One thing I never can forget—
that I owe my life and my liberty
to the working class of America,
and what you have accomplished for me
and my comrades you can do for yourselves.
-Big Bill Haywood
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday January 22, 1908
New York, New York – Haywood Speaks to Thousands of Cheering Workers
From the New York Tribune of January 18, 1908:
HAIL HAYWOOD, MARTYR.
—–
Grand Central Palace Audience Rises
in a Body to Honor Miner.
William D. Haywood, ex-secretary-treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners, was greeted as a martyr by a large audience in the Grand Central Palace last night. He was tried for conspiracy in the murder of Governor Steunenberg of Idaho and acquitted. When he was introduced to the local socialists, anarchists and labor union men and women they rose in a body and cheered him for nearly five minutes. He told less of his prison and trial experiences than he did of his remedies for the social regeneration of the world, and denounced the persons whom he held responsible far the prosecution of himself, Moyer and Pettibone, who figured in the trial with Orchard.
Morris Brown, of the Cigar Makers Union, was the chairman and introduced Albert Abrams, of the Central Federated Union. William Coakley was speaking when Haywood entered the hall. Joseph Wanhope, an editor of a socialistic magazine, was the next speaker. Then a collection was taken up, Mr. Haywood said:
One thing I never can forget—that I owe my life and my liberty to the working class of America, and what you have accomplished for me and my comrades you can do for yourselves. I do not feel, in my arrest and trial, that I have been a martyr. The months I spent in jail were the best I ever spent in my life. They gave me an opportunity to think, to reflect. That is what all working men should do, no matter how busy they may be.
Haywood then said that Bryan’s government ownership meant the creation of a bonded aristocracy. The President’s government control of railroads would mean placing them under the Civil Service and perpetuating th« party in power. But in Mr. Harriman Mr. Haywood saw the greatest benefactor this country has ever known. He was paving the way for the control of the railroads by the people. He was responsible for the concentration of the ownership of the railroads under eight heads. It would be easier for the people to take over an industry which was controlled by one man or a few men than if distributed among many through competition.
About a thousand persons could not gain admittance to the hall. They were held in check by policemen under Inspector Walsh. There were about three thousand men, women and children in the audience.
———-
[Photograph added.]
From the Appeal to Reason of January 18, 1908:
HAYWOOD’S TOUR.
—-
Denver, Colo., Jan. 6, 1908.-Comrades and Fellow Workers, Greeting:-At the recent meeting of the executive board of the Western Federation of Miners, the board deemed it proper to relieve me for a while of my duties at headquarters, and at the same time instructed me to convey to the working class of America a message telling of the class struggle in the west and of the existing conspiracy of the Mine Owners’ associations, their political and other allies, to disrupt the Western Federation of Miners, and thus effectually retard the good work that is being accomplished by organized labor.
As the executive board has extended my field of labor, it will give me opportunity to meet some of the millions of comrades and workers who stood so loyally by us while we were in jail.
Industrial and political labor organizations can arrange for meetings by addressing Ernest Mills, Secretary-Treasurer, No. 605 Railroad Building, Denver, Colorado.
Yours for Industrial Freedom-William D. Haywood.
———-
SOURCES
New York Tribune
(New York, New York)
-Jan 18, 1908
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1908-01-18/ed-1/seq-8/
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Jan 18, 1908
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587154/
IMAGES
BBH, SF Call p17, Dec 8, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/87855980/
HMP, Haywood Reads at Jail Window, Tpk Dly Jr, July 29, 1907
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016014/1907-07-29/ed-1/seq-6.pdf
See also:
Joseph Wanhope for Wilshire’s Magazine ab/ April, 1906
“The Moyer-Haywood Outrage”
http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/documents/Wilshire_Mag.pdf
William Jennings Bryan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Bryan
Bill Haywood’s Book
The Autobiography of William D. Haywood
-by Big Bill Haywood
International Publishers, 1929
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000859708
Re: trip to New York City in January of 1908
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015050276461;view=2up;seq=230
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-Jan 18, 1908
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9800E2DA173EE233A2575BC1A9679C946997D6CF&legacy=true
10,000 TURN OUT TO GREET HAYWOOD
—–
Miners’ Leader Hailed as Their Candidate for
the Presidency by New York Socialists.
—–HE ATTACKS ROOSEVELT
—–
For His Letter Against “Undesirables”
and Calls for War on Capital-
Anarchists Also Out.No less than 10,000 persons, the vast majority Socialists or Socialistic sympathizers, turned out last night to listen to and cheer William D. Haywood, the former Secretary and Treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners, and one of three men charged with complicity in the murder of ex-Gov Steunenberg of Idaho…