Tag: Gunthugs

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1917, Part II: Claude G. Bowers, “She is not afraid of man or devil.”

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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday November 23, 1917
Mother Jones News for October, Part II: Claude G. Bowers on Mother Jones

Mother Jones, Colorado Military Bastile, March 1914

Claude G. Bowers, journalists, spent a few hours with Mother Jones while she was traveling from Colorado to Indianapolis sometime around October 19th (see Mother Jones News for October, part 1), and writes about that meeting for his column, “Kabbages and Kings.” Bowers notes that Mother “is not afraid of man or devil,” and as an example tells of her experiences in Colorado during the Colorado Coalfield Strike of 1913-1914. During that struggle, Mother was held for almost one month in the “Military Bastile,” a cold cellar cell which had already claimed the life of a miner held prisoner there. She counseled “her boys” not to attempt a rescue, “Maybe I can do some good in the bull pen,” she said.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1917, Part II: Claude G. Bowers, “She is not afraid of man or devil.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1907, Part II, Found on Minnesota’s Iron Range, and in Chicago, & Cincinnati

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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 13, 1907
Mother Jones News for August, Part II: Travels to Chicago

Mother Jones, Tacoma Times, Sept 19, 1904

On August 21st, Mother left Duluth, Minnesota, after concluding her time in Northern Minnesota where she had been traveling the Mesabi Range in support of the striking iron miners and giving speeches alongside of C. E. Mahoney of the Western Federation of Miners. She next traveled to Chicago where she was found speaking in support of the Telegrapher’s Strike. At one union meeting she advised young woman on the issue of keeping company with scabs:

When you find these fellows sneaking back to work, keep him out if you can; if you can’t, renounce them and see that any fellow who calls on you carries a union card or else order him from your door.

Mother also made a short trip to Cincinnati in order to speak at Socialist Picnic in that city.

From The Cincinnati Post of August 23, 1907:

MJ, Ad Speech, Cinc Post p4, Aug 23, 1907

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1907, Part II, Found on Minnesota’s Iron Range, and in Chicago, & Cincinnati” →

Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: Woman Representatives Score Butte & Bisbee, Article by Rosa McKay

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I am not a member of the I. W. W.
or an industrial workers of the world sympathizer
but a woman who believes in
the constitutional rights of every man and woman.
-Rosa McKay

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

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday August 23, 1917
From the Appeal to Reason: Two Brave Women Speak for Labor

The Appeal to Reason of August 18th featured the opinions of two women elected to represent the people: the first, Miss Jeannette Rankin of the United States House of Representatives, and the second, Mrs. Rosa McKay of the Arizona House of Representatives. Yesterday we featured the speech by Miss Rankin who outlined conditions at Butte. We conclude today with an article by Mrs. McKay who describes recent events in Bisbee.

Butte and Bisbee Outrages Scored
by Brave Woman Representatives

Rosa McKay, WTUL Life and Labor, Nov 1918

…In an article to the Appeal, Mrs. Rosa McKay, member of the Arizona House of Representatives from Bisbee, Cochise county, Arizona, tells of the Bisbee deportation….

By Mrs. Rosa McKay

Member Arizona House of Representatives

For fourteen years I have claimed Bisbee as my home. But after Thursday, the twelfth day of July. I hang my head in shame and sorrow for the sights I have witnessed here. When the full truth about Bisbee reaches the outside world, it will be looked upon with deserved aversion.

In this article I shall give an honest and unbiased statement, from a fair and impartial standpoint, of the labor situation in Bisbee today. I belong to no labor organization or mining corporation. I am merely an onlooker and spectator, and a firm believer in the constitutional rights of all American citizens, whether by birth or naturalization, the rights that our forefathers fought, bled and died for.

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Hellraisers Journal: Pinkerton Gunthugs Siringo and Meldrum in Boise: “notoriously handy with their revolvers.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday July 7, 1907
Boise, Idaho – Gunthugs Siringo & Meldrum Attend Trial

From the Appeal to Reason of June 29, 1907:

GUN-FIGHTERS IN BOISE.
—–

HMP, Gunthugs Siringo & Meldrum, SLTb, June 18, 1907

—–

HMP, Gunthug Siringo w Walking Stick, Wilshires July 1907

The following Associated Press dispatch, printed in the Kansas City Times, will give our readers a pen picture of the sort of witnesses summoned by the Gooding-McPartland gang to testify against Haywood:

Boise, Ida., June 20.-Charles A. Siringo and “Bob” Meldrum, who are in daily attendance at the Haywood trial, are notoriously handy with their revolvers. Meldrum has “five notches” in his gun; but the number of men who have fallen before Siringo’s unerring aim is not definitely known.

