Hellraisers Journal: From the Union Record: “In Retrospect,” an Editorial on the End of the Seattle General Strike

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Quote Anna Louise Strong, NO ONE KNOWS WHERE, SUR p1, Feb 4, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 12, 1919
Seattle, Washington – An Editorial on the End of the General Strike

From the Seattle Union Record of February 11, 1919:

Seattle General Strike, Shipyard Strike Continues, SUR p1, Feb 11, 1919Seattle General Strike, Solidarity by I Swenson, SUR p1, Feb 11, 1919

—–

In Retrospect

The first general strike in the history of the American labor movement has come to an end.

Perhaps it would not be amiss to stop just a moment and take a slant at what happened-a post mortem , as it were . It sometimes happens that much can be learned from a careful analysis of events that have transpired and, perhaps, learn how to avoid mistakes of both omission and commission.

Four things stand out above all others like a mountain in the center of a plain. These are:

First-The splendid solidarity evidenced by the 100 per cent response to the strike call.

Second-The absolute orderliness of the workers on strike and the resolute refusal to be aggravated into any action that could in the least measure be interpreted as riotous conduct.

Third-The hysterical bombast and sometimes guttersnipe comment on events that emanated from the Mayor’s office down at the City-County building, and then retailed through the Seventh avenue “friend of labor” [The Seattle Star] that has at last been unmasked.

Fourth-The desperate efforts at “playing to the gallery” that was indulged in by the Star in an effort to curry favor with big business after the management had finally come to understand that its true character was known to the workers of the community.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones 1898, Part II: June-December; Found in Kansas and Nebraska

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Quote Mother Jones, Get Evil at Its Root, St L Rpb p2, Feb 5, 1898———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 11, 1899
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for the Year 1898, Part II

Mother Jones Mrs AF Smith Preach Socialism, KC Str p9, Oct 91898
Kansas City Star
October 9, 1898

In the pages of the Appeal to Reason of July 2, 1898, Mother Jones was found as “Mary G. Jones” on the list of delegates who bolted the Convention of the Social Democracy, held in Chicago during June of 1898. The disgruntled delegates immediately set about to establish a rival organization called the “Social Democratic Party of America,” and are now calling for “every loyal supporter of socialist principles” to “promptly come to the front and join” the new party. Mother Jones finds herself in good company as Eugene V. Debs and his brother, Theodore, are among the prominent Socialists who have joined the newly founded S. D. P.

July 1898 also found Mother Jones speaking in Omaha to packing house strikers. It was reported that she was speaking as “a traveling representative of the paper known as the “Appeal to Reason.”

In October 1898, Mother Jones was found in the “two Kansas Citys” preaching socialism along with Mrs. Anna Ferry Smith of San Diego. It was reported that the two women had traveled by a horse-drawn wagon from Chicago, speaking on street corners along the way.

In December 1898, Mother Jones was found leaving Kansas City and heading towards Texas “in a prairie schooner drawn by one white horse.” She was next found in Fort Scott and Mound City, Kansas. The Mound City Torch reported:

She is on her road to Texas, traveling in a private carriage alone. She is distributing literature and lecturing on needed reforms as she goes.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones 1898, Part I: January-May; Found in St. Louis, Missouri

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Quote Mother Jones, Perish in Sight of Plenty, St L Rpb p14, May 12, 1898—–

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 10, 1899
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for the Year 1898, Part I

Mother Jones, Factory Girls, St L Rpb p14, May 12, 1898
The St. Louis Republic
May 12, 1898

During February of 1898, Mother Jones was found in St. Louis, Missouri, preparing for a Conference of Labor and Labor Reform Organizations scheduled to be held in that city on May 2nd. She was also found advocating for Domestic Workers in that city who were seeking to establish “a home of their own.”

Mother departed St. Louis in early March and headed out on a tour of Eastern cities in order to “stir up sentiment among the several reform organizations in behalf of the reform convention” to be held in May. Mother was back in St. Louis in time to present at that convention which was, sadly, not well attended. Nevertheless, Mother was soon busy attempting to organize factory girls, of whom, she declared:

The factory girls should be organized because their condition should be improved. This can be effected by organization, and by no other means. The girls are, as rule, underpaid, kept in cramped, unhealthy quarters, and ground down till their young lives have been dwarfed and stunted. Through the children the world is made what it is. In the unions they could be educated how to better themselves.

