For Freedom laughs at prison bars
Her voice re-echoes from the star;
Proclaiming with the tempest’s breath
A Cause beyond the reach of death!
-Ralph Chaplin
Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 22, 1918
From the Chicago I. W. W. Publishing Bureau:
—–
“I. W. W. Prison Song” by Ralph Chaplin:
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:
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 HALLRockford 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.
———-
She is the same dear little old Mother Jones
and if she has lost any vigor
in the past two years I can’t see it.
-An Iowa Miner, 1918
Hellraisers Journal, Friday April 19, 1918
Mother Jones News for March 1918: Found in Kansas and Iowa
We begin our Mother Jones news round-up for March 1918 with a report of Mother listening to A. F. of L. President Samuel Gompers pleading for the Eight Hour Day before the Chicago Alschuler Hearings. We next find her speaking before district conventions of the United Mine Workers held in Kansas and in Iowa.
From Springfield’s Illinois State Register of March 1, 1918:
GOMPERS SAYS SHORTER DAYS WILL WIN WAR
—–
Long Hours and Low Wages Drive Men to Drink,
Is Plea of Labor Chief at Chicago
—–MOTHER JONES LISTENS
—–Chicago, Feb. 28.-Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor made a stirring appeal today in behalf of an eight-hour day for employes in the meat packing industry at the stockyards wage arbitration. He appeared as a witness for the employes and his testimony was eagerly listened to by “Mother” Mary Jones, an organizer for the United Mine Workers and several hundred other representatives of organized labor from all sections of the country…..
From the Kansas Pittsburg Daily Headlight of March 11, 1918:
DISTRICT MINERS’ CONVENTION STARTS
—–MOTHER JONES IS ON HAND TO ADDRESS
KANSAS COAL DIGGERS
—–
President Howat’s Report Was Read
at Opening Session-
Excluded Two Papers From Hall.
—–
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 17, 1918
As Chicago Trial Continues, IWW Found Guilty by Kept Press, Part II
Today we offer the conclusion of our two-part series featuring the article by Boyden R. Sparkes which appeared as a full-page spread in the April 14th edition of the New York Tribune.
THE I. W. W.: AN X-RAY PICTURE
Chicago Trial Shows Searing Sparks from the Anvil Where Industrial-Military Power is Being Forged Endanger Progress-
Sabotage, Malcontents’ Principal Weapon,
a Menace to Farm, Factory and Home.By Boyden R. Sparkes
Chicago, April 13, 1918.[Part II]
—–
The worst thief is he who steals
the playtime of children.
Join the I. W. W. and help put
the thieves to work.
-Big Bill Haywood
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday April 16, 1918
As Chicago Trial Continues, IWW Found Guilty by Kept Press
Today we offer Part One of the following article by Boyden R. Sparkes which appeared as a full-page spread in the April 14th edition of the New York Tribune. We will conclude tomorrow with Part Two.
THE I. W. W.: AN X-RAY PICTURE
Chicago Trial Shows Searing Sparks from the Anvil Where Industrial-Military Power is Being Forged Endanger Progress-
Sabotage, Malcontents’ Principal Weapon,
a Menace to Farm, Factory and Home.THE I. W. W. PRINCIPLES AS SHOWN IN THEIR OWN CARTOONS
By Boyden R. Sparkes
Chicago, April 13, 1918.
OUT in the hill country of Oklahoma last August a group of tenant farmers and oil field workers were just a little too quick on the trigger, and what Federal officials believe was intended to have been a country-wide uprising of American “Bolsheviki” against the draft law was quelled almost before it started.
At the hearing in the Federal court in Enid, Okla., it was developed that forty-eight organizations under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World had planned a nation-wide revolution. The anti-draft rioters in Seminole, Hughes and Pontotoc counties began shooting just a little too soon, and posses of patriotic citizens had put 500 of them under arrest before many persons had been killed.
The men arrested belonged to organizations affiliated with the I. W. W., chief among these being the “Working Class Union.” The government is still trying to find out where the money used to purchase arms for the rioters came from.
