Tag: Socialists

Hellraisers Journal: New York May Day Parade Banner: Rockefeller “Uses Bibles in New York and Bullets in Colorado”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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He uses Bibles in New York
and bullets in Colorado.
———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 4, 1914
New York, New York – Police Attack May Day Rally at Union Square

From The New York Times of May 2, 1914:

The Times blames anarchists for the police attack upon the peaceful rally:

5,000 STAMPEDED BY POLICE CLUBS
———-
Women and Children Felled in Flight
at Union Square May Day Rally.
———-

Socialist Women March at NYC May Day Parade 1914, LoC
 
With Chief Inspector “Schmittberger close behind issuing vain orders to halt and return to their stations, 200 uniformed policemen charged through the May Day gathering of Socialists and labor unionists who celebrated the International Labor Day in Union square yesterday.

The police charge caused a stampede of 5,000 of the 15,000 persons in the Square. Clubs flew right and left, the police jumping over the bodies of prostrate women, men, and boys and even two babies, to reach people beyond them….

Schmittberger’s powerful voice was heard above the dim of the stampede and the screams of women and children who had been bowled over.

“Back to your stations, you men! Down with your clubs! Stop this! Stop it at once!” the big Inspector called out and his message seemed to bring the excited policemen to their senses.

As they turned to retreat over a big open space they had cleared they found two little babies rolling in the dirt, with their mother, Rebecca Shulman, trying to crawl to them from a point ten feet away where she had landed on her head. One man, Bola Bologna, of 355 East 184th Street, was bleeding profusely from a wound across his head…

Crowd’s Mood Changes.

While the charge was being made Socialist speakers, several of whom were women, were standing on the cottage porch, from which a woman was addressing the multitude. The police advance occurred so quickly that the meeting itself was not disturbed. Speakers continued with their appeals to keep May 1 as a general labor holiday, in harmony with a world-wide movement, for several minutes after the stampede.

But the mood of the crowd was changed. The marches, from 30,000 to 60,000 strong, had been sweeping into the Square for four hours. All had arrived in a cheerful mood, and there had been much singing, while little children by the hundreds mingled with the men and women marchers.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: The Labor World: Editor W. E. M’ewen Describes Reign of Military Terror Against Miners in Colorado

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege ed, Ab Chp III—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 8, 1904
Editor W. E. M’ewen Describes Military Despotism in the State of Colorado

From The Labor World of April 2, 1904:

ANARCHY IN COLORADO.

CO Telluride Miners v Peabody, LW p1, Apr 2, 1904

The situation in Colorado is commanding the attention of the free thinking people of America. If there is such a reign of terror here as is charged by the executive authorities of the state why is it that the leaders of the lawless element have not been convicted in a court of Justice? If the miners are such a bad lot of men why have they not been prosecuted? These are questions that are asked by the thoughtful, unprejudiced men of America.

The truth is that Governor Peabody has entered into a conspiracy with the mine owner’s association to crush the miners’ union. The state’s treasury, already depleted in a vain attempt to destroy organization among the miners, is now being mortgaged, to complete the work of extermination which was begun last July. After the struggle is over and when the state shall have been carried to the verge of bankruptcy, it will be found that the miners’ union is stronger than ever.

A review of the hearing before the committee on labor legislation in congress proves conclusively that but one man was killed during the entire strike-a mine superintendent. The mine owners say that he was assassinated. The miners deny the charge, and say that he was killed as the result of a grudge, by an old enemy. The miners further declare that this superintendent was their friend and hence, even if the union championed crime, he would be the last man in Colorado to be attacked.

After several months of watchfulness the militia have at last arrested President Moyer, who is accused of being the arch criminal of the state. What is the charge against him? Desecrating the flag. The man who is accused of being the leading spirit in the criminal work of the state is cast into prison on an entirely foreign charge. Mr. Moyer had a hand bill printed with a picture of the American flag upon it, and the words “are we living in America,” above it. In the stripes were printed some rebukes against Gov. Peabody.

Miners have been deported from their homes by the Citizens’ Alliance of Telluride.

What is the Citizens’ Alliance of Telluride? An organization of gamblers-of the class that usually loiter about a mining camp.

