Hellraisers Journal: Three West Virginia Strikers Killed by Deputized Gunthugs at Stanaford, Raleigh County, West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 5, 1903
Stanaford, Raleigh County, West Virginia – Deputies Gun Down Striking Miners

From The San Francisco Call of February 26, 1903:

Stanaford Mt Massacre, SF Call p3, Feb 26, 1903

CHARLESTON, W. Va., Feb. 25.-At Stanniford [Stanaford] City, in Raleigh County, at dawn this morning, a battle took place between the joint posses of Deputy United States Marshal Cunningham and Sheriff Cook on one side and rioting miners on the other, as a result of which three miners were killed, two others mortally wounded and a number of others on both sides more or less seriously hurt…..

Miners murdered by deputized gunthugs at Stanaford, Raleigh County, West Virginia, at dawn, Wednesday February 25, 1903:

William Dodson
William Clark
Richard Clayton

Miners mortally wounded:

Lucien Lawson
Joe Hizer


Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Three West Virginia Strikers Killed by Deputized Gunthugs at Stanaford, Raleigh County, West Virginia”

WE NEVER FORGET: February 25, 1903-Mother Jones and the Massacre of Raleigh Co. Miners at Stanaford Mountain, WV

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Has anyone ever told you, my children,
about the lives you are living…?
-Mother Jones
———-

MOTHER JONES, MINERS’ ANGEL

“I am one of you, and I know what it is to suffer.”

Mother Jones by Bertha Howell (Mrs Mailly), ab 1902

Let us stop and consider, for a moment, what would cause thousands of miners to lay down their tools and go out on strike, when striking meant homelessness and hunger for themselves and their families. Striking also brought down upon them the terror of the company guards, heavily armed deputies (often one and the same), state militia, bullpens, raids, court injunctions, and the wrath of the capitalistic press. In 1897, Mother Jones was in West Virginia traveling and speaking to miners and their families. John Walker of the United Mine Workers of America was traveling with her. In 1904, a reporter who had accompanied her wrote this account of one of her speeches:

Has any one ever told you, my children, about the lives you are living, more so that you may understand how it is you pass your days on earth? Have you told each other about it and thought it over among yourselves, so that you might imagine a brighter day and begin to bring it to pass? If no one has done so, I will do it for you today. I want you to see yourselves as you are, Mothers and children, and to think if it is not time you look on yourselves, and upon each other. Let us consider this together, for I am one of you, and I know what it is to suffer.

So the old lady, standing very quietly in her deep, far-reaching voice, painted a picture of the life of a miner from his young boyhood to his old age. It was a vivid picture. She talked of the first introduction a boy had to those dismal caves under the earth, dripping with moisture often so low that he must crawl into the coal veins; must lie on his back to work. She told how miners stood bent over until the back ached too much to straighten, or in sulpher water that ate through the shoes and made sores on the flesh; how their hands became cracked and the nails broken off in the quick; how the bit of bacon and beans in the dinner pail failed to stop the craving of their empty stomachs, and the thought of the barefoot children, at home and the sick mother was all too dreary to make the homegoing a cheerful one….

And so, while he smoked, the miner thought how he could never own a home, were it ever so humble; how he could not make his wife happy, or his children any better than himself, and how he must get up in the morning and go through it all again; how that some day the fall of rock would come or the rheumatism cripple him; that Mary herself might die and leave him, and some day there would be no longer for him even the job that was so hard and old age and hunger and pain would be his lot. And why, because some other human beings, no more the sons of God than the coal diggers, broke the commandment of God which says, “Thou shalt not steal,” and took from the toiler all the wealth which he created, all but enough to keep him alive for a period of years through which he might toil for their advantage.

[Said Mother Jones:]

You pity yourselves, but you do not pity your brothers, or you would stand together to help on another.

Continue reading “WE NEVER FORGET: February 25, 1903-Mother Jones and the Massacre of Raleigh Co. Miners at Stanaford Mountain, WV”

Hellraisers Journal: Ida Braeman, Garment Striker, Age 17, Shot Down in Cold Blood by Clothing Manufacturer at Rochester, N. Y.

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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 20, 1913
Rochester, New York – Ida Braeman, 17-Year-Old Striker, Shot Down by Boss

From the Chicago Day Book of February 6, 1913:

KILLS GIRL STRIKER WITH SHOT GUN

Ida Braeman, Labor Martyr, Rochester NY Feb 5, 1913

Rochester, N. Y., Feb. 6.-Ira Braeman, 17 years old, was shot and killed in cold blood by Valentine Sauter here last night.

Ida Braeman was a girl of the garment workers’ strike. Sauter is a clothing manufacturer.

