Tag: American Federation of Labor

Hellraisers Journal: Debs in Omaha, Believes Workingmen Will Soon be Ready for Economic Revolution by United Ballot

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Modern Wage Slave, Terre Haute May 31, 1898, Debs-IA

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Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 23, 1898
Omaha, Nebraska – Eugene Debs Tells Old Story of Wealth and Poverty

On Wednesday December 21st, Eugene Debs was interviewed in Omaha and said, in part:

It is the old, old story—economics—the concentration of industry. The middle class of middlemen are being obliterated; they buy goods in small quantities and pay more than the department stores which buy by the carload. The department store advertises cheap goods, gets the laboring man’s cash, and the little corner grocery has the “credit” business. The small dealer is crushed: labor is pinched and suicides have increased 200 percent in the last ten years…..

I believe the present system, so destructive to the better elements of mankind, is soon to be eradicated, and that by the workingmen. They are beginning to think, and from the products of their minds is developing an economic revolution.

From the Omaha World-Herald of December 22, 1898:

Morally I Mean to Pay Them
[Interview with Eugene Debs]

EVD re Social Democracy, SLTb p3, Feb 9, 1898

No, I did not attend the [A. F. of L.] convention at Kansas City. I am in deep sympathy with the meeting and wanted very much to go, but my lecture engagements prevented. I have been speaking every night for two weeks.

With what success?

At Boone, Iowa, I had a fair audience, but usually through Iowa my audiences were not large. You know, the railroads and other corporations have no love for me, and it is given out cold to the men, and many of them who would attend stay away, fearful of incurring the displeasure of the powers that be. Especially is this true in railroad towns. However I cannot complain: I speak and the papers report and thus I reach the masses.

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Hellraisers Journal: Charles Moyer at Laredo Labor Conference: Half-Truths & Untruths re IWW & Big Bill Haywood

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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BBH Quote re May Day, AtR p2, Apr 27, 1907
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 20, 1918
Laredo, Texas – Charles Moyer Spews Bitter Venom at Bill Haywood

With great sadness we report and correct the half-truths and untruths spewed by Charles Moyer at Big Bill Haywood during the recent Pan American Labor Conference held at Laredo, Texas. Charles Moyer knows what it is to face the persecutions of the ruling class. He nearly lost his life in the 1913 Michigan Copper Miners strike when he was kidnapped, shot, and deported from the strike zone by company gunthugs.

From the Chicago Day Book of December 29, 1913:

M13, Moyer in Hospital, Day Book p29, Dec 29, 1913

He nevertheless returned to the strike zone after his release from the hospital, and was greeted by thousands of cheering strikers and their families. That this hero would now turn on his fellow workers brings deep disappointment and sadness.

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Hellraisers Journal: Charles Moyer Denounces I. W. W. & Big Bill Haywood at Laredo Pan American Labor Conference

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 19, 1918
Laredo, Texas – A. F. of L. Defeats Plan to Assist I. W. W.

From El Paso Morning Times of November 16, 1918:

DEFEAT PLAN TO ASSIST
MEMBERS OF I.W.W.
—–
Labor Leaders at Pan-American Labor Conference
Attack Resolution Offered by Mexican
Delegates That Was Intended
to Aid Imprisoned Men.
—–

GOMPERS AND MOYER DENOUNCERS OF MOVE
—–
President of Mine Workers Bitter
in His Arraignment of Haywood,
Secretary of Organization,
Who Is Serving a Sentence
for Espionage.
—–

By Associated Press.

HMP, Pettibone Moyer Haywood, AtR, Feb 16, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason of February 16, 1907

Laredo, Texas, Nov. 15.-An attempt by Mexican delegates to the pan-American labor conference to have adopted a resolution aiming at the release from prison of Industrial Workers of the World today brought forth an attack on that organization by American labor leaders, who defeated the plan.

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Hellraisers Journal: Influenza Claims Life of Miss Sadie Gompers, Daughter of A. F. of L. President Samuel Gompers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Pray for the dead
and fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 26, 1918
Washington, District of Columbia – Miss Sadie Gompers Passes Away

From the Duluth Labor World of October 26, 1918:

MISS GOMPERS PASSES AWAY
—–
Only Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Gompers
Dies After Two Days’ Illness.
—–

Sadie Gompers, LOC, d. age 33 per WDC Eve Str p17, Oct 14, 1918

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24.-Miss Sadie Gompers, only daughter of President Gompers and Mrs. Gompers, died in this city [October 14th] after a two days’ illness with influenza. Interment was private. President Gompers [of the American Federation of Labor] was in Italy with the American labor mission at the time of the tragic occurrence.

