Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor Journal: Children of Lawrence Strikers Appear before Congressional Committee

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quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 16, 1912
Washington, D. C. – Lawrence Children Appear Before House Committee

From the Everett Labor Journal of March 15, 1912:

Lawrence Children bf House Com, Evt Lbr Jr p1, Mar 15, 1912

———-

(Republished from Los Angeles Citizen.)

“The chill hand of charity” got a severe slap a few days ago when Congressman Victor Berger grabbed a bill from a hat that was being passed for the benefit of the child textile strikers from Lawrence, Mass., who appeared before the house committee on rules, and hurled it into the face of its donor, J. H. Cox, a mill owner of Lawrence.

“We don’t want your money; it’s blood money,” cried Berger, indignantly. “We’ll take care of our own without your help.”

If it were possible to Bergerize the public conscience and cast the frown of public disapproval on the Cox kind of charity—the bribe of industrial bandits to satisfy society—Lawrence episodes would become less frequent.

In the same room in which only a month or so ago Andrew Carnegie complained bitterly because he had been paid only $320,000,000 for his properties by the steel corporation; where Judge Gary confided to a committee from congress that the steel trust had $75,000,000 in cash always ready to meet an emergency, child strikers in the mills at Lawrence laid bare their scars to pitying congressmen.

Presented by Representative Berger as an exhibit of what “one of the most highly protected industries in America does to human life by which it is served,” thirteen sallow-cheeked, thin-lipped, hollow-eyed, poorly-clad children, and six adults marched up Pennsylvania avenue and filed solmenly into the capitol.

In the room where attendants hurried to wait upon the smallest wish of Carnegie, Gary and Schwab, nobody had arranged for the comfort of these “exhibits” and they stood along the wall until Representative Henry, accompanied by his own little son, of eight, took pity on their plight.

“Get chairs for these children,” commanded Judge Henry. “Arrange them any way you want and take your time,” he added to Mr. Berger.

Before the witnesses began Chairman Wilson of the committee on labor pleaded for a federal investigation on the ground that in refusing to permit children to leave Lawrence several days ago the state authorities had violated the federal law.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Labor Journal: Children of Lawrence Strikers Appear before Congressional Committee”

Hellraisers Journal: Children of Lawrence Strikers Go to Washington to Tell Their Stories before House Rules Committee

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quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 8, 1912
Children of Lawrence Strikers Appear before House Committee at Washington

From The Washington Times of March 2, 1912:

Lawrence Strikes bf Hse Com Liss Sanger Teoli, WDC Tx p1, Mar 2, 1912
[Inset: Miss Tema Camitta, Philadelphia Sunday School Teacher.]

From the Washington Evening Star of March 2, 1912:

Child Tells Her Story.

There was Camello [Camella] Teoli, a little Italian girl, who stood up when she was told and who said she was sixteen years old, although she didn’t look it. She started to work in the spinning room of one of the American Woolen Company’s mills in Lawrence two years ago and three weeks later had her hair caught in a shafting and her scalp torn off, just as did Miss Houghton, at the census office, more than twelve months ago. But little Camello Teoli was the oldest of seven children and, with her father, the support of the family.

She earned several dollars a week when “speeded up,” and her father, when he was lucky, made seven. She is still under treatment as a result of the horrible accident of which she was a victim, but lately has been working just the same, she said, for her father has been on “slack time” and has been making $2.80 a week.

There were other children there, too, who, while they showed no scars, looked even to the untrained eye as if they had been “speeded up” beyond the limit of juvenile endurance.

Cheeks sallow, lips pinched and eyes that seemed to have looked upon all the misery of the world, the children sat unmoved throughout the hearing, presented by Mr. Berger as an exhibit of what “one of the most highly protected industries in America does to the human life by which it is served,” as he declared.

