Hellraisers Journal: John W. Brown on Miners’ Strike in Paint Creek/Cabin Creek, West Virginia: “This Is War and War Is Hell”

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Quote Mother Jones re Get Rid of Mine Guards, Charleston WV, Aug 15, 1912, Steel Speeches p95—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 15, 1912
“This Is War and War Is Hell” by John W. Brown, Socialist and U. M. W. Organizer

From The Coming Nation of October 12, 1912:

WV Mine War by JW Brown, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912

[Part I of III]

WV Mine War, Text Coal Miners Story, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912—–

“COD walks on sea and land, but the devil reigns in the coal fields of West Virginia.” This was uttered by Gen. C. D. Elliott and the reference was to the civil war now going on in the Kanawha valley where the coal miners and the coal barons have grappled in a life and death struggle which can only end in the surrender of either one of the contending forces. “And the devil is greed,” says General Elliott. Greed personified in a handful of mercenary plutocrats who know no more, care no more for the rights of humanity than do the lean dogs who lick their grimy hands.

The details of this terrible struggle do not differ from that which could be written of all the other coal fields, and forms but another page in the development of American capitalism.

A Long Story of Stealing

First comes the usual questionable and fraudulent land titles, then corrupt legislation, then the usurpation of the courts and finally the general debauchery and degradation of the whole body politic. The Moloch of capitalism is never satisfied. It has no heart, no soul, no conscience. It has but one object, one purpose, and that is to make profit. It stands with open mouth crying, “give, give,” and the people of West Virginia have given, given and given again, first their lands, then their labor, and now the insatiable beast demands the half starved babes. The present strike in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek districts has a shadowy background reaching back some ten years or more.

In 1902 the coal miners of West Virginia organized under the auspices of the United Mine Workers of America. Immediately following, the coal barons began their present fight against the union and a general strike followed. During this strike of 1902, Judge Jackson and Judge Keller issued their nefarious injunctions which if obeyed by the miners would have been nothing short of wholesale suicide. Naturally, the miners refused to bow to these injunctions and there followed a reign of rapine and legalized murder such as is seldom found in the pages of human history. Among which is recorded what is now known as the Stanford city massacre [Stanaford Massacre.].

An American Pogrom

WV Mine War, Mother Jones Speaks at Mass Meeting, Cmg Ntn p5, Oct 12, 1912

Dan Cunningham, at that time a United States deputy marshall armed with injunction and eviction papers and preceded by an army of professional murderers went to Stanford city in the night and at daylight made a murderous attack upon the helpless and defenseless miners, murdering them as they slept. Unarmed, old age, fathers and mothers, youths and even suckling babes were shot down like wild beasts and not even the prayers of pregnant mothers could prevail against this thirst for human blood.

There is always a point beyond which lies desperation and revolt. This point was reached during the strike of 1902 and for the time being both the federal authorities and the coal barons were baffled. But not for long. The Baldwin-Felts detective agency, an organization composed of ex-convicts and professional strike-breakers entered the field and agreed by contract to break the strike and from that day until this there has existed in West Virginia, a state of guerrilla warfare that beggars either pen or tongue to portray.

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Hellraisers Journal: Post Cards and Posters by Ryan Walker On Sale in Bulk at the Coming Nation to Support Socialist Locals

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Quote EVD, On overthrow of ruling class power, SD Hld, Oct 8, 1898—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 22, 1912
For Support of Socialist Locals, Post Cards and Posters by Ryan Walker

From the Appeal to Reason of September 21, 1912:

Post Cards n Posters by Ryan Walker, AtR p4, Sept 21, 1912

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Post Cards n Posters by Ryan Walker, Leopard, AtR p4, Sept 21, 1912

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Post Cards n Posters by Ryan Walker, Wilson, AtR p4, Sept 21, 1912

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Post Cards n Posters by Ryan Walker, The Offer, AtR p4, Sept 21, 1912

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Hellraisers Journal: The Coming Nation: Children of New York City: Moment’s Relief, Photograph by Paul Thompson

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Quote EVD Childhood ed, Socialist Woman p12, Sept 1908—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 25, 1912
New York, New York – “A Moments Relief” by Paul Thompson

From The Coming Nation of August 24, 1912:

New York City Children Sitting on Stoop,  Paul Thompson, Cmg Ntn Cv, Aug 24, 1912

From Bitter Cry of the Children by John Spargo, First Published 1906:

Tenement Toilers, Bitter Cry of Children, p 140, 1906
With the exception of the infant in arms these are all working children.
They were called away from the photographer to go on with their work!

