Tag: International Socialist Review

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: W. H. Thompson on the Strike “Settlements” in West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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HdLn re WV SPA NEC Investigation Fail, Lbr Str p1, June 13, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 10, 1913
W. H. Thompson Opines on Strike Settlements in West Virginia

From the International Socialist Review of August 1913:

Strike “Settlements” in West Virginia

By W. H. Thompson

[Editor of Huntington Socialist and Labor Star]

W. H. Thompson, ISR p12, July 1913

IN an article in the July REVIEW I detailed at some length the manner in which the odious Hatfield-Haggerty “settlement” of the Kanawha strike was ”put over” on the workers by the coercion of Hatfield and the trickery of the United Mine Workers’ officials. I have received numerous letters from persons prominent in the Socialist party and in the mine workers organization severely criticizing my statements and intimating in very forceful language that I knew not of what I wrote. In justice to these writers I will say that in every instance they were citizens of other states, and, with few exceptions, have never been in West Virginia.

As proof of the accuracy of my statements made in that article I wish to chronicle the happenings in the affected zone since it was written.

The coal miners of Paint Creek and Cabin Creek have unanimously repudiated the agreement entered into for them by Hatfield-Haggerty & Co., and are again on strike. Furthermore, they have compelled Haggerty and the other compromising officials of the U. M. W. of A. to retreat from their former position as absolute dictators, and to grant to their strike a tardy official recognition.

These leaders were placed in a rather peculiar position in thus being compelled to endorse a strike against the agreement they themselves had forced upon the miners, and to “save their face” they loudly proclaimed that the coal barons had violated the provisions of the holy Hatfield Proposition and thus justified the strike.

This brought forth a hot reply from the coal operators’ association, which proved another assertion of mine, to the effect that there was nothing in the Hatfield proposition demanding any changes in their attitude toward the miners. They said in part:

“There was never any promise or agreement on our part to take back strikers or to surrender our rights of hiring or discharging men as we saw fit. We entered into no agreement with the United Mine Workers. We promised the Governor that we would do certain things toward ending the violence on Paint and Cabin Creeks. We have kept this promise in the strictest good faith and there is no foundation for any statement to the contrary.”

In regard to this Dean Haggerty made a public statement in which he said:

“Owing to my absence from the city on important business I have as yet been unable to prepare a detailed reply to the statement of the operators’ association. But I shall do so shortly and show that the Governor’s proposition has been grossly violated.”

The Dean made this promise of a “detailed statement” on June 22, but as yet he has failed to make the statement or show wherein the operators had grossly violated the Hatfield proposition. No one knows better than Haggerty that there was nothing in the proposition that the operators would have any call to violate.

In the meantime the strike in the Paint and Cabin Creek district grows in intensity, and conditions are rapidly approaching the guerilla warfare stage. The criminal mine guards are again in evidence and are using the same old tactics to stir up violence. Already one battle has taken place. This called forth from Governor Hatfield a long open letter to Sheriff Bonner Hill, he, of “armored train” fame, in which he declared that if the civil authorities could not preserve peace in the strike zone they should resign. He also intimated that he might summarily remove such officials as were lax in their duties. When it is remembered that Hatfield tried to “preserve peace” up there with the entire state army and failed, and that he has not as yet resigned his office, his advice appears a little premature, to say the least.

The New River “Settlement”

It would seem to the casual observer that Haggerty & Co. would have learned a few things from their failure to “put over” the now infamous Kanawha Settlement, but, alas, they belong to that specie of old line craft union leaders who never learn and never change. At the very time the Kanawha miners were repudiating the agreement entered into for them by these gentlemen, Haggerty, Hatfield and the New River operators were concocting another settlement prescription to be used upon the restless and dissatisfied New River miners.

This proposition, which was agreed upon by the gentlemen who drew it up, was meant for no other purpose than to chloroform the growing spirit of unrest among the miners in this field and to keep them producing coal to fill the contracts of the Kanawha operators whose mines are closed by the strike there.

The New River agreement is a replica of the infamous Hatfield proposition to settle the Kanawha strike. The workers realize absolutely nothing from its acceptance. And to effectually prevent the miners from ever gaining any concessions under it the following clause is appended:

“Sixth-All matters of dispute, with reference to the above proposition, as between the individual operator and miners in each mine in the New River and Virginia districts, to be referred to a commission of four, two of whom are to be selected by the operators and two by the miners neither of whom are to be interested in mines or mining, either directly or indirectly, and that where a controversy arises, both operator and miner may appear before the said board, and the board, after hearing the evidence from both sides, shall render a decision, and any decision signed by any three of said board shall be final and binding on both operators and miners. Should said board be unable to reach a majority decision, then they shall take the matter to the governor of the state, who shall act as umpire and whose decision shall be final and binding on both operators and miners, and there shall be no appeal therefrom.”

