I studied carefully the New York East Side,
the slums, the dives, and the sweatshops
and the terrible conditions of the people there
drove me into socialism.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday September 22, 1907
Chicago, Illinois – Miss Flynn Delegate to I. W. W. Convention
From Montana’s Great Falls Daily Tribune of September 21, 1907:
It’s great to fight for Freedom
with a Rebel Girl.
-Joe Hill
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday September 10, 1907
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Miss Flynn Lectures on Socialism
From the Chicago Inter Ocean of September 9, 1907:
GIRL IN HIGH SCHOOL SOCIALIST LECTURER
—–
Miss Elizabeth Flynn Mounts Dry Goods Box
on Philadelphia’s Corners to Expound the
Doctrines of Her Political Beliefs.
—–STRICKEN BY POVERTY, SHE AIMS BLOW AT CAPITALISTS
—–
Handles Rockefeller, Roosevelt, and Other Leaders
Without Gloves in Addresses to Masses
-Says Crisis Will Bring Change.
—–Special Dispatch to The Inter Ocean.
PHILADELPHIA. PA., Sept. 8.-Philadelphia is being treated to a series of lectures on socialism, delivered by a girl of 17 years. She is miss Elizabeth Flynn of New York, still in high school, and every night she expounds the doctrine of ther political faith from the top of a dry goods box at a busy corner.
Two weeks ago Miss Flynn passed her seventeenth birthday, celebrating this important occasion by delivering two powerful addresses on socialism, brimful of tart remarks about Mr. Rockefeller’s fine and about the insincerity of Mr. Roosevelt and any other politician of the capitalistic class.
Draws Picture of Capitalist.
Here are some hammer blows from her speeches:
On the one hand is the working class, on the other hand the things they need, and between the two the capitalist dragging down the working man and pushing up the price of materials he must have.
Are we going to sit around and starve ourselves waiting for the capitalist to get out of his market glue?
Mark me!The downfall of capitalism will come in some great crisis.
Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 7, 1917
Nationwide Raids Against Industrial Workers and Socialists
The nationwide raids conducted by federal agents on September 5th against the Industrial Workers of the World and the Socialist Party of America are described by the Spokane Spokesman-Review of September 6th:
US Officers Raid I. W. W. Headquarters
Over Nation[Report from Associated Press]
Indictments May Follow.
MAGNOLIA, Mass., Sept. 5.— Attorney General Thomas W. Gregory was a guest at the summer home of Colonel E.M. House here this evening when he received word that raids on the headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World in many cities had been carried out as arranged by the federal Department of Justice.
“It is no secret,” said Mr. Gregory, “that the Industrial Workers of the World have been under suspicion for some time. The Department of Justice conducted a quiet investigation until I was convinced that we were warranted in taking such action as this.
“I do not need to say the the raids will be followed quickly by indictments if we find anything to warrant them, and the men will be prosecuted to the extent of the law if they deserve it.”
Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 9, 1917
The Review Reports on Failure to Starve in an Orderly Manner
The Cover of the International Socialist Review for April 1917:
Leslie Marcy of the Review Reports on Food Riots:
FOOD RIOTS IN AMERICA
-By LESLIE MARCY
Pray for the dead
and fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
By February 21 of 1917 the strike at the Franklin and McCahan sugar refineries had been on for several weeks. At about 5:30 p. m. that afternoon, police were escorting scabs home from the plants when they were met by strikers and their wives, led by Florence Sholde who threw pepper into the faces of the scabs and police.
Wobbly Historian Bob Helms picks up the story:
The crowd grew and the confrontation escalated into a pitched battle of bricks and pistol shots, involving hundreds of union supporters. FW Sholde was arrested for inciting to riot (police agents supposedly had spotted her earlier in the day urging militant action at a meeting), and scores of people were injured on both sides, but Martin Petkus was killed by a single bullet in the chest and fell across a railroad track….
The news reports say that he was one of the striking Franklin workers, that he was “known among them as a giant of strength and courage,” and that the police found an IWW membership card in his pocket. He was recognized by all as a leader, and accordingly his funeral was a formidable event.
Petkus’ body lay in state at the Lithuanian National Hall (still standing), which was the headquarters of MTW IU #510 at that time, and on February 26th he was carried to St. Casimir’s Lithuanian Catholic Church, a dozen or so blocks away, with a crowd of about 10,000 accompanying his casket. Little girls wearing red dresses sold red carnations to union supporters.
Pray for the dead
and fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Friday March 9, 1917
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 10,000 March to Honor Fellow Worker
From the Industrial Worker of March 3, 1917:
GUNMEN ATTACK PICKETS, KILL AND INJURE
———-(Special Wire to the Industrial Worker)
Philadelphia, Pa., February 27.-In its fourth week the sugar workers’ strike here finds the five thousand workers more determined than ever. The I. W. W. longshoremen and men on the boats plying out of Philadelphia have refused to handle sugar, or transport it to other ports where it would be handled. The picket lines are getting bigger every day. The wives and daughters of the strikers are also on the picket line.
On February 21 the police charged the strikers and shot Martinus Petkus (Marciionas Petkus, age 28) to death and wounded several others. There have been many arrests and strikers are being clubbed every day on the picket line.
The sugar workers of New York and New Jersey are also out on strike. One of the results has been an increase in the price of sugar, which has soared to twenty-five cents a pound.
