Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 7, 1911 Los Angeles, California – McNamaras Sentenced; Darrow Stung by Criticism -Socialist Candidate for Mayor, Job Harriman, Defeated
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 6, 1921
”On With Organization” is Slogan of Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union
From the Industrial Pioneer of December 1921:
Splitting the Big Drive
By Wm. Dimmit
THE annual convention of Agricultural Workers’ Industrial Union No. 110 is over. According to all precedents that means that the drive is completed and that all will be dormant till the next harvest of wheat calls for men and more men.
This year has not been a customary year, however. The drive in all its earliest stages assumed new forms, and greater strength and economic power was developed than ever before. This year the convention has not ended the drive. On with the organization drive, was the slogan there and everywhere…..
No, the harvest drive is not over. From coast to coast rings the slogan today-ON WITH ORGANIZATION.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 5, 1911 Terre Haute, Indiana – Eugene Debs Reacts to Confession of McNamara Brothers
From The Indianapolis News of December 4, 1911:
VIEWS OF EUGENE V. DEBS —————
Job Harriman, Socialist Candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles
Socialist Leader Says the McNamaras Do Not Belong to His Party.
(Special to The Indianapolis News.)
TERRE HAUTE, Ind., December 4.-Eugene V. Debs repudiates the assertion that the McNamaras are Socialists. Said he:
“The brothers are Democrats and Catholics, and that church is fighting the Socialist Party. We Socialists took the ground that they were to be regarded as innocent until proven guilty. We have nothing to apologize for; we never condoned dynamiting, but always condemned it. We simply tried to see that the brothers got a square deal, and especially because they had been kidnapped.
If the confessions had been held until after Tuesday [election day] the men would have been hanged. The mercy extended to them is the price paid for political effect in the election that day in Los Angeles.”
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 4, 1911 Gila Bend, Arizona – Southern Pacific Official Denies Water to New Born Babe
From the Duluth Labor World of December 2, 1911:
TUCSON, Ariz., Nov. 30.-The Southern Pacific officials at this point have resorted to brutal and desperate methods to compel its striking employees to return to work. Out on the desert where many men are on strike they depend upon the company to bring them water. As a last resort the company has refused to furnish or sell water to any employee on strike.
In a news story published by, “The Voice of the People” of this city, a tale is told of the tactics of the company in its attempt to crush the men on strike: The paper states:
Refused Water.
“Even a Digger Indian or a Papago buck on the war path, will turn over a rock and allow a squaw with a new born pappoose the first pick of the fat grubs which may be found beneath it, but it has remained for an official of the Southern Pacific railroad, Superintendent J. H. Dyer, of the Tucson division, which extends from El Paso, to Yuma, to refuse a drink of waiter to a strikers’s wife with a new born babe at her breast,
“The babe was only three days old when the order was issued by the railroad superintendent, and on account of the order the wife of W. E. Stewart a striking boilermaker at Gila Bend, Ariz., out in the desert, miles from civilization, is without water for the nurse to wash the linen, which the simplest demands of sanitation, to say nothing of civilization, require in such cases.
Two Kind of Water.
There are two. kinds of water at Gila Bend-the water which the engines must use—it eats the flues out of boilers with a celerity which requires a force of men at the round house to make what are called “running repairs” on the locomotives, and W. E. Stewart was one of these men.
“The other water is drinking water, which is brought in a water car from Sentinel. Since the strike Stewart has been standing with the other mechanics of the federation at his post, the little semi-oasis of the desert about half way between Tucson and Yuma.
“On November 7, Superintendent Dyer, angered and furious at the unbreakable lines of the shopmen who would not return to work until the grievances are adjusted, issued his order to cut off the water from all strikers at Gila Bend.
Money Is Tendered.
“The secretary of the Tucson branch of the federation received a wire from Stewart telling of the action and asking legal counsel. A. A. Worsley, the attorney for the federation, notified Stewart by wire, to tender pay for the water.
“Stewart obeyed and money was offered by his father-in-law, while Stewart held his three days old babe in his arms and looked into the eyes of his suffering wife, unable to offer her a drink of water which she craved, but the money was refused by the roundhouse foreman, Allgood, who was acting under Dyer’s orders.
