Tag: Lumber Workers

Hellraisers Journal: As Jury Selection Continues in Chicago, New York Tribune’s Full-Page Article Finds IWW Guilty, II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin"all the world that's owned", Leaves
-Ralph Chaplin
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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 17, 1918
As Chicago Trial Continues, IWW Found Guilty by Kept Press, Part II

Today we offer the conclusion of our two-part series featuring the article by Boyden R. Sparkes which appeared as a full-page spread in the April 14th edition of the New York Tribune.

THE I. W. W.: AN X-RAY PICTURE

Chicago Trial Shows Searing Sparks from the Anvil Where Industrial-Military Power is Being Forged Endanger Progress-
Sabotage, Malcontents’ Principal Weapon,
a Menace to Farm, Factory and Home.

By Boyden R. Sparkes
Chicago, April 13, 1918.

[Part II]

WWIR, IWW Leaders BBH StJ BF etc, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918

WWIR, IWW Leaders Sketched in Court by MM Evers, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks at Yakima, Washington: “Is not this a country of free speech?”

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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This is one of the great battles
for the members of the working class
and we must stand by our boys.
They fought for us.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday March 2, 1917
From the Industrial Worker: Miss Flynn Speaks for Everett Prisoners

EGF, Everett Northwest Worker, Jan 18, 1917

The Everett Defense News Letter of February 17th reported that Elizabeth Gurley Flynn had recently returned from a speaking tour on behalf of the Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee:

MISS FLYNN HAS
SUCCESSFUL TOUR.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn has just returned from a speaking trip through Washington, Oregon, Idaho and part of Montana in the interests of the Defense of the 74 victims of Bloody Sunday. Every where the workers have heard eagerly the facts of the tragic and brutal massacre of November 5th and have given willingly of their time, energy and money to help set free our imprisoned fellow workers. Miss Flynn will now be engaged until the trial in the State of Washington and, more especially, in King County.

The Industrial Worker of February 17th offers a report on the speech given by Miss Flynn in Yakima, Washington, during that tour:

IN COLD FOR TWO HOURS.
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Sabotage by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

Once in a while a reporter tells the truth and the editor, being sleepy or tired, lets it go over. In what other way can we account for the extremely fair statement of the Gurley Flynn meeting given by the Yakima Republican:

Two hours is a long time to listen to any one speaker. It is a long time when one sits on the comfortable, fatly-cushioned seats of a theatre. It is still longer when one sits on the hard, wooden benches of the I. W. W. hall. And when one stands, without overcoat, on the streets to hear the stray phrases and sentences which come thru a crowded, narrow doorway, the time is long, indeed.

Yet 650 persons last night sat for two hours, on hard wooden benches, and sat tense and still, to hear Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s defense of the I. W. W. movement. A hundred or more others, unable to wedge themselves into the hall or doorway, shivered on the street as they stood to hear the lecture. Miss Flynn’s voice carried well and they heard most of the address. They heard enough to make them stay to the end of the two-hour appeal.

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Hellraisers Journal: Rebellion in Lumber Camps of Northern Minnesota: Harrison George Reports

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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The camps are deserted, the strikers firm,
the bosses wild and the cat sits on
every log that straggles thru
to the mills of Minnesota.
-Harrison George

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday February 1, 1917
Northern Minnesota – Lumber Workers Fight for Dignity

IWW Metal Mine Workers IU No. 490, Hibbing MN, June 19, 1916, Crpd

The Duluth News Tribune could not contain its glee when the Mesabi Iron Miners’ Strike was defeated last December and the I. W. W. organizers bid the workers of the Range good-bye. So imagine then the surprise when less than two weeks later the Industrial Workers of the World again appeared on the Range, this time to organize under the leadership of “Timber Beast” Jack Beaton and Fellow Worker Charles Jacobson, Secretary of the Virginia L. U. A meeting was held in the Finnish Socialist Hall of Virginia, demands issued, and soon a strike was on at the two sawmills and in the lumber camps of the Virginia & Rainy Lumber Company.

From the International Socialist Review of February 1917:

Lumber Workers, Camp Grub Pile, ISR, Feb 1917

WHILE the Lumber Workers’ Union, the bull-pen of the Industrial Workers of the World, was in convention at Portland, Ore., during the last week of December, the rumblings of revolt began half way across the continent among workers of that industry in Minnesota.

North and westward of the Mesaba Iron Range lies millions of acres of swamp lands. In the primeval state, these swamps were covered with magnificent forests where roamed the Indian and the fur-bearing fox, bear and beaver. In this section John Jacob Astor’s fur business in the early times laid the base of the present Astor-crat fortune. A very simple process—the Indians skinned the animals and Astor skinned the Indians.

Later huge land grants the railroads secured by bribery and worse practices, opened the forests to the pillage of the Lumber Trust. Where the government yet retained title to timber lands, the lumber trust in open defiance simply entered and stole the finest of timber and used the political axe on all annoying officials.

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Hellraisers Journal: AWO Wrapping Up Season in Harvest Fields, Turns Attention to Lumber Workers

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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The boss will be leery, the “stiffs” will be cheery
When we hit John Farmer hard
They’ll all be affrighted, when we stand united
And carry that Red, Red Card.
-Richard Brazier

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday October 18, 1916
From the Harvest Fields to the Lumber Camps: A. W. O. #400

The October 1916 edition of the International Socialist Review reports:

Harvest Workers, Farmer John, ISR Oct 1916
The Militant Harvest Workers

HUNDREDS of swarthy faced, hard muscled harvest workers are now turning their backs upon a hard summer’s work and are bound for the lumber camps and mills in the northwest, where they will be heard from during the coming winter.

The Agricultural Workers Organization, better known among the farmers as Local 400 I. W. W., is closing its second year’s work 20,000 strong. The members are going to carry their organization with them into the lumber camps and on construction work. Thus insuring not only the continued growth of the organization, but new unions in other industries. In spite of the fact that crops were small in North and South Dakota, the boys were able to enforce job control on half of the machines, making $3.50 per day for ten hours’ work.

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