Category: Hellraisers Journal

Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: John W. Brown Writes from the Harrison County Jail at Clarksburg

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Quote re John W Brown Revolutionary, AtR p2 Mar 15, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 26, 1913
Clarksburg, West Virginia – Comrade John W. Brown Writes from Jail

From The Wheeling Majority of April 24, 1913:

John Brown Writes From Harrison Jail
———-

John Brown and Charles Boswell, ISR p733, Apr 1913

John W. Brown, who, with Charles Boswell, editor of the Charleston Labor Argus, and George F. Parsons, United Mine Workers’ organizer, have been imprisoned under the martial law anarchy system in West Virginia since last February, has written a letter to W. A. Peters, of this city, from the present abode of the three men, the Clarksburg jail.

These men, with Mother Jones and many others, were arrested by the militia and have been in jail ever since, having been tried at a farcial trial at which they were not even represented, and tried by men who had previously sworn that they believed them guilty. Their crime is defending the poor mine workers of this state from the greed of the coal barons. For this they will likely be sentenced to the penitentiary, and sent under a violation of the constitution of the state of West Virginia and the United States, for they have been denied a trial in the civil courts, before a jury.

—————————————–

The Letter.

Following is the letter:

Harrison County Jail.
Clarksburg W. Va., April 10, ’13.

Dear Comrade Peters:

Your kind favor of March 25 just reached me. Was mighty glad to hear from you. Nothing doing in the Haywood line for this bunch; I know of but two Haywoods in this country, and I am not one of them. As to trials and tribulations…I will tell you all about it some other time. Let it suffice to say: We are here—because we’re here.—Because we can’t get away.

We arrived here April 2 from Pt. Pleasant, where we were flooded out. And, strange as it may seem, we are treated here as human beings. We have been under arrest since Feb. 10, and up to the time we were brought here we were held “incommunicado.” Yet notwithstanding this, did not prevent us from touching an underground wire, and stinging them once in a while. Do you get the “Argus”? Did you see “Old Liberty” from the Bull Pen at Pratt or “Don’t give up the Fight” from Mason county jail?

It is impossible to say at this time what they are going to do with us. But you can take it from me that if they can get Boswell, Parsons and myself, we will sure go. I am looking for about five years. They couldn’t get us for a day in the civil-courts.

As to matters personal, there is nothing the comrades can do for us other than to demand a trial in the civil courts. It’s a great opportunity for the [Socialist] party, but unfortunately, the party is not taking advantage of it.

They made a mistake in bringing us here. Evidently the jailer told them he was running this jail, as we are getting our mail, and outgoing mail is not censored, besides we can see “everybody”, and there is someone here about all the time. The boys hold a meeting every night in front of the court house and every day they bring us in a good dinner.

We have been corraled in box cars, passenger cars, churches, freight depots, old stores and three jails in three different counties. I am afraid the comrades here are going to spoil our “playhouse,” and in that case they may take us to Wheeling.

Give my kindest regards to all the comrades, and…

Sincerely yours,
J. W. BROWN

[Photographs and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: John W. Brown Writes from the Harrison County Jail at Clarksburg” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mrs. Fremont Older Travels from San Francisco to West Virginia, Enters Martial Law/Strike Zone, Speaks with Prisoners and Mother Jones

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Quote Annie Hall per Cora Older, WV Strikers Wont give in, Colliers p28, Apr 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 25, 1913
Martial Law/Strike Zone, West Virginia – Cora Older Speaks with Mother Jones

From Collier’s National Weekly of April 19, 1913:

Answering a Question

By MRS. FREMONT OLDER

Mother Jones, Cora Older, at Military Bastile WV, Colliers p26, Apr 1913

Mrs. Older is the wife of Fremont Older, editor of the San Francisco “Bulletin,’’ who was one of the citizen leaders responsible for the overthrow of the Schmitz boodle gang and for the conviction of Abe Ruef. But Mr. Older is a newspaper man before he is a reformer. Hence his question-which herewith Mrs. Older answers.