Why are the gamblers against the miners’ union? Because the miners’ union is against the gamblers. The Western Federation of Miners is not only a progressive organization, but it is a wealthy organization. It discovered that many of its members were spending most of their wages at gambling.  After their money was gone they secured loans from the union. This grew to be a nuisance. The line had to be drawn somewhere. It could not very well cure the miner from gambling, so in the interest of self preservation it insisted upon the enforcement of the state gambling laws. This was a new departure in Colorado mining communities. The gamblers defied the law. The miners secured their arrest and conviction.

Since the strike was inaugurated Gov. Peabody has pardoned all of the convicted gamblers upon condition that they join the state militia. These are the men who are deporting the miners from their homes. The mine-owners, the governor of the state and the gamblers have formed a partnership, and entered into a conspiracy to crush the miners’ union. The purpose of the gamblers is to get the pittance that the mine-owners see fit to deal out to the miners, while the purpose of the governor at this time, is to rid the state of this body of citizens, knowing full well that he cannot get their votes on election day. There will probably be a political revolution in Colorado.

Then there is Mother Jones, the friend of the miners. She who goes about their homes, nursing the mothers and children, and speaking words of good cheer to the men, was cast into prison for doing this, by a tin soldier who is unfit to even touch the hem of her garment.

There may be some reason for military occupation in Telluride, but there cannot be any just excuse for military despotism. The fair and conservative people of America, when acquainted with the full facts in the case, will look with pity and contempt upon the state of Colorado.

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: The Michigan Copper Strike, 15,000 Miners Waging a Grim Battle

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 3, 1913
The Michigan Copper Strike, 15,000 Miners Exert Their Labor Power

From the International Socialist Review of November 1913:

THE COPPER STRIKE

[Part I of II]

Michigan Copper Strike, One Man Drill, ISR p269, Nov 1913

WAY up in the upper peninsula of Northern Michigan 15,000 copper miners are waging a grim battle against the absentee Copper Kings. The men have worked ten and twelve-hour shifts for many years at an average wage of only $2.00 a day. Recently the companies decided to force the men to work one-man drills. Three miles in the bowels of the earth they planned to send the human moles of Michigan to dig and bring forth wealth for the spending of the bosses.

But they reckoned without the splendid spirit of the miners, who have struggled along under growing pressure from the mine bosses, while the cost of living climbed merrily upward and the standard of living went down with every leap in the prices of commodities.

The mine boys came to a few conclusions themselves and decided to raise the price of their LABOR POWER. They also made up their minds that they would enact a new labor law (among themselves) and cut short their underground workday.

They looked over the financial reports of the Calumet & Hecla Company and discovered that the mine owners had only put $1,200,000 into the mines originally and had taken out over $120,000,000 for their OWN PROFITS. Most of the mine owners live in cultured Boston and have never seen the inside of a shaft. One man draws down $120,000 salary as president and director of the company. The first vice-president (also a director) holds up the boys for $70,000, while other directors and officers make away with $45,000 and $40,000 each, and the directors are rewarded with a bagatelle of $20,000 a year. From one mine alone the officers of the company grant themselves $370,000 in loot (”salaries”) every year.

Michigan Copper Strike, Soldiers and Strikers, ISR p270, Nov 1913

Now the boys in the copper mines are fast becoming Socialists. They are all disgusted with the portion they are receiving. They run, manage and work the mines. They are beginning to doubt the wisdom of DIVIDING up so foolishly and partially for the benefit of the mine owners. They are organizing today to FIGHT the bosses in order to secure MORE time to plan for a better resistance later on. The day is coming when they are going to take possession of the mines in the name of the MINE WORKERS, just as the steel workers will take over the steel mills, just as a united working class intends to take over all the mills, factories, shops and mines to be run and operated only in the interests of those WHO WORK and RUN and MANAGE them. They are going to STOP MAKING PROFITS FOR BOSSES.

This is the way all militant labor wars are tending. Today the copper miners are fighting for $3.00 a day and an eight-hour day. Tomorrow they will demand the full value of the copper they dig.

Also, the men are determined to abolish the one-man mine drill.

[Emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: The Michigan Copper Strike, 15,000 Miners Waging a Grim Battle” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Michigan Copper Miners’ Bulletin: The Story of a Strike Heroine, in Her Own Words

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Stick Together, MI Mnrs Bltn p1, Aug 14, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 8, 1913
Heroine of the Michigan Copper Strike Tells a Story of Fighting Scabs

From the Miners’ Bulletin of September 6, 1913:

WFM Miners Bulletin MI 1913Annie Clamenc MI Strike Heroine, Mnrs Bltn p1, Sept 6, 1913

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part II: Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers, Meets with Socialists

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, God s Cause, Scranton Tb p1, Aug 7, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 15, 1903
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1903, Part II
-Speaks at Miners’ Convention, Meets with Socialists

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 22, 1903:

TRIP LIGHT FANTASTIC
———-

MINERS’ DELEGATES ATTEND BALL
AT TOMLINSON HALL.
———-
Early Adjournment of the Convention
in Order that the Auditorium
Could Be Cleared.
———-

MOTHER JONES MAKES SPEECH
———-

[…..]

Mother Jones, Socialist Spirit p19, Aug 1902

The dance of the Indianapolis garment workers in Tomlinson Hall last night interfered with the session of the mine workers’ convention that was to have been held during the afternoon. In order that the Janitors might prepare the floor of the hall for the dance the convention adjourned at noon until 9 o’clock this morning, after a motion to omit the afternoon session had carried.

The morning session was a busy one during the earlier hours, but toward noon had resolved itself into speech-making. Mother Jones, the woman friend of the miners, who was enjoined by Judge Jackson’s order prohibiting inflammatory speeches in the coal-mining district, was called on for an address. Her speech was typical of the woman and socialistic in tone. Her recommendation to the miners was that they use their votes as citizens to change conditions In the trade. Mother Jones was pessimistic in her views on the possibility of friendly relations between capital and labor. She thinks there is such a gulf between the two classes that it can never be bridged except by a change in government. The miners could adjust the conditions by their vote, she said, if they voted right. Now miners in America are existing as miserably as the serfs in Russia, and will continue so until all of the changes are made in the government which she suggests, she insinuated in her speech…..

[Photograph added.]

From The Indianapolis News of January 22, 1903:

SOCIALISM’S VOICE IN MINERS CONVENTION
———-

EXPRESSION ON GOVERNMENT
OWNERSHIP WANTED.
———-

INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM
———-
Miners Voted Unanimously Not to
Incorporate Their Organization
-Question of Co-Operative Stores
———-

At the opening of the United Workers’ convention this morning, there was the first clash of the year between the conservatives and the Socialistic factions. It originated in a resolution from an obscure local union, favoring an expression of Government ownership of coal mines and railroads.

A motion on the part of the conservatives to table it brought on a long discussion, and many leaders of the two factions were heard.

The socialistic faction based its arguments on the anthracite strike and the combination of coal companies and railroads and that a tendency not to treat with miners “according to the laws of man or God” made it necessary for the Government to take some such action.

Delegate Walker, of Illinois, in a long speech, said that the coal companies and railroads were now in a combination injurious to the interests of the people, and were holding back coal to boost prices.

Delegate Lusk, of West Virginia, also charged heartless attitude of coal operators and railroads not only to the miners, but to the people.

The controversy was finally ended for the time, on a motion of Chris Evans, of Ohio, to refer the matter back to the committee.

[…..]

William R. Fairley, executive committeeman for the Alabama district, in a speech of some length, laid before the convention a grievance of the Alabama miners on the speech made yesterday by Mother Jones, in which, he claimed, she held them responsible for the appalling child labor conditions in Alabama. Mother Jones made a reply in which she said she did not hold the miners responsible only in so far as they cast votes for and elected members of agricultural classes to the Legislature, who permitted the infants to be worked and murdered by mill and mine owners. She ripped the State of Alabama up and down. At the close of the discussion Patrick Dolan, president of the Pittsburg district, moved that Fairley and Mother Jones kiss and make up. There was a great deal of laughter but no vote was taken…..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1903, Part II: Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers, Meets with Socialists” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part III: “Revolution Is Here…Tyranny, Robbery and Oppression Must Go”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote re Mother Jones, Halo of Lustre, John ONeill, Mnrs Mag p3, Sept 26, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 23, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1912, Part III
Speaks at Charleston, West Virginia: “Oppression of the People Must Go!”

