Hellraisers Journal: Haywood and Hillquit Debate: “What shall the attitude of the Socialist party be toward the economic organization of the workers?”

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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 13, 1912
New York City – Haywood and Hillquit Debate Labor Question at Cooper Union

From The New York Call of January 12, 1912:

NY Call p1, Jan 12, 1912

The first of a series of meetings for the discussion of the various problems confronting the Socialist party of America was held in Cooper Union last night with Julius Gerber, organizer of Local New York, which has arranged these meetings, presiding.

The big hall was jammed to the doors and the audience followed every word of the protagonists with breathless interest.

The meeting was a sort of family affair, only holders of red cards being allowed in the hall. A few Socialist Labor party men smuggled themselves into the crowd on borrowed S. P. cards. They were promptly recognized and Chairman Gerber asked that they leave the hall, which they did.

The subject of the discussion last night was “What shall the attitude of the Socialist party be toward the economic organization of the workers?”

William D. Haywood and Morris Hillquit were the debaters. Each of them was given an hour, the time being divided as follows: half an hour for the outline of the debate by each speaker, then each one got twenty minutes for rebuttal and finally ten minutes for closing the discussion.

Haywood opened the discussion. The burden of his arguments in the main was that the Socialist party should go among the workers and begin a propaganda for industrial unionism, for one big union. He assailed the American Federation of Labor and said that the Socialist party is acquiescing in the policy of the American Federation, which was a distinctly anti-Socialist and capitalist policy.

Industrial Form Superior, But-

Hillquit in his reply to Haywood said that there can be no question in the mind of any Socialist that the industrial form of organization is superior to the craft organization. But he did not believe that the Socialist should begin preaching industrialism outside of organized labor. The Socialist party, he said, should keep up its policy of trying to reach the workers in their present unions. The policy has been successful, Hillquit said, as is shown by the fact that every union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor has Socialists in important positions, as well as in the rank and file. These men have been elected to these positions by the rank and file, he said, because they were Socialists.

[…..]

Haywood’s Final Reply.

Haywood took the floor to reply in his final ten minutes.

He declared there is nothing in common between the policies of the American Federation of Labor and the Socialist party. The former, he said, is craft conscious as opposed to the class consciousness of the latter. He went on to show that by high initiation fees, curtailment of apprentices and even closing of books, membership is kept down and would-be members excluded…..

He went on to say that he had never advocated anything else but the organization of the workers as one man, and that he had believed and still believes the craft form of organization to be “ethically unjustifiable and tactically suicidal.”

At the same time he urged the necessity for political action, the political power to be used, not after the social revolution, but under present conditions, citing as an instance of its use the turning of the police against strikebreakers instead of against strikers.

Haywood explained that in criticizing the American Federation of Labor he criticized its leaders, who were members of the Knights of Columbus and of the Civic Federation executive.

Hillquit Finds Mystery Deep.

In taking the floor to close the debating. Hillquit declared that the mystery had deepened, seeing that Haywood did not oppose the rank and file of the A. F. of L. but the members of the Executive Committee of the Civic Federation…..

The difference between the speaker’s policy and Haywood’s, Hillquit declared, was that the former, while condemning the policies of Samuel Gompers, made efforts to educate the rank and file, while Haywood was ready to kick over and destroy the whole A. F. of L.

[…..]

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Haywood and Hillquit Debate: “What shall the attitude of the Socialist party be toward the economic organization of the workers?””

Hellraisers Journal: Images from Triangle Fire Trial: Survivors Mary Bucelli Cisco, Joseph Brenman, and Kate Alterman

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Quote William Shepherd, Triangle Fire, Shirtwaist Strikers of a Year Ago, Mlk Jr, Mar 27, 1911, Cornell———————-

Hellraisers Journal Friday December 29, 1911
Survivors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Testified at Trial

From The Pensacola Journal of December 17, 1911:

Pensacola Jr FL p10, Dec 17, 1911

From the New York Tribune of December 19, 1911:

NY Tb p5, Dec 19, 1911

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Images from Triangle Fire Trial: Survivors Mary Bucelli Cisco, Joseph Brenman, and Kate Alterman”

Hellraisers Journal: Debs Released from Atlanta Penitentiary, Weeps as 2,300 Convicts Cheer for His Freedom

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Quote EVD if Crime to oppose bloodshed, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 27, 1921
Atlanta Penitentiary – Debs Weeps as 2,300 Convicts Cheer His Release

From The Indianapolis Star of December 26, 1921:

Ipl Str p1, Dec 26, 1921
——Ipl Str p1, Dec 26, 1921———

(Special to The Indianapolis Star.)

