Proudly went out Joe unto his death
With smiling lips and fearless eyes
this message gave with his last breath
“Don’t mourn for me, but ORGANIZE.”
-Richard Brazier
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 1, 1918
“Farewell, Joe” by Richard Brazier
From I. W. W. Songs, “General Defense Edition” of April 1918:
—–
Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 29, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Vanderveer for the Defense
Today we feature the cross-examination by George Vanderveer of one of the copper-collared reporters who testified for the prosecution, on the 23rd of May, against members of the I. W. W. now on trial in the Windy City for alleged violation of the U. S. Espionage Act.
May 23, 1918 – A. W. Walliser, reporter for the Butte Evening Post,
-cross-examined by Attorney Vanderveer:
VANDERVEER: What is the attitude of your paper on the labor issue in Butte? Did it support the strikers during the recent strike?
A. Oh no, sir, no.
Q. Who reported the fire in the Speculator Mine?
A. There were three or four of us. I was up there.
Q. Did you report in your paper that there were concrete bulkheads in that mine with no manholes and it trapped the men and were responsible for their deaths, to the number of about two hundred [168]?
A. No, sir.
Q. You did not?
A. No, I did not.
Q. You never colored anything you wrote to fit what you understood to be the policy of the paper?
A. I might have colored things. I might have toned down things, and I did repeatedly.
Q. Did you ever hear that the bodies that were taken from the mine were sold for twelve dollars and a half apiece?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you, ever publish any such story?
A. No, sir.
Q. Would you, if you had heard it and verified it?
ATTORNEY FOR GOVERNMENT: I object. That is not proper cross-examination.
JUDGE LANDIS: Objection sustained.
Q. Did you attack the bulkheads in the mine?
A. No, sir,
Q. Did your paper?
A. Not that I know of, no, sir.
Q. Did you attempt to place responsibility for the murder of those two hundred men or more-260 men?
A. It was not my business.
Q. It was not your business?
A. No, sir.
Even in death they did not let him rest in peace.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 28, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Copper-Collared Reporters Testify for Prosecution
The copper collar upon the neck of Montana’s so-called “free” press was on full display this past week during the federal trial of officers and members of the Industrial Workers of the World. The following article presents the prosecution’s case, while giving short shrift to Vanderveer’s cross-examination for the defense. Tomorrow, Hellraisers will make up for that deficiency.
From the Phoenix Arizona Republican of May 24, 1918:
DEPORTATIONS AT BISBEE ARE TRIAL FEATURE
—–
Reporter Tells of Threat Made to Arizona Governor
by I. W. W. Leader Who Afterwards Was Lynched
—–(Republican A. P. Leased Wire)
CHICAGO, May 23.-Activities of the I. W. W. in attempting to organize the miners at Butte, Mont., and the strike and violence which followed culminating in the lynching of Frank H. Little August 1, 1917, were graphically described today at the trial of 112 I. W. W. leaders before Federal Judge Landis by Charles L. Stevens, A. W. Walliser and Harold W. Creary [Crary], who were employed in Butte as reporters when the trouble occurred. Creary now is a student at the officers’ training field at Camp Johnson, Jacksonville, Fla., and appeared in uniform.
Little Seditious Talk
Walliser told of an open air mass meeting of miners in Butte July 19 at which Frank H. Little, member of the general executive board of the I. W. W. and others delivered seditious addresses. The witness said Little attacked the national and state governments, the capitalistic class and referred to soldiers as “Uncle Sam’s uniformed scabs,” “Pershing’s yellow legs,” and “Thugs.”
Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Monday May 27, 1918
From the Cook County Jail – Prison Poem by Charles Ashleigh
From The Liberator of May 1918:
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Night in Prison” by Fellow Worker Charles Ashleigh”
Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 22, 1918
Washington, D. C. – I. W. W. to be Target of Sedition Bill
From this morning’s New York Times:
President Signs Sedition Bill
WASHINGTON. May 21, President Wilson today signed the Sedition bill giving the Government wide powers to punish disloyal acts and utterances.