Miss Gompers was an accomplished singer, and she was well known to trade unionists because of the many conventions and public meetings she had attended with her father. The high esteem in which she was held was indicated by the telegrams and floral offerings received at the family residence from trade unionists and other friends in every section of the country.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Industrial Union Bulletin: “On the Advance” in Philadelphia by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Paine and Liberty, IUB p2, Sept 19, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 29, 1908
Philadelphia – Organizer Gurley Flynn Describes Two Weeks’ Sojourn

During the month of August, Fellow Worker Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was found in the “Quaker City” organizing on behalf of the Industrial Workers of the World.

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of September 19, 1908:

ON THE ADVANCE
[by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn].

EGF, Ptt Prs p47, Sept 27, 1908

A year ago when I visited Philadelphia, there was no I. W. W. in existence and my weeks’ agitation found only about twelve bonafide, but scattered advocates of industrial unionism. Today thru the hard work and determined efforts on the part of these few unaided and encouraged, by passing organizers and speakers, there is a thriving movement in Philadelphia, now establishing its own headquarters, and if the Quaker City has not its quota of representatives at the convention this year, it can only be blamed on the capitalist class and panic.

* * *

This year my two weeks’ sojourn in Philadelphia started out under rather inauspicious circumstances, as the facts already forwarded to the Bulletin, concerning the Bakery Workers, will amply show. However, once we were rid of Mr. I. Roth and his attempts to make our organization a cloak for his label-selling and scab-furnishing schemes for the stooges, our general agitation meetings were highly successful.

The first week we held three open-air meetings, commencing August 20th, on the City Hall Plaza. An “Ancient Order of Hiberian [Hibernians]” Convention was going on that week in Philadelphia, and the celebration on this evening took the form of an Irish parade, from which we were able to extract an excellent crowd of about 300 people, in spite of the attempts of the North American to conceal our identity by a meager little five-line announcement tucked away in an inconspicuous corner. The convention had declared for Home Rule for Ireland, while we declared for Home Rule for the United States, by the people of the U. S., the working-class, and for two hours industrial unionism as the means of organizing to bring this about was expounded by Fellow Worker McAlvy and myself.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Socialist Review: Vincent St. John on the IWW’s Revolutionary Industrial Unionism

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote fr IWW Preamble, IUB July 11, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 24, 1908
Industrial Unionism and the Revolutionary Labor Movement of the World

IWW Gen Adm Emblem, IUB, Mar 14, 1908

With the fourth annual convention of the Industrial Workers of the World now underway at Brand’s Hall in Chicago, Illinois, we find this a good time to republish the following article by Vincent St. John wherein he discusses Industrial Unionism as practiced by the I. W. W. Fellow Worker St. John currently serves as the I. W. W.’s General Organizer and Assistant Secretary-which position may change by the end of this year’s convention.

From the International Socialist Review of September 1908:

The Economic Argument for Industrial Unionism.
[by Vincent St. John]

IU by St J, ISR p172, Sept 1908HE SUBJECT of industrial unionism is to-day receiving the attention of the revolutionary labor movement of the world. And the opposite wing of the labor movement, the conservatives, are likewise studying it, but with the aim of defeating its revolutionary object.

Different schools of industrial unionism are springing up. This in itself is a proof that the subject is of general interest, and that it is forcing itself upon those in the labor movement who formerly waved it aside as a visionary and impracticable scheme.

As the Industrial Workers of the World is to-day the only organization of general scope, in the United States, that strictly adheres to the revolutionary principle of industrial unionism, it justly claims the right to speak with authority on the subject. Without revolutionary principles, industrial unionism is of little or no value to the workers.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1908, Part II: Found Visiting the Appeal to Reason

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote re Battle Scarred Mother Jones, AtR p3, Aug 29, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 18, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for August, 1908, Part II
Found Visiting the Appeal to Reason at Girard, Kansas

From the Appeal to Reason of August 22, 1908:

Two Noted Agitators.
—–

Mother Jones from Cripple Creek Strike by EFL, 1908 edition

The Appeal has the distinction this week of entertaining two of the most distinguished agitators in the Socialist movement. At almost precisely the same hour Mother Jones and Luella Twining entered the Temple of the Revolution. There was genuine delight and surprise all around. The heartiest greetings were exchanged and the visitors made to feel that they were among comrades who know of their work and appreciate them at their full value.

And here let it be said that it is a distinction of no ordinary account to entertain two such crusaders. The work Mother Jones has done for the downtrodden of this nation can never be told. Her three score years have whitened her hair, but not in the least abated her ardor in the cause. She is a born agitator and wherever she goes there is something doing. A grand old warrior she is who will be known better long after she is at rest, for then only will the true story of this warrior in the cause of human freedom be known.

