Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 4, 1920
Mary Heaton Vorse Reports from Front Lines of Great Steel Strike
From The Liberator of January 1920:
The Steel Strike
By Mary Heaton Vorse
—–
AT the beginning of the fourth month of the strike, at a moment when the newspapers have definitely decided that there is no strike, the strike still cripples production of steel 50 per cent. These are figures given by the steel companies to the financial columns of the daily press. One would think that the strike would have been definitely battered down and the account closed for good in at least a few towns.
One would think that the might of the steel companies, backed by the press, reinforced by the judiciary, local authorities and police, and self-appointed “citizens’ committees,” would have finished this obstinate strike. One would think it would have been kicked out, smothered out, stifled out, bullied out, brow-beaten out, stabbed out, scabbed out, but here they are hanging on in the face of cold weather, in the face of abuse and intimidation, in the face of arrests, in the face of mob violence-and these are dark days too.
These are days when the little striking communities are steeped in doubt, when the bosses go around to the women and plead with them almost tearfully to get their husbands to go back to work before their jobs are lost. These are the days when in these isolated places every power that the companies know is brought to bear upon the strikers to make them believe that they and they alone are hanging on, that the strike is over everywhere else and that this special town will be the goat.
People talk of the steel strike as if it were one single thing. In point of fact, there are 50 steel strikes. Literally there are 50 towns and communities where there to-day exists a strike. The communication between these towns is the slenderest, the mills and factories which this strike affects line the banks of a dozen rivers. The strike is scattered through a half a dozen states.
This is something new in the history of strikes-50 towns acting together. Pueblo acting in concert with Gary; Birmingham, Alabama, keeping step with Rankin and Braddock, Pennsylvania. How did it happen that these people; so slenderly organized, separated by distance, separated by language, should have acted together and have continued to act together?
Some of the men have scarcely ever heard a speaker in their own language. Some of the men are striking in communities where no meetings are allowed. Sitting at home, staying out, starving, suffering persecution, suffering the torture of doubt, suffering the pain of isolation, without strike discipline and without strike benefits, they hold on. What keeps them together?
Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 3, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Hears from Rose Pastor Stokes
From The Spokane Press of January 2, 1910:
From page 5-
ROSE PASTOR STOKES TELLS OF STRIKE
—–
Millionaire Socialist’s Wife Writes to Gurley Flynn
of Shirt-Waist Makers’ Strike.
—–
Rose Pastor Stokes, the well known woman socialist and labor leader, wife of New York’s millionaire-philanthropist, is a friend of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the I. W. W. leader, who has been prominent in the street speaking fight here. Mrs. Stokes has written the local leader regarding her work in the strike of the shirt waist strikers of the metropolis.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn has given a copy of the letter to The Press for publication. She is herself a New York girl, and knows the working conditions among the girl and women workers of New York. The letter follows:
[Rose Pastor Stokes on New York Shirtwaist Strike.]
You have doubtless heard of the shirt waist makers’ strike out here. For weeks I have been so deeply engaged in the struggle with these striking men and women that I have found it difficult to think of anything else. I am still in the fight, as the strike is not yet over. There were between 30,000 and 40,000 out about there weeks ago. Now there are about 8,000 strikers left, the rest having gone back, on the union terms, with recognition of the union.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 2, 1910
Spokane, Washington – The Story of Joseph Thompson, Courageous Newsboy
From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:
The Shame of Spokane
—–
By Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
—–
[Part II of II.]
This same Judge Hinkle had made himself infamous in connection with the juvenile cases. Perhaps the most disgraceful affair of many connected with the Spokane free-speech fight was the raid on the hall December 1st, resulting in the arrest of eight little newsboys. Simple on the surface, it is a subtle attempt to undermine the right of a parent to teach a child ideas different from the established order. The children were taken to the chief’s office and put through a severe cross examination, after which they were locked up for the night.