I have been all through the factories of this and other cities, and find conditions in them such that the lives of these children will be shortened many years by having worked in them. We have war abroad and war at home. The conflict with Spain is not half so grinding upon humanity as the battle for bread. A few hundred go down in a naval battle; thousands perish beneath the grinding tread of greed every day. We have reconcentrados in our own country-they are the poor, without wealth or friends, who perish in sight of plenty.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Union Record: “Seattle Still Tied Up Tight!” The Great City-Wide General Strike Continues

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Quote Anna Louise Strong, NO ONE KNOWS WHERE, SUR p1, Feb 4, 1919—–

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 9, 1919
Seattle, Washington – City-Wide General Strike Continues

From the Seattle Union Record of February 8, 1919:

Seattle General Strike, Tied Up Tight, SUR p1, Feb 8, 1919

“The Broken Record”

Seattle General Strike, Broken Record, SUR p1, Feb 8, 1919

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs, Noted Labor Leader, Gives Eloquent Address on “Labor and Liberty” in Saginaw, Michigan

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Quote EVD Brush the Dust, Saginaw Eve Ns p6, Feb 6, 1899
—–

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 8, 1899
Saginaw, Michigan – Eugene Debs Speaks on “Labor and Liberty”

From The Saginaw Evening News of February 6, 1899:

LABOR AND LIBERTY
—–
Subject of Eugene V. Debs’
Address Yesterday.
—–

SOCIALISM WILL COME.
—–
Is His Belief-Urges Workingmen
to Read, Think and Study.
—–

AD re EVD Feb 5 Labor and Liberty, Saginaw Eve Ns p6, Feb 4, 1899
The Saginaw Evening News
February 4, 1899

Yesterday afternoon [February 5th] a fair-sized house greeted Eugene V. Debs, the noted labor leader, who spoke upon “Labor and Liberty” at the academy of music. Preceding the lecture the academy orchestra rendered a number of selections.

Upon the stage, besides the speaker of the afternoon, were seated Mayor Baum, W. D. Mahon of Detroit, president of the Amalgamated Street Railway Employes, James F. Welch, president of the Central Labor union of this city, and the presidents of the various unions of Saginaw.

At the appointed hour C. E. Lewn, president of the Barbers’ union, introduced Mayor Baum, who in turn in a few brief words expressed his pleasure at being able to present to the audience the speaker of the afternoon, Eugene v. Debs. Mr. Debs spoke eloquently and entertainingly. Indeed, his remarks evoked applause from every portion of his audience, which was composed largely of employers and business men. He said:

There are those who view with widespread alarm the proposition of self-government. There are those who fear the sun of the republic is to set in universal gloom. But I am persuaded that the grand old ship of state will breast all the storms and billows and safely reach the haven port. The social system is in the process of dissolution. A new system of order is evolving from competitive chaos. We stand upon the eve of the greatest change the world has ever seen. Lamentable is the fact that the man who works longest and hardest has the least to show for his labors.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eye-Witness Account from Sacramento Courtroom: Fellow Workers “Were Led Back to Jail Singing”

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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917—–

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 7, 1919
Sacramento, California – Fellow Workers Sang Their Way Back to Jail

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 3, 1919:

43 I.W.W. RECEIVE THEIR SENTENCE
WITH A LAUGH

The Defiant Stand of Unionists in Sacramento Trial
Told in Eye-Witnesses’ Account.

WWIR, In Here For You, Ralph Chaplin, Sol Aug 4, Sept 1, 1917

An eye-witness’ account of the courtroom scene when 43 members of the I. W. W. were sentenced in Sacramento 10 days ago, after having maintained a “silence strike against capitalist justice” during the trial, has just been published by the New York defense committee, 27 East Fourth street, New York City. After being out only 70 minutes the jury brought in a verdict of “guilty as charged” against all of the defendants, showing that the case of each had been dispatched in a minute and a half.