The children, with several adult strikers as guardians, and accompanied by George W. Roewer, the Boston attorney, who has defended in court the strikers arrested in Lawrence, reached Washington last night several hours behind schedule time, and were met at the Union station were escorted to the accommodations that had been provided for them by a big crowd of local socialists and labor sympathizers. All of the Lawrence delegation wore little cards, bearing the inscription “Don’t be a scab,” and although weary from their journey, marched to their lower Pennsylvania avenue hotel singing and cheering.

Today they marched to the Capitol in the same way, and outside of the House building had to run the fire of a battery of cameras and moving picture machines stationed right outside of the entrance.

[Note: Camella Teoli was introduced to the Committee on March 2nd. She made her full statement before the Committee on March 4th.]

[Emphasis added.]

———-

Lawrence Strikers Children, WDC Eve Str p2, Mar 2, 1912

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Children of Lawrence Strikers Go to Washington to Tell Their Stories before House Rules Committee”

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Battle for Bread at Lawrence” by Mary E. Marcy, Part III

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quote BBH Weave Cloth Bayonets, ISR p538—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 6, 1912
“The Battle for Bread at Lawrence” by Mary E. Marcy, Part III

From the International Socialist Review of March 1912

” The Battle for Bread at Lawrence”
-by Mary Marcy, Part III
———-

[Wonderful Solidarity]

 

Lawrence Family of Striker, ISR p543, March 1912

The wonderful solidarity displayed by the strikers has surprised everybody. There are more languages spoken in the confines of Lawrence than in any other district of its size in the world. But in spite of these barriers, the strike was an almost spontaneous one and seventeen races, differing widely in speech and custom, rose in a concerted protest. Lacking anything like a substantial organization at the outset, they have clung together in furthering a common cause without dissension. Too much credit cannot be given Comrades Joseph Ettor and Wm. D. Haywood in the splendid work of organization and education they have carried on in Lawrence.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Battle for Bread at Lawrence” by Mary E. Marcy, Part III”

Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “The Shame of San Diego!” -Fight for Free Speech Continues

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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 2, 1912
San Diego, California – I. W. W. Free Speech Fight Continues Despite Mass Arrests

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of February 29, 1912:

San Diego FSF Shame, IW p4, Feb 29, 1912

For nearly three months eighty-five business men of San Diego communicated with Captain Sehon and Chief of Police Wilson, secretly holding meetings in the U. S. Grant hotel, in an endeavor to find ways and means to gradually regulate the supreme law of the United States out of existence, namely, the law of FREE SPEECH and PUBLIC ASSEMBLY as granted to the people in the Constitution of the United States.

The Real Conspirators.

Here is the way these business men criminals finally proceeded to act:

They made their tools, the city council, pass an ordinance regulating street speaking under provisions of which they could move persons from the place where they had been wont to hold meetings. They thought that by moving the speakers some they gradually could move them more, and finally could move or regulate them clear out of town, and if necessary clear into old Mexico. They said that that was where the agitators belong.

But while the workers were willing to stand for reasonable regulations, they, like the Steel Trust, do not want strangulation, so on February 8 the dance started.

Workers Unite in Parade.

A protest parade was held in which I. W. W. members, Socialists, Single Taxers, Trade Unionists and unorganized and unattached workers joined hands and the line of march was arranged in a masterly manner.

We marched down to the sacred territory and then divided from four abreast into two sections, so that two could march together upon the sidewalk in accordance with Johnny Law. The forty-one persons who had decided to stand for their rights-rights which existed prior to governments-then mounted the box, only to be taken as are rabbits in a ferret drive, one by one, by those eunuch minded barbarians on the San Diego police force.

San Diego FSF, Parade, IW p4, Feb 29, 1912—–

Conspiracy Charged Against “Agitators.”

The M. and M. criminals, whose every move is illegal because of their actions in restraint of trade, had their judicial flunkeys go the limit and place a charge of conspiracy against 48 members of the army that is fighting to uphold freedom of speech. Bonds were set at $1,500 in order to secure those who dared to advocate that the workers gain more of the good things of life through organization.

Instead of discouraging the fighters this action increased the determination to win and results were that arrests for street speaking have occurred almost nightly since the judicial outrage.

