Hellraisers Journal: From the Social Democratic Herald: Eugene Debs Recalls Labor’s Battles in the “War for Freedom”

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SDH p2, Jan 11, 1902———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 12, 1902
Eugene Victor Debs Recalls Bloody Scenes of Battle in Class War

From the Social Democratic Herald of January 11, 1902:

The War for Freedom.

By Eugene V. Debs.

EVD crpd Nw Orln Tx Dem p3, Jan 26, 1900

The country we inhabit is generally supposed to have been in a state of peace since the close of the Civil War, excepting the brief period required to push the Spaniards off the western continent. And yet during this reign of so-called peace more than a score of bloody battles have been fought on American soil, in every one of which the working class were beaten to the earth, notwithstanding they outnumber their conquerors and despoilers at least ten to one, and notwithstanding in each case they asked but a modest concession that represented but a tithe of what they were justly entitled to.

To recall the bloody scenes in the Tennessee mountains, the horrors of Idaho, the tragedies of Virden, Pana, Buffalo, Chicago, Homestead, Lattimer, Leadville, and many others, is quite enough to chill the heart of a man who has such an organ, and yet above the cloud and smoke of battle there shines forever the bow of promise, and however fierce the struggle and gloomy the outlook, it is never obscured to the brave, self-reliant soul who knows that victory at last must crown the cause of labor.

Thousands have fallen before the fire of the enemy and thousands more are doubtless doomed to share the same fate, but

“Freedom’s battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, Is ever won.”

The struggle in this and other lands by the children of toil is a struggle between classes which in some form or other has been waged since primitive man first captured and enslaved his weaker fellow-being. Through the long, dark night of history the man who toiled has been in fetters, and though today they are invisible, yet they bind him as securely in wage slavery as if they were forged of steel.

How the millions toil and produce! How they suffer and are despised! Is the earth forever to be a dungeon to them? Are their offspring always to be food for misery? These are questions that confront the workingmen of our day and a few of them at least understand the nature of the struggle, are conscious of their class interests, and are striving with all their energy to close up the ranks and conquer their freedom by the solidarity of labor.

In this war for freedom the organized men in the Western states have borne a conspicuous and honorable part. They have, in fact, maintained better conditions on the whole than generally prevail, and this they have done under fire that would have reduced less courageous and determined men. But, notwithstanding their organized resistance, they must perceive that in common with all others who work for wages they are losing ground before the march of capitalism.

It requires no specially sensitive nature to feel the tightening of the coils, nor prophetic vision to see the doom of labor if the government is suffered to continue in control of the capitalist class. In every crisis the shotted guns of the government are aimed at the working class. They point in but one direction. In no other way could the capitalists maintain their class supremacy. Court injunctions paralyze but one class. In fact, the government of the ruling class today has but one vital function, and that is to keep the exploited class in subjection.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Social Democratic Herald: Eugene Debs Recalls Labor’s Battles in the “War for Freedom””

Hellraisers Journal: New York City Trembles at Great Strike of 4000 Humble Street Cleaners-by Big Bill Haywood, Part II

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Quote BBH One Fist, ISR p458, Feb 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 6, 1912
The New York City Street Cleaners Strike of November 1911, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of January 1912:

THE STRIKE OF THE SCAVENGERS

By WILLIAM D. HAYWOOD

[Part II of II.]

ISR p391, Jan 1912

The city officials made every effort to break the strike, and although they resorted to the brutal tactics the employing and ruling classes are accustomed to use everywhere in like cases, they met with little success.

Detective agencies were enlisted and were paid $5 for each man they secured, the strikebreaker receiving for his services $3 per day. It requires at least three scabs to do the work of one husky garbage driver, in addition to the number of police required for guard duty. The change was an expensive experiment on the part of the city authorities.

There were many bitter popular demonstrations against the strikebreakers. One man was knocked senseless by a brick thrown from a near-by roof, and was then run over by a wagon that broke both of his legs. He died shortly after being taken to the hospital. A child was run over and killed by one of the mayor’s scabs. Some policemen were injured, but this is not worthy of particular mention, as they are all still alive. Many arrests were made and strikers were cruelly beaten.

