Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 2, 1921 Salsedo Dead in New York City; Sacco and Vanzetti in Danger in Massachusetts
From the New York Liberator of March 1921:
One Dead-Two in Danger
By Robert Minor
-by Art Shields -cover design by Robert Minor
OUT of a window high in an office building in Park Row, a man’s body took the long drop to the street below. Early morning newspaper distributors and a policeman smoothed back the black hair on the head that rolled loosely. There were the fine forehead of olive skin, the black eyes and aquiline nose of an Italian.
The body had fallen from a window that gaped open in the half-dark of dawn, fourteen stories above. Investigation of the fourteenth floor showed that this was a window of a secret prison kept by the agents of the United States Department of Justice.
Do you remember “Palmer’s Revolution?” It was dated for May 1st, 1920. The Italian workman’s plunge to death on May 3rd from Palmer’s secret prison was its only casualty.
The secret jail, hidden away in an office building in the heart of the business district, was the headquarters for “Palmer’s Revolution.” In that resort, away from the restraints of regular prisons, Palmer’s agents handled “reds.” Andrea Salsedo was one of the working men that was being handled there. There was another man in the prison, Roberto Elia, a friend of the dead man. Elia had seen that Salsedo’s head and face were a mass of bruises. Salsedo had been taken out each day three times, he said, to be questioned and to be beaten so as to make him give the answers that were wanted. Elia said that he heard Salsedo’s screams while he was being tortured, and saw the agents examine Salsedo’s eyes and finger nails to learn whether the beating was going so far as to endanger life. When Elia went to sleep at night, the agents pointed to the open window, saying: “Don’t forget this is the fourteenth floor.”
In the morning Elia was told that Salsedo had “jumped out of the window.” The newspaper men and city policemen and strangers came, asking questions. The pile of shapeless flesh in the pool of blood below the window of the secret prison was embarrassing to Palmer and to Flynn of the Secret Service. Even the capitalist press stirred a little with the tang of the mystery. Did the man jump and kill himself, or was he thrown from the window? Was he thrown out alive? Or was a dead body dropped from the window to conceal the manner in which death had taken place?
The newspapers were shut off at last. The body was quickly buried without any coroner’s inquest. Roberto Elia was the only one who knew anything-except Palmer’s men. He was quickly deported to Italy, where he disappeared from sight. Then the Italian population of various American industrial districts began to make trouble. Agitators began to make protest meetings.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 11, 1920 Mother Jones News for October & November 1920 “Veteran Organizer” Found in West Virginia and Washington D. C.
From The Charleston Daily Mail of October 2, 1920:
COAL COMPANIES AFTER RESTRAINT ON MINERS ———- Petition Federal Court for Injunction to Prevent Officials Organizing. ———-
The United Mine Workers have made defendants in two injunction suits brought in the southern district federal court by the Red Jacket Coal company of Red Jacket, Mingo County, and the Pond Creek Colliery to restrain them from interfering with employes of the two companies in efforts to unionize the mines operated by the coal concerns. Notices were reported as served yesterday evening from the United States marshal’s office, and arguments will be heard October 11, at Huntington.
John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America; William Green, secretary and treasurer of the United Mine Workers; C. F. [Frank] Keeney, president of district No, 17, United Mine Workers; Fred Mooney, secretary and treasurer of the district; Harold W. Houston, attorney; Mary Harris, (“Mother Jones“), J. A. Baumgardner, president of Local Union, No. 4804, at Williamson; C. L. McShan, secretary of the local union; Dock Wolford, president of Local Union No. 4181 and Bud Auzier, secretary of the union, and a score of others are named in the petition.
Petitions in both cases are said to be based on the allegation that activities of agents and organizers of the mine workers interfere with contracts which the companies have made with the miners and would prevent the delivery of coal to customers. The further charge is made that the purpose of the United Mine Workers in organizing is illegal.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 24, 1920 Washington, District of Columbia – Mother Jones Stands by W. Z. Foster
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of November 19, 1920:
‘MOTHER’ JONES STANDS BY FOSTER —– Secretary Machinists’ Union Replies to Press Canard about Cleaning Movement of the Reds. —–
(By LAURENCE TODD.)
(Federated Press Correspondent.)
Washington, Nov. 19.–[Request of Mother Jones to the Federated Press:]
Say to the world of labor for me that never since the beginnings of the labor movement in this country were there finer, straighter, braver, more sincere or more unselfish men in its service than John Fitzpatrick, William Z. Foster and Jay G. Brown of the steel strike committee.
All this stuff in the capitalist press about the repudiation of Fitzpatrick and Foster by organized labor, and the cleaning out of the reds and Bolsheviks, is rot. The bosses are mighty anxious to stir up one set of union men against another, and it looks easy to them to call one set reds, and to tell the other set that this first lot is plotting against them. Any man who makes the fight for the workers against the oppressions of capitalism is my brother, no matter what he calls himself, and every good labor man and woman feels the same way. This bugaboo about radicals and reds is played out.
