Great Northwestern General Lumber Strike of 1917 – Page 2

Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday September 16, 1917
The Great Northwestern Lumber Strike: Causes and Demands

From the International Socialist Review of September 1917:

LUMBER BARONS REFUSE GOVERNMENT REQUEST

As we go to press we learn that Secretary of War Baker sent a telegram to the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association, urging an eight-hour day for Pacific Coast lumber workers.

According to an Associated Press dispatch, Robert B. Allen, Secretary of the Association, said the lumbermen were anxious to co-operate with the government, but “they did not feel that they could concede the eight-hour day at this time.” This open defiance of the government by the gentlemen composing this Association, coming at this time, is rank treason, and fifty thousand lumber jacks are watching the outcome.

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Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Struggle of the Northwest Lumber Workers from the International Socialist Review” →

Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday August 31, 1917
Spokane, Washington – Local Leaders of I. W. W. Held by Military

From the Great Falls Daily Tribune of August 30, 1917:

Spokane, Aug. 29.-[…..]

James Rowan, district secretary of the I. W. W. for the northwestern states, who ordered a general strike, is still held as a military prisoner in the county jail with 11 other alleged I. W. W. They were arrested here by Major Wilkins August 19, the day before the strike was to have become effective.

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From the International Socialist Review of August 1917:

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General Strike of Lumber Workers

AS we go to press a telegram brings the news of a general strike of all lumber workers west of the Mississippi river. It reads as follows:

Seattle, Wash., July 17. General strike has been called by Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 500 of the I. W. W. Thousands responding to call. Solidarity fine. No scabs so far. John Martin.

The lumber trust and its henchmen, the state officials, county and city officials, with the aid of the militia, are resorting to the most ruthless methods to break the strike. Halls have been closed, strikers by the hundreds arrested and thrown in jails, or herded in stockades, but still the spirits of resistance grows. The lumber jacks have made up their minds that they are tired of the rotten conditions, and the long hours, and they will simply not tolerate them any longer. They are out to win this fight, and the $500,000 defense fund raised by the Lumbermen’s Association will not stop them. If the Lumbermen’s Association can raise half a million dollars to defend their profits, then the “jacks” say that the Lumbermen’s Association can raise half a million more dollars to increase the pay of the lumber jacks. Late reports state that the authorities are backing down and the halls are being reopened. The September Labor Day edition of the REVIEW will have an illustrated article covering the strike which we hope to call—How the Lumber Jacks Won!

[Drawing by Robert Minor added to article.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Idaho National Guard Invades Washington, Arrests IWW Lumber Strike Leaders at Spokane Union Hall” →