Hellraisers Journal: Little Henrietta Haywood asks, “Will They Hang My Papa?”-by Luella Twining

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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday December 20, 1906
From the Appeal to Reason: The Cry of Big Bill’s Little Daughter

HMP, Henrietta by Twining, AtR, Dec 15, 1906

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Duluth Labor World: Mother Jones on the Iniquities of Child Labor in the South

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Mother Jones, Stand with Working People, LW, Dec 15, 1906

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday December 19, 1906
From The Labor World: Young Lives Ground Up for Profit

Mother Jones March of the Mill Children, 1903, with text

Mother Jones has never forgotten the cruelty of Child Labor since the summer of 1903 when she led the mill children of Philadelphia on a march to Oyster Bay. They made the long trek in the summer heat in order that they might tell President Roosevelt about the hardships of their lives spent at work instead of in school. The President refused to meet with the children and Mother takes a few jabs at the “Great Prosperity” President in the following article on the subject of Child Labor in the American South.

BABY WAGE-EARNERS IN
SOUTHERN MILLS
—–

“Mother” Jones Writes Stirring
Article on Iniquities of
Child Labor in South.
—–
Cotton Mills Produce a Type of
Children Easily Recognized
As Most Puny.
—–

(By “Mother” Jones.)

After thirteen years of absence I returned to see what improvements had been made in the industrial conditions of the mill workers of the sunny south.

I found that there had been marvelous progress made as far as the mills and machinery were concerned. Looking at the advancement in that line, one would think that the day of rest for the workers must be near. Instead of bringing rest and leisure to the workers, however, this perfected machinery brings only a more merciless exploitation than was ever practiced before. With the advancement in machinery has come a corresponding advance in the methods of exploitation. That is all the difference the improvements have made upon the workers.

I stood one morning in the early dawn and I watched the slaves as they entered the pen of capitalism. I could see the shadows of the slaves passing along in the brush to the mill at twenty minutes to six in the morning. Children, roused from the heavy sleep of youth, left their beds reluctantly and entered the institution of capitalism to create wealth for others to enjoy.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Theodora Pollok on the Mooney Frame-Up

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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 18, 1916
San Francisco, California – The Closed Shop Fight and Frame-Up

From the December edition of the International Socialist Review:

Will Labor Stand for Another
Haymarket?

By THEODORA POLLOK

Tom and Rena Mooney, ISR, Dec 1916

SAN FRANCISCO in 1916; Chicago in 1886. The closed shop fight now; the 8-hour fight then. In both cases, a crime of violence occurs and is tied around the necks of innocent labor men in the hope of helping to crush the spirit of labor.

In Chicago in 1886 a slavish press and an inflamed public mind, and the labor and radical groups, too weak to save the chosen victims. Today in San Francisco a slavish press, but a public mind open to conviction. Yet young Billings, first of the San Francisco Preparedness Day explosion defendants to be tried, has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, and only the fighting working class of the country can save him—by saving his four co-defendants.

Tom Mooney’s trial, the second trial, is set for the 27th of November. It is Tom Mooney’s life that is desired above all others by this gang of ruffians, the “gentlemen” of the Chamber of Commerce, the United Railroads, and the Pacific Gas & Electric, and their tools in the District Attorney’s office. For Mooney, helped by his little music teacher wife, Rena, who is one of his co-defendants—Mooney recently dared actually try to organize the carmen of the United Railroads, who have been beaten down, spied upon and “weeded out” since the great car strike before the earthquake.

The tactics of the prosecution are such as might rather be expected in some backwoods lumber baron’s camp than in a great urban center. Indeed, with the “Law and Order” Committee from the Chamber of Commerce censoring all the press, the truth is even harder to get to the people than in a small town where it flies from mouth to mouth.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Theodora Pollok on the Mooney Frame-Up”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Masses: Art Young on “The Instigators,” Making Man the Enemy of Man

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You that never done nothin’
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
-Bob Dylan

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 17, 1916
From The Masses: “The Instigators” by Art Young

Masses, WWI Instigators, Art Young, Dec 1916

Thomas Paine from Rights of Man:

