Tag: St Louis MO

Hellraisers Journal: From The Wheeling Majority: Fannie Sellins Speaks at Belmont, Tells of Garment Workers Strike in St. Louis

Janet RayeFannie Sellins
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Quote Anne Feeney, Fannie Sellins Song, antiwarsongs org—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 11, 1913
Belmont, Ohio – Fannie Sellins Speaks  on Behalf of St. Louis Garment Strikers

From The Wheeling Majority of April 10, 1913:

Fannie Sellins Tells Of Strike
———-

Fannie Sellins, Tacoma Times p5, Oct 16, 19122

Fannie Sellins, representing the United Garment Workers, appeared before the Belmont Trades and Labor Assembly Sunday and delivered a most interesting talk on labor conditions in general and the St. Louis strike situation in particular. There the Garment Workers are on strike, and these workers, mostly women and girls, are fighting valiantly for the right to organize and have some little voice in the conditions under which they work. Her talk was given the closest attention by the delegates, and the intention of all present is to report the matter back to their locals and have them all hustle to help the Garment Workers of St. Louis. The Assembly broke its iron clad rule, and made a cash donation to help the strikers.

Miss Sellins is a most capable representative and is a hustler for her fellow workers every minute of the day. She is visiting labor unions every night and will be in this section for two weeks at least if the St. Louis strike continues that long. She is a Socialist candidate for school board in the St. Louis municipal election now pending. 

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Debs Calls Teddy Roosevelt Chief Thief of Socialist Party’s Plank-Interviewed for St. Louis Star

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, SPA Campaign Opens, Riverview Park, Chicago, June 16, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 11, 1912
Belleville, Illinois – Debs Interviewed by Frank A. Wiedinger

From the St. Louis Star of November 4, 1912:

Debs Calls T. R. Chief Thief of
Socialist Party’s Plank
———–

SAYS COLONEL IS A POLITICAL
“DR. F. A. COOK”

BY FRANK A. WIEDINGER.

Eugene Debs Speaks, St L Str Tx p3, Nov 4, 1912 Pressure from below has for years been forcing the old parties to steal the planks of the Socialists, but in this campaign, in trying to keep up with the irresistible demand of the masses for remedial legislation, Theodore Roosevelt has become the chief offender.

Roosevelt feels that his existence depends upon keeping himself in the limelight. He knows that he would be a political corpse if he did not continually turn to the spectacular. He is now poaching on the Socialist preserves and going farther than we ourselves have even gone.

In thus assuming the spectacular, Roosevelt has become a political Dr. Cook. He is a monumental faker. He is a four-flusher. He tells the masses that he, and he alone, is standing for their interests, but the masses will no longer stand for him.

In this wise Eugene V. Debs, Socialist nominee for President, paid his caustic respects to the Progressive standard-bearer in a talk with the writer yesterday noon after a great Socialist rally in the Dreamland Theater at Belleville, Ill.

Both in the interview and in the public speech which preceded it, Mr. Debs devoted the major part of his utterances to Colonel Roosevelt. He also scored Taft and Wilson, but only as the “tools of the capitalistic classes.” In talking of Roosevelt his declarations were mainly in a personal vein, though he resorted to ridicule rather than direct attack.

In so doing he left the distinct impression that seems to obtain also in both Republican and Democratic circles, that he believes Roosevelt is the one who will gain the largest popular vote at the polls tomorrow, and that hence he is the one against whom all the foes of the progressives should turn their batteries.

[Continued Mr. Debs:]

Every decent man regrets and denounces the attempt to assassinate Roosevelt at Milwaukee, and none more so than the Socialists, but there is a thought connected with the first announcement of the shooting which shows how the press is ruled by the capitalists.

“Roosevelt Shot Down By a Socialist,” the papers announced in big flaring headlines. As a matter of fact, investigation showed that not only was Schrank not a socialist, but that on the contrary he had been a steady reader of Republican and Democratic literature. No wonder he was a maniac. This false announcement is only one of the many instances in which the capitalistic press, with one voice, seeks to throw all possible onus of crime upon the socialists.

These same papers, day after day, devoted columns and pages to Roosevelt’s condition, but if a downtrodden laborer was killed while at work because his employer had placed him at defective machinery, or if a sick child died of neglect while the mother was scrubbing at night in a big office building in order to get money for medicine and food, you might search these same papers from beginning to end and find not a mention of either case.

