Tag: Haymarket Martyrs

Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: Lucy Parsons Recalls Terrible Day Her Husband Was Hanged

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Albert Parsons, Chicago, Nov 11, Alarm p1, Nov 19, 1887———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 18, 1910
Lucy Parsons Recalls Terrible Day in 1887 When Chicago Martyrs Were Murdered

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 17, 1910:

A LOYAL WIFE AND LOVING MOTHER
——-

(Extract from “Liberator.”)

Lucy Parsons, Life of AP, pub Chg 1889

 

So the fatal day at last arrived. It was a sad, quiet, chilly November morning. I had not seen my husband for three days. We had two children then. I felt that I must take them to see their father, to look into his noble face once more, and to receive his blessing. I took them by the hands and led them to the jail. When I arrived there I found the accursed place where the slaughter of the innocent was to take place. all roped in for one whole block around, and police with rifles marching up and down all around. I entreated them to let me see him just once more! I was gruffly ordered away. I then begged them, the brutes , to take the innocent children to see their father; certainly they had done no wrong to deserve punishment; but the reply was a patrol wagon was called and I and the children were tumbled in and carried off to the station house and locked in a cell while the murder was being committed.

About noon the matron came to my cell and said in a cold-hearted manner: “Mrs. Parsons, it is all over; your husband has been hanged.” I remembered nothing more until I realized that my little girl was patting me on the cheek and saying. “Mamma, are you asleep?”

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “The Haymarket and the Eight Hour Movement of 1886”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Albert Parsons, Chicago, Nov 11, Alarm p1, Nov 19, 1887———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 11, 1910
Martyrs of Chicago’s Great Eight-Hour Movement Remembered

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of November 9, 1910:

Haymarket Eight Hour Martyrs, Future Honors, IW p1, Nov 9, 1910

———-

[Detail:]

Haymarket Eight Hour Martyrs, Future Honors detail, IW p1, Nov 9, 1910

———-

Twenty-three years have elapsed since the execution of the four men in the county jail at Chicago. Twenty-three years, ample time for the world to correct its errors of misinformation. And yet, only a comparatively small portion of the people as a whole; yes, it may be safely said that only a minority of the so-called “revolutionists” are possessed of the true status of the affair. It is for the purpose of briefly outlining the facts of the Haymarket “riot” and the resulting murder of four innocent men, and to commemorate their death that this Anniversary Number is issued. The facts are as follows: Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “The Haymarket and the Eight Hour Movement of 1886”” →

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

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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

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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

BBH, Str Prs Muncie IN, -p11 edit, Apr 25, 1918

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: 103 Fellow Workers Plead “Not Guilty” to Charges of Conspiracy in Chicago Federal Court

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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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: Sunday December 16, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – I. W. W. Defendants Appear Before Judge Landis

From the Kansas Pittsburg Daily Headlight of December 15, 1917:


I.W.W. DEFENDANTS FILLED
A COURT ROOM
—


BEFORE JUDGE LANDIS AT CHICAGO,
ACCUSED AGITATORS PLEADED NOT GUILTY.
—–
“American Bolsheviki Without Whiskers,”
as U. S. Lawyer Described Them,
Appeared to Answer Conspiracy Charge.
—–

Big Bill Haywood, ISR, Nov 1917

Chicago, Dec. 15.-One hundred and three alleged members of the Industrial Workers of the World, probably the largest number ever assembled in one court room to answer the charges of conspiracy against the federal government, pleaded “not guilty” when arraigned before Judge Landis in the United States district court today.

In general appearance the defendants resembled a typical jury panel. There were exceptions, however, for among the I. W. W. there are not a few who pretend to literary merit. There are some who confess themselves poets, and a few are orators. These might be distinguished by the flowing Windsor tie and the soft collar of the artist or musician, by the stiff rearward brush of the hair, or, in one or two instances, by a neatly trimmed Van Dyke beard. One of the government lawyers referred to them as “the American Bolsheviki, without the whiskers.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for The Masses: “The Minnesota Trials”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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It is a privilege and a duty even by sacrifice
to advance our priceless cause.
-John R Lawson

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday January 5, 1917
From The Masses: FW Flynn on Behalf of Minnesota Defendants

EGF, MN Iron Miners Strike, Ev IN, Aug 17, 1916

The following article was obviously written for The Masses by Fellow Worker Flynn, I. W. W. organizer, before the plea agreement was reached in the cases of the strikers and organizers charged with first degree murder in connection with the strike of iron miners up on the Mesabi Range of northern Minnesota. The article is nevertheless valuable for the information given regarding the defenses campaign along with a short history regarding “criminal conspiracy” as related to labor struggles, past and present. Tomorrow’s Hellraisers will present an article from this month’s edition of the International Socialist Review, written by Harrison George, which claims the plea agreement as a victory for the strikers and for the cause of labor in general.

