Tag: Socialist Party of America

WE NEVER FORGET: March 25, 1911, 4:40 pm: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, Life So Cheap and Property So Sacred

Janet RayeWe Never Forget
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Rose Schneiderman Quote, Life So Cheap———-

Life So Cheap; Property So Sacred
———-

From The New York Call of March 27, 1911:

The Real Triangle by John Sloan, crpd, NY Call p1, Mar 27, 1911
“The Real Triangle” by John Sloan

From the Jewish Daily Forward of January 10, 1910:

The “Triangle” company…With blood this name will be written in the history of the American workers’ movement, and with feeling will this history recall the names of the strikers of this shop-of the crusaders.

City Hall, New York City,
-December 28, 1910

Testimony before the New York State Senate and Assembly Joint Investigating Committee on Corrupt Practices and Insurance Companies Other Than Life Insurance:

Judge M. Linn Bruce, Counsel
Chief Edward F Croker, NYC Fire Department

Bruce: How high can you successfully combat a fire now?
Croker: Not over eighty-five feet.
Bruce: That would be how many stories of an ordinary building?
Croker: About seven.
Bruce: Is this a serious danger?
Croker: I think if you want to go into the so-called workshops which are along Fifth Avenue and west of Broadway and east of Sixth Avenue, twelve, fourteen or fifteen story buildings they call workshops, you will find it very interesting to see the number of people in one of these buildings with absolutely not one fire protection, with out any means of escape in case of fire.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1911, Part II: Found in Report of Socialist Party’s Investigating Committee

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Greensburg PA Cmas 1910, Steel 2, p83———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 20, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1911, Part II:
–Found in Report of Socialist Party’s Investigating Committee

From The Socialist Party Official Bulletin:

Socialist Party Official Bulletin, SPA, Feb 1911

Report of the Investigating Committee-
Sub-Committee of the National Committee

Report of SPA Investigating Com re Charges by Mother Jones et al, Nat HQ Chg Feb 28, 1911

As to charges of dishonesty, brought by Comrade Mother Jones against Comrade J. Mahlon Barnes, through Attorney Thomas J. Morgan, the Investigating Committee found that:

[W]hen the alleged claim was placed in the hands of Thomas J. Morgan there was, in fact, nothing due Mother Jones; that the debt had been paid in full, and that the subsequent payment of $200 to Morgan was made under duress.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1911, Part II: Found in Report of Socialist Party’s Investigating Committee” →

Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “Child Slaves of the Cotton Mills” by Carrie W. Allen, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Child Labor Man of Six Snuff Sniffer———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 5, 1911
Carrie W. Allen on Child Slaves of the Cotton Mills, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of March 1911:

Child Labor, Slaves of Cotton Mills by CW Allen, ISR p521, Mar 1911

[Part II of II.]

The Senate report already quoted gives this verbatim statement from one of the federal agents concerning a mill in North Carolina:

The mill employs many children, and the smallest I have seen working in any mills. I asked five exceptionally small ones how old each was and each answered, “I don’t know.” These children, the superintendent says, work from 6 p. m. to 6 a. m. * * * I know, beyond a reasonable doubt, that there are ten or twelve children under twelve years of age working in the mill, seven or eight of them at night.

One of the children is an emaciated little elf fifty inches high, and weighing perhaps forty-eight pounds, who works from 6 at night till 6 in the morning, and who is so tiny that she has to climb upon the spinning frame to reach the top row of spindles.

Instances might be multiplied of the criminally long hours these little victims are imprisoned in the mills, no sound reaching them except the racking whirr of the machinery, no air reaching their choked lungs except the fluff laden air of the dusty factory.

Is it any wonder that these poor little over-wrought beings under continuous nervous strain, frequently have their fingers and hands caught in the cruel cogs, which lacerate and tear and frequently cripple them? One hundred and twenty-two mills reported 1,241 accidents for a year, and it is known that these figures are only partial, as mill owners only report accidents when forced to do so.

