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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 5, 1919
Bisbee Deportations of 1917: “Come the day, ah! we’ll remember…”
From The One Big Union Monthly of August 1919:
Tag: James H Brew
Hellraisers Journal: Bisbee Deportation Severely Scored by Report of President Wilson’s Mediation Commission
Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 1, 1917
Washington, District of Columbia – Bisbee Deportation “Wholly Illegal”
The deportation of the striking miners of Bisbee, Arizona, carried out last July by the sheriff of Cochise county and about 2,000 of his armed “deputies,” was “wholly illegal and without authority in law, either state or federal.” So says the recently released “Report of the Bisbee Deportations Made by the President’s Mediation Commission.” The Commission was chaired by Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson.
From the Duluth Labor World of December 1, 1917:
COMMISSION CRITICIZES BISBEE DEPORTATIONS
WASHINGTON. Nov. 29.—Severe criticism of the persons responsible for the deportation of 1,186 striking copper workers from Bisbee, Ariz., and the Warren mining district July 12, is contained in a report of President Wilson’s special labor commission made public Saturday by the president.
The deportation was carried out by the sheriff of Cochise county and about 2,000 armed men, “presuming to act as deputies under the sheriff’s authority,” the report said, and “was wholly illegal and without authority in law, either state or federal.”
After extensive investigation of the causes and circumstances surrounding the copper mine strike, the commission found that the deportations were planned by a number of Bisbee citizens, including officers of the Phelps-Dodge and Calumet & Arizona mining interests.
Hellraisers Journal: Federal Government Passive as Miner Owners Establish Industrial Despotism in Bisbee
There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 28, 1917
Bisbee, Arizona – Deputized Company Gunthugs Control City
From the Appeal to Reason of August 25, 1917:
The Truth About Bisbee
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Bisbee, Ariz., has not formally seceded from the Union, but the mining companies of that district have set up an independent sovereignty-an industrial despotism-in utter defiance of American laws and the rights of American citizens. In the presence of this organized outlawry of capitalism, the great government of the United States remains passive and idle. Official Washington has virtually ignored the situation in Bisbee, just as it ignored the outrages in West Virginia and in Colorado and in a score of other places where capitalistic despotism sought to crush the workers. In connection with the Bisbee trouble it is interesting to note that one of the leading mining corporations of that district is the Phelps Dodge Company, and to recall that Cleveland H. Dodge, vice president of the Phelps Dodge Company, was a heavy contributor to the Democratic national campaign fund. A full and disinterested account of the happenings in Bisbee is given by the San Francisco Bulletin in a personal interview with Thomas McGuinness, a real estate dealer of Bisbee. The following is Mr. McGuinness’ story:
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Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: Woman Representatives Score Butte & Bisbee, Article by Rosa McKay
I am not a member of the I. W. W.
or an industrial workers of the world sympathizer
but a woman who believes in
the constitutional rights of every man and woman.
-Rosa McKay
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday August 23, 1917
From the Appeal to Reason: Two Brave Women Speak for Labor
The Appeal to Reason of August 18th featured the opinions of two women elected to represent the people: the first, Miss Jeannette Rankin of the United States House of Representatives, and the second, Mrs. Rosa McKay of the Arizona House of Representatives. Yesterday we featured the speech by Miss Rankin who outlined conditions at Butte. We conclude today with an article by Mrs. McKay who describes recent events in Bisbee.
Butte and Bisbee Outrages Scored
by Brave Woman Representatives
…In an article to the Appeal, Mrs. Rosa McKay, member of the Arizona House of Representatives from Bisbee, Cochise county, Arizona, tells of the Bisbee deportation….
By Mrs. Rosa McKay
Member Arizona House of Representatives
For fourteen years I have claimed Bisbee as my home. But after Thursday, the twelfth day of July. I hang my head in shame and sorrow for the sights I have witnessed here. When the full truth about Bisbee reaches the outside world, it will be looked upon with deserved aversion.
In this article I shall give an honest and unbiased statement, from a fair and impartial standpoint, of the labor situation in Bisbee today. I belong to no labor organization or mining corporation. I am merely an onlooker and spectator, and a firm believer in the constitutional rights of all American citizens, whether by birth or naturalization, the rights that our forefathers fought, bled and died for.
WE NEVER FORGET: FW James H. Brew who gave his life in freedom’s cause on July 12 1917 at Bisbee, Arizona
Pray for the dead
and fight like for the living
-Mother Jones
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Fellow Worker James H. Brew
Card-Carrying Member of the Industrial Workers of the World
Fellow Worker James H. Brew was a card-carrying member of the Industrial Workers of the World. He was a miner and a boilermaker, and a seasoned veteran of the Cripple Creek Strike of 1903-1904.
During the early morning hours of July 12, 1917, he was asleep at his rooming house when a band of Sheriff Wheeler’s army of deputized gunthugs and citizen vigilantes came to grab him as part of their warrantless round-up of the striking miners and strike sympathizers of Bisbee, Arizona.
Leading this band of kidnappers was Orson P. McRae, shift boss at the Copper Queen Mine and a member of the Loyalty League. McRae was accompanied by five deputized gunthugs.
FW Brew warned the would-be kidnappers not to enter, but with McRae in the lead, they were determined to force their way inside.