Siringo acts as body guard for the detective, James McPartland. He has served the Pinkerton agency twenty-one years, and one of his first assignments was to “shadow” certain lawyers in connection with the trial of the Chicago anarchists. Siringo has operated extensively against cattle rustlers, and at the time of the Coeur d’Alene strike he was recording secretary of the Gem Miners’ union, of which at the time George A. Pettibone was financial secretary. Siringo’s record became known and he escaped by cutting a hole in a floor and crawling under a wooden sidewalk for 200 yards.

Meldrum is now a deputy sheriff at Telluride. Colo., and is here as a witness. Originally he was a cowboy and was employed by cattle men to fight the rustlers. In several strikes he has served the mine owners in various capacities, and he is reputed to be one of the handiest men in the country with a revolver.

Another dispatch relates how Meldrum and his partner undertook to start a riot. The attempt was such a bunglesome job that the Boise police collared the bad men, and fined them $100 and $50 respectively. The fines were paid by the Pinkerton Agency.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Socialist Montana News: Clarence Darrow Opens for the Defense in the Haywood Trial

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Who comes to speak for
the skin and the bone?
-Billy Bragg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 28, 1907
Boise, Idaho – Clarence Darrow Opens for the Defense

From the Montana News of June 27, 1907:

Darrow’s Statement
—–

Address to the Jury Outlining
Plans of Defense
—Orchard Spends Sunday Auto
Riding in Boise

Special to the Montana News—

Boise, June 24.

HMP, Darrow Opens June 24th, LA Herald, June 25, 1907

At the call of the defense attorneys the Federation men who are to appear as witnesses have come pouring into Boise the last few days. It seems good to see them here—all the old stand-bys that have so valiantly fought the struggles of the western labor for the last ten years. D. C Copely, formerly of the executive board, now a mine owner in Nevada; A. H. Floaten, candidate for governor of Colorado on the socialist ticket; Deportee from Telluride, a merchant who has been through the fiercest of the fight for his convictions; J. C. Barnes, who was up in a tree in Telluride, while the militia were hunting him underneath; John M . O’Neill, W. F. Davis, M. E. White, one after another. The very backbone of the Federation, fine, able, brainy men, more than a match for any capitalist prostitute that can be marshalled against them.

And they are here with the goods, the truth, the eternal fight against the injustice of employers, and the reasons for that fight. As one of them said:

We are here to go to the river, our cause is right and we’ll stay with it.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Socialist Montana News: Clarence Darrow Opens for the Defense in the Haywood Trial” →

Hellraisers Journal: Women, Children, and Elderly Driven from Their Homes in New York and Illinois

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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The bosses ride fine horses
While we walk in the mud,
Their banner is the dollar sign,
Ours is striped with blood.
-Aunt Molly Jackson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 31, 1916
Immigrant or American-Born, Neither Matters When Workers Strike

Today’s Hellraisers presents two stories of striking workers driven from their homes by company gunthugs. The strikers in Utica, New York, are mostly Polish immigrants. In Hardin County, Illinois, there are very few immigrants, most of the strikers are second or third generation Americans. But we find from these two stories that neither the striker of foreign birth nor the native-born striker can expect any mercy from the gunthugs hired by the companies and deputized by the county sheriff.

From the Duluth Labor World of October 28, 1916:

2,700 POLISH TEXTILE STRIKERS DRIVEN
FROM HOMES IN NEW YORK
—–

BRUTAL GUARDS ASSAULT WOMEN
TEXTILE WORKERS
—–
By DANTE BARTON.
Member Industrial Relations Committee.

A. D. Juilliard (1836-1919), wiki

NEW YORK, Oct. 26.-Right in the heart of central New York, prosperous and boasting of its wealth, there is now an example of cruelty, incompetence and lawlessness against striking workers which rivals the things done in Colorado by the Rockefeller interests, or on the Mesaba range or in Pittsburgh, by the Steel trust.

Just outside of Utica, in the little town of New York Mills, 2,700 Polish men and women, industrious and peaceful, are being thrown out of company houses, terrorized and assaulted by armed thugs and guards, their children sickened and in many instances killed by the diseases of exposure; themselves and their families subjected to starvation and sickness.

These things are being perpetrated against them by their employer, the New York Mills corporation, of which A. D. Juilliard, New York city, is the responsible president, because they have struck for a 10 per cent increase of wages that are too low, by any standard, for decent living.