“The third degree” on youngsters ranging in years from eight to sixteen is quite a credit to the Spokane detective force. Couldn’t you get evidence from grown-ups, Captain Burns, throwing light on the “secrets” and “conspiracy” of the I. W. W. without scaring it out of a lot of little boys? “The I. W. W. hall is no fit place for them,” said Prosecuting Attorney Pugh of these poor, ragged, little urchins who trudge the streets in their thin little shoes going in and out of saloons and cheap resorts all hours of the day and night. The parents of the boys with that innate respect for law came in fear and trembling to say that they had not sanctioned the children joining. One woman said she was too poor to buy her boy a necktie so let him wear the red one that a man gave him. The parents knew nothing of the I. W. W. and the little youngsters were rather deserted by the very ones who ought to know what’s wrong with conditions that force them to send their little ones on the streets this frosty weather.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 1, 1910
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Reports from Spokane Free Speech Fight
From the International Socialist Review of January 1910:
The Shame of Spokane
—–
By Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
—–
[Part I of II.]
N December 3rd Prosecuting Attorney Pugh thundered, in his attack upon the Industrial Workers of the World: “Let them feel the mailed fist of the law,” amply justifying our definition of government as “the slugging committee of the capitalist class.” This threat was presumably made in a full appreciation of what a roaring farce “constitution,” “justice,” “rights” constitute in Spokane—city of the Washington Water Power Company and the employment sharks.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 31, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Miss Flynn, Age 19, Braves Motherhood in Jail Cell
From The Tacoma Times of December 29, 1909:
ONLY 19, SHE BRAVED MOTHERHOOD IN CELL
TO AID IN STRUGGLE FOR FREE SPEECH
(Special Correspondence.)
SPOKANE, Dec. 29.,-“If I have found work to do in a struggle for what is right, and just and human, then I would be unworthy and unhappy, should I lay down the work because of hardships, persecutions or privations. That is all.”
Nineteen years old, a wife, soon to be a mother, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, member of the national committee of the I. W. W., explained in her cell in the city prison here why she passed unflinchingly through the indignity of arrest, trial and conviction, through the insults of the “third degree” and the tortures of the “sweat box;” why she faced bravely a coming ordeal of motherhood behind jail bars.
This girl was arrested here for her activities in the struggle for free speech being carried on by the Industrial Workers of the World against the city authorities who are attempting to enforce what has been declared by one judge an unconstitutional ordinance against street speaking. She was tried for “criminal conspiracy,” convicted and sentenced to a term in jail. She heard the sentence without any visible manifestation of emotion and though in a delicate condition, she smiled calmly when the grated door of her cell was swung shut, leaving her alone.
Ten miserable years of childhood spent in the squalid poverty-ridden tenement districts of New York are the explanation of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s activities in the “free speech war” in Spokane. Filled with a spirit of revolt against existing industrial systems, she allied herself, four years ago, with the work of the Industrial Workers. She was a frail slip of a girl, 15 years old, then. When she was 17 she became the wife of J. A. Jones, an I. W. W. organizer. Though her married life has been happy, in her work she has retained her maiden name. Her education, snatched from bitter expedience and what few books she could find time to read, this girl leader is refined and gentle in speech and manner.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 30, 1909
New York, New York – The Call Supports Uprising of Shirtwaist Makers
From The New York Call of December 29, 1909:
SHIRTWAIST STRIKERS PRESENT FACTS OF GREAT
STRUGGLE TO THE PUBLIC OF NEW YORK CITY
—–
WORKING GIRLS’ STRIKE RESULT OF OPPRESSION
—–
Discontent With Shop Conditions Had Been Steadily Growing
for Years-What Led Up to Present Situation-Employers
Desperate and Losing Ground Rapidly, While Strikers
Are Standing Solid, but Financial Aid Is Needed.
—–
By WILLIAM MAILLY.
When 30,000 workers in one trade, mostly girls under twenty years of age, quit work with one accord and go on a general strike almost without warning and with little preparation there must be some exceptional reason for their action.