 One of the chief lessons to be learned is the inefficiency of scab labor. This is obvious on every hand. While no particular skill is required in the collection of garbage and sweeping of streets, it requires a certain physical standard that is not reached by the casually employed, who do the work slowly, gingerly, spilling at least a third on the street in their clumsy efforts. This same inefficiency prevails in every shop strike, but there the bosses are able to furtively conceal their helplessness behind closed doors. The spirit of many a strike has been broken by apparent success which perhaps is as much of a failure as New York’s strike-breaking department.

ISR p393, Jan 1912

The importance of the least considered, even the scavenger in the machinery of modern living is another lesson to be learned. If this strike had occurred in the summer season the sweltering heat enveloping the piles of filth on the streets would have borne this home with deadly emphasis.

But the piles of garbage in the streets of America’s greatest city grew higher and higher. Abominable enough in other parts of town, the stench in east side streets was almost unendurable. So bad did the situation become that the Merchants’ Association issued an appeal to “good citizens” to come out and take the strikers’ places.

So frightened did the city officials become that they allowed the piles of garbage to be set afire, though this could not fail to do great damage to the streets and endanger lives and dwellings from flying sparks. Gaynor and Edwards declared they would never take the strikers back, but would turn over the street cleaning to· private contractors. Such is the deal handed to the workers under capitalist “municipal operation.”

The Socialist Party was quick to take a hand in the fight and held a big mass meeting in Cooper Union at which the treatment accorded the strikers was denounced.

The teamsters’ and truck drivers’ unions also pledged their “moral support,” but they didn’t give the strikers the kind of support they needed most. A general walk-out of all the teamsters in the city-“a stoppage of everything on wheels,” as one speaker put it-would have ended the fear of pestilence and won the garbage collectors’ strike for them in about one day. But that though “threatened,” never came.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: New York City Trembles at Great Strike of 4000 Humble Street Cleaners-by Big Bill Haywood, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: “Voice of the Negro” by Kerlin: Johnston Brothers Murdered by White Mob During Elaine Massacre

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Quote Ed Ware, Song fr AR Prison, Fall 1919, Elaine Massacre, Ida B p6———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 27, 1921
Excerpt from The Voice of the Negro by Robert T. Kerlin

Note: On Saturday we featured a review of Kerlin’s “Voice of the Negro,” which includes a section on the so-called “riot” at Elaine, Arkansas. This deadly event, which we refer to as the Elaine Massacre, was a bloody rampage led by the plantation class, initially against the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America (sharecropper’s union) and later against the entire Afro-American community of Phillips County, Arkansas.

From  Kerlin’s introduction to article:

The outstanding incident of the “Arkansas pogrom” was the slaying of the Johnston brothers. From The National Defender and Sun (Gary, Ind.), October 25, I take an article that appeared in substance throughout the colored press:

From The National Defender and Sun of October 25, 1919:

ALMOST ENTIRE JOHNSTON FAMILY IS MURDERED
BY FIENDISH HELL-HOUNDS OF ARKANSAS

(Special to the Defender and Sun.)

Helena, Ark., Oct. 24. [1919]-The report that the four Johnston brothers who were outrageously murdered near Elaine, Ark., met death in a riot at the latter place, is not true. The four brothers, one of whom. Dr. L. H. Johnston of Cowweta, Okla., who was there visiting his other brothers, had been hunting and were peacefully returning home with their game when they were intercepted by a white man, supposed to be a friend of the Johnston boys, and told that a race riot was in progress in Elaine and advised them not to go in that direction, but to return to a point below Elaine, leave their guns to avoid suspicion, and take the train for Helena. After considerable persuasion on the part of their supposed white friend, the Johnstons followed his advice, trying to avoid trouble that they knew nothing of.

When the train on which they were riding en route to Helena reached Elaine, their good white “friend” led a mob aboard the Jim Crow coach and with guns drawn commanded the Johnston boys to throw up their hands, according to eye-witnesses, and in a few seconds had handcuffed three of the boys, evidently not recognizing Dr. L. H. Johnston as one of the brothers, and was marching them out of the train when Doctor Johnston spoke to the men, saying: “Gentlemen, these men are my brothers, and I want to know why you are taking them from this train.” In reply, one of the men said: “If you are their brother you’d better come along with them.” To this Dr. L. H. Johnston retorted: “Well, I will certainly go,” whereupon he was handcuffed, and the four forced at the point of guns to get in a waiting auto and hurriedly driven off. That night about eleven o’clock the bodies of the four brothers, riddled with bullets and mutilated with knives or other sharp instruments, were found by the roadside. They had been murdered in cold blood!