“Kindly disposed women neighbors, whose husbands are still in the railroad service in other departments than that affected by the strike, have seen to it that enough water to drink has been smuggled to the bedside of Mrs. Stewart, whose condition forbids her being moved to any other place at this time.”
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 2, 1901 New Edition of “Socialist Songs” Now Available from C. H. Kerr
From the International Socialist Review of December 1901:
Socialist Songs. —————
We are glad to announce that we have just published a new edition of No. 11 of the Pocket Library of Socialism entitled, “Socialist Songs” The new edition corresponds exactly to the words in our larger book “Socialist Songs with Music.” The price of the new booklet is 5 cents, and we offer it at $1.50 a hundred, postpaid, to any Socialist Local, or $1 a hundred, postpaid, to any Local holding a share of stock in our company.
The price of “Socialist Songs with Music” is 20 cents a copy, or $1.50 a dozen, postpaid. This book has given general satisfaction and has made it practicable to have singing in connection with Socialist meetings in many places. The greatest obstacle to its general introduction has been that comrades often could not afford to pay for enough books to scatter through a large hall for propaganda meetings.
The publication of the booklet now announced will make it possible to introduce singing in propaganda meetings everywhere by supplying a few copies of the edition with music for the musicians who assist at the meeting, and scattering the booklets through the crowd. We have endeavored to introduce no song that is not in itself good propaganda material.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 1, 1911 I. W. W. Free Speech Fight On in Aberdeen, Washington
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 30, 1911:
The Spokane local of the Industrial Workers of the World is to rush 100 of its members to Aberdeen, Wash., to fill the jails of that town. They will help in a street speaking agitation now being waged there.
A telegram from Aberdeen Wednesday to the local secretary, W. A. Douglass, stated the fight was on and urged that all available men in Spokane start immediately. The communication stated the organizer and secretary of the Aberdeen local were already in jail for street speaking.
Reports from Portland, Ore., tell of an outbreak of “soap box orators” in that city. In conference Wednesday the chief of police and Commissioner Coffey decided to jail all speakers creating street demonstrations. The Spokane local says men will be rushed to the Rose city immediately, if necessary.-Spokane “Chronicle.”
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Reinforcements From Vancouver.
VANCOUVER, B. C., Nov. 24.-At the local headquarters of the I. W. W. it was declared tonight that 368 men are going from here to Aberdeen, Wash., to participate in the free speech fight there.-“Spokesman-Review.”
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 30, 1921 Miners of Kansas Condemn Suspension of District 14 U. M. W. A.
From The Workers Chronicle of Pittsburg, Kansas, November 25, 1921:
Truth Shall Win —————
Alex Howat
Reports from all over the country are to the effect that organized labor everywhere is condemning the action of one man (John L. Lewis with the assistance of his hired gang of labor crooks) in suspending District 14 and expelling the officers from the U. M. W. of A., at a time when the, crisis is on in the fight against the infamous court of industrial relations law. This contemptible action was taken with controversies at two small strip pits as the basis. One was a lockout and the other a shutdown, and both companies refuse to let the men return to work in accordance with orders given the men by officials of District 14, and pursuant to instructions of the recent national convention of the U. M. W. of A.
