Hellraisers Journal: From the United Mine Workers Journal: Gunthug Murders Miner in Raleigh, West Virginia

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Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for living.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 3, 1917
Raleigh, West Virginia – Union Miner Murdered by Gunthug

Reported by U. M. W. Executive Board Member, Lawrence Dwyer:

UMWJ, Nov 29, 1917

On last Wednesday night one of our members, Brother W. P. [Thomas] Baldwin, was brutally murdered at Raleigh, W. Va., by one of the professional gunmen of that camp. His name is Sam Crews. He sneaked up behind Brother Caseybolt, who was on his way home, and slugged him with a blackjack. Thirty minutes afterward he sneaked up behind Brother Baldwin and struck him over the head with a blackjack, crushing his skull. He died one hour and thirty minutes afterward. Brother Baldwin leaves a widow and four small children, who were dependent upon him. The thug walked away and has not been arrested.

During last week four of our members were assaulted and beat up by the thugs.

From the United Mine Workers Journal of November of 29, 1917:

FROM WEST VIRGINIA
Agreement Satisfactory—The Thugs Again

[By Lawrence Dwyer,
International Board Member,
District 29 of Beckley, W. Va.]

Beckley, W. Va., November 22. — Doctor Garfield on November 12 O.K.d and approved the penalty clause adopted by the representatives of the operatives and our district officials, and beginning on November 1, 1917, every member will receive the same advance as was granted in the four competitive states. I feel that the penalty clause adopted meets with the approval of the rank and file, as I have not heard of one member criticising it. I wish to advise, from several reports that came into our district office, that there are some operators who are putting a wrong interpretation as to the meaning of the penalty clause, as they are telling the men that in the future should any of them remain from their work one day they will be fined, so I will take this method to inform our members that such statements are wrong. By adopting the penalty clause we promised and assured our government that in the future there would be no stoppage of any mine contrary to the provisions of the present existing contract between the miners and operators of this district; therefore, section 2 of our agreement reads: Should any employe, without the consent of the mine foreman, absent himself from his work for two continuous days, or should an employe, unless due to sickness, persist in working irregularly, it shall be construed as sufficient cause for discharge.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Cook County Jail: the First Prison Poem of Fellow Worker Ralph Chaplin

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When our cause is all triumphant
And we claim our Mother Earth,
And the nightmare of the present fades away,
We shall live with love and laughter,
We who now are little worth,
And we’ll not regret the price we have to pay.
-Ralph Chaplin

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 2, 1917
From the Cook County Jail, Chicago – A Prison Poem by Ralph Chaplin

Mourn Not The Dead

Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie-
Dust unto dust-
The calm, sweet earth that mothers all who die
As all men must;

Mourn not your captive comrades who must dwell-
Too strong to strive-
Within each steel-bound coffin of a cell,
Buried alive;

But rather mourn the apathetic throng-
The cowed and the meek-
Who see the world’s great anguish and its wrong
And dare not speak!


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Hellraisers Journal: Bisbee Deportation Severely Scored by Report of President Wilson’s Mediation Commission

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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, Saturday December 1, 1917
Washington, District of Columbia – Bisbee Deportation “Wholly Illegal”

The deportation of the striking miners of Bisbee, Arizona, carried out last July by the sheriff of Cochise county and about 2,000 of his armed “deputies,” was “wholly illegal and without authority in law, either state or federal.” So says the recently released “Report of the Bisbee Deportations Made by the President’s Mediation Commission.” The Commission was chaired by Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson.

William B Wilson, Sec of Labor, LOC ab 1913

From the Duluth Labor World of December 1, 1917:

COMMISSION CRITICIZES BISBEE DEPORTATIONS

WASHINGTON. Nov. 29.—Severe criticism of the persons responsible for the deportation of 1,186 striking copper workers from Bisbee, Ariz., and the Warren mining district July 12, is contained in a report of President Wilson’s special labor commission made public Saturday by the president.

The deportation was carried out by the sheriff of Cochise county and about 2,000 armed men, “presuming to act as deputies under the sheriff’s authority,” the report said, and “was wholly illegal and without authority in law, either state or federal.”

After extensive investigation of the causes and circumstances surrounding the copper mine strike, the commission found that the deportations were planned by a number of Bisbee citizens, including officers of the Phelps-Dodge and Calumet & Arizona mining interests.

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