The sugar companies are getting desperate.
The funeral of Martinus Petkus occurred here today. Over ten thousand people were in line, including over five thousand Industrial Workers of the World. The Tailors’ Union of the I. W. W. declared a holiday to attend the funeral.
Funds are needed to carry on this fight. Act, and act now! W. T. Nef, 800 Parkway Bldg, Philadelphia, Pa.
———-
[Photograph added.]
When half a million mothers
in the richest city
in the richest country in the world
feel the pinch of hunger
as they are feeling it here now
nothing can prevent trouble.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday February 24, 1917
New York, New York – Mothers Demand Food as Children Starve
While the nation’s kept press continues to report on the food rioting taking place in New York City and Philadelphia, they continuously emphasis the foreign birth of many of the demonstrators, some of which have indeed rioted. Seems they believe that those of foreign birth should be willing to starve and perish in a quiet and orderly manner once they come to America.
The kept press mostly ignores the deep suffering of those who have been driven to such desperate measure in order to find relief. In fact, within just the past two months of January and February, the price of staples has risen dramatically. The cost of potatoes has risen 100 percent, onions are up by 366 percent and cabbage by 212 percent. Without being able to afford meat, mothers rely on beans to nourish their growing children and that staple has increased by 100 percent.
The Day Book of Chicago is an exception to this callous coverage of human suffering, pointing out that people are actually starving in New York City. The Day Book reports on attempts at relief:
STARVING CONTINUE TO RIOT
IN NEW YORK-ACTIONNew York, Feb. 23.-Food riots continued sporadically in city today as heighth of Sabbath food buying among Jewish people was reached.
Mass meeting tonight, Rutgers sq., following which women will march to meeting of Board Estimate, where Mayor Mitchell is expected to make move to relieve conditions.
Demands will be made on city authorities for appropriation of $1,000,000 to open municipal stores and another $1,000,000 for school lunches. Strong demand that steps be taken to have government take over railway systems for food transportation.
When half a million mothers
in the richest city
in the richest country in the world
feel the pinch of hunger
as they are feeling it here now
nothing can prevent trouble.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Friday February 23, 1917
New York, New York – Mother Jones to Aid in Demand for Food
Food riots have broken out in New York City and in Philadelphia as the working-class women of those cities refuse to maintain proper civic order while they watch their children starve. In Philadelphia, police opened fire, killing one man and seriously wounding another. The police, as usual, claim that the workers fired first, and the word of the police has been printed as fact by the kept press of the nation.
Mother Jones is now in New York City to support the working-class women in their demand for food at prices that they can afford. She was interviewed by a reporter in her room at the Union Square Hotel.
From the New York Tribune of February 22, 1917:
“Mother” Jones To Head
Parade of 10,000
—–Will Take Delegation to President
if Mayor Fails, She Declares
—–
“Mother” Jones, aged strike leader of Colorado fame, will lead an army of 10,000 East Side woman to the city Hall next Saturday afternoon, she declares. She will ask Mayor Mitchel “just what he proposes to do” about the food shortage in New York. If his proposals are unsatisfactory she will take a delegation of “starving women” to Washington on Sunday and lay the case of New York’s poor before the President.
“Mother” Jones arrived in this city yesterday to “help the food strike along.” In her room at the Union Square Hotel last night the aged labor leader made her plans known somewhat reluctantly. Publicity, she said, might result in them being “blocked”
[She said:]
But they can’t hold this movement back. When half a million mothers in the richest city in the richest country in the world feel the pinch of hunger as they are feeling it here now nothing can prevent trouble. I came here to try to prevent it, though, and I shall do everything possible.
On Saturday I’ll lead all the women who’ll follow me down to the Mayor. More than ten thousand will go. We’ll put the matter up to him and ask for action. If he won’t give us action, some of us will go to Washington and ask the President.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday December 19, 1906
From The Labor World: Young Lives Ground Up for Profit
Mother Jones has never forgotten the cruelty of Child Labor since the summer of 1903 when she led the mill children of Philadelphia on a march to Oyster Bay. They made the long trek in the summer heat in order that they might tell President Roosevelt about the hardships of their lives spent at work instead of in school. The President refused to meet with the children and Mother takes a few jabs at the “Great Prosperity” President in the following article on the subject of Child Labor in the American South.
BABY WAGE-EARNERS IN
SOUTHERN MILLS
—–“Mother” Jones Writes Stirring
Article on Iniquities of
Child Labor in South.
—–
Cotton Mills Produce a Type of
Children Easily Recognized
As Most Puny.
—–(By “Mother” Jones.)
After thirteen years of absence I returned to see what improvements had been made in the industrial conditions of the mill workers of the sunny south.
I found that there had been marvelous progress made as far as the mills and machinery were concerned. Looking at the advancement in that line, one would think that the day of rest for the workers must be near. Instead of bringing rest and leisure to the workers, however, this perfected machinery brings only a more merciless exploitation than was ever practiced before. With the advancement in machinery has come a corresponding advance in the methods of exploitation. That is all the difference the improvements have made upon the workers.
I stood one morning in the early dawn and I watched the slaves as they entered the pen of capitalism. I could see the shadows of the slaves passing along in the brush to the mill at twenty minutes to six in the morning. Children, roused from the heavy sleep of youth, left their beds reluctantly and entered the institution of capitalism to create wealth for others to enjoy.
