Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: Ruling Class Violence & the Lawless Month of August 1917

9th September 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday September 9, 1917
From the International Socialist Review – Month of Lawlessness

During the month of August of this year, the Ruling Class was particularly violent in its drive to keep the Working Class under its firm control. The latest edition of the Review makes plain that there is one law for rulers of industry and another for those they rule.

Cover: International Socialist Review, September 1917:

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Poem for Frank Little, “The Man That Was Hung”

3rd September 20173rd November 2021 Janet RayeFrank Little

We’ll remember you, Frank Little!
…We’ll repeat your name
And remember that you died for us.
The red flag that you dropped
A million hands will carry on.
-Phillips Russell

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday September 3, 1917
Butte, Montana – Organizer Frank Little Remembered

From the International Socialist Review of September 1917:

“To Frank Little” by Phillips Russell

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Hellraisers Journal: Idaho National Guard Invades Washington, Arrests IWW Lumber Strike Leaders at Spokane Union Hall

31st August 20179th September 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday August 31, 1917
Spokane, Washington – Local Leaders of I. W. W. Held by Military

From the Great Falls Daily Tribune of August 30, 1917:

Spokane, Aug. 29.-[…..]

James Rowan, district secretary of the I. W. W. for the northwestern states, who ordered a general strike, is still held as a military prisoner in the county jail with 11 other alleged I. W. W. They were arrested here by Major Wilkins August 19, the day before the strike was to have become effective.

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From the International Socialist Review of August 1917:

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General Strike of Lumber Workers

AS we go to press a telegram brings the news of a general strike of all lumber workers west of the Mississippi river. It reads as follows:

Seattle, Wash., July 17. General strike has been called by Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 500 of the I. W. W. Thousands responding to call. Solidarity fine. No scabs so far. John Martin.

The lumber trust and its henchmen, the state officials, county and city officials, with the aid of the militia, are resorting to the most ruthless methods to break the strike. Halls have been closed, strikers by the hundreds arrested and thrown in jails, or herded in stockades, but still the spirits of resistance grows. The lumber jacks have made up their minds that they are tired of the rotten conditions, and the long hours, and they will simply not tolerate them any longer. They are out to win this fight, and the $500,000 defense fund raised by the Lumbermen’s Association will not stop them. If the Lumbermen’s Association can raise half a million dollars to defend their profits, then the “jacks” say that the Lumbermen’s Association can raise half a million more dollars to increase the pay of the lumber jacks. Late reports state that the authorities are backing down and the halls are being reopened. The September Labor Day edition of the REVIEW will have an illustrated article covering the strike which we hope to call—How the Lumber Jacks Won!

[Drawing by Robert Minor added to article.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: 121 IWW & Socialist Party Men Enter Chicago Jail

24th August 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday August 24, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – Anti-War Prisoners Enter Bridewell

Cover of the International Socialist Review for August 1917:

A reminder of our Fellow Workers and Comrades now behind the prison bars-

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121 Behind the Prison Bars

One hundred twenty-one men entering Bridewell Work House, Chicago.
They were sentenced to one year’s hard labor by Judge Landis for refusing to register.

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One Hundred and Twenty-One Men

THE following accounts of the trial and imprisonment of 121 Socialists and members of the I. W. W. who voluntarily gave themselves up to the sheriff rather than register is taken from the Chicago newspapers.

Judge Landis first won fame by fining the Standard Oil Co., $29,000,000.00—which of course was never paid.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “Street Car Workers Win”-Bloomington, Illinois

19th August 201719th August 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday August 19, 1917
Bloomington, Illinois – Victory for Street Car Strikers

From the International Socialist Review of August 1917:

STREET CAR WORKERS WIN

IN SPITE of the fact that more than one thousand Illinois soldiers were rushed to Bloomington, Ill., in record time, the street car workers won their strike.

The solidarity of labor was 100 per cent strong. More than two thousand employees of the Alton shops downed tools at three o’clock on the afternoon of July 6th and marched to the office of the street car company, where they demanded that the car strike be brought to a satisfactory settlement at once. Every union in Bloomington lined up behind the strikers.

The big power house was closed. Newspapers were unable to misrepresent the strike as there was no power to run the presses, and many of the big industrial plants had to close down for the same reason.

