Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs on the Chicago Pullman/ARU Strike of 1894: “The Grandest Industrial Battle in History.”

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Quote EVD Workers n Parasites, SDH Jan 30, 1904—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday August 31, 1904
Eugene Debs Replies to Grover Cleveland’s Critique of the Chicago Strike of 1894

 From the Appeal to Reason of August 27, 1904:

The Federal Government and the Chicago Strike

Eugene V. Debs’ Reply to Grover Cleveland’s Magazine Article.

EVD re ARU Pullman Chicago Strike 1894, McClures p227, July 1904

This article was written for McClure’s Magazine in reply to Cleveland, but the editor of that publication refused to publish it, although permitting Cleveland’s calumny of the railway employes of this country to appear in its columns. McClure boasts of circulating a half million copies of Cleveland’s article. This first edition of the Appeal already reaches the half-million mark-ten days before going to press. It will exceed one million before the first of September. The Socialists of America propose to give plutocracy an example of what can be accomplished in the way of circulating the defense of the working class in spite of the wealth of plutocracy. Every true Socialist will take a hand in this distribution.

IN THE July issue of McClure’s Magazine, ex-President Grover Cleveland has an article on “The Government in the Chicago Strike of 1894.” That there may be no mistake about the meaning of “government” in this connection, it should be understood that Mr. Cleveland has reference to the federal government, of which he was the executive head at the time of the strike in question, and not to the state government of Illinois, or the municipal government of Chicago, both of which were overridden and set at defiance of the executive authority, enforced by the military power of the federal government, under the administration of Mr. Cleveland.

CLEVELAND VINDICATES HIMSELF.

THE ex-president’s article not only triumphantly vindicates his administration, but congratulates its author upon the eminent service he rendered the republic in a critical hour when a labor strike jarred its foundations and threatened its overthrow.

It may be sheer coincidence that Mr. Cleveland’s eulogy upon his patriotic administration, and upon himself as its central and commanding figure, appeared on the eve of a national convention composed largely of his disciples who were urging his fourth nomination for the presidency for the very reasons set forth in the article on the Chicago strike.

HIS KNOWLEDGE SECOND-HAND.

HOWEVER this may be, it is certain that of his own knowledge ex-President Cleveland knows nothing of the strike he discusses; that the evidence upon which he acted officially and upon which he now bases his conclusions was ex parte, obtained wholly from the railroad interests and those who represented or were controlled by these interests, and it is not strange, therefore, that he falls into a series of errors beginning with the cause of the disturbance and running all through his account of it, as may be proved beyond doubt by reference to the “Report on the Chicago Strike” by the “United States Strike Commission,” of his own appointment.

WHAT WAS THE CHICAGO STRIKE?

SIMPLY one of the many battles that have been fought and are yet to be fought in the economic war between capital and labor. Pittsburg, Homestead, Buffalo, Latimer, Pana, Coeur d’Alene, Cripple Creek and Telluride recall a few of the battles fought in this country in the world-wide struggle for industrial emancipation.

When the strike at Chicago occurred, did President Cleveland make a personal investigation? No.

Did he grant both sides a hearing? He did not.

In his fourteen-page magazine article what workingman, or what representative of labor, does he cite in support of his statements or his official acts? Not one.

I aver that he received every particle of his information from the capitalist side, that he was prompted to act by the capitalist side, that his official course was determined wholly, absolutely by and in the interest of the capitalist side, and that no more thought or consideration was given to the other side, the hundreds of thousands of workingmen, whose lives and whose wives and babes were at stake, than if they had been so many swine or sheep that had balked on their way to the shambles.

* * *

THE GREATEST INDUSTRIAL BATTLE IN HISTORY.

The Chicago strike was in many respects the grandest industrial battle in history, and I am prouder of my small share in it than of any other act of my life.

Men, women and children were on the verge of starvation at the “model city” of Pullman. They had produced the fabulous wealth of the Pullman corporation, but they, poor souls, were compelled to suffer the torment of hunger pangs in the very midst of the abundance their labor had created.

