Hellraisers Journal: The Nation: “Children’s Crusade for Amnesty” by Mary Heaton Vorse, Grief on Parade in New York City

13th May 202213th May 2022 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Ralph Chaplin, Red Feast, Montreal 1914, Leaves 1917 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 13, 1922
Mary Heaton Vorse on Children’s Crusade for Amnesty

From The Nation of May 10, 1922:

The Children’s Crusade for Amnesty

By MARY HEATON VORSE

A GROUP of travel-worn working women and their children paraded from the Grand Central Station up Madison Avenue. The young girls stared straight ahead of them; babies stumbled with fatigue. Women, carrying children, sagged along wearily. They carry banners. The little boy who walks on ahead has a firm mouth and holds his head up. His banner reads “A Little Child Shall Lead Them.” There are other banners, which read “A Hundred and Thirteen Men Jailed for Their Opinions”; “Eugene Debs Is Free-Why Not My Daddy?” One banner inquires “Is the Constitution Dead?” One young girl carries a banner, “My Mother Died of Grief.” One woman with a three-year-old baby holds a banner saying “I Never Saw My Daddy.”

Reporters, movie men, and members of the bomb squad accompany the band of women and children. This is a new sort of show. This is a grief parade. These are the wives and children of men serving sentences under the Espionage Act, the wives and children of political prisoners jailed for their opinions. Some of the men did not believe in killing, and some belong to labor organizations. Not one of them was accused of any crime. They are serving sentences from five to twenty years.

Their wives and children are on a crusade. They have come from Kansas corn-fields and from the cotton farms of Oklahoma, from New England mill towns, from small places in the Southwest. They have been through many cities. They are on the way to Washington to see the President of the United States.* They have come here showing their wounds and their humiliation. They have spread out before us their frugal, laborious days. With a terrible bravery they have displayed them so that you and I might see them and be moved—perhaps, and, perhaps, help.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part II

4th April 20225th April 2022 Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912

Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 4, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part II of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

ONE BIG UNION WINS

By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD

On January 11, anticipating some difficulty on pay day, the Secretary of Local 20, I. W. W. wired to Joseph J. Ettor, member of the National Executive Board, who was then in New York City, to go to Lawrence. He left the next afternoon, and arrived on the night of January 12.

Plans were then laid for the conduct of the strike. A general strike committee was formed that met daily, each nationality on strike being represented on it by three delegates. In addition there were three representatives each from the perchers, menders and burlers, the warp dressers, Kunhardt’s mill, the Oswoco mill, the paper mill, the workers in which had struck in sympathy with the textile workers and presented similar demands, and from time to time other sections were represented that were gradually merged as occasion demanded. The general strike committee thus numbered 56 men and women, all of them mill workers.

The first work of the committee was to devise means for carrying on the fight and caring for the strikers. There were no funds when the strike was declared, but in a week or ten days money began to dribble in from surrounding New England towns, and as the strike continued contributions came in from every State in the Union, from all parts of Canada and even from England.

The money in the shape of strike pay would not have lasted a week, but this battle was conducted on a different basis from former fights. Each nationality opened relief stations and soup kitchens, and was responsible for the care of its own people. The Franco-Belgians had had a co-operative in operation long before the strike, and food purchases were made through its machinery. Money was paid over to the various national committees as it became necessary by the general finance committee, with Joseph Bedard as Financial Secretary. With this money the purchasing committee bought goods, and the national committees took their portion.

Meals were provided twice a day at the various stations for the strikers who needed them, and in this manner the Franco-Belgian station at the Mason street headquarters provided 1,850 meals twice daily, the Italians 3,500, the Syrians 1,200, Lithuanians 1,200, the Poles 1,000, and soon, the Germans took care of 150 families and several hundred single workers.

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Hellraisers Journal: I. W. W. Calls for Convention to Form National Industrial Union of Lumber and Forest Workers

24th November 202114th January 2022 Janet RayeFrank Little

Quote Ralph Chaplin, IWW Centralia n Lumber Barons, OBU Mly p19, May 1920 ———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 24, 1911
Recently Installed G. E. B. of I. W. W. Calls for Convention of Lumber Workers

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 23, 1911:

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Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood Released on Bond from Leavenworth, Leaves for Chicago with Francis Miller

31st July 201925th July 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote BBH Corporation Soul, Oakland Tb p11, Mar 30, 1909 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 31, 1919
Leavenworth, Kansas – Haywood and Miller Released on Bond

From The Leavenworth Times of July 29, 1919:

HAYWOOD WILL GO ON SPEAKING
TOUR OF THE U. S.
—–
Says That I. W. W.’s Want Him to
Address Them in Many Places.
—–

NEVER WAS DISLOYAL, HE SAYS.
—–
Is Opposed to War, but Wanted America to Win
-Has No Personal Complaint to Make
About Prison Treatment.
—–

William D. Haywood, I. W. W. leader, was released from the Federal penitentiary shortly after 10 o’clock yesterday morning. He did not get out Sunday as expected, because the letter containing his approved bond did not reach the prison until yesterday morning. Haywood was already for departure and he went out within half an hour after the bond was received.

