Tag: Industrial Workers of the World

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1920, Part III: Jim Seymour on Mass Meeting for Labor Defense in San Francisco

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Raising Hell, NYT p1, Oct 6, 1916———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 9, 1920
-Mother Jones News for March 1920, Part III
Jim Seymour Describes Labor Defense Meeting in San Francisco

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of March 29, 1920:

Mother Jones Raises Hell in San Francisco, BDB p4, Mar 29, 1920—–

Bulletin’s “Minister Without Portfolio”
Attends Interesting Gathering of
“Vicious Syndicalists.”
—–

BY JIM SEYMOUR.

(Special to the Bulletin.)

Mother Jones, Crpd Lg, Chg Tb p120, Oct 26, 1919

Frisco (known bourgeoiseally as San Francisco), March 20 (By Mail).-Last night [Friday, March 19th] California hall was filled to “S. R. O.” by specimens of the various breeds of workers and a very few others. William Cleary, attorney for a number of vicious criminal syndicalists, and some woman called “Mother Jones,” were billed to speak under the auspices of the Labor Defense league. Cleary jimmed the meeting by exercising his prerogative as a member of the bar and coming late. The trial was kept waiting for him until several of the chairs got too hot for the comfort of the sitters, whereupon Robert Whitaker, ex-sky pilot [preacher] and chairman of the meeting, who seems too good-natured to be named anything more dignified than Bob, delivered a serm-an opening address in which he mentioned the names of Anita Whitney, Kate O’Hare and one Eugene Debs. The applause percentages follow: Whitney, 96; Debs, 72; O’Hare, 49. Collection for defense of criminal syndicalists, for which the Lord be praised, $148.03.

The Rev. Bob then addressed us a few remarks that convinced us that the white-haired old woman on the stage was really Mother Jones and that nobody was trying to palm off a ringer on us. I don’t know just what it was, but Whitaker said something that Mother Jones didn’t quite agree with; and I don’t know just what Mother Jones’ reply was, but she gave him a good-natured bawling out that seemed to amuse the audience but failed to disturb the equanimity of the man who had just collected $148 for the cause. And so long as it didn’t harm him, or us, or the boys in jail, we will remark that it served him jolly well right-he should have known better than to pull that absurd burgeoise stunt of introducing a speaker that is better known than Jesus Christ. [Note: Mother Jones as a devote Catholic would certainly dispute that description of her fame.]

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Hellraisers Journal: The Story of Wobbly Newsboy Blind Tom Lassiter at the Hands of Centralia’s Super-Patriots

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 5, 1920
Centralia, Washington – The Story of Blind Tom Lassiter

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 28, 1920:

BLIND NEWSBOY VICTIM SECOND CENTRALIA MOB
—–

Because Tom Lassiter Sold Union Records and Butte Bulletins
Super-Patriots of Lumber Town Maltreated Him.
—–

(By JOHN NICHOLAS BEFFEL.)
(Staff Correspondent,
the Federated Press.)

IWW Centralia, Blind Tom Lassiter, RC p104, 1924 ed

Centralia, Wash., (By Mail).-It was the second of the three Centralia mobs that got Blind Tom Lassiter, newsboy. His crime was that he sold the Seattle Union Record, workers’ newspaper, and was a wobbly. Twice the mob burned all his possessions, then kidnaped him on the open street, and sped with him to another county.

Gov. Louis F. Hart knows the facts of this flagrant case. They were presented to him, substantiated by affidavits of reputable eye-witnesses. But the men who abused and exiled Lassiter, a law-abiding American citizen, have never been prosecuted.

Prosecuting Attorney Herman Allen of Lewis county knows the facts. They were presented to him with similar affidavits. But Allen has never taken any steps to punish the guilty men.

Judge John M. Wilson, who tried the ten I. W. W. in the Centralia labor case at Montesano, knows the facts about the Lassiter episode. They were offered to him in detail by Defense Counsel George F. Vanderveer. Those facts ought, by every tenet of justice, have been given to the jury. But the court said no.

So the story of what happened to Blind Tom Lassiter is little known outside of Centralia. Mention of it crept occasionally into the news stories published in perhaps four newspapers across the country; but its real significance needs to be made clear.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The One Big Union Monthly: “The Background of Centralia” by Ralph Chaplin

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, IWW Centralia n Lumber Barons, OBU Mly p19, May 1920 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 4, 1920
Ralph Chaplin on the Truth Behind the Centralia Conspiracy

From The One Big Union Monthly of May 1920:

THE BACKGROUND OF CENTRALIA

By RALPH CHAPLIN

Centralia Defendants, OBU Mly p11, May 1920—–

IN ORDER to get the truth of the Centralia conspiracy it is necessary to understand the circumstances leading up to the tragedy on Armistice Day, 1919. There are two distinct viewpoints from which this unfortunate affair may be observed: That of the lumber interests, which is to isolate the incident from its anteceeding circumstances and make it a “plain murder case”; and that of working people of the Northwest generally to consider all the facts in the case in order to find out, not only how the tragedy occurred, but what brought it about as well.