The present strike of shirtwaist makers is an exceptional strike. Behind it is a long, bitter story of working conditions that had gradually become unbearable-a story of low wages that went lower in hard times, but never higher in good times, of long hours of day and night and Sunday labor in the busy season and idleness or semi-idleness in the dull season, of unsanitary shop conditions, with poor light, foul air and unhealthy surroundings, of the tyranny, and some times worse, of petty bosses and foreman, of a subcontracting system which relieved the manufacturer, so-called, of responsibility, but made it possible for contractors to employ labor at beggarly wages and to reap large profits-all these things had combined to make the general lot of the shirtwaist makers miserable, degrading and increasingly oppressive.
And these things prevailed because the shirtwaist makers were unorganized. They had no union. They were competing among themselves to their own undoing and the great benefit of their employers. They were helpless to resist oppression because they not act together. They were victims because they submitted being victimized.
What Led to the Revolt.
But a change had to come. Such a state of things could cannot prevail indefinitely. And when the change did come it came all the more quickly because the force that impelled it had been gaining strength for so long a time. Like a long-smoldering volcano that suddenly erupts, so the growing discontent among the shirtwaist-makers found vent in a revolt that burst forth within a few hours…..
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 29, 1919
Mother Jones News for November 1919, Part II
Found in Washington, D. C., Not Afraid of Judge Anderson
From the Lebanon Daily News of November 14, 1919:
—–
(Special to News by United Press)
Washington, Nov. 14.-With the government acting as mediator, mine operators and representatives of the United Mine Workers came together here today in an effort to settle the dispute over wages and hours which caused the recent coal strike.
As the delegates assembled for this “peace conference,” it appeared there would be a deadlock from the very outset.
The union representatives were prepared to enter the conference at 2:30 this afternoon determined to hold out for an uncompromising victory. Less than complete triumph, they feared, will give the extreme radical element control of the miners-the men will lose faith in their conservative leaders. Acting President Lewis was expected to insist on full compliance with the men’s demands of a 50 hour week and wage increases ranging up to sixty per cent.
Operators were solidly in favor of refusing to surrender anything to the workers, according to early indications. They stood pat on the “Washington wage agreement,” contending it runs until the end of the war, and that the war is not ended. Some of them were disposed to emphasize that comparatively few of the miners have returned to work in obedience to their leaders instructions, and it was expected the union chiefs would be asked about this at the outset of the meeting.
Secretary of Labor Wilson, who called the conference, has invited Dr. Harry A. Garfield, Fuel Administrator, to participate in the hope that if an agreement cannot he reached within a reasonable time the government may be able to offer a compromise. Any compromise will probably carry with it an increase in the price of coal to the consumer, so the operators will have increased revenue to pay higher wages.
Garfield, who is in charge of coal prices, was in a position to give expert advice on just what a raise in pay to the workers will mean to the coal market.
That Lewis and his colleagues will not be left in doubt as to how radical labor stands on the miners’ case, “Mother” Jones, of Colorado fame, and Andy Furuseth, head of the Seamen’s union, are here to let them know. Both are emphatic in their disapproval of Lewis’ compliance with Federal Judge Anderson’s order to end the strike.
“The strike should never have been called off,” said Furuseth. “The miners won’t return to work, and I approve of it.”
[Mother Jones Defies John L. Lewis.]
[Said Mother Jones:]
This is a free country, but it would starve people. This is what Judge Anderson’s order means to the miners who are fighting for their freedom and a living.
Next Monday I am going down into West Virginia and urge the miners to stay out until they win. I am not afraid of Judge Anderson. He can send me to jail or he can hang me, but he will have to do it.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 28, 1919
Mother Jones News for November 1919, Part I
Found in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Washington, D. C.
