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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 11, 1910
“We have fed you all for thousand years, and you hail us still unfed…”
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 8, 1910:
Tag: Industrial Union Bulletin
Hellraisers Journal: From Chicago IWW Headquarters, Vincent St. John Welcomes Spokane Industrial Worker
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 3, 1909
Chicago, Illinois – St. John Welcomes Spokane Industrial Worker
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of April 1, 1909:
FROM I. W. W. HEADQUARTERS.
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Chicago, March 24.
The initial issue of the Industrial Worker is a credit to the organization in Spokane and will help to prove to the friends and enemies of the I. W. W. alike that the organization is still kicking. Passing Fellow Workers of Spokane bouquets will not be of very much material benefit to them and so, in this regard you can consider that your time and mine is saved and that everything that I could or should say in the way of congratulations has been said.
VINCENT ST. JOHN.
Gen. Secy. Treas.[Inset of I. W. W. Executive Board added.]
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THEY LIKE THE PAPER.
Chicago, Ill., March 23rd, 1909.
The initial number of the “Spokane Industrial Worker” just to hand. Bully for the “Slummists” [or “Bummery”] On glancing-over the paper I’ll find it to contain the right kind of stuff for the worker who wants to learn and know the Industrial Workers of the World, what it stands for now and it’s final aim. Let’s hope that it will continue along the same lines in the future.
The cartoon is a feature which deserves the attention of everybody who has a bit of sense of humor.
The paper stock is fine and the type easy to read.
Words, words, words, “How mighty is the supply of sound behind which lies no support of deeds,” can not be said of the I. W. W. membership on the Pacific Coast .
If there is anything I can do for you, give me particulars.
With success to the “Industrial Worker” and best regards to all the hustlers.
OTTO JUSTH.
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Hellraisers Journal: Fight Against Employment Sharks is on in Spokane, “The I. W. W. Storm Center for the West”
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 28, 1909
Spokane, Washington – I. W. W. Takes on Employment Sharks
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of February 20, 1909:
“STORM CENTER OF THE WEST”
The I. W. W. storm center for the West just now appears to be Spokane, Washington. The very great activity of the fellow workers of that city is noticeable at General Headquarters in frequent orders and remittances for due stamps, membership books, buttons and other supplies, as well as Bulletins and other literature. Their fight against the employment bureau sharks continues unabated, and with growing sentiment against those institutions.
Fellow worker James Wilson, secretary of the Central Committee of the Spokane locals, writes on Dec. 19: “Over 100 members have joined here this last week,” and again on Dec. 23, he says: “I can tell you in all sobriety that we are convinced that the success of the I. W. W. in this part of the country will be amazing from now on, and I flatter myself that I am not visionary.”
J. J. Stark writes Dec. 23 in behalf of Local 222: “We are going to move into a larger hall about the first of the year, where the rent will be $125 per month, while formerly we only paid $30. However I think that the increasing membership will warrant the move. Walsh is still with us and is doing great work. He has just received a telegram from Whitehead to come on the first train to Seattle, and will leave at once. It appears that there is something doing among the loggers, and they need his services for a time.”
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[Photograph and paragraph breaks added.]
Hellraisers Journal: “Experiences of a Hobo Miner” by Frank Little from the I. U. B. -“Wage-Slave Seeking a Master”
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 15, 1908
From Reno, Nevada – Frank Little Describes Journey from Prescott, Arizona
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of December 12, 1908:
EXPERIENCES OF A HOBO MINER.
The experience of a wage slave, seeking a master during the panic of 1907-8:
On December 5, 1907, Fellow Worker Chris Hansen and myself left [P]rescott, Arizona, for a trip across the desert to see if we could find some kind-hearted parasite who would clasp the chains of wage-slavery upon us and allow us, along with other workers, to produce wealth that would allow a few parasites to live in luxury and idleness, giving us in return for our labor enough bacon and beans to keep us alive. We had heard that the American workers were free and had the right to work when, where and for whom they pleased. But we soon found that this was false.
The first place we went to was Octave, a mining camp south of Prescott, thinking we could get a job there. But one of the first men we met was an overdressed, well-fed parasite, who was in Clifton, Arizona, at the time I was trying to organize the slaves of that place.
We next went to Congress, the worst scab hole in Arizona. The looks of that place were enough to drive a man “nutty.” From there we went to Wickenburg, but this place was full of jobless slaves. We started across the desert towards the Colorado River, stopping at all the mining camps, but could not find a master at any of them.
Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Worker J. H. Walsh Completes Tale of the Overall Brigade’s Journey to IWW Convention
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 2, 1908
The Overall Brigade “Abroad the Nation” from Missoula to Chicago
In the Industrial Union Bulletin of September 19th, J. H. Walsh described the journey of the Overall Brigade, riding the rails from Portland, Oregon, to the I. W. W. Convention in Chicago. He ended his account with the Brigade encamped near Missoula, Montana. The Brigade was bent on making it to Chicago by September 21st, the first day of the Convention. The story of the journey to Chicago is found completed in the latest edition of the Bulletin.
