their fellow workers to join a union.)
There were no halls in Clairton that could be rented. All permits were denied and street meetings were broken up. That is to say, the fundamental rights of Americans were sweepingly denied. There is no right of free speech and free assembly in the steel towns. When the people in Farrell want to go to a meeting they have to go over the Ohio state line into America—and the other evening 4,000 of them walked over to hear Foster speak.
There are plenty of steel towns not in America and Clairton is one of them.
After a time the organizer hired a vacant lot from one of the mill workers. But a man in Clairton can’t ask a few friends to a lawn party on his own property—the Cossacks rode down the strikers and broke up the meeting. The mill workers didn’t know that it was un-American to strike and they had put up an American flag—this the Cossacks tore down and the flag was trampled under the horses’ hoofs. This started trouble, for there were some ex-service men there as there are in all workingmen’s crowds. The affidavits sent to the senate abound in statements like:
The state troopers rushed on the lot and the people started to run away but when said state troopers rushed to the platform and tore down our flag, the men became incensed and some ex-soldiers, seeing our flag being insulted and defiled, rushed at said troopers in defense of our flag and started the excitement and almost caused a riot and loyal citizens were greatly incensed. There was no provocation for said interference and riding over women and children.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 26, 1919
Report from Front Lines of Great Steel Strike by Mary Heaton Vorse
From the Duluth Labor World of October 25, 1919:
[Part I.]
MEN SHOW DOGGED ENDURANCE;
-EVERY RIGHT IS DENIED THEM
—–
State Troopers Serve Masters of Steel-Break up Meeting
-Search Homes Without Warrant-Override Children Playing
in Streets, But Men Are Determined to Win Out at Any Cost.
—–
By MARY HEATON VORSE.
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 23.—(Special to The Labor World.)—The other day a man came in to Foster’s office. He had been on strike three weeks, and now he had about 90 cents left. He had some chickens, he had good neighbors, that had given him vegetables and things from their gardens. The man was a foreigner, a young married man, and what he had come for was not to ask strike benefits. He wanted advice and the moral support of encouragement.
He wanted to know how he was going to get along. He came rather deprecatingly, smiling in an embarrassed sort of fashion over his difficulties. Then he went away, still with his smile, his only assets his friends, his 90 cents and his indomitable will to stick out.
The strike is based on people like this; people full of faith; people full of endurance; people full of sacrifice—thousands and thousands of them.
Thousands of them looking upward and forward to a better life for themselves and their children—for these people are striking for a right to be considered as men. They are striking for the right of a little leisure. They want an end put to this de-humanizing double shift.
The other day in Braddock a mill superintendent stopped an old timer on the street. “Aren’t you working?” he asked.
“No, I am not working. I’m on strike; I’m taking a holiday. I am paying myself back those 20 Christmases I worked for the company,” said the man.
That has been the situation with the mill workers. No Sundays, no Christmas. Work that took it out of a man so that he was old at 40. Work that left him so tired at the end of a day that he wasn’t a human being any more. And now these people are willing to sacrifice to change this sort of thing, for themselves, for their children, and for the workers of all time.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 25, 1919
Gary, Indiana – Mother Jones: “Fight for Righteousness and Justice on Earth”
Mother Jones at Gary, Indiana, October 23, 1919:
Christ himself would agitate against [the Steel Barons]. He would agitate against the plutocrats and hypocrites who tell the workers to go down on their knees and get right with God. Christ, the carpenter’s son, would tell them to stand up on their feet and fight for righteousness and justice on the earth.
[Emphasis added.]
From The New York Times of October 24, 1919:
-The kept press is suddenly concerning itself with strike violence. Not a word, have they, of course, for the strikers and organizers (including Mrs. Fannie Sellins) slaughtered thus far, before and during the strike. But should the strikers decide to get off their knees and stand up and fight for their lives, well, that’s another matter altogether.
MOTHER JONES URGES STRIKERS TO VIOLENCE
—–
Col. Mapes Says Situation in Gary Is Serious
and Orders Troops to Shoot Rioters.
—–
Special to The New York Times.
CHICAGO, Oct. 23.-Making the first public appeal for violence since the steal strike started in the Calumet region and declaring herself a Bolshevik, Mother Jones stirred to enthusiasm some twelve hundred strikers and their wives in Turner Hall, Gary, Ind., today following the refusal of the authorities to permit her to speak in East Side Park.
Mother Jones with William Z. Foster -from New York Daily News of October 1, 1919
[Said Mother Jones, who was cheered for five minutes:]
So this is Gary. Well, we’re going to change the name and we’re going to take over the steal works and were going to run them for Uncle Sam. It’s the damned gang of robbers and their political thieves that will start the American revolution and it won’t stop until every last one of them is gone.
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