The bond for $15,000 for the release of Haywood was signed by Otto C. Cristienson [Christensen], William Bross Lloyd and Mary C. Marcy. They are all said to live in Chicago, although the palace of residence of the signers was not given. There has been considerable trouble about getting a bond for Haywood that Judge Landis of the Federal court in Chicago would approve, and it can be taken for granted that this is a guilt edge one.

A bond came in on the same mail for the release of Francis C. Miller, another I. W. W. leader serving a ten year term. It was for $10,000 and was signed by Otto C. Christienson, Margaret Schipman, Albert De Silvers and John Metzen. The bond for the release of Ralph Chaplin did not come in and he was unable to go out with Haywood and Miller.

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Vincent St. John, “The interest of wage workers the world over is bound together.”

13th August 20187th August 2018 Janet RayeFrank Little

[In Lawrence] they were striking
to maintain the human race
in that part of the country—and all over—
because the interest of wage workers
the world over is bound together.
-Vincent St. John
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 13, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – I.W.W. Trial, The Saint Takes the Stand

The Saint Speaks on the Workers’ Right to Life

On August 6th, Defendant Vincent St. John, former General Secretary-Treasurer of Industrial Workers of World, took the stand. Harrison George offers the following report:

From the beginning of the trial the prosecution harped upon that sentence in St. John’s “History and Structure of the I. W. W.,” which says: “The question of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ does not concern us.”
Q. Why did you put those words in quotation marks?

[Answer:] For the reason that in every struggle the wage earners have made during my experience, no matter what they have done, the exponents of the employing class, the press, platform, politicians of all degrees and stripes, have always told them that no matter what they were after, that it was not ‘right’; something they did was ‘wrong.’ The only time a strike is ‘right’ with them is when you have no chance to win it; when they want you to strike; when they want to wipe out whatever vestige of organization you have, then the strike is ‘right,’ that is, a good time to strike.

The Lawrence strike was not entirely a question of getting better wages for those mill operatives, but it was a question that involved the very life and death not only of the men, women and children who were on strike, but also of unborn generations of these same operatives. The death rate in that section among children is 400 out of every 1,000 before they are 1 year of age.

When they were striking in Lawrence they were striking not only for an immediate proposition, but they were striking to save the lives of those 400 unborn children, if you please. They were striking to maintain the human race in that part of the country—and all over—because the interest of wage workers the world over is bound together.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Fellow Worker Francis Miller on Early Death in the Textile Mills of New England

6th August 20183rd August 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 6, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Francis Miller on Textile Mills and Early Death

Report on the Chicago I. W. W. Trial from Harrison George:

The first witness to take the stand on Monday, August 5, was Francis P. Miller, defendant and member of the General Executive Board. Miller was born in France in the region known as the Department of the Seine, where the great textile mills were before the war. He came to America in 1892, and has worked continuously in the textile mills of the east, and at the time of his arrest was employed by the American Woolen Company as inspector on government goods.

Testifying upon conditions in the textile mills of New England, Miller said:

The development in the textile industry has been both a development of machinery and the process of ‘speeding up.” In the cotton industry the looms and other machinery have been improved so that the worker produces 300 or 400 per cent more than he did a generation ago. In the woolen mills the machinery has not been improved to any great extent, but the workers usually have to run two machines where they ran one twenty years ago. The pay has increased a little, but not in keeping with the cost of living at all. Factory owners and trade papers say that production has increased one thousandfold, that is, over hand production. It has certainly increased 300 or 400 per cent in the last twenty-five years.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “On the Inside” by Bill Haywood, IWW Class-War Prisoners in Cook County Jail

7th May 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Such a group of men one is proud to be associated with
-workers, clean hearted, clear eyed;
all fighting for the principles so plainly set forth in
the Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World.
-Big Bill Haywood

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 7, 1918
Big Bill Haywood on Conditions in the Cook County Jail

From The Liberator of May 1918:

On the Inside

By William D. Haywood

CLANG! clang! a bell rang out, big iron doors slid back, the auto patrol wheeled up to the rear entrance of the Cook County Jail; and here we are.

We are in the wing of the “old jail,” a room about 60 by 60 with a double row of cells four tiers high; our cells face the alley to the west. Cells are six by eight, about eight feet high with ceiling slightly sloping to the rear.

This cell is parlor, bedroom, dining room and lavatory all in one. Decorations black and white-that is, the interior is painted solid black on two walls, black half way on the other two walls. The ceiling is mottled white. Wash bowl, toilet, water-pipe, small bench, a narrow iron bunk, flat springs, corn husk mattress, sheet and pillow case of rough material, blanket, tin cups and spoons, constitute the fittings of our temporary homes where we spend twenty hours out of every twenty-four, involuntary parasites, doing no more service to society than the swell guys who loll around clubs or attend the functions at fashionable resorts.