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of October 24, 1908:
ABROAD THE NATION
By J. H. WALSH.
The “Overall Brigade,” en route from Portland, Ore., to Chicago to the Fourth Annual Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World at this point, has finished another successful propaganda meeting at Missoula, Mont. This makes three successful meetings in this city. Literature sales have been the best here of any place so far on our route, while the song sales have doubled, running as high as $10 or $12 per meeting. The collections have been in the same proportion. In fact, it is the first place where the audience has thrown dollars into the crowd at the feet of the singers, as well as many smaller pieces of change that came jingling along at the same time. One collection in the hat was $14.25. This all tells one story in brief-and that is the growing sentiment toward Industrial Unionism.
It is plain to see that the lumbermen’s union, which was generally understood to be a part of the W. F. of M., will soon be a part of the I. W. W. But with all the favorable conditions and enthusiasm, and a thousand invitations for the “bunch” to return, we are off again for the railroad yards to continue our journey to the city of Butte-the noted mining camp.
Our special car is found. It goes in our direction as far as Garrison Junction. It is not a long ride, and we are now spinning along at passenger speed. The long blast of the whistle which sounds and resounds through the mountain tops and valleys on this cold morning, announces that we are approaching the junction. We are there, unloaded and off for the jungles. The cook and a delegate are on their way to the store for supplies, while the rest and the “bunch” is shivering around the camp fire.
Soon the fire is burning bright, the breakfast is cooking and the sun is making its appearance above the horizon, which adds some comfort to our condition on these cold mornings in the Rocky Mountain country. The delicious breakfast is ready and the “bunch” is congregated to partake of the passover.
Hellraisers Journal: Industrial Workers of the World Publishes New Preamble, One of “Most Important” Acts of Convention
Between these two classes a struggle must go on
until the workers of the world organize as a class,
and take possession of the earth
and the machinery of production
and abolish the wage system.
-Industrial Workers of the World
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 12, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – Recent I. W. W. Convention Revises Preamble
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of October 10, 1908:
CONVENTION NOTES.
The fourth annual convention of I. W. W. finished its work Thursday evening, Oct. 1, 1908…..
The change in the preamble of the constitution was one of the most important of all the acts of the convention…..
Hellraisers Journal: From The Industrial Union Bulletin: “On the Advance” in Philadelphia by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday September 29, 1908
Philadelphia – Organizer Gurley Flynn Describes Two Weeks’ Sojourn
During the month of August, Fellow Worker Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was found in the “Quaker City” organizing on behalf of the Industrial Workers of the World.
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of September 19, 1908:
ON THE ADVANCE
[by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn].
A year ago when I visited Philadelphia, there was no I. W. W. in existence and my weeks’ agitation found only about twelve bonafide, but scattered advocates of industrial unionism. Today thru the hard work and determined efforts on the part of these few unaided and encouraged, by passing organizers and speakers, there is a thriving movement in Philadelphia, now establishing its own headquarters, and if the Quaker City has not its quota of representatives at the convention this year, it can only be blamed on the capitalist class and panic.
* * *
This year my two weeks’ sojourn in Philadelphia started out under rather inauspicious circumstances, as the facts already forwarded to the Bulletin, concerning the Bakery Workers, will amply show. However, once we were rid of Mr. I. Roth and his attempts to make our organization a cloak for his label-selling and scab-furnishing schemes for the stooges, our general agitation meetings were highly successful.
The first week we held three open-air meetings, commencing August 20th, on the City Hall Plaza. An “Ancient Order of Hiberian [Hibernians]” Convention was going on that week in Philadelphia, and the celebration on this evening took the form of an Irish parade, from which we were able to extract an excellent crowd of about 300 people, in spite of the attempts of the North American to conceal our identity by a meager little five-line announcement tucked away in an inconspicuous corner. The convention had declared for Home Rule for Ireland, while we declared for Home Rule for the United States, by the people of the U. S., the working-class, and for two hours industrial unionism as the means of organizing to bring this about was expounded by Fellow Worker McAlvy and myself.
Hellraisers Journal: From the Socialist Review: Vincent St. John on the IWW’s Revolutionary Industrial Unionism
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday September 24, 1908
Industrial Unionism and the Revolutionary Labor Movement of the World
With the fourth annual convention of the Industrial Workers of the World now underway at Brand’s Hall in Chicago, Illinois, we find this a good time to republish the following article by Vincent St. John wherein he discusses Industrial Unionism as practiced by the I. W. W. Fellow Worker St. John currently serves as the I. W. W.’s General Organizer and Assistant Secretary-which position may change by the end of this year’s convention.