———-

MOTHER JONES and forty-eight men were on trial before a military court in Paint Creek Junction, W. Va., charged with conspiracy to murder. Mother Jones and five leaders refused to plead; they would not admit that the military court had jurisdiction over civilians. It was an interesting situation, but little news came to the outside world.

“Why don’t we get news from West Virginia?” my husband asked me one morning. So I started from San Francisco to find out.

On the last day of the trial I arrived in Paint Creek Junction [Pratt], the military capital of the strike zone. A few small houses tilted toward the muddy New River. Barren brown mountains imprisoned the town. 

A flag fluttered freely over the dingy village. A soldier greeted me as I got down from the train. Soldiers swarmed about the little railway station converted into a “bull pen” for strikers on trial. Through the streets at the point of guns soldiers were driving civilians. “Prisoners,” some said; “Martial law.” Former Governor Glasscock’s proclamation posted on the little green lunch counter at the station spelled it “Marital law.”

Pickles are served at breakfast in Paint Creek Junction. “Lena Rivers” is the “best seller,” but the place is filled with class hatred and suspicion. One whispers; soldiers may hear. Americans of old colonial stock sneer at the militia. “Yellow legs!” “Spies!” “Strike breakers!”

EVERY man is his own Marconi in Paint Creek Junction. In half an hour it was known that a strange woman had arrived to visit Mother Jones. A messenger tiptoed into my boarding house to say that Mother Jones and the prisoners were allowed to meet no one, especially reporters; but if I wanted to find out about conditions I’d better talk with Mother Jones’s landlady. “Go to the side door, and into the kitchen.”

By this time I felt like a conspirator. I almost tiptoed through the soldiers. Mother Jones occupied the parlor of a small white cottage. I was welcomed by the landlady. We were chatting in the kitchen when, without rapping, an officer entered and said to me: “The Provost Marshal wants you at headquarters.”

“Why?” I asked, bewildered. I did not know I was under arrest.

Martial law was in the soldier’s glance. He repeated his command. “And they call us anarchists,” commented the fiery-eyed, white-faced landlady.

Through the main street, past armed sentinels, up a flight of stairs to a large room filled with empty benches and stacked guns, we went to the Provost Marshal. Stern, unsmiling as justice, he asked me to explain my presence and my existence. I told him the truth. The Provost Marshal frowned. I wondered about the “bull pen.” I made the discovery that I am no Christian martyr. I am a sybarite hopelessly prejudiced against bull pens. I fumbled in my bag and brought forth an engraved card. I was released on good behavior.

But I was able now to answer the question which had brought me across a continent. The PROVOST MARSHAL was the ASSOCIATED PRESS CORRESPONDENT.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mrs. Fremont Older Travels from San Francisco to West Virginia, Enters Martial Law/Strike Zone, Speaks with Prisoners and Mother Jones” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part V

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Quote BBH Corporation Soul, Oakland Tb p11, Mar 30, 1909—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 24, 1903
Colorado City, Colorado –Mill and Smeltermen’s Union on Strike, Part V

From The Miners Magazine of April 1903:

THE STRIKE IN COLORADO CITY.

[Part V of V: Miners of Cripple Creek Support Smeltermen]

WFM button

The Cripple Creek Press, the official organ of organized labor of the Cripple Creek district (since suspended) had the following to say in its editorial columns of March 15:

The announcement of a settlement of the differences between the Mill and Smeltermen’s Union No. 125, of Colorado City, and the managers of the Portland and Telluride mills is pleasing to the people of this district, but the failure of the United States Reduction and Refining Company to enter into the agreement made by the other mills means something which is not pleasing. It means that unless the mines shipping to the Standard mill accede to the demands made upon them by the executive board of the Western Federation of Miners, that they quit shipping their ores to the said United States Reduction and Refining Company on Monday, that the miners employed by them will be called out by the Federation. It means that when these men are called out in support of their brothers on strike against the Standard mill, they will go out and tie up those mines so tight that Manager MacNeil will have a difficult time in getting material to keep his pet scabs at Colorado City employed. The Western Federation has done everything in its power to bring about an amicable settlement, and when Manager MacNiel refuses to accept the terms made by the managers of the other mills he places himself behind the pale of public consideration and the only thing now left for the mine managers who are shipping to his mill will be to whip him into line or submit to a strike of miners employed by them. There is no middle ground with the miners on this question. They will be compelled to insist upon the demands made by them being complied with or walk out.

