Tag: Socialist Party of America

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Socialist Outlook in West Virginia” by Harold W. Houston

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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EVD re Socialism v Capitalism—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 28, 1912
Socialist Party Organizing in West Virginia by Harold Houston

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

The Socialist Outlook in West Virginia

[-by Harold W. Houston, State Secretary]

It is impossible to write of the political situation in this state without enthusiasm. The apathy of recent years has given place to a marvelous awakening among all classes of voters. The seed sown by the early agitators has taken deep root in our soil and is bearing abundant fruit. The dues paying membership of the Socialist party is about one thousand. We have ninety-three locals in good standing. Our party press is a development of the last two years, and we now have the following papers: The Labor Argus, Charleston, edited by C. H. Boswell; the Clarksburg Socialist, Clarksburg, edited by E. H. Kintzer; the Wheeling Majority and the West Virginia Socialist, both of Wheeling and edited by Walter B. Hilton; the Plain-Dealer, Cameron, edited by William E. Lang. A movement is now on to start several other papers during the coming campaign.

Several towns in the state have elected Socialist mayors and other officials. Star City, Hendricks, Adamston, Miama and other towns have been swept into the Socialist ranks. All indications point to our carrying at least five counties in the coming election. Our state government is located at Charleston, Kanawha county, and the political piracy that always characterizes the doings of the politicians that infest the seat of government has polluted that community beyond description. The voters there are in revolt. The generals of the old parties find themselves without an army. The Socialists have set themselves the task of electing the entire ticket in that county, especially the legislative ticket. Our enemies freely admit that we have a splendid fighting chance. At Clarksburg, Harrison county, the situation is intensely interesting. It has attracted the attention of all of the lyceum lecturers. The industrial workers of that section are intelligent and progressive, and during the last two years they have been coming into the Socialist movement in battalions. This is another county that is almost certain to land a full Socialist ticket.

At Wheeling there is the same widespread response to the call of Socialism. The voters are organizing the entire county, and there is little doubt but that we will secure at least a portion of the ticket in that county. One of the most gratifying things about the West Virginia movement is the utter absence of factional strifes and disruptive tactics. Some slight differences do indeed exist as to minor matters, but there is no bitter or serious breaches in the organization. On the whole complete harmony reigns. The personnel of the movement is exceptionally high, and the movement is revolutionary to the core.

This is a war-born state, and it has a population that illy wears the collar of industrial servitude. When it seceded from Old Virginia it placed upon its coat of arms the motto: “Montani Semper Liberi” (Mountaineers are always free), and the sweep of the Socialist movement over the mountains and valleys indicates that we are going to translate those words into a reality. We send greetings to our comrades of other states, and we say to them that the coming election will show that we have been in the thick of the battle.

HAROLD W. HOUSTON, State Sec’y.

—————

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor World: Mother Mary Jones in Duluth, Speaks to Large Meeting at the Head of the Lakes

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones, LW p3, Apr 20, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 21, 1912
Duluth, Minnesota – Mother Jones Speaks at Lincoln Park Auditorium 

From The Labor World of April 20, 1912:

HdLn Mother Jones at Head of Lakes, LW p1, Apr20, 1912

Mary Jones, the little mother of the miners, and familiarly known throughout the country as Mother Jones, was a visitor in Duluth Monday and Tuesday. She delivered an address Monday evening at the Lincoln Park Auditorium in the interest of the shop employes of the Harriman lines who are on strike.

Mother Jones has been sent out by the United Mine Workers’ Union to help the striking railroad men. She is meeting with much success in soliciting funds. A fairly good collection was taken up at the Lincoln Park meeting.

During her visit to Duluth, Mother Jones spent much of her time in the office of the Labor World. We have’ known her for almost twenty years, and blamed if she does not look younger today than she did two decades ago. She attributes her youthful appearance to the fact that she has not been in jail lately nor has she been quarantined for smallpox.

Is Eighty Years of Age.