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Hellraisers Journal: From International Socialist Review: “Child Slaves of the Cotton Mills” by Carrie W. Allen, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, Child Labor Man of Six Snuff Sniffer

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 4, 1911
Carrie W. Allen on Child Slaves of the Cotton Mills, Part I

From the International Socialist Review of March 1911:

Child Labor, Slaves of Cotton Mills by CW Allen, ISR p521, Mar 1911

[Part I of II.]

THE shrill scream of the factory whistle smites the chill morning air at the dawn of each new day, and obedient to its hideous call, a ghostly array of anemic children, rudely awakened from sleep, gulp down a bit of food and stumble sleepily to the factory door.

This pitiful multitude of children, whose days are completely swallowed by the cotton mills, keep up their incessant dance from one spindle to another, or from one loom to another, dizzily watching the ten, twelve or fifteen shuttles play hide and seek among the labyrinth of threads.

So much has been written about these youngest victims of capitalist greed, the children of the cotton mills, that were we not misery hardened, were we not blinded by brutal toil, long ago an awakened working class would have united to wipe this iniquity out.

And yet, the workers are not to blame that the forced struggle for existence has limited their vision and stupefied their imagination.

One little child set in the midst of a crowd, because in his person misery is visualized, makes a more eloquent appeal than the story of all the thousands of children whose lives are crushed by the cruel millstones of industry.

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Hellraisers Journal: William D. Haywood to Preach Solidarity of Labor for Lecture Bureau of International Socialist Review

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH One Fist, ISR p458, Feb 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 25, 1911
Big Bill Haywood to Make Tour of Socialist Locals for the Review

From the International Socialist Review of February 1911:

INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW
LECTURE BUREAU

FREE TO LOCALS

BBH, ISR p68, Aug 1910

Our object in planning the Review Lecture Bureau is to increase the circulation of the INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW, to supply lecturers who are representative of revolutionary socialism—men and women who will drive home the things the REVIEW is trying to say to the working class, and to put some money into the local’s treasury [locals of the Socialist Party of America].

We have been fortunate in securing William D. Haywood to fill dates for us. Comrade Haywood has returned from his tour of Europe filled with enthusiasm for the growing solidarity of labor he has found in every country. No American has ever spoken to the enormous crowds in Europe that greeted Haywood every where he went. Stokers, dockers, boiler makers, thousands upon thousands of miners and other working men and women heard him and refused to go home when his meetings closed. “More, more”! was the cry that greeted Haywood wherever he spoke.

We have a plan whereby it will be possible for every Local in the country to have a Haywood date, without any expense to the Local. The comrades guarantee to take 500 admission tickets at 25 cents each. Each card is good for a three month subscription to the INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW, wherein Haywood hopes to repeat, drive home and clinch the arguments he makes in his lectures. This is the perfect propaganda. No man or woman ever grew sleepy at a Haywood lecture or forgot what Haywood said. They will get these things in permanent form in copies of the REVIEW.

The 500 tickets sold at 25 cents each, will be $125 of which we will pay $25 on hall rent, furnish posters, dodgers, and pay all of Haywood’s expenses. We will send FREE 200 copies of the current number of the REVIEW to be sold at the meeting for the benefit of the Local. The Local keeps the collection and literature sales. The Local takes half of all tickets sold over 500. Remember each admission ticket is good for a three-months’ subscription to the REVIEW. There is no better way to arouse the workingmen and women in your city than to get them to hear Haywood speak and to send copies of the REVIEW into their homes every month.

We are filling dates for Haywood in the central states at this time. Take up this matter with your local and write for a date NOW if you want to plan a lecture for February, March, or April. We will send on the cards, to be paid for on date of lecture.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1910: Found Standing with Striking Miners and Their Families in Pennsylvania

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Greensburg PA Cmas 1910, Steel 2, p83———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 15, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1910:
–Praised by Max Hayes and Eugene Debs for Work in Pennsylvania

From the International Socialist Review of December 1910:

THE WORLD OF LABOR 

BY MAX S. HAYES.