The reveille of this detention camp is the sharp voice of the “runner,” “Cups out! Cups out!”

It is the beginning of a new day. The light, streams through the grated. door and falls in a checkered pattern across the cell floor.

One stretches his body on the narrow cot and awakens to the fact that he is still in jail, accepting the situation philosophically, wondering, some of us perhaps, what manner of independence and freedom it was that our Forefathers fought for in this country.

A prison cell is the heritage we gain for the blood and lives our forefathers gave; they fought for religious freedom and left us with minds free from superstitious cant and dogma; they waged war for political justice; they carried on the struggle against chattel-slavery-these were the titanic battles that were fought, bringing us to the threshold of the greatest of all wars-the class war-in which we are enlisted as workers, against all kinds of exploiters.

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on Tour in New England; Speaks in Providence and Buffalo

29th March 2018 Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 29, 1908
Providence, Rhode Island – Miss Flynn Speaks to Textile Workers

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of March 28, 1908:

The Flynn Lectures

Enclosed find clipping from Providence Journal giving report of Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s lecture. The Providence Tribune printed her picture and a full column report of the meeting, but the editor’s fine Italian hand shows clearly throughout the article; it is evident that in his opinion the kind of talk dealt out by Miss Flynn is not good reading, unadulterated, for readers of the Tribune. This was the bumper meeting of a series of lectures run every Sunday evening by Textile Union 530, I. W. W. The first one, with Organizer Thompson as speaker, drew a large audience, and it grows larger at every meeting, rain or shine. The last meeting taxed the seating capacity of the hall. The speakers are limited to an hour and a quarter, after which the floor is thrown open for questions and remarks, with a five-minute limit, and no one is given the floor twice until all who wish to speak are done. There is no doubt that it is this feature of the meetings that draws the crowd. As speakers we have had, so far, two professors from Brown University, a lawyer with “radical” ideas, a high school principal who believes in Socialism, a couple of single-taxers, two Socialist party men, Frank Bohn, who gave a fine lecture, “The Working Class in American History,” and Miss Flynn. I understand that Organizer Thompson is on the docket for next Sunday, with the “Materialistic Conception of History” as the subject.

The following is from the Providence Journal:

Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn addressed a large gathering in Textile Hall, Olneyville square, last evening under the auspices of Textile Local 530 and spoke on “Industrial Unionism.” Her coming had been the topic of discussion of local textile workers for several days and the hall was filled in spite of the disagreeable weather. She was received with enthusiasm. After her address several of those present plied her with questions and there was a general debate on the labor question.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Resolution on War and Class Solidarity from IWW Convention of 1916

9th February 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

IWWC on War and Class Solidarity, Dec 1, 1916

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday February 9, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – I.W. W. Opposes War, Advocates Class Solidarity

IWWC 1916, Delg Little, ISR Jan 1917

In the dark shadow of War, now looming over the nation’s working class men and women, we have concluded that now is a good time to consider the Resolution on War and Class Solidarity passed at Tenth Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. The delegates gathered together in Chicago for ten days last fall, from November 20th to December 1st of 1916. Resolution #112 was passed during the afternoon session on the last day of the convention:

No. 112—A DECLARATION:

We, the Industrial Workers of the World, in convention assembled, hereby reaffirm our adherence to the principle of Industrial Unionism, and rededicate ourselves to the unﬂinching, unfaltering prosecution of the struggle for the abolition of wage slavery and the realization of our ideals in Industrial Democracy. With the European war for conquest and exploitation raging and destroying the lives, class consciousness and unity of the workers, and the ever growing agitation for military preparedness clouding the main issues and delaying the realization of our ultimate aim with patriotic and, therefore, capitalistic aspirations, we openly declare ourselves the determined opponents of all nationalistic sectionalism, or patriotism, and the militarism preached and supported by our one enemy, the capitalist class. We condemn all wars and, for the prevention of such, we proclaim the anti-militarist propaganda in time of peace, thus promoting Class Solidarity among the workers of the entire world, and, in time of war, the General Strike in all industries. We extend assurances of both moral and material support to all the workers who suffer at the hands of the capitalist class for their adhesion to these principles and call on all workers to unite themselves with us, that the reign of the exploiters may cease and this earth be made fair through the establishment of the Industrial Democracy.

F. H. LITTLE,
W. E. MATTINGLY,
FRANCIS MILLER,
WM. D. HAYWOOD.

National Organizer McGuckin suggested that every effort should be made to get this published in the capitalist press, and that it should also be printed in leaﬂet form and widely distributed. Motion made and seconded that this be adopted unanimously, and published in the presses throughout the United States of America and the world. Unanimously carried.

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Tag: Francis Miller

Hellraisers Journal: The Nation: “Children’s Crusade for Amnesty” by Mary Heaton Vorse, Grief on Parade in New York City

The Children’s Crusade for Amnesty

By MARY HEATON VORSE