Mother Jones will be eighty years of age on May first. She is as active and as sprightly as a woman of thirty. She never looked better in her life. Her complexion is as clear as that of a baby and there is not the sign of a furrow on her kind old face.

Fight? When she is asked a question about labor conditions in the mining regions of America, her eyes flash, her mouth is set firm, her fist is clenched and she stretches out her arm with the vigor and force of an athlete. She tells a story of social injustice that reaches the heart of the most hardened.

In her speech at Lincoln Park the daily newspapers dwelled only upon the shafts she hurled at men and women of the toady type who “bend the cringing hinges of the knee that thrift may follow fawning.”

Knows the Labor Movement.

Mother Jones understands the philosophy of the labor movement. She has a peculiar way, which is distinctly her own, of driving her points right to the hearts of her listeners. For a moment she will philosophically discuss the growth and development of production; then like a flash she will clinch her argument with a militant attack upon both men and women who are responsible for injustices that have been permitted to creep into the industrial system.

Mother Jones is said to be without fear. During her strenuous life she has been cast into prison, confined in bull pens, driven at the points of bayonets, and once or twice has had a pistol aimed close to her face by willing servants of the capitalistic class.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1912, Part I: Found Speaking in Illinois, Denver, Colorado and Tacoma, Washington

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Master Class Creates Violence, LA Rec p4, Dec 21, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 15, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1912, Part I
Found in Illinois, Denver, Colorado and Tacoma, Washington

From The Sibley Journal of March 1, 1912:

Walker to Head Miners.

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912

The closing day of the Illinois Mine Workers’ state convention was featured by the announcement of election from the vote held December 14, 1911.

It was generally thought at that time that all the officers would be re-elected. There was but one exception in this, Paul Smith defeating Adolph Germer for the vice presidency. President Walker and Secretary Treasurer McDonald were re-elected by large majorities…..

Aside from the announcement of the election results, a two-hour address by ”Mother” Jones, a woman, eighty years old, who is a Socialist lecturer of national prominence and called the “Miners’ Mascot,” in which she denounced woman suffrage, was the feature. She declared that women are not mentally equipped to acquire a proper knowledge of politics, and she attributed the defeat of the recall in Colorado to the women voters. In closing her address, “Mother” Jones detailed the conditions brought about by the railroad strike in Colorado and asked the miners of Illinois to donate a benefit fund of $1,000 to the strikers. A committee was named to investigate the matter…..

[Photograph added.]

From The Illinois State Journal of March 2, 1912:

Mother Jones, IL State Jr p2, Mar 2, 1912

From the Denver Rocky Mountain News of March 5, 1912:

NORTHERN COLORADO COAL
STRIKE ENDS IN 8 MINES
———-

6 KILLED, 10 MAIMED 100 BEATEN,
BLOODY RECORD OF WAR
———-
Strikebreakers’ Refusals to Quit Fields Cause
of Most Serious Outbreaks.
———-

“Six men killed, ten maimed for life and more than 100 waylaid and beaten.” This is the record of bitterness between the opposing forces of the labor war in the Northern coal were from the ranks of both strikers and strike breakers…..

One of the striking features of the struggle occurred a few months ago, when “Mother Jones,” a well known national figure in the labor world, went into the district to organize the wives and sisters of the striking miners. She received an enthusiastic reception, but when the women attempted to carry out their ideas the strikers objected so strenuously that they were forced to abandon their militant plans for a campaign.

———-

No CO Coal Strike Chronc, Rky Mt Ns p2, Mar 5, 1912

From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of March 21, 1912:

“MOTHER” JONES LEAVES DENVER.
———-

“Mother” Jones, who has been in Denver for several days, addressed the Federated Shopmen in their convention in Machinists’ hall this week. She is preparing to tour the northwest in the interests of the shopmen. She will go to Tacoma and then travel East as far as St. Paul. 

