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Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 18, 1909
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn at Butte Miners’ Day Celebration
From The Butte Inter Mountain of June 14, 1909:
The Butte Miners’ union has never had a more auspicious birthday than was today, its thirty-first. Thirty thousand people thronged the streets along the line of march and cheered the 2,000 miners and the 1,500 other union members who turned out in tribute to the parent union body of them all, so far as this city is concerned.
Flag day, too, secured its recognition, both from those who joined in the parade and those who watched it. The American flag was borne at the head of every union body. Nearly every individual member wore a tiny flag fast to the lapel of his coat, and it was to be noticed that the official badges of many of the organizations have in them the national colors, and particularly is this true of the Miners,’ union badge.
The parade was one of the longest that has ever taken place here, requiring an hour and five minutes to pass a given point. It started from the corner of Main and Copper streets at 10 o’clock, 30 minutes later than had been intended, but that is a remarkably small delay and speaks well for the able manner in which the bodies which swung into line were handled.
The line was led by a squad of 20 policemen, commanded by Sergeant Brinton. Following them cam President Flynn of the Miners’ union, grand marshal of the day, and his two aides, Robert Crane and John Harrington, all mounted. Immediately behind them marched the Boston & Montana band, once again under the leadership of Sam Treloar.
Next in line were 40 men, members of the Laundry Workers’ union, and behind them 26 carriages, all filled with women members of the Laundry Workers and members of the Woman’s Protective union.
The Clerks’ union turned out 500 strong and brought up the rear of the first division of the parade, which was in charge of John Connelly and Angus McLeod.
The second division in charge of Michael O’Brien and Eli Koskeli, was head by Butte City band, which was followed by the Mill & Smeltermen’s union , of whom there were 80 in line. Engineers’ union No. 83 came next, and nearly as strong in numbers. The Workingmen’s union, the Bartenders’ union and the Bricklayers’ union were also in this division, and the county and city officials in five carriages brought up the rear.
Then came the third division of the parade, the Miners’ union exclusively, headed by the Montana State band, and in charge of Joseph Shannon, Joseph Little, James R. Robinson and Tim Driscoll.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the orator of the day, occupied a carriage immediately following the band.
The miners marched four abreast and each one of his left breast wore the official badge of the union. There were just 1,000 men in the first section of the division. The second section was headed by a fife and drum corps, and first in line behind that came a four-horse carryall for old and disabled miners, who are always given a place of honor in the parade.
The line of march was west on Copper to Alaska, south to granite, west to Idaho, south to Silver, east to Main, north to Park, east to Covert, countermarch west on Park to Main, north to Broadway and west to the Broadway theater, where the parade disbanded, and where Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the orator of the day, delivered the address immediately after the parade.
At the Broadway.
The crowd which listened to the address of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn at the Broadway theater was very small. There were scarcely a score of people in the balcony, and the downstairs portion of the house was not more than half full. Miss Flynn was introduced by President Flynn, of the Miners’ union, in a brief speech, after selections by the Boston & Montana band and the Butte City band. Mr. Flynn said, in part:
We have assembled here today to celebrate the thirty first anniversary of the organization of the Butte Miners’ union. Thirty-one years ago a handful of men met in this city and organized for their own protection and the protection and the protection of their families. Since that time the union has grown until today it numbers approximately 7,500 members in good standing. It formed the basis of the organization of the Western Federation of Miners, which was formed in 1893, and which now has 40,000 members.
Miss Flynns Address.
Miss Flynn in her talk directed her remarks towards the corporations and the conflict between capital and labor, explained why such conflicts existed and in what manner they might be eradicated. She criticised labor unions for their attitude toward each other, and advocated one huge body with the workers in each industry organized together. She said in part:
It gives me a great deal of pleasure to be with you upon such an occasion as this, to celebrate the anniversary of a union of the size and spirit of the Butte Miners’ union. Events of this kind are important only as they help organized labor and spread among the working class a knowledge of their conditions and how they can change conditions when it becomes [necessary?].