As war is the system of Government on the old construction, the animosity which Nations reciprocally entertain, is nothing more than what the policy of their Governments excites, to keep up the spirit of the system. Each Government accuses the other of perfidy, intrigue, and ambition, as a means of heating the imagination of their respective Nations, and incensing them to hostilities. Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government. Instead, therefore, of exclaiming against the ambition of Kings, the exclamation should be directed against the principle of such Governments; and instead of seeking to reform the individual, the wisdom of a Nation should apply itself to reform the system.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1916: Pays Visit to President Wilson with Labor Delegation

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I am loyally yours for a damn fine fight.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 16, 1916
Mother Jones Found in Washington D. C. During November

We pause to review the activities of Mother Jones, that fearless champion of the cause of working-class men, women and children in their struggle for industrial freedom. We first find her remembered for her work on behalf of the children of the mills when she led them on the March of the Mill Children during the summer of 1903.

From the Iowa Bayard Advocate of November 2, 1916:

TENEMENT CHILDREN WILL
VISIT WILSON
—–
Their Welcome Will Be Unlike That
Once Given at Oyster Bay.
—–

Mother Mary Harris Jones, Logansport, IN, Sept 27, 1916New York, Oct. 28.-Fifty mothers of New York’s east side, with their children, who have been emancipated from sweatshops by the enactment of

the child labor law, are going to Shadow Lawn, Saturday, in person to thank President Wilson.

A “kind lady,” who prefers to conceal her identity, has donated a special car to be attached to one of the trains bearing pilgrims from New York to Shadow Lawn to hear the president’s address on “Wilson day.” The children will carry armsful of artificial flowers which they used to make in the factories, before their emancipation.

No such pilgrimage of the children of the poor has been attempted since the one when Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States and a carload of children from the Pennsylvania coal mines [textile mills] journeyed to the summer capital at Oyster Bay to petition for a national child labor law.

“Mother Jones,” who conducted that excursion, told recently in public of the refusal of the guards at Oyster Bay to allow the children to pass the outer gate, and of their return home to wait 14 years for a Woodrow Wilson to set them free.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for November 1906: Gives Speech for Dettrey Campaign in Wilkes-Barre

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While life remains I shall always
be with you conflict.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 15, 1906
Mother Jones Found Campaigning for Comrade Dettrey During November

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

In the New York Worker of November 3, 1906, under “Party News,” National Secretary J. Mahlon Barnes reported on the whereabouts of Mother Jones:

PARTY NEWS

NATIONAL SECRETARY’S REPORT

The report of National Secretary Barnes to the National Executive Committee is in part as follows:

[…]

“Mother” Jones, in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Illinois and Pennsylvania;…

From the Wilkes-Barre Times of November 5, 1906:

Mother Jones, Dettrey f/ Congress, W-B Tx, Nov 5, 1906

From the Wilkes-Barre Times of November 6, 1906:

THE SOCIALISTS held a final rally in this city last night. William Dettrey and Mother Jones were the chief speakers.

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Slams Murderous Biwabik Editor; Judge Hilton Arrives on Mesabi Range

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday December 14, 1916
The Mesabi Range – Miss Flynn Fired Up; Famous Attorney Arrives

MN Iron Range Strike, Tresca Scarlett Schmidt Button, 1916

The Duluth News Tribune, which newspaper seems to approve of the black-hearted Biwabik editor who advocated Everett-style murder against the iron range strikers, nevertheless disapproves when Elizabeth Gurley Flynn wonders aloud why that same editor doesn’t go right on ahead and “start something.”

Meanwhile the famous labor attorney, Judge Orrin N. Hilton has arrived on the Range and is honored to be on the defense team of those charged with murder in connection with a lawless raid on a miner’s home in Biwabik during the miners’ strike last summer. Judge Hilton was the attorney for Joe Hill during the appeal of his murder conviction in the state of Utah. Hilton delivered the Memorial Oration at the Chicago funeral of our Martyred Rebel Songwriter, and that oration so offended the state of Utah that the Judge was formally disbarred in that state on July 1st of this year.

From The Duluth News Tribune of December 11, 1916:

GURLEY FLYNN TAKES “SLAM”
AT PUBLISHER
—–

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Reno Gz-Jr, July 12, 1916

HIBBING, Dec. 10.-Elizabeth [Gurley] Flynn, speaking here this afternoon at Workers’ hall in the interests of the I. W. W. members to be tried at Virginia for alleged murder, asked the editor of the Biwabik Times “why he doesn’t start something.” Miss Flynn directed that question from the platform to the absent editor after she had referred to his recent editorial in which he suggested that the best way to treat the I. W. W. on the range was to take an example from the vigilantes of Everett, Wash., where five members of the organization were killed and 52 wounded.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Everett Martyrs “were of the earth’s disinherited, the down-trodden, reviled and shunned.”

