Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for August 1917, Part II: Found in Illinois & Indiana

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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, Friday September 21, 1917
Mother Jones News for August, Part II: Plans for Labor Day

From the Evansville Press of August 29, 1917:

An advertisement indicates that Mother Jones will be the principle speaker at the Henderson, Kentucky, Labor Day Celebration on Monday September 3rd. The event is being sponsored by the Central Labor Unions of both Evansville, Indiana, and Henderson.

MJ Labor Day Evansville IN, Henderson KY, Evl Prs, Aug 29, 1917

From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of August 27, 1917:

The death of Senator John Worth Kern is an opportunity to recall the role played by the good Senator in freeing Mother Jones from the grip of West Virginia’s Military Bastille during the Cabin Creek-Paint Creek Strike of 1912 & 1913.

JOHN WORTH KERN; AN APPRECIATION

Claude G. Bowers

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Hellraisers Journal: Labor World Scores IWW: “Labor and the nation will be better off when we are rid of them.”

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

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday September 5, 1917
From the Duluth Labor World: I. W. W., Foe of Nation & Enemy of Labor

AFL Emblem, Am Fedist, Aug-Dec 1917

The Duluth Labor World, voice of the American Federation of Labor in northern Minnesota, has now declared the Industrial Workers of the World to be a foe of the United States of America and an enemy of true American Labor. Having been willing to organize foreign-born and unskilled workers where the A. F. of L., for the most part, would not, (the United Mine Workers being a noble exception), the I. W. W. is now accused of “exploiting” alien prejudices.

From the Duluth Labor World of September 1, 1917:

WWIR IWWR Labor's Enemy, Labor World, Sept 1, 1917

The time has come when it is necessary for the men of labor to speak out emphatically against any and all organizations claiming the support of workingmen that are not wholly American to the core. This is no time for quibbling. We do not propose to sit idly by and permit our cause to suffer longer from the foolhardy course of such a self-styled labor organization as the I. W. W., an organization that never did anything for the workingmen save pull their legs.

The enemies of the American trade union have for years been busy in Continental Europe propagating among workingmen against the American Federation of Labor. They declare it is controlled by the so-called “Capitalist Class;” that it is a mass-backed, conservative organization formed for the purpose of perpetuating the wage system, and when foreign laborers come here to work they bring with them their prejudices against the American labor movement.

This is why such an organization as the I. W. W., appeals to the foreign born laborers in this country who have not identified themselves with the American movement. And as a result the poor fellows are frequently led to deep industrial precipices from which they are ruthlessly hurled by the pretensive revolutionary leaders in the I. W. W.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Labor World Scores IWW: “Labor and the nation will be better off when we are rid of them.””