Cites Economic Injustice.

Why is this? Is the life of one human, in the final analysis, worth more than the life of another? The general answer to this would be yes, but I say no-a thousand times no. Given equal opportunity that same workingman might have become the great man which Roosevelt admits that he himself is. That dead child was as dear to its mother as are any of his own to this apostle of large families.

Possibly the reason these instances are generally ignored by the papers is that by calling attention to them they must at the same time reveal the economic injustice under which this country is now suffering. Vote the Socialist ticket on Tuesday and you can correct these conditions. 

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs Opines on Pennsylvania’s Great Anthracite Coal Strike for the Social Democratic Herald

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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quote EVD re PA Great Anthracite Strike Cossacks, SDH p1, May 4, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 27, 1902
Eugene Debs Opines on Pennsylvania’s Great Anthracite Coal Strike

From the Social Democratic Herald of May 24, 1902:

EUGENE V. DEBS ON THE MINERS’ STRIKE

EVD, Houston Daily Post p6, May 22, 1899

The miners’ strike is on in the anthracite coal regions of Pennsylvania. The operators were defiant and eager for the fray. The miners pulled every wire to prevent the collision and finally voted to go out in the very last extremity. A large minority voted against the strike and President Mitchell, all accounts agree, did his best to prevent it.

Most earnestly do I hope the poor devils will win, but there is no use trying to conceal the fact that they are up against it and that the coal and railroad companies have been preparing for the fight, openly courted it, and are determined to wipe out the union and run their mines to suit themselves.

At this writing everything is quiet as a graveyard in the anthracite region, but nevertheless the Republican governor [William A. Stone], elected largely by the votes of coal miners who don’t believe in going into politics, has already sworn in an army of special coal police, armed with Winchesters, to protect “property” and incidentally to perforate the hides of the striking miners if this becomes necessary to break up their strike, and force them back into their holes through starvation tunnel, to dig for their masters.

That is all they are fit for; at least that is what they themselves seem to think, for that is what they voted for under the direction of some of their district officers, who are simply the political pluggers of the gang of robbers that fleece the poor coal diggers when they work and have them murdered when they strike.

Pennsylvania, where hell is active as Mt. Pelee, and slavery in full blast, has a Republican majority of 300,000, made up quite largely of the poor devils now on strike.

The governor is already making active preparation to return bullet for ballot in accordance with the invariable program of the capitalist class, whom the miners and other workingmen have made the ruling class of the country.

President Mitchell will do the best he can in a trying position. He has issued a request that miners abstain from the use of liquor during the strike, and, acting upon his advice, they thronged the churches on Sunday last and took the oath of total abstinence and the pledge to entirely keep out of saloons till the strike is settled.

As for the Civic Federation, it has already done its worst. It has delayed and dallied six weeks, taken the heart out of many of the strikers and set them by the ears among themselves. Had the miners struck April 1, as they intended, they would have been far stronger than they are today.

My advice to you, striking miners, is to keep away from the capitalistic partnership of priest and politician, to cut loose from the Civic Federation, and to stand together to a man and fight it out yourselves. If you can’t win, no one else can win for you; and if in the end you find that the corporations can beat you at the game of famine, you may, and it is hoped that you will, have your eyes opened to the fact that your vote is your best weapon and that if the 140,000 miners of Pennsylvania will cast a solid vote for socialism, they will soon drive the robbers from the state and take possession of the mines and make themselves the masters of their industry, and the workingmen the rulers of the state.

As for the army of coal police already marshaled and armed by the governor to shoot the strikers upon the assumption that they are criminals, I advise that the miners in convention assembled unanimously resolve that, while they propose to keep within the law, they also propose to exercise all the rights and privileges the law grants them; and, furthermore, that the monstrous crime of Latimer shall not be repeated, and if any striker is shot down without good cause the first shot shall be the signal for war and the miners will shoot back; and if killing must be the program of the coal barons, let it be an operator for a miner instead of miners only, as in the past. 

Terre Haute, Ind., May 19. 

