Tag: Ryan Walker

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “War? If the masters want blood, let them cut their own throats.”

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Quote Pres Wilson Seeds of War, St Louis Sept 5, 1919—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 25, 1914
General Death and Private Suffering Stride over Europe

From the Appeal to Reason of August 22, 1914:

War?
If the masters want blood,
let them cut their own throats.
—————

DRWG War Scourge of the Earth by Ryan Walker

Once more over Europe stride General Death and Private Suffering. About the feet of the great commander bloom, like flowers around the skirt of spring, white human skulls; the foliage before him grows red with brother gore; song birds turn to vultures; and fleecy white clouds are transformed into smoke curling from charred ruins. Everybody salutes you, General Death.

Though muffled in a military cloak, your face wears an unlipped smile. Though the sword in your bony fingers drips with blood, there is a something familiar in the terrifying personage. I know you now. You are the old Taskmaster, commanding to grimmer toil. But your fangs show, and the blood-tipped sword is a pen transformed. The burdensome flesh has dropped away, and I see the death’s-head of-CAPITALISM.

But the spirit-I see it now. At one time I believed your spirit-grim Capitalism with the lying smile, General Death the Hyde of the two-in-one-was wholly fiendish and deformed; but now I know it to be merely the concentrated spirit of the workers themselves. It is their own subserviency, their own ignorant imaginings, that give power to the whip-hand of the respectable and force to the sword-hand of the upbraided. Being that you materialize to the world. Should the workers change their own servile manner, change of conditions would immediately follow.

A change of spirit, and capitalism would disappear. He who has been materialized as General Death would cease both uniformed race-war and dress-suit class-war. Instead of the warrior and the slave, there would stand the Happy Worker, with glad wife and child by his side. Instead of skulls at his feet there would be flowers and fruit. For the vultures, birds of peace would throat carols of joy. Smoke of destruction would give place to placid skies. The bloody sword would be transformed into the tool that with a touch would pile before him beauty and abundance.

The lipless mouth of General Death, made to live through the spirit of the workers themselves, opens in prophecy. It bites this wisdom into dull ears:

“Evil is of your own making. The rivers of blood that shame the earth come from your own veins, from the blind strokes you yourselves dealt. Some day you will see and know. When you discern the truth, war will be forever at an end; the master will disappear; poverty and ignorance will vanish away; and then the hands that have slain shall make beautiful and good and joyous all the hills and valleys of earth, while fingers clasp across the borders that now are battlefields.”

LINCOLN PHIFER

[The Appeal warns that the U.S. may yet get involved in this war:]

International War May Involve the United States

Eight nations are now involved in the European war. Fifteen million soldiers are in the field, with prospect that twenty millions will be marching ere long. The loss in life exceeds already a hundred thousand. The situation, with big navies and aircraft taking part for the first time in the struggle of powerful nations, is appalling. Already starvation faces nations. The greatest calamity of all time threatens the world.

There is strong possibility that even America may be drawn into the war. The new Panama canal is a point of danger. If some navy should be permitted to use that short cut, then other navies would protest. A hundred possibilities suggest complications that might bring war.

The situation is extremely grave. Capitalism is on the verge of collapse all over the world, and in its effort to continue its existence is ready to drag to ruin all peoples and all advancement. This is the immediate threat.

Of course, beyond that is glorious possibility as well. The world will sicken of war. Autocracy will condemn itself. Capitalism is committing suicide. Just beyond the terrific crisis lies the beginning of the Co-operative Commonwealth. Socialists have everything to hope for, and are the only people on the earth who can see light in the darkness. We may congratulate ourselves on the tremendous sentiment that is already developing against war and against autocracy in industry. It is coming by leaps. The nations will be forced to Socialism in order to save themselves and civilization.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: John D. Rockefeller Jr. Remains Firm, Will Not Agree to Mediation in Colorado Coalfield Strike; Mother Jones Ends Tour of Vancouver Island Coal Camps

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Quote John D Rockefeller Jr, Great Principle, WDC Apr 6, 1914, US House Com p2874—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 20, 1914
Rockefeller Refuses Mediation in Colorado Strike; Mother Jones Leaves Canada

From the Appeal to Reason of May 23, 1914
“The Oil of Rockefeller” by Ryan Walker

Oil of Rockefeller by Ryan Walker, AtR p2, May 23, 1914

From the Chicago Day Book of June 15, 1914
-Rockefeller Jr. Remains Firm, Will Not Agree to Mediation:

COLORADO MINES SITUATION IS
COMING TO SHOWDOWN

Washington, June 15.-A military receivership to compulsory arbitration faces the Rockefellers and allied interests in the Colorado coal fields. Aroused by the belligerent brief of the mine operators submitted to the House mines committee, members declared Pres. Wilson will be forced to one of the above extremes to settle the civil war now dormant under orders from federal troops.

