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Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 8, 1913
Colorado Federation of Labor Issues Call for State Convention
From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of December 6, 1913:
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Tag: International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths and Helpers
Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1911, Part II: Found Touring California and Speaking on Behalf of McNamara Brothers
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 16, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1911, Part II
Found in California Speaking on Behalf of McNamara Brothers
From The Sacramento Bee of November 14, 1911:
“MOTHER” Jones, known throughout the country as a forceful speaker on Socialistic and Labor questions is coming to Sacramento. She will be he principal speaker at the “Capital and Labor” drama that is to be staged in the Clunie Theater to-morrow night. It is announced in local labor circles that Mother Jones is to speak in defense of the McNamara Brothers, now on trial in Los Angeles for the alleged dynamiting of the Los Angeles Times.
The drama “Capital and Labor” that is to be played at the Clunie Theater to-morrow night is in the nature of a benefit for the strikers in the local shops. It will be under the personal direction of Paul Gerson who will be supported by William A. Lowery member of the Blacksmith’s Local of San Francisco, who will appear in the role of the black smith in the play.
The receipts from the play, it is understood, will go into an emergency fund. From this fund relief will be given those unskilled laborers who were not organized at the time the strike was called and who hence are not entitled to strike benefits.
The company which is to stage the play is made up of professional talent and a good production is expected.
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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Phillips Russell on the Shopmen’s Strike against the Harriman Lines
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 3, 1911
“Switched off the Main Line” by Phillips Russell
From the International Socialist Review of November 1911:
ON the last of September, the long delayed strike of the System Federation among the shopmen of the Harriman lines took place, extending from the middle west to the Gulf in the south and taking in all that territory westward to the Pacific ocean.
The System Federation comprises the shopmen of ten different organizations. the principal ones being the International Association of Machinists, Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Brotherhood of Blacksmiths and Helpers, International Association of Sheet Metal Workers, the steamfitters, clerks, painters, engine hostlers and members of the Federal Labor Union. The first five mentioned are the leading organizations involved. The international presidents of these unions, having had many conferences with Vice-President Kruttschnitt of the Harriman lines, finally called the strike on three lines, these lines being the Illinois Central, the Southern Pacific and the Union Pacific lines.
The union officials claimed that 25,000 men came out. The railroad heads asserted there were only a few thousand at most.
In this strike there are just two questions with which the men in the ranks need concern themselves, and these are-hours and wages. The matter of recognition early in the fight was made the most of, but of all the issues involved, this was the most insignificant. However, the Federation heads insisted on making recognition the leading demand and pushing the first two fundamentals into the background.
Of all the questions at issue, that pertaining to the hours of labor is supreme. Men on strike can afford to make the matter of wages a secondary issue. It is the hours that count, for it cannot be too often repeated that shorter hours in variably mean higher wages.
Several thousand unorganized workers followed the union men out, and having been given the impression that the revolt was for an eight hour day and better conditions, they were eager for the fight.
But on learning that the question of hours and conditions was not going to figure in the struggle, and on hearing the incessant chant of the Federation heads that they asked only recognition for the Federation, the unorganized men soon lost interest and began to drift back into the shops.