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Don’t Mourn, Organize!
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday December 13, 1916
From the Seattle Union Record: Red Flowers for Martyred Workers

In this week’s edition of the Union Record, Wilbur Maitre Fairbanks offers his view of the funerals held on Saturday, November 18th, for Fellow Workers Felix Baran, Hugo Gerlot and John Looney, who were murdered by Sheriff McRae and his gang of deputized company gunthugs on November 5th, a day which will go down in history as Everett’s Bloody Sunday.

IMPRESSIONS MADE BY FUNERAL
OF MURDERED WORKERS
—–

Everett Massacre, Funeral Gerlot, Looney, Baran, Nov 18, 1916, WCS

Over that crowd at Ninth and Union as it formed itself into line of march behind the dead hung Hugo’s “seven jaws of misery-night, solitude, nakedness, weakness, ignorance, hunger and thirst.” The night of despair, the solitude of social contempt, weakness against brutal persecution, ignorance of the reason for today’s despair and of what the abuse and degradation of tomorrow might be, hunger and thirst for just a place on God’s footstool whereon to live, to hope, to labor and to love.

Those men, every one, were of the earth’s disinherited, the down-trodden, reviled and shunned. Sorrow beat the requiem of that death march. A sepulchre and a tomb-one for those yet living, the other for the dead. Yet, tragically portentious as was that spectacle, there were those upon the curb who smiled, jested and even sneered. (Praises, be, these were few in number!)

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Everett Martyrs “were of the earth’s disinherited, the down-trodden, reviled and shunned.””

Hellraisers Journal: Report from Everett Defense Committee: Mrs. Edith Frenette Faces Charges of First Degree Assault

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday December 12, 1916
From Everett Defense News Letter No. 2: “Latest Developments”

Everett Massacre, Def News Letter 2, ab Dec 9, 1916

IWW, emblem, libcom, Sioux City FSF of 1915

The preliminary hearing of Mrs. Edith Frenette, Free Speech advocate, who was arrested on Nov. 6th and charged with first degree assault, took place on Wednesday, the 6th, in Everett. Mrs. Frenette is supposed to have drawn a gun and leveled the weapon at Sheriff McRae when he was being carried to the hospital after having been wounded in the affray at the docks. The state had only two witnesses: Sheriff McRae, himself, and an ex-special-policeman, named John Moline. The contradiction between the testimony of the two witnesses was laughable. The Sheriff said that he was looking at Mrs. Frenette closely enough to see that her lips were moving; and this at a distance of only a few feet. Yet he did not see any gun in her hand. The ex-policeman said that he saw a gun in her hand, that he followed her on the street looking for an officer to have her arrested! He did not dare denounce her then and there, it seems, although the streets were crowded with deputies! It appears as though he only realized, after a good deal of thought, that she ought to be arrested! This is one of the crudest frame-ups which the hysteria of the authorities has as yet produced. Mrs. Frenette was bound over to the superior court on bonds of $2,500.

The counsel for the defense asked that the case be dismissed on the ground of insufficient evidence of criminality. But the judge, in refusing to dismiss the case, indicated so clearly his prejudice and that he had not the moral courage to decide for himself but would shift it over to the jury anyway, that our attorneys decided not to wet their powder by introducing the witnesses for the defense prematurely, at the preliminary hearing.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Pearson’s Magazine: Courtenay Lemon on Free Speech in the U. S. of A.; Praises I. W. W.

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 11, 1916
From Pearson’s Magazine: Courtenay Lemon on Free Speech

In a long article in this month’s edition of Pearson’s, we find Courtenay Lemon discussing the state of free speech as that sacred constitutional guarantee is applied at the present time in the United States of America. The Industrial Workers of the World comes in for special mention by Mr. Lemon:

IWW & FSFs, C Lemon, Pearsons, Dec 1916

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Pearson’s Magazine: Courtenay Lemon on Free Speech in the U. S. of A.; Praises I. W. W.”