September 21, 1912, Charleston, West Virginia
-Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting Following Parade of Strikers’ Children:

Mother Jones, NE State Jr p2, Sept 19, 1912

I want to say to those children, they will be free; they will not be serfs. We have entered West Virginia-I have-and a hundred thousand miners have pledged their support to me, “If you need us, Mother, we will be there.” Five thousand men last Sunday night said, “We are ready, Mother, when you call on us.”

The revolution is here. We can tie up every wheel, every railroad in the State, when we want to do it. Tyranny, robbery and oppression of the people must go. The children must be educated. The childhood will rise to grander woman and grander man in happy homes and happy families-then we will need no saloons. We will need no saloons, nor any of your prohibition. As long as you rob us, of course we drink. The poison food you give us needs some other narcotic to knock the poison out of it. They charge you $2.40 for a bushel of potatoes at the “pluck-me” store. Ten pounds of slate in 9700 pounds of coal and you are docked-then they go and “give for Jesus.” “How charming Mr. Cabell is, he gives us $500.00.”

Let us, my friends, stand up like men. I have worked for the best interests of the working people for seventy-five years. I don’t need any one to protect me. I protect myself. I don’t break the law. Nobody molests me, except John Laing. John is the only dog in West Virginia that attacks a woman. He is the only fellow that would do that. I am not afraid of John Laing. I would give him a punch in the stomach and knock him over the railroad. I don’t know who punched him-he lost his pistol. I put my hand on him and told him to go home to his mother. I gave him a punch in the stomach, and he fell over the railroad track and lost his pistol. He didn’t know he lost it until he reached home.

He said, “You are disturbing my miners.” My slaves! Scabs! Dogs!

[…..]

Shame! Forever shame! on the men and women in the State of West Virginia that stand for such a picture as we have here today-[Referring to the children of the coal camps who marched in the parade]-Shame! When the history is written, what will it be, my friends, when the history of this crime, starvation and murder of the innocents, so they can fill the operators’ pockets, and build dog kennels for the workers. Is it right? Will it ever be right?

Now, I understand Mr. White is going to speak at the court house. He will have something to tell you.

This strike ain’t going to end until we get a check-weighman on the tipple. That is the law. It is on the statute books-that your coal will be weighed….

You miners here have stood for it, you have starved your children, starved yourselves, you have lived in dog-kennels-they wouldn’t build one for their dogs as bad as yours. You have lived in them and permitted them to rob you, and then got the militia for the robbers. You can get all the militia in the state, we will fight it to the finish-if the men don’t fight the women will. They won’t stand for it.

Be good, boys, don’t drink. Subscribe for the Labor Argus. If I was sentenced to sixteen months to jail, and these guys found it out I would be in jail longer. I don’t worry about it. I am down at the Fleetwood when ever they want to put me in jail for violation of the law, come along for me, come. There is coming a day when I will take the whole bunch of you and put you in jail. (Applause.)

[Photograph added.]

From the Baltimore Sun of September 22, 1912:

LABOR CONFERENCE VAIN
———-
Refusal To Take Up Kanawha Coal Troubles
Keeps Union Men Away.
———-

Charleston, W. Va., Sept 21.-The representatives of the commercial and civic bodies of West Virginia called by Governor Glasscock to consider the labor situation adjourned this afternoon after an exciting session without having accomplished anything.

International President John P. White, of the United Mine Workers of America, with Vice-President Hayes, announced early in the day that they would have nothing to do with the conference because they had learned that it was not the purpose of those in charge of the meeting to permit a discussion of the strike situation in the Kanawha coal field, where 1,200 West Virginia militiamen are maintaining martial law……

Hayes Addresses Strikers.

Vice-President Hayes addressed a large audience of striking miners and their sympathizers, and Mother Jones talked to another audience almost within the shadow of the State Capitol…..

Children Parade Streets.

One of the striking features of the day was the appearance on the streets of 100 children of striking miners, brought down from the mountains by “Mother” Jones.

