Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 30, 1912 Cascade Park, New Castle, Pa. – Debs and Seidel Speak at Interstate Socialist Picnic
From The Coming Nation of July 27, 1912:
Note: Photograph was taken June 22, 1912 at Cascade Park, New Castle, Pennsylvania, at the Grand Interstate Socialist Picnic. Speakers included Eugene Debs and Emil Seidel, candidates for President and Vice-President, Socialist Party of America. Transportation was provided from as far away as Pittsburgh.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 10, 1911 Socialist Editors of New Castle, Pennsylvania, Freed
From the Appeal to Reason of October 7, 1911:
New Castle Socialists Freed ———-
Charles McKeever, Frank M. Hartman and C. H. McCarty, editors of the Free Press, of New Castle, Pa., have been acquitted in the court of the charge seditious libel. This is the ease that has attracted so much attention all over the country. They are arraigned under an obsolete English law that was supposed to have been off the statute books of every civilized state. Had there been no publicity given to the matter no doubt the comrades would have been convicted, but when the people began to realize that a law belonging to the middle ages was sought now as a means of upholding the capitalist system there was such an awakening that conviction became an impossibility.
Although the seditious libel case was decided in favor of the defense,the unheard of action was taken of assessing them half the costs of the prosecution. All the costs of defense and half the cost of prosecution, when they were found not guilty, is a hard burden for them to bear and is an outrage against so-called civilization in America.
But in addition to this, they are under sentence of a fine for contempt of court. This case has cost them a great deal and the flight against the life of the Free Press has lasted for eighteen months. As a result it has been a severe blow to the comrades. Those who wish to help in this fight now that it is won should send fifty cents for an annual subscription to the Free Press.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 7, 1910
New Castle, Pennsylvania – Socialist Rally Behind Free Press
From the International Socialist Review of July 1910:
The Free Press Fight at New Castle, Pa.
By FRED D. WARREN
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[Part II of II.]
While the jury was deliberating and the judge and his friends scheming to overthrow the right of free press, there was something of importance transpiring in another quarter of the trust-ridden town.
From the surrounding cities came Socialists and their friends by the thousand. Every incoming railroad train was crowded. A special of nine coaches was required to bring the delegation from Pittsburg. The inter-urban service was taxed to its utmost capacity by the Socialists from nearby cities. The visitors were met by the local committee on arrangements and the line of march was through the principal streets to County Head quarters, located in the very heart of the city. It was an inspiring revolutionary spectacle and one that New Castle will not soon forget. Comrade John W. Slayton, nominated for Governor the day before, was called for and from the window overlooking the street spoke for a few minutes. When Slayton’s tall form and kindly features appeared there arose a lusty cheer that resounded from hill to hill and caused smug New Castle to pause and inquire into the cause of this sudden outburst of enthusiasm.
In the afternoon, in Cascade Park, fully 15,000 persons had gathered to hear the speakers. The mounted police were on hand promptly and refused to allow the speaking to take place as arranged. The park was a private one, it was explained, owned by the street car company. Comrade Ries, of Ohio, who is always on the job, rented an apple orchard a few hundred yards distant from the park entrance. Perhaps one-third of the immense throng, (it being impossible in the confusion to get word to all) marched to the new location where the program was continued. The mounted police were on hand, but our rent receipt for the use of the orchard, forced them to respect our “property rights.” The meeting had dispersed before the blue laws of Pennsylvania against a Sunday political meeting, could be invoked.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 6, 1910
New Castle, Pennsylvania – Free Press on Trial for “Seditious Libel”
From the International Socialist Review of July 1910:
The Free Press Fight at New Castle, Pa.
By FRED D. WARREN
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[Part I of I.]
HE case against the comrades comprising the committee engaged in the publication of the New Castle Free Press, charged with “seditious libel,” was tried under what was known as the old English common law. This law against “seditious libel” was framed at a time when kings ruled by divine right, and in order to establish the guilt of the “pestiferous” McKeever, Hartman, McCarty and White, the prosecutor of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, cited a case that occurred during the reign of Charles II. A score of Irish peasants raised a rebellion, so the prosecutor read, against the English land lords. These Irish peasants were arrested, charged with “seditious libel” and sentenced to prison. That was nearly four hundred years ago, yet we find a fossilized county prosecutor referring to it today in an effort to convict these four comrades of ours. It would be laughable were it not for the serious consequences that are likely to follow this New Castle trial for “seditious libel.”