General Secretary Davison of the International Association of Machinists remarked that “if there were any reds in the ranks of organized labor who were trying to destroy the labor movement, our enemies wild be very glad to leave them undisturbed. It is the effective trade unionism that is branded as red by the anti-union forces. We have no dangerous radicals in our organization. The dangerous people are those outside.”
[…..]
[Emphasis added; photograph of Mother Jones with W. Z. Foster added.]
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 22, 1920
Williamson, West Virginia – Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting, Part I
From the Tuscaloosa News of June 21, 1920:
THE GRAND JURY IS INVESTIGATING
THE MATEWAN SHOOTING
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“Mother Jones” in West Virginia Coal Fields
Making Speeches to Excite Miners
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(By Associated” Press)
WILLIAMSON, W. Va., June 21.-Investigation of the fight between Baldwin-Felts detectives and citizens at Matewan, May 19, in which ten persons were killed, was commenced here today by a special grand jury. Deliberations of the jury will be behind closed doors, and nothing be known of its work until its report is made to the court.
Fifty men of the state constabulary were on duty here following a meeting last night in front of the court house at which “Mother” Jones was the principal speaker. Announcement was made that she would speak tonight at Matewan.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Williamson, West Virginia – Sunday Evening June 20, 1920
-Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting in Front of Courthouse.
[SPEECH OF MOTHER JONES at WILLIAMSON, PART I.]
[The Pagan Agitator]
The old condition is passing away. The new dawn of another civilized nation is breaking into the lives of the human race.
Away back, eighteen hundred years ago, two hundred years after the world’s savior was hung there arose an agitation.The Roman lords got uneasy about it, and they said, “We have got to stop this agitation and this education. If we don’t they will get the best of us. That won’t do.” They sent down and brought up all those they could get together to come in a hurry to Rome. They either sold them into slavery or held them, and among those that was brought in was a young man. When he came into the Roman court to get his decision the Judge said, “Who are you?”
“I am a man, and a member of the human family.”
“Then why do you carry on this agitation?”
“Because I belong to a class that all down the ages have been robbed, murdered, maligned, crucified, deluded, and because I belong to that class I think it is my duty to be with that class and to put a stop to these crimes.”
I wish I could convey that same spirit that possessed this pagan slave eighteen hundred years ago to every working man in my hearing today. If he possessed that spirit of manhood the other fellow would come and ask us for the right to eat instead of asking him for the right to eat. But we haven’t come to that spirit yet, because all down the ages the system has been going on to enslave us. This pagan slave was not a Christian. By no means. He was a pagan in those days, but he was teaching real Christianity. He was teaching Christ’s Christianity, that an injury to one working man is an injury to all. But they called him a pagan.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 15, 1920
Altoona, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Speaks at Mishler Theater, Part II
From the Altoona Times Tribune of January 12, 1920:
Mother Jones Elucidates Theories To Altoona Audience
[Part II of II.]
OVERWORK AND UNDERPAY
She scored the conditions which permit men and women to be overworked and underpaid and results in riots and strikes when women and children are shot by brutes. Under her own personal observation at a time like this in the south, she said, was a case of a woman run down by mounted police who gave birth to a child as she was being taken to the morgue.
[She passionately declared:]
You have no Christianity. If you had conditions like this would not exist.
However, the speaker gave it as her opinion that the workers are becoming educated, getting a different vision; they feel the pulse of the world beating and different days coming. In West Virginia 65,000 men are organized since the inception of the union movement in that section a short time ago. Recently 10,000 of these men marched in a parade which the mayor of the city characterized as the most orderly parade he ever saw. All of which is a good omen.
BRUTALITY COVERED UP
[She cried:]
We want to give America a well fed humanity, intellectually, morally and physically. If the ministers do not wake up they will be thrown on a scrap heap.
At this point she derided the idea of saying “Your honor” to the governor of a state, who has permitted the murder of women and children in industrial uprisings.
This is the most insidiously brutal age that ever was, but it is covered up.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 29, 1919
Mother Jones News for November 1919, Part II
Found in Washington, D. C., Not Afraid of Judge Anderson
From the Lebanon Daily News of November 14, 1919:
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(Special to News by United Press)
Washington, Nov. 14.-With the government acting as mediator, mine operators and representatives of the United Mine Workers came together here today in an effort to settle the dispute over wages and hours which caused the recent coal strike.
As the delegates assembled for this “peace conference,” it appeared there would be a deadlock from the very outset.
The union representatives were prepared to enter the conference at 2:30 this afternoon determined to hold out for an uncompromising victory. Less than complete triumph, they feared, will give the extreme radical element control of the miners-the men will lose faith in their conservative leaders. Acting President Lewis was expected to insist on full compliance with the men’s demands of a 50 hour week and wage increases ranging up to sixty per cent.
Operators were solidly in favor of refusing to surrender anything to the workers, according to early indications. They stood pat on the “Washington wage agreement,” contending it runs until the end of the war, and that the war is not ended. Some of them were disposed to emphasize that comparatively few of the miners have returned to work in obedience to their leaders instructions, and it was expected the union chiefs would be asked about this at the outset of the meeting.