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Hellraisers Journal: Shall Emerson Die?-President of Brotherhood of Timber Workers Jailed in Lake Charles, Louisiana

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Quote BBH re BTW LA White n Black Unity, ISR p106 , Aug 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday August 24, 1912
Jay Smith, Secretary of B. of T. W., Appeals for Funds to Save Fellow Workers

From Pittsburg (Kansas) Labor Herald of August 16, 1912:

Shall Emerson Die?
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[Letter from Jay Smith, B. of T. W. Secretary]

A. I. Emerson, Pres BTW, Cmg Ntn p6, Aug 24, 1912

Brother, Comrades, Fellow-workers:

On Sunday evening, July 7, 1912, while the Brotherhood of Timber Workers were holding a mass meeting on the public road at Grabow, La., thugs concealed in the office of the Galloway Lumber Co., fired upon our people with rifles and pump guns loaded with buck-shot. When the firing ceased, three men were found to be killed outright, several mortally and seriously wounded and thirty-odd others injured, the great majority being union men. Immediately following the “riot”, as it was called by the capitalists class, President A. L. Emerson, who was our chief speaker on the occasion, and other members of the Brotherhood, were arrested, denied bail, and placed in the county jail at Lake Charles, La., which prison is totally inadequate to accommodate the number of men now confined there, and is in a deplorably unsanitary condition, besides. Despite the condition of this prison, sick and wounded men are confined there, the authorities giving the excuse that there is no room in the I hospital for them and our boys are still being arrested.

This, so far, is the outcome of the “riot” at Grabow. That our boys were neither looking for nor expecting any such trouble is borne witness to by the fact that many of them had taken along their women and children, and, that none of the last were killed by the Trusts gunmen, is a miracle.

All the news and evidence so far reported shows that our men were not only ambushed, but that the “riot” had been carefully planned by the Lumber Trust, and we have every reason to believe, that hidden in the offices of the Galloway Lumber Co., were gunmen who had been sent over from other places by the Southern Operators’ Association. The “riot” was but the culmination of a long series of outrages against the Brotherhood and all other Union labor, and was staged by the Operators’ Association for the purpose of crushing out the unions in the Southern timber districts and terrorizing its workers back into meek submission into peonage. This has been the boasted purpose of the Operators’ Association: “To crush all union labor out of their mills and camps, drive all Socialist speakers out of their towns, and run things as they damned please.”

For twenty long months we have fought this mighty and merciless combination of capital, this vicious combine of grafters and gunmen, and, because they have not been able to whip us back into their mills and slave pens, they have planned the massacre of Grabow, and, failing there to kill our President Emerson and his bravest associates, they have taken him and them to jail and are preparing to stage another legal murder.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Coming Nation: “Her Last Hope Gone”-Cast Aside to Starve Alone on City Streets of U. S. A.

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

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday August 1, 1912
In the Land of Plenty, U. S. A. – “Her Last Hope Gone” by Lewis Hine

From The Coming Nation of July 27, 1912:

Woman on Sidewalk Head in Hands All Hope Gone by Lewis Hine, Cmg Ntn Cv, July 27, 1912

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs, S.P.A. Presidential Candidate, Speaks at Grand Socialist Picnic in Pennsylvania

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Quote EVD, SPA Campaign Opens, Riverview Park, Chicago, June 16, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 30, 1912
Cascade Park, New Castle, Pa. – Debs and Seidel Speak at Interstate Socialist Picnic

From The Coming Nation of July 27, 1912:

EVD Speaks Cascade Park, New Castle PA June 22, 1912, Cmg Ntn p9, July 27, 1912

Note: Photograph was taken June 22, 1912 at Cascade Park, New Castle, Pennsylvania, at the Grand Interstate Socialist Picnic. Speakers included Eugene Debs and Emil Seidel, candidates for President and Vice-President, Socialist Party of America. Transportation was provided from as far away as Pittsburgh.  

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Hellraisers Journal: Birds Care for Their Young While Capitalists Feed Off Nation’s Young -Cartoon by Ryan Walker

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Quote Mother Jones Children Suffer PA Silk Mills, Cdale Ldr p6, Nov 30, 1900—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 14, 1912
American Children Born to Feed the Monster Capitalistism

From The Coming Nation of July 13, 1912
-Cartoon by Ryan Walker: Birds Care for Young; Capitalists Feed off the Young
:

Child Labor, Ryan Walker, Children Feed Capitalist in Nest, Cmg Ntn Cv, July 13, 1912

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Hellraisers Journal: Women Strikers of Kalamazoo Corset Co. Jailed in Fight for Living Wage and Dignity on the Job

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Quote Mother Jones Raising Hell, NYT p1, Oct 6, 1916———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 12, 1912
Kalamazoo, Michigan – Union Women Jailed Include Josephine Casey and Bella Yount

From The Coming Nation of June 8, 1912
-“A Familiar Strike Story” by Gertrude Barnum:

J Casey n B Yount Jailed re Kalamazoo Corset Strike, Cmg Ntn p11, June 8, 1911

Josephine Casey, General Organizer International Ladies’ Garment
Workers’ Union, seated, and Bella Yount, member Executive Board,
Corset Workers’ Union No. 82 in jail at Kalamazoo, Mich.

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