But, President Lewis, with malice aforethought, waited until the miners’ leaders were practically isolated from the world-put there by Governor Allen and his infamous misfit legislation-and when 100 per cent of the rank and file of District 14 laid down their tools and resolved to dig no more coal until President Howat and Vice President Dorchy are released from jail, Lewis demands that ALL miners return to work if they want to remain in good grace with HIM. They are to forget all about their noble, self-sacrificing officials, who are cooped up in cold, damp cheerless cells in the Cherokee county jail. They are ALL TO RENIG the positive policy, unanimously declared, of their District Convention in Kansas City, March, 1920. They MUST give up all their personal honor manhood and self-respect, and return to work just because John L. Lewis-backed by a handful of paid stoolpigeons-demands it! Their published howls about, “contract” is rankest camouflage. The miners and officials here have violated no contract in the DEAN and RELIANCE shut-downs. The operators of those two small pits are the only ones violating the contract. And so Lewis himself says, “no condition enters into the expulsion of the officers and members of District 14 except that of the Dean and Reliance controversy.” However he wants not only the employees of those two strip mines to return to work, (in spite of the fact that the operators will not let them return under conditions required, not only by President Howat, but by the National Convention-and the almighty John L., himself) but all miners who are standing pat with the dictates of their District Convention must give up their only efficient weapon against the industrial court law by returning to work and let their leaders rot in jail (for all Snake Lewis cares) while HE fights the law in the courts. He knows, and the miners know, that Labor stands as much chance there as Christ did before Pontius Pilate. So, all his efforts in his publicity campaign in that direction is “grandstand,” pure and simple.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 29, 1921 Slaughter of Workers in Mines, Quarries and Metallurgical Plants Continues
From the Duluth Labor World of November 26, 1921:
2,973 KILLED, 206,000 HURT WORKING MINERALS IN 1920 ————-
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24.-Accidents in mines, quarries and metallurgical plants in 1920, exclusive of blasts furnaces in the United States, caused the death of 2,973 employes and the injury of 206,000, according to the bureau of mines.
Based on a standard of 300 working days per man, the statement said: “For every 1000 employes, 3.19 were killed and 221.25 were injured.”
The figures do not indicate the large number of slight injuries causing loss of time of less than one day. In these industries 1,088,000 were employed last year, with an average of 257 working days per man.
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Note: The deadliest month in mining history was December 1907:
The Monongah W. V. Mine Disaster of December 6, 1907 killed 362 miners. The Darr (Pa.) Mine Disaster of December 19, 1907 killed 239 miners.
The Cherry Mine Disaster, follows only the Monongah Mine Disaster and the Dawson Mine Disaster (263 killed, Oct. 22, 1913) for number of men and boys who perished:
The Cherry Ill. Mine Disaster of November 13, 1909 killed 259 miners.
Hellraisers Journal – MondayNovember 28, 1921 Excerpt from The Voice of the Negro by Robert T. Kerlin
Note: On Saturday we featured a review of Kerlin’s “Voice of the Negro,” which includes a section on the so-called “riot” at Elaine, Arkansas. This deadly event, which we refer to as the Elaine Massacre, was a bloody rampage led by the plantation class, initially against the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America (sharecropper’s union) and later against the entire Afro-American community of Phillips County, Arkansas.
Yesterday we published an excerpt from Kerlin’s book which describedhow the Johnston Brothers were murdered during the Elaine Massacre. Today’s excerpt sets forth how systematic robbery of tenant farmers and sharecroppers led up to the Arkansas Riot.
From The Savannah Tribune of October 23, 1919:
SYSTEMATIC ROBBERY CAUSE OF RIOTS
ARKANSAS NEGROES HAD NOT PLANNED MASSACRE
The cause of the disturbances in Arkansas was systematic robbery of Negro tenant farmers and share croppers. For years Negroes have been working the farms of white owners on shares and when the time came for a settlement, owners have refused to give them itemized statements of their accounts. Negro tenant farmers and share croppers must buy their supplies during the year from the plantation store or some designated store. The system kept the Negro continually in debt and it is an unwritten law in Arkansas as in many parts of the South that the Negro may not leave the plantation until the debt is paid.
“The Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America” was formed by Negro share croppers and the dues paid were to go into a common fund to employ a lawyer. The lawyer was to make a test case in court of one tenant farmer’s inability to obtain an itemized statement of his account.
On October 6 tenant farmers on 21 plantations were to ask the owners for a settlement. It appears that, failing a settlement, the Negroes were going to refuse to pick the cotton then in the field or to sell cotton belonging to them for less than the market price. Trouble, however, was precipitated when W. A. Adkins, a special agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, Charles Pratt, a deputy sheriff and a Negro “trusty” were fired upon, so it is claimed, by Negroes in a church at Hoop Spur [where Union members were gathered]. Adkins was killed and Pratt severely wounded. A statement of one of the persons in the church at the time, however, shows that Adkins and Pratt fired into the church without provocation and that their fire was returned with the above-mentioned results. That precipitated the trouble.
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