Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 20, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1911, Part II:
–Found in Report of Socialist Party’s Investigating Committee
From The Socialist Party Official Bulletin:
Report of the Investigating Committee- Sub-Committee of the National Committee
As to charges of dishonesty, brought by Comrade Mother Jones against Comrade J. Mahlon Barnes, through Attorney Thomas J. Morgan, the Investigating Committee found that:
[W]hen the alleged claim was placed in the hands of Thomas J. Morgan there was, in fact, nothing due Mother Jones; that the debt had been paid in full, and that the subsequent payment of $200 to Morgan was made under duress.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 18, 1911 Fresno, California – Gag Law Against I. W. W. Laid to Rest
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of March 16, 1911:
THE CLOSING SOUNDS OF THE FRESNO FIGHT
———-
HOW THE FIGHT WAS WON-
FRESNO FIGHT IS NOW HISTORY. SOLIDARITY WINS IN FRESNO. —–
Fresno, Cal., March 5, 1911.
After denying the I. W. W. the streets for agitation meetings (because of our attempt to organize the workers of Fresno), after persecuting our members for their activity; after throwing them into jail and subjecting them to the greatest brutality; after passing a city ordinance denying the right of free speech, the authorities of Fresno now allow us to speak on the streets unmolested and unrestricted.
How was this accomplished? Less than 200 working men, roused by the acts of violence against the fighting organization to which they belonged, moved, from various parts on the pacific coast, on the Fresno representatives of their enemies (the capitalist class). They recognized that a defeat at this point would retard the important work of organizing the workers for the near approaching great conflict. From first to last, the fight here was carried on upon the strictest class lines, both sides recognizing and freely admitting fact…..
On February 22, 1911, the leading citizens of Fresno assembled to seriously consider the situation. After full discussion of ways and means of ending the struggle a committee of five was appointed with power to investigate the whole situation, ascertain our terms of settlement and report back to them.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 17, 1911 Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1911, Part I: –Found in Denver Speaking Out Against Government by Injunction
From The Rocky Mountain News of February 3, 1911:
1,000 WOMEN, SOME WITH BABIES, JOIN PROTEST ———- Twelve Thousand, Including Legislators, Parade as Rebuke to Judge Whitford for Recent Injunctions. ———-
OUST HIM, SAY RESOLUTIONS ———- Auditorium Packed Until Dark; Thomas Urges Change in Laws; Asks Recall. —–
The biggest trades union demonstration ever seen in Denver was that which took place yesterday in the form of a parade of the downtown streets and a mass meeting at the Auditorium as a protest against the decisions of Judge Greeley W. Whitford in the injunction cases against the union coal miners of the northern Colorado district and the striking machinists of the Denver Rock Drill and Machinery company.
The actual number in the parade was estimated at 12,000. The Auditorium was packed to its capacity and 2,000 were unable to get in…..
Former Governor Charles S. Thomas was the first speaker and from the time he began his address until “Mother” Jones closed at 6 o’clock the meeting was almost a continual demonstration of enthusiasm, with bursts of stormy applause whenever any especially strong denunciation of the decisions of Judge Whitford or or what the speakers designated “government by injunction” was uttered…..
Big Garment Workers’ Force.
The greatest number of women was in the first division. The Garment Workers’ union, the largest union of working girls in the city, marched in this division. So also did the woman’s auxiliary to the machinists…..
[Former Governor Thomas] urged the enactment of a recall law as one of the most effective means of putting an end to existing conditions, and the unanimity of the sentiment in favor of such a law was evidenced by vigorous applause.
E. E. [E. S.] McCullough, former vice-president of the United Mine Workers of America; John M. O’Neill, editor of the Western Federation of Miners’ magazine, and “Mother” Jones were the other speakers. O’Neill termed Whitford the Pontius Pilate of Colorado.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 16, 1911 Denver, Colorado – “A Living Protest” by William D. Haywood
From the International Socialist Review of March 1911:
This picture was taken in Denver County Jail where Pettibone, Moyer, and Haywood were confined previous to being taken to the penitentiary in Idaho. The men occupy the same corridor where Haywood’s cell was located.
FEBRUARY the second was a memorable day in Denver, Colorado. Government by injunction received a jolt in the solar plexus that if followed up by a united working class will put the courts out of business.
