Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 4, 1913
Cabin Creek, West Virginia – Reports Indicates Some Miners Will Return to Work
From the InternationalSocialistReview of January 1913:
THE CABIN CREEK VICTORY
By JAMES MORTON
Photographs by Paul Thompson.
[Part II of II]
The United Mine Workers’ Journal of December 12 says:
The victory of the union miners at Coalberg, at the mouth of Cabin Creek, is one more step in advance. Some three hundred of the boys will be able to return to work under conditions that they have never enjoyed since the union was destroyed on Cabin Creek in 1904.
But the fight is not yet won.
On Paint Creek, and the great majority of the mines on Cabin Creek, our men are still fighting for an assurance of conditions that will justify them to return to work; conditions that can no longer be claimed impossibly exorbitant by the operators of those mines in the face of the fact that operators, competing with those others, have conceded the scale asked by the miners and expect to conduct their business with profit to themselves.
We, in the organized fields, must remember that there are still thousands of men, women and children evicted from their homes and camped in tents on the hillsides this bleak December weather.
In a little over a week the glad Christmas time will be with us once more.
Let us not forget these brave men and their families, cheerfully suffering untold hardships; uncomplaining, but grateful for what assistance they have already received from their more fortunate brothers.
Remember the bleak, unproductive country in which they have had to make their fight; the fact that their exploitation was so complete while they were still working as to preclude the possibility of any savings of their own; and lastly, the bitter length of the strike, now over eight months; remember their loyalty; not a defection among them; men, women and children, bravely bearing the hardships that necessarily accompany a struggle closely bordering on a state of war.
And so, let us all give what we can possibly spare to help make at least the semblance of Christmas cheer on the bleak hillsides of West Virginia.
We know you have not overly much of the good things of this world. But always it has been the workers who have shown the true spirit of brotherhood by sharing what little they can spare with their less fortunate fellow worker.
The dawn is breaking in West Virginia; but the day is not yet. Let us all strive to make conditions less difficult for our struggling fellow workers.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 3, 1913 Cabin Creek, West Virginia – Miners’ Victorious, Is Report from Strike Zone
From the InternationalSocialistReview of January 1913:
THE CABIN CREEK VICTORY
By JAMES MORTON
Photographs by Paul Thompson.
[Part I of II]
THERE is rejoicing after many months in the Kanawha district in West Virginia. In spite of the subserviency of the Big Bull Moose governor to the interests of the coal barons, in spite of the steady flux of scabs into the coal district, the plutocracy has gone down to ignominious defeat before the splendid solidarity shown by the striking miners.
Twice the REVIEW has attempted to give its readers word pictures of the terrible brutalities of the thugs that have faithfully served the interests of the mine owners. But words fail to convey any idea of the conditions in the Kanawha district.
More than once the women and children were openly attacked and an attempt made to drive them off company grounds and into the river. It was thought such methods would drive the men into overt acts that would justify the soldiers in shooting down the rebels. And the miners did not sit down tamely and permit their wives and children to be murdered before their eyes. In some instances, it is reported, they started a little excitement all their own so that the troops might be drawn off to protect the property of their masters. We have even read that some mine guards mysteriously disappeared.
Then, with wonderful dispatch, tents began to appear and were flung up in nearby vacant lots and the miners and their families settled down in grim determination to “stick it out” and win.They say that many women were provided with guns in order to protect themselves and their children from the armed thugs that came to molest them.
Every train brought hosts of scabs and again recently martial law was declared. The troops were on hand to protect the scabs and incidentally to see that they remained at work. But the rosy promises of soft berths made to the scabs failed to materialize. They found coal mining anything but the pleasant pastime they had expected. They found they were required to dig coal and work long hours for low pay, and one by one, as the opportunity arose, they silently faded away for greener fields and pastures new.
The miners showed no signs of yielding. In spite of low rations constant intimidation and cold weather the strikers gathered in groups to discuss Socialism and plans for holding out for the surrender of the bosses. During the fall election the miners voted the Socialist party ticket almost unanimously. The strike brought home to these men the truth of the class struggle in all its hideousness.