They paraded the streets to the music of a band and bearing banners with these legends,

We are the babes that sleep in the woods.

We want to go to school and not to the mines.

The children, miners’ leaders say, were among those compelled to live much in the open since martial law was declared.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1912, Part III: “Revolution Is Here…Tyranny, Robbery and Oppression Must Go”” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Comrade: “How I Became a Socialist” by Father Thomas Hagerty, Seventh in Series

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD, Father Hagerty, SDH p1, Aug 15, 1903—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 4, 1902
“How I Became a Socialist” by Father Thomas Joseph Hagerty

From The Comrade of October 1902:

How I Became a Socialist.

VII. [of Series]

By Rev. T. [J]. HAGERTY.

A CONVICTION grew upon me in my boyhood days-which has broadened and deepened with the out-going years—that human nature is inherently good. In the old Hebraic records, composite of earlier documents which register the world’s notion of creation, I was caught by the reiteration of the idea of the goodness of all things. The after-development of tribe and nation, however, seems to give the lie to this primal verity. Prophets and philosophers in the cuneiform script and Vedic hymn of Egypt and India, singers and sculptors in the psalm and glistening marble of Palestine and Greece, throughout the centuries have sought to keep alive the sense of goodness in the brain of man. Yet all the time murder and rapine, disease and wretchedness flaunted denial in the face of truth. Pariah, slave, and bond-servant groaned in hopeless toil the while Kung-fu-sdu and Gotamma the Buddha proclaimed kindness and justice and David and Homer sang of high emprise.

Father Hagerty, Comrade p6, Oct 1902

Christianity came, with a catholic breadth of goodness, teaching the brotherhood of man, gathering up the treasures of foregoing ages wherewith to enrich the race, and sending messengers of peace through all the turbulent highways in every land. Far-reaching deeds of love marked its growth in palace and hovel: yet the clash of swords and the snarl of the slave-driver’s lash broke in upon its holiness; and, ever and anon, hunger drove some mother to insane slaughter of the anæmic babe at her breast. The rich in high places rose up against a Savonarola and a Sir Thomas More and tried to silence the reproach of their goodness in death:

“And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass
Of things to come at large.”

Within reach of every banquet’s savor crouched the gaunt figure of Poverty; and the shadows of the Universities swept athwart the bleak paths of Ignorance and intensified the darkness. Gradually, through all the travail of the earth’s growth, came the machine to lift the burden from the straining muscles of men; and its only effect was to change the servitude of the many into an equally galling wage-slavery without surcease of misery and hate and crime. Meanwhile, the inherent goodness of human nature asserted itself in large heroism and patient bravery. Republics were builded out of the strength of the common people; and fine philosophies of liberty were engrossed upon the parchment of history, but humanity failed to reach the heights where gladness holds her breathing-places. The goodness of human nature seemed to be spent in the Sisyphus-like task of rolling some needless burden up the hill of Time and falling ever backward to the bottom in a futile renewal of toil.

As I read the annals of civilization in books and traced their later chapters in field and shop and factory, my early conviction of the inherent goodness of human nature was sharpened by its contrast with the physical evils everywhere so blatant. I saw the tragic waste of life wherewith the commerce of to-day stands crimsoned in the blood of the proletariat. I noticed little children slowly murdering by the loom and sewing-machine. In the disease-sodden tenements of the slums I saw hundreds of men and women dragging out a living death their lives foreshortening by the vilest adulteration of food and drink and by the foul air and reeking bodies of their fellow-men in the low, narrow rooms in which they huddled together. Drunkenness, insanity, and sexual perversions were all too common: nevertheless self-sacrifice, kindness, and wondrous patience were equally in evidence.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Comrade: “How I Became a Socialist” by Father Thomas Hagerty, Seventh in Series” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for June and July 1912: Found in West Virginia Standing with Striking Coal Miners of Kanawha County

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Life Work Mission, WV Cton Gz, June 11, 1912, per ISR p648, Mar 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 16, 1912
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June and July 1912
Found in West Virginia Standing with Striking Miners of Kanawah County

From The Sacramento Star of June 3, 1912:

Mother Jones on Train, Sac Str p1, June 3, 1912

Mother Jones has forwarded $800 from Montana to the Harriman shop strikers. Seven hundred of this was donated, in response to her earnest appeal, by unions of coal miners, and the remainder came from mill and smeltermen, machinists and other crafts. How persistent has been her work tor the System Federation is seen in her statement that she refused to accept less than $250 from the union of miners at Roundup, and their $100 donation was sent through their international office. Butte metal miners gave $300 some time ago.