From The Masses of January 1917:

The Minnesota Trials

Masonovich-P. & M. & Boarders, ISR, Sept 1916

Many of our friends fail to appreciate the magnitude of the Minnesota strike, involving 15,000 miners and the United States Steel Corporation, and are beguiling themselves into belief that the murder cases pending are not serious.

Mrs. Masonovitch [Masonovich], the woman prisoner, wife of one of the strikers, is a particularly pathetic and appealing figure, a young and beautiful Montenegrin woman, mother of five children, one a nursing baby. She speaks little English, does not understand the proceedings, looks frightened and bewildered and clings frantically to her children. If the parents should be convicted these little ones would be practically orphans. The older ones, twelve and eight, bright, nice boys, tell very clearly what happened on July 3, the night of the tragedy, how the deputies came to arrest their father, how one struck their mother and threw her to the floor, how the fight then started in which Mr. Myron was killed, and how Nick Dillon, the notorious gunman, shot and killed Thos. Ladvalla [Tomi Ladvalla-WE NEVER FORGET], a bystander. If the episode was not connected with a strike, it would be comparatively easy to clear these poor people.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Theodora Pollok on the Mooney Frame-Up

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, Monday December 18, 1916
San Francisco, California – The Closed Shop Fight and Frame-Up

From the December edition of the International Socialist Review:

Will Labor Stand for Another
Haymarket?

By THEODORA POLLOK

Tom and Rena Mooney, ISR, Dec 1916

SAN FRANCISCO in 1916; Chicago in 1886. The closed shop fight now; the 8-hour fight then. In both cases, a crime of violence occurs and is tied around the necks of innocent labor men in the hope of helping to crush the spirit of labor.

In Chicago in 1886 a slavish press and an inflamed public mind, and the labor and radical groups, too weak to save the chosen victims. Today in San Francisco a slavish press, but a public mind open to conviction. Yet young Billings, first of the San Francisco Preparedness Day explosion defendants to be tried, has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, and only the fighting working class of the country can save him—by saving his four co-defendants.

Tom Mooney’s trial, the second trial, is set for the 27th of November. It is Tom Mooney’s life that is desired above all others by this gang of ruffians, the “gentlemen” of the Chamber of Commerce, the United Railroads, and the Pacific Gas & Electric, and their tools in the District Attorney’s office. For Mooney, helped by his little music teacher wife, Rena, who is one of his co-defendants—Mooney recently dared actually try to organize the carmen of the United Railroads, who have been beaten down, spied upon and “weeded out” since the great car strike before the earthquake.

The tactics of the prosecution are such as might rather be expected in some backwoods lumber baron’s camp than in a great urban center. Indeed, with the “Law and Order” Committee from the Chamber of Commerce censoring all the press, the truth is even harder to get to the people than in a small town where it flies from mouth to mouth.

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Hellraisers Journal: Jack London: “Something Rotten in Idaho; Governor Gooding Re-Elected, Colorado Mine Owners Rejoice

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 November 18, 1906
State of Idaho – Governor Gooding, Mine Owners’ Hero, Re-Elected

The Mine Owners’ Associations of Colorado and Idaho are rejoicing as their champion, Governor Gooding, wins re-election in the state of Idaho, and they now can easily imagine the leaders of the Western Federation of Miners swinging from the gallows. Jack London recently offered an alternative point of view, writing in the Chicago Daily Socialist that “Something Is Rotten in Idaho” (see below.)

From The Idaho Daily Statesman of November 13, 1906:

Elections, ID Gov Gooding Re-elected, Spk Prs, Nov 14, 1906

Colorado, Sends Greeting to Idaho
and Governor Gooding.

(Denver Republican.)

Colorado, in the midst of rejoicing over its victory for orderly government, sends greeting to Idaho and Governor Gooding over the splendid victory achieved in the interest of good government and for the good name of the whole state, which like Colorado has suffered in the past from the rule of anarchy. From the Coeur d’Alenes to Cripple Creek is a near and fateful cry.

Because of the determined stand taken by Governor Gooding to clear the state’s escutcheon of the blot casts upon it in the foul murder of former Governor Steunenberg, he was made the center of attack in the recent campaign. His enemies sought his defeat that the assassins might go free. If not admitted, it was tacitly understood that his defeat meant the opening of the prison gates to the suspects. The Denver News no later than yesterday insisted that because the district court trial judge [Judge Frank J. Smith] in that state who had bound over Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, had been defeated on the face of the available returns, the prisoners would be released; and, as the Patterson organs are the mouthpieces of the defense, the animus of the whole campaign is made clear. If Governor Gooding had been beaten through the debauchery of certain districts with Western Federation of Miners’ money, there would have been rejoicing in other places than Welton street…

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