It is well to state here that the lumber interests, with the aid of the trial judge, the prosecuting attorneys and the press, succeeded in keeping from the consideration of the jury, all but the actual happenings on November 11th. The long and unbroken chain of threats, raids, deportations and murders perpetrated against the I. W. W. boys before they made a last stand for their lives in their union hall, was objected to by the lumber trust’s attorneys and ruled out by the lumber trust’s lackey on the judicial bench. In this manner men who were simply defending their lives and property from a mob were shown to be deliberate and wanton assassins, while their tormentors were held up to the world as splendid examples of unquestioned and persecuted patriotism.

The efforts of the defense to prove the existence of a conspiracy on the part of the lumber interests to raid and demolish union halls and to murder their occupants were painstakingly ignored by the press.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Fellow Workers Morrie Preston and Joseph Smith, “A Cry from the Depths of Nevada’s Prison”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD Movements of Undesirables, AtR p4, Oct 31, 1908———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 30, 1910
Carson City, Nevada – Fellow Workers Preston and Smith Remain Behind Bars

From the International Socialist Review of April 1910:

Preston n Smith by ME Eldridge, ISR p894, Apr 1910

Letter T, ISR p894, Apr 1910HREE years ago the 10th of March, John Sylva, a restaurant keeper at Goldfield, Nevada, was shot and killed by M. R. Preston, a miner and member of the Western Federation of Miners at that time affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, and on May 9th, just two months later, Preston and Joseph Smith, the latter a cook and member of the I. W. W., were found guilty on an indictment charging them with murder and were sentenced to imprisonment, Preston to twenty-five and Smith to ten years.
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Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Worker Thomas Manning Laid to Rest in Butte as Thousands March in Funeral Procession

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Butte Striking Miners re ACM Massacre Butte, BDB p1, Apr 28, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 29, 1920
Butte, Montana – Fellow Worker Thomas Manning Laid to Rest

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 28, 1920:

ACM Massacre Butte, Manning Laid to Rest, BDB p1, Apr 28, 1920———-

FIRST OF VICTIMS OF A. C. M. MURDERERS
TO DIE SHOWN LAST HONOR
———-

This morning, a week to the day, since Thomas Manning fell on Anaconda road, riddled with bullets fired from guns in the hands of the notorious Roy Alley and his gang of hired murderers of the Anaconda Copper Mining company, the mortal remains of that martyr to the cause of the rights of workingmen were laid at rest in Holy Cross cemetery. And though his mangled body lies beneath six feet of cold earth, the dauntless spirit which impelled Manning, unarmed except with the conviction that he was in the right, to face the hordes of killers on the hill last Wednesday [April 21st], is still with his fellow workers and fellow victims.

In Ireland, an aged father waits in vain for the return of his son from America-reputed land of the free, where justice is supposed to dwell and where the workingman is presumed to have equal rights with the millionaire.

In Ireland, also, a loving wife, who as yet does not know that she is a widow, waits patiently for the letter from her man whom she thinks is working in this land of unexampled wealth to amass the nest-egg on which her husband and herself will be enabled to keep the wolf from the door. And, perhaps, she is awaiting that letter which will tell her that Tom has saved up enough money to bring her to the United States to make anew their home in glorious, free America.

It is also possible that Mrs. Manning, as she hears of the killings and riotings in British-ruled Erin breathes a silent prayer that her loving Tom is in America, where British soldiery with their guns are now unknown, and where, as she mercifully believes, such despicable creatures as armed company gunmen have no existence.

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Hellraisers Journal: Centralia Defendants Mike Sheehan and Elmer Smith, Found Not Guilty, Now Back in Chehalis Jail

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 28, 1920
Chehalis, Washington – Mike Sheehan and Elmer Smith Back Behind Bars

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 23, 1920:

CHEHALIS JAILOR CHARY ABOUT RECEIVING VISITS
———-
Correspondent Tells of Conditions in Prison Where
Victims of Centralia Lumber Barons Were Confined
—–

(By John Nicholas Beffel.)

IWW Centralia, Sheehan n Smith, Stt Str p11, Jan 24, 1920

Centralia, Wash.-It’s difficult to get into the decrepit old jail at Chehalis unless you are a Wobbly. I wanted to get inside, but Sheriff John Berry wouldn’t let me. He was firm about it, and a bit peevish. Sanitary conditions within were a delicate subject, a cause for official sensitiveness.

That jail has an important relation to the Centralia tragedy story. Some of the I. W. W. defendants consented to make statements while confined there. Mrs. Mary McAllister, one of the vital witnesses for the defense, who testified that Eugene Barnett was in the Roderick hotel during the rioting and not in the Avalon hotel, was held in the Chehalis jail twenty days without warrant or charge, and then released.

And now Mike Sheehan and Elmer Smith, acquitted at Montesano, were back at Chehalis, imprisoned in a little cell, suffering for lack of proper ventilation, fighting live rats and enduring the odor of dead ones. Sheehan and Smith had been found innocent of connection with the death of Warren O. Grim, and then were immediately rearrested charged with conspiring to murder Arthur McElfresh, another slain Armistice Day parader.

I asked Sheriff Berry if I could see the interior of the jail.