ATLANTA, Ga. Dec. 26.-Eugene V, Debs left prison today. His going was the occasion of the most unique demonstration in American prison history. 

Twenty-three hundred men, convicted of crimes unnumbered, their faces pressed against the bars of the windows on three floors of the big Federal penitentiary, shouted and cheered him and before them all, in the great foreground, he broke down and cried like a child. 

Recovering himself, he stepped into an automobile and was driven off, the voices of the 2,300 following him for half a mile. As this is written, on a train bound for Washington, with Debs as a passenger in a day coach, the mystery surrounding the celebrated convict deepens. Why is he going to the capital? He refuses to say, but he has admitted he has a mission there. Whether or not the trip is a condition of his release he declines to say, but the fact that he was driven to the station in the automobile of the warden, four of whose deputies are aboard this train, would indicate that while Debt is out of prison he is not yet free. 

“Citizen of the World.” 

So far as he himself is concerned, however, he construes himself a liberated “citizen of the world,” the phrase having to do with President Harding’s refusal to grant a pardon which would have restored the prisoner’s civil rights. 

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Debs Released from Atlanta Penitentiary, Weeps as 2,300 Convicts Cheer for His Freedom”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1911, Part II: Found Writing to Appeal to Reason from Mexico City, Gains Right to Organize

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Quote John ONeill re Mother Jones Resting Place, Miners Mag p6, Sept 23, 1909———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 20, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1911, Part II
Mother Writes From Mexico City; Is Denounced by Regeneración

From the Appeal to Reason of October 21, 1911:

Mother Jones In Mexico
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Mother Jones crpd ed, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

Mexico City, Oct. 4.-Just a line to let you know I have just returned from the palace where I have had a long audience with President De La Barra. At the close of my interview the Mexican guaranteed me protection and my right to organize the miners of Mexico. This is the first time that any one has ever been granted that privilege in the history of the Mexican nation. It is the greatest concession ever granted to any one representing the laboring class of any nation.

I also spent an hour with President-elect Madero and he granted me the protection and aid from the government that I called for. I am the first person who has been permitted to carry the banner of industrial freedom to the long suffering peons of this nation.

MOTHER JONES.

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1911, Part II: Found Writing to Appeal to Reason from Mexico City, Gains Right to Organize”

Hellraisers Journal: Ladies’ Garment Worker: “Echoes from the Triangle Fire”-Dr. Price: “Americans Need Big Shocks”

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Quote William Shepherd, Triangle Fire, Shirtwaist Strikers of a Year Ago, Mlk Jr, Mar 27, 1911, Cornell—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 13, 1911
“Echoes from the Triangle Fire…Americans Need Big Shocks”

From The Ladies’ Garment Worker of September 1911:

Echoes from the Triangle Fire.

Dr. Price Suggests Co-operation Between
the Waist Makers’ Union and the
Board of Sanitary Control
.

Triangle Fire, Family with Coffin, NY Tb p1, Mar 31, 1911
The whole community is responsible
for the safety of its workers.

Parents and friends of the 145 victims who were in the Triangle fire, says the New York “Call,” and of the scores of workers who saved their lives but were maimed and injured, have written, telephoned and appeared in person at the office of the Ladies’ Waist and Dress Makers’ Union, in the last two days, calling upon the union to see to it that Harris & Blanck, the owners of the Triangle shop, be brought to trial.

The parents and friends of the victims also called upon the union officials to demand an account from the Red Cross as to the manner in which $100,000 collected for the benefit of the families of the fire victims, has been disposed of, if it had been disposed of.

As a result of these numerous calls the Executive Board of the Ladies’ Waist Maker’s Union stirred up the committee of three which has been appointed some time ago to look into the Triangle case, to immediate, vigorous activity.

The committee, which consists of Sam Spivack, A. Silver, and Sam Gusman, met last night at 151 Clinton street to decide upon plans to co-operate with the parents and friends of the fire victims, and to determine upon ways and means of improving conditions in the shops where the lives of workers are daily exposed to the fire panics.

Several of the parents and friends of the Triangle victims, who called at the office of the Ladies’ Waist Makers’ Union, said that they will either get up a petition or will write personal letters to District Attorney Whitman calling upon him to bring Harris and Blanck to trial.