The perpetrators of this gruesome atrocity then issued a statement to the effect that one of the Johnstons took a gun from a deputy sheriff and killed him, causing the posse to fire on the four brothers, killing all of them instantly.

Mrs. Mercy Johnston, mother of the unfortunate quartette, who lived in Chicago in a home purchased for her by her sons, was at the time in Pine Bluff, visiting relatives. She accompanied by relatives and friends, her heart all but breaking over the sad occurrence, went to claim the bodies of her loved ones, that she might at least pay a mother’s last tribute, even though that should be in tears and heartache, but rank insult was added to injury when she was compelled to pay a ransom for the dead bodies. She paid the price, however, and followed the remains to their last resting place in Little Rock. The funeral was the biggest and most impressive ever seen in that city. No man was quite strong enough to look upon this terrible scene. The great wonder is that any black should witness such a scene and be free from that which makes men desperate.

———————-

[Photograph and paragraph break added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Voice of the Negro” by Kerlin: Johnston Brothers Murdered by White Mob During Elaine Massacre”

WE NEVER FORGET: Tomás Martínez, Class-War Prisoner, Who Died from Illness Due to Conditions at Leavenworth

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

Nunca Olvidamos: Tomás Martínez, 1893-1921, Class-War Prisoner
-Died October 23, 1921, after Deportation to Guadalajara, Mexico

Photograph of Tomás Martínez, sent to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, shortly before his death.

WNF Tomas Thomas Martinez shortly bf death Oct 23, 1921, photo sent to EGF, Zimmer, Red Scare Deportees

From Iron in Her Soul by Helen C. Camp, page 95:

Thomas Martinez was deported to Mexico after he left the Kansas penitentiary in the spring of 1921. He arrived there very ill, suffering from tuberculosis-“which I suppose I took from the jail of Free America”-and the effects of a botched appendectomy. The Mexican IWW gave him a little money, as did [Elizabeth Gurley] Flynn, and the Workers’ National Prison Comfort Club branch in Milwaukee sent him two union suits and a pair of shoes. A friend of Martinez sent Elizabeth a photograph taken of him shortly before he died in October of the same year.

[Emphasis added.]

From “Red Scare Deportees” by Kenyon Zimmer:

Tomás Martínez (Thomas Martinez)

Born 1893, Mexico. Miner. 1905, a founding member of La Unión Liberal Humanidad in Cananea, which was affiliated with the new Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) and helped lead the 1906 Cananea miners’ strike. Member of several more PLM-affiliated groups. Migrated to the US circa 1907; active in Morenci, Arizona; helped plan and joined the PLM’s cross-border invasion of Baja California in 1910. Taken prisoner by Carranza’s forces and ordered executed, but escaped. 1914 organizing miners in Cananea; denounced and expelled as a “Huerta supporter,” leading to a strike of 2,500-3,000 miners until he was allowed to return. 1915-1918 active in IWW and PLM activities in Arizona and Los Angeles. Wrote numerous articles for the IWW’s paper El Rebelde (1915-1917). Arrested Miami, Arizona, March 1918; convicted to two years in Leavenworth Penitentiary and a $500 fine for violation of the Espionage Act [convicted of having literature of seditious nature]. Contracted tuberculosis while in prison, and a botched operation resulted in septicemia. Upon his release, detained for deportation but he petitioned to be allowed to leave what he called “the Jail of Free America” to another country at his own expense for fear that he would be executed for his past revolutionary activities if returned to Mexico; his petition was denied and he was deported in 1921; according to one report, “When he was finally shipped across the border he was more dead than alive.” Furthermore, he wrote to a friend in the US, “When I arrived at the border, they left me naked, they burned my clothes and shoes.” He never recovered, and died in Guadalajara, October 23, 1921. Comrades buried him with a headstone reading: ¡Nunca olvidamos! (We Never Forget!).