See any chance for the real interested parties, the coal miners, having any say in matters of dispute?

Bear in mind, please, that this agreement, contract, settlement or whatever it is, was never submitted to the miners for their acceptance or rejection. It was accepted for them by the wise Christian leaders whom God and the United Mine Workers of America sent here to act for them. And their interests are further protected Umpire Hatfield from whose decision no appeal can be taken.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: W. H. Thompson on the Strike “Settlements” in West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: John Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Workers at Oxnard, Part III

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote June 8, Lizarraras to Gompers re Unity of Japanese n Mexicans at Oxnard CA, ISR p78, Aug 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 7, 1903
Oxnard, California – J. Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Laborers, Part III

From The International Socialist Review of August 1903

A Foretaste of the Orient 

[-by John Murray Jr.]

[III of III]

Oxnard re Funeral of L Vasquez, SF Call p2, Mar 28, 1903
The San Francisco Call
March 28, 1903

Frightened at the turn [the strike] had now taken, Major Driffel, of the Beet Sugar Company, asked for a joint meeting of committees from the unions, the farmers and the company. The first day’s conference came to nothing, but at the second meeting the employers realized that they were facing a labor trust that had cornered all the available labor power in the valley, and so the men’s scale of prices was agreed to, with an additional pledge that all the idle union men would be immediately employed.

Twice, after this, the company tried to import a carload of scabs from Los Angeles-even going so far as to lock the last shipment in its car and receive them at the station with armed guards-but each time the new men joined the union as soon as they reached Oxnard-the last lot escaping from the car windows.

At this juncture, the Los Angeles County Council of Labor passed resolutions favoring the organization of all Asiatics now in California. This was done upon the recommendation of Comrade F. C. Wheeler, organizer for the A. F. of L. in Southern California, who had visited Oxnard, organized the two unions, and was much impressed by their fighting qualities.

So far everything was well with the beet thinners, the company whipped in the first battle of the local class-war and the field hands unionized. But a most unexpected and disheartening blow capped the climax of their struggles-a blow from behind. Samuel Gompers, while granting the Mexicans all rights and privileges, refused to grant the Japanese union a charter, and in his letter to Secretary Lizarraras made the following remarkable statement:

It is further understood that in issuing this charter to your union, it will under no circumstance accept membership of any Chinese or Japanese. The laws of our country prohibit Chinese workmen or laborers from entering the United States, and propositions for the extension of the exclusion laws to the Japanese have been made on several occasions.

In making such an extraordinary ruling, President Gompers has violated the expressed principles of the A. F. of L., which states that race, color, religion or nationality, shall be no bar to fellowship in the American Federation of Labor.

California, alone, contains over forty thousand Japanese who, if unorganized, will be a continuous menace to union men.

“Better go to hell with your family than to heaven by your self,” said the speaker whose stirring words decided the Mexican union to send back its charter to President Gompers, along with the following letter:

Oxnard, Cal.,
June 8, 1903.

Mr. Samuel Gompers,
Pres. American Federation of Labor,
Washington, D. C.
     Dear Sir: Your letter of May 13, in which you say: “The admission with us of the Japanese Sugar Beet & Farm Laborers into the American Federation of Labor cannot be considered,” is received.
     We beg to say in reply that our Japanese brothers, here, were the first to recognize the importance of co-operating and uniting in demanding a fair wage scale.
They are composed mostly of men without families, unlike the Mexicans in this respect.
They were not only just with us, but they were generous. When one of our men was murdered by hired assassins of the oppressors of labor, they gave expression of their sympathy in a very substantial form.
     In the past we have counciled, fought and lived on very short rations with our Japanese brothers, and toiled with them in the fields, and they have been uniformly kind and considerate. We would be false to them and to ourselves and to the cause of Unionism if we, now, accepted privileges for ourselves which are not accorded to them. We are going to stand by men who stood by us in the long, hard fight which ended in a victory over the enemy. We therefore respectfully petition the A. F. of L. to grant us a charter under which we can unite all the Sugar Beet & Field Laborers of Oxnard, without regard to their color or race. We will refuse any other kind of charter, except one which will wipe out race prejudices and recognize our fellow workers as being as good as ourselves.
“I am ordered by the Mexican union to write this letter to you and they fully approve its words.

J. M. Lizarraras,
Sec’y S. B. & F. L. Union, Oxnard.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: John Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Workers at Oxnard, Part III” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: John Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Workers at Oxnard, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote June 8, Lizarraras to Gompers re Unity of Japanese n Mexicans at Oxnard CA, ISR p78, Aug 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 6, 1903
Oxnard, California – J. Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Laborers, Part II

From The International Socialist Review of August 1903

A Foretaste of the Orient 

[-by John Murray Jr.]