Every labor union in Rochester will unite in the effort to push the charge of murder in the first degree against Sauter.

Sauter was in his shop when a group of strikers gathered outside and called to the strikebreakers within to quit work and join them.

Sauter picked up a shotgun and went to a window. He fired point-blank into the little group of girl strikers.

Ida Braeman was killed instantly; three others were wounded.

Sauter’s shot scattered the strikers, but when they saw the body of Ida Braeman lying in the street they came back, and only the arrival of the police prevented Sauter’s shop being torn down about his head. On the way to the station, the police had to use their clubs to protect the man.

Sauter says he fired because he thought his property was in danger.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

From Solidarity of February 15, 1913:

re Murder of Striker Ida Braeman, Sol p1, Feb 15, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Ida Braeman, Garment Striker, Age 17, Shot Down in Cold Blood by Clothing Manufacturer at Rochester, N. Y.”

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Shame of San Diego” by Hartwell S. Shippey, Part II

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Quote re San Diego FSF Fire Hose Emerson, LA TX p11, Mar 11, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 4, 1912
“The Shame of San Diego” by Hartwell S. Shippey, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of May 1912:

The Shame of San Diego

by HARTWELL S. SHIPPEY

[Part II of II]

San Diego FSF Fire Hose, ISR p718, May 1912

Up to and preceding March 14, the fight was the conventional free speech fight; but on that date (Sunday) the police took the initiative and ceased booking their prisoners, though the original captives who are charged with criminal conspiracy and jail breaking are still reposing behind the bars. (The “jail breaking” consisted of supposed smashing of jail windows by prisoners who were denied food and water and were compelled to drink from the toilet.) At a meeting held in front of the city jail, outside of the proscribed district, the fire department was called upon and three fire engines played powerful streams of water upon the speakers, knocking down Mrs. Emerson, Miss McKamey, Mrs. Wightman, a religious speaker, but a courageous and high-minded woman, Miss Ruth Wightman, 44 years of age, and overturning a baby carriage, the baby being swept into the gutter by the heavy stream of water.

Mrs. Ray Holden, an innocent by stander, was clubbed over the abdomen by a guardian of the “peace,” being unconscious for two hours following. When her husband called at the police station to investigate, he was locked up and a charge of sending in false fire-alarms was preferred against him.

Egged on by the violent and incendiary press, the local real estate dealers and other capitalists and members of the M. and M. formed themselves into vigilance committees and mob law was instituted. With the connivance and open aid of the police, bands of semi-disguised ruffians, appeared nightly at the police station, from whence, at the dead of night automobile loads of prisoners, industrial unionists, trades unionists in good standing, Socialists, and some with no affiliation, were carried from twenty to thirty miles into the hills and there beaten, clubbed, kicked while helpless on the ground and left with bloody heads and bruised bodies and with threats of death should they return. But return they did, to make affidavits of their persecutions.

[Martyr Michael Hoey]

March 28 died Michael Hoey, the first martyr of the San Diego battle. An old man, was Michael, but in perfect health, having walked 140 miles to the seat of war from Imperial Valley in the space of 5½ days. Kicked in the stomach and groin by a policeman, Hoey complained continually of pain in the swelling on his side but was laughed at by the official physician, Dr. Magee, until Hoey was removed from the jail and taken to Agnew Hospital by the Free Speech League, remaining there until his death. He was cared for by Dr. Leon De Ville, a Socialist, and a devoted soldier of the revolution.

[The Funeral of Michael Hoey]

The following Saturday, March 29, sorrowing fellow-battlers of Michael Hoey’s gathered on a vacant lot where, under the pitying smile of sunny California’s blue sky, they paid their last respects to the fallen hero of labor’s struggle. Waving sadly over his bier was the red flag, the emblem of brotherhood for which Michael Hoey had offered up his life. Not an insignia of violence and hatred, as conceived in the maggot-eaten brains of hired murderers and prostituted “journalists,” but a token of peace and love. And then-ah, well is this article entitled “The Shame of San Diego”-then Harvey Sheppard, a minion of armed and brutal violence, invaded the sanctity of their victim’s funeral and wrested the banner of brotherhood from the hands of the unresisting workingman who bore it, and placed the bearer under arrest! As I write all this I am seized with a feeling that the readers will deem that my story is an exaggeration. But the official organ of the trades-unionists, the Labor Leader, and the Weekly Herald, an independent, profit-making sheet, will fully verify my tale.