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Hellraisers Journal: Men like the Rockefellers and Morgans “are sowing the wind and they will reap the whirlwind.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Bayonne Strike, Reap the Whirlwind, Dante Barton, NY Call, Oct 12, 1916

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 17, 1916
From the New York Call: A Warning from Dante Barton

Henry Dubb Crucify Agitator, R Walker, NY Call Oct 15, 1916

The New York Call (Socialist) of October 12th published a warning to the American people regarding the strike situation in Bayonne, New Jersey, from Dante Barton of the Committee on Industrial Relations:

As for the American people:

Is it not time that the American people should awaken to the essential brutality of millionaires and billionaires running their business on the principle that they cannot and will not pay their hardest-worked workers enough to give them a decent living? Ought we any longer to have business on terms in which it is considered respectable for that sort of treatment to be given to workers? The majority of these Polish workers receive now $2.50 a day, which, with the increased cost of living, does not give them enough for a profitable living.

And as for big business:

When these Polish workers have the ambition and the fine qualities to strike against that degraded condition in life, gunmen and special policemen, armed with guns and machine guns, are rushed against them, and the workers are abused because they have manhood and courage.

This sort of industrial injustice, if it is not cured and overthrown, must necessarily lead to the kind of revolutionary disorder that men like the Rockefellers and Morgans consider so terrible. Men like these are sowing the wind and they will reap the whirlwind.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Men like the Rockefellers and Morgans “are sowing the wind and they will reap the whirlwind.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Standard Oil Strikers Yet Again Shot Down in the Streets of Bayonne, New Jersey

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

Hellraisers Journal, Monday October 16, 1916
Bayonne, New Jersey – Strikers Shot Down Yet Again

From the Duluth Labor World of October 14, 1916:

Bayonne Strikers Killed, Labor World, Oct 14, 1916

EIGHT OIL STRIKERS
AND FOUR GUARDS ARE KILLED
—–

Bayonne by Robert Minor, Mother Earth, Aug 1915

BAYONNE, N. J., Oct. 12.-Police, armed with Winchesters, automatics and sawed off shotguns patrolled the “hook district,” near the Standard Oil company’s plants, where eight strikers and four police men were wounded during a clash between the armed guards and employes of the company, yesterday.

The fighting occurred when several hundred strikers pushed a flat car across a street car track in an attempt to block traffic and isolate the entire industrial district, at the lower end of the long peninsula on which the city lies. Eighty guards, armed with Winchesters and sawed-off shotguns, rushed the strikers in an attempt to remove the car.

Throughout the district, which was a storm center in a similar strike of Standard Oil workers, years ago [July 1915], when six strikers were killed, police and strikers alike, attempted to draw picket lines today.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Standard Oil Strikers Yet Again Shot Down in the Streets of Bayonne, New Jersey” →

Hellraisers Journal: Report from the Harvest Fields by W. T. Nef of the Agricultural Workers Organization

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

Hellraisers Journal, Monday September 11, 1916
Midwest Harvest Fields: A. W. O.’s 1000-Mile-Long Picket Line

From the International Socialist Review:

harvest-fields-1-nef-isr-sept-1916

JOB CONTROL IN THE HARVEST FIELDS

By W. T. NEF
Sec y-Treas. Agricultural Workers Organization

FOR the first time in the history of the United States a successful organization of migratory workers has been built thru the grain growing states of the middle west.

The organization of the despised harvester has demonstrated that these men actually had backbone and the spirit to fight in an organized body to eliminate the 15th century conditions they were forced to work and live under while garnering one of the main sources of the country’s wealth.

The Agricultural Workers’ Organization of the I. W. W. in which the harvesters are organized, has flung out the greatest picket line the sun ever looked down upon, extending from Kansas City, Mo., to 300 miles north of Aberdeen, S. D. Every picket carries organizers’ credentials, and the unorganized harvest hand is out of luck this summer unless he kicks in and helps in the struggle for job control.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs on “The Class War” -for the International Socialist Review

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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The industrial union embracing all
and fighting and winning for all
is the demand of the hour and
the lesson of the years.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 1, 1916
For the Review: Debs Reflects on Labor Day

ISR, Debs on Class War, Sept 1916

LABOR DAY is drawing near and I have been asked by the Review to say a word for the special number to be issued for the celebration of that day. Labor Day this year will furnish abundant material and inspiration for its celebration.

At this writing twenty thousand iron workers are fighting for their lives on the Misaba Range. We see scarcely a mention of this desperate battle in the capitalist press and, if it were not for our own papers, chiefly the INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW, we would know little about the fierce industrial conflict raging in that section of the country.

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