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1912, Part I: Found Speaking in Illinois, Denver, Colorado and Tacoma, Washington” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Michael Hoey, Murdered by Jailers, Martyr of San Diego Free Speech Fight

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 9, 1912
San Diego, California – Fellow Worker Michael Hoey Murdered by Brutal Jailers

From the Appeal to Reason of April 6, 1912:

LABOR WAR IN WEST
———-

By Telegraph to the Appeal.

HdLn IWW San Diego FSF, Death of Michael Hoey, Sac Str p3, Mar 28, 1912
The Sacramento Star
March 28, 1912

San Diego, Cal., March 31.-Michael Hoey died at Agnes hospital Thursday as a result of being kicked in the stomach and groin while a prisoner. The coroner’s jury refused to allow attending physicians and witnesses to testify.

The police interfered with a monster funeral parade, arresting the standard bearers and confiscating a red flag. There is great public indignation.

Fred H. Moore, attorney for the Free Speech league, published a letter to the chief of police warning him that kidnaping, deporting, beating up and horrible brutality of unbooked men must cease. Many men have been beaten insensible in cells. Joseph F. Tierman, union reporter, was slugged. Automobiles are employed in the fight against the working men and men are beaten and kicked and left twenty-five miles in the hills.

Monster mass meeting was held by trade unionists, Socialists, Industrial Workers last night and speakers were madly cheered. Moore introduced resolutions to boycott merchants who assist the masters in the fight. Fifty thousand unemployed have left San Francisco to join in the fight. Two hundred and fifty dollars was collected at the mass meeting held at Labor Temple at Los Angeles. To the present the fight has cost the city $30,000. Judge Sloan presides over the superior court and prejudiced grand jurors are admitted, among them Adam Witcher, who advised beating the speakers with pick handles and the tarring and feathering of Industrial Workers. Judge Sloan admits the findings of this jury as right, although contrary to the rulings of the supreme court in a similar case. He admits this is not justice, but says it is law.

Prisoners in the city jail are denied food and water until forced to drink from the toilet. Stool pigeon of the capitalists destroyed jail property and charged the offense to free speech prisoners. Of this there is positive proof. 

The M. and M. association met in Grant hotel in December. Harrison Gray Otis being present, and decided to annihilate the Industrial Workers and Socialists in San Diego at all hazards.

The district attorney refuses to prosecute the police on the charge of murder, though backed by many affidavits. An effort will be made to have the superior court compel prosecution.

Two hundred men have just left Los Angeles for San Diego and more are coming later. A monster mass meeting will be held at Frisco labor temple tonight, some of the speakers being Fremont Adler [Fremont Older?], Austin Lewis, and J. E. Morgan. It is the first time in the history of the movement that Socialists, Industrial Workers and trade unionists are united, realizing their common cause against the effort to exterminate laborism on the coast. The capitalist press predicts conditions similar to those in England. Three hundred men, women and children have so far been arrested.

Funds are needed to carry on the fight, and should be sent to the treasurer of Free Speech League, San Diego, Cal.

H. S. SHIPPLEY

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1902, Part I: Praised for Her Work on Behalf of the Socialists of Erie, Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote JA Wayland, Mother Jones, AtR p1, Mar 17, 1900—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 7, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1902, Part I
Praised for Her Efforts on Behalf of the Socialist Party of Erie, Pennsylvania

From the New York Worker of March 2, 1902:

 

HdLn re Mother Jones to Erie PA Feb, NY Wkr p1, Mar 2, 1902———-

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

The city campaign in Erie, Pa., closed on Tuesday, Feb. 18, after more than two months of the most energetic work, and the results are such as to satisfy the most sanguine. The vote for Mayor stands:

Hardwick, Rep, 4,291.
Warde, Socialist, 3,164.
Warfel, Dem., 1,512.
S. L. P., 163.