A hundred and fifty thousand railroad employes, their fellow members in the American Railway Union, sympathized with them, shared their earnings with them, and after vainly trying in every peaceable way they could conceived to touch the flint heart of the Pullman Company, every overture being resented, every suggestion denied, every proposition spurned with contempt, they determined not to pollute their hands and dishonor their manhood by handling Pullman cars and contributing to the suffering and sorrow of their brethren and their wives and babes. And rather than do this they laid down their tools in a body, sacrificed their situations and submitted to persecution, exile and the blacklist; to idleness and poverty, crusts and rags, and I shall love and honor these moral heroes to my latest breath.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs on the Chicago Pullman/ARU Strike of 1894: “The Grandest Industrial Battle in History.””

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Rescued from “Quarantine” in Utah; Charles Moyer and Big Bill Haywood Persecuted Under Military Despotism in Colorado

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Quote Mother Jones, CFI Owns Colorado, re 1903 Strikes UMW WFM, Ab Chp 13, 1925—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 30, 1904
Mother Jones Held in Utah; Moyer and Haywood Up Against Militia in Colorado

From The Rocky Mountain New of April 27, 1904:

Mother Jones has been in Utah since her deportation from Trinidad, Colorado. There she has been working among the miners of that state, and, for her efforts, was confined under “quarantine” near Helper, Utah. This was too much for the miners of that area and a raid was made upon the pest house which freed from Mother from that place. She has since been recaptured, and, according to the following report, is now held in the Carbon County jail at Price, Utah.

Mother Jones Escapes Quarantine to County Jail, Price UT, RMN p4, Apr 27, 1904

From the American Labor Union Journal of Apr 28, 1904
-Moyer brought to Denver, but returned to bullpen at Telluride;
Haywood brutally assaulted by soldiers:

BBH Moyer v Colorado Military Despotism, ALUJ p1, Apr 28, 1904

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Rescued from “Quarantine” in Utah; Charles Moyer and Big Bill Haywood Persecuted Under Military Despotism in Colorado”

Hellraisers Journal: From McClure’s Magazine: “Children of the Coal Shadow” by Francis H. Nichols, Part III

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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 12, 1903
Children of Pennsylvania’s Anthracite “Coal Shadow”
-Part III of article by Francis H. Nichols, with illustrations by Frank E. Schoonover

From McClure’s Magazine of February 1903:

CHILDREN OF THE COAL SHADOW

BY FRANCIS H. NICHOLS

Illustrated by Frank E. Schoonover

[Part III of III]

Children of Coal Nichols Schoonover, Girls Forelady, McClures p439, Feb 1903

Where the Daughters Work

While the miner’s son is working in the breaker or mine it is probable that his daughter is employed in a mill or factory. Sometimes in a mining town, sometimes in a remote part of the coal fields, one comes upon a large, substantial building of wood or brick. When the six o’clock whistle blows, its front door is opened, and out streams a procession of girls. Some of them are apparently seventeen or eighteen years old, the majority are from thirteen to sixteen, but quite a number would seem to be considerably less than thirteen. Such a building is one of the knitting mills or silk factories that during the last ten years have come into Anthracite…..

Through a district organizer I was enabled to interview under union auspices a number of little girls who were employed in a knitting mill. One girl of fifteen said that she was the oldest of seven children. She had worked in the mill since she was nine years old. Her father was a miner. As pay for “raveling” she received an amount between $2.50 and $3 every two weeks. Another thirteen-year-old raveler had worked since the death of her father, two years before, from miner’s asthma; her brother had been killed in the mine. The $3 she received every two weeks in her pay envelope supported her mother and her ten-year-old sister…..

The breaker boss finds at the mill or factory a counterpart in the “forelady.” This personage holds a prominent place in the civilization of Anthracite. It is taken for granted that the forelady must be habitually hateful, and in all controversies side with the proprietor against the rest of the girls. It is her duty to crush incipient strikes, and to do all in her power to “break” the union. She enjoys being hated by every one, and leads an isolated life of conscious rectitude for about $5 a week…..