Dr. George M. Price, M. D., the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control in the Cloak and Suit Industry of New York, has written to the “Call” suggesting a way in which the Board might co-operate with the Waistmakers’ Union.

Americans need big shocks, says Dr. Price.

Because several meetings have been held, because a “safety committee” has been appointed, because the papers devoted a few pages to factory fire damages, it is not to be expected that the 30,000 shops in the city should have suddenly become improved, that new fire escapes should have been put in where needed, and that workers should have become interested in protecting their lives from fires instead of devoting their whole time to the most important question of election of business delegates?

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Ladies’ Garment Worker: “Echoes from the Triangle Fire”-Dr. Price: “Americans Need Big Shocks””

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Wins Fight for Free Speech in Philadelphia for Second Time

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Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910

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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 14, 1911
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Freed

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of June 13, 1911:

WOMAN SOCIALIST FREED
———- 
Court Grants Appeal From
Magistrate and Remits Fine

EGF, ISR p606, Apr 1911

Appealing from the decision of Magistrate Scott, who fined her $10 for obstructing the highways, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a labor organizer and social worker, received a favorable decision from Judge Kinsey in Quarter Sessions Court yesterday by having the magistrate’s action reversed and the fine remitted.

This is the second time within a week that Miss Flynn has succeeded in having the court overthrow the action of the police of the Twentieth and Buttonwood streets station. She was arrested twice while speaking in the vicinity of the Baldwin Locomotive Workers.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Wins Fight for Free Speech in Philadelphia for Second Time”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Coming Nation: Artist John Sloan: The Real Triangle of Death=Rent, Profit, & Interest

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 16, 1911
Artist John Sloan: The Real Triangle of Death=Rent, Profit, & Interest

From The Coming Nation of April 15, 1911:

The Triangle Fire

The Real Triangle by John Sloan, Cmg Ntn p15, Apr 15, 1911

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Coming Nation: Artist John Sloan: The Real Triangle of Death=Rent, Profit, & Interest”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: Citizen’s Mass Meeting Stands for Factory Fire Prevention after Triangle Disaster

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 9, 1911
Mass Meeting at Metropolitan Opera House Stands for Fire Prevention

From The Survey of April 8, 1911:

The Survey Social Charitable Civic, Apr 8, 1911

THE COMMON WELFARE

PREVENTION OF FACTORY FIRES

Prevention was the keynote of the whole week in discussion of the Triangle factory fire in New York and in other industrial cities which have begun to take stock of their risks. There were many meetings, chief of which was the citizens’ mass meeting at the Metropolitan Opera House, reported on succeeding pages, which resulted in the appointment of a committee of five made up of Eugene A. Philbin, chairman; Mary A. Dreier, Edward T. Devine, William Jay Schieffelin, Lillian D. Wald, and Peter Brady. The New York American has organized a committee on prevention of which Ernest Flagg, an eminent architect, is chairman and the other members are Fire Chief Croker, P. Tecumseh Sherman, formerly state commissioner of labor, and William Archer, a builder.

A conference under call of R. Fulton Cutting, president of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, appointed a committee consisting of Mr. Cutting, Franklin B. Kirkbride, Leopold Plaut, Homer Folks and John A. Kingsbury which, in conjunction with the mass meeting committee, is organizing a permanent body on fire prevention.

On Wednesday (after this issue had gone to press) public burial was given the eight unclaimed bodies and the workers of the city planned an enormous silent parade in their honor.

One of the events of the week was the opening of the Triangle Waist Company in another building. A violation of the law was immediately filed against it for installing a row of sewing machines in front of the exit to the fire-escapes. The proprietor asked the Ladies ‘ Shirtwaist Union to organize his shop, but no action was taken.

Real Triangle by Sloan re Fire, Survey p81, Apr 8, 1911 Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Survey: Citizen’s Mass Meeting Stands for Factory Fire Prevention after Triangle Disaster”

Hellraisers Journal: From The New York Call: “We are slain on the altar of Greed, and burned to the image of Graft.”

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Quote Irwin Tucker Poem Triangle Fire Sacrifice, NY Cl p1, Apr 5, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 6, 1911
New York, New York – “The Sacrifice” by Irwin Tucker and Gordon Nye

From The New York Call of April 5, 1911:

Triangle Fire, The Sacrifice, Poem Tucker, Drwg Nye, NY Cl p1, Apr 5, 1911

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The New York Call: “We are slain on the altar of Greed, and burned to the image of Graft.””