Eugene V. Debs [Signature]

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Children’s Crusade for Amnesty Heads to Washington Lead by Kate Richards O’Hare, Former Political Prisoner

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Kate O’Hare re War Profitters, Address to Court, Dec 14, 1917—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 20, 1922
Children’s Crusade for Amnesty Heads to Washington, D. C.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of April 13, 1922:

Part of Children's Crusade for Amnesty, Kate OHare, St L Pst Dsp p17, Apr 13, 1922

MRS. KATE RICHARDS O’HARE, whose five-year sentence under the espionage act was commuted by President Wilson after she had served 14 months, greeting, at Union station today, the families of other prisoners similarly convicted and still imprisoned. Mrs. O’Hare will accompany them to Washington to beseech President Harding to release their husbands and fathers. 

The woman at the extreme left is Mrs. Walter Reeder of Wilson, Ark., with her son, Don, 16 (rear row), and her daughter, Elbertina, 9 years old. The woman behind Elbertina is Mrs. Stanley J. Clark of Fort Worth, Tex. Next are Mrs. O’Hare’s son, Victor, and Mrs. O’Hare. Beside Mrs. O’Hare is Mrs. William Madison Hicks of Guthrie, Ok., with her son, Robert, 9, and her daughters, Rose Alice, 3, and Helen Keller, 6. The group at the right of the picture are Mrs. William Benefield of Saskawa, Ok., and her five children, Beulah, 12, Willie, a girl, 5, Dock, 18, George, 10, and Eugene, 6.

—————

Children's Crusade for Amnesty Banners and Badges, St L Pst Dsp p17, Apr 13, 1922

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part III: Found with Miners of West Virginia; Sends Greetings to Socialist Convention

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Stormy Paths, UMWC Ipl IN, Jan 25, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 11, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1901, Part III
Found Organizing Coal Miners in West Virginia

From the Baltimore Sun of  July 24, 1901:

APPEALING TO MINERS
———-
“Mother” Jones Arrives In The West Virginia Field.

(Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.)

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

Morgantown, W. Va., July 23.-The organization known as the United Mine Workers of America will make a desperate effort this summer to bring all the West Virginia miners now outside of their organization into it.

Thomas Burker [Burke], Edward Cahill, John H. Walker and Mary Jones, known as “Mother” Jones, arrived from Indianapolis yesterday and will begin their work here……

—————

[Photograph added.]

From West Virginia’s Shepherdstown Register of July 25, 1901:

John Jay Jackson Jr., Injunction Judge

At Charleston Tuesday Judge Jackson made perpetual a temporary injunction that he had granted restraining the striking coal miners in the Flat Top region [Pocahontas Coalfield] from interfering with the operation of the mines, and he held for the action of the grand jury certain miners who are said to have fired on United States officers. The Judge severely denounced the miners.

The United Mine Workers will get “Mother Jones” to come to West Virginia to help the cause of the strikers.

It will soon be demonstrated, however, that Judge Jackson is a bigger man than “Mother Jones.”

From The Indianapolis Journal of July 30, 1901:

Mother Jones and Eugene Debs Send Greetings
to Socialist Unity Convention

Numerous telegrams were received from sympathizers of the party throughout the country, among them being one from Eugene V. Debs, the leader of the Socialists [those Socialists associated with the Social Democratic Party of America], and “Mother” Jones, the stanch supported of organized labor.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part III: Found with Miners of West Virginia; Sends Greetings to Socialist Convention” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part I: Found Returning to Scranton and Hazleton from St. Louis, Missouri

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Contented Slave, St Louis Pst Dsp p3, June 17, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 9, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1901, Part I
Found at Scranton and Hazleton, Pennsylvania

FromThe Scranton Times of July 1, 1901:

“MOTHER” JONES IN TOWN.
—-

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

Mother Mary Jones, one of the national organizers of the United Mine Workers of America, is again in the city. She arrived this morning from St. Louis. She intends to remain here only a few days.

This is the first visit of “Mother” Jones to this city since the settlement of the silk mill strike, which was brought about through her untiring efforts. She appears to be in the very best of health. 

—————

[Photograph added.]

From the Hazleton Plain Speaker of July 3, 1901:

Celebration at Nuremburg.

One of the biggest Fourth of July celebrations in the region will be held at Nuremburg, where the United Mine Workers, who are at the head of the affair, have left nothing undone to make it an occasion long to be remembered by the citizens of the town. National Secretary Wilson, of the United Mine Workers, and “Mother” Jones, the lady organizer who is known to every miner in the anthracite coal fields, will be the speakers. Large delegations of Mine Workers from this city and the surrounding towns will attend.

