Category: Hellraisers Journal

Hellraisers Journal: Paul Corcoran, Secretary of Burke Miners’ Union, Found Guilty, Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ed Boyce re Manly Blood per Gaboury 1967———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 30, 1899
Wallace, Idaho – Paul Corcoran Found Guilty of Second Degree Murder

From The Butte Miner of July 28, 1899:

IN THE SECOND DEGREE
—–
Paul Corcoran Found Guilty by
a Jury at Wallace.
—–

SEVENTEEN YEARS IN PRISON
—–
The Defense Will Trust to Executive Clemency Rather
Than Risk Another Jury Trial-
After Sentence Had Been Pronounced,
Court Adjourned Until September.
—–

Paul Corcoran, Sec Burke ID Miners WFM, Hutton p186, pubd 1900

Wallace, Idaho, July 27.-Paul Corcoran was this morning found guilty of murder in the second degree by a jury in the district court, for the killing of James Cheyne at Wardner on April 29 last, during the riots, when a mob of 1,000 miners blew up the Bunker Hill and Sullivan concentrator.

Judge Stewart this afternoon sentenced Corcoran to serve 17 years in the penitentiary. Corcoran’s case was considered a test one, and had he been acquitted it is not probable that any of the other 300 men who are under arrest would have been tried for participation in the riots and murders at Wardner. This afternoon, however, Judge Stewart set the trials of Graddock and Inman, on a charge of murdering Smith and Cheyne, for September 4.

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Hellraisers Journal: McKees Rocks: Faced with Brutality Surpassing Belief, “Steel Strikers Are Determined to Win”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 29, 1909
McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania – Conditions No Longer Endurable

From the Duluth Labor World of July 24, 1909:

STEEL STRIKERS ARE DETERMINED TO WIN
—–
Hideous Brutality of Pressed Steel Car Company
Almost Surpasses Belief.
—–

CONDITION OF EMPLOYES NO LONGER ENDURABLE
—–
Startling Revelations Made by
Ex-Coroner Armstrong of Pittsburg.
—–

In spite of the fact that news dispatches from the Pittsburg strike district all emanate from prejudicial sources, enough has leaked out to reveal the exceptionally villainous character of the management of the Pressed Steel Car Company.

McKees Rocks Strike, Armed Deps, State Troops, Albq Ctz p1, July 19, 1909

By Coroner Armstrong.

Some of the facts stated by Mr. Armstrong are as follows:

Sufficient care has not always been exercised by those running the plant. The Pressed Steel Car Company kills at its works one man per cay on an average. Those running the plant didn’t care much whether they killed a few “hunkies ” or not. The company had a sort of insurance that was very dangerous to human life, since it let the company out of all damages for deaths from injuries and permitted it to become very careless. Soon after becoming coroner he was compelled to place six or seven men high in the company under arrest in order to compel them to give him information regarding deaths in the plant. He made it so hot for the company that it was compelled to take some precautions, and its death roll was, in consequence, reduced about 65 per cent.

According to the Pittsburg evening papers one of the mills has long been known as the “slaughter house” because so many men were killed there. Another plant bears the inviting name of the “last chance,” for no man ever seeks work in that mill if he has a chance on earth outside-a magnificent illustration, by the way, of the bountiful opportunities which this marvelously rich country holds out to all men.

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Hellraisers Journal: Speech of IWW Organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn at Spokane on June 29, 1909, Part IV

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, My Aim in Life, Spk Rv p7, July 8, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 28, 1909
Spokane, Washington – June 29th Speech of Gurley Flynn, Part IV

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of July 15, 1909:

ELIZABETH G. FLYNN ADDRESS TO WORKERS
—–

(Concluded From Last Week)

Address of Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Organizer and Lecturer of the Industrial Workers of the World, given at Spokane, Wash., on Tuesday evening, June 29, 1909.

Employers Unite Industrially.

EGF, Spokane IW p3, July 22, 1909

The tobacco trust is organized from the tobacco fields straight through all the productions to the United States cigar stores and sell it over the continent; the American woolen trust, from the backs of the sheep clear through the mills, where the cloth is sold to the wholesaler; the beef trust is organized from the ranchers of the West through the slaughter houses and packing houses, and even in through the tannery, where leather is tanned, and they are now grasping out for the shoe factories, where the shoes are made.

