WE NEVER FORGET: March 25, 1911, 4:40 pm: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, Life So Cheap and Property So Sacred

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Rose Schneiderman Quote, Life So Cheap———-

Life So Cheap; Property So Sacred
———-

From The New York Call of March 27, 1911:

The Real Triangle by John Sloan, crpd, NY Call p1, Mar 27, 1911
“The Real Triangle” by John Sloan

From the Jewish Daily Forward of January 10, 1910:

The “Triangle” company…With blood this name will be written in the history of the American workers’ movement, and with feeling will this history recall the names of the strikers of this shop-of the crusaders.

City Hall, New York City,
-December 28, 1910

Testimony before the New York State Senate and Assembly Joint Investigating Committee on Corrupt Practices and Insurance Companies Other Than Life Insurance:

Judge M. Linn Bruce, Counsel
Chief Edward F Croker, NYC Fire Department

Bruce: How high can you successfully combat a fire now?
Croker: Not over eighty-five feet.
Bruce: That would be how many stories of an ordinary building?
Croker: About seven.
Bruce: Is this a serious danger?
Croker: I think if you want to go into the so-called workshops which are along Fifth Avenue and west of Broadway and east of Sixth Avenue, twelve, fourteen or fifteen story buildings they call workshops, you will find it very interesting to see the number of people in one of these buildings with absolutely not one fire protection, with out any means of escape in case of fire.

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Hellraisers Journal: Rose Schneiderman: “Working Sisters..Organize! You Will Need No Laws to Save You.”

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Working sisters, fix your own hours of labor!
Organize!
You will need no laws to save you from coming
to work before 6 and leaving after 9.
-Rose Schneiderman

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday March 27, 1908
Stirring Appeal to “Working Sisters” by Rose Schneiderman

As the Women’s Trade Union League continues its work on behalf of working women (see below), we pause to recall a fiery speech by one of our favorite union organizers.

From The Pittsburgh Press of June 30, 1907:

Quote Working Sisters Organize, Ptt Prs p16, June 30, 1907

From The Pittsburgh Press of July 19, 1907:

NY WTUL officers, Ptt Prs p14, July 19, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal: May Day Messages from Comrades Big Bill Haywood and Eugene V. Debs

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BBH Quote re May Day, AtR p2, Apr 27, 1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 1, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Thoughts on May Day and The Red Flag

William D. Haywood writes to the Appeal from the Ada County Jail:

Haywood, Wilshire's Magazine, 1906

May Day of all the year is the most momentous to the workers of the world. In every civilized country the first of May is recognized as International Labor Day. On this day thought-waves are carrying around the globe messages of love and encouragement. “The world is my country man is my brother,” expresses the sublime sentiment of a world-wide fraternity in every land where men and women are straining under the galling chains of oppression. This noble thought quickens the soul and kindles the spark of hope in the breast of the heavy laden.

Brave hearts of every clime are beating in unison and millions of feet are keeping step in the onward, upward march to industrial liberty.

This era of evolution is blotting out racial and national hatreds, the toilers are awakened and conscious of the truth that sufferings now endured are but the labor pains that foretell the new democracy to be born.

WM. D. HAYWOOD,
Ada County Jail, Boise, Idaho.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Montana News: Undesirable Citizens of Organized Labor Are Aroused to Action

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To advocate peace with things as they are
is treason to humanity.
This is a class struggle and on class lines
it must be fought out to a finish.
-Ida Crouch-Hazlett

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday April 27, 1907
American Labor Responds to President Theodore Roosevelt

From The Montana News of April 25, 1907:

ORGANIZED LABOR AROUSED

HMP, Undesirable Citizen, Walker 1, AtR, Apr 20, 1907

The statement of President Roosevelt in a letter to James S. Sherman, regarding the Harriman controversy, re-which he refers to Debs, Moyer, and Haywood as ‘undesirable citizens’ has raised a storm of protest among the labor unions and aroused to action those few that were hitherto luke-warm. The Executive Committee of the Moyer-Haywood Protest Conference of New York, representing over three hundred labor organizations, with a membership aggregating more than two hundred thousand men, addressed an open letter to the president protesting against the stand he has taken in this matter and asking him to “make such public amends as any true gentleman is bound to offer when inadvertently he has made a mistake and inflicted grievous wrongs upon men who have nothing to do with his personal quarrel.”

The Central Federated Union of New York adopted a motion calling upon Roosevelt to retract his statement that Moyer and Haywood are “undesirable citizens.”