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “WE NEVER FORGET: Tomás Martínez, Class-War Prisoner, Who Died from Illness Due to Conditions at Leavenworth”

Hellraisers Journal: Sworn Affidavits Tell of Murder of Union Bricklayer in Logan County Jail by Deputies of Sheriff Chafin

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Quote FD Greggs re Death of P Comiskey, Logan County Jail Sept 1, Affidavit WV Sept 6, 1921—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 18, 1921
Paul Comiskey, Union Bricklayer, Murdered in Logan County Jail

From The Nation of October 5, 1921:

WV Industrialism Gone Mad, IWW Comiskey Martyr, Ntn p372, Oct 5, 1921

THERE is just one point at issue in the whole sequence of violence and homicide that has led West Virginia into a state of virtual, although unacknowledged, civil war. It is the right to belong to a labor union as represented by the United Mine Workers of America. In the strife-torn territory—the southwestern counties of Mercer, McDowell, Logan, and Mingo—there are no demands for workers’ control, for higher wages or shorter hours. There is not even any immediate question of recognition of the union or collective bargaining.

It is important not to lose sight of this elementary fact in the detail likely to be uncovered in the promised investigation of the West Virginia situation by the Committee on Education and Labor of the United States Senate. Such an inquiry was begun in the summer but adjourned after a few days. Subsequently Senator Kenyon of Iowa and Senator Shortridge of California spent three days—September 18 to 20, inclusive in the coal fields of Mingo and Logan counties and a fourth in talking with State officials in Charleston. On this trip no formal hearings were held nor was any testimony taken under oath. The announced purpose was to get a picture of the country and to lay the base for a searching inquiry later on…..

Now as to suzerainty over county governments exercised by the coal companies and the use of hired gunmen. The two go hand in hand. The entire State of West Virginia has an unenviable reputation for control by the coal operators, but in the actual producing fields local government is at their mercy. Through their mines, their company-owned stores and dwelling houses, their subsidized preachers and teachers, the operators control the livelihood and the lives of virtually the whole population. Hence, politically, the region is their pocket borough. The operators admit and defend the practice of preserving order through deputy sheriffs, paid partially or entirely out of company funds. In addition to these privately-owned public officials, there are also mine guards, armed and exercising police functions without a vestige of authority. Among both these latter classes there are many men whose methods and records justify one in calling them thugs and gunmen. “Private detectives” of the Baldwin-Felts agency are used largely in Mercer, McDowell, and Mingo counties. They are not employed in Logan County. There Sheriff Don Chafin and his company-subsidized deputies rule supreme. When Senators Kenyon and Shortridge went into Logan County they sent word ahead that they especially wanted to see Chafin, but upon arrival he was not on hand and was reported to be away resting after his strenuous efforts in defending the county against invasion by the marching miners a few weeks previous.

His efforts then were indeed strenuous according to two affidavits filed with the Senatorial committee, Floyd D. Griggs, sworn before a notary public at Montgomery, West Virginia, on September 6, declares that he arrived in Logan on August 24 looking for work. Two minutes later he was arrested by a deputy sheriff and taken to the jail. Greggs then states:

On August 29th about 12:30 a. m. I was taken from jail by three armed deputies and taken to the County Court House and into the presence of Don Chafin, sheriff of Logan County, who pinned a white band around my left arm, and was then conducted by the aforesaid Don Chafin into another room of the Court House which was filled with arms and ammunition and told to select a Winchester rifle and go to the front to fight.

I told him that I carried a rifle for eighteen months in the Fifth Regiment, United States Marines, and that I did not intend to go out there and fight against a working man as I was a working man myself. He then drawed a .45 calibre revolver and putting the muzzle in my face told me that I would either fight or die. I told him to shoot as I was not going to fight. He then ordered me sent back to jail.

On Thursday, September 1st, about 7 p. m., I saw a union bricklayer [Paul Comiskey] from Huntington, W. Va., shot down in cold blood murder in the corridor of the jail, not three feet from my cell. Two shots were fired. Two deputies then taken the man that was shot by the feet and dragged him from the jail and across the C. and O. R. R. tracks toward the river.