And the scabs came and went. Individually and collectively they struck by shaking the dust of the Kanawha district from their feet. Probably the mine owners discovered that it would cost a great deal more for a much smaller output of coal than it would to yield all the demands of the strikers.
It is reported that the men are to go back after having secured a nine-hour workday and a 20 per cent increase in wages.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 2, 1913 “On the Picket Line at Little Falls, New York” by Big Bill Haywood, Part II
From the InternationalSocialistReview of January 1913:
On the Picket Line at Little Falls, New York
-by William D. Haywood
[Part II of II]
Victims of Law and Order. Members of the I. W. W. in Jail at Little Falls. Red Banner Shown in Picture was Made in a Cell.
The many arrests, the brutality shown the prisoners after they were thrown into jail and other outrages by the police and hired thugs of the company, caused a state of excitement among the strikers that was only subdued by the arrival of Matilda Rabinowitz. She came from Bridgeport, Conn., formerly Russia. It was she who reorganized the shattered forces and got the committees in working order, electing others to take the places of those imprisoned. Miss Rabinowitz is as small in person as the smallest striker, yet disciplined as she is in the Industrial Workers of the World principles, she is shaping the mighty force that means victory. A book could be written about Matilda.
Others came, among them Jessie Ashley, a lawyer and sterling friend of the oppressed. She came from New York City as counsel to prepare for the legal end of the battle, paying her own expenses and contributing $100 to the strikers’ fund, making $1,100, and more, that she has contributed to the strikers at Lawrence and elsewhere.
The Socialists of Schenectady, Mayor Lunn, Robert Bakeman and John Mullin and others were on the job from the beginning. Comrades Kruise, Wade and Mullin came early, rolled up their sleeves and entered the culinary department, known in the strike quarters as the soup kitchen.
Money, supplies, groceries and clothing have been abundantly contributed by the Relief committee organized among the Socialists of Schenectady. The Citizen, a Socialist paper, has given publicity to the disgraceful conditions at Little Falls. All of which the strikers deeply appreciate and, while they cannot vote, as most of them are women and children, still they are in the vanguard, and on the picket line. They are marching to the music of the Marseillaise, onward to industrial freedom.
M. Helen Schloss, who is shown behind the bars on the cover, is a woman of Spartan mold, a Socialist of four years’ standing; well known at the Rand school in New York. She came to Little Falls and took a position with the Twentieth Century Club, a fashionable charity association, to investigate tuberculosis, which is prevalent among the mill workers. When the strike began, she took up the cause of the women on the firing line and joined forces with them. This lost her a salaried position and landed her in jail where she was held for eleven days. She was charged with inciting to riot and is only now enjoying her freedom under bond of $2,000.
Recently she has been arrested again while investigating the cases of some strikers who had been thrown into jail without warrant. Her unusual activity on behalf of the oppressed caused her to be looked upon with suspicion by the authorities who are under the control of the mill owners. A board of physicians, appointed by the chief of police, known as “Bully” Long, discovered nothing more serious the matter with her than a brilliant mind, a sterling character and a warm heart.
In spite of all the bitter persecution, which Miss Schloss has endured, she is still lending her strength to the strikers’ cause.
Out of the West comes the young blood of the revolution, ever willing to fight for the political right of freedom of speech, always giving more than they take, but willing, if broke, to live providing Algernon Lee will permit them on a one 7-cent meal a day until they are privileged to go to jail for the cause of labor.
After all it is the strikers themselves who are making the real struggle. They revolted against a reduction of wages that came when the 54-hour law went into effect, reducing their meagre incomes from 50 cents to $2.00 a week. As a direct result of the firm stand made by the Little Falls strikers, wages of other men, women and children employed in similar industries at Utica, Cohoes and other knitting mill centers have been restored and even the strikers at Little Falls have been promised 60 hours’ pay for 54 hours’ work, but they are demanding a 10 per cent increase and a 15 per cent increase for night work. This is what the employer gets when he drives his workers to organize in the Industrial Workers of the World.
