Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Phillips Russell on the Shopmen’s Strike against the Harriman Lines

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Quote Joe Hill, General Strike, Workers Awaken, LRSB Oct 1919—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 3, 1911
“Switched off the Main Line” by Phillips Russell

From the International Socialist Review of November 1911:

Title re Harriman  RR Shopmen Strike by P Russell, ISR p268, Nov 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.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Daily Bulletin: Steel Barons Seek to Discourage Strikers; 22 Workers Killed Thus Far

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Quote Mother Jones, Strikes are not peace Clv UMWC p537, Sept 16, 1919—–

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 12, 1919
News from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Steel Strike Headquarters

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of October 10, 1919:

GSS Casualties, BDB p2, Oct 10, 1919—–

STEEL BARONS ENDEAVORING TO DISCOURAGE STRIKERS
—–

LYING PAMPHLETS ARE NOW BEING CIRCULATED
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(Special United Press Wire.)

Pittsburgh, Oct. 10.-Charging distribution of unfair propaganda, leaders in the steel strike have protested against the circulation of handbills, in which the strikers are urged to collect benefits due them from strike headquarters. Union heads declare these pamphlets are being distributed by the operators in a frantic effort to create friction between the strikers and their leaders. Strike headquarters here announced that many foreigners in some districts, are storming the offices of their districts leaders in compliance with the circulars’ request.

Rioting broke out at Clairton, near here, this morning, when several foreigners it is alleged, expressed their intentions of returning to work. One man was shot and seriously wounded, three were stabbed and many were beaten, when state troops appeared on the scene and attempted to restore order.

—–

MORE BRUTAL THAN COSSACKS.

(Special to The Bulletin.)

Pittsburgh, Pa.-“More brutal than the German uhlans raiding Belgium! Worse than the Don cossacks in the days of the czars!”

That’s how John Fitzpatrick, lender of the great steel strike, describes the Pennsylvania state constabulary.

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Hellraisers Journal: 110 Seattle Unions Call for General Strike to Begin Thursday at 10 A. M.; 60,000 Workers Will Join Walk-Out

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Seattle General Strike, Set for Thursday, SUR p1, Feb 3, 1919—–

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 4, 1919
Seattle, Washington – General Strike of 60,000 Workers Set for Thursday

Seattle General Strike, All Unions To Go Out, SUR p1, Feb 3, 1919

Seattle General Strike, Announcement Delaney, SUR p1, Feb 3, 1919

At 10 o’clock next Thursday morning 60,000 organized workers in the city of Seattle will stand shoulder to shoulder in the first general strike that has ever been successfully inaugurated in the history of this country. Insolently and contemptuously Mr. Charles Piez and his labor-snubbing shipping board threw down the defiant gauntlet which has now been taken up with a firmness of resolution and a solidarity unmatched in the annals of the American Labor movement.

The workers of the northwest believe that they have been flouted and fooled by Piez and his fellow labor-baiters, that they have been deceived and betrayed by the politicians, both state and federal, and they have resolutely grasped the only weapon over which they have any direct control, determined to make a fight that will demonstrate whether or not they have the power to secure the justice that has been denied them by industrial barons and bureaucratic despots.

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Hellraisers Journal: Seattle Union Record: Thousands Cheer for Big Strike as Mass Meeting Jams Hippodrome to the Doors

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Quote John McKelvey re Stt GS Shipyards, SUR p1, Jan 27, 1919—–

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 28, 1919
Seattle, Washington – “Mass Meeting Endorses Big Strike”

From the Seattle Union Record of January 27, 1919:

Seattle General Strike, Mass Meeting Endorses, SUR p1, Jan 27, 1919

SHIPWORKERS ARE IN FIGHT TO WIN
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Jamming the big Hippodrome to its doors with cheering thousands on Sunday afternoon [January 26th], the Boilermakers, Iron Shipbuilders and Helpers held what was probably the largest and most enthusiastic meeting of organized labor which has been held in the Northwest.

The last doubt, if one still existed, that the big union stood behind the industrial battle as one man was dispelled by the meeting. Impressed not only with what it meant to them, but what it means to all of labor, a motion to endorse the strike was carried by a unanimous standing vote and three rousing cheers.

Jack Duschack, business agent of the union, was the first to speak. He told the story of the endeavor of the Metal Trades Council to secure living wages for the workers.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1918, Part II-Found in San Francisco on Behalf of Tom Mooney

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Quote Mother Jones, Mission for Mooney, SF EXmr p7, Dec 12, 1918

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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 21, 1919
Mother Jones News for December 1918, Part II
-Mother Found in San Francisco on Behalf of Tom Mooney

From the San Francisco Examiner of December 12, 1918:

‘Mother’ Jones to Aid Mooney
in His Fight for Liberty
—–

Labor Leader Represents 500,000 Workers
in Appeal for Man’s Release.
—–

Mother Jones, Ft Wy Jr Gz p3, Dec 17, 1917

“Mother” (Mary) Jones, labor leader, arrived in San Francisco last night from Chicago to urge a new trial for Thomas J. Mooney, serving a life sentence for the Preparedness Day bomb murders.

Armed with credentials from the Illinois State Federation of Labor and the Chicago Federation of Labor and a letter from Governor Lowden of Illinois, “Mother” Jones said her first errand will be to obtain an audience with Governor William D. Stephens, who recently commuted Mooney’s death sentence.

“Mother” Jones declared her dissatisfaction with the imprisonment of Mooney, who, she said, was innocent and so held by the great mass of the labor organizations that had sent her here. She said:

I believe this is an issue that goes to the very heart of the judicial system, not only of California, but of the entire nation. That is what I shall try to present to Governor Stephens.

The organizations that sent me to San Francisco number many hundreds of thousands of workers and behind them are 500,000 more, the mineworkers, who are with me on this mission.

The visitor was met by San Francisco and Oakland members of the International Workers’ Defense League at the Ferry building. She went to the Hotel Clark. “Mother” Jones will address some of the labor bodies during her stay in California.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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