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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 17, 1911
30,000 Shopmen on Strike on Harriman Lines; Union Scabs Continue Working
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 12, 1911:
It is estimated that there are 30,000 shop men, members of the Federated Shopmen’s Union, now on strike on the Harriman lines. The strikers comprise four crafts, which includes the blacksmiths, carmen, machinists and boilermakers. Up to the present time the men remain firm in their demands and few desertions are recorded, if any. Much of our news has come through the capitalist press and therefore we are forced to read between the lines. That there has been an earnest effort on the part of the strikers to keep the professional scabs from going to work in many places is certain. We have not heard of any bricks being thrown at the switchmen, who are also members of the A. F. of L., neither has many firemen, who are firing the coal into the engines that pull scabs around the country, had their heads knocked off.
There is some hope expressed that the strike may extend. We hope so. We hope that every craft now employed on the Harriman system will discover the fact that they are also employes of the Harriman management and have interests in common with the strikers and so long as they continue to work when four crafts are battling for better conditions, that they are scabbing. If the strike goes the way of many strikes it cannot be said that it was LOST. It will be of some benefit to the workers, as it will point the way to a more solid organization. It will demonstrate that it was not the so-called professional scabs that caused the temporary defeat, but was caused directly by the union scabs who stayed and helped the master whip those who were battling for better conditions. Until all the slaves working for the one industry and all the slaves working for all the industries recognize that “an injury to one is an injury to all” it will be a case of recording defeat after defeat. Not a train has been bottled up so far on the Harriman system and it would be absurd to say that the object in a strike is not to bottle up a railroad or other industry and FORCE the boss to come to terms. To FORCE concessions is the object of any strike, then why not have enough FORCE?
Is it creditable to go into an affray knowing that you have not enough FORCE to be victorious? Is it creditable to be always getting whipped? We hope the federated crafts will win their strike. We hope all strikes could be won. It is our one desire to not only win the little strikes known as skirmishes, but to win the BIG STRIKE when the boss will be FORCED to do his share of the work of the world instead of living off the toil of labor. If the strikers will only discover the fact that there are other scabs than professional scabs and will treat other scabs in the same way and with the same contempt as they are those who are directly taking their places or attempting to, the strike will be of short duration. Bottle up the railroad. Make the other crafts strike or forever damn them as the lowest scabs on earth. Make them fight to help you if possible. Send back their resolutions of sympathy and call a spade a spade. Call a scab a scab. Let every railroader on the Harriman lines lay down his tools or be condemned as a traitor to the working class. It’s a skirmish in the great class struggle, then fight it on class lines.
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[Emphasis and paragraph break added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Joe Hill, General Strike, Workers Awaken, LRSB Oct 1919
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=vTlRAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA6
Industrial Worker
(Spokane, Washington)
-Oct 12, 1911, page 1
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v3n29-w133-oct-12-1911-IW.pdf
See also:
The Lizard’s Trail:
A Story from the Illinois Central and Harriman Lines Strike
of 1911 to 1915 Inclusive
-by Carl E. Person
Lake Publishing Company, 1918
https://books.google.com/books?id=9lE3AAAAMAAJ
Illinois Central & Harriman Shopmen’s Strike of 1911-1915
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Central_shopmen%27s_strike_of_1911
Montana News (Socialist)
(Helena, Montana)
-Oct 5, 1911
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024811/1911-10-05/ed-1/seq-1/
-Oct 19, 1911
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024811/1911-10-19/ed-1/seq-1/
More from Industrial Worker of Oct 12, 1911, page 1
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Casey Jones the Union Scab – Mark Ross
Lyrics by Joe Hill