Vincent St. John, secretary-treasurer of the I. W. W., has published a reward of five thousand dollars for the conviction of those who were the cause of Hoey’s death.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Shame of San Diego” by Hartwell S. Shippey, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: Michael Hoey, Martyr of San Diego Free Speech Fight, Funeral Oration by Laura Payne Emerson

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Quote Laura Payne Emerson Make This Hell a Heaven, Ind Pnr p12, Mar 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal –  Friday April 12, 1912
Farewell Tribute for Michael Hoey, Martyr of San Diego Free Speech Fight

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of April 11, 1912:

IWW San Diego FSF, Michael Hoey Martyr, IW p1, Apr 11, 1912

——-

MICHAEL HOEY–MARTYR

(By Laura Payne Emerson).

Fellow Workers: I count it an honor to be accorded the privilege of paying a tribute, on this occasion, to our martyred dead fellow-worker, Michael Hoey. He was a soldier in the war for industrial freedom. Early in life he joined the forces that were making for better conditions for his class, the working class, and to the day when he fell mortally wounded, and was carried from the field of battle, never did he falter.

It was in San Diego, Cal. A fight for free speech was on. An infamous ordinance had been passed by the common council denying the natural and constitutional right of free speech and public assembly to certain citizens. Many brave souls had undertaken to test the odious law by attempting to speak on the streets, and had met the policeman’s club and the jail. Among those on the fire line in that contest was Michael Hoey, a man sixty-three years of age. When told by a friend that he was too old to enlist in such a fight, and that he should leave it to younger and more vigorous men, he replied:

I have nothing to give but myself and life is not worth living
when all liberty is gone.

That night, amid a cheering crowd, his fine face appeared for a moment, while his voice was raised in a last appeal to his class to stand firm for human rights! Then!! Burly guardians of the law snatched him down, and with kicks and clubs, jail and starvation, silenced his voice forever.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Michael Hoey, Martyr of San Diego Free Speech Fight, Funeral Oration by Laura Payne Emerson”

Hellraisers Journal: Jack Sellins, Seeks Justice for His Mother, Martyred Mine Workers’ Organizer, Fannie Sellins

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Quote M. Robbins, for Fannie Sellins, Wkrs Wld p4, Nov 28, 1919—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 2, 1922
Jack Sellins Seeks Justice for Murder of Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski

From the United Mine Workers Journal of April 1, 1922:

 

SON SEEKS JUSTICE
———-

ASKS THAT SLAYER OF HIS MOTHER,
MRS. FANNIE SELLINS,
BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE
———

WNF Sellins Starzeleski Monument, The Woman Today p9, Sept 1936

Editor of the Journal: I am writing you concerning the bringing to justice the persons responsible for the death of Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski, who were murdered in wanton cold blood over two and a half years ago.

For this length of time every effort has been made to find the persons responsible for this crime, and on January 26, last, three deputy sheriffs were arrested for the murder. Even on the information on which the arrests were made the court granted them their liberty on bail, which was only $2,500. However, on February 14, the grand jury returned an indictment against the three, and we are now waiting for a date for the trial to be set.

The three men indicted are: Edward Mannison, John Pierson and James Reilly, former deputy sheriffs.

A copy of a resolution is herewith enclosed asking that the two attorneys we have employed be appointed as special district attorneys. I would like to see this resolution adopted by local unions over the country and be sent to president judge of the Allegheny County courts.

Fraternally yours,
JACK SELLINS.

The writer of the above is a son of Mrs. Fannie Sellins, so brutally murdered by deputy sheriffs in the Brackenridge mine strike. He has had a heroic effort to have the slayers of his mother brought to justice, and says he is taking no chance of a failure of prosecution in the hands of the district attorney’s office.

The resolution is as follows:

Whereas, The District Attorney of Allegheny County has failed to proceed with the prosecution of the murderers of Fannie Sellins and Joseph Starzeleski, or to take any action to bring these offenders to trial, said murders having been committed at West Natrona, Pa., on Aug. 26, 1919;

Be it Resolved, That we believe that private counsel should be employed for that purpose, and that the court be asked to appoint two attorneys as special deputy district attorneys to take charge of said prosecution, and, further, we recommend that the court appoint John S. Robb, Jr., Esq., of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Victor B. Benton, Esq., of New Kensington, Pa., as such special deputy district attorneys, and that a copy of this resolution be mailed to the president judge of Allegheny County courts.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Jack Sellins, Seeks Justice for His Mother, Martyred Mine Workers’ Organizer, Fannie Sellins”

Hellraisers Journal: Pawtucket, Rhode Island: Police Fire Riot Guns at Textile Strikers, One Killed, Many Wounded

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Quote Mother Jones, Pray for dead, ed, Ab Chp 6, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 24, 1922
Pawtucket, Rhode Island – Police Fire on Strikers, One Killed, Several Wounded

From the New York Evening World of February 21, 1922:

PAWTUCKET, R. I.. Feb. 21.-One man was killed, two were seriously wounded, and six persons were hurt when the police used riot guns today on a crowd of 1,000 person who gathered at the plant of the Jenckes Spinning Company, where a strike is in progress. The guns were brought into play when several patrolmen had been knocked down after the arrest of three strike sympathizers.