Rebels Show the Proper Spirit. 

The police do not know how to deal with people who seem anxious to break into jail and the spectacle of agitators drawing lots to see who shall have the honor has them worried. When the brutalities of the police inside the jail was made public the indignation rose so high that a change had to be made. So the attempt to discourage new recruits by refusing those who were arrested even the common necessities of life and by herding 45 men in one small room failed dismally and made matters worse for the asinine authorities.

One hundred and sixty men and women are in jail up to date (February 20). The majority of these are of the I. W. W. The presence of the women who are class conscious enough to fight right on the firing line is a great factor in the fight.

Idiotic Statements of Dist. Attorney Utley.

The lack of useful work for the supernumeraries is shown by District Attorney Utley’s statements as reported by the San Diego Herald.

It is the duty of the county to attend to these vandals, barbarians, tramps, hoboes, I. W. W.’s, and such trash, and I am going to attend to it.

“There’s going to be no street speaking, if I can prevent it, in the main part of the city. Some of ’em might tell the truth.

We will starve them into submission by keeping them in the jug until they are tame. They won’t feel like telling the truth about us any more.

We Workers Will Win.

Well! Well! Time will tell. We intend to keep up this fight and keep on telling the truth to our fellow workers until the last parasite is forced to leave our backs. So hop to it, kind friend of the wig and gown, and help to fan the flames of discontent.

When the workers are awakened so they deal equitably as man to man they will have no need of delving into the pasts for precedent or listening to ponderous, musty, meaningless Latin phrases from the lips of the satyr-sensed satellites of the capitalist class.

As for stopping us we are the useful members of society and you the useless. The useful persists and the useless decays and dies. The river must seawards despite you.

San Diego’s Salubrious Climate.

We extend a cordial invitation to all who have not visited this city to come and feast upon our salubrious climate and to make the acquaintance of those staunch upholders of working class justice-SEHON, WILSON and UTLEY.

Come on the cushions
Ride up on top;
Stick to the brakebeams;
Let nothing stop
Come in great numbers;
This we beseech:
Help San Diego
To win FREE SPEECH!

PRESS COMMITTEE,
Local 13, I. W. W. 

—————

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Spokane Industrial Worker: “The Shame of San Diego!” -Fight for Free Speech Continues”

Hellraisers Journal: Socialists of Quaker City Prepared to Receive Children of Lawrence Strikers; Girl Picket Fined $10

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Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 25, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Strikers Prepare to Send Children to Philadelphia

From The New York Call of February 24, 1912:

(Special to The Call.)

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 23.-Great enthusiasm prevailed today at the headquarters of the Socialist party, [on] Arch street, when a telegram was received from Lawrence, Mass., announcing that in response to the request of the local Socialists and unionists, 100 children of the textile strikers were to be sent to this city and would arrive at the Broad street station at 6:30 o’clock tomorrow evening, where they will be received by an enthusiastic crowd and be distributed among the workers who are eager to give them good homes until their parents win the battle at Lawrence.

[Women Pickets Hard to Handle]

LAWRENCE, Mass., Feb. 23.-Josephine Liss, the pretty Polish strikers who was arrested on Wednesday on a charge of assault upon a militiaman, was convicted in police court today and fined $10. At first she refused to pay the fine or to appeal, declaring that she might as well be in jail if she could not have her freedom outside. She finally entered an appeal on advice of her counsel and was held in $100 bonds.

The soldier asserted that the girl had struck him in the face several times. The defendant said that the soldier had sworn at her and insulted her. Acting Judge Advocate Douglas Campbell, who conducted the prosecution, protested  to the court that in his opinion it was “cowardly” of the Strike Committee to send out women pickets, because they were hard to handle.

“Let them send out men,” he said “and we will deal with them.”

Dont Scab, Bst Mrn Glb p1, Feb 24, 1912

[Emphasis and photograph added.]