[II of III]

Oxnard re Death of Vasquez, SF Call p2, Mar 27, 1903
The San Francisco Call
March 27, 1903
[After the murder of Louis Vasquez] the unarmed union men were horrified but not frightened. They pursued and captured the fleeing Arnold, and, after disarming him, handed him over to the police. Sheriff McMartin himself told me that if it were not for the protection afforded by the union leaders, Arnold would have been hung on the spot. In twenty minutes the whole affair was over. No arrests were made, because none but “strike breakers” were guilty of assault, and the next day the daily press all over the country broke out with scare heads telling of the “Riot in Oxnard.”

 

Proof of the complicity of the town and county officials was quick to follow. The place of holding the inquest was twice changed from one town to another-making the summoning of witnesses a most difficult feat-and the dead man’s body hurriedly given to the unions on two hours notice in such a decayed condition that immediate burial was necessary, thereby attempting to prevent the public demonstration of a big funeral. But in spite of this most vile scheme, nearly a thousand men escorted the body to its grave. Japanese and Mexicans, side by side, dumb through lack of a common speech, yet eloquent in expressions of fraternity, marched with uncovered heads through the streets of Oxnard. On the hearse was a strange symbol to Western eyes, a huge lotus flower-an offering from the Japanese union.

 From the highest to the lowest, the officials of the county acted as one man in their attempts to suppress public investigation, the final proof of which culminated in the act of the district attorney, Selby, who refused to hold a preliminary examination of Deputy Constable Arnold, although nearly a dozen witnesses testified, at the inquest, that Arnold shot an unresisting union man in the neck and precipitated the killing.  

The worth of the Japanese and Mexicans as labor organizers was now put to proof. At the Japanese headquarters there was system like that of a railroad office or an army in the field. They had a well-trained corps of officers-secretaries, interpreters, captains of squads, messengers, and most complete system of information. A map of the valley hung on the wall, with the location of the different camps of beet thinners plainly marked. Yards upon yards of brown paper placards were constantly being tacked up, giving in picturesque Japanese lettering the latest bulletins, directions or orders.

Meetings of the executive committees from the two unions were constantly being held for agreement as to mutual action. I was intensely interested at the manner in which they got over the difficulties of language at the conferences. The joint committees would gather around a long table-at opposite ends sat the respective presidents, secretaries and interpreters-and first the question to be discussed would be started in English, then each nationality in turn would listen to an explanation of the affair in its own language and come to the conclusion; then the results would be again stated in English and the final agreement recorded by the secretaries. Respect for order was a marked feature of these meetings, each nationality keeping politely silent while the other had the matter before it for discussion and decision. The innate courtesy, which is always found in Spanish blood, was fully equaled by the decorum of the Japanese.  

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: John Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Workers at Oxnard, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: John Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Workers at Oxnard, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote June 8, Lizarraras to Gompers re Unity of Japanese n Mexicans at Oxnard CA, ISR p78, Aug 1903—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 5, 1903
Oxnard, California – J. Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Laborers, Part I

From The International Socialist Review of August 1903

A Foretaste of the Orient 

[-by John Murray Jr.]

[I of III]

Oxnard Wounded, SF Call p9, Mar 25, 1903
The San Francisco Call
March 25, 1903

The town of Oxnard is in Ventura county, about sixty miles north of Los Angeles, and was founded by the American Beet Sugar Company, in which Henry T. Oxnard is the central figure. On the evening of March 24, of the present year, the Associated Press dispatches announced that there was “riot” in Oxnard — that the Japanese and Mexican unions were terrorizing the town, shooting and killing peaceable non-union men, whose only desire was to exercise the right of American citizens and work for any wage they chose.

Being within a few hours’ ride of the place, the next morning’s train carried me to the gates of the sugar factory. My only companions on the car were a parcel of drummers, who were quite naturally anxious to know just how peaceful a state the town might now be in. To this end anyone who might know, and especially the conductor, was cross-questioned in a most thorough manner:

“How many men were killed-could the sheriff control the situation-was it safe for a traveling man to go about his business on the streets?” were some of the queries that received apparently confusing replies.

“Yes, there was a man killed and four others wounded-all union men-and the town is now quiet.”

“How’s that,” said a salesman for a wholesale hardware firm, “union men start a riot and only union men shot? Something queer about that! I know a house that shipped revolvers here last week-who bought ’em, that’s what I’d like to know. Couldn’t have been the unions if all the dead men are on the other side,”-which was without doubt a common sense conclusion from a purely business point of view.

Certainly the town seemed quiet, as I walked up from the station, the only noticeable thing being a little squad of Japanese union pickets that met the train and were easily recognized by their white buttons labeled “J. M. L. A.” (Japanese-Mexican Labor Association) over the insignia of a rising sun and clasped hands. Oxnard was full of those white buttons-and when the first thousand of them had been distributed, and no more obtainable, hundreds of beet thinners put red buttons in their button holes to show that they were union men.