Ten thousand men and women unionists and Socialists paraded the streets of the Queen City of the Plains, demanding that government by injunction be abolished. They marched in fours and sixes to the capital building. When the Socialist section arrived at the law factory, their band started up the Marseillaise, every red, big and little, singing the battle song of all nations.
From the capital building the parade marched to the city auditorium, where a monster protest meeting was held. Judge Greeley W. Whitford was damned, and denounced for sending sixteen coal miners, members of the U. M. W. A., to jail for a term of one year for the alleged violation of an injunction issued by him. The injunction was one of the blanket style that covers everything and everybody. Prohibited one from breathing in the vicinity of the coal company’s property or looking at one of their strike-breaking pets that they have imported from West Virginia.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 12, 1911 Fresno, California – I. W. W. Wins Complete Victory in Free Speech Fight
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of March 9, 1911:
JUST BEFORE THE VICTORY ———-
SHERIFF REFUSES MORE PRISONERS. THE RESPECTABLE CITIZENS TALK OF LYNCHING I. W. MEMBERS. ———-
Fresno, Feb. 27, 1911.
The sheriff refuses to accept any more prisoners charged with violating a city ordinance, on the ground that the jail is overcrowded.
To prevent us from speaking on the streets, the police do not arrest us, but resort to clubbing and turning us over to the pinks, pimps and toughs.
Two men were beat up by the hoodlums today for speaking on the street. One of them was dragged half a block. The police pay no attention to the protests of the onlooking citizens against these fiendish practices.
One man openly informed us that we were going to be lynched tonight. The chief of police, who was standing near, studied the effect this remark had on us. He was rewarded with a “horse laugh.”
The people are inclining more and more in our favor. A large number of our papers were sold. On the 25th of this month the Citizens’ League sent a committee to the bull pen to ascertain our terms, which we stated to them. The committee pronounced these terms just a wise and promised to present them before the next meeting of the citizens. We haven’t heard from them since. If the present tactics are aimed to frighten us off the streets, then a mistake has again been made. This fight for free speech in Fresno will continue until we have free speech and are protected in the exercise thereof.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 6, 1911 I. W. W. Army Hikes Over Siskiyou Pass on Way to Fresno
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of March 2, 1911:
Hornbrook, Cal., February 19.
Fellow Worker [Thomas] Whitehead:
I guess by this time that our “doings” have been given publication to some extent in the capitalist press. We were 150 strong when we left Portland. Now the capitalist papers say that we held up a train, WHICH IS A D–N LIE. All we did was to get into an empty box-car, just as any ordinary stiff, but it was so well managed that no railroad bull or police knew we were in the yards at Portland, until we were well away.
We were met by the police at Albany, Ore., whom we talked to. Told them where we were going, and what we were going to do. One big fellow, mayor, or something, sent the first news to the press of the armed-mob, etc., WHICH WAS ALSO A LIE, as we are all searched every day by our own police. When we got to Junction City (put it on the map) we were met by a mob of respectable citizens, who were armed with guns, pitchforks, cleavers, etc. They boarded the train, and told us not to get off the train, and with the guns pointed in our faces, we just laughed at them. Told them what we were and what we were going to do, using the top of a box-car for a soap box, which made them look very small indeed.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 4, 1911 Carrie W. Allen on Child Slaves of the Cotton Mills, Part I
From the International Socialist Review of March 1911:
[Part I of II.]
THE shrill scream of the factory whistle smites the chill morning air at the dawn of each new day, and obedient to its hideous call, a ghostly array of anemic children, rudely awakened from sleep, gulp down a bit of food and stumble sleepily to the factory door.
This pitiful multitude of children, whose days are completely swallowed by the cotton mills, keep up their incessant dance from one spindle to another, or from one loom to another, dizzily watching the ten, twelve or fifteen shuttles play hide and seek among the labyrinth of threads.
So much has been written about these youngest victims of capitalist greed, the children of the cotton mills, that were we not misery hardened, were we not blinded by brutal toil, long ago an awakened working class would have united to wipe this iniquity out.
And yet, the workers are not to blame that the forced struggle for existence has limited their vision and stupefied their imagination.
One little child set in the midst of a crowd, because in his person misery is visualized, makes a more eloquent appeal than the story of all the thousands of children whose lives are crushed by the cruel millstones of industry.
—————
—————
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-