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 5, 1910
New Castle, Pennsylvania – Big Bill Haywood Visits Solidarity Staff in Jail
From the International Socialist Review of June 1910:
“Leading exponent of Revolutionary Unionism east of the Rockies.”
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“Solidarity in Prison” by William D. Haywood
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[Part II of II.]
The [New Castle] Free Press and Solidarity were issued every week. The employers were furious. Members of the Business Men’s Exchange grew hydrophobic. Detectives were hired and set on the trail of the papers and finally the editorial staffs of both The Free Press and Solidarity were arrested, charged with an alleged violation of the Pennsylvania publishing law (enacted in 1907 and never called into use except on one occasion, as a matter of spite).
This law is being violated daily and weekly by many publications in Pennsylvania at the present time.
The editors of Solidarityand the Free Press were hailed into court and with them the editor of the New Castle Herald, a capitalist sheet. All three were convicted, but the leniency of the court, resulted in the capitalist editor being released on payment of costs while the others were fined $100 and costs.
The Free Press appealed their case while the members of Solidarity refused to pay the fines and were sentenced to jail, declining to accept Judge Porter’s profferred offer of ten days in which to look for money to pay them. Knowing that the workers alone would be the ones to contribute, they preferred to go to jail.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 4, 1910
New Castle, Pennsylvania – Big Bill Haywood on the Jailing of Solidarity
From the International Socialist Review of June 1910:
“Leading exponent of Revolutionary Unionism east of the Rockies.”
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“Solidarity in Prison” by William D. Haywood
[Part I of II.]
CTIVITY in the socialist movement presents some complex situations, some unusual rewards.
There are socialists in jail in New Castle. There are socialists in office at Milwaukee.
If the opportunity of the individuals concerned could be reversed, it is certain that Comrade Emil Seidel, mayor of Milwaukee, and his colleagues, would bear with fortitude the gloomy ignominy of the cells in Lawrence County Jail. It is likewise true that comrades McCarty, Stirton, Williams, Jacobs, Fix and Moore, the manager and editorial staff of Solidarity, could administer the affairs of a municipality with honor to the party, and credit to themselves. But those who know the boys in jail, know that neither would voluntarily change places. All are filling their present positions, in upholstered, revolving office chairs or hard rough benches for the same great cause.
The imprisonment of our fellow-workers in New Castle is an incident in the strike against the American Sheet and Tin Plate Co., which has been on since last July.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 13, 1919
Intimidation in Pittsburg Steel District Contrasted with Ohio
From The Survey of November 8, 1919:
Closed Towns
Intimidation as It is Practised in the Pittsburgh
Steel District:—the Contrast in Ohio
By S. Adele Shaw
[Parts III-V of V]
III
THIS interlocking of mill and town officials explains not only the ease with which normal civil rights have been shelved, but the ease with which, under the guise of law enforcement, deputies and troopers get away with reckless action in the streets and alleys, and with which the petty courts turn trumped-up grounds for the arrest of labor organizers and strikers into denials of justice.
In Allegheny county Sheriff Haddock had, according to his own statement on October first, deputized 300 men for service under control of his central office and 5,000 mill deputies. Newspapers placed the figure early in the strike at 10,000. The mill police who in ordinary times are sworn in under the state provision for coal and iron police for duty in the mills only, are, since the strike, sworn in by the sheriff at the request of the companies. They have power to act anywhere in the county. They are under the direction of the mill authorities. Companies are required to file a bond of $2,000 for each man so deputized and are responsible for his actions.
It is the state constabulary, however, who have set the pace for the work of intimidation in the mill towns of Allegheny county. Responsibility for calling them in is difficult to fix. Since last February squads had been stationed at Dravosburg within easy reach of the steel towns; and the Saturday before the strike patrols were brought down into them. The sheriff denies that he called on the state for the troopers. The burgess of Braddock and the chiefs of police in Homestead and Munhall professed ignorance of the responsibility for their coming.
Hellraisers Journal –Wednesday October 29, 1919
Mother Jones News for September 1919, Part I
Duquesne, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Arrested for Organizing Steel Workers
From the New York Sun of September 8, 1919:
RAID ENDS MEETING OF STEEL WORKERS
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Mother Jones and Other Organizers
Seized in Duquesne.
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Special Dispatch to THE SUN.