Greggs concludes by saying that on the night of September 2 he was released by Don Chafin personally, who gave him fifteen minutes to get out of town and until daylight to get out of the county “or get my head blown off.” The affidavit of Greggs is corroborated by one made by Colmar Stanfield, another inmate of the jail at the time, who adds the details that the murdered man was a union bricklayer from Huntington and that he was shot because he refused to fight against the marching miners. Both affidavits name the man who did the shooting, but owing to the gravity of the charge and the absence of an indictment I omit it…..

—————

[Emphasis and paragraph break added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Sworn Affidavits Tell of Murder of Union Bricklayer in Logan County Jail by Deputies of Sheriff Chafin”

Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia’s Mine Guard System: “The Hired Thugs of the Capitalists and Coal Operators”-Part II

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 2, 1911
West Virginia’s Mine Guard System, Brutal Thugs Hired by Coal Operators-Part II

From The Labor Argus of September 28, 1911:

HdLn re West Virginia Gunthugs, Lbr Arg p1, Sept 28, 1911

If there is a place on earth where every right of citizenship is ruthlessly tramped beneath the feet of the brutal tyrants, armed thugs and political traitors it is the nonunion and guard ridden coal fields of West Virginia. Since the introduction of the Baldwin detective agency into the New River and Cabin Creek coal fields, crime has increased instead of being suppressed. More crimes have been committed in Thurmond, Fayette Co. since the Baldwin Feltz detective agency have made it their headquarters than were ever know before, and all of these crimes are traceable to the detectives themselves. This Baldwin Detective Agency is nothing more than a legalized band of Molly-McGuires, commissioned by the Governor of the State and allowed to brutalize, rob and murder the unprotected citizen.

The murder of six or seven miners at Standford City [Stanaford Coal Camp], on Piney, in 1902 [February 25, 1903] by a posse of coal operators and thugs lead by United States deputy marshals was one of the most revolting and cold blooded murders of innocent working men that was ever committed. These poor miners were guilty of no crime; their only offence was they had dared to strike against conditions. The posse lead by deputy marshalls, went to Stanford City in the night arriving just before day light. The first, warning the miners had of their presence came when they were awaken from their sleep by the bullits fired through their thin board houses, by the cowardly posse, bent on murder. Men were shot down like dogs as they ran from the houses in their night clothes; several being killed outright and many more wounded.

An active union miner named Harless [Joe Hiser?] realized that it was death to leave shelter during the firing and remained in the house until after day light, but when he attempted to leave he was shot dead from ambush. Was anything done about this wholesale murder of the innocent? No, it was done in the name of the law. The authorities took the words of the men who did the murdering. But that was just, a beginning of the tyrannical rule of the outlaws.

[There follows a long “partial list of men who have been slugged, beat, robbed and murdered” by coal-company gunthugs.]

These are not all the crimes directly traceable to the detectives, as some will never be known and space will not permit us to enumerate them all. When these guards spot a man they wish to assault, they always try to pick a quarrel, or get into a controversy of some kind. An old trick of theirs is to slip an old pistol into their victims pocket, and arrest them for carrying concealed weapons, beat them up and take them before one of the fixed Justice’s and have the poor victim sent to jail for six months and fined all the money on his person.

All the crimes we have listed have been committed; we can name the guards guilty of the assaults and murders in many cases, but what have our authorities done to protect the life and liberties of these working men? Nothing. Not a man has been brought to account for any of these crimes.

The strong arm of the law is paralyzed and palsied when it comes to protecting the rights and lives of the working class, but let the property of the masters be endangered and you can see how quick the powerful arm of the law will be put into action.

Are conditions any worse than those pictured here in Russia or barborous Mexico? The coal baron rules West Virginia and our officials are but puppets to jump and do the bidding of their masters.

How much longer, Oh! patient and long suffering people are you going to submit to these damnable conditions? Have you and yours not suffered enough already? Then go to the polls next year and vote these conditions out of existence by voting the Socialist ticket. Elect the Socialist to office in Kanawha county in 1912 and it will be moving day with the guards.