The Boston Central Labor Union adopted a resolution condemning Roosevelt for “usurping prerogatives which neither the laws nor the constitution of the United States gave him.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago Federation of Labor Protests War in Response to Wilson’s Break with Germany

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[Show] the capitalists that we will not permit
ourselves to be made cannon fodder
for their interests.
-William Sims, Janitors’ Union

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday February 7, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – Chicago Federation of Labor Protests War

The Chicago Federation of Labor met February 4th at its regular bi-monthly meeting, the day after President Wilson announced his decision to break off diplomatic relations with Germany. Concerning the grim prospect of war, the following resolution was passed by the delegates:

The Chicago Federation of Labor protests against this country taking part in the European War and demands that all American citizens be prevented from entering the war zone.

From The New York Times of February 4, 1917:

WWI, US Break w Germany, NYT Feb 4, 1917

From The Chicago Daily Tribune of February 5, 1917:

CHICAGO LABOR PROTESTS
WAR WITH GERMANY
—–
Demands That All American Citizens
Be Kept from Belligerent Zone.
—–

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Hellraisers Journal: Luella Twining Reports From New York on “Frenzy” of Central Federated Union to Save WFM Officials

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If that is frenzy, I plead guilty
and I notify the Globe
I shall not soon recover.
-Luella Twining

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday January 13, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: New York Workers Aroused!

Luella Twining of Denver can now be found in New York City assisting in the organization of the defense movement for Comrades Haywood, Moyer and Pettibone by the working men and women of that city.

From the Appeal to Reason of January 12, 1907:

NEW YORK IS AROUSED
—–
Working Class of City Organizing
Powerful Defense Movement
for W.F.of
M. Officials.
—–

By Luella Twining.
—–

Luella Twining

New York, Jan. 4.-New York workingmen and women are demonstrating the solidarity of the working class. The second meeting of the Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone conference, composed of all workers who want to save their brothers in Idaho, irrespective of race, color, creed or politics, was more enthusiastic even than the first. Many new delegates were seated. Among the unions represented were the District Council of the Carpenters and Joiners, Central Federated Union, Brewers, Bill Posters, Typographical Union, Tobacco Workers, Bakers and Confectionary, Cloak and Suit Tailors, Cigar Makers, Butchers, Hat and Cap Makers, Beer Drivers, Beer Bottlers, Painters and Decorators, Steam Fitters, Bricklayers, Machinists, United Hebrew Trades, Sick and Death Benefit and Waiters. All of these trades were represented by more than one local, most of them by three or four.

The financial secretary reported the receipt of $2,760.20 for the “Defense Fund,” and $1,500 for the “Agitation Fund.” While we are laying particular stress on the necessity of money to carry on the trial, still we are setting forth also the necessity for agitation. We shall hold many meetings to warn the workers of the murder that is being planned in Idaho. We shall also distribute tons of literature setting forth the facts. New York City shall be buried in papers and pamphlets. Everybody shall know of this conspiracy, planned in New York, in that magnificent stone building on Broadway, and to be executed in that desolate, isolated region of Idaho. We do not intend to wait till our brothers are in their graves for the working class to say: “We did not know, we thought they would have a fair trial.”

The unions visited show intense interest. Many of them are holding special meetings for the reason that their by-laws do not permit them to give more than a prescribed sum. For instance, the “Sheet and Metal Workers” gave the maximum amount at their regular meeting. They held a special meeting the next week and gave $500. No unions before which speakers have appeared have refused to assist. All have displayed the greatest enthusiasm and expressed their indignation in burning words at the foul conspiracy to break up organized labor, and all resistance to capitalistic encroachment. They realize that Standard Oil, successful in ridding themselves of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, would be like wild animals after having a taste of human blood, and thirsting for more. They know they would be the next victims.

The action of the Central Federated Union, in displaying such intense interest in the “Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone Conspiracy” was a hard blow for the prosecution. The Globe commented on it editorially, and said that the C. F. U. should not have allowed such statements to be made on its floor. They called me a “Maenad” (frenzied woman). I suppose that was for portraying the sufferings of Comrade Haywood’s invalid wife, also the agony she has endured during the long year in which her husband has been incarcerated in a cell, denied every right of an American citizen. If that is frenzy, I plead guilty and I notify the Globe I shall not soon recover. I am not alone. The C. F. U. all became “frenzied,” gave all they could and promised all moral support possible.

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