Tag: I Am A Union Woman

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: Mother Jones to Wives of New York Carmen: “You ought to be out raising hell!”

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

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday October 7, 1916
New York, New York – Mother Jones Speaks, Blamed for “Riot”

Mother Mary Harris Jones, Logansport, IN, Sept 27, 1916

On Thursday October 5th, Mother Jones spoke to the wives of the striking street carmen of New York City. She spoke at Mozart Hall where she told the women:

You, the wives of the strikers, ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes

A few women left the hall and attacked one of the surface cars of the New York Railways Company resulting in a few arrests. This was termed a “riot” in blaring headlines from The New York Times and others of the kept press.

The Address of Mother Jones

During her speech at Mozart Hall, Mother spoke of the lives of the street car workers and the effect of the long hours of labor upon family life. She advised the women to stop being “sentimental” and to put on their “fighting clothes.”

I know something of what life is like for street car workers. I have talked to men who work on the cars from one end of the country to the next and I know how terribly exploited they are. But none are more exploited than the carmen in this, the leading city of the United States. You know and I know that your husbands have to work seven days a week with no provisions for days off; that their basic work day consists of ten hour time actually spent on a car run, but that it frequently takes 15 hours of working time to receive their ten hours pay. No provision exists for any overtime pay. It is not unusual, as you know, for your husbands to spend upwards of 80 hours a week on the cars. The car runs are frequently not consecutive but are split by three-or four hour breaks. When do your husbands have time for you and your children? The church and the press are worried about families breaking up, but when the workers go on strike to have the time to keep their families together, these same lackeys of the employers denounce them for doing so. And on top this, the wages your husbands bring home for the longest work week of any car workers in the country are the lowest earned by men in this trade anywhere.

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Hellraisers Journal: Repression on the Mesabi Range: The Masonovich and Andreytchine Cases

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: Friday September 8, 1916
From the International Socialist Review: Minnesota Justice

The Masonovich Case

INVADING MINERS’ HOMES

By OTTO CHRISTENSEN

p-m-masonovich-boarders-isr-sept-1916

ON the afternoon of July 3rd mine guard Nick Dillon, in company with three guards, invaded the home of Phillip Mesomovich [Masonovich]. Now Dillon, who led the guards, has served as a mine guard for several years both in Minnesota and Colorado. He has also served as a strong arm man identified with the assignation house in the neighborhood of Virginia, Minnesota. The notorious Dillon is known to most of the people on the range, and he was the only mine guard of the four that was known to any of the Mesomovich family.

When the guards entered the house Mrs. Mesomovich offered them chairs to sit down, but Nick Dillon replied that they had not come to sit down, but came to take Phillip Mesomovich and Joe Hercigonovich to jail. Mrs. Mesomovich replied to Dillon, “You fellows will not take my husband to jail before Old Man O’Hara comes from Biwabik.” O’Hara was the village marshal of Biwabik and the Mesomovich family lived at the Chicago location, which is within the village limits of Biwabik. Mrs. Mesomovich’s husband was asleep at the time, but came out of the bedroom shortly after the guards had entered the home. Mesomovich asked for his shoes and Mrs. Mesomovich started toward the bedroom when Dillon assaulted her. Mrs. Mesomovich told her story as follows:

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks in El Paso, Texas: “Eats More Fire, Calls Spade a Spade and Swears.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Women, it’s up to you to change the evils.
Men will not change them, and the ballot will not do it.
I don’t care what party is in power
if you give me a well organized economic army.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday August 23, 1916
El Paso, Texas-Mother Jones “Eats Fire” as Crowd Cheers

From El Paso Herald of August 21, 1916:


‘MOTHER’ JONES EATS MORE FIRE CALLS
SPADE A SPADE AND SWEARS
—–
Aged Labor Agitator Says She Asked Colorado Governor
“What the Hell He Was Going To Do About It”
When She Returned; Crowd Cheers Her On To
Make Hot Statements in Cleveland Square.
—–

Mother Jones, UMWJ, Feb 10, 1916

“Roasted babies” and Children’s blood” were articles on the oratorical menu that was served by “Mother” Jones to an audience of 1500 in Cleveland Square Saturday night. The fiery speaker called a spade a spade and the crowd was with “Mother” from start to finish. Cries of “Give it to ’em, ‘Mother,'” “Tell it to ’em were heard after many of the speakers most telling points; but Mother needed no invitation.

Roasts George Baer.

“When George Baer told me that God Almighty had appointed him to take care of us working people, I answered him that God Almighty must have had a jag on when he did the appointing,” shouted the aged speaker, while her listeners broke out into a pandemonium of applause and laughter…

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