The conditions of the workingmen to-day are not such as he may be proud of. They speak of poverty and misery. Such was not the case a few generations ago, and big labor organizations were not then required to protect the laboring classes, because the conditions then were entirely different from those existing today. Then the declaration of independence spoke the truth when it said everyone was entitled to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Independence depends upon whether you have the right to the necessities of life. If we haven’t got them, then, in spite of our patriotic talk, we haven’t life and liberty.
History of Labor
Miss Flynn spoke of the history of organized labor. She stated that it followed the inventions which took the hand tool of the individual and replaced it with complex machinery, with the machines which have given rise to the textile factories and which have displaced the spinning wheel, and with the immense factories that have grown up in every line of industry and which require thousands of workers to operate.
She referred to the laboring classes as a propertyless class, who, despite the fact that they owned no land, were asked to go out and fight for their country. She declared that a man who sold his labor was always gold-bricked, and asserted that the working man of today is but a wage slave. She called attention to the modern mill machinery, to the sewing machines and other devices which have displaced thousands of workingmen, and stated that in the most prosperous times there are in this country three men for every job.
Attacks John Mitchell.
She took a fall out of the Civic Federation, John Mitchell, Samuel Gompers, Roosevelt, Taft and a few others, and said that until the working classes organized to fight as they organize to work they will not advance in their own interests.
[Said the speaker:]
In New York 30,000 left the ranks of union labor because we had no hold on them only their jobs, and when they lost their jobs they quit the union. The thing for the laboring classes to do is to organize to control the production of wealth and quit fighting about jurisdiction.
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From The Anaconda Standard of June 15, 1909:
Miss Flynn’s Address.
Comrades and fellow workers: It certainly gives me a great deal of pleasure to be with you in Butte to celebrate the formation and continued successful progress of a union of the size and spirit of the Butte Miners’ union. But such occasions are really valuable only so far as they add to the solidarity of the labor movement and spread among the working class a knowledge of their conditions and how these conditions can be changed when necessary. The conditions are not such as we can be proud of. They speak of poverty, misery, lack of employment, constant danger of being unable to gain a livelihood; of the workers of the world being an enslaved class. This was not the case a few years ago. In the revolutionary days our forefathers declared in the declaration of independence that all men were entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Men could be independent then. But in the later part of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century conditions changed. Today if you have food and shelter and clothing you have the right to life and liberty, but if you haven’t got them then, in spite of all your patriotic talk, you haven’t got life and liberty.
The labor problem is a simple problem-how to live. In the old days, the loom and spinning wheel of the housewife gave way to the textile machine. The village blacksmith gave way to the steel mill and the shoemaker gave way to the great shoe factories, which have 50 odd machines with 50 different processes and hundreds of toilers, who have no ownership in what they produce. Where formerly man owned the shop where he worked and owned what he produced until he sold it, now he owns nothing but his labor.y The factory worker has nothing to say as to ownership or management of the factory. Fewer and fewer of the workingmen are skilled now in any line.
Mighty Little Property.
Today, in spite of the great wealth and resources of the world, the workers of this world have no ownership or control over the land or the machinery at which they work. We are a propertyless class, fellow workers. We have mighty little property to celebrate over today. We are landless. We don’t own enough land to cover the palm of your and, and yet they ask us to go out and fight for our country. All we have is a 50-cent room. The reason for this is that ownership has been concentrated in the hands of a few individuals. A handful of 25 men controls the destinies of 80,000,000 people.
Fortunately or unfortunately, we still own our own physical frames. Doubtless, had it been possible to take our bodies away from us and organize them into a trust, that would have been done. But these bodies are still our own. But they must live. When you sell your labor power you must go right along with it. When your labor power goes into danger you go into danger with it. When it is cut off you are cut off, too. When it is worn out you are worn out, too. When we sell our labor power we are selling ourselves for a wage. When we are called wage slaves there is no use getting mad about it and talking about our being fee American citizens, for we are wage slaves just the same.
More Workers Than Jobs.
