Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday September 13, 1911 “Echoes from the Triangle Fire…Americans Need Big Shocks”
From The Ladies’ Garment Worker of September 1911:
Echoes from the Triangle Fire.
Dr. Price Suggests Co-operation Between
the Waist Makers’ Union and the
Board of Sanitary Control.
The whole community is responsible for the safety of its workers.
Parents and friends of the 145 victims who were in the Triangle fire, says the New York “Call,” and of the scores of workers who saved their lives but were maimed and injured, have written, telephoned and appeared in person at the office of the Ladies’ Waist and Dress Makers’ Union, in the last two days, calling upon the union to see to it that Harris & Blanck, the owners of the Triangle shop, be brought to trial.
The parents and friends of the victims also called upon the union officials to demand an account from the Red Cross as to the manner in which $100,000 collected for the benefit of the families of the fire victims, has been disposed of, if it had been disposed of.
As a result of these numerous calls the Executive Board of the Ladies’ Waist Maker’s Union stirred up the committee of three which has been appointed some time ago to look into the Triangle case, to immediate, vigorous activity.
The committee, which consists of Sam Spivack, A. Silver, and Sam Gusman, met last night at 151 Clinton street to decide upon plans to co-operate with the parents and friends of the fire victims, and to determine upon ways and means of improving conditions in the shops where the lives of workers are daily exposed to the fire panics.
Several of the parents and friends of the Triangle victims, who called at the office of the Ladies’ Waist Makers’ Union, said that they will either get up a petition or will write personal letters to District Attorney Whitman calling upon him to bring Harris and Blanck to trial.
Dr. George M. Price, M. D., the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control in the Cloak and Suit Industry of New York, has written to the “Call” suggesting a way in which the Board might co-operate with the Waistmakers’ Union.
Americans need big shocks, says Dr. Price.
Because several meetings have been held, because a “safety committee” has been appointed, because the papers devoted a few pages to factory fire damages, it is not to be expected that the 30,000 shops in the city should have suddenly become improved, that new fire escapes should have been put in where needed, and that workers should have become interested in protecting their lives from fires instead of devoting their whole time to the most important question of election of business delegates?
Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 3, 1911 International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union in Mourning
From The Ladies Garment Worker of April 1911:
When ready to go to press we learn of the awful calamity at the Triangle Waist Company. While most of the garment manufacturing establishments in New York City are not any better as far as fire protection is concerned, it is significant that the worst calamity happened at the Triangle, known among the workpeople in the trade as the “prison.” The name is probably due the extraordinary discipline with poor earning for which the firm is famous.
It is not strange that in this most democratic of all countries in the world the employers can so easily use the arm of the law to protect themselves against any inconveniences which their workpeople may cause them, but the law is nowhere when the life and limb of the worker is to be protected.
The writer of these lines, when approaching the factory some two years ago in an attempt to organize the workpeople of that firm, was pounced upon by two plain clothed policemen and taken to the police cell. No one, however, knows whom to blame for this calamity.
It is evident that the worker can expect next to nothing in the way of protection from the legal authorities. Whether it is the Supreme Court or the good people who are interested in the architectural beauties of the city, nothing will be done until the workers will begin in earnest to attend to their own business. They must declare a strike at all such fire traps until adequate protection is provided.
Pickets should be posted at the entrance of such places with sign boards bearing the following inscription: Please do not go to work in this place until proper fire protection is provided for the workpeople.
Let the authorities find our action contrary to the Sherman Anti-Trust Laws or any other of the innumerable laws provide to safeguard the interest of the capitalists, and which the authorities are ever ready to guard jealousy. We will cheerfully go to prison but there will be no more fire traps. Such a strike will put an end to such a state of things within 48 hours.
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There are in the same building a number of cloak shops, who before the general strike, worked until 6 o’clock on Saturdays. Thanks to the change in hours all these left at 1 o’clock, otherwise the victims would have been more numerous.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 14, 1918
“One of Them” by Elizabeth Hasanovitz, Union Garment Worker
“One of Them” describes lingering remnants of the old sweat-shop in the every-day shop vernacular.