On the presentation of my blue card, I was warmly welcomed at headquarters by J. M. Lizarraras and Y. Yamagachi, secretaries of the Mexican and Japanese unions. They had a plain tale to tell, and one which I found was fully borne out by facts known to all the towns folk-for even the petty merchants, strange to say, freely acknowledged that the men had been bullied, swindled and shot down, without reason or provocation.

The Beet Sugar Company had fostered the organization of a scab contracting company-known as the Western Agricultural Contracting Company-whose double purpose was to reduce the price of thinning beets from five to as low as four and a quarter dollars an acre, and at the same time undermine and destroy the unions. Not content with the lowering of wages, they also forced the men to accept store orders instead of cash payments, with its usual accompaniment of extortionate prices for the merchandise sold. These tricks, of course, are as old as the hills, and consequently when the men rebelled there was a great surprise among the labor skinners, who had no idea that Japanese and Mexicans would ever have wit enough to unite for mutual protection, or that if they did temporarily unite, their organization could possibly last for any length of time, with the obstacles of different tongues, temperaments and social environments to bring speedy wreck to such a union. But the men did organize, did hang together-in spite of the rain of bullets which were poured down upon them — and finally whipped Oxnard’s beet sugar company, with its backing of millions.

To Socialists it is needless to point out that to whip a capitalist to-day means nothing more than that you must fight him again to-morrow, but the significance of this particular skirmish, in the great class war, lies in the fact that workers from the Occident and Orient, strangers in tongues, manners and customs, gathered together in a little western village, should so clearly see their class interest rise above all racial feelings of distrust.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: John Murray on Unity of Japanese and Mexican Workers at Oxnard, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: “The Betrayal of the West Virginia Red Necks” by Fred Merrick, Editor of Pittsburgh Justice, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913————–

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 8, 1913
Socialist Editor Fred Merrick on the Betrayal of the West Virginia Miners, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:

HdLn WV Betrayal by SPA by Merrick, ISR p18, July 1913

[Part II of II]

The National officials of the union called a convention April 22, 1913, at Charleston, of delegates from Paint and Cabin Creeks and Coal River strike zones. When this convention was convened it was found that more than 90 per cent of the delegates and two officials of the union were bitterly opposed to the governor’s proposition, which was simply the bare ultimatum of the operators. These delegates for days arose and rehearsed the year of bitter suffering as conclusive argument why they should not go, back on such a basis of compromise.

Day after day the officials argued and coaxed and threatened. The “pay-roll” worked the streets and hotel lobbies at night like ward heeling politicians, recalcitrant delegates were doped in saloons and every dirty trick known to labor union politics was attempted. On Wednesday evening Harold W. Houston, at that time Secretary of the Socia]ist party of West Virginia and attorney for the U. M. W. of A. made a radical Socialist speech which was applauded vigorously by the miners. He won their confidence.

WV Brotherhood Union Scabs Who Agreed to Run Bull Moose Special ag Holly Grove, ISR p21, July 1913

But Friday, April 25th, rolled around and the “God damn red necks couldn’t be controlled,” a prominent official put it. The miners wouldn’t accept the compromise. Hatfield became impatient over the inability of Haggerty, Vasey & Company to deliver the goods, and he issued his ultimatum of April 25. With this as a club the officials tried to scare the “red necks,” but men who had fought Baldwin guards and faced machine guns and dum-dum bullets weren’t much afraid of the threats of a Hatfield.

So the last trick was pulled from the stacked cards of craft union politics. Harold Houston was approached. He was made to believe that it was the best thing for the miners to go back. He was then told that he was the only one the miners had confidence enough in to listen to and that if he would advocate their acceptance of the proposition the delegates would accede. Houston weakened and agreed that on condition that a communication be sent the governor interpreting “discrimination” to mean that no striker should be refused employment he would advise acceptance. This was done and the miners reluctantly followed the advice of their trusted lawyer “leader” and adjourned April 26th with the distinct understanding that the national officials would stand by them against any discrimination-that “all or none must return to work.”

But the operators saw that the miners had begun to weaken and they gave Hatfield to distinctly understand that the “agitators” would not be taken back. And despite the months of persecution and the imprisonment of many Socialists, there were scores more on the creeks. Hatfield, true to his capitalist interests, immediately issued his now famous 24-hour ultimatum of April 27th threatening deportation to all miners and sympathizers unless every miner in the strike zone was at work Monday morning, April 28th, and in this, distinctly said regarding the re-employment of all the strikers, “It would be presumptuous for me to tell employers whom they should employ.” Everyone understood immediately that the “agitators” would not get back. Hundreds refused to apply for work as being a violation of the action of the convention of April 22nd, and the solemn pledges of the national officials that they would stand by the men and support them in a continuance of the strike if they did not all get back.