The governor failed to keep his promise that he would immediately withdraw the troops, and the delay of the governor in issuing his order recalling the state militia caused the following to be issued from the headquarters of the Western Federation of Miners on March 17:

The representatives of the Western Federation of Miners, since the strike was declared at Colorado City, have at all times held themselves in readiness to confer with the mill managers for the purpose of bringing about an amicable adjustment of differences. For months previous to the strike, the officers of the Federation labored early and late to bring about an honorable settlement, which would prevent any open rupture between the mill managers and their employes. The officers of the Federation have given a respectful hearing to representatives in all departments of business, and at all times have shown a disposition to submit their grievances to a board of arbitration. Had the mill managers manifested as earnest a desire to pour oil upon the troubled waters as the Western Federation of Miners, the people of the state of Colorado would never have been compelled to forward protests against the executive of the state for his loyalty to corporate interests.

Had the mill managers exhibited even the slightest disposition to act in a spirit of justice to their employes the strike would have been averted and the treasury of the state would not have become a graft for military officials who are “bug house” when clothed with the uniform of blue. The militia of the state has been used for the purpose of inciting riot, but with all the infamous schemes concocted by Bell and Brown, the strikers have remained unruffled, and have shown to the people of Colorado that they are law-abiding, and that even uniformed ruffians could not goad them to acts of violence. The sheriff of El Paso county has demonstrated that he has been a willing auxiliary in the hands of the mill managers to exaggerate the conditions of the situation at Colorado City so that corporations which refuse to arbitrate could secure the militia to perform picket duty at the expense of the state.

The governor, toward the close of the interview Sunday morning, admitted without any solicitation, that the representatives of the Western Federation of Miners had gone more than three-fourths of the way and had been more than fair in bringing about a settlement and that he would at once issue an order to withdraw the troops. The governor admitted, after his personal investigation of affairs at Colorado City, that he was unable to connect the strikers with any violation of the law. In the interview that was held Sunday at the governor’s office to arbitrate with Manager MacNeil, the governor receded from his former agreement to withdraw the troops. He asked the representatives of the Western Federation of Miners for a further concession, namely, that he would immediately withdraw the troops providing that the Federation would withdraw all suits against the officers of the state militia. The representatives of the Federation were again magnanimous and accepted the proposition of the governor.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part V” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part IV

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Quote BBH Corporation Soul, Oakland Tb p11, Mar 30, 1909—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 23, 1903
Colorado City, Colorado –Mill and Smeltermen’s Union on Strike, Part IV

From The Miners Magazine of April 1903:

THE STRIKE IN COLORADO CITY.

[Part IV of V: Reporter Talks with Wives of Strikers]

The Post in its issue of March 13, said editorially:

WHAT WOULD YOU DO, GOVERNOR,
WERE YOU A MILL HAND?

WFM button

Governor Peabody, do you wish to learn the difference between the men working in the strikers’ places at Colorado City and the strikers? You did not see the strikers when you visited the military camp there. You talked with the men at work in the mills.

Governor, there is a profound difference between those—and that difference represents the truth.

* * *

You talked with the men at work in the guarded mill, governor, and they told you that they had no complaints to make.

At that moment a woman, sent by The Post, was doing a natural and practical thing. She was at the homes of the strikers talking with their wives.

They were very poor, governor, so poor that the check you pay in a fashionable cafe for one meal would mean the very affluence of food for a striker’s family for one week.

And yet the men had worked very, very hard, governor. They had given every muscle and all the endurance they possessed to the mill— every bit of it—and yet their children would have shouted for joy and their wives wept over the sum of a restaurant check carried by a bowing waiter to the proud cashier of a fashionable cafe.

* * *

And then this woman, who writes for The Post, went to the homes of the “scabs” and saw their wives and children and the men when they returned gloomily home—the men who told you, governor, that they had no complaints to make.