From the International Socialist Review of September 1908:
The Economic Argument for Industrial Unionism.
[by Vincent St. John]
HE SUBJECT of industrial unionism is to-day receiving the attention of the revolutionary labor movement of the world. And the opposite wing of the labor movement, the conservatives, are likewise studying it, but with the aim of defeating its revolutionary object.
Different schools of industrial unionism are springing up. This in itself is a proof that the subject is of general interest, and that it is forcing itself upon those in the labor movement who formerly waved it aside as a visionary and impracticable scheme.
As the Industrial Workers of the World is to-day the only organization of general scope, in the United States, that strictly adheres to the revolutionary principle of industrial unionism, it justly claims the right to speak with authority on the subject. Without revolutionary principles, industrial unionism is of little or no value to the workers.
Hellraisers Journal: From The Industrial Union Bulletin: J. H. Walsh with Hobo Army Riding the Rails to Chicago
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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday September 23, 1908
Adventures of the Overall Brigade Enroute to Chicago
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of September 19, 1908:
[J. H. Walsh on the I.W.W’s Red Special, Part II of II.]
In Seattle we held several good meetings and then departed for the east. We met a very nice train crew apparently, out of Seattle. They claimed to all be union men, but they proved to be cheap dogs of the railroad. Fearing such a large bunch, they telegraphed ahead to Auburn Junction for a force to take us off. When we arrived at the junction we were surrounded by a band of railroad officials-the papers stated there were 25-when we were covered by guns and told to unload. We were marched to jail and held over night. In the morning the writer was separated from the bunch, but finally we were all turned loose. Being separated, we did not learn until evening where each and all were. However, all except the writer had gotten back to Seattle, and secured the services of Attorney Brown, to take up the case, should it become necessary. It was not necessary. The boys held a street meeting in Seattle, and part started from there for Spokane, over one road, and the rest over another road.
We continued our work of propaganda without missing a single date, and all re-united at Spokane, where we held several good meetings. Leaving Spokane, we took in Sandpoint, Idaho, and then rambled into Missoula, Montana, where we had some of the best meetings of all the places along the route.
We put the “Starvation Army” on the bum, and packed the streets from one side to the other. The literature sales were good, the collections good, and the red cards containing the songs sold like hot cakes.
At Missoula, Mont., we have completed two full week’s work on the road. We left Portland with 20 members. We lost 4 of them, but we picked up one at Seattle, and two at Spokane, so our industrial band is practically the same as when we started.
Hellraisers Journal: From The Industrial Union Bulletin: J. H. Walsh, “I.W.W. ‘Red Special’ Overall Brigade, On Its Way”
The morning is bright and all
are sleeping on the jungle grass,
with our arms for pillows,
and coats for covers.
-J. H. Walsh
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday September 22, 1908
Adventures of the Overall Brigade Enroute to Chicago
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of September 19, 1908:
[J. H. Walsh on the I.W.W’s Red Special, Part I of II.]
In my last article to the Bulletin, I concluded just as we were ready to get to the railroad yards, to take our “Special” en route to Chicago.
Well, we’re in the yards, gathered together at the water tank. In order to know if all are present, we have numbered ourselves. The numbers run from one to nineteen, Mrs. Walsh making twenty. A switchman is seen and he informs us where our “Special car” will be found. The train is late however, and we are delayed a few hours. “Fly Cops” are pretty busy in the yards. They are watching their master’s property that some hobo may not break a sacred seal and pile into a car where valuable merchandise is stored.
Two blasts of the locomotive whistle are heard and the train is starting on it’s journey, and simultaneously nineteen men, all dressed in black overalls and jumpers, black shirts and red ties, with an I. W. W. book in his pocket and an I.W. W. button on his coat, are in a “cattle car” and on our way.
In a short time a glim (lantern) appears and the breakman jumps into the car. His unionism is skin-deep. He belongs to the B. of R. T., but never heard of the class struggle. He is unsuccessful, however, in the collecting of fares, and we continue are journey.
Our first stop, where we expect to hold a meeting is Centralia, and when about half way there, “our car” is set out. There is only one now left in the train to ride on. It is an oil car, so nineteen men will be found “riding” on that car as soon as the train starts. Being delayed for a few hours again, while the train is being transferred across the ferry, we are hovered around the first campfire toward the wee sma’ hours of morning. At last two short blasts of the whistle are heard, and all are aboard. It is only a short distance to our destination and the train is whirling along at passenger speed. The morning is turning cold and spitting a little rain, but all are determined to stick to the car, when again, appears the brakeman and tells us we cannot ride since daylight has come, but he is informed that we must get to Centralia. He insists we’ll get off at the next stop, but we fail to get off, and in a few minutes we arrive at our first stop.