PITTSBURG, Sept. 7.-Duquesne was the scene of much excitement on the part of the police and union organizers this afternoon when Police Chief Thomas Flynn and a squad of patrolmen appeared at an open air meeting at Linden and River avenues, where more than 1,000 steel workers had assembled, and arrested four labor organizers, including “Mother” Jones, the veteran organizer, and forty steel workers. The organizers were charged with holding a public meeting without a permit and the workmen were charged with illegal congregating. After staying in the Duquesne police station four hours they were released on forfeits for a hearing to-morrow.
Mother Jones with William Z. Foster
The organizers arrested besides “Mother” Jones were William Z. Foster, secretary of the national committee for organizing iron and steel workers; J. L. Beaghen, president of the Pittsburg Bricklayers Union, and an American Federation of Labor organizer, and J. M. Patterson, vice-president of the Brotherhood of Railway Car Men.
The organizers said the meeting was being held on a vacant lot, the owner of which had given permission.
Hellraisers Journal –Friday October 17, 1919
Mother Jones News for August 1919, Part II
Homestead, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Arrested for Speaking to Steel Workers
From the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader of August 21, 1919:
SEIZE MOTHER JONES
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Pittsburgh, Aug. 21.-“Mother” Jones, J. G. Brown, of Seattle; J. L Boghan [J. L. Beaghen], of Chicago, and R. W. Riley, of Homestead, organizers of the American Federation of Labor, were arrested last night in Fifth avenue, Homestead, when they attempted to hold a mass-meeting on the street. Acting Chief of Police Hood, who made the arrests, charged them with violating a borough ordinance when they were unable to produce a permit for the meeting.
When the automobile from which “Mother” Jones was speaking when she was ordered to stop by Chief Hood carried her and the other speakers toward the Homestead police station, a crowd of 1000 persons, mostly foreigners, who had gathered in Firth avenue,followed. Amity street in front of the police station, was blocked by the crowd for half a block on either side of the station.
“Mother” Jones and the others were released on forfeits. Mounting the rear seat of the automobile which carried her to the police station, “Mother” Jones addressed the crowd and advised them to “go home and be good boys”. After the crowd had cheered her, “Mother” Jones asked that they give three cheers for the United States and then told them to go home.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 10, 1909
Louis Duchez on Victory of McKees Rocks Strikers, Part II
From the International Socialist Review of October 1909:
[Part II of II.]
—–
On August 15th, the I. W. W. advertised a mass meeting to be held on Indian Mound. Large posters printed in five different languages were displayed. Eight thousand men attended the meeting—nearly all strikers, and many railroad men and trade unionists and laborers from Pittsburg.
William E. Trautman first addressed the meeting in English and German, after which the men were parcelled off in lots. Nine different nationalities were spoken to—besides these two—and to each man his own tongue.
To Ignatz Klavier, a Polander and member of the Socialist Party who speaks five languages fluently, much credit is due for enlightening the McKees Rocks strikers on the principles of industrial unionism. It was Klavier who, during the second week of the strike, brought out clearly the distinction between the A. F. of L. and the I. W. W. He was ably assisted by Henyey, a Hungarian, and Max Forker, a German.
A wonderful spirit of solidarity was shown by the trainmen of the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago and on the Pittsburg and Lake Erie roads—the only railroads running into McKees Rocks, when the trainmen refused to haul scabs to the plant. This is the first time in the history of labor troubles in the United States that this has been done. This was another example of the tactics of industrial unionism directly due to I. W. W. propaganda and education. Not only did the railroad men lend their aid to the strikers but the crews on the two company steamers, “The Queen” and “The Pheil,” refused to haul the scabs. This also is due to the work of the Unknown Committee and the great wonderful spirit of solidarity that is spontaneously stirring the wage slaves of the world. Even the school children of “Hunkeytown” refused to attend school until the strike was settled.
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—————HE case against the comrades comprising the committee engaged in the publication of the New Castle Free Press, charged with “seditious libel,” was tried under what was known as the old English common law. This law against “seditious libel” was framed at a time when kings ruled by divine right, and in order to establish the guilt of the “pestiferous” McKeever, Hartman, McCarty and White, the prosecutor of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, cited a case that occurred during the reign of Charles II. A score of Irish peasants raised a rebellion, so the prosecutor read, against the English land lords. These Irish peasants were arrested, charged with “seditious libel” and sentenced to prison. That was nearly four hundred years ago, yet we find a fossilized county prosecutor referring to it today in an effort to convict these four comrades of ours. It would be laughable were it not for the serious consequences that are likely to follow this New Castle trial for “seditious libel.”
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CTIVITY in the socialist movement presents some complex situations, some unusual rewards.
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