“Who are you investigatin’ jails for?” he demanded suspiciously.

“For the labor press,” I said.

“It won’t be necessary for you to see the inside of this jail,” he decreed. “It ain’t the kind of place it ought to be, but I can’t help that. I’ve tried to get the county commissioners to fix things, but they won’t loosen up.”

Already I knew that Berry would not permit the prisoners to receive any copies of the Seattle Union Record or any other labor paper.

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Hellraisers Journal: FW Manning Dies, Was Wounded in Massacre Inflicted Upon Miners by Anaconda Company Gunthugs

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re IWW Martyr Manning ACM Massacre, BDB p1, Apr 26, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 27, 1920
Butte, Montana – Fellow Worker Thomas Manning Dies

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 26, 1920:

ACM Massacre, Thomas Manning Death, BDB p1, Apr 26, 1920—–

M’CARTHY AND SULLIVAN HOVERING ON BORDER
OF DEATH IN LOCAL HOSPITAL
———-

In the early hours of yesterday morning the spirit of Thomas Manning, first of the victims of the bloodlust of the Anaconda Copper Mining company’s gunmen as evidenced in the massacre of last Wednesday on Anaconda Road, fled to join the spirits of those who at Ludlow, and at other industrial centers of the United States have offered up their lives on the altar of devotion to the cause of the wage slaves.

On a cot in St. James hospital James Sullivan, with his spine shattered by a bullet from one of the company assassins and the lower part of his body paralyzed, lies awaiting the call of the Angel of Death. On another cot in the same institution, John McCarthy, his lungs riddled with shot fired by the murderers of Manning, also awaits the call and is hourly expected to join Manning in the Great Beyond.

Manning joined the ranks of the labor martyrs, sent to their deaths by the greed of the corporate interest who never hesitate to use the riot gun, the machine gun, the rifle and the bayonet to perpetuate the enslavement of the workers, at about 1:30 o’clock yesterday morning. Despite the severity of his wounds and the frequency of internal hemmorhage the merciful administration of opiates by the hospital authorities made his last hours on comparatively painless, although his tortured body tossed and turned in the delirium of approaching death.

The name of Manning, first of the martyrs of Wednesday, the twenty-first, has been emblazoned on the scroll of organized labor in Montana and from reports reaching Butte from the various organizations of workers throughout the state, “Manning!” will be the shibboleth around which the wage slaves will rally to end forever the reigns of the copper, the lumber, the power and the railroad kings in Montana.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Butte Daily Bulletin: City in Shock due to Slaughter of Unarmed Miners by A. C. M. Gunthugs

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 23, 1920
Butte, Montana – Gunthugs of Anaconda Copper  Shoot Down  Striking Miners

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 22, 1920:

ACM Massacre, Miners Near Death, BDB p1, Apr 22, 1920—–

ACM Massacre, Butte Shocked by Slaughter, BDB p1, Apr 22, 1920

Butte today was shrouded in grief, mixed with considerable awe, as the result of the unprovoked massacre of unarmed, peaceful striking miners by Roy Alley and his selected band of Anaconda copper Mining Company’s hired killers, which occurred on Anaconda Road about 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon. All night and today, awed groups of men stood in clusters on the streets and discussed in quiet tones the facts of the outrage as they have developed and frequently the belief was openly expressed that the time has come when the rule of the Anaconda company in Butte and Montana through the use of its political crooks, backed by armed thugs must cease…..

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Butte Daily Bulletin: A. C. M. Gunthug Advocates for “Some More Killings and Hangings”

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 22, 1920
Butte, Montana – Gunthug of Anaconda Copper Mining Co. Wants More Hangings

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 20, 1920:

HdLn Butte Gunmen Active, BDB p1, Apr 20, 1920

Alley Openly Urges Murder
—–

“The wobblies have got us tied up again. It wouldn’t be so bad if they only quit themselves but they are interfering with our loyal men.

We need some more killings and hangings here, and if there were any red-blooded Americans in the camp it would be done.”-Roy Alley, secretary to John D. Ryan of the A. C. M. in the Thornton Hotel barber shop about 9:30 yesterday morning.

So Roy Alley wants to hang someone AGAIN!

He wants some MORE killings and hangings!

WE need some more killings!

WHOM does Roy Alley mean by WE?

WHAT does he mean by MORE?

The Bulletin desires to call the attention of the county attorney to the fact that this individual-the distributor of the corruption fund of the Anaconda Mining Co.-is openly urging murder as a means of settling the strike of the miners.

We desire to call the attention of the federal authorities to the fact that this gentlemen is “preaching violence” and “defiance of constituted authority.”

The Bulletin also desires to call the attention of the county attorney to the fact that Mr. Alley said MORE hangings. To us this appears to indicate previous activities in that direction.

We do not believe that Roy Alley can be quite sane if he thinks that he or anyone else is going to settle anything by a few MORE murders.

More than that, if any of the strikers or their supporters are to be murdered by the thugs of the Anaconda Mining Co. as an example of red-blooded Americanism, Mr. Alley wants to be sure that he has enough troops in here at the time to keep him and his band of degenerate outlaws from the wrath of an outraged working class.

———-

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