Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 23, 1900
Mother Jones News Round-Up for the Year 1899
-Part II: Found with Striking Coal Miners of Arnot, Pennsylvania
From the Philadelphia Times of October 9, 1899:
Elmira Gazette of October 7, 1899
MINERS EVICTED
FROM THEIR HOMES
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Blossburg Miners Are Facing
Starvation by Reason
of Their Strike.
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WILL NOT YIELD A POINT
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Special Telegram to The Times.
Arnot, October 8.
The strike situation hereabouts is becoming serious, and the sufferings of the miners will be severe if an agreement is not soon reached with the Blossburg Coal Company. During the past week the company has discharged its superintendent, ordered the mules sold and made preparations to close down the mines permanently.
Although the strikers have been out sixteen weeks, and are facing certain starvation, they are as determined as ever not to “cave in” to the company, as they term it. The action of the miners in deciding to return to work, and then changing their minds after hearing the harangues of Mrs. Mary Jones, a woman labor agitator of Pittsburg, has apparently aroused the ire or the officials of the company.
Evicted Their Tenants.
As soon as the intention of the miners to remain out became known the company took steps to evict the men who occupied houses belonging to the company for non-payment Thus far thirty-six families have been forced from the houses which they have occupied for years. The evictions were effected by Sheriff Johnston and a force of deputies from Wellsboro. There was no show of force. Those who had no place to go were taken in by neighbors who own their own houses, and are therefore out of reach of the company’s eviction process.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 1, 1909
Sensational Testimony Given Concerning McKees Rocks Steel Car Company
From The New York Times of August 28, 1909:
STEEL CAR PLANT CALLED A PRISON
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Strikebreakers Testify They Were Held
in Stockade Against Their Will.
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FOOD, UNFIT AND SCARCE
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Threats of Violence and Confinement
In Box Car Kept Men in State of
Terror, Witnesses Say.
From a Staff Correspondent of THE NEW YORK TIMES.
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PITTSBURG, Aug. 27.-The testimony presented before the Government investigation to-day in continuance of the conditions existing at the Pressed Steel Car Company’s works at McKees Rocks was the most sensational that has ever been heard so far.
Nathaniel Shaw, a strikebreaker from New York, was the star witness. He testified that he wanted to leave the plant the day after he arrived, but was intimidated and prevented from doing so.
His accusations were brought chiefly against Sam Cohen, the man who is immediately under Leo C. Bergoff, in charge of the strikebreakers. He said that Sam Cohen has surrounded himself with about thirty-five men, whom he has installed in the positions of company guardsmen, and that these men back Cohen in all his acts of tyrannical control. He told about gambling within the work and of winning $50 from a Deputy Sheriff.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 26, 1909
McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania – Eugene Debs Speaks to Strikers
From Pennsylvania’s Butler Citizen of August 26, 1909:
Eugene V. Debs Makes Good His Declaration
and Speaks to Men
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PITTSBURG, August 25.-Eugene V. Debs, late candidate for President on the Socialist ticket, today addressed the strikers of the Pressed Steel Car Company on the Indian Mound, McKees Rocks.
Debs and J. W. Slayton, Socialist organizer for Pittsburg, went to McKees Rocks by trolley and were met at the foot of the bridge by a committee of strikers. They were then escorted to Indian Mound, where more than l,000 men had gathered. Only four women were at the meeting.
Mr. Debs’ remarks were terse and to the point. His voice could be heard plainly for quite a distance, and his denunciation of the Pressed Steel Car Company aroused much enthusiasm. He said:
There are 15 nationalities represented here this morning, but you are of one class. You are workmen, united in a single cause. You are wage-slaves in the eyes of the corporation. Though I cannot understand your language I can read your hearts and can make myself understood to you.
I, too, have suffered. I have been on strike and have become involved in riots. I know what it is to face a heartless power.
This desperate fight must be continued. The eyes of the civilized world and the eyes of all the laborers of the world are upon you. It is the greatest labor fight in all history. The laboring men in Pittsburg particularly should stand by their fellow workers in this fight,
I want to warn you of traitors, beware of spies. They circulate among you and talk your language. They pretend to suffer with you when in reality they are employes of the Press Steel Car Company.
They are employed by parasites who are lounging in their summer retreats while you are suffering and starving. You make the money which the degenerate sons of these parasites squander on champagne. They hold that the cheapest thing in the world is human flesh. Your blood means nothing to them. Because you have walked away from your work you are be shot.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 4, 1908
The Journey of Red Special as Told by Charles Lapworth
In this month’s edition of the Review, Comrade Lapworth tells the inspirational story of the journey of the Red Special which carried Eugene Debs, the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America, across the nation, ending with a big rally and last campaign speech at Terre Haute.
From the International Socialist Review of December 1908:
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 28, 1908
Women Toiling at Poverty Wages, Driven to Desperation
From the Socialist Montana News of November 26, 1908:
“The Harlot’s Marching Song” by Joyce Kilmer
Young Girls, Cheap Labor, Pittsburg
SACRIFICING YOUNG GIRLS IN ROLLING MILLS.
In a Pittsburg foundry girls are employed to make simple cores for castings. A quick girl can make 10,000 a day, for which she receives $1. According to the investigator who reported to charities on “Pittsburg Women in the Metal Trades”, this work is carried on in clouds of drifting dust. As the cores are finished they are set on trays, which the women carry across the room to the ovens. A loaded tray weighs from ten to 25 pounds.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 28, 1908
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Talks of Socialism
On their way to Chicago to attend the Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Jones and her husband, J. A. Jones, stopped off at Pittsburg where Gurley Flynn was interviewed for the Pittsburg Press regarding her views on Socialism and Suffrage.
From The Pittsburg Press of September 27, 1908:
The force of Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s personality impresses one the first five minutes one talks to her. This girl Socialist leader is not wildly enthusiastic nor does she “rant” as would be expected of a young, prominent, Socialistic leader, but there is a quiet, compelling strength about her words and herself that claims and holds the attention immediately.
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