Luella Twining, though much younger in years and in service, has already a wonderful work to her credit. Her service during the Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone struggle is well remembered, and if she had not lived a day after this was completed she would have written her name indelibly into the labor movement. But she has all her years still before her, and is filled with the spirit which seeks to serve without thought of personal reward, and she is certain to add fresh luster to the future chapters of her life work.

Truly it is an honor to have such royal guests and the Appeal and its comrades will leave nothing undone to make them feel that here they are thrice welcome and always at home.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: John Reed and Art Young Cover the Chicago IWW Trial, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Remember, this is the only
American working-class movement which sings.
Tremble then at the I. W. W.,
for a singing movement is not to be beaten.
-Jack Reed
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday September 2, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – “Small on the huge bench sits a wasted man…”

From The Liberator of September 1918:

Part I of John Reed’s coverage of Chicago I. W. W. trial with drawings by Art Young-

The Social Revolution In Court
By Art Young And John Reed

Chg IWW Trial by A Young, Prosecution, Liberator Sept 1918
Chg IWW Trial by A Young, Defense, Liberator Sept 1918
—–

IN the opening words of his statement why sentence of death should not be pronounced upon him, August Spies, one of the Chicago martyrs of 1887, quoted the speech of a Venetian doge, uttered six centuries ago-

“I stand here as the representative of one class, and speak to you, the representatives of another class. My defense is your accusation; the cause of my alleged crime, your history.”

The Federal court-room in Chicago, where Judge Landis sits in judgment on the Industrial Workers of the World, is an imposing great place, all marble-and-bronze and mellow dark wood-work. Its windows open upon the heights of towering office-buildings, which dominate that court-room as money-power dominates our civilization.

Over one window is a mural painting of King John and the Barons at Runnymede, and a quotation from the Great Charter:

“No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled or any otherwise damaged but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land-

“To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice….”

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial Testimony: Deportations from Bisbee and Murder of Frank Little at Butte

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday July 8, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Trial of I. W. W. Leaders Continues

Fellow Workers Embree and Rogers for the defense:

Court was adjourned for the Fourth of July, and those defendants still confined in Cook County Jail were kept locked in their cells for that entire sweltering summer day. On the 5th of July, Defendant A. S. Embree resumed the testimony begun July 3rd regarding the Arizona deportations. Harrison George, also one of the defendants, picks up the story:

The law of Arizona was but the plaything of the Copper Trust, he said, in giving a long and explicit account of how he and 1,185 other men were deported from Bisbee by gunmen under direction of Sheriff Harry Wheeler and company officials. Embree was examined by Attorney W. B. Cleary, himself a deportee, and his story of that memorable 12th of July, 1917, when all law was set aside in the interest of industrial autocracy, was backed by many photographs of the deportees and their deporters. On the morning of that day five men with rifles came out of the office of Postmaster Bailey, and more guns came from the Y. M. C. A., Embree stated.

Bisbee Deportation, White Arm Band Gunthug, libcom
—–

Of those deported, 40 percent. were members of the I.W.W., 25 percent. were members of the A. F. of L. and 35 per cent. were unorganized workers or business and professional men. Fred Brown, state organizer of the A. F. of L., was deported. Several grocery men were deported; also the proprietors of two restaurants with all their employees. Registered men, 400 of them, were sent away and forbidden to return, even for draft examination; many holders of Liberty Bonds, one a cash purchaser of $15,000 of these bonds-everyone who would not bow to gunman rule and Copper Trust law-400 married men with families dragged from homes and sent into the desert-

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1918, Part II: Found Speaking at Mass Meetings in Rockford, Illinois

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Fear Not Organize, Rkfd Mrn Str p3, Mar 19, 1918

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday April 21, 1918
Mother Jones News for March 1918, Part II: Found in Rockford, Illinois

From the Rockford Morning Star of March 17, 1918:

Mother Jones, AD Mass Mtg, Mar 17, Rkfd Mrn Str p23, Mar 17, 1918

From the Rockford Morning Star of March 15, 1918:

JOHN WALKER AND MOTHER JONES
TO BE HERE SUNDAY
—–

CENTRAL LABOR UNION SPONSOR PARADE
AND MEETING AT LYRAN HALL

Rockford Central Labor Union has arranged a big labor demonstration for next Sunday, March 17, which will include a parade, headed by a band, which will start from the court house at 1:30 o’clock in the afternoon and move to Lyran hall in Fourth avenue, where a monster meeting will be held.

Addresses will be made by John Walker, the patriotic president of the State Federation of Labor, Ed. Carbine, first vice president of the same body, Mother Jones, leading figure in many labor struggles, William B. Hannon, member of the executive board of the International Association of Machinists, and Tony Augustine, general organizer of the International Hodcarriers, Building and Common Laborers’ association. The public is invited to attend.

———-

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