This is a show of solidarity
that would make our masters tremble
could they but see it.
-Luella Twining
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday October 16, 1907
Eastern Conferences Stand Firm in Support of Pettibone
In case anyone believes that, with the acquittal of Bill Haywood, the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone Conferences have gone slack in their defense work, the following report from Luella Twining should disabuse them of that idea.
From the Appeal to Reason of October 12, 1907:
THE EASTERN CONFERENCES
—–
Progress of the Defence Work
Among Unions in the East.
—–BY LUELLA TWINING.
Representative Western Federation of Miners.
—–
THE Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone conferences in the east are continuing with the characteristic vigor they evidenced from the start. I attended two meetings of the Philadelphia Conference three weeks ago. The hall was filled. I have been out of the city visiting unions in nearby cities and have not attended the New York Conference for some time. I was surprised and touched to see what a fine meeting they had Sunday night, after these months and months in which they have met regularly each week. The unions of the city were well represented. When I stepped into the room and saw the crowd I thought to myself: “This is a show of solidarity that would make our masters tremble could they but see it.” They are all moved by the spirit expressed by Brother P. Schaefer of the national executive board of the Brewers, who said: “We shall never rest till Pettibone is liberated from that prison cell and the Western Federation of Miners is safe. We will not allow the mine owners to break this fine organization by hanging its officials or destroying it financially.”
The unions both in New York and elsewhere still send for me to speak before them. They are all most liberal as, for example, in the past two weeks the Boston unions sent $625,00; the brewers of Hartford assessed themselves 25 cents per member each week for six weeks, in addition to voting $50.00 out of their treasure; the brewers of New Haven voted $100.00; the brewers of Waterbury, $1.00 assessment on each member; the brewers of Philadelphia, $100.00; the bricklayers of Long Island City, $350.00; Italian Stonemasons’ Helpers, $100.00; Italian Carpenters, $100.00: Italian laborers, $50.00; in addition to which several unions give $10 or $15 donations.
To show you the assistance and sympathy the members of the unions are showing, I went to Bricklayers’ Union No. 1, in Brooklyn, one night. It was raining hard and the meeting was poorly attended. The secretary, who knew nothing of me only as my card showed me to be from the miners, begged me not to speak that night, but to defer it to a little better night, so more could hear me. He said: “You will get more out of us on a good night.” I tell you it is that sort of treatment that encourages me.
The Central Labor Union and the German Trades of Philadelphia invited me to speak on the “War in Colorado” and took up a collection for the defense of Pettibone. I spoke for the brewers at their Labor Day picnic in Trenton, N. J. The proceeds go to the defense.
Figures are cold, but these dollars will not only save Pettibone and the Federation, but they are a tangible evidence that the working class is beginning to realize that they must unite. However, they bring before your eyes no pictures as before mine. I wish I could make you see them as easily as I can write the dollar marks. I wish you could see the unions as I see them every day, the warmness of their greeting for the sake of the cause I represent; their eagerness to hear how Pettibone is standing the cruel imprisonment; the questions they ask when they gather around outside to talk it over. If you could see all this you would certainly feel that the persecution of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone has come back on our employers, not in reprisals, but in a weakening of their hold upon the working class that presages their day of doom. How many times have I seen and heard them speak-haughty, supercilious and overbearing. To think we triumphed over them, not with brutality, but through education and organization!
———-
[Photograph added.]
SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Oct 12, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587025/
“Haywood Home Again.”
From Cripple Creek Strike by Emma F. Langdon
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/wfmhall/langdon35.html
IMAGE
Luella Twining ab 1907
http://korzybskifiles.blogspot.com/2014/09/chapter-22-just-work-work-work-part-3.html
See also:
Tag: Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case
https://weneverforget.org/tag/haywood-moyer-pettibone-case/
Tag: Luella Twining
https://weneverforget.org/tag/luella-twining/