[…..]

Mother Jones, Latest Picture, Ft Wayne Dly Ns p9, Apr 9, 1910

MOTHER JONES has been busying herself during the past few weeks in trying to bring cheer and comfort to the poor miners in the Irwin-Greensburg soft coal district of Pennsylvania [Westmoreland County], and assisting those unfortunate victims of one of the most heartless lockouts in American industrial history (as has been shown in THE REVIEW) to gain a semblance of humane working and living conditions. Mother is never so happy as when helping “the boys” in the mining fields, and, as every officer and member of the U. M. W. knows, she has gone into districts in Colorado, Alabama, West Virginia and other places where many of the bravest of men have feared to tread. She has faced injunction judges, served time in jail, lived on bread and water and has undergone a thousand hardships where others have hesitated or flunked, and never a word of complaint as to her own sufferings escape her lips. In fact she is as jolly and happy-go-lucky as a girl of sixteen and always refers to her direful experiences as humorous escapades.

Mother Jones only grows sorrowful and indignant when she discusses the fool factionalism among the miners and the sufferings endured by “the boys” and their wives and children, whom she knows and loves and for whom she has done organizing work in past campaigns. She has little patience with the penny-ante politics of this or that alleged leader who aspires for place or power, and when in a reminiscent mood she can relate some wonderful stories.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Progressive Woman: Socialist Women of Chicago Stand With Striking Garment Workers

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 12, 1911
Chicago, Illinois – Socialist Women Stand with Striking Garment Workers

From The Progressive Woman of January 1911:

Chg Garment Workers Strike, Socialist Wmn Com, Prg Wmn Cv, Jan 1911Chg Garment Workers Strike, Socialist Wmn Com Names, Prg Wmn p2, Jan 1911

———-

The Chicago Garment Workers’ Strike

ANNA A. MALEY

Workers of the world, unite! This is in deed the golden rule of labor—a rule that in the fullest application will give us one day a united workers’ world

Working class need is the great unifier; and so in the Chicago garment makers’ strike there stand 41,000 workers, comprising nine nationalities. The branches of the trade included are cutters, trimmers, coat makers, pants makers, vest makers and buttonhole makers. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Progressive Woman: Socialist Women of Chicago Stand With Striking Garment Workers” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Fighting Garment Workers of Chicago by Robert Dvorak, Part II

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 4, 1911
Chicago, Illinois – Garment Workers Strike Continues, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of January 1911:

Chg Garment Workers Strike Police v Strkrs crpd, ISR Cv Jan 1911

BY ROBERT DVORAK

[Part II of II.]

The most admirable and contagious strike meetings were held in thirty-seven various halls in the city and money was pouring in from all parts of the country, with letters of encouragement and promise of further aid when another blow, again from union headquarters, once more nearly demoralized the strikers.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Fighting Garment Workers of Chicago by Robert Dvorak, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: The Appeal to Reason: Mrs. W. F. (Emma) Little Reports from Fresno: “They Are Mobbing Workers”

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Emma Little, re IWW Fresno FSF Mob Attack of Dec 9, AtR p3, Dec 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 1, 1911
Fresno, California – “They Are Mobbing Workers” by Mrs. Emma Little

From the Appeal to Reason of December 31, 1910:

They Are Mobbing Workers

Fresno, Cal., December 13-Friday night [December 9th] Fresno mob attacked I. W. W. members who were speaking on the street and severely beat them. The mob then proceeded to the I. W. W. camp. The boys on the street rushed out to our house [home of Fred and Emma Little], then on out to camp, to give the boys in camp what warning they could.

I could hear the autos going past our house right behind the boys. Shortly after the autos passed I could bear the yell, the mob yell.