This is a striking example of how solidarity means success. If the workers will stand together as they did in Bloomington they can always win.

From The Chicago Daily Tribune of July 7, 1917:

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Hellraisers Journal: The American Socialist Banned From the Mails, Issues Statement to Readers

10th July 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 10, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – Official Organ of the Socialist Party Suppressed

From the American Socialist of July 7, 1917:

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A STATEMENT TO OUR READERS

THE EDITION of June 30th, of THE AMERICAN SOCIALIST, our Liberty Edition, has been held up by the Solicitor General of the postal department at Washington as to whether it is mailable.

For this reason, many subscribers have not received their paper. We are still hoping to have this issue declared mailable and hope to have this and future issues, in regular form, go out as usual.

Our paper will be published regularly. Every effort will be made to comply with the law and at the same time issue a publication that will be a credit to the Socialist movement. There should be no let-up in getting subscriptions. We must continue to rely entirely on your efforts in increasing our army of readers, now as always.

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review on Mooney Case: “They Are Building the Gallows”

3rd July 20173rd July 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 3, 1917
San Francisco, California – Report on Tom Mooney Frame-Up

From the International Socialist Review:

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IT HAS been proven that Tom Mooney was framed up. We who are interesting ourselves in his case were glad, after our long and terrible struggle, when we were able to offer the public the absolute and unquestioned proof that Mooney’s conviction was the result of perjury bought and paid for. We were glad to be able to silence arguments with actual letters in the handwriting of the chief perjury conspirator, which letters tell in black and white that Mooney’s death is sought by false testimony. We have silenced argument.

Franklin A. Griffin, the judge who pronounced the death sentence upon Mooney, has angrily demanded that Mooney be given another trial, free of perjury. The newspapers which formerly demanded his blood have now ceased to call for Mooney’s death, and two of them are demanding that the disgraceful conviction be undone.

All of California and American Labor has ceased to discuss personal differences and has demanded in one tremendous voice that Mooney, Mrs. Mooney, Billings, Weinberg and Nolan be freed. Every national figure in the labor movement of the United States is active now in behalf of the humble labor unionists in the jail of San Francisco.

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Hellraisers Journal: Everett Prisoners Freed; IWW Organizing Drives Declared in Lumber, Mining, and Marine Transport

1st June 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Don’t Mourn, Organize!
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 1, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: Telegram from Washington

INDUSTRIAL ACTION NEWS

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ON the 5th of November, 1916, five working men, members of the Industrial Workers of the World, were shot to death on the docks at Everett, Wash., by hirelings of either the mill owners of the State of Washington, or the Commercial Club of Everett, Wash. Forty-six other workers were wounded.

For this crime, seventy-three workers were jailed for six months under various charges and on the 5th day of May, this year, Thomas H. Tracy was acquitted of a murder charge after a trial lasting two months. Now comes the good news of “all prisoners released.” Another clean cut victory for the fighting I. W. W.!
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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “Hunger, The Master Strategist”

23rd May 201723rd May 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

If blood be the price of your lawful wealth
Good God! we have bought it fair.
-Unknown Proletarian

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 23, 1917
Worldwide – Hunger Rules the Earth

From the International Socialist Review of May 1917:

Hunger by C. D. Batchelor

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Hellraisers Journal: “To the Shame of Labor” by Robert Minor, “Mooney Plot Exposed!”

8th May 2017 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 8, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: The Mooney Case

TO THE SHAME OF LABOR

By ROBERT MINOR

W. Bourke Cockran is a democratic leader, as well as the most noted lay orator in expounding the doctrines of the Catholic Church. Bourke Cockran is known internationally for his remarkable mentality and almost unequaled oratory in Congress and upon the democratic platform. He cannot be accused of being prejudiced in favor of violent overturners of society. Cockran spent six weeks in San Francisco as volunteer chief counsel for Tom Mooney, and at that time steeped himself in every detail, confidential or otherwise, of the entire story of the prosecution of Mooney, Billings, Nolan, Weinberg and Mrs. Mooney on the charge of blowing up the preparedness parade. One of the highest-priced attorneys in the world, he charged for his services—nothing.

When a cynical jury of twelve business men and retired derelicts sentenced Tom Mooney to hang, Cochran told me that he had never received so heavy a blow in his life. He said that if such things could be, the nation was rotting at its foundation.

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