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Socialists of Quaker City Prepared to Receive Children of Lawrence Strikers; Girl Picket Fined $10”

Hellraisers Journal: Children of Lawrence Strikers Receive Enthusiastic Welcome from Socialists of New York City

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Quote NY Lawrence Strike Com Welcome Children, NY Call p1, Feb 10, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 12, 1912
New York, New York – Children of Lawrence Strikers Welcomed by Socialists

From The New York Call of February 10, 1912:

NY Lawrence Strike Com Welcome Children, NY Call p1, Feb 10, 1912

From The New York Times of February 11, 1912:

150 STRIKE WAIFS FIND HOMES HERE
—————
Great Throng Waits in Cold to Give Warm
Welcome to Children from Lawrence, Mass.
———-

BANNERS OF RED WAVE
———-
And Crowd Sings the Marseillaise

–Children Answer with Strikers’ Cry
–Homes Offered to Many More.
———-

The Grand Central Station was the scene of a great demonstration last night when 150 boys and girls, ranging in age from 2 to 12 years, arrive here from Lawrence, Mass. They are the children of the striking textile workers, and they come here to be cared for by working people of New York, who have promised to feed and house them until peace has been restored in Lawrence and the great mills there are again in operation.

More than 700 persons applied for one or more of the children. Among them, it is said, were Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, Miss Inez Milholland and Rev. Dr. Percy Stickney Grant. The children, however, were all given into the care of the families of laboring men or members of the Socialist Party.

To greet the children a crowd of 5,000 men, women, and children packed the Grand Central Station concourse, singing the “Marseillaise” in many tongues. They waved red flags, some with black borders, and all bearing Socialistic mottoes. It was noticed that not one in that crowd waved aloft the Stars and Stripes.

The men that waved the big red flags said they were not anarchist but Socialist flags, but, whatever they were, they were red everywhere except the lettering and the black borders. The black borders, it was said, were marks of mourning for those of the strikers who have lost their lives in Lawrence. Besides the flags, there were banners, also red, on which were displayed in big type what the crowd called “mottoes.” One painted in gold letters on a long, red streamer, read:

Ye exploiters, kneel down before the of your victims.

Another banner announced that the “libertarians of New York affirm their solidarity to the strikers of Lawrence.” Still another banner bore the same message, except that instead of “libertarians,” it read “the Liberians of New York,” &c. There was also another flaming piece of bunting on which was painted the information that certain Harvard students favored “a free country.”

Long Wait For the Children

 The train on which the children were expected to arrive was due at 3:30 P.M., but it was an hour late, and it came in without any of the Lawrence Children. When it did roll in a brass band was playing in the concourse, and the crowd was lined up against ropes that were stretched for the purpose of preventing a too hearty welcome being given to the children.

The crowd did not understand why the children were not on the 3:30 train, and so great did the excitement become that the police had an inquiry made all along the New Haven line to Boston. It was learned that the children missed their train in Boston, and it was announced from the bulletin board that they would arrive on the train that was due at 5:42 P.M., but which would not get in until 6:50 P.M.

It was about 4 o’clock when the unwelcome information was bulletined and the crowd, which had stood for two hours in the bitter cold waiting for the train, dispersed to gather again about 6 o’clock in still greater force. At 6:30 P.M. the Grand Central concourse was packed to capacity, and the reserves of the East Fifty-First Street Station formed lines behind which the crowd was forced to stand until after the children had come out of the station.

At 6:50 the searchlight of the electric engine that pulled the train from Highbridge was sighted coming into the train shed. Then the excitement started in earnest. Slowly the hum of the “Marseillaise” started, gradually gathering in volume. It ended when the train came to a stop and then ensued a series of frantic shouts and yells in a dozen languages. In all the medley there was not heard a single English word except the sharp commands of the police and the station men who were assisting.

Announce Themselves as Strikers

 Orders had been issued that the children were not to leave the train until the other passengers had left it and were safely out of the shed. When the children were escorted from the cars they were in charge of fourteen men and women from Lawrence, one of whom was a trained nurse. The children were formed in columns of twos, and at a signal from a young man who was one of those in charge they announced their arrival with a yell.