Theirs are the homes, governor, where, after the credit at the store is cut off in the middle of the month, the women live on crusts of bread so that the men may have an egg or a bit of meat to keep up their strength to work for the mill until next pay day, when credit is restored and they can have enough to eat for another half month.

But the men are working—they have no complaint to make.

***

Governor Peabody, imagine that you were shorn of your power, your fortune, your home—imagine that you had nothing wherewith to support your family, save a chance to earn enough to keep them half alive.

And suppose, governor, that you might lose that chance by a complaint. What would you do? Possibly you would cling to it; possibly you would try to smile through the cold sweat in your face and say:

“I have no complaint to make. Let me alone!”

* * *

Or perhaps, Governor Peabody, if you found that there were beside you good and true comrades, brave men, who would stand by you, you might throw down your tools and say to your employers:

“You must pay us living wages—By God, you must!”

* * *

That is the difference, governor, between the men who are striking and those who have no complaint.

Read Dora Desmond’s story in The Post today, the story written in the laborers’ poor homes, written in the pure light of the sacrifice of their wives, written on the very heart of unrequited toil.

“Nothing to arbitrate!”

Why, Governor Peabody, don’t you know that if you and the rest of the men who sit in their artistic homes with one hand fondly caressing sweet, sunny-haired children and the other holding up the newspaper wherein they read the news of the strike, don’t you know what you and they would do were the conditions reversed?

What would the so-called “ruling classes” do if they found themselves giving their lives for one-half of a right to live?

* * *

How long would “the great conservative, intelligent citizenship” stand it? How long would the mill owners toil in weary silence? How long would you endure slavery?

Did it ever occur to you what the men would do who demand that union labor shall be crushed were they the toilers?

Did it ever occur to you, governor that they might say:

“We can’t arbitrate poverty and suffering.”

But union labor offers to arbitrate, governor.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part IV” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part III

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Quote BBH Corporation Soul, Oakland Tb p11, Mar 30, 1909—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 22, 1903
Colorado City, Colorado –Mill and Smeltermen’s Union on Strike, Part III

From The Miners Magazine of April 1903:

THE STRIKE IN COLORADO CITY.

[Part III of V: Moyer Submits Terms for Arbitration]

WFM button

As soon as it became known throughout the state that the militia had been ordered to Colorado City, organized labor in every hamlet, village and city of the state, acted as a unit, in carrying out the instructions that were conveyed in the address that was issued by President Moyer and Secretary-Treasurer Haywood. The first petition that was presented to the legislature in condemnation of the governor, was laid upon the table by a vote of twenty-nine to nineteen. The members of the legislature did not seem to realize that organized labor throughout the state was thoroughly aroused, and when petition after petition came into the chambers of the law-makers, the corporation-owned lackeys of the Peabody administration felt “a change of heart.

The governor for a few days played the role of the parrot to Manager MacNeil, and echoed the slogan of the corporations: “There is nothing to arbitrate.” “Nothing to arbitrate,” exclaimed the governor, when the state militia, at an expense of $1,500 per day are located at Colorado City, to give assistance to the mill trust in binding the shackles of a more galling bondage on the limbs of the serfs, who rebelled against czarism in Colorado. Nothing to arbitrate, when mill managers ride in $14,000 automobiles, and their employes live in hovels, surrounded by squalor of the most abject poverty? Nothing to arbitrate while misery is the legacy of the mill workers, and fabulous dividends, for the trust? Governor, in the language of the street, “you are a corker.” The sentiment of the people of Colorado was expressed in the numerous petitions that poured into the state capitol, and the governor showed symptoms of receding from his former position.

* * *

Sherman Bell, the adjutant general, who was recently appointed by the governor, at the urgent request of the Mine Owners’ Association, and whose salary in the capacity of adjutant general is $1,800 per year, plus $3,200, which is to be appropriated by the Mine Owners’ Association, has assumed the attitude of a military autocrat. This imperial bum hero, who won a questionable reputation in the Spanish-American war, by crawling behind the breastworks of black men, who stormed San Juan hill, vomited the burning lava of his pent-up indignation in the following words to a correspondent of the Denver Post:

You may say for me, in the most emphatic and unqualified terms, that while President Moyer, of the Western Federation of Miners, is in Denver carrying a white flag of truce and asking for the good offices of Governor Peabody to relieve him and his factional Coeur d’Alene followers from their present embarrassing predicament, he is acting with a double purpose here by waving a red flag under a black flag and at the same time is endeavoring to be relieved of any and all responsibility for the firing at our sentries by Moyer’s assassins and forcing his ideas of arbitration. There is nothing to arbitrate with us on this matter, and everybody concerned might just as well understand it. That is all there is to that.