The campaign has been one of “boring from within” in the trade union movement-that is, it has been a campaign of education on the Socialist view of the labor question, carried on in the closest harmony with the trade unions, without fear and without compromise. The ticket was composed of men tried in the work of the unions and proven true, headed by Geo. N. Warde of Cigar Makers No. 107, Jas. Wilson, Jr., of the Pattern Makers, H. C. Gould of Typographical No. 77, Julius Erstfeld of the Machinists’ Union, T. H. Mosher of the Carpenters, and G. F. Hibeck of the Molders.

The campaign was waged entirely on educational lines. Meetings were held every night, and in nearly every union hall in the city, and the addresses of the candidates and other speakers were of the straight, uncompromisingly Socialist order. The efforts of the local comrades were most effectively supplemented by Comrades Nic Geiger, A. M. Simons, August Klenke, and Mother Jones. Geiger was with us for ten days, Simons a week, and Klenke two weeks. Mother Jones stopped over with us three days, insisted on paying all her own expenses, and made two of her characteristic speeches, which were of incalculable value to the movement, one at the big labor carnival, the other in C. L. U. hall. The services of these comrades cost us nothing-because they were Socialists.

And Mrs. A. M. Simons [May Wood Simons] should not be omitted. She was with us for two weeks and did effective work for the cause, besides speaking a number of times. We could not utilize her to the extent she desired; because at this stage most of our meetings were held at noon time in the shops; but these two noble women have dispelled the prejudice against “women agitators,” and prepared the field for comrades of their sex. Mrs. Simons made the address at the carnival on ladies’ night. It was pronounced a masterly effort. She also made a deep impression at a big mass meeting in the Second Ward…..

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1902, Part I: Praised for Her Work on Behalf of the Socialists of Erie, Pennsylvania” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part II

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 4, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part II of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

ONE BIG UNION WINS

By LESLIE H. MARCY and FREDERICK SUMNER BOYD

Lawrence General Strike Com, ISR p617, Apr 1912

On January 11, anticipating some difficulty on pay day, the Secretary of Local 20, I. W. W. wired to Joseph J. Ettor, member of the National Executive Board, who was then in New York City, to go to Lawrence. He left the next afternoon, and arrived on the night of January 12.

Plans were then laid for the conduct of the strike. A general strike committee was formed that met daily, each nationality on strike being represented on it by three delegates. In addition there were three representatives each from the perchers, menders and burlers, the warp dressers, Kunhardt’s mill, the Oswoco mill, the paper mill, the workers in which had struck in sympathy with the textile workers and presented similar demands, and from time to time other sections were represented that were gradually merged as occasion demanded. The general strike committee thus numbered 56 men and women, all of them mill workers.

The first work of the committee was to devise means for carrying on the fight and caring for the strikers. There were no funds when the strike was declared, but in a week or ten days money began to dribble in from surrounding New England towns, and as the strike continued contributions came in from every State in the Union, from all parts of Canada and even from England.

Lawrence Relief Station, ISR p618, Apr 1912

The money in the shape of strike pay would not have lasted a week, but this battle was conducted on a different basis from former fights. Each nationality opened relief stations and soup kitchens, and was responsible for the care of its own people. The Franco-Belgians had had a co-operative in operation long before the strike, and food purchases were made through its machinery. Money was paid over to the various national committees as it became necessary by the general finance committee, with Joseph Bedard as Financial Secretary. With this money the purchasing committee bought goods, and the national committees took their portion.

Meals were provided twice a day at the various stations for the strikers who needed them, and in this manner the Franco-Belgian station at the Mason street headquarters provided 1,850 meals twice daily, the Italians 3,500, the Syrians 1,200, Lithuanians 1,200, the Poles 1,000, and soon, the Germans took care of 150 families and several hundred single workers.

Lawrence Children w Bread, ISR p618, Apr 1912

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part I

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote Lawrence Strike Committee, Drunk Cup to Dregs, Bst Dly Glb Eve p5, Jan 17, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 3, 1912
Lawrence Textile Strikers Win Great Victory with I. W. W., Part I of IV

From the International Socialist Review of April 1912:

HdLn BBH n re Lawrence Victory, ISR p613, Apr 1912

THE greatest victory in American labor history has been won by the Industrial Workers of the World in Lawrence, Mass., in a pitched battle of nine weeks’ duration against the most powerful cotton and woolen corporations in the world.