“Mother” Jones in Town. 

“Mother” Jones, who will be among the speakers at the Nuremburg demonstration tomorrow arrived in town today. 

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for July 1901, Part I: Found Returning to Scranton and Hazleton from St. Louis, Missouri” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1901, Part IV: Found Speaking at Memorial Service for Martyrs of St. Louis Streetcar Strike

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD, re St Louis Streetcar Strike Massacre, LW p1, June 23, 1900—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 12, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for June 1901, Part IV
Found Speaking at Memorial for Martyrs of St. Louis Streetcar Strike

From The Indianapolis Journal of June 14, 1901:

“Mother” Jones in the City.

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

“Mother” Jones, known the United States over by organised labor, and particularly by members of the United Mine Workers of America, with whom she has been personally identified in many strike, made an unexpected visit to the Mine Workers’ headquarters yesterday. She is on her way to St. Louis to deliver an address, and then will visit the Illinois miners. “Mother” Jones is a regularly employed organizer of the miners’ organization now, and is said to be one of its most successful workers, especially in time of strikes.

[Drawing of Mother Jones added.]

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of June 17, 1901:

MOTHER JONES SPOKE
———-

HER ADDRESS WAS FEATURE OF
LABOR MEMORIAL SERVICES.
———-
LEON GREENBAUM PRESIDED
———-
Exercises Were Held in Memory of Men
Killed in Street Car Strike Riot.

At the Odeon Sunday afternoon, services in memory of the three men killed, June 10, 1900, during the parade of former street car employes on Washington avenue, were held under the auspices of the Central Trades and Labor Union.

The hall was well filled, the widows of George Rine [Ryne] and Arthur E. Burkhart [Ed Burkhardt], two of the men killed, being among those present. Each was accompanied by two little children.

The principal address was made by “Mother” Mary Jones of Chicago. All of the speeches had special reference to the street car strike, its causes and the conditions which preceded it, with a general bearing upon the rights of organized labor.

Leon Greenbaum presided and the services were in charge of the memorial committee of the Central labor body, consisting of J. H. Rakel, chairman; David Kreyling, secretary; R. M. Parker, treasurer; A. Hamberg and Leon Greenbaum. Music was furnished by the United Singing Societies.

In opening the meeting, Mr. Greenbaum, who was the Socialist candidate for mayor last spring, reviewed the events which led up to the strike of 1900. He described the scene on Washington avenue, when Thomas Rine and Burkhart fell before the riot guns of the posse.

William M. Brandt, business agent of the Cigar Makers’ Union, who helped organize the street car men in preparation for the strike, told of the conditions as he found them at the time the work was undertaken.

“Mother” Jones, the organizer of the Mine Workers’ Union, was next introduced and made an address of two hours’ duration. She was received with cheers from the audience, which proclaimed her the “friend of the laboring man,” and was frequently interrupted by applause. Her remarks were directed chiefly against corporations and the trusts.

She said she was engaged in helping the miners of Maryland win a strike while the St. Louis trouble was in progress, and, hence, was unable to be here, but her heart went out in sympathy to those who were struggling for their rights.

She advocated a revolution, if Congress and the state legislatures did not soon “give the people their rights.”

“Mother” Jones said she had been charged with inciting trouble, and believed that, in rousing the people, lay the only safety for this country.

“The most dangerous thing on earth,” she declared, “is a contented slave.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1901, Part IV: Found Speaking at Memorial Service for Martyrs of St. Louis Streetcar Strike” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: The I. W. W. Wins Complete Victory in Fresno Free Speech Fight

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Frank Little, Fresno Jails Dungeons, FMR p6, Sept 2, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 12, 1911
Fresno, California – I. W. W. Wins Complete Victory in Free Speech Fight

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of March 9, 1911:

Fresno FSF, IWW Wins Complete Victory, IW p1, Mar 9, 1911

JUST BEFORE THE VICTORY
———-

SHERIFF REFUSES MORE PRISONERS.
THE RESPECTABLE CITIZENS TALK
OF LYNCHING I. W. MEMBERS.
———-

Fresno, Feb. 27, 1911.

The sheriff refuses to accept any more prisoners charged with violating a city ordinance, on the ground that the jail is overcrowded.

To prevent us from speaking on the streets, the police do not arrest us, but resort to clubbing and turning us over to the pinks, pimps and toughs.