Sherman Bell is not supposed to assume the duties of adjutant general until Gardner of “Wrath of God” and “Snowslide Fame,” steps down and out at the expiration of his term in the month of April. But Bell is anxious to impress the mine owners with the fact that their princely donation of $3,200 per annum in conjunction with the regular salary is duly appreciated, and that no effort will be spared on his part to fully meet their expectations in serving the interests of the corporations.

President Moyer, in the same issue of the Denver Post, which quoted the belligerent verbosity of Bell, had the following to say to a Post correspondent:

The Mill and Smeltermen’s union agreed to submit their differences to a board of arbitration, and were willing to abide by the decision of such a board. The terms submitted for arbitration by the Federation are as follows:

First—That eight hours shall constitute a day’s work in and around the mills.

Second—That all men now on strike or who shall have been discharged by the different milling companies for no reason other than that they were members of Colorado City Mill and Smeltermen’s union, be reinstated.

Third—That members of organized labor be not discriminated against, but be privileged to affiliate with a labor organization, and that they be not discharged for said affiliation.

Fourth—That the scale of wages, as set forth in the demands of the Mill and Smeltermen’s union be paid.

Fifth—The Colorado City Mill and Smeltermen’s union is willing to submit the above demands to a board of arbitration, selected as follows: The first member of the board to be selected by the governor or the mill managers; the second member to be selected by the Western Federation of Miners, and the third to be selected by the two; and the Colorado City Mill and Smeltermen’s Union No. 125, agrees to abide by the decision of the said board, providing that pending their deliberations, the state militia, armed guards, strike breakers and all pickets be withdrawn from in and around the above mentioned mills.

CHARLES MOYER,
Representing Mill and Smeltermen’s Union No. 125.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part III” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part II

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Quote BBH Corporation Soul, Oakland Tb p11, Mar 30, 1909—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 21, 1903
Colorado City, Colorado –Mill and Smeltermen’s Union on Strike, Part II

From The Miners Magazine of April 1903:

THE STRIKE IN COLORADO CITY.

[Part II of V: W. F. of M. Attempts to Negotiate]

WFM button

Previous to the strike being declared, the following letter was presented to the mill managers by the Mill and Smeltermen’s union of Colorado City:

We respectfully present for your consideration a schedule relating to employment and wages in and about the mills. This schedule has been carefully considered by members of the Colorado City Mill and Smeltermen’s union No. 125, W. F. M., and they deem it a fair and reasonable minimum scale for the services in the various lines of work, and inasmuch as throughout the immediate surrounding places a like or higher scale is in effect, it is evident that both the employer and the employes regard a scale not lower than the one presented as just and equitable. Should there be any part of the schedule, however, which appears to you as not being fair and just, we will be glad to take the matter up with you, and assure you of our willingness to look at things from the company’s standpoint as well as our own, and do that which will promote harmony and justice.

We are greatly aggrieved over the discharge of individuals who have been, so far as we are informed, faithful employes of the company, and the only reason for their dismissal being the fact of their membership in this union.

We do not object to the company discharging men whose services as workmen are unsatisfactory. We are not now, nor do we intend to uphold incompetent men nor insist that they be either employed or retained in the employment of the company, but we must protect the men in their rights to belong to the union, even to the extent of discontinuing to work for any company which so discriminates against them.

Realizing that you will require some time to consider the accompanying scale, the committee will call upon you on the 25th inst. and expect a definite answer.