For fifty years the great textile corporations had reigned in New England practically unchallenged, save when ten years ago Tom Powers of Providence, R. I.. led a fierce battle against the American Woolen Company.

During the nine weeks of the fight in Lawrence every barbarity known to modern civilization had been perpetrated by police, military, courts and detectives, the willing tools of the bosses. Pregnant women were clubbed and their children delivered prematurely. Children were beaten in the streets and jails. Men were shot and bayonetted, the jail cells were filled, three year sentences were imposed for comparatively trivial offences, and machine guns were brought into the city.

And despite the abrogation without a shadow of legality of every constitutional right, including those of free speech and free assemblage, and despite the provocation offered by the presence of the bosses tools, twenty-two thousand strikers preserved, under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World, a self possession and a self-restraint that was little short of marvelous. Not one overt act was committed by the strikers. Not one desperate deed of an infuriated individual was proved against a striker.

For the first time in America’s labor history it has been demonstrated that a bitterly-fought battle between capitalists and workers can he conducted without the workers resorting to any form of violence. If any triumph is to be claimed for the I. W. W. this is one of the foremost of many.

Soldiers v Lawrence Strikers, ISR p 614, Apr 1912

The strike took its rise in hunger and was fought against hunger in the first place, and against excessive exploitation in the second. Sixty years ago, when Lawrence was little more than a village, and the mills were few and small, the daughters of New England farmers came from the farm to the mill to earn pin money. But as the years passed and the mills grew larger and more powerful there came into the city around the mills a class of people who depended entirely upon the mill for a living. They were first English, Irish and Scotch.

Later Germans and French Canadians began to enter and take their place in the mills. and for years these were the only nationalities to be found. Because the labor market was comparatively restricted and the mill owners were greedy for profits they sent lying emissaries through Europe, particularly to Italy, telling of the wealth of America. These men scattered literature broadcast, and showed pictures of the pleasant homes to be gained in the new land. One picture in particular showed a mill worker leaving the mill and on the way to a bank opposite.

Thus the Italian workers were lured to New England, and after them came in quick succession representatives of almost every nationality in Europe and Asia Minor, until today among others there are Syrians, Armenians, Russians, Portugese, Poles, Greeks, Franco-Belgians, Lithuanians, Letts [Latvians], Jews, Turks and Bohemians.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: One Big Union Wins Great Victory at Lawrence, Massachusetts, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1912, Part I: Found in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Master Class Creates Violence, LA Rec p4, Dec 21, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 27, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1912, Part I
Found in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana

From the Appeal to Reason of February 3, 1912:

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p3, Feb 14, 1912The California Building Trades convention [of late January] unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a conference between the Socialist Party, the state A. F. of L. and the State Building Trades, with a view to united political action for the working class. Job Harriman, Mother Jones and Alexander Irvine were among the speakers at the convention.

—————

[Photograph added.]

From the Denver Rocky Mountain News of February 7, 1912:

 

ROOSEVELT ‘MONKEY CHASER,’
DECLARES ‘MOTHER’ JONES
———-

“WALL STREET WILL ELECT HIM NEXT PRESIDENT,”
SAYS WOMAN LABOR LEADER.
———-

That Theodore Roosevelt is a “monkey chaser,” but will be elected the next president of the United States despite the fact, is the opinion of “Mother” Jones, who arrived in Denver yesterday to investigate labor conditions.

“I have no doubt that Roosevelt will be the next president,” she says. “Of course, I have no use for him, but he plays to the galleries, and a Wall street will elect him.

“He is the fellow who sent guns to murder the working men in the strike of 1904 [Telluride, November 1903].