Despite the governor’s outrageous and unconstitutional conduct which was in addition a violation of his own flowery promises, Joe Vasey, who had been conveniently left in charge of the situation by Haggerty, issued a statement to the press which was published Monday morning as follows: “At 9:30 p. m. Governor Hatfield called up the President at Clarksburg.” Yet with the villain responsible for these outrages present, Vice President Hayes, whose “Socialism” has been used as a bait for the radical miners for years, introduced Hatfield to the miners in a disgustingly laudatory fashion and the governor then proceeded to make a speech characteristic of the finished politician, in which he said he was the laboring man’s governor and that “By God the interests don’t control me.”

Following this was the advent of the Socialist National Investigating Committee. This committee’s report should be reviewed at length, but that is impossible here. Harsh terms must be used in dealing with it, but ample proof can be adduced for every charge including personal witnesses if necessary.

The writer charges that when Debs says that the conduct of the committee was received with rejoicing and enthusiasm he either ignorantly or intentionally misrepresents the facts as scores of witnesses can be produced to prove the contrary.

The writer further brands as absolute falsehood the statement that the court martialing of “Mother” Jones, Brown, Boswell, Parsons and others occurred under Glasscock. Hatfield was inaugurated on March 4th. The Governor had full control of martial law and under Hatfield’s administration the drumhead court martial sat on March 7th and placed on trial 51 persons. The sessions of this court continued until March 12th. More than this, it can be proven that the committee’s attention was called to this error before they left Charleston and yet they deliberately returned to Chicago and sent broadcast to the country a statement they had been informed was unqualifiedly false. Witnesses can be produced to prove this also.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Betrayal of the West Virginia Red Necks” by Fred Merrick, Editor of Pittsburgh Justice, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: “The Betrayal of the West Virginia Red Necks” by Fred Merrick, Editor of Pittsburgh Justice, Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913————–

Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 7, 1913
Socialist Editor Fred Merrick on the Betrayal of the West Virginia Miners, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:

HdLn WV Betrayal by SPA by Merrick, ISR p18, July 1913

[Part I of II]

IT WILL be hopelessly impossible within the narrow confines of this brief article to give the reader more than a skeleton of the real “inside” story of the great strike raging in West Virginia, which the greed of coal operators, subserviency of political officials, especially the courts and sheriffs, brutality of heartless degenerates known as “Baldwins” or “mine guards,” drum-head court martial of the militia, duplicity of their own attorneys, misrepresentation by newspapers, treachery of many officials of their own union and the crowning act of all, the betrayal or misrepresentation of their cause to the Socialists of America by a committee elected by the National Committee to investigate conditions in West Virginia-all have utterly failed to break.

WV Gunthugs w Machine Gun, ISR p18, July 1913

To all the horrors which a strike of a year’s duration in tents on the bleak winter mountains of “Little Switzerland” means, was added the base conduct of those labor and so-called “Socialist” parasites who today make their living as advisors of the toilers without themselves undergoing the privations incident to toil and revolution. Volumes could and undoubtedly will yet be written on this phase of the West Virginia struggle which is far more vital than the spectacular battles which have been described again and again.

It is not unfair to say that the facts merely suggested here will never find publicity through the orthodox labor or Socialist press, but if the reader has his class conscious curiosity sufficiently aroused by this brief resume to thoroughly investigate the sordid tale of the betrayal of the West Virginia “red necks” as many of the officials and organizers of the U. M. W. of A. contemptuously refer to the West Virginia miners, the purpose of this story will have been accomplished. Before passing judgment on the harshness of some of the terms used in this article examine each statement of fact carefully and see if such conduct should not be described in terms calculated to arouse the militant toilers of America, whether the object be our formerly “beloved ‘Gene,” who seems to have fallen by the wayside, or our genial friend from Milwaukee.

The West Virginia strike may roughly be divided into three distinct stages:

1. The unorganized strike stage when the miners aided by the local Socialists made their valiant fight at a time when the officials of the U. M. W. of A. did absolutely nothing to help. Towards the latter part of this period “Mother” Jones appeared and helped her “boys” to “fight like hell.” The method of breaking the strike employed during this time was confined entirely to the physical brutality of Baldwin mine guards and the less efficient National guard or militia. The miners were able to handle this sort of “suppression” with some first-class “direct action.” During this period the miners scored a decisive victory.

WV Child of Martyr Estep, ISR p19, July 1913
[Correction: The orphan child of Cesco Estep
was a son, not a daughter. ]

2. Immediately following election in November different tactics were employed. Certain treacherous officials of the union deliberately asked for martial law. Following this they attempted to compromise the strike which the militia was unable to break alone. The climax of this period dominated by the officials of the U. M. W. of A; came with Hatfield’s notorious deportation ultimatum of April 27th, which was endorsed and supported enthusiastically by the officials of the U. M. W. of A. from President White down through Frank Hayes, Thomas Haggerty and Joe Vasey. However, the tactics employed of attempting to break the strike with the machine of the U. M. W. of A. failed miserably and another trick was employed.