This letter was signed by the official committee of the union, but the letter received but little courteous consideration from the managers. When all overtures of the union failed to bring about an amicable adjustment of differences, the strike was declared as a last resort for justice. The mill managers exhausted every resource to fill the places of the strikers, but their efforts were unavailing. The governor then came to the rescue by recognizing the order of the sheriff, who wears the collar of the corporations. The Denver Post contains the following in its issue of March 6:

This is the telegram sent to the Colorado City mill managers by the Denver Post:

“Are you willing to submit to arbitration the trouble between your company and the mill workers employed by you, the arbitration board to be appointed by joint arrangement of parties involved? Please answer at our expense.

THE DENVER POST.

This is the reply:

“There is no trouble between our company and mill workers employed by us. Our employes are now and have been perfectly satisfied with wages and treatment. Wages paid by us more and hours of labor less than ore reducing plants with whom we compete. Our employes don’t ask to arbitrate. Our plants are full-handed and all our employes and plants require is protection from the violence of outsiders not employed by us. We would be pleased to have your representative visit our plants and fully investigate.

C. A. MACNEIL.
Vice President and General Manager
United States Reduction and Refining Company.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part I

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Quote BBH Corporation Soul, Oakland Tb p11, Mar 30, 1909—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 20, 1903
Colorado City, Colorado –Mill and Smeltermen’s Union on Strike, Part I

From The Miners Magazine of April 1903:

THE STRIKE IN COLORADO CITY.

[Part I of V, The Strike Begins]

WFM button

On February 14, 1903, the Mill and Smeltermen’s Union No. 125, of the Western Federation of Miners, was forced to strike a blow on the industrial field against the arrogance of the mill trust, whose employes were denied the right to organize for self-protection under the penalty or a forfeiture of employment. Previous to the Western Federation of Miners sending an organizer to Colorado City to establish a local of the W. F. M., the employes of the mills had maintained a local union which was disrupted and shattered through the employment of Pinkertons by the corporations.

***

When the Western Federation of Miners invaded the domain that was considered sacred to MacNeil, Fullerton and Peck, and organized the Mill and Smeltermen’s Union, corporation coin secured the services of a Benedict Arnold in the union by the name of A. K. Crane, who, for Judas money, prostituted his manhood and betrayed his fellowmen by furnishing the corporations the names of every man who sought shelter in the membership of the Western Federation of Miners. As rapidly as the names of members of the union were furnished by the traitor to Manager MacNeil of the mill trust, they were discharged without ceremony. The union at Colorado City bore with patience this discrimination until patience became so abused “that it ceased to be a virtue.” The representatives of the Western Federation of Miners called upon the management of the mills, protesting against discrimination, but all efforts to bridge the gulf that lay between the union and the mill owners were fruitless, and the strike was declared on February 14, against the United States Reduction and Refining Company. It was but a short time when the Telluride mill owners joined hands with MacNeil and entered into a compact that was backed and supported by the Mine Owners’ Association of Colorado, to fight to a finish any and all efforts of the Western Federation of Miners to establish the right of the mill men to organize for their mutual welfare and collective prosperity.

The strikers conducted their campaign in a most peaceable manner and their eloquent and moral persuasion left the mills in a condition which
baffled the managers whose haughty contempt for unionism forced the
battle. Secret meetings of the mill owners and representatives of the Mine Owners’ Association were held, and a plot was hatched that would bring the state militia to the scene of action to assist the corporations in their infamous assault upon the right of labor to organize. The governor of the state became a willing tool to serve the interests of the corporate masters, who, in all probability, a few months before furnished the “sinews of war” to aid him in reaching the goal of his political ambition.

The reason and the cause which led to the strike can be conveyed to the readers in no more abbreviated manner than to quote the language of Secretary-Treasurer Haywood to a reporter of the Denver Post of March 4:

The occasion for the strike was the absolute refusal of the mill managers at Colorado City to treat with or recognize the union. Our men were discharged because they belonged to the union; they were so informed by the managers. We then asked the operators to reinstate these men and consider a wage scale. They would do neither.

We object to compulsory insurance, and claim the constitutional right to organize as do the operators, and want wages that will enable our men to move into houses and not rear their families in tents. The scale asked is lower than in any milling or mining camp in Colorado.

