Tag: Calcasieu Parish LA

Hellraisers Journal: Nine Members of Brotherhood of Timber Workers Now on Trial in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH re BTW LA White n Black Unity, ISR p106 , Aug 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 26, 1912
Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana – Fellow Workers on Trial for Their Lives

From The Wheeling Majority of October 24, 1912:

BTW, Shall Murder be Done, Def Com, Wlg Maj p6, Oct 24, 1912

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The Grabow “Conspiracy”
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Alexandria, La., Oct. 24.-(Special.)-at 11:40 a. m., Monday morning, October 7th, in the District Court of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, Judge Winston Overton presiding, began the trial of President A. L. Emerson, Organizer Ed. Lehman, John Helton, R. H. Chatman, Edgar Hollingsworth, Louis Brown, Jack Payne, Ed Ezell and C. Havens, the nine members of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers the Southern Lumber Association has picked out to victimize in order to crush Unionism throughout the South.

The whole of  the first day was taken up in preparation and in a fight made by Judge E. T. Hunter, leading counsel for the defense, for time, about two weeks, in which to ask the Supreme Court of Louisiana for a writ of mandamus setting aside the District Court’s order severing the cases of the nine men on trial from the balance of their 58 brothers who had been indicted jointly with them for “conspiracy to murder.” The Court admitted Judge Hunter’s contention correct law, but refused to grant the petition, mainly on the round that it would be impossible to try the 58 accused all together, because the law gave them 1044 challenges.

Judge Hunter pointed out to the court that that was not the fault of the accused, that they had not indicted themselves and were not responsible for the blunders of District Attorney Joseph Moore or for those of the prosecuting attorney for the Southern Lumber Operators Association, Congressman A. P. Pujo, but the Court still refused and ordered the nine men to trial for the murder of the lumber trust gunman, A. P. Vincent, who was killed in the battle at Grabow, La., when the mass meeting of the Brotherhood and its farmer allies was fired on from ambush by the private thug army of the Association on the 7th of last July.….

[Emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: B. T. W Prisoners Form Union Local at Lake Charles Jail, Louisiana

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH re BTW LA White n Black Unity, ISR p106 , Aug 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 14, 1912
Lake Charles Jail of Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana – B. of T. W. Prisoners Form Union

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of September 12, 1912:

BATTLING B. T. W. FORM JAIL UNION

REBELLIOUS PRISONERS FORM UNION IN JAIL
-BLACK HOLE OF CALCASIEU IS LABOR’S RECRUITING GROUND
-NO COLOR LINE DRAWN IN PRISON-REBELS ARE RISING.

 

BTW Prisoners of Grabow Massacre at Lake Charles Jail, af July 7, 1912
B. of T. W. Prisoners, Lake Charles La.

On August 15th a charter was issued by the Brotherhood of Timber Workers to the following white and colored workers:

White: Pat Perkins, R. W. Perry, John Perry, L. Perry, J. M. Richley, Joe Rogers, J. H. Simpson, W. D. Smith, S. B. Slaydon, W. R. Stacey, Ben Sturgia, C. D. Woodard, Leon Zebeau, Chas. Zebeau, C. E. Jones, John Killen, C. Leblue, B. J. Lee, George M. Lacey, Ed. Lehman, J. W. Moor, W. A. Mathis, Frank McBride, R. Parkham, J. Pennington, Chas. Gibbons, Josh Perkins, Walter Delcour, Williams Davis, Andy Denby, A. L. Emerson, Will Estes, Ed. Eyell, Frank Farr, G. H. Gibson, G. M. Grim, J. H. C. Helton, C. Havens, C. C. Holley, Arthur Hammonds, R. V. Hennigan, W. E. Hollingsworth, H. L. McFillen, A. H. Burge, R. D. Burge, J. H. Baily, A. A. Bondreaux, J. W. Bowers, L. H. Brown, Waldon Cooley, W. A. Chatham, A. R. Cryar, A. F. Creed, Jeff Cooper, B. B. Collier, Tom Cooper, J. W. Callie, J. D. Perkins, Herman Slaydon, Charlie Hampton, O. P. Bell, John Hood.

Colored: Peter Blackman, Elisha Fowler, Jason Clark, Garfield Holcomb, Pink Morris, Silas Anderson, H. Green, Jim Cotton, Robert Chopin, Dennis Myles, Robert Johnson, Milton Mitchel, Robert Milton.

These boys compose the roll of honor making up the membership of Local Union, Jail No. 1, B. of T. W., office address, Parish Prison, Lake Charles, La. They also organized a local of the Socialist Party, Jail No. 1, with 54 members and both locals are still growing. Men are coming into the prison every day and joining, or sending in their applications. This is, indeed, the deathless spirit, the spirit that must and will conquer all before it. Dead, the souls of these boys will do a mightier work for the emancipation of their class than ever yet; imprisoned, yet their voices will be heard and, mingling with the cries of Ettor and Giovannitti, all the workers of the world will be awakened, triumphant the hosts of labor will arise and the social revolution be an accomplished fact. Truly did Edward Bellamy speak  when he said: “No masters class has ever learned anything from the experience of its predecessors and the capitalist class will be no exception to the rule.” Down here in the Land of Dixie the slugging committee of the capitalist class is still busy, just as it was in Lawrence, just as it is in Canada and San Diego,-power(?)-crazed, gold-drunk hyenas trying to slug and shoot back the onward upward march of the human race! Fools who base their system on a thug’s heroism and a detectives’s honor, this is what the capitalist class has already degenerated to, and this is the surest sign of a system’s fall. 

All that is now left for the working class to do to end its age-long misery is to unite and rise in ONE BIG UNION. 

RISE! 

Save Ettor, Giovannitti, Emerson, Lehman, and all the other hero lumberjacks now in the Black Hole of Calcasieu!

RISE!

Clan of Toil, awaken! Rebels of the South, arise! Workers of the World, unite! You have nothing but your chains to lose! You have a World to gain!

RISE!

Organize! Organize!! Organize!!!

COVINGTON HALL.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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