Two men were beat up by the hoodlums today for speaking on the street. One of them was dragged half a block. The police pay no attention to the protests of the onlooking citizens against these fiendish practices.

One man openly informed us that we were going to be lynched tonight. The chief of police, who was standing near, studied the effect this remark had on us. He was rewarded with a “horse laugh.”

The people are inclining more and more in our favor. A large number of our papers were sold. On the 25th of this month the Citizens’ League sent a committee to the bull pen to ascertain our terms, which we stated to them. The committee pronounced these terms just a wise and promised to present them before the next meeting of the citizens. We haven’t heard from them since. If the present tactics are aimed to frighten us off the streets, then a mistake has again been made. This fight for free speech in Fresno will continue until we have free speech and are protected in the exercise thereof.

I. W. W. COMMITEE.
Box 209.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review, Volume I, Issue 1: The St. Louis Streetcar Strike and Posse Comitatus

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD, re St Louis Streetcar Strike Massacre, LW p1, June 23, 1900———–

Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 2, 1900
St. Louis, Missouri – Strikers Slaughtered by Posse Comitatus

From the International Socialist Review of July 1900:

The Chicago and St. Louis Strikes

[Part II of II.]

Labor Martyrs, St Louis Streetcar Strike copy, StL Rpb p1, June 11, 1900
St. Louis Republican of June 11, 1900

The St. Louis street car strike, like the one just described, started with various subjects of dispute and soon narrowed down to a question of the recognition of the right of the men to act together. From the beginning this strike was marked with acts of violence. However much this may be deplored the fact remains that so long as capital exists it is impossible for any large strike to continue for any length of time without the accompaniment of violence. This is especially true when lines of transportation are concerned.

When non-union men are so conspicuously engaged in treason to their class as they must be when they run street cars or railroad trains in time of strike it would require a stage of human development far above that of capitalism to produce the sort of human beings that will stand idly by and see their means of living taken away and not resort to violence. But before commenting further on the subject of violence during strikes a few observations are necessary. In the first place it is well to remember that the press is in the control of the present ruling capitalist class and always exaggerates any violence that may take place and in a great many instances, notably during the great railroad strike of 1894, manufactures out of whole cloth long and elaborate stories of acts of violence that never occurred at all. This in itself is sufficient proof of which class it is that deserves violence, “The wish is father to the thought.”

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Hellraisers Journal: St. Louis Streetcar Strikers Shot Down by Sheriff’s Posse; Eugene V. Debs on Law and Order

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, re St Louis Streetcar Strike Massacre, LW p1, June 23, 1900———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 24, 1900
St. Louis, Missouri – Streetcar Strikers Shot Down Returning from Picnic

From the Duluth Labor World of June 23, 1900:

ST. LOUIS OUTRAGE HOMESTEAD
—–

HOMESTEAD AND HAZELTON PALE
INTO INSIGNIFICANCE.
—–
Street Car Men Returning Home From a Picnic
Cruelly Shot and Murdered by Posse of Deputy Sheriffs-
Debs’ Strong Letter-Says No Strike is Ever Lost-
The Lesson is Worth the Cost.
—–

Labor Martyrs, St Louis Streetcar Strike, StL Rpb p1, June 11, 1900Labor Martyrs 2, St Louis Streetcar Strike, StL Rpb p1, June 11, 1900—–

The St. Louis street car strike is still on and will be, perhaps, for some time, as the St. Louis Transit Co. have positively refused to accept any proposition for arbitration whatever. Since then the St. Louis Central Labor Union has determined to fight the street car company to the bitter end, and adopted the following proposition for the election of a committee of 50 to form immediate organization and proceed to raise a fund of at least $100,000 to carry on the strike until it is won, the fund to be raised by an appeal to organized labor throughout the world, by personal appeals to every kind of organized bodies in St. Louis, and by such other means as may be deemed proper, closing with an appeal to the people of St. Louis to refrain from riding on the Transit cars, and to organizations, societies and associations of every kind in St. Louis, in sympathy with the movement, to make the street railway strike a special order of business at all their meetings, and to appoint committees to raise funds and continue to maintain an iron-clad boycott until the victory is won.

Mr. E. V. Debs was requested to come to St. Louis, but on account of illness was unable to do so. He however sent a very strong letter, which sums up the situation in a true light. The following from his letter will not be without interest:

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