During the bitter cold weather the wives and children of many of the men were huddled together in tents because the wages paid would not suffice to pay house rent and provide other necessities.

The minimum scale paid is $1.80 per day, from which is deducted 5 cents for compulsory insurance and one per cent discount. Checks are drawn in favor of merchants with whom the men trade.

When the mill owners and the representatives of the Mine Owners’ Association realized that the strikers were masters of the situation and their places, a picture was drawn by the corporations to present to the governor that would justify the legality of the state militia being used to break the strike. The governor, in his message to the legislature after having taken the oath of office, was emphatic in his assurance that he would uphold ‘law and order.’ Such words coming from the chief executive of the state were wisely interpreted by the capitalistic anarchists, who knew that the governor would never call out the state militia to prevent the employer from starving his serfs. On the third of March, at the hour of noon, the governor, who but a few months before was living on usury in the convict city of the state, issued an order that swelled the plutocratic heart with gratitude and joy.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Miners’ Magazine: The Smeltermen’s Strike in Colorado City, Led by WFM, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part IV

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Quote BBH One Fist, ISR p458, Feb 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 19, 1913
Akron, Ohio – Big Bill Haywood Visits City, Speaks to Strikers

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part IV of IV]

Akron Strikers Listening to Speakers, ISR p723, Apr 1913

On Friday, Feb. 28, Haywood stopped off a day at Akron and several thousand strikers met him at the train and paraded through the factory and business districts of Akron. Haywood spoke to two immense strike meetings. He said in part: 

The greatest weapon you can use against the rubber robbers just now is to keep your hands in your pockets. When you have your hands in your pockets, the capitalist can’t get his there, and unless the capitalist has his hands in your pockets, he has got to go to work. So during the time of this strike, let there be no violence on your part, not the destruction of one cent’s worth of property, not one cross word. You have got this strike won if you will but stand together in One Big Union.

If the boss starves you back to work then you know how to win this strike on the inside of the factory. Don’t use the speeding up, but the slowing down process. This is an up-to-date organization, and we are fighting with modern weapons. The workers who understand the program and the policy of the I. W. W. will never again be defeated. We are organized now and fighting this battle for an eight-hour day.

As I said to you this morning, if you work only eight hours that is going to make room for more men and more women, and as the unemployed come into work, then the wages are going up. Your wages are going up anyway, because you are going to stand together until we force them up. Four dollars per week, or four and one-half is altogether too little for a girl to try and live on, and live decently, and. every girl, or a large per cent of them, would live decently if they got wages enough. But it is not a question of girlhood or womanhood with the rubber trusts. What they want is cheap labor. Cheap labor means to them more profits.

Just remember, men that we are the working class and it doesn’t make any difference what our nationality may be. My father was born in this state, I was born in this country and am an American.

There are no foreigners in the working class except the capitalist. He is the fellow we are after and we are going to get him. We are going to get Mr. Seiberling. If he is too old to work, we will get his son, and put him right in the rubber factory alongside the rest of ’em.

You simply get back enough to keep alive and in shape to work. If any of you fall by the wayside, and the undertaker visits your home, it doesn’t make any difference to Mr. Seiberling. Now workingmen, it is for you to organize. This strike is your strike. The success of this strike depends on you. There is no one else to fight.

If you had a picket line out every morning representing a crowd as big as this there would not be anybody going to work. You can influence enough to prevent them going to work. Get on the job in the morning in the picket line and visit these friends of yours at night in their homes.

Get this organization so that it will be 100 per cent strong. We will try, as we did at Lawrence, to raise money enough to carry you through.

[He further said:]

I have a warning to issue here. Those in authority must forget this proposition of wearing out their clubs on the strikers’ heads. They made the laws and there are proper processes for them to follow. Let them live up to it. If a striker violates law, let them arrest him and bring him before the court.