This is the way the yell goes, and the children shouted it all the way out of the station:

Who we are, who are we, who are we!
Yes we are, yes we are, yes we are.
Strikers, strikers, strikers.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Children of Lawrence Strikers Receive Enthusiastic Welcome from Socialists of New York City”

Hellraisers Journal: Joe Ettor Addresses Mass Meeting on Behalf of Lawrence Textile Strikers at Boston’s Faneuil Hall

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Quote Joe Ettor re John Golden, Lawrence Strike n Revolution, Bst Glb p4, Jan 27, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 29, 1912
 Boston, Massachusetts – Joe Ettor Speaks on Behalf of Lawrence Strikers

From The Boston Daily Globe of January 27, 1912:

ETTOR SPEAKS IN FANEUIL HALL
———–

Lawrence Strike Leader Joe Ettor, Bst Glb Morn p2, Jan 16, 1912

Joseph J. Ettor was the star of the great meeting in the interest of the Lawrence strikers which was held last evening in Faneuil Hail under the auspices of the socialist party of Boston. His picturesque looks and his vivid description of conditions in Lawrence contributed in part to the applause which greeted him. 

This man differs in appearance from any labor leader that has ever been seen in this part of the world before. He has a face on him which at first impresses you as being feminine, but which becomes masculine and full of expression when he talks. His skin looks as soft as a girls and his eyes are as black as coals.

More than $200 was taken up in a collection for the benefit of the strikers. The hall was crowded, though not uncomfortably so, and the rather large force of policemen found nothing to do but listen. There was a band of music, which kept the crowd entertained until 8:20, when a great cheer went up as the red Socialist flag and the American flag were borne up the center aisle and behind them came Ettor, James P. Carey and a number of people who were to sit on the platform.

The meeting was called to order by George D. Hall, who said he had personally visited all the textile cities in New England and had found nowhere more miserable conditions than existed in Lawrence.

———-

Woman Striker Speaks.

Miss K. S. Hanscom, one of the Lawrence strikers, addressed an audience for the first time and found a little difficulty in expressing herself. But she was so deeply impressed with the thing she wanted to say that she found no difficulty in making herself understood. She wanted to express first her admiration for the courage of the poor people who went out on strike, but more especially for the Italian women who were the first to walk out of the Wood Worsted mill. The average wage of most of the men and women, she said, was $5 a week, and they were compelled to do three and four times more work than formerly. The weavers and spinner do not average $9 a week.

Chairman Hall announced that the Boston Socialist Club proposed through a committee of 300 to collect by means of a house-to-house campaign clothing and funds for the strikers.

———–

Ettor Speaks of Wood.

Joseph J. Ettor was loudly cheered when he was introduced and it took considerable protesting with his hand to stop the applause.

This evening I was an conference with Mr. William M. Wood and he assured me that while I represented 20,000 workers he had 14.000 investors. Some of  them live on the Riviera. (Laughter).

[Continued Ettor with a laugh:]

That’s way off in Russia, I guess. You see the capitalist class know no East nor West, nor any other boundary.

The important thing today is that 20,000 mill workers of Lawrence are out on strike. The other side has done all in its power to crush out every effort that has been made by these people in the past to express themselves. The one who made a complaint was always made the victim of oppression by bosses and superintendents.

———-

Learn They Are Not Slaves.

An attempt is being made to bring the workers back to the mills, that they may be able to weave their lives into cloth on the old terms. John Golden with Billy Woods, say that in Lawrence we have no strike-we have a revolution. Well, where it is a question of life and death it is sure a revolution.