The dead man is Juan D’Assumpcau [Joseph Assuncao, Jose D’Assunpcao]  of Valley Falls. Tony Regoss and Joseph Diaz of this city were taken to hospitals in a critical condition.

Mayor Robert A. Kenyon witnessed the shooting. He had arrived at the gates of the plant early in the morning to observe the crowd that has customarily gathered to watch working operatives enter the mill. The Mayor, believing that there was danger in the crowd, read the riot act. He then told the patrolmen to be careful and calm but to do their duty and to “shoot if necessary. ” 

[…..]

[Machine Guns at Natick]

NATICK, R. I., Feb. 21,-While striking textile workers and sympathizers jammed the streets of this village to-day mounted cavalry troops and police kept strict patrol, forcing the throngs to keep moving, Hundreds of children, each bearing a tiny American flag, swelled the ranks of the strike sympathizers. There was no cheering, and in spite of the size of the crowd and the tenseness of the situation there was little noise.

A machine gun detachment of the 103d Field Artillery mounted guns at the mills involved in the strike, and a company of field artillery formed the patrol.

[Machine Guns at Providence]

PROVIDENCE. Feb. 21.-The conflict at Pawtucket was followed by an increase in the militia forces called to aid the civil authorities. Two troops of cavalry, a machine gun detachment and a Coast Artillery Company, all acting as infantry, patrolled the Pawtucket valley villages of Pontiac and Natick, maintaining order where riotous outbreaks occurred last night.

While the military were trying to maintain order in the mill districts, mediators of both State and Federal jurisdictions were sitting here with representatives of the union organizations of strikes and mill managements to learn their views on a suggestion for arbitration of the differences.

Two of the mill corporations have formally announced that the issues-a wage reduction of 20 per cent, and, in some instances, an increase of working hours from forty-eight to fifty-four were not such as could be ironed out by arbitration.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Pawtucket, Rhode Island: Police Fire Riot Guns at Textile Strikers, One Killed, Many Wounded”

Hellraisers Journal: Joe Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti Arrested; Young John Ramey Dead from Bayonet Wound to Back

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WNF John Ramey, Martyr Bread and Roses Strike, Jan 30, 1912, findagrave—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 2, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Ettor and Giovannitti Arrested; Young Syrian Boy Dead

From The Boston Daily Globe, Morning Edition, of January 31, 1912:

HdLn Lawrence 2 Now Dead, Ettor n Giovannitti Arrested, Force ag Strikers, Bst Glb AM p1, Jan 31, 1912
Ruling Lawrence with Iron Hand
Infantry – Metropolitan Police – Artillery – Cavalry – 2d Corps Cadets
Local Police – Ambulance Corps

—–

HdLn Lawrence Ettor n Giovannitti Accused in Death of Lo Pizzo, Ramey Bayoneted, Bst Glb AM p1, Jan 31, 1912—–

Lawrence Ettor, Giovannitti, Annie Helzenbach, Bst Glb AM p5, Jan 31, 1912
Mrs. Annie Helzenbach – Joe Ettor – Arturo Giovannitti

From The Boston Daily Globe, Evening Edition, of January 31, 1912:

Ettor and Giovannitti on Way to Jail, Bst Glb Eve p2, Jan 31, 1912
Ettor and Giovannitti Being Taken to Jail
Ettor with Newspaper under Arm

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Joe Ettor and Arturo Giovannitti Arrested; Young John Ramey Dead from Bayonet Wound to Back”

Hellraisers Journal: John Ramey, Syrian Boy, Dead in Lawrence, Was Bayoneted in Back By Soldiers. Ettor Arrested.

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WNF John Ramey, Martyr Bread and Roses Strike, Jan 30, 1912, findagrave—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 1, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Syrian Boy, John Ramey, Second Martyr of Textile Strike

From The New York Call of January 31, 1912:

HdLn Lawrence WNF Ramey Bayoneted, Ettor Arrested, NYCl p1, Jan 31, 1912—–HdLn Lawrence Where Militia Bayoneting Strikers, NYCl p1, Jan 31, 1912—–
CHEERING THE STRIKERSLawrence Cheering Strikers from Windows, NYCl p1, Jan 31, 1912

———-

LAWRENCE, Mass., Jan. 30.-Murder was committed on the street in this city today, when an 18-year old Syrian boy striker was bayoneted by a member of a squad of Massachusetts militia on Oak street, and died later in the Lawrence hospital.