3. This period is marked by the advent of the Socialist National Investigating Committee which endorsed the conduct of Governor Hatfield for the most part thereby giving a clean bill of health to the officials of the U. M. W. of A. who had accepted Hatfield’s “settlement,” thereby becoming the agents through whom the operators hoped to accomplish a “settlement” which police brutality, the diplomacy of Hatfield and the treachery of U. M. W. of A. officials had failed to accomplish. Due to the splendid common sense education on Socialism the miners had received for two years through the columns of the Charleston Labor Argus, edited by fearless Charles H. Boswell, the miners and local Socialists received the committee not as heroes, but as ordinary human beings. They refused to accept the “settlement” because its sponsor had been whitewashed by the committee, just as before.

The first period has been adequately dealt with by the capitalist magazines where it received more attention than was ever given it by the Socialist press, who seemed afraid of it for some reason.

The second period is marked by successive steps of compromise which are a disgrace even to the black record of the U. M. W. of A., who have so often betrayed the West Virginia miners that it has become an old story. Let us get a birds-eye view of how the machine of this organization pulled the sting out of the demands of the miners so gradually that the miners themselves did not realize that it was being done. 

1. In the early Spring of 1912, a convention of miners was called at Charleston, here it was understood the demands of the miners would be the same as elsewhere in the United States and were to include an EIGHT-HOUR DAY. As West Virginia coal is mined cheaper per ton than any other coal there is less reason for working more than eight hours than there is in other states.

2. Another convention of miners was held in Charleston in April, 1912. In the interim the Cleveland scale had been adopted and at this convention the local officials, with the acquiescence of the national organization, persuaded the miners to modify their demands to ONE-HALF the Cleveland scale and, from an EIGHTHOUR to a NINE-HOUR DAY. Following the strike, the miners kept up such a hot fight that the union officials were apparently afraid to attempt any more compromises until following the court martialing of “Mother” Jones, Brown, Boswell and other Socialists.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “The Betrayal of the West Virginia Red Necks” by Fred Merrick, Editor of Pittsburgh Justice, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: How the Coal Miners’ Victory in West Virginia Was Turned Into a “Settlement” by W. H. Thompson, Part III

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 6, 1913
West Virginia Coal Miners’ Victory Turned into “Settlement”-Part III

From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:

How a Victory Was Turned Into
a ”Settlement” in West Virginia

-by W. H.Thompson,
Editor Huntington Socialist and Labor Star

[Part III of III]

WV Learning to Shoot, ISR p17, July 1913

The miners have been forced to return to work under the old hellish condition of virtual peonage; the precedent of military drum-head trials and convictions of agitators has been firmly established, in fact the right of Mammon to rule, to rob, to crush and kill has been more firmly enthroned than ever before, and more securely guarded.

As a fitting reward for faithful service in helping to bring about the pleasing “settlement,” today’s papers carry the cheering intelligence that the U. M. W. of A., including its principal officials, has been indicted in the Federal court here, charged with being a conspiracy in restraint of trade and a buster of the sacred Sherman Anti-Trust law.

All those working class comrades who see clearly the situation in this state are pessimistic in their utterances. Personally, I know of but one thing that could possibly turn the miners’ defeat into victory and that is to initiate these mountaineers into the mysteries of Twentieth century fighting tactics, including a thorough working knowledge of that powerful weapon-industrial unionism-One Big Union, in which the rank and file decide all questions for themselves.

Note.-Last reports say that Thomas Haggerty, U. M. W. of A. official, is suing Comrade Boswell for exposures of his methods in handling the strike, alleged libel. Comrade Boswell is back on the Labor Argus to stay, and to tell the truth no matter who gets hit.

—————

The latest telegraph dispatches state that the miners in the Paint and Cabin Creek districts have repudiated the settlement and are demanding their officials to call a general strike.

[Emphasis added.[

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: How the Coal Miners’ Victory in West Virginia Was Turned Into a “Settlement” by W. H. Thompson, Part III” →

Hellraisers Journal: How the Coal Miners’ Victory in West Virginia Was Turned Into a “Settlement” by W. H. Thompson, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 5, 1913
West Virginia Coal Miners’ Victory Turned into “Settlement”-Part II

From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:

How a Victory Was Turned Into
a ”Settlement” in West Virginia

-by W. H.Thompson,
Editor Huntington Socialist and Labor Star

[Part II of III]

WV Rome Mitchell, Brant Scott, Parsons Lavender, ISR p13, July 1913

Realizing that laudatory speech-making and persuasion were not going to induce these hard-headed delegates to sell the blessing of victory for a mess of burned pottage, they were compelled to resort to downright trickery and deceit.