Twelve days ago the strikers were slaves, with nobody to speak for them-slaves attached to the looms who did not dare to raise their heads. All that has been changed in 12 days. These people have discovered that they are not slaves to superintendents or agents of mills.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Joe Ettor Addresses Mass Meeting on Behalf of Lawrence Textile Strikers at Boston’s Faneuil Hall”

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1911, Part I: Found in Berkeley, California, Receiving News of McNamaras’ Confession

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Fresno Tb p1, Nov 22, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 15, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1911, Part I
Found in Berkeley, California; Learns of Confession of McNamara Brothers

From the Richmond (California) Daily Independent of December 1, 1911:

MOTHER JONES TO SPEAK.
———-

Mother Jones, Small, LA Rec p4, Dec 21, 1911

Mother Jones, the mother of the working men, will speak at the Building Trades Temple on Fourth and Macdonald avenue, Friday evening at 8:15. Her subject will be “McNamara Defense.” The public is cordially invited to attend.

[Photograph added.]

—————

From the Richmond Daily Independent of December 2,1911:

MCNAMARA CONFESSION
CREATES COMMOTION
———-
At First Held Ridiculous Here. But Mother Jones
Meeting at Trades Hall Is Postponed–Many
See Political Move in Los Angeles Election.

———-

The blood-red extra of the Oakland Tribune last evening set the Richmond world ablaze. Its headlines, in letters inches long, read “J. B. McNamara Pleads Guilty,” “Admits Slaying Haggerty,” and “Brother Admit Dynamiting.” The Trib had little else save that it claimed that J. B. McNamara would be given life imprisonment and that his brother, J. J. McNamara under agreement with state, would receive fifteen years.

[…..]

The union labor forces of Richmond and the sympathizers with the McNamaras found themselves in queer position with the appearance of the evening papers. Mother Jones was announced to address the Richmond people at the Building Trades Council hall on Fourth street on the matter of aiding in the defense of the accused men.

Quite a body of people assembled to listen to the famous woman, but after a short wait, it was announced by the officials of the council that Mother Jones would not be present, as she was waiting in Berkeley for later and more reliable information from the southern city. There was nothing else to be done but postpone the meeting, and it was done. At a later date, should tho conditions at Los Angeles be different than reported last night, Mother Jones may appear here…..

———-

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1911, Part I: Found in Berkeley, California, Receiving News of McNamaras’ Confession”

Hellraisers Journal: Haywood and Hillquit Debate: “What shall the attitude of the Socialist party be toward the economic organization of the workers?”

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—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 13, 1912
New York City – Haywood and Hillquit Debate Labor Question at Cooper Union

From The New York Call of January 12, 1912:

NY Call p1, Jan 12, 1912

The first of a series of meetings for the discussion of the various problems confronting the Socialist party of America was held in Cooper Union last night with Julius Gerber, organizer of Local New York, which has arranged these meetings, presiding.

The big hall was jammed to the doors and the audience followed every word of the protagonists with breathless interest.

The meeting was a sort of family affair, only holders of red cards being allowed in the hall. A few Socialist Labor party men smuggled themselves into the crowd on borrowed S. P. cards. They were promptly recognized and Chairman Gerber asked that they leave the hall, which they did.

The subject of the discussion last night was “What shall the attitude of the Socialist party be toward the economic organization of the workers?”

William D. Haywood and Morris Hillquit were the debaters. Each of them was given an hour, the time being divided as follows: half an hour for the outline of the debate by each speaker, then each one got twenty minutes for rebuttal and finally ten minutes for closing the discussion.

Haywood opened the discussion. The burden of his arguments in the main was that the Socialist party should go among the workers and begin a propaganda for industrial unionism, for one big union. He assailed the American Federation of Labor and said that the Socialist party is acquiescing in the policy of the American Federation, which was a distinctly anti-Socialist and capitalist policy.

Industrial Form Superior, But-

Hillquit in his reply to Haywood said that there can be no question in the mind of any Socialist that the industrial form of organization is superior to the craft organization. But he did not believe that the Socialist should begin preaching industrialism outside of organized labor. The Socialist party, he said, should keep up its policy of trying to reach the workers in their present unions. The policy has been successful, Hillquit said, as is shown by the fact that every union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor has Socialists in important positions, as well as in the rank and file. These men have been elected to these positions by the rank and file, he said, because they were Socialists.

[…..]

Haywood’s Final Reply.