It is the opinion of government attorneys that these I. W. W. leaders believed they would receive the support of the American Federation of Labor. Naturally any such hope was doomed to disappointment. But the government is still picking up threads of evidence that strengthen the belief that the American Bolsheviki leaders were prepared and hoping for a reign of terror in America that would have far outdone the Bolsheviki uprising in Russia.
On the grey horizon of human existence
looms a great giant called
Working Class Consciousness.
He treads with thunderous step
through all the countries of the world.
There is no escape, we must go out and meet him.
-Louise Bryant
Hellraisers Journal: Sunday April 14, 1918
Stories from the Russian Revolution by Louise Bryant
From the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger comes a series by Louise Bryant, written from the front lines of the Russian Revolution.
From Public Ledger of April 2, 1918:
Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday April 11, 1918
From The Liberator – I. W. W. Secretary on Tulsa Mob Violence
Tulsa, November 9th
[EDITOR’S NOTE:-In this story of persecution and outrage at Tulsa, Oklahoma, told in the sworn statement of one of the victims, there is direct and detailed evidence of one of the most menacing by-products of the war. Here in Tulsa, as in Bisbee and Butte and Cincinnati, patriotic fervor was used by employers with the connivance or open co-operation of local officials, as a mask for utterly lawless attacks upon workingmen who attempted to organize for better conditions. This false resort to loyalty on the part of certain war profiteers is emphasized in the recent report of the President’s Mediation Commission. These cowardly masked upper-class mobs, calling themselves “Knights of Liberty” and mumbling hypocritical words about “the women and children of Belgium,” will not succeed in terrorizing the labor movement of America, nor will they tend to make it more patriotic.]
On November 9, 1917, seventeen men, taken from the custody of the city police of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were whipped, tarred and feathered, and driven out of the city with a warning never to return.
In a letter dated December 21, a resident* of Tulsa, writes:
I think it is only fair to say that the bottom cause of this trouble locally was that a few men, presumably belonging the I. W. W. came into the oil fields something like a year ago and were meeting with considerable success in getting oil-field workers-especially pipe-line and tank builders-to fight for better wages and shorter hours.
Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday April 9, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – “Red Sweetheart,” Now Bride, Observes Trial
Miss Genevieve Semashko, formerly known as the “Red Sweetheart,” is now married to FW George Andreytchine, according to The Chicago Tribune. She has recently been found in attendance at the great I. W. W. trial as the process of jury selection continues.
From The Chicago Daily Tribune of April 4, 1918:
TWO JURYMEN ARE ACCEPTED
FOR I.W.W. TRIAL
—–
Ten Veniremen Locked Up for
Examination Today.
—–
Two jurymen tentatively accepted yesterday afternoon to sit in the trial of 112 members of the I. W. W. were ordered locked up last night along with ten others selected for examination today. They were ordered by Judge Landis to avoid discussing the case and not to read anything bearing upon it.
The men chosen, who may still be challenged by either the government or the defense, are:
A. J. McKEE, druggist, Morrison, Ill.
WILLIAM MALLOW, plumber, 4343 Lincoln avenue.
Two Challenges Used.
Two of the six peremptory challenges allowed the government were used yesterday by Charles F. Clyne, United States district attorney, who personally questioned the veniremen.
One of the two challenges used up by the government eliminated Thomas W. Allinson, father of Brent Dow Allinson, the pacifist, of Swiss embassy fame, ordered classed as a deserter yesterday for failure to respond to orders to report at Camp Grant.
Sixty brand new metal spittoons made their appearance yesterday on order from Judge Landis in the name of comfort for those being tried. Simultaneously a variety of plug and fine cut appeared from hip pockets.
Judge Landis also made his way to the “chuck house,” alias Judge Evans’ court, where the men are fed at noon. He wanted to see if the feeding was up to standard. He tasted about a bit and tried the coffee.
“The coffee will have to be stronger,” was his verdict.