[She writes in a characteristic letter to President E. L. Reguin and Secretary John Scott of the System Federation:]

If the men had been working regularly in the coal mines, I could have gathered up very much more. However, the whole thing shows the disposition of the men to aid each other in the struggle, which counts to me very much more than the finances,

I shall leave in a few days for West Virginia, to take up the battle there. It is a dangerous field, and many of us who go in there are more than likely never to come out, but what difference does that make so long as we are carrying on the industrial battle, and flaunting in the face of the foe the red flag of industrial freedom? There must be sacrifices made, and there must be martyrs. That state and Alabama must be organized within the next few years.

Tell my boys of the Federation it matters not where I go, I shall keep up the fight against oppression and wrong. Men, women and children must be free, and sentiment will never free them. Those who are grounded in the philosophy of the class struggle must go forth and give battle to the well-entrenched foe.

Tell the boys to keep up the fight. It is far better to die fighting and suffering than to remain slaves.

—————

From the Denver United Labor Bulletin of June 6, 1912:

MINERS HOLD CONFERENCE

A conference of all the officers of the different districts of the United Mine Workers of America of the Rocky Mountain Jurisdiction, was held Monday in Butte, Mont. Plans were laid for more thorough organization, and for active assistance to employers of union labor in the matter of securing increased sale of union-mined coal. “Mother” Jones addressed the meeting and left Monday night for West Virginia.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for June and July 1912: Found in West Virginia Standing with Striking Coal Miners of Kanawha County” →

Hellraisers Journal: Industrial Worker: Police Turn Fire Houses on San Diego Protest Meeting as Laura Emerson Speaks

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Among the women soaked were
Mrs. Laura Emerson and Juanita McKamey,
both of whom are under the ban of the police.
–Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1912
—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 23, 1912
San Diego, California – Fellow Worker Stumpy Reports on Vicious Police Action

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of March 21, 1912:

SAN DIEGO IS ABOUT ALL IN
Vicious Actions  Show Fight Is About Won
———-

San Diego FSF, LPE Juanita McKamey Soaked, LA Tx p
Los Angeles Times
March 11, 1912

To the “Worker:”-The fifth week of the free speech fight here has made a seething cauldron of human passions in this would-be exposition burg of fleas and oppression.

The M. and M. has raised a fund of five million dollars to crush organized labor in general and the I. W. W. in particular on the Pacific coast, and they have selected San Diego as the point of attack, though they are not overlooking a chance to make trouble in various other places. There has been 216 arrests to date for street speaking, and over 200 of these are in jail now and intend to stay there until free speech is established. More men are coming in every day and speaking in the restricted district. The city and county jails here are full and 70 men have been sent to the jails of other counties. Tomorrow the city will start building a stockade where unknown amounts of rock are to be broken by I. W. W.’s.

We have the support of all classes of labor here in this fight. The carpenters union has levied a fine of ten dollars a day on any of its members who will work on the city stockade. All others are equally as loyal.

Two evenings ago an enthusiastic meeting was held in front of the U. S. Grant Hotel (just outside the sacred ground) and the aristocratic guests of that ten-dollar-a-day dump of snobbery were thoroughly acquainted with San Diego’s infamy.

Although we were clearly outside the forbidden ground the bosses could not forgive the telling of the truth. At the street meeting last evening a crippled man bought ten “Workers” of a newsboy for free distribution, when the brave cop who wears badge No. 10 struck him a terrific blow and valiantly landed the poor cripple on his back.

Today, March 10, has seen the climax of police brutality and the patience of the citizens has been tested almost to the breaking point. In the morning a meeting was held in front of the county jail to cheer the boys who are behind the bars. Not a policeman was in sight, and the meeting was very orderly and soon adjourned to the city jail to give the boys there a cheer and a song.