“Taft is right in with him, but I think that Taft is more of a gentleman than Roosevelt is.”

“Mother” Jones will make an address at Eagle hall tomorrow night, under the auspices of the Western Federation of Miners.

———-

From Denver’s United Labor Bulletin of February 8, 1912:

 

“MOTHER” JONES SPEAKS TO
FEDERATED SHOPMEN

Strike Is Already Won, Says “Mother”
Many Entertainments for Benefit of Strikers

“Mother” Jones spoke to a large crowd at Eagles’ hall Wednesday night, and during her address but one man left the hall. She spoke to the striking Federated Shopmen, and her discourse covered a period of two and one-half hours. “Mother” Jones has passed through the entire life of the labor movement in the United States. The daughter of a miner and later a miner’s wife, she was reared and spent her life in the labor movement. She has a wonderful memory, and in her address she followed the evolution of the labor movement in the United States, and told of how labor has been exploited by capital to the detriment of the human race.

“Mother” Jones has been traveling over the Harriman system, and said that the strike of the shopmen was won now, and it was only a matter of time until the roads will sign up. She said that on one occasion where a train on which she was riding had a nine-hour schedule it took the train thirty-six hours to make the trip.

From Rawlins Republican (Wyoming) of February 8, 1912:

 

MOTHER JONES HERE

Last Thursday evening in the Danish hall Mother Jones spoke to the striking shopmen and several of their friends. The crowd was very enthusiastic and frequently applauded the speaker.

Mother Jones is a strong and vigorous speaker and does not hesitate to call a spade a spade. She assured the strikers that she was confident that a settlement of their troubles would be made in the near future, advised them to remain firm in their demands and not desert the cause for which they had been fighting for so long. She urged the men strongly to remain away from the saloons and gambling houses and prophesied that if this was not done much discredit would be thrown upon the cause they represent.

As is usual in labor leaders, she strongly denounced the capitalist class and even took a shot at several of she religious organizations.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1912, Part I: Found in Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana” →

Hellraisers Journal: Social Democratic Herald: Eugene V. Debs Opines on Buffalo’s Kept Preachers, Labor, and Socialism

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Children of the Poor, AtR p2, Mar 17, 1900—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 26, 1902
Eugene V. Debs on Opines on Kept Preachers, Labor and Socialism

From the Milwaukee Social Democratic Herald of March 22, 1902:

Battle Cry of Superstition.
———-

The Church Protests in Vain Against
the March of Civilization.
———-

By EUGENE V. DEBS.

EVD crpd Nw Orln Tx Dem p3, Jan 26, 1900The socialist movement encountered a great shock at Buffalo a few days ago. One Quigley, a Catholic bishop, and another Stauffer (Stuffer?) of the Protestant persuasion, jointly and severally assailed social democracy, the latter gravely declaring that it was the “unhatched egg of anarchy”-in other words, a bad egg. The bishop vaulted into the arena, made due exhibition of his asininity, and in the name of the hierarchy proclaimed excommunication as the fate of all who cast their lot with the wicked socialists.

No opposition to organized labor, declared the bishop, was intended, except in so far as it was tainted with the virus of socialism-a hint that union men would be wise to profit by.

It is not my purpose to write about religion, or to interfere with that of any man. I am trusting to the light and logic of the future to abolish creeds and dispel the darkness of superstition.

But we have those in the socialist movement who are so supersensitive that they rise in passionate protest when the church is even mentioned. They are doubtless honest and sincere, but their prejudice is such that if the orders and injunctions of such priests as Quigley and Stauffer could be and were obeyed, they would look on in silence and submission, while the church with iron boots crushed out the socialist movement and the sun of labor set in gloom to rise no more.

What has the church, as such, ever done for working men and women except to keep them in darkness, preach obedience to their masters, and promise them a future home in heaven as the reward of patience and submission in the present hell?