The invention of the sewing machine threw six girls out of work where it gave one employment. So it has been with all the inventions of labor-saving machinery. In consequence, there are today more workers than there are jobs to be filled, and that is why we have the unemployed army. That is something we can’t get away from, in spite of by the capitalistic class. There are three men for every job in this country, and so the man who gets the job is sure to be the man who will work for barely enough to enable him to keep alive. That standard has been reached in the factories of New England, in the stockyards of Chicago, in the sweatshops all over the country. Some get just enough to support themselves, without enough to support a wife and children, and that is why there are so many bachelors in the country.
We are only labor machines to the capitalist. Outside of barely enough for us to live on, the rest of what we earn and produce goes to the employing class. That is his reward for owning things. One-fifth comes to us and the four-fifths goes to the owners, and no wonder that, in the words of their great leader, they are “absolutely delighted.”
The agitator simply points out these things, shows that you fellows are on one side and the boss is on the other; points out the struggle that is gong on and points the way out of the struggle. The struggle of the worker is to get better conditions right now. I don’t believe in the missionaries and salvationists who tell us that we should suffer in this world because the harder time we have here the more will we enjoy the glories of the next world. I believe in better conditions in this world as fast as we can get them-better hours, better wages, better everything. In other words, we want to get all we can right now, and jut as soon we get strong enough we want to take the whole thing.
Conditions Just as Bad.
We must learn from the employing class how to wage war. We workingmen have been organized many years, but not much has been accomplished. The conditions are just as bad as they were in the days of feudalism in spite of our organizations. We have been so busy working for the other man that we haven’t worked for ourselves. The capitalist has found it to his advantage to keep us divided and so we are pretty well divided right now. They divide us on nationality, on language, on religion.
These corporations are so patriotic that they hoist flags on their mills and mines today all over the country-on Homestead, where there are the graves of many workingmen who were shot down. If the capitalist struggle for what he wants and we struggle for what we want, I tell you there can be no identity of interest. There is a quarrel between us and the man who employe us. Our labor organizations will only serve us when they establish the principle that between the workers and the employers there is nothing in common. The worker and the consumer should get together and take things out of the hands of the capitalist. We should get out of the notion that the only man who should be in the union is the man who is working. The man who is not working should be in the union as well. The union must have a universal transfer system. Men must be organized according to the way they work today, not according to the way they worked 50 years ago. The craft form and industrial form of organization are at war. The American Federation of Labor is organized under the craft system of 22 years ago.
Organize to Fight.
Then there were still many skilled workmen in the country, but today the great bulk of workers is unskilled. We should organize to fight the trusts as thoroughly as we organize to work for them. Sympathy does not pass as currency in this world. It doesn’t pay anybody nor does it feed hunger nor satisfy anybody but organized labor. When a union is on strike and another union working for the same corporation passes resolutions of sympathy, that doesn’t help any. The other union, by still working, beats the strike, and thus organized labor beats itself. All labor must be organized to fight together, not in little sections each for itself. We should organize to quit work as we are organized to carry on work and quit all our little squabbles with one another.
The engineer and fireman co-operate together for the railroad company in running the engine together. But as soon as they get off the engine each has his separate union and if he has a fight with the employer each fights his battle alone. They are divided in working for themselves, while they are united in working for their employer. The sooner we get together and forget the little differences of skill and craft the sooner will we be able to do something for organized labor in this country.
Note: Emphasis added throughout.
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SOURCES & IMAGES
The Butte Inter Mountain
(Butte, Montana)
-June 14, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/348809559/
The Anaconda Standard
(Anaconda, Montana)
-June 15, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/354354819/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/354354952/
Note: The article stated that P. W. Flynn, President of the Butte Miners’ Union introduced Miss Flynn and stated in part:
In 1878 our first parade was led by Aaron C. Witter, the first president of the union. But the day is very fine, and I know you are anxious to get elsewhere and to hear the eloquent speaker who is to follow me, so I will not make any extended address at this time.
See also:
Category: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
https://weneverforget.org/category/elizabeth-gurley-flynn/
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Workers Song – Dropkick Murphys