Congress, Colorado state officials and the United Mine Workers were bitterly attacked in the brief. Lawless agitation throughout the country lamented. Congress was charged with showing extreme favoritism to “Mother” Jones, a strike leader. The operators showed no signs of agreeing to mediation. Everything in the brief was a reiteration of the position of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., before the House committee that the Rockefellers would lose every cent invested in Colorado before they would yield to the union demands.

[Emphasis added.]

From the Santa Cruz Evening News of June 15, 1914
-Mother Jones Ends Tour of British Columbia Coal Camps:

“MOTHER” JONES LEAVES CANADA.

SEATTLE, June 15.-“Mother” Mary Jones, organizer of the United Mine Workers of America, is on her way to New York [Indianapolis], under orders from the general officers of her union.

Her tour of the British Columbia coal camps was without special incident, except that at Ladysmith [where miners are on strike] the mayor forbade her to speak in the city limits and she held a meeting outside.

—————-

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Judge Ben Lindsey’s Delegation from Ludlow, Colorado, Meets with President Woodrow Wilson

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Quote Pearl Jolly, Ludlow Next Time, Women Will Fight, Tacoma Tx p3, May 25, 1914—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 27, 1914
Washington, D. C. – Judge Lindsey and Women of Ludlow Visit the White House

From the Washington Evening Star of May 21, 1914:

LINDSEY HAS PLAN TO MEDIATE STRIKE
———-
Discusses Colorado Situation
With President Wilson This Afternoon.
———-

FAVORS KEEPING TROOPS
IN THE TROUBLE DISTRICT
———-
“Survivors of Ludlow Massacre” To Tell of Sufferings
at National Rifles’ Armory Tonight.
———-

Rep Keating Judge Lindsey, Rep Kent, Mrs Lindsey, Pearl Jolly, Mary Petrucci, Mary Thomas, Mrs Lee Champion, Rachel Thomas, Olga Thomas
Rep. Keating, Judge Ben Lindsey, Rep. Kent, Mrs. Lindsey, Pearl Jolly,
Mary Petrucci, Mary Thomas, Mrs. Lee Champion, Rachel and Olga Thomas

With a plan to mediate the Colorado coal fields strike, which he believes will be successful if fathered by the President, Judge Ben B. Lindsey, who came to Washington with a delegation of women and children refugees from Ludlow, called at the White House this afternoon by appointment.

Judge Lindsey stated he is emphatically in favor of keeping the troops in the strike district. He hopes the President will hear the stories of the women “survivors of the Ludlow massacre” who can tell him what they personally suffered during the battle and fire.

Judge Lindsey declares that the people of the country are guaranteed a republican form of government; that no such government exists in Colorado at this time, and that it is fully within the power of the President, backed by public sentiment, to force a settlement of the troubles.

Judge Lindsey urged the President to keep the federal troops in the coal strife region under all circumstances, asserting that if they are not retained there bloodshed will continue and that there will be nothing like law in all that region.

Suggests U. S. Close Mines.

Judge Lindsey declined to go into details as to what his plans are, but in a general way he hinted that public opinion would justify the President, under the guarantee of a republican form of government to all citizens, to close down the mines and practically assume charge of them by federal troops, compelling the mine owners and the striking miners to mediate their differences. He recalled the steps taken by President Roosevelt in the great Pennsylvania coal strike some year ago, and believes it within the power of the President to do almost anything he wants in Colorado.

“The President may not think he has power to settle the strike, but we think he has,” declared Judge Lindsey. “He has gigantic powers under the law and under the reign of public opinion.”

Judge Lindsey bitterly criticized Gov. Ammons, declared him incompetent, and hinted that Ammons and Rockefeller are in agreement as to how the fight should be resolved.

Judge Lindsey has asked an interview with John D. Rockefeller, jr. He didn’t know today whether Mr. Rockefeller would grant this interview, in which he will seek to have the New York millionaire accept some plan of medication, but he intended to try. He was asked if the party with him would also see Mr. Rockefeller.

“I do not know,” he answered, “but Mr. Rockefeller is no bigger than the President of the United States. Mr. Wilson has seen us-all of us-and I think Mr. Rockefeller can afford to do the same thing.”

Judge Lindsey persisted in his view that the President should bump the heads of both sides together and bring about a settlement. 

[…..]

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: “The Murderous Colorado Militia Was Recruited from Professional Gunmen”

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Quote Mother Jones Babes of Ludlow, Speech at Trinidad CO UMW District 15 Special Convention, ES1 p154 (176 of 360)—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 5 1914
Wars in Colorado and Mexico, Workers’ Blood Shed to Serve Rockefeller’s Interests

From the Appeal to Reason of May 2, 1914:

Appeal Army Called to Immediate
Action in the Class War

Practicality the entire issue of the latest edition of the Appeal to Reason is dedicated to supporting the class war, now ongoing, in Colorado, and opposing the war for “commercial and political domination of Mexico.”