Haywood took the floor to reply in his final ten minutes.

He declared there is nothing in common between the policies of the American Federation of Labor and the Socialist party. The former, he said, is craft conscious as opposed to the class consciousness of the latter. He went on to show that by high initiation fees, curtailment of apprentices and even closing of books, membership is kept down and would-be members excluded…..

He went on to say that he had never advocated anything else but the organization of the workers as one man, and that he had believed and still believes the craft form of organization to be “ethically unjustifiable and tactically suicidal.”

At the same time he urged the necessity for political action, the political power to be used, not after the social revolution, but under present conditions, citing as an instance of its use the turning of the police against strikebreakers instead of against strikers.

Haywood explained that in criticizing the American Federation of Labor he criticized its leaders, who were members of the Knights of Columbus and of the Civic Federation executive.

Hillquit Finds Mystery Deep.

In taking the floor to close the debating. Hillquit declared that the mystery had deepened, seeing that Haywood did not oppose the rank and file of the A. F. of L. but the members of the Executive Committee of the Civic Federation…..

The difference between the speaker’s policy and Haywood’s, Hillquit declared, was that the former, while condemning the policies of Samuel Gompers, made efforts to educate the rank and file, while Haywood was ready to kick over and destroy the whole A. F. of L.

[…..]

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Haywood and Hillquit Debate: “What shall the attitude of the Socialist party be toward the economic organization of the workers?””

Hellraisers Journal: Haywood Lectures for International Socialist Review, Elected to National Executive Committee of SPA

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Quote BBH re Capitalist Class, Lbr Arg p4, Mar 23, 1911———————-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 11, 1912
Big Bill Haywood Lectures for The Review, Elected to N. E. C. of Socialist Party

From the International Socialist Review of January 1912:

BBH, ISR p279, Nov 1911
William D. Haywood

The Haywood Lectures. During the National Executive Committee election [of the Socialist Party of America] (not over as we go to press) [see below for results] there has arisen a sudden and peculiar misunderstanding with relation to the routing of Comrade William D. Haywood by this office. Friends may have imagined that Comrade Haywood has yielded to the repeated and urgent requests of former National Secretary Barnes, acting under instructions from the National Executive Committee, to become one of the authorized lecturers on the National Lyceum Lecture Bureau, as did Comrade Frank Bohn under similar pressure, but we are glad to announce that Haywood preferred to continue lecturing under the auspices of the REVIEW.

The statement has recently been published broadcast by Comrade Robert Hunter, that locals securing Haywood were compelled to pay the REVIEW $250 a night. We take pleasure in repeating here the terms we have made ever since Comrade Haywood began to lecture for us. Except in the West, where close dates cannot be arranged at this time, our terms for Haywood dates are the local’s guarantee to take 500 admission tickets to the lecture (each ticket being good for a three months’ REVIEW subscription at 25 cents each, amounting to $125.00.) Out of this sum we pay $25.00 hall rent, supply all advertising material, donate 200 copies of the current REVIEW and pay all Haywood’s expenses.

The State Committee of Ohio is arranging dates in Ohio for Haywood from Jan. 15 to Feb. 15. Arrangements for other states may be made through this office. It might be well if our friends, who believe in fair play, would ask Comrade Hunter upon what foundation he based his published statements in this regard.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

From the Baltimore Sun of Jan 1, 1912:

SOCIALIST PARTY ELECTS
———-
National Executive Committee
And Secretary Are Named.

Chicago, Dec. 31.-A national executive committee and a national secretary for the Socialist party, elected by referendum, the votes being sent to Chicago, were announced yesterday. On the executive committee thus chosen are Victor Berger, Milwaukee; Job B. Harriman, Los Angeles; William D. Haywood. Denver; Morris Hillquit, New York; Alexander Irvine, Los Angeles; Kate Richard O’Hare, St. Louis, and John Spargo, Yonkers, N. Y. John M. Work, of Chicago, was elected national secretary.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Haywood Lectures for International Socialist Review, Elected to National Executive Committee of SPA”