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Hellraisers Journal: From McClure’s Magazine: “Children of the Coal Shadow” by Francis H. Nichols, Part II

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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 11, 1903
Children of Pennsylvania’s Anthracite “Coal Shadow”
-Part II of article by Francis H. Nichols, with illustrations by Frank E. Schoonover

From McClure’s Magazine of February 1903:

CHILDREN OF THE COAL SHADOW

BY FRANCIS H. NICHOLS

Illustrated by Frank E. Schoonover

[Part II of III]

Children of Coal Nichols Schoonover, Breaker Boys, McClures p438, Feb 1903

The School of the “Breaker”

The company’s nurseries for boys of the coal shadow are the grim black buildings called breakers, where the lump coal from the blast is crushed into marketable sizes…..Between the [coal] chutes are boys. All day long their little fingers dip into the unending grimy steam that rolls past them…..

Children of Coal Nichols Schoonover, Breaker Boss, McClures p442, Feb 1903

…..In front of the chutes is an open space reserved for the “breaker boss,” who watches the boys as intently as they watch the coal.

The boss is armed with a stick, with which he occasionally raps on the head and shoulders a boy who betrays lack of zeal…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From McClure’s Magazine: “Children of the Coal Shadow” by Francis H. Nichols, Part II”

Hellraisers Journal: From McClure’s Magazine: “Children of the Coal Shadow” by Francis H. Nichols, Part I

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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR p10641, May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 10, 1903
Children of Pennsylvania’s Anthracite “Coal Shadow”
-Part I of article by Francis H. Nichols, with illustrations by Frank E. Schoonover

From McClure’s Magazine of February 1903:

Children of Coal Nichols Schoonover, Boy, McClures p435, Feb 1903

Every child of the coal fields who to-day is ten years old has lived through at least two great strikes [Great Anthracite Strikes of 1900 and 1902]. During these periods the indefinite and sullen discontent takes a concrete and militant form. There is talk by idle men of “the rights of labor” and the “wickedness of riches.” Deputies armed with rifles are guarding the company’s property. A detachment of militia is encamped at the end of the street…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From McClure’s Magazine: “Children of the Coal Shadow” by Francis H. Nichols, Part I”

Hellraisers Journal: The Coming Nation: How the National Consumers’ League Stands with Working Women, Part I

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Mother Jones Quote ed, Suffer Little Children, CIR May 14, 1915—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 8, 1911
The National Consumers’ League Stands with Working Women and Children

From The Coming Nation of June 3, 1911:

How Women Help Women

By Grace Potter

[Part I of II.]

Child Labor, Flower Makers, Cmg Ntn p10, June 3, 1911

Child Labor, T, Cmg Ntn p10, June 3, 1911

HE National Consumers’ League believes that the six million wage-working women in the United States are in many ways earning their bread under greater difficulties than the men wage slaves endure.

The shirt waist strike two years ago and the present strike of the box makers in New York illustrate one of the handicaps women suffer. Whatever move they made in the progress of their battle, the shirt-waist strikers were hauled into police court. They were often treated brutally by policemen, they were thrust into cells, they were fined, they were imprisoned. They suffered as no men strikers ever have in New York. The police were not deterred from unjust action against these young women by the thought of the way they might vote at the next election, because women have no vote.

Woman’s inferior physical strength, her maternal cares, her need to give attention to her home the while she is a wage earner, all are handicaps, too.

The National Consumers’ League is trying to make conditions better for working women because she is so handicapped. Incidentally they are making conditions better for men in many places.

It was over twenty years ago that the Consumers’ League was started in New York City. It has spread to many states and many countries since then and it is still spreading. It has two definite aims:

1. To abolish the sweating system.
2. To extend among all mercantile establishments commendable conditions.

These are the means taken to accomplish such ends:

1. The Consumers’ League Label.
2. The White List of Fair Houses.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Coming Nation: How the National Consumers’ League Stands with Working Women, Part I”