Everywhere in the field of industry you see the organization according to the commodity produced, from the source of the raw material straight through the distribution of the finished product; and you find that straight line of capitalist industry sliced across by the union, just a little slice here and there; and by that method a class that has no capital hope to defeat those that have every power at their command. We have only our organization, fellow workers; they have capital; they have the power of the government, the slugging community of the capitalist class; they have the power of the state; they have the power of international capital-and we have but our power of organization. They can call out against us the militia, the army and the navy, and we have no means of stopping it, until we are organized to shut off from that army and navy their supply of food and their means of transportation. (Applause.)

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Hellraisers Journal: Speech of IWW Organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn at Spokane on June 29, 1909, Part III

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, My Aim in Life, Spk Rv p7, July 8, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 27, 1909
Spokane, Washington – June 29th Speech of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part III

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of July 15, 1909:

ELIZABETH G. FLYNN ADDRESS TO WORKERS
—–

(Concluded From Last Week)

Address of Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Organizer and Lecturer of the Industrial Workers of the World, given at Spokane, Wash., on Tuesday evening, June 29, 1909.

EGF, Spokane IW p3, July 22, 1909

We had another strike, or contemplated strike, last spring in the coal mining district, the United Mine Workers of America-I was going to say one of the backbones of the America Federation of Labor, because it is like a jelly fish, it has lots of backbone! That organization had a convention in Scranton and they decided not to strike, though they were very anxious to get better conditions in the mines. A good mine contract expired in April. What kind of a time is that to strike? Who cares anything about coal in April The time for a coal mine to strike is very much the same time as the time for a hotel workers strike.

The strikers in Butte told me that they were dissatisfied with their wages, and they wanted more and they were going to wait until prosperity came back and then they were going to strike. Can’t you see them waiting? And I said, “The time for you to strike is next week when there will be a convention of the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the town will be filled with members and all the hotels will be on their good behaviour and the town of Butte trying to make a great show of their wealth and generosity; then would be the time to strike.” And can’t you see the hotel managers and the restaurant owners coming to time if the girls struck then? The time to strike is when you are most needed and when it hurts the boss most. (Applause.)

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Hellraisers Journal: Miss Gurley Flynn, Dressed as Miner, Visits Mine with P. W. Flynn, President of Butte Miners’ Union

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, My Aim in Life, Spk Rv p7, July 8, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 26, 1909
Butte, Montana – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Visits Mine with P. W. Flynn

The following is a photograph of Miss Flynn and P. W. Flynn (on her left), President of the Butte Miners’ Union, Local No. 1 of the Western Federation of Miners. The photograph was taken June 16th during a visit to one of Butte’s many mining operations. Sadly, the others in the photograph remain unidentified to this date.

EGF, Butte Mine w PW Flynn, June 16, 1909, Rebel Girl p98

Miss Flynn describes the visit:

President Flynn and a committee…escorted me down into a mine. We donned miners’ caps and overalls to make the trip. The mine was so deep that the earth was actually hot. They also took me through a smelter, where a friendly worker ran an iron bar an inch or two into the molten copper and then cooled and hardened it [and gave it to her as a souvenir].

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Interview with Spokane Review: “Girl, 19, Fights in Cause of Labor”

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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———

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 25, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Devoted to Downtrodden

From the Spokane Spokesman-Review of July 8, 1909:

GIRL, 19, FIGHTS IN CAUSE OF LABOR
—–
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Industrial Agitator,
Devotes Life to Downtrodden.
—–

STARTED WHEN ONLY 15
—–
Young Woman Believes in Evolution and
Socialism and Rejects Christianity.
—–

EGF, Restored, Spk Rv p7, July 9, 1909

I will devote my life to the cause of the downtrodden wage-earner.

My father was a victim of the master class and my brothers and sisters and myself have felt the pinch of poverty as the result of industrial tyranny and I am in the fight to a finish.

My sole aim in life is to do what lies in my power to right the wrongs and lighten the burdens of the laboring class.

In these words Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, not yet 19 years old, explained how she came to take to the lecture platform in the interests of the Industrial Workers of the World, an organization which conceives all capitalists to be its deadly enemies.

Only Slip of a Girl.

She is only a slip of a girl, tall, pale and slender, but she has strong convictions and a will to stick to a purpose.

Taking the lecture platform before she was 16 years old, at the completion of her high school course in New York city, she has followed her work persistently for more than three years and is regarded as one of the most effective apostles of the organization.

She has appeared in nearly every city in the country.

She sat for nearly an hour last night telling of her work and its purpose.

There was no bitterness in her words as she spoke of industrial conditions as she sees them, in fact, she smiled several times and her eyes sparkled with a kindly light.