A committee was appointed from among the delegates to draw up a counter-proposition, setting forth the terms upon which they would be willing to return to work, this to be submitted to the governor in answer to his proposal. The committee drew up the proposition which was presented to and endorsed by the convention. It was then turned over to the officials with instructions that they present it to His Highness.

The following day the convention was given to understand that Hatfield had accepted their proposal as an amendment to his proposition. The two documents were then read and a vote was taken upon what the delegates afterwards, and now, claim they believed was the acceptance of their own proposal. However, the two propositions had been juggled in such a manner, by those who are adepts in such arts, that the miners-necessarily untrained in the gentle ways of parliamentary legerdemain, had in reality voted for and accepted the original odious Hatfield offer, their own proposition having been promptly turned down by that gentleman with the remark that he “could not force the mine owners to comply with it.” 

These things were not made public, of course, until after the convention had adjourned. You can imagine the surprise and chagrin of the miners upon being informed by the daily papers that they had tamely submitted to the dictator’s demands after he had spurned their own offer of a basis of settlement.

This information was followed by orders from headquarters at Charleston to the effect that the miners return to work at once. This they refused to do. Then the officials, escorted by detachments of the governor’s hated yellow-legs, visited the tented villages in the mountains and bluntly informed the rebellious strikers that their relief would be cut off at once and the tents burned over their heads if they did not submit to the settlement and return to work.

Under these circumstances there was nothing to do but obey and the strikers began to apply for work at the mines. All those known to have been most active during the strike were refused employment. These to the number of 400 are still idle, for the good and simple reason that they are very effectively black-listed at every coal mine in the valley. All others are working under the same, or worse conditions than existed before the strike began. 

Of course it was thoroughly realized by the powers that be that there was one remaining obstruction in the way of a complete establishment of their neatly planned “settlement.” That was the Socialist press.

Editor C. H. Boswell, of the Charleston Labor Argus, had been approached some months before and it was insinuated that a “settlement” might be arranged. He promptly and forcefully informed the “approachers” that The Argus was fighting for victory for the rank and file and that if any crooked work was attempted something would drop. Boswell was arrested a few days later and safely planted in the bull pen. The Argus, however, had continued, and the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star had also begun to show an inquisitive interest in the happenings affecting the strikers. These two agencies must be silenced, temporarily at least; decided the three-armed combination most interested in the success of the settlement. No sooner said than done. Martial law was in effect in the coal field, so the commander-in-chief simply dispatched a detail of yellow-legs to Charleston to confiscate The Labor Argus and “jug” Fred Merrick, who was suspected of being editor pro tem. The same gentle methods of suppression were used on the Huntington Star.

With all those who would doubtless make an effective protest against the deal being put over on the fighting miners by the unholy trinity, safely “jugged,” the settlement proceeded apace. The coal operators, the prostituted press and the U. M. W. of A. officials all joined in singing hosannas of praise for the highly satisfactory manner in which His Highness, Hatfield, had settled the strike.

But the last act of despotism on the part of the trinity, the confiscation of the Socialist papers, brought on unexpected complications. The Socialist and labor papers, and hundreds of the capitalist papers throughout the country severely condemned this blundering attack upon the rights of a free press. The National Socialist organization was at last shocked into action and decided to send a committee into West Virginia to find out if we really were having a fight down here. The committee arrived, established headquarters at the most expensive hotel in the capitol city and immediately went into conference with the leaders of the U. M. W. of A.

From conferences with this branch of the triumvirate the committee naturally drifted into conferences with the other branches, Hatfield, the local politicians and the coal barons.

WV Debs Berger Germer Craigo Nantz, ISR p15, July 1913

After a week devoted exclusively to these secretive but doubtless instructing conferences, and before they had visited the mining camps or talked with the local Socialists, members of the committee began talking-to the capitalist papers.

The sayings attributed to them had a familiar sound. They were practically the same sentences that the U. M. W. of A. officials had used, and that the newspapers themselves had used, and that Hatfield himself had used, to justify existing conditions and official anarchy.

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Hellraisers Journal: How the Coal Miners’ Victory in West Virginia Was Turned Into a “Settlement” by W. H. Thompson, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 4, 1913
West Virginia Coal Miners’ Victory Turned into “Settlement”-Part I

From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:

WV Settlement by WH Thompson, Tent at Holly Grove, ISR p12, July 1913

[Part I of III]

To those who have been actively engaged in the epochal struggle of the coal miners in this state the present status of affairs is anything but optimistic.

The miners after having put up a fight that won the admiration of the entire working class the country over, have lost their strike and are being driven sullenly back to the Coal Trust’s subterrean hells to produce coal for their brutal masters under the same conditions which have prevailed in the West Virginia coal fields for years, and against which these miners revolted over a year ago.

It is not my intention to give a recapitulation of the stirring events of the Paint Creek strike, but rather a hurried sketch of the manner in which a well earned victory was turned into an empty and meaningless settlement, by a combination of forces against which the miners found themselves helpless.