Walter T. Neff, whose illness of Tuesday delayed the opening of the trial, was on hand, his throat wrapped warmly. “The Girl in Red,” Miss Genevieve Semashko, who figured some time back in an alleged attempt at jail delivery, appeared yesterday.
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday April 7, 1918
Victory! for Packinghouse Workers by William Z. Foster, Part III
From Life and Labor of April 1918:
HOW LIFE HAS BEEN BROUGHT
INTO THE STOCKYARDS
A Story of the Reorganization of the Packing IndustryWilliam Z. Foster
Secretary Chicago Stockyards Labor CouncilThe main questions, touching wages, hours and conditions of labor, involved in the Stockyards arbitration hearing before Judge Alschuler, and his decision concerning them, are of overwhelming importance, both in principle and in consequence. Just how far-reaching will be the results of the decision one cannot now forecast. But lips stiffened by poverty will perhaps now learn to smile, and thousands of families will for the first time taste of life.
[Part III]
THE SHORTER WORKDAY
A big battle raged around the question of the eight hour day. In this measure’ the packers saw typified the victory so earnestly sought by the workers. They bent every effort to defeat it. Although compelled to admit the justice, economy and inevitability of the eight hour day as a general proposition, they exhausted every pretext to prevent its consideration, for very obvious reasons, till after the war.
Their strong argument was that, due to the irregular supply of cattle, sheep and hogs, and the limited capacities of the plants, introduction of the eight hour day could only be brought about after months and years of rebuilding and other preparation. To establish it suddenly now would be disastrous. It would reduce the production of vitally necessary foodstuffs full 20 per cent. This would involve starvation for the boys in the trenches and very possibly the loss of the war.
To establish this contention the brainiest superintendents in the packing business piled complexities upon complications. But their efforts were in vain. The workers met and defeated them at every point. Samuel Gompers and Victor A. Olander made the general argument for the shorter workday, and a masterful one it was. Dennis Lane, John Kennedy, Martin Murphy, Tim McCreash, John Joyce and Joseph Selkirk, all skilled butchers, applied it to the packing houses. These union workers destroyed every technical objection raised by the superintendents, checking them one by one. Once, in the midst of the arbitration, they even went to Kansas City to ascertain the exact capacity of certain departments of the packing plants in that city. They routed the experts, horse, foot and dragoons, and proved beyond all question of doubt the practicability and economy of immediately establishing the eight hour day in the packing industry. At the first hour, seeing they were defeated, the packers urged the administrator in case he saw fit to shorten the workday, to make it apply only to the skilled trades—an insidious attack on the unions that did not pass without thorough exposure.
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday April 6, 1918
Victory! for Packinghouse Workers by William Z. Foster, Part II
From Life and Labor of April 1918:
HOW LIFE HAS BEEN BROUGHT
INTO THE STOCKYARDS
A Story of the Reorganization of the Packing IndustryWilliam Z. Foster
Secretary Chicago Stockyards Labor CouncilThe main questions, touching wages, hours and conditions of labor, involved in the Stockyards arbitration hearing before Judge Alschuler, and his decision concerning them, are of overwhelming importance, both in principle and in consequence. Just how far-reaching will be the results of the decision one cannot now forecast. But lips stiffened by poverty will perhaps now learn to smile, and thousands of families will for the first time taste of life.
[Part II]
DRASTIC ACTION TAKEN
The cup was full. It was evident that the packers had no intention of living up to their agreement, but were seeking openly to destroy the unions, let the consequences be what they might. The unions accepted the issue. They at once broke off negotiations with the packers and sent the committee away to Washington again to demand that the President take over the packing houses, as the only way to guarantee their operation during the period of the war.
On January 18th the committee met with President Wilson, explained to him the imminent danger of a great strike in the packing houses and asked that he take steps to seize the industry. The President replied that the proposed remedy involved a big issue, that he would take it under advisement, and that in the meantime another, effort would be made to get a settlement through arbitration.
