Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 1, 1910 Copenhagen – American Socialist Women Attend International
May Wood Simons, Luella Twining, and Lena Morrow Lewis are delegates at the International Socialist Congress, now in progress at Copenhagen. They also took part in the Second International Socialist Women’s Conference which proceeded it.
From The Progressive Woman of August 1910:
Our Women Delegates to the International
May Wood Simons.
Have you ever asked yourself who have entered into the modern opportunities for women most fully? I have, and my thought always turns to our Comrade May.
She has enjoyed the best the schools could give her, having done the work not only for a first degree, but for a doctor of philosophy at Chicago university. That she has kept in the scholarly habit was proven last year by the remarkable feat of winning the Harrison prize for an essay in economics over many men competitors and judged by the heads of the department of economics in five great western universities.
But many women have done admirable work in scholarship. Mrs. Simons has been able to use hers steadily in practical service in the greatest cause of the age. She has worked for Socialism as teacher, lecturer or writer constantly, for the past twelve years or more. At present and since the establishment of the Daily Socialist she has been associate editor of that paper. Her husband, A. M. Simons is editor-in-chief. Already her activities and influence are world-wide and after this summer her place in the international movement will be still more pronounced and effective.
But no women, or normal man, for that matter, is content with world service alone. Fortunately indeed, is one for whom home life and life work are inextricably blended. It is interesting to note that the woman who seems to me to have reaped the fullest harvest from the new ideals and possibilities of our time both in public and private life happens also to be the most devoted mother of my acquaintance.
The genuine good of old standards need never be lost in gaining the genuine good of new freedom and opportunity. It is a satisfaction to have this demonstrated in the self-effaced beautiful little woman who will help to represent American Socialists in the greatest organization the world has known.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 5, 1910
New Castle, Pennsylvania – Big Bill Haywood Visits Solidarity Staff in Jail
From the International Socialist Review of June 1910:
“Leading exponent of Revolutionary Unionism east of the Rockies.”
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“Solidarity in Prison” by William D. Haywood
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[Part II of II.]
The [New Castle] Free Press and Solidarity were issued every week. The employers were furious. Members of the Business Men’s Exchange grew hydrophobic. Detectives were hired and set on the trail of the papers and finally the editorial staffs of both The Free Press and Solidarity were arrested, charged with an alleged violation of the Pennsylvania publishing law (enacted in 1907 and never called into use except on one occasion, as a matter of spite).
This law is being violated daily and weekly by many publications in Pennsylvania at the present time.
The editors of Solidarityand the Free Press were hailed into court and with them the editor of the New Castle Herald, a capitalist sheet. All three were convicted, but the leniency of the court, resulted in the capitalist editor being released on payment of costs while the others were fined $100 and costs.
The Free Press appealed their case while the members of Solidarity refused to pay the fines and were sentenced to jail, declining to accept Judge Porter’s profferred offer of ten days in which to look for money to pay them. Knowing that the workers alone would be the ones to contribute, they preferred to go to jail.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 4, 1910
New Castle, Pennsylvania – Big Bill Haywood on the Jailing of Solidarity
From the International Socialist Review of June 1910:
“Leading exponent of Revolutionary Unionism east of the Rockies.”
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“Solidarity in Prison” by William D. Haywood
[Part I of II.]
CTIVITY in the socialist movement presents some complex situations, some unusual rewards.
There are socialists in jail in New Castle. There are socialists in office at Milwaukee.
If the opportunity of the individuals concerned could be reversed, it is certain that Comrade Emil Seidel, mayor of Milwaukee, and his colleagues, would bear with fortitude the gloomy ignominy of the cells in Lawrence County Jail. It is likewise true that comrades McCarty, Stirton, Williams, Jacobs, Fix and Moore, the manager and editorial staff of Solidarity, could administer the affairs of a municipality with honor to the party, and credit to themselves. But those who know the boys in jail, know that neither would voluntarily change places. All are filling their present positions, in upholstered, revolving office chairs or hard rough benches for the same great cause.
The imprisonment of our fellow-workers in New Castle is an incident in the strike against the American Sheet and Tin Plate Co., which has been on since last July.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 18, 1920
Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas – Ben Fletcher Released on Bond
From The Leavenworth Times of February 8, 1920:
FOUR PRISONERS WERE RELEASED AT FEDERAL PEN
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All but One, Ben Fletcher, Colored I. W. W.
Were Taken Immediately into Custody.
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[…..]
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher
Ben Fletcher, the only colored I. W. W. of “Big Bill” Haywood’s tribe, received, September 8, 1918, at the Federal penitentiary was released yesterday from that institution on an appeal bond to the amount of $10,000. The bond was furnished in Chicago and Ben, immediately upon his release, set out for that metropolis.
The colored “wobbly” was one of four inmates, who were released yesterday, but Fletcher is the only one to enjoy his freedom. The others were taken into custody at the prison gates…..
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 27, 1919
William D. Haywood on Lynching of Wesley Everest at Centralia, Washington
From The New Solidarity of November 25, 1919:
[Lynching of Wesley Everest by Maurice Becker]
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WILL YOU HELP NOW?
[-by William D. Haywood]
Another member of the Industrial Workers of the World has been murdered. Wesley Everest was lynched at Centralia, Washington [Armistice Day, November 11th]. He was hung to a bridge, the body riddle with bullets. The corpse was afterwards cut down and by the murderers dragged back to the jail and thrown in among the many fellow workers who had been imprisoned after the [illegal] raid on the I. W. W. hall. Four of them under an armed guard were escorted with the body of their dead fellow worker out into a yard where they were compelled to dig a grave and bury the dead.
Fellow Worker Everest, the murdered man, was an overseas veteran. He fought for the United States of America against the Imperial German government. When he returned from the war he took up his membership in the Industrial Workers of the World, beginning again the battle against the lumber trusts of the Northwest.
When the I. W. W. hall was raided several of the aggressors were killed, but this in no way justified the un-American, unlawful, inhuman murder of their comrade who had fought with them in the trenches of Flanders.
The Centralia outrage was followed by many others all over the country. Halls were raided, furniture destroyed, literature confiscated, and it is reported that over a thousand men have been arrested,-that is, thrown into prison without warrant, and denied the privilege of seeing friends or lawyers.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 29, 1919
History of I. W. W. Written with “Drops of Blood” and “Bitter Tears of Anguish”
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of September 27, 1919:
By WM. D. HAYWOOD.
Ever since the I. W. W. was organized in June, 1905, ther has been an inquisitorial campaign against its life and growth, inaugurated by the chambers of commerce, profiteers, large and small, and authorities of state and nation in temporary power.
The Industrial Workers of the World is a labor organization composed of sober, honest, industrious men and women. Its chief purposes are to abolish the system of wage slavery and to improve the conditions of those who toil.
This organization has been foully dealt with; drops of blood, bitter tears of anguish, frightful heart pains have marked its every step in its onward march of progress…..
[Emphasis added.]
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Appeal for Funds by Wm. D. Haywood
-on Behalf of I. W. W. General Defense Committee
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CTIVITY in the socialist movement presents some complex situations, some unusual rewards.
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