The coal diggers of the Kanawha valley have proven themselves to be as brave and loyal a set of men as ever established a picket line. They have stoically and uncomplainingly borne the barbaric and inhuman treatment to which they were subjected by the Coal Trust and its political creature-the state government. They had by the sheer force of solidarity, and in spite of the weakness of the antiquated tactics taught them by the officials of the United Mine Workers of America, brought the coal barons to their knees. The state government, too, had exhausted its ingenuity and failed to break the strike. There remained but one hope for the masters of the mines. That was to enlist in their behalf the United Mine Workers of America.

When in the course of these remarks I use the expression ”U. M. W. of A.,” it is meant to apply, not to the men who actually dig coal, but rather to the official oligarchy known as the National Executive Board, members of which were handling the strike in this state.

Overtures were evidently made to these representatives by Governor H. D. Hatfield, acting for the coal autocracy. An agreement was reached, and the three organizations, viz: the Coal Trust, the State government and the U. M. W. of A., acting co-operatively, played the last card which won for the mine owners that which they would have never gained unaided by their last ally.

Everything being “understood” and agreed upon, Hatfield made public what he termed a “proposal for the settlement of the Kanawha strike.”

The proposal made no mention of the three cardinal demands of the miners the elimination of the hated guard system, the right to belong to a union and the payment of the “Kanawha Scale” of wages. In fact it offered absolutely nothing in the way of concessions from the operators-merely insisting-when sheared of its luxuriant verbosity-that the miners return to work under the same conditions that existed before they struck-if the mine owners would let them.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: How the Coal Miners’ Victory in West Virginia Was Turned Into a “Settlement” by W. H. Thompson, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Conviction of Alexander Scott, Editor of the Weekly Issue of Passaic Co.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Alexander Scott re Conviction n Free Speech, ISR p11, July 913—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 3, 1913
The Conviction of  Alexander Scott, Editor of the Weekly Issue

From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:

The Conviction of Alexander Scott

Alexander Scott, ISR p10, July 1913

A STATES Prison sentence of not more than fifteen years nor less than one year, with a fine of $250, was imposed, June 6th, on Alexander Scott, editor of the Weekly Issue, official organ of the Socialist party of Passaic County, who was convicted on June 3rd on a charge of “aiding and abetting hostilities to the government of the City of Paterson,” by Judge Klenert in the Court of Quarter Sessions.

No sooner was sentence announced when Henry Carless, a Socialist attorney of Newark, and Henry Marelli, both of whom defended Scott, filed notice that a writ of error had been applied for, a copy of which notice was presented to the judge. Bail of $3,000 was fixed and Scott was later released when Samuel Ginsburg, of Passaic, furnished the bond.

Scott was found guilty and sentenced under a law placed on the statute books in 1902 shortly after the assassination of President McKinley, but never before invoked in the State of New Jersey. Scott’s indictment was caused by the publication of editorials and pictures in the Issue in which the police, especially Chief Bimson, was characterized as the “boss anarchist” and the “boss strike-breaker.”

Scott’s conviction practically makes it a crime for any paper to criticize public officials, and makes the constitutional guarantee of free press a dead letter. In the prosecution of the case the state contended that the police were a part of the city government and that ridiculing the police was ridiculing the government.

“If we can’t criticize a policeman for his brutality, we might as well give up publication of newspapers in this country,” remarked a prominent newspaper man who was a visitor in court when sentence was imposed on Scott. He was highly indignant over the sentence, and said he would start a nation-wide movement to have the Scott verdict reversed.

That the authorities of Paterson have made up their minds to suppress the Issue was evidenced by the fact that they forced the sentence of Scott as soon as he was convicted. Though Patrick L. Quinlan, the silk strike leader, was convicted several weeks ago, the authorities made no move to sentence him, but they hurried the sentence of Scott.

While Scott’s case was rushed through, the authorities have made no move to prosecute the policemen who stole an edition of the Issue by breaking in the Socialist party headquarters and taking possession of 5,000 copies of the paper. The policemen are now out on $200 bail each, while Scott’s bail is fixed at $3,000.-N. Y. Call.

While the lawyers were arguing over technicalities, Scott, unconcerned, was busily engaged noting the proceedings in a notebook. “I am in the fight to win, and I am confident of exoneration in the higher courts,” said Scott. “They cannot suppress the Issue”

But the Socialists and Industrial unionists do not propose that Scott should serve one month in prison if they can help it. The S. P. of New Jersey, will appeal to the National Socialist Party to take up the Scott case and make a nation-wide fight in his behalf.

Solidarity, the I. W. W. organ has issued a call for protest meetings. “Scott has stood by the I. W. W. and the I. W. W. must stand by him,” writes Justus Ebert.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Conviction of Alexander Scott, Editor of the Weekly Issue of Passaic Co.” →