From The Ladies’ Garment Worker of October 1918:
The Garment Worker offers a review of a new book by Elizabeth Hasanovitz, member of Ladies’ Waist and Dressmakers’ Union, Local No. 25.
“One of Them”
By Elizabeth Hasanovitz,
Just Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Price $2.00
[Book Review by Aaron Rosebury]
From The Liberator of November 1918.
This book is described by the publishers as “The pilgrimage of a Russian girl to the Land of Freedom and her life in the garment factories of New York; an unforgettable picture of an unconquerable soul.” But to us who live, move and have our being in the very union referred to in its pages the book is not only the individual experience of one unconquerable soul. It typifies thousands of souls who united in soul and effort to conquer sweat-shop conditions and modern shop slavery and finally succeeded in effecting a great industrial change.
There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday August 5, 1918
Duluth, Minnesota – Workingmen Demand Freedom for Mooney
Labor mass meetings, demanding justice for Tom Mooney, were held across the nation on Sunday July 28th. The labor unions of Duluth, Minnesota, joined the nationwide protests, listened to speeches, and passed resolutions.
From The Labor World of August 3, 1918:
DULUTH WORKINGMEN ASK
“TOM” MOONEY’S FREEDOM
—–
Declare Condemned Man Was Convicted
on Perjured Evidence and Demand
He Be Granted New Trial Without Delay.
—–
Rena and Tom Mooney
Duluth workingmen, at a largely attended meeting held at Owls’ hall last Sunday evening [July 28th], joined in the nation-wide protest against the proposed legal murder of Thomas J. Mooney at San Francisco. A. G. Catlin of Duluth Typographical union served as chairman and speeches were made by W. E. Towne of Duluth and Arthur Le Sueur of St. Paul.
Mr. Towne reviewed the history of the Mooney case, pointing out that all other persons charged with being participants in the alleged conspiracy had been acquitted by juries, including Mrs. Mooney, wife of the condemned man. He revealed the fact that since Mooney was tried it has been conclusively proven and admitted by the attorney general of the state that two of the witnesses against him were self-confessed perjurers and had been so found in other cases where they seemed to have served as professional witnesses.
Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch!
-Karl Marx, 1848
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday May 5, 1918
Workers of the World Celebrate Karl Marx Centenary
From The Young Socialists’ Magazine of May 1918:
Marx and the Young People.
by Eugene V. Debs
The day and the year that Karl Marx was born—May 5th, 1818—appear in red letters in the calendar of the social revolution. For on that day the eyes of the revolution’s prophet and pioneer opened upon the world. In fancy we can see the baby Marx engaged in his first struggle, doing his best and worst in baby fashion to give evidence that he was alive and to have his arrival duly noted. We can next see a little toddler nosing about for a suitable opening for his prying activities, little dreaming of the prodigious task awaiting him on the stage of life.
And now appears the boy, the youth upon the scene, and sober facts begin to jostle rosy dreams in his dawning mentality and imagination.
Marx, the boy, was healthy, handsome, and natural, full of the sap and song and sweetness of life. Like all normal boys he loved play and pranks, and for the same reason he was also serious and studious, and quite early he began to realize that life meant struggle and service and that he must in grave earnest prepare himself to act nobly his part in the great drama that spread out before his awakening vision.
The boy, Marx, in the light of his subsequent phenomenal career, and of the social revolution now thundering at the doors of the capitalist world, presents a vivid theme and a fascinating study for the young people of today who are reaping in knowledge and strength, in inspiration and high resolve, where he sowed in poverty and pain, in suffering and exile, to the very end of his days.
* * * * *
It is peculiarly appropriate that the centenary of the birth of Karl Marx should be celebrated by the Young People’s Socialist League. The program of appreciation would be sadly incomplete without the participation of the young people who have been quickened into new life and have had their eyes opened upon a new world by the magic of his awakening philosophy, and directed toward the shining goal of international freedom and fellowship under his masterly and inspiring leadership.
The heart of every young socialist throbs faster and keener with the zest of life as he contemplates the lofty figure of Karl Marx in perspective and what his coming has meant to the cause of oppressed humanity, especially the enslaved and exploited workers of the world.
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