IWW Fresno FSF, Mob Attacks, FMR p1, Dec 10, 1920

They burned down the tent and then they took a vote on whether or not they should burn our house. They decided not. Then they proceeded back to town, stood around town awhile, then went to the jail and demanded the prisoners. This request was refused, and shortly after the mob dispersed.

Friday afternoon Murdock, one of the I. W. W. speakers, was tried for vagrancy before Judge Briggs by a jury of business men. Murdock was a well-dressed, well educated man, who, it was proved, was employed by and receiving a salary from the I. W. W. as organizer. The jury convicted him of vagrancy. Judge Briggs put off sentencing him until the next day.

When Murdock came to receive his sentence the next day, Briggs stated that he liked Murdock, but as he was one of the instigators of last night’s trouble he would have to sentence him 180 days (six months).

For weeks the papers have been urging the citizens to form a mob and drive the I. W. W. from the country. The I. W. W. had violated no law. They had lived quietly and peaceably in their own little canvas homes. The officers bad no excuse for molesting them.

Mayor Rowell, the saloon champion, owns the Republican, or most of it. A short time before the day of the mob the Republican said that in Portersville, a small town about thirty miles from here, the citizens had formed a committee and requested the I. W. W. to leave; and that the I. W. W. had immediately left. The paper suggested that would be good tactics to pursue here. The whole article was a tissue of lies. The I. W. W. was not driven out of Portersville. The article and many more along that line were written for the sole purpose of making a mob spirit.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1910, Part II: “Trinity of Sleek Parasites,” Roosevelt, Mitchell, Bishop of Scranton

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Capitalists Money Grabbing Parasites, AtR p2, Nov 5, Mnrs Mag p11, Nov 17, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 29, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1910, Part II:
–Roosevelt, Mitchell and Bishop of Scranton: “Trinity of Sleek Parasites”

From The New York Call of November 14, 1910:

MOTHER JONES’ LATEST VISIT
TO THE ANTHRACITE FIELDS

Mother Jones, the friend of the miners, the Socialist apostle, is now seventy-seven years old, but her activities in behalf of the oppressed are as vigorous as ever. Only lately she paid a visit to the anthracite fields. Her account of her visit, written for The Call, is as follows:

What I Saw in the Anthracite Fields.

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

My work in connection with the Mexican cases being completed at Washington, and feeling assured that the victims of this “bloodocracy” would not be rearrested on their liberation from prison, I decided to visit the boys in the anthracite regions, investigate conditions, and see what progress, if any, had been made in the way of organization and education since the last general strike. My visit to the anthracite regions which border on the inferno followed that of Roosevelt and his ex-labor leader, John Mitchell [ex-President of United Mine Workers of America], who had visited the coal fields, so it is said, for the purpose of making some observations and investigations as to the condition of the slaves whose lifeblood is coined into profits that the few may riot in luxury.

When Roosevelt and his bodyguard arrived at Scranton they were received by the Bishop of Scranton, who wined and dined them and who remarked during the meal that it was the first time in his life he had had the honor of sitting between two Presidents. On the right of the bishop sat Mr. Roosevelt, friend of the workingman. It was he who, in order to show his friendship, sent 2,000 guns to Colorado to shoot the miners into subjection and, if they did not obey, blow their brains out, and who, while president of the United States, sent hundreds of messages to Congress, but never one in the interest of the working class. Not even when the explosion in the Monongah mine sent 700 souls, the souls of wage slaves, into the shadows and shocked the civilized world, did he find it in his sterile conscience to send a message to Congress demanding protection for the men whose labor feeds the mammoth maw of industry and warms the fireside of the world. Roosevelt’s real interest in the working class is only aroused when he seeks their votes. On the left of the bishop sat the $6,000 Civic Federation beauty [Mitchell], pet of the mine owners, decorated with diamonds, gifts from the coal barons.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1910, Part II: “Trinity of Sleek Parasites,” Roosevelt, Mitchell, Bishop of Scranton” →