Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Challenge to West Virginia’s Socialist Party by L. H. Marcy, Part III

6th June 20236th June 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 6, 1913
Clarksburg, West Virginia – Comrade Kintzer’s Plea for Help

From the International Socialist Review of June 1913:

Hatfield’s Challenge to the Socialist Party

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part III of III]

The National Committee received the following plea for help at its meeting held in Chicago, May 10th, and it is up to the rank and file of the party to force immediate action in this crisis. The conditions are so well known that investigating committees are only an insult to the intelligence of the comrades in West Virginia and elsewhere. What they ask for is regular or volunteer organizers. Why should not their request be granted immediately?

The Plea for Help

Clarksburg, W. Va., May 9, 1913.

To the National Committee, Socialist Party, Chicago:

Dear Comrades-Owing to the temporary absence of State Secretary Houston, the State Executive Committee motion following was instituted by myself, asking that the four comrades send their vote upon the motion to Executive Secretary Work, so that in the event it carries it may be properly put before you at the annual convention. The committeemen are widely scattered, and there is a possibility that their votes upon the motion will fail to arrive in time.

Following is the motion and comment by myself:

“That the National Committee, in session of May 11, be requested to furnish a number of regular or volunteer organizers to be routed through West Virginia, for the purpose of apprising the people of the outrages upon life, liberty and constitutional right, perpetuated and practiced by government officials, with Hatfield’s consent. That the financial deficit, if any, be borne by the national organization.”

COMMENT:

Comrade John W. Brown, National Committeeman, is now held incommunicado, in the county jail at Clarksburg, by order of Governor Hatfield. When I last saw him we spoke of this plan of reaching the people of West Virginia.

We all are aware of the subsidy of our state press, and now that Governor Hatfield has set the gauge of battle for the Socialists, having eliminated every other element, we must accept the fight or be conquered.

“In this state issue is involved the greatest violation of constitutional guarantees the American labor movement ever experienced. If we submit tamely we deserve the galling chains of slavery. If we fight as a united working class, we mark another mile post on the road to economic freedom.”

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Challenge to West Virginia’s Socialist Party by L. H. Marcy, Part II

5th June 20236th June 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 5, 1913
Huntington, West Virginia – Comrades Expose Military Despotism

From the International Socialist Review of June 1913:

Hatfield’s Challenge to the Socialist Party

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part II of III]

The following letters from comrades tell the story of the suppression of Socialism in Huntington:

I inclose a picture of the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star’s force with its fighting clothes on. During the flood half our population was homeless. Two companies of militia, withdrawn from Paint Creek strike zone, where they had been on duty seven months, were quartered on the helpless city. They showed us what military law in the Kanawha county had been. They confiscated whiskey and with their hides full of rot-gut, and their hands full of deadly weapons, they staggered about fighting both the citizens and each other, stealing everything that was not nailed down, and breaking into homes and carrying off what they wanted. The Socialist and Labor Star exposed the outrages of these scab-herders, who formed a plot for the destruction of the Star plant. Fortunately, the comrades were tipped off in time and when, in the night, 150 soldiers started out to demolish our machinery, they found the shop had been converted into a fort. Comrades living near had been summoned and the building was in the hands of twenty determined workingmen armed with Winchesters. The gallant warriors decided to delay the attack. The picture inclosed shows the mechanical force with their tools taken the day after the attack.

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Huntington, May 5, 1913.

At a mass meeting being held by the Trades and Labor Assembly, May 5th, to protest against the Russianizing of West Virginia, the crowd was fired into by Baldwin-Feltz mine guards sent from the strike zone for that purpose. Comrade W. R. Taylor, aged 60, was shot through the head, while several others, including women and children, narrowly escaped death in the rain of bullets. Comrade George W. Gillespie, member of the S. P. State Executive Committee, had just started to speak to the 3,000 people when the firing began. Although the names of the detectives are known, the authorities have made no attempt to arrest them.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star: Plant Destroyed, Staff Sent to Jail under Military Despotism

31st May 20233rd June 2023 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 31, 1913
Huntington, West Virginia -Report on Military Raid of Socialist and Labor Star

From The Socialist and Labor Star of May 30, 1913:

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To the ‘Star’ readers who are no doubt wondering why they failed to receive the little truth teller the last few weeks we dedicate this explanation.

There was a reason!

On the morning of Friday May 9th, between the hours of 1 and 2 the printing establishment belonging to the Socialist Printing Co., and in which the mechanical work on the Star had been done for the last few months, was raided by militiamen acting under orders from Governor Hatfield. The raiding party was composed of Major Tom Davis and Lieutenants Rippitoe and Templeton who ruthlessly destroyed job work, type printing material, plates, etc.

The type “forms” of the Star had just been completed and were ready for the regular issue of the paper. Some of the type in the newspaper pages was beaten to a shapeless mass of massed metal. After the types and plates had been beaten and broken, the “forms” were hurled from the composing stones and their contents scattered over the office and street. Portions of the wrecked material were found the next morning two squares from the Star office.

Not satisfied with their destruction of the Star forms, the valiant soldiers proceeded to demolish departments in which the Socialist Printing Co. did commercial job printing. Every job in the department, including forms for several sets of By-Laws for local unions, which had not yet been printed, were smashed and printed matter ready for delivery to local merchants was destroyed.

All of the account books, letters, invoices, files, and copy in the office were confiscated and carried away.

The Socialist Printing Co. incorporated under the laws of W. Va. authorized to do business in this state, has suffered a loss conservatively estimated at $2,000.

[W. H. Thompson, editor of the Star, Elmer Rumbaugh, F. M. Sturm, R. M. Kephart and Geo. W. Gillespie were arrested and transported into the martial law zone of the State. The home of Thompson was then raided ransacked.]

We almost forget to state that these midnight proceedings were ordered because The Labor Star and its owners had dared to disagree with Gov. Hatfield in the matter of the miners strike which he has just settled so satisfactorily-to Tim Scanlon and the Huntington Chamber of Commerce…..

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Gunthugs Shoot Up Mass Meeting at Huntington; Militia Jails Editors of Socialist and Labor Star

9th May 202319th September 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 9, 1913
Huntington, West Virginia – Gunthugs Shoot Up Meeting; Labor Editors Imprisoned

From The Wheeling Majority of May 8, 1913:

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