Here the scene was different. It was truly representative of Russia-or San Diego. More than a score of uniformed police and plain clothes thugs were lined up n the sidewalk in front of the jail. Behind a heavily barred gate, with blanched face, stood the infamous captain of police, Sehon, directing the work of brutality of his minions.

The meeting had proceeded but a few minutes when the police were ordered to turn the hose on the crowd. In this they were no respecters of persons. Hundreds of men were drenched and knocked down by the force of more than 100 pounds pressure per square inch. One man was knocked down by a police man before the hose was turned on him. Four young girls were nearly drowned before they could get out of the way. A woman past sixty years of age was struck on the side of the head by the stream of water and nearly paralyzed. Mrs. Emerson, who was speaking at the time, had the box washed from under her feet, and she and Mrs. Wightman were soaked [also soaked was Juanita McKamey, the Joan of Arc of San Diego]. A man named Patterson put an American flag over his shoulders and stepped into the street, but even this was no protection, as one bull tore it from his shoulders and another hustled him off to jail. Later Patterson’s father tried to take him some dry clothes but the brave bulls denied him that privilege. A woman who was going from a neighbors to her own home was drenched and driven by the stream as long as she was in range. A man and his wife who were going home from church with their baby in a buggy were struck and the baby nearly drowned before they could get away.

Many other instances of brutality are reported, but they did not come under my personal notice.

Aside from the wholly unwarranted action of the police nothing was more noticeable than the tone of subdued anger among the thousands of spectators. The brave (?) actions of the noble (?) police continued for nearly three hours, and every minute of the time the crowd could have been led to crush the entire police force by the sheer weight of numbers, but the I. W. W.’s were everywhere counseling peace. Only for this cool-headed action it is not doubted that the streets of San Diego would tonight be drenched in blood that would take many streams of water to wash away.

The police have but one more card to play.

The daily papers have followed Otis’ lead and are now counselling the murder of the boys in jail. The San Diego Tribune of the 5th inst., has the following works in an editorial: “Why are the tax payers of San Diego compelled to endure this imposition? Simply because the law which these lawbreakers flout prevents the citizens of San Diego from taking the impudent outlaws away from the police and hanging them or shooting them! This would end the trouble in half an hour.” Will they do it?

There is a bunch of the worst gun men of the West here, just “hanging around.” But these men do not come into a trouble zone by accident.

Two men were arrested for speaking tonight. The police have tried a new method. Heretofore there have been twelve to twenty bulls at the corner of 5th and E streets to make arrests, but last night there was but one when the speaking started. In a few minutes, however, 25 bulls came charging down the street at a run, cracking all the heads they could reach. Many were severely injured. One man was knocked insensible and had to be carried from the street. A woman was beaten until her hair was clotted with blood. She, too, was carried from the street. And this is the U. S.! The Mexican line should have been run north of San Diego, then we could have laid the crimes of the police to “Barbarous Mexico” instead of to the Christianized Otis gang.

STUMPY.

—————

[Newsclip and emphasis added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Industrial Worker: Police Turn Fire Houses on San Diego Protest Meeting as Laura Emerson Speaks” →

Hellraisers Journal: Photographs from the Lawrence Textile Strike: Strikers on Foot Face Hooves of Cavalry, Troop B

Janet RayeBread and Roses Strike of 1912
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Quote BBH re Capitalist Class, Lbr Arg p4, Mar 23, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 7, 1912
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Calvary on Horseback Against Strikers on Foot

From The Boston Daily Globe (Morning Edition) of February 1, 1912:

Lawrence Calvary v Strikers, Bst Glb AM p8, Feb 1, 1912

From The Boston Daily Globe (Morning Edition) of February 2, 1912:

Lawrence BBH w JP Thompson n Stodell, Bst Glb AM p1, Feb 2, 1912
James P. Thompson and Big Bill Haywood of the I. W. W.
Samuel A. Stodell, People’s Forum, Church of the Ascension, New York

From The Boston Daily Globe (Evening Edition) of February 2, 1912:

Lawrence Striker w Child, Bst Glb Eve p2, Feb 2, 1912
Striker with Child

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Photographs from the Lawrence Textile Strike: Strikers on Foot Face Hooves of Cavalry, Troop B” →