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: West Virginia’s Mine Guard System: “The Hired Thugs of the Capitalists and Coal Operators”-Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: Miners Shot Down in Battle at Sharples, W. Va., as Force Led by Captain J. R. Brockus Invades Town

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Miners March Aug 28, 1921 WNF Sharples Greer Morrison, Savage p105—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 30, 1921
Staples, West Virginia – Miners Die Fighting in Battle with Brockus

From the Baltimore Sun of August 29, 1921:

FIVE MEN FALL AS MINERS
AND POLICE CLASH
———-
West Virginia Troops Fired On When
They Order Band To Surrender.
———-

STATE POSSE THEN FORCED TO RETREAT
———-
1,500 To 2,000 Armed Men Reported
Gathered At Blair, Logan Co.
———-

State Police Headquarters, Ethel, W. Va., Aug. 28.-Five men fell in an encounter early this morning between an armed band and State troopers on Beach Creek [which runs into Spruce Fork near Sharples, about 6 miles north of Blair], Logan county, near the Boone-Logan county line, Capt. J. R. Brockus, commanding, State police and deputy sheriffs, reported this afternoon. There was much shooting on either side, he said. Whether all the men who fell were killed, Captain Brockus was unable to state.

Miners March Map Marmet to Mingo, NY Dly Ns p8, Aug 27, 1921

STATE TROOPS RETREAT.

He added that after his men had seen those who had fallen picked up and carried away by their companions the State troopers and deputies retired because some of their number were in civilian clothes and it was difficult to distinguish them in the darkness from the men comprising the armed band.

The clash was at close range, according to Captain Brockus’ report, the men firing at each other where but eight to ten feet apart.

Prior to the fight, Captain Brockus said, 11 prisoners had been taken by the patrolling party which set out from Logan yesterday, ostensibly toward Blair and Sharples. Four of the prisoners escaped during the engagement, it was said, and one of them is believed to have been killed.

Captain Brockus was at the head of the advance guard of troopers and deputies. It was this detachment, comprising 12 men that engaged the armed band. The patrol, while proceeding toward Sharples, Captain Brockus reported, ran across five men on foot. All were armed with rifles and one had a shotgun, he said. 

CAPTAIN BROCKUS’ REPORT.

“We called upon these men to disarm, which they did,” the Captain continued.

“We placed them under arrest and proceeded down the road. Further on we met two automobiles and placed six additional armed men under arrest.

“With the 11 prisoners we marched on toward Sharples and came upon another squad of five armed men. Some one called to us that we would not be allowed to pass. We called upon them to surrender their arms, but received in reply a volley of shots.

“Our men returned the fire and in the fight five men fell to the ground. We waited until we saw that they were picked up and carried away, and then decided to discontinue the advance for the present. It was very dark and some of our deputies were in civilian clothes, hampering our distinguishing them.”…..

———-

[Emphasis added, map added from New York Daily News of Aug. 27th.]

Note: this is the same Captain Brockus who perpetrated the raid on Lick Creek Tent Colony in Mingo County in which Striking Miner Alex Breedlove was shot and killed with his hands in the air and a prayer on his lips.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Miners Shot Down in Battle at Sharples, W. Va., as Force Led by Captain J. R. Brockus Invades Town”

Hellraisers Journal: Attorney Thomas West on Ruthless Acts of State Police in Raid Upon Miners’ Tent Colony at Lick Creek

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 20, 1921
Lick Creek Tent Colony, Mingo County – Attorney West Describes Raid

From The Wheeling Intelligencer of June 18, 1921:

MINE WORKERS’ LAWYER MAKES
ALLEGATIONS OF RUTHLESS ACTS
AT THE MINERS’ TENT COLONY
———-
Declares State Police and Volunteers
Were Disorderly and Destructive
When They Raided the Homes
of Union Miners
———-

Lick Creek Tents Slashed June 14, 1921 crpd, Current Hx NYT p963, Mar 1922
Lick Creek Tent Colony after Raid of June 14, 1921

Special to The Intelligencer.

Charleston, Va., June 17-Secretary-treasurer Fred Mooney, of District Seventeen, United Mine Workers of America, tonight made public the following report just received from the union’s lawyer, Thomas West, who was detailed to make an investigation of the activities of the state police in raiding tent colonies of union coal miners in Mingo county:

Williamson, W. Va., June 16.