The dead boy, John Rami [Ramey], was stuck through the back like a pig as he and some companions were endeavoring to escape from an absolutely unprovoked assault by the soldiers, who are under instructions to look for trouble and when they had it to use steel and ball cartridges as often and as accurately as possible. Many of the militiamen are under-graduates of Harvard University, the president of which is a large shareholder in the Lawrence mills.

Although the police, who witnessed the murder of Rami, declare the boy was doing nothing wrong, the authorities are endeavoring to shift the blame for the lad’s death upon the strikers, and the report has been spread that it is doubtful who killed him. For several hours after the murder the authorities were terrified least the strikers, learning of the fate of the boy, should demand and take vengeance, and every effort was made to hush up the details of the tragedy.

The squad of militiamen, one of whom was responsible, has evidently concocted a story, probably with the connivance of their officers, for they are industriously lying about the matter, declaring they were not near enough to the boy to stab him, and that it was one of his fellow strikers who took his life.

Rami, according to eye-witnesses, was walking along Oak street, with seven companions. As they neared a corner of the street, where a squad of eight armed militiamen were standing, one of the boys said, jestingly:

“There are the soldiers now. Let’s have some fun with them.”

Stabbed in Back.

Immediately the man in charge of the squad ordered the soldiers to charge. Rami, unable to run as fast as his companions, brought up the rear. His steps were slightly retarded by the slippery pavement and he appeared to stumble. As he did so, one of the militiamen caught up with him, and thrusting viciously forward, stuck his bayonet into Rami’s back.

The boy screamed and staggered forward. He ran a few more steps and fell, fainting. Officials at the hospital where he was taken would not say how far the long bayonet blade went into his lungs…..

Strike Leader is Arrested.

Joseph J. Ettor, of New York, national organizer of the Industrial Workers of the world and leader of the woolen strike here, was arrested shortly before midnight on a charge of being an accessory to the murder of Annie La Pizza [Anna LoPizzo], the Italian striker who was killed during the clash in Union street early last evening. Ettor was taken into custody at the hotel where he is stopping when he was about to go to bed and was taken to the police station, where he was locked up. An extra guard of militiamen was thrown about the station for fear that when the news went abroad and attempt might be made by the strikers to storm the place and rescue Ettor.

The strike is assuming its real character-a hunger strike, it is a strike in which empty bellies clamor for food, in which children cry for life’s joys, and woman fight desperately with their men to save themselves from prostitution. And every hour the 25,000 victims of a merciless corporation’s greed realize more clearly the nature of their fight, and grow more grimly determined to win.

[…..]

[Emphasis added]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: John Ramey, Syrian Boy, Dead in Lawrence, Was Bayoneted in Back By Soldiers. Ettor Arrested.”

Hellraisers Journal: Italian Woman Killed in Lawrence as Strikers Gathered at Mills at Closing Time on Monday January 29th

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Lawrence Anna LoPizzo Killed, Jan 29, 1912

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 31, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Woman Shot and Killed During Strikers’ Demonstration

From The Boston Daily Globe of January 30, 1912:

HdLn Woman Killed in Lawrence Anna LoPizzo, Bst Glb p1, Jan 30, 1912HdLn Warrant Issued for Ettor at Lawrence, Bst Glb p1, Jan 30, 1912
——

From The New York Call of January 30, 1912:

WOMAN SLAIN BY SHOT IN LAWRENCE
STRIKE EXCITEMENT
———-

[…..]

LAWRENCE, Mass., Jan. 29.-After a two hours’ demonstration, during which the woolen and cotton mill strikers had full control of the streets of this city, there was a clash between the police and militia on one side and about 1,000 strikers near the Everett mills just before 6 o’clock to night.

The affray resulted in the killing of an Italian woman, who was standing on the sidewalk, the stabbing of Patrolman Oscar Benoit and sore heads for many of the strikers, who were finally put to flight.

The woman killed was the victim of senseless shooting by an unknown individual, who seemed to be taking great joy in firing revolver bullets into the ground on the opposite side of Union street from the woman. It is claimed that neither the police nor militiamen fired a shot during the battle and it is believed that the woman was killed by a bullet which glanced off a stone in the street.

[…..]

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Italian Woman Killed in Lawrence as Strikers Gathered at Mills at Closing Time on Monday January 29th”