If you want to help the mill slaves at Little Falls in this struggle for better condition, follow the example of Helen Keller, Jessie Ashley and Helen Schloss. Send your contributions to Matilda Rabinowitz, Box 458, Little Falls, N. Y.
Later, Chief of Police “Bully Long” has closed up the strikers’ soup kitchens in order to force them back to work. This wrought great hardship on the women and children. But Schenectady threw open her municipal doors and buildings and gathered in some of the children. These and more will be cared for by Socialist “strike parents” till the strike is won.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 1, 1913 “On the Picket Line at Little Falls, New York” by Big Bill Haywood, Part I
From the InternationalSocialistReview of January 1913:
[Part I of II.]
WITH facts for a fulcrum and sentiment for a lever, we can move the world!
The world of labor is being slowly moved by economic conditions such as present themselves at Little Falls, N. Y., where women and children and men are struggling for bread. The facts regarding the situation there inspired Helen Keller, the world’s prodigy, to give voice to the heart pulses expressed in the letter printed on the opposite page.
By the rarest good chance John Macy, whose wife is the teacher and companion of Helen Keller, came to Little Falls. A member of the Industrial Workers of the World, he took up his part of the battle by getting the books and accounts of the strikers in shape, by writing articles and reports.It was through him and other mediums that the details of the strike and its attendant miseries reached the blind girl at her pleasant home at Wrentham, Mass. Sitting at her desk and surveying the mysterious lines in “The Hand of the World,” she sees what philosophers, politicians and priests cannot see; have never seen. She reads unerringly the destiny of labor. Understanding the need of toil, she reaches out and puts in the hand of the world, not a dole of charity but a token of love-part of labor’s own.
John Macy read her letter to the strikers at a regular meeting held at Slavoc Sokel hall. Helen Keller has never spoken to such an audience before. There were none but workers there, men and women, boys and girls, who knew but little English and were of many tongues.
It was explained to them that they were listening to the words of a girl who was deaf and blind; one who had overcome afflictions more severe than their own. They could not understand the meaning of many of her words. But they were like a mother’s crooning, soothing a wounded child. The letter was a heartfelt greeting from a sincere friend. They felt the sentiment and the sympathy it contained. Their eyes streamed with tears. They burst into a hearty cheer. Helen Keller will get a set of resolutions signed by the strikers in many languages.
She may never see the embossed words or names attached to the resolutions, but she will know their meaning-they are written by “The Hand of the World.”
Other remarkable letters were received by the strikers, one from a “friend” who had been saving his money to buy an overcoat. He had laid by ten dollars. He sent it all to the strikers saying he could get along without an overcoat if the money would help the strikers to win more bread. It is such sentiment and support that has instilled in the Little Falls strikers the spirit of solidarity that knows no defeat.
Some who sympathize with the Industrial Workers of the World principles and methods have sent letters with money and others have come in person to render what assistance they can to the strikers.
After the trouble precipitated by the police on October 30th, last, the organizers on the ground, Ben J. Legere and Phillipo Bocchino, with nearly all the members of the strike committee, were thrown into jail where they have been held ever since, awaiting the action of of the grand jury.
After a farcical hearing, Legere and Bocchino were committed to jail and held for bail of $15,000. Murlando, one of the strikers, was held in the sum of $10,000 and the others in some instances ranging from $50 to $5,000. The story of the so-called riot was told in the following proclamation issued by the strikers:
The blood-thirsty, murderous cossacks have shown their hand.
Police thugs of Little Fall throw off the mask and do the dirty work for the gang of bloodsuckers who own the mills in Little Falls.
Today in Little Falls was seen a spectacle which has not been witnessed before anywhere outside of Russia.
Today the gang of fiends in human form who wear the disgraceful uniform of the police in Little Falls, deliberately went to work and started a riot.
It was the most brutal, cold-blooded act ever done in these parts. Nothing under heaven can ever justify it and the soul of the degenerate brute who started it will shrivel in hell long, long before the workers will ever forget this day.