H. W. Houston, Charleston, W. Va.

Dear Sir-On yesterday morning I visited the Lick Creek tent colony for the purpose of taking some statements regarding the outrage perpetrated there on the day before [June 14]. I found that the state police and their volunteer confederates [company gunthugs] had ripped up twenty or more tents. Some of them had probably a hundred slits up them, averaging about six feet each, and had knocked the legs out from under their cooking stoves and the stove pipes down, and where they found anything cooking on the stove they swiped it off into the coal box, as a rule found just back of the stove. They found some tables set for dinner and they turned these with the legs up and the dishes and food left on the under side.

They broke open every trunk and rifled every drawer. They dumped all the clothes they found out into the middle of the floor and kicked them all over the place. They dumped an organ out of one man’s tent over the hill and hit a phonograph with an axe or some other heavy tool.

They poured kerosene oil into a churn of milk found in one of the tents and in others they found such oil and poured it into the meal and flour. In one tent they found a considerable quantity of canned fruit and they put this on the bed clothes after turning them upside down on the bed and broke it up. They put the mattresses on the floor and ripped them open and put the springs on top of them.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Attorney Thomas West on Ruthless Acts of State Police in Raid Upon Miners’ Tent Colony at Lick Creek”

Hellraisers Journal: Union Miner George Crum Dies of Wounds After Battle Near Nolan, Mingo County, West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones Princeton WV Speech Aug 15, 1920, Steel Speeches, p227—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 31, 1921
Mingo County, West Virginia – Union Miner Dead After Battle Near Nolan
 -Senate Committe to Investigate Conditions Along the Tug

From The New York Herald of May 27, 1921:

THIRD VICTIM DEAD AFTER MINGO FIGHT
———-
George Crum in Ante-Mortem Statement
Denies Attempt to Start Trouble.
———-

Nolan WV Battle, Guardsman n Trooper Killed, Wlg Int p1, May 26, 1921
Wheeling Intelligencer
May 26, 1921

WILLIAMSON, W. Va., May 26.-George Crum who was shot in a fight between a detail of State police and Kentucky National Guardsmen on one side and a party of men they encountered in a road near Nolan, W. Va., last night, died in a hospital here this afternoon. A State policeman and a Guardsman were killed in the encounter.

Gov. Morgan in Charleston to-day announced that ten thousand rifle cartridges shipped from St. Louis and consigned to Sid Hatfield, feudist, at Matewan, W. Va., are being held in the office of the American Railway Express at Bluefield.

The cartridges are being held at the request of Gov. Morgan, made to the president of the Norfolk and Western Railroad. An embargo was placed on the shipment of arms and munitions into Mingo county last week.

State and county authorities to-night watched with extreme caution the situation along the West Virginia-Kentucky border after the events of last night at Nolan. Capt. Brockus of the State police, reported that the region was quiet. A similar report came from Sheriff A. C. Pinson of Mingo county.

Soon after Crum was admitted to the hospital he told the authorities that he had done nothing to excite the trouble at the Nolan ferry, where the fight started, and during which Private Charles Kackley of the West Virginia State police and Private Manley Vaughan of the Kentucky National Guard, were killed.

An arrest under Gov. Morgan’s proclamation of martial law for Mingo was reported to-night. Sheriff Pinson announced that Ross Perry was arrested by deputy sheriffs near Gilbert, W. Va., and charged with having ammunition in his possession. He was held without bail.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Union Miner George Crum Dies of Wounds After Battle Near Nolan, Mingo County, West Virginia”

Hellraisers Journal: From The New York Call: Photographs of Twenty Victims of the Triangle Fire, 16 Women, 4 Men

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Rose Schneiderman Quote, Life So Cheap, NY Met Opera Hse, Apr 2, Survey p84, Apr 8, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 31, 1911
New York, New York – Some of the Young Victims of Triangle Fire

From The New York Call of March 28, 1911:

Triangle Fire, 20 Victims, NY Cl p2, Mar 28, 1911

———-

Triangle Fire, HdLn Hell Hole,Sculls by Crosby NY Cl p1, Mar 28, 1911

———-

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The New York Call: Photographs of Twenty Victims of the Triangle Fire, 16 Women, 4 Men”