There was no denunciation, no venom, only regret that things are not better than they are.

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Hellraisers Journal: Tribute to Robert G. Ingersoll by Eugene V. Debs: “I loved him as if he had been my elder brother.”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD fe Robert G Ingersoll, Sc Dem Hld p4, July 29, 1899———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 24, 1899
Tribute to Robert G. Ingersoll by Eugene V. Debs

From the Terre Haute Gazette of July 22, 1899:

Deb’s Tribute to Ingersoll

Robert Ingersoll 1833-1899

Numberless tributes will be paid to Robert G. Ingersoll. Not one of them all, however great the love that may inspire it, will be as tender and touching, as beautiful and poetic, as his own enchanting words in the presence of death. His tribute over the remains of his brother, Ebon C., in Washington [D. C.] in 1879, moved by its exquisite tenderness the whole country to tears. Almost every line of it has become classic. What a pity that there is not one, with tongue inspired, to speak such noble words above his pulseless clay. How truly these words, spoken of his brother, apply to himself:

The record of a generous life runs like a vine around the memory of our dead, and every sweet, unselfish act is now a perfumed flower. * * * There was, there is, no gentler, stronger, manlier man.

In the same oration he said:

He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the approach of death for the return of health, whispered with his last breath, “I am better now.” Let us believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears and tears, that these dear words are true of all the countless dead.

What a strange and beautiful coincidence that his own latest words were the same as those of his brother! Asked by his devoted wife how he felt, he answered with a smile, “Oh, better!” and in the same second his great soul winged its way to the farther shore. He died as he wished to die, and again his own words must be quoted:

When the duties of life have all been nobly done; when the sun touches the horizon; when the purple twilight falls upon the past, the present, and the future—then, surrounded by kindred and by friends, death comes like a strain of music. The day has been long, the road weary, and the traveler gladly stops at the welcome inn

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Hellraisers Journal: At Mass Meeting, McKees Rocks Strikers Cheer Speeches of Socialists J. W. Slayton & Rose Maritzer

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, re Ruling Class, AtR p2, Jan 23, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 22, 1909
McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania – Strikers Cheer Socialists at Mass Meeting

From The Pittsburg Press of July 19, 1909:

“NO SURRENDER” IS SLOGAN OF THE STRIKERS
—–
American Workmen Are Not Fooled by Ruse and
Refuse to Take Places of Men Who Quit
—–

CHEER ADDRESSES MADE BY SOCIALIST LEADERS
—–

While the Pressed Steel Car Co.’s attempt to resume work in full this morning at its McKees Rocks plant failed utterly, the strikers held a rousing meeting of several hours’ duration, at which they agreed to stick together and fight indefinitely.

An impressive scene was presented on the Indian Mound, which from the beginning of the strike has been used as the meeting place for the workmen. Between 4,000 and 5,000 men and women of many nationalities congregated there and were addressed in stirring manner in their own languages by speakers of more than local repute.

McKees Rocks Strike, Rose Maritzer Socialist, Ptt Prs p1, July 210, 1909

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: McKees Rocks Strikers Issue Proclamation: “We shall fight to a finish, as it is our right.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, We Will Rest, UMWC Jan 27, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 21, 1909
McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania – Strikers of Pressed Steel Car Co. Issue Proclamation

From The Pittsburg Press of July 18, 1909:

McKees Rocks Strike, K. Nagy, WB Remay, Ptt Prs p1, July 18, 1909

—–

Proclamation by Strikers
——

In refutation of the repeated statements of the officials of the Pressed Steel Car Co., that no strike exists at the Schoenville plant, the organized strikers yesterday issued a formal proclamation. It affirms in the strongest language that a strike is in progress and cites examples of the company’s alleged wage scale under the “pool system.” The proclamation, issued in behalf of the employes by William B. Remay and K. Nagy. is as follows:

Citizens Workingmen:

We talk to you, the oppressed workers, banished by the strike:

Public opinion is not sufficiently informed of the situation, and according to the statement of the directors of the Pressed Steel Car Co. there is no strike existing at McKees Rocks.

We call this statement an untruth. Yes. there is a strike and we proclaim it openly before the public that the bad conduct of the directory of the company is the direct cause of it. We complained numerous times but our complaints have never been listened to, and after complaining again last Monday, we got for our answer: “Your services are no longer required,” and we have been driven out of the works.

Citizens and workingmen, would you have acted in any other way than we did?

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