The men seemed rather glad to have it over with, it is reported. There never had been any doubt in their minds as to what the verdict would be. As they were led out of the courtroom they sang “Solidarity Forever!”

The next morning, Jan. 17. the 43 “silent defendants” were brought in for sentence. The three who had refused to join in their decision to put up no defense were absent. “Have any of the defendants anything to say before I pass sentence?” asked Judge Frank H. Rudkin.

They had, indeed. Their pledge of silence, “in contempt of court,” was to last only until they had been convicted. Their tongues were now loosed. Eleven of them spoke, occupying the entire morning, during which time the 43 stood shoulder to shoulder before the court and delivered probably as scathing an arraignment of capitalist justice as has ever been voiced by workingmen.

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Hour Has Struck!” & “Wheels Stop Turning” -Seattle General Strike Begins at 10 A. M.

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Quote Anna Louise Strong, NO ONE KNOWS WHERE, SUR p1, Feb 4, 1919—–

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 6, 1919
Seattle, Washington – General Strike Begins at 10 A. M.

From the Seattle Union Record of February 6, 1919:

Seattle General Strike, Wheels Stop Turning, SUR p1, Feb 6, 1919

“NOW SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO”

Seattle General Strike, Now See, SUR p2, Feb 6, 1919

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Hellraisers Journal: 110 Seattle Unions Call for General Strike to Begin Thursday at 10 A. M.; 60,000 Workers Will Join Walk-Out

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Seattle General Strike, Set for Thursday, SUR p1, Feb 3, 1919—–

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 4, 1919
Seattle, Washington – General Strike of 60,000 Workers Set for Thursday

Seattle General Strike, All Unions To Go Out, SUR p1, Feb 3, 1919

Seattle General Strike, Announcement Delaney, SUR p1, Feb 3, 1919

At 10 o’clock next Thursday morning 60,000 organized workers in the city of Seattle will stand shoulder to shoulder in the first general strike that has ever been successfully inaugurated in the history of this country. Insolently and contemptuously Mr. Charles Piez and his labor-snubbing shipping board threw down the defiant gauntlet which has now been taken up with a firmness of resolution and a solidarity unmatched in the annals of the American Labor movement.

The workers of the northwest believe that they have been flouted and fooled by Piez and his fellow labor-baiters, that they have been deceived and betrayed by the politicians, both state and federal, and they have resolutely grasped the only weapon over which they have any direct control, determined to make a fight that will demonstrate whether or not they have the power to secure the justice that has been denied them by industrial barons and bureaucratic despots.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Social Democratic Herald: “The March of Socialism” by Eugene V. Debs

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Quote EVD, Social Democrats, Sc Dem Hld, Jan 28, 1899—–

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 3, 1899
Eugene V. Debs: “The name of the Social Democratic Party suits me precisely.”

From the Social Democratic Herald of January 28, 1899:

The March of Socialism

[by Eugene V. Debs]

EVD, New Time Magazine, Feb 1898

Each passing day adds new testimony to the progressive march of socialism throughout the civilized world. A letter just received from Russia contains words of greeting and congratulation, and prompts me to pen this article for The Herald. The Social Democratic Party of the United States commands the confidence and respect of the leading socialists of other nations, and they look to our party to organize the socialists of this country and bring them into harmonious alliance with the hosts of international socialism, in the universal battle for the overthrown of capitalism.

The work accomplished during the past few months is as gratifying and inspiring to socialists as it is abhorrent and alarming to their enemies. The superb victory at Haverhill sent a thrill of joy and consternation, hope and horror through the country. The plutocratic press is still harping upon it, wondering how it happened and predicting all sorts of evils if there is any spread of this dread affliction. They are straining their old power to scare the people and make them mind their masters, as they have been so long in the habit of doing. Riley’s nursery tale warning aptly illustrates the situation:

Gobble uns'll get you, Sc Dem Hld, Jan 28, 1899

The plutocrats and their parasites will not contemplate with calm indifference the march of socialism. Every artifice known to their Machiavellian resources will be employed to resist the advance. The ignorant and servile can be easily deflected from their course, but the thinking and vigilant will do ceaseless sentinel service and be prepared to parry every blow and expose every device and intrigue of the enemy.

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