Secretary of Labor Wilson, who called the conference, has invited Dr. Harry A. Garfield, Fuel Administrator, to participate in the hope that if an agreement cannot he reached within a reasonable time the government may be able to offer a compromise. Any compromise will probably carry with it an increase in the price of coal to the consumer, so the operators will have increased revenue to pay higher wages.
Garfield, who is in charge of coal prices, was in a position to give expert advice on just what a raise in pay to the workers will mean to the coal market.
That Lewis and his colleagues will not be left in doubt as to how radical labor stands on the miners’ case, “Mother” Jones, of Colorado fame, and Andy Furuseth, head of the Seamen’s union, are here to let them know. Both are emphatic in their disapproval of Lewis’ compliance with Federal Judge Anderson’s order to end the strike.
“The strike should never have been called off,” said Furuseth. “The miners won’t return to work, and I approve of it.”
[Mother Jones Defies John L. Lewis.]
[Said Mother Jones:]
This is a free country, but it would starve people. This is what Judge Anderson’s order means to the miners who are fighting for their freedom and a living.
Next Monday I am going down into West Virginia and urge the miners to stay out until they win. I am not afraid of Judge Anderson. He can send me to jail or he can hang me, but he will have to do it.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 17, 1919
Cleveland, Ohio – Mother Jones Speaks at U. M. W. A. Convention, Part I
During the afternoon session of the sixth day of the Convention, Tuesday, September 16th, Mother Jones was introduced by Acting President John L. Lewis. The entire delegation arose to applaud Mother Jones as she was escorted to the platform.
From Stenographic Report by Mary Burke East:
Acting President Lewis: The chair will ask the delegates who are seated on either side of Mother Jones to escort her to the platform.
The entire delegation arose and applauded as Mother Jones was escorted to the platform.
Acting President Lewis:…This is one great assemblage of men where Mother Jones needs no introduction. She comes today from somewhere, I know not where, but from wherever she hails we know she has been on an errand of assistance and mercy to the down-trodden toilers, and she merely stops for a moment to come into her own union, there to greet her own boys. Her life has been devoted to the cause for which she has given her years and her wisdom and her ability. She has come to be loved by every man who has ever attended our conventions and by all the mine workers of the United States. We claim her as our own.
ADDRESS OF MOTHER JONES.
I didn’t come into the convention this afternoon to speak, but they took me by surprise—like the police did. I am not going to take up much of your time. There has been too much time spent in oratory. For the last four weeks I have been with the steel workers. If you want to see brutal autocracy, come with me to the steel centers and I will show it to you. The world does not dream of the conditions that exist there.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 5, 1919
Butte, Montana – The Bulletin on “Bomb Plot” Frame-Up and May Day “Riots”
The following reports and opinion pieces are from The Butte Daily Bulletin, published May 1st, May 2nd and May 3rd, and covering the dramatic events surrounding May Day 1919.
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of May 1 1919:
BOMBS ARE SENT BY MAIL
—–
Packages Sent to Several Government Officials
and Citizens Throughout U. S.
Contained Explosives.
—–
(Special United Press Wire.)
Washington May 1.-What is believed by the officials to be a wide spread attempt on the lives of members of Wilson’s cabinet has just been discovered. Seventeen packages being held in the postoffice at New York were found to contain explosives. it is not known how many have already passed through the mail.
The packages were addressed to officials throughout the United States among whom were; Postmaster-General Burleson, Secretary of Labor Wilson, Attorney-General Palmer, and Commissioner-General Palmer, and Commissioner-General of Immigration Caminetti. There were also packages addressed to John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, New York Commissioner Howe, Mayor Hylan of New York, Governor Sproul of Pennsylvania, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, District Attorney Fickert of California and his assistant, Edward Cunha. The bombs were similar to the ones received by Mayor “Ole” Hanson of Seattle and former Senator Hardwick of Georgia. The packages all bear the label of Gimble Bros., a New York department store, but the officials of the store declare they are imitations.
Fear is expressed that some of the packages may have had sufficient postage to insure their delivery through the mails and may be enroute to their intended victims. It is noted that virtually all the prominent men to whom the packages were addressed are concerned one way or another with the immigration problems. A warning has been issued by the postoffice department to all postoffice inspectors and superintendents in charge of the railway mail service to watch for any bombs that may still be in transit. If has not been ascertained, the officials state, whether any bombs have been sent to the Americans who are attending the peace conference.
Friends of Edward Cunha delivered the package to him at his sick bed, thinking that it was a present for him. The package was only partly opened when their suspicions were aroused and the package was not opened until later. When the contents were disclosed they were found to contain sulphuric acid and explosives similar to that received by Mayor Hanson. Ficket’s package was left unopened.
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The United Mine Workers have made defendants in two injunction suits brought in the southern district federal court by the Red Jacket Coal company of Red Jacket, Mingo County, and the Pond Creek Colliery to restrain them from interfering with employes of the two companies in efforts to unionize the mines operated by the coal concerns. Notices were reported as served yesterday evening from the United States marshal’s office, and arguments will be heard October 11, at Huntington.
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