From The Survey of November 8, 1919
-taken from “Closed Towns” by S. Adele Shaw:
———-
[One] evening I went to a meeting of strikers [held in Braddock, Pennsylvania]. All was quiet as I made my way toward the river. Down a poorly lighted street, so dark I could scarcely see the curb, I found the men standing, filling the vacant lot before the door of the hall which was packed, and on the sidewalks and street, but not blocking either. There was neither noise nor excitement. “Mother Jones goin’ to speak.” “Come on, lady.” And the men held up their arms to open a passage for me. The hall was jammed. Sweat stood on every forehead.
The first speaker was J. G. Brown of the Pittsburgh strike committee. I had heard him the summer before in the mill towns telling the men what the eight-hour day would mean for them and their families, urging them to take out their papers and become citizens, and never failing to impress upon them the necessity of obeying the laws of the town, state and the country. Then came the deep clear voice of a woman, filling every corner of the hall. I stood on tiptoe and saw the grey hair of Mother Jones, the woman agitator of the mining districts of Colorado and West Virginia, who with the rough speech and ready invective of the old-time labor spell binder, has exerted a powerful influence over the striking steel workers. At her first words there was complete silence. Though practically all were foreigners, not a man in the hall appeared to miss a word.
[Mother Jones said:]
We’re going to have a hell of a fight here, boys. We are to find out whether Pennsylvania belongs to Gary or to Uncle Sam. If it belongs to Gary we are going to take it away from him. We can scare and starve and lick the whole gang when we get ready…The eyes of the world are on us today. They want to see if America can make the fight…Our boys went over there. You were told to clean up the Kaiser. Well, you did it. And now we’re going to clean up the damned Kaisers at home…They sit up and smoke seventy-five cent cigars and have a lackey bring them champagne. They have stomachs two miles long and two miles wide and we fill them…Remember when all was dark in Europe and Columbus said, “I see a new land,” they laughed. But the Queen of Spain sold her jewels and Columbus went to it…He died in poverty, but he gave us this nation and you and I aren’t going to let Gary take it from us…If he wants fourteen hours he can go in and work it himself…We don’t want guns. We want to destroy guns. We want honest men to keep the peace. We want music and play grounds and the things to make life worth while…Now, you fellows go on out. I want to talk to the other boys.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 27, 1919
Mary Heaton Vorse Reports from the Front Lines of the Great Steal Strike:
People have died, people have been wounded, they have been beaten, ridden down by mounted police, and have suffered in great numbers, fine and imprisonment, because of Mr. Gary’s principles.
From the Kansas Trades Unionist of December 26, 1919:
CAMOUFLAGE IN INDUSTRIAL WARFARE
By Mary Heaton Vorse
Butte Daily Bulletin of October 10, 1919
Do you know what the steel strike is about?It is about the right of free men to join freely in organizations which will deliver them from conditions which prevent them being men. It is a fight as to whether one man can coerce the men in the industries of five great states.
There are wars being fought now in Europe over territories not so large and involving the lives of fewer human beings.
This strike is a strike for democracy. It is a fight for the opportunity for wider citizenship.
People against profit. Feudalism against Americanism-a blacker feudalism than the world has known for a long time, for in the most autocratic monarchies the people had the right of petition.
If they had something they wanted to say to their king, they could say it. He would read their petition, he would reply to it.
Judge Gary is more autocratic than any monarch. He denies his men the right of petition. He throws their petitions into the waste basket.
For principles sake.
For principles sake Mr. Gary has let this strike go on.
People have died, people have been wounded, they have been beaten, ridden down by mounted police, and have suffered in great numbers, fine and imprisonment, because of Mr. Gary’s principles.
———-—–
—–
—–
———-—–
———-—–
———-
———-N December 3rd Prosecuting Attorney Pugh thundered, in his attack upon the Industrial Workers of the World: “Let them feel the mailed fist of the law,” amply justifying our definition of government as “the slugging committee of the capitalist class.” This threat was presumably made in a full appreciation of what a roaring farce “constitution,” “justice,” “rights” constitute in Spokane—city of the Washington Water Power Company and the employment sharks.
———-
———-
———-—–
———-
———-