The fulmination of this precious combination at Buffalo reveals the true attitude of the church, which profanes the name of Jesus Christ. In all its pomp and power today it stands for all he abhorred and against all he loved; and socialists would be worse than cowards, they would be base-born traitors not to speak the truth and challenge the enemy of the socialist movement in whatever form he may appear; and when the church consents to prostitute its functions in the service of the ruling class, its robes turn into rags and every honest man should help to strip it naked and expose the whited sepulcher to the world.

For more than 25 years I have watched the church in its attitude toward labor and I know it is the enemy of the toilers and strives and strains to keep them in industrial bondage. The freedom of the working class will mean the end of the church as we know it today. It will simply be out of a job.

During the Chicago strikes the priests and preachers grew hysterically violent in demanding the shooting and hanging of the strikers in the name of the meek and merciful Jesus. All denominations melted into one and all the ministers were likewise a unit in defense of the corporations and denunciation and damnation of the strikers.

There is something almost melancholy in seeing a meek, sad-eyed, dyspepsic preacher suddenly grow fierce and bloodthirsty. It seems strange, but it is easily accounted for. The priest is simply the echo of the capitalist. if he declines the function he ceases to preach.

In every labor strike I have ever known the church and those who speak for it have lined up solidly with the corporations. This has been and must be the attitude of the church whose priests now direct its fiery fulmination against socialism at Buffalo.

Through all the centuries the church has been the handmaid of tyranny and oppression-there she stands today, red with impotent rage because socialism has stripped her of her mask and challenged her to do her worst. Can the church extinguish the socialist movement? Can a bat snuff out the sun? It is high time the working class were opening their eyes, time that they were discarding the sacred (?) symbols of superstition and proclaiming their royal right to represent themselves without the vulgar and impertinent intervention of priests who are but the emissaries of their oppressors and exploiters.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Social Democratic Herald: Eugene V. Debs Opines on Buffalo’s Kept Preachers, Labor, and Socialism” →

Hellraisers Journal: Harper’s Weekly: “The Trouble at Lawrence” by Mary Heaton Vorse-Men, Women, Children v Bayonets

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 17, 1912
“The Trouble at Lawrence” by Mary Heaton Vorse

From Harper’s Weekly of March 16, 1912:

Lawrence Trouble by MHV, Harpers Wkly p10, Mar 16, 1912

A few weeks ago a company of about forty children of the Lawrence strikers, bound for Philadelphia, were forcibly prevented from leaving Lawrence by the order of City Marshal John J. Sullivan. He was led to this act by the belief that some of those children were leaving town without the consent of their parents. Before this, several groups of children, to the total of nearly three hundred, had been sent out of town to the strike sympathizers in various cities, and public opinion against the departure of the children had been aroused. As Congressman Ames said: “The people here feel that the sending away of these children has hurt the fair name of Lawrence since it is a rich town and capable of caring for all its needy children without the help of outsiders.”

Lawrence Trouble w Bayonets by MHV, Harpers Wkly p10, Mar 16, 1912

The forcible detention of these children had an extraordinary response throughout the country. It was one of those things that cannot be done in America without stirring up public opinion from north to south and east to west. There had been earlier aggressive moves on the part of the authorities: Joseph J. Ettor, one of the first to take charge of the strike on behalf of the Industrial Workers of the World, and Arturo Giovannitti, his chief lieutenant, were arrested and committed to jail without bail, as accessories to the murder of a woman [Anna LoPizzo], shot by a deflected bullet during a clash between the strikers and the police. Both men were two miles away during the conflict. Their imprisonment caused comment in the press, as did other episodes of the strike- for instance, the railroading of twenty-three men to prison for one year each, during a single morning’s police-court session, on the charge of inciting to riot; but in the minds of the country at large these things have been simply incidents. The abridgment of the right of people to move from one place to another freely was at once a matter of national importance. It had for its immediate sequel the sending of that touching little band of thirteen children of various nationalities to Washington to state their grievances and to testify as to what occurred at the railway station on that Saturday morning.

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