The workers in the mills of Little Falls have been on strike for four weeks against an inhuman oppression of the mill-bosses. An incompetent law has been used by these mill-owners to reduce the wages of the workers from fifty cents to two dollars a week.
Hundreds of these workers were already existing on a starvation wage averaging about $7 per week.
They resisted this robbery by the mill-owners.
They went on strike.
The police showed at the beginning that the filthy money of the mill-owners can corrupt all authority by attempting to suppress free speech in Little Falls. Several speakers were arrested. Then the strikers organized in the Industrial Workers of the World.
They began peaceful picketing at the mills where many American workers, mostly girls, were playing the part of scabs.
The strikers, with a band and banners bearing appeals for support, began to parade each morning before the mills to encourage the other workers to come out. They did not interfere with the scabs in any way and by this means of peaceful demonstration the strikers won over every day some of those who were working.
The mill-bosses were baffled. They could not understand this new and peaceful mode of picketing. As the strikers kept moving at all times the police could find no excuse to interfere. But today the craven brutes MADE an excuse.
Every day more workers joined the picket-line. The first day one of these blood-thirsty police animals tried to start a riot by slugging a girl who stepped from the line to speak to a friend. He was number three who showed his cowardice and animal ferocity today by cruelly clubbing helpless prisoners and defenseless strikers.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 31, 1922 Pennsylvania Law for Protection of Anthracite Miners Set Aside by Supreme Court
From the Duluth LaborWorld of December 30, 1922:
COURT DECLARES LABOR ACT VOID ———- Pennsylvania Mine Cave-In Law Held to Be Confiscatory ———-
The United States Supreme court has set aside the Pennsylvania law which prohibited the mining of anthracite coal in a manner that would endanger the lives or injure the property of persons-occupying houses situated on the surface soil. Justice Brandeis dissented.
The court held that the law deprived coal owners of valuable property rights without compensation. Under the decision, coal owners can mine coal without any regard for cave-ins that endanger lives and property, unless the coal that is necessary for props is paid for.
In his dissenting opinion, Justice Brandeis said:
If by mining anthracite coal the owner would necessarily unloose poisonous gases, I suppose no one would doubt the power of the state to prevent the mining without buying his coal field. And why may not the state, likewise, without paying compensation, prohibit one from digging so deep or excavating so near the surface as to expose the community to like dangers? In the latter case, as in the former, carrying on the business would be a public nuisance.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 29, 1912 Little Falls, New York – Women Working in Textile Mills Live on Slave Wages
From the Binghamton Press and Leader of December 27, 1912:
ARBITRATORS HEAR HOW WOMEN SLAVE IN LITTLE FALLS MILLS ———- Eating While Working, Wool Winder Has Made as Much as $7 in a Week ———-
Little Falls, Dec. 27.-Three members of the State Board of Arbitration, acting as mediators in the Little Falls textile strike, which has lasted for months, began taking testimony today.
The strikers were heard first, all witnesses being members of the union. They declared they had quit work because their wages were hardly sufficient for them to live on.
Mary Sroka, two years in America, testified that by working from 7 a. m. to 6 p. m. and taking very little time for luncheon, she had once made $6 in a week of five days. Sometimes, she said, she made only $2.50 and $3. She was an inspector in the finishing room of the Phoenix Mills.
Mrs. Suie Mizerak, a winder of wool, testified that she worked from 6 a. m. to 8 p. m., eating her meals as she worked, and made from $5 to $7 a week.
Stanislawa Cououn, an 18-year-old girl, testified that she received $1 a day for her work as a folder.
Agnes Kalolaka, a spinner, said she received $7 a week before the 54-hour law went into effect; thereafter, she received $6.37.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 28, 1912 New Pamphlets Now Available from I. W. W. Headquarters in Chicago
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of December 26, 1912:
On the Firing Line
Extracts from the Report of the General Executive Board to the Seventh Annual Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World Held in Chicago, Ill., Sept. 17 to 27, 1912 -I. W. W. General Executive Board: Thomas Halcro F. H. Little, Ewald Koettgen, George Speed
Ettor and Giovannitti Before the Jury at Salem, Massachusetts, November 23, 1912
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