From The Labor World of May 11, 1918:
———
OUTLAWS THE USE AND ADVOCACY OF VIOLENCE
———-
To Bring About Governmental, Social, Industrial or
Economic Reforms-Destruction of “Wabblies” Opens
Opportunities for Labor Unions.
———-
WASHINGTON, May 9.-The bill declared frankly to be aimed against the I. W. W., outlawing organizations which use or advocate violence to bring about “any governmental, social, industrial or economic change,” during the war, was passed Monday by the senate after brief debate and went to the house.
The bill provides that
any association, organization, society or corporation, one of whose purposes or professed purposes is to bring about any governmental, social, industrial or economic change within the United States by the use, without the authority of law, of force, violence, or physical injury to person or property, or by threats of such injury, or which teaches, advocates, defends or advises the use, without authority of law, of force, violence, or physical injury to person or property, or threats of such injury, to accomplish such change or for any other purpose, and which, during any war in which the United States is engaged, shall by any means prosecute or pursue such purpose or professed purpose, or shall so teach, advocate, advise, or defend, is hereby declared to be an “unlawful association.”
It also makes it a felony, punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment and $5,000 fine, for anyone to continue to be a member or agent of such and “unlawful association,” or who shall defend its acts.
It is really surprising how soon a crowd
will form on the street to hear
a song in the interest of the working class.
-Fellow Worker James Wilson, Spokane
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 19, 1908
Spokane, Washington – Music fans “the holy flame of discontent.”
CORRESPONDENCE.
—–
The Value of Music in I. W. W. Meetings.
The use and value of music is one of the oldest and best known factors in influencing the human mind and moving men to action.
What tribe or nation of men, from the original savage to the “civilized” man of today, has not been swayed and stirred by the almost all-compelling power of harmony, rude or cultivated?
The cradle-song of the mother lulls the baby of the barbarian and soothed us ourselves when still infants. The wild war drum roused the hordes who overthrew Rome; the martial band and the fiery bugle incite the brother-murdering armies of the modern capitalist state. The indescribable powers of music are thus effectual alike for good and evil.
Can we, as Industrial Unionists, afford entirely to ignore the scientific study of this mighty auxiliary in our task of stimulating and rousing the lethargy and indifference of the downtrodden and well nigh hopeless mass of the working class?
It is said that the Marseillaise Hymn won all the battles of the French Revolution, from the epoch-making battle of Valmy to the last one of the brilliant military successes of Napoleon.
To avail ourselves of the weapons and arms of the enemy has always been part of successful generalship, even as the very form of our organization is adapted to meet the organized enemy, the capitalist class.
Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 15, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Worse and More of it in the Cook County Jail
In Chicago, the Federal Trial of the Industrial Workers of the World is ongoing. The prosecution has been presenting its case, beginning on May 2nd, and shows no signs of wrapping things up any time soon. As Chief Prosecutor, Frank K. Nebeker, drones on and on, reading in his unrelenting monotone from the I. W. W. literature and letters seized in the federal raid upon Union Headquarters, the defendants, the jury, and the spectators struggle to stay awake. Meanwhile, we pause to remember that not all of our fellow workers have been able to secure bail, and they remained locked behind the bars of the Cook County Jail. From behind the bars of that institution, the class-war prisoners have managed to smuggle out the weekly menu from the Cook of Cook Jail.
From The Industrial Worker of April 27, 1918:
If one man has a dollar he didn’t work for,
some other man worked for a dollar he didn’t get.
-Big Bill Haywood
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 8, 1918
From I.W.W. Songs, General Defense Edition
From Songs of the Workers, 14th Edition, April 1918:
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
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
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.
You, O, Men and Women and Children of Labor,
You can end forever the wrongs your class has endured,
You have but to think within yourselves,
You have but to act within your class,
You must organize as you work together.
Think, Organize, Act Together.
Industrial Freedom will come to all.
-Big Bill Haywood
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 1, 1918
For May Day: Workers May Pole with Message from Bill Haywood
Workers May Pole for 1894 by Walter Crane:
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