The front-page masthead proclaims:

Masthead JDR Jrs Gunthugs Murder Women and Children at Ludlow, AtR p1, May 2, 1914

On the second page the masthead makes known:

The Murderous Colorado Militia Was Recruited
from Professional Gunmen

The following are portions of a few of the articles on the Colorado Coal War from Saturday’s Appeal to Reason.

Blood of Slaughtered Babes Calls
for Immediate Action

“God give us men: A time like this demands         
Great hearts, strong minds, true faith and willing hands.”

Military Rule in CO, Woman Bayoneted fr Stt Str, AtR p2, Feb 28, 1914

Two wars are now on. Both are wars in the interest of John D. Rockefeller and American capitalism. One is a war for the commercial and political domination of Mexico by the oil king and his colleagues. The other is  a war to crush out the rebellious spirit of the wage slaves of the Colorado coal mines, owned and operated by the Rockefeller interest.

As you read this, the newspapers will have given you columns upon columns about the American conquest of Mexico. Every known method of appealing to the gullibility of the American workers will have been used. The flag incident and other excuses will have been put forward to justify the sending of the American military and naval forces to our neighboring country. At the same time distorted reports of the bloodiest slaughter of working men in modern times will have appeared in the capitalist press.

This latest battle at Ludlow, Colo., is probably the most outrageous assault upon the rights, liberties and lives of the working class in American history. This issue of the Appeal to Reason gives you only what cold ink and type can transmit. No amount of writing can give you an adequate description of the murdering and maiming of women and children such as occurred last week in one of the sovereign states of this republic. On the other hand the slightest affront to the alleged dignity of American capitalism will have been played up and elaborated upon by most expert writers, artists and photographers that the filthy lucre of capitalism’s prostituted press can purchase…..

[Photograph, paragraph break and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Pat Quinlan, Fearless Hero of Paterson, Released from the State Penitentiary and Then Arrested Again

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Quote Pat Quinlan, Fight Fight Fight, AtR p1, Aug 9, 1913
Appeal to Reason, August 9, 1913
—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 14, 1913
Pat Quinlan Released from New Jersey State Penitentiary but Soon Rearrested

From the Appeal to Reason of August 2, 1913:

Appeal Frees Quinlan, AtR p1, Aug 2, 1913—–
Appeal Army to Rescue of Quinlan by R Walker, AtR p1, Aug 2, 1913—–
Appeal Sends Check to Free Quinlan, AtR p1, Aug 2, 1913

From the Appeal to Reason of August 9, 1913:

Pat Quinlan Arrested Again, ApR p1, Aug 9, 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The New York Garment Workers” by Mary E. Marcy, Part I

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Rose Schneiderman Quote, Stand Together to Resist Mar 20, NY Independent p938, Apr 1905—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 3, 1913
New York, New York – The Garment Strike by Mary Marcy, Photos by Paul Thompson

From the International Socialist Review of February 1913:

HdLn NY Garment Workers by M Marcy, CRTN Walker Solidarity Hand, ISR p583, Feb 1913

[Part I of III]

A WALKOUT which may yet involve every garment worker in the nation, was started in New York City, December 30th, when scores of thousands of men and women employed in the garment industries responded to the call issued by the United Garment Workers of America and deserted the shops and benches where they had toiled for years.

The response to the strike call was so great that the union officials declared the union was a great deal stronger than they had believed. One thousand five hundred volunteer red scouts, who were picked to carry the official strike declaration, were on the job at 4:00 o’clock in the morning ready to start out with bundles of strike orders to be distributed in all sections of the Lower East Side. Before night over 100,000 men, women and children had taken their working paraphernalia home to begin the good fight.

The garment workers are striking for:

The abolition of the subcontracting system.
The abolition of foot power.
That no work be given out to be done in tenement houses.
Overtime to be paid for at the rate of time and one half, double time for holidays.
A forty-eight hour work week.
A general wage increase of 20 per cent for all the workers in the garment industry.

