Tag: Western Federation of Labor

Hellraisers Journal: From the Labor World: Eighteen Strike Sympathizers, Women and Girls, Arrested in Calumet, Michigan

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Annie Clemenc, Die Behind Flag, Mnrs Bltn, Sept 16, 1913—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 18, 1913
Calumet, Michigan – Eighteen Women and Girls Arrested

From the Duluth Labor World of November 15, 1913

WOMEN AND GIRLS ARRESTED AT MINE
———-

Eighteen Charged With Violation of Injunction
at the Mohawk Property.
———-

CALUMET, Mich., Nov. 13.-—Eighteen women and girls, strike sympathizers, were arrested at the Mohawk mine today, charged with violation of the injunction prohibiting abuse or intimidation of workers. They were cited to appear before Circuit Judge O’Brien on Nov. 24.

William Teddy, prominent strike leader, was arrested on suspicion of being connected with the dynamiting of a house in which mine guards boarded at Centennial Heights, Tuesday morning. The investigation of attacks on mail trains carrying imported workmen, is progressing quietly. Eleven arrests of strikers have already been made. The gunmen are losing no opportunity to harass the strikers.

MI Strikers Parade, Annie w Flag, ed, Survey p127, Nov 1, 1913

[Emphasis and photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From Butte Labor World: Eugene Debs Gives Rousing Speech on Class Struggle to Enthusiastic Audience

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Socialist Ripe Trade Unionist, WLUC p45, May 31, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 29, 1902
Debs Speaks at Butte, Montana: “We Must Gain Possession of the Tools of Trade”

From the Social Democratic Herald of June 28, 1902
-Letter from Eugene V. Debs at Butte, Montana, June 17th:

Letter EVD from Butte June 17, SDH p4, June 28, 1902

From the Butte Labor World of June 20, 1902:

HdLn EVD Butte June 16 Speech, Lbr Wld p1, June 20, 1902

 Eugene V. Debs was given a rousing reception at the Auditorium Monday evening [June 16th]. It was an enthusiastic audience that heard him speak, and as he stood upon the platform for two solid hours and hurled rugged truths at them he was greeted with applause which at times was in the nature of an ovation.

Few public speakers of today could have filled the spacious Auditorium upon so short notice. Stopping off for a day in Butte, it had not been Mr. Debs’ purpose to speak at that time, but he was prevailed upon by a number of the most earnest workers for the cause of Socialism, and he consented. Hardly three hours was given in which to spread the news, but somehow it went the rounds and the Auditorium was filled from gallery to rostrum. Many who had come late were compelled to stand.

A Keen, Forceful Talker.

Upon the platform, as well as off, Eugene V. Debs is a wonderfully magnetic man. His flashes of humor, his clear, strong way of putting the questions before the minds of his auditors, and his cutting sarcasm directed at things and conditions he believes to be wrong, are such as to hold his audience spellbound.

“We Must Gain Possession of the Tools of Trade,” was the tenor of his remarks. “Human life will then be sacred. The badge of labor will be the badge of nobility.”

Charles Whitely, of the Butte Mill and Smeltermen’s union, was the chairman of the meeting and introduced the distinguished speaker.

Mr. Whitely referred to him as the “ablest labor leader the United States has ever produced,” and the audience cheered loudly. Mr. Debs appeared to be pleased with the cordial and earnest feeling with which he was received. It inspired him to extra effort, and the effect was truly notable.

Debs’ Speech.

It seems but a little while-yet four years have passed and many changes have taken place since I had the pleasure of speaking to you.

Never was there a greater demand for intelligent, thorough, and progressive action on the part of the laboring class than now. That such a large attendance could be secured upon so short notice proves that the workers of Butte are alive and determined to wage a struggle with increasing vigor until the working class is free. Not until the capitalist system of exploitation is overthrown and the wage system is abolished and the workers control the means of production and receive the full product of their toil, not until then will the struggle cease and they will stand as the rulers of the world.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May 1910, Part I: Found Speaking for Workers in Sioux City, Iowa, and Fort Wayne, Indiana

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Capitalism Owns, Black Hills Dly Rg p1, May 4, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 11, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May 1910, Part I:
-Found Speaking in Sioux City, Iowa, and Fort Wayne, Indiana

From The Sioux City Journal of May 2, 1910:

FIGHTING WORKERS NEEDED.
—–
Mother Jones Says Capitalism Drives
Laboring Men to Drink.

Mother Jones, Cprd, Dly Missoulian p28, May15, 1910

We don’t get the philosophy we want from the preachers, that is why we don’t go to church.

-declared Mother Jones, known country wide as a battler for the cause of the working man, during her address before a large socialistic audience at Bennett’s hall last night.

[She continued:]

Ministers never work. We need fighting workers now.

Mother Jones is well advanced in years and small in stature. In her opinion the capitalistic class owns the officials, the policemen and the ministers. She has her own theory regarding prohibition. She figures the antisaloon leagues are going at the question from the wrong side. In her opinion the factories in which the working men toil away their lives and the hardships imposed upon them by the capitalistic class drive them to drink, and it is through a radical change from this source that temperance will come.

The speaker said the womanhood of the nation is sinking slowly but gradually because girls and women are forced from home to sweatshops, where also may be found little children. When the history of this age is written, in her opinion, it will go down on the books as the most corrupt of all times. If the women would assert themselves she believes the trouble of the working man would be cleared up over night.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Miners Magazine of the Western Federation of Miners: “Race Hatred Must Be Strangled”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote WFM, re Race Hatred n Unions, Miners Mag p5, July 8, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 8, 1909
Editorial on Disgraceful “Race Strike” by Georgia’s White Locomotive Firemen

From the Miners Magazine (W. F. of M.) of July 8, 1909:

Race Hatred Must be Strangled.

[by John M. O’Neill, Editor]

WFM, Miners Magazine Cover, July 1, 1909

THE ARBITRATION BOARD has practically settled the strike of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen in Georgia, and it is needless to say that the railroad company got the best of the settlement. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen made a serious mistake when the organization raised the barriers against the black man, thereby bringing about a race war which could only end in an advantage to the exploiter. The black man filled the position of fireman for one dollar less per day than the white man, and the Brotherhood permitted this injustice to be meted out to a race that is struggling against all the prejudices born of the centuries.

The smaller parasite in commercial circles in Georgia was in sympathy with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen in the fight against the negro, not because the parasite was in sympathy with the labor movement, but because of a race hatred and because the dollar less per day paid to the negro trainmen forced him to economize on the necessaries of life. The parasite of the South realized that the white man with a salary of $30 per month above that of his black brother was a more valuable customer and his patronage was more to be desired than the patronage of the miserable wretch who on account of his color and the hatred against him, was forced to accept in silence one dollar per day less than the white fireman, regardless of the fact that this colored slave of the Georgia Railway company performed the same service.

Had the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen of Georgia been permeated with a spirit of justice and had the membership of the organization a broad grasp of the industrial problem, a battle would have been waged against the Georgia Railway company until that arrogant corporation recognized the same pay for the same service, whether the service was performed by the Caucasian or the African.

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