But I want to appeal to you strikers to conduct this strike along the peaceful lines you have been. You built this city and the rubber barons are realizing that you are necessary to its prosperity. They are realizing that until you are getting better pay and better hours, their profits won’t increase.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part IV” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part III

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

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 18, 1913
Akron, Ohio – The Story of Annie Fejtko, Goodrich Striker

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part III of IV]

Akron Striker Annie Fejtko, ISR p719, Apr 1913

The following story printed by the Akron Press, a paper which has tried to give the strikers’ side some showing in this bitter struggle, is the general answer of the women and girls who joined the strike:

Annie Fejtko, eighteen, joined the Akron rubber strikers Friday. She’s all alone in Akron-her own provider, housekeeper, washerwoman-and a mere child.

This is Annie Fejtko’s own summary of what she pays and how she spends it:

Average weekly pay, $4 to $4.50.
Weekly board bill, $3.
Left for dress, amusements, etc., $1 to $1.50.

She came to Akron about a year ago and has been working for the B. F. Goodrich Company ever since. She started to work on 10-hour day work, for $1, a day.

“I only worked that way three weeks,” said Annie. “Then they put me on piece work. My average two weeks’ pay is $8 or $9. I can’t save anything and I haven’t seen papa or mamma or the little brothers and sisters since I came here.

“They only live in Pennsylvania, too, but I can’t save enough to go and see them.”

The last day Annie worked she made 75 cents. Lots of days she said she made less.

“Some days I can make $1.25 and once in a while $1.50, but that’s only when I work on certain kinds of work, and just as fast as I can all day, without resting.”

The highest Annie has ever been paid for a day’s work, was $2. She never made that much again, she says. That day she was cutting paper rings to hold the rubber bulbs in packing. When Annie went home that night her hands were blistered from the scissors.

For some time before the strike Annie had been working in what is known as department 17-B, of the Goodrich. This is the rubber bulb branch. Her work is constantly changed, but for the most of the time she has been inspecting the hard rubber stems for the bulbs, she said. She is paid 9 mills a hundred for this work and makes around $1 when kept doing this all day.

But there’s stamping of time cards to be done, and the work is passed around. “Two mills a hundred is paid for this work,” says Annie, “and if you don’t work all day you couldn’t make over 25 cents.”

“In some of the departments the girls make more,” Annie states. “The buffers (a line of rubber bulb work), make as high as $2 a day when they get to work all the time, but lots of times there isn’t enough to keep them busy. Sometimes they are sent home and other times they stay around all day expecting more to do and only get about 25 cents worth of work.

“But I can’t make that much,” the girl says. “I suppose I’m not fast enough or something. But I work hard, ten hours every day and I have to do my own washing in the evenings, and skimp awful.”

When the strike started Annie didn’t quit. It ran from Tuesday until Friday. She wanted more money for her work, but she didn’t have anything saved and thought she couldn’t afford to lose a day.

“Friday Charlie, one of the pickets talked to me at noon. I decided I couldn’t be much worse off so I laid down my tools and four other girls in that department followed me out,” she explained.

“I haven’t any money and I have to pay board and-” she looked seriously out of the window, “but I suppose they’ll help me.”

“If I don’t get any more, though, when I go back, I don’t see how I can ever catch up out at Santo’s where I board.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part III” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 17, 1913
Akron, Ohio – The Speeding-Up System and the Akron Rubber Strike

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part II of IV]

Akron Rubber Worker, ISR Cv, Apr 1913

One of the strikers informs us that very recently the Speeding-Up System has forced the tire builders to produce 2,000 more than the regular output of tires in a single night. The same man reported that while it formerly took three hours to “cure” a tire, the time had been cut to 55 minutes in one plant. And that the “curing process” depends altogether upon the quantity of rubber used in the compound.

Five hundred to six hundred pounds of compound are made up at a time. In the good old days THREE POUNDS of actual pure rubber was used in a batch; much less is used now. A gum plant is one of the ingredients, also old rope, rags, alkali and shoddy (old rubber, such as worn-out tubing, worn-out rubbers, etc.). Although the price of pure rubber is lower than it was a few years ago, the rubber companies have cut down the quantity used steadily. Formerly tire curers earned $5.00 for curing five tires. They are now forced to cure 50 tires for the same sum. And there is NO LET UP IN THE SPEEDING UP SYSTEM. And the pay per worker goes steadily down.

Akron Rubber Workers Packed in One Room, ISR p716, Apr 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II” →