The following scale of wages:
Operators-First class, sewing around coats, sewing in sleeves, and pocket makers, $25 per week; second class, lining makers, closers and coat stitchers, $22; third class, sleeve makers and all other machine workers, $16.
Tailors-First class, shapers, underbasters and fitters, $24; second class, edge basters, canvas basters, collar makers, lining basters and bushelers, $21; third class, armhole basters, sleeve makers, and all other tailoring, $17.
Pressers-Bushel pressers, $24; regular pressers, second class, $24; underpressers and edge pressers, $18.
Women and Child Workers-Button sewers and bushel hands, $12; hand buttonhole makers, first class, 3½ cents; second class, sack coats, 2½ cents; feller hands, not less than $10 a week.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The New York Garment Workers” by Mary E. Marcy, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1902, Part I: Found Speaking in New York City, Standing with Strikers in West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones to Wayland fr WV Wind Blows Cold, AtR p4, Nov 1, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 18, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1902, Part I
Found Speaking in New York City and Standing with Striking Miners of West Virginia

From The Comrade of November 1902:

Mother Jones at Cooper Un, Ryan Walker, Comrade p28, Nov 1902
Mother Jones at Cooper Union, New York City, October 18, 1902
by Ryan Walker

———-

Sieverman n Mother Jones, Comrade p28, Nov 1902Frank Sieverman and Mother Jones

From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of November 1, 1902:

MOTHER JONES’S LECTURE.
———-
Discussed Social and Political Topics
at the Criterion Theater.
———-

“Mother” Jones lectured before a good sized audience last evening in the Criterion Theater on social and political topics. The audience was evidently in sympathy wiih her views, for she was frequently interrupted with applause and her introduction was the signal for an ovation that must have been flattering to the venerable organizer.

“Mother” Jones is a well preserved woman of perhaps 60 years, with bright blue eyes and clear complexion, and she speaks with great force and earnestness.

Dr. Charles Furman presided at the meeting and introduced “Mother” Jones. Some enthusiastic socialist leaped up on his seat and called for three cheers for the speaker and they were given with a will.

“Mother” Jones began her address by saying the movement of the present day was along lines of progression laid down by the sages years ago, and everywhere along the line of battle the cry was forward. “To move forward is the object of socialism, and to help you in this movement is why I am here to-night.”

In referring to the recent coal miners’ strike in Pennsylvania “Mother” Jones said John Mitchell was one of God’s own noblemen and she flayed the operators in no uncertain tone. Referring to her arrest and incarceration in West Virginia, “Mother” Jones said she had been blamed by a great many people because she shook hands with the judge who sentenced her to jail. “Why shouldn’t I do so?” she cried. “The judge was not to blame. He was a victim of environment and had to perform his sworn duty to carry out the laws as he found them.” Continuing, the speaker said neither of the old parties could be trusted because both were capitalistic.

In many respects her address was disappointing. She presented no new arguments and her discourse did not differ mainly from the usual pronouncements of socialists-that is, condemnation of capital. J. P. Morgan came in for a good share of the speaker’s attention and many of her witty sallies in reference to him evoked hearty applause.

From the Appeal to Reason of November 1, 1902:

All newspaper reports to the contrary notwithstanding, the miners’ strike in West Virginia is by no means over, and a hard fight is being made in a number of districts where the operators refuse to make any concessions. “Mother” Jones writes from Montgomery, W. Va, that the utmost suffering prevails there, in consequence of the harsh measures taken by the “Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of this country.” She says: “We have fifteen hundred families of coal miners thrown out of their homes by the capitalist cannibals, and now camping on the highway. We should not talk so much about evictions in Ireland. Free America eclipses Ireland.”

—————

From Mother Jones.
Montgomery, West Va., Oct 5, 1902.

Dear Wayland: Here I am in the midst of industrial warfare with all its horrors. The wind blows cold this morning, but these cruel coal barons do not feel the winter blast; their babes, nay even their poodles dogs, are warm and have a comfortable breakfast, while these slaves of the caves, who in the past have moved the commerce of the world, are out on the highways without clothes or shelter. Nearly 3,000 families have been thrown out of the corporation shacks to face the cold blasts of winter weather. Children look into your face and their looks ask, is this what we are here for?

Is this the doctrine Jesus taught? Is this what he agonized for that frightful night in the Garden of Gethsemane 2.000 years ago? When you look at this picture of suffering, and then look into the homes of the Barons, with their joy and pleasures that these helpless people have given, then I ask Bishop Potter how he can howl “all for Jesus” on Sunday and on Monday morning drink wine at $35.00 a bottle, and sing all for Baer and Morgan.

In Pennsylvania its “shoot to kill,” in Virginia, it’s injunction them to death: Everywhere you go, you step on an injunction. Step on the Monstrous injunction. There yells a corporation lap dog, if you step on the R. R. T. the R. R. Detective yells, “Get off here, on injunction company property.” If you go into the river some one yells out “I own half that River.” Well, said I, for God’s sake give me a chance to make a deal with Peter, perhaps he might lend a rope down and swing me in the air. They will have an injunction on that soon. If you go on the public highways, to say “all for Jesus,” with a crowd of strikers, it is an unlawful assemblage-no one can do that but Potter and Morgan-you must be a sky pilot, an looking for Morgan.

MOTHER JONES.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1902, Part I: Found Speaking in New York City, Standing with Strikers in West Virginia” →