Tag: Akron OH

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part IV

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH One Fist, ISR p458, Feb 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 19, 1913
Akron, Ohio – Big Bill Haywood Visits City, Speaks to Strikers

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part IV of IV]

Akron Strikers Listening to Speakers, ISR p723, Apr 1913

On Friday, Feb. 28, Haywood stopped off a day at Akron and several thousand strikers met him at the train and paraded through the factory and business districts of Akron. Haywood spoke to two immense strike meetings. He said in part: 

The greatest weapon you can use against the rubber robbers just now is to keep your hands in your pockets. When you have your hands in your pockets, the capitalist can’t get his there, and unless the capitalist has his hands in your pockets, he has got to go to work. So during the time of this strike, let there be no violence on your part, not the destruction of one cent’s worth of property, not one cross word. You have got this strike won if you will but stand together in One Big Union.

If the boss starves you back to work then you know how to win this strike on the inside of the factory. Don’t use the speeding up, but the slowing down process. This is an up-to-date organization, and we are fighting with modern weapons. The workers who understand the program and the policy of the I. W. W. will never again be defeated. We are organized now and fighting this battle for an eight-hour day.

As I said to you this morning, if you work only eight hours that is going to make room for more men and more women, and as the unemployed come into work, then the wages are going up. Your wages are going up anyway, because you are going to stand together until we force them up. Four dollars per week, or four and one-half is altogether too little for a girl to try and live on, and live decently, and. every girl, or a large per cent of them, would live decently if they got wages enough. But it is not a question of girlhood or womanhood with the rubber trusts. What they want is cheap labor. Cheap labor means to them more profits.

Just remember, men that we are the working class and it doesn’t make any difference what our nationality may be. My father was born in this state, I was born in this country and am an American.

There are no foreigners in the working class except the capitalist. He is the fellow we are after and we are going to get him. We are going to get Mr. Seiberling. If he is too old to work, we will get his son, and put him right in the rubber factory alongside the rest of ’em.

You simply get back enough to keep alive and in shape to work. If any of you fall by the wayside, and the undertaker visits your home, it doesn’t make any difference to Mr. Seiberling. Now workingmen, it is for you to organize. This strike is your strike. The success of this strike depends on you. There is no one else to fight.

If you had a picket line out every morning representing a crowd as big as this there would not be anybody going to work. You can influence enough to prevent them going to work. Get on the job in the morning in the picket line and visit these friends of yours at night in their homes.

Get this organization so that it will be 100 per cent strong. We will try, as we did at Lawrence, to raise money enough to carry you through.

[He further said:]

I have a warning to issue here. Those in authority must forget this proposition of wearing out their clubs on the strikers’ heads. They made the laws and there are proper processes for them to follow. Let them live up to it. If a striker violates law, let them arrest him and bring him before the court.

But I want to appeal to you strikers to conduct this strike along the peaceful lines you have been. You built this city and the rubber barons are realizing that you are necessary to its prosperity. They are realizing that until you are getting better pay and better hours, their profits won’t increase.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part IV” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part III

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH One Fist, ISR p458, Feb 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 18, 1913
Akron, Ohio – The Story of Annie Fejtko, Goodrich Striker

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part III of IV]

Akron Striker Annie Fejtko, ISR p719, Apr 1913

The following story printed by the Akron Press, a paper which has tried to give the strikers’ side some showing in this bitter struggle, is the general answer of the women and girls who joined the strike:

Annie Fejtko, eighteen, joined the Akron rubber strikers Friday. She’s all alone in Akron-her own provider, housekeeper, washerwoman-and a mere child.

This is Annie Fejtko’s own summary of what she pays and how she spends it:

Average weekly pay, $4 to $4.50.
Weekly board bill, $3.
Left for dress, amusements, etc., $1 to $1.50.

She came to Akron about a year ago and has been working for the B. F. Goodrich Company ever since. She started to work on 10-hour day work, for $1, a day.

“I only worked that way three weeks,” said Annie. “Then they put me on piece work. My average two weeks’ pay is $8 or $9. I can’t save anything and I haven’t seen papa or mamma or the little brothers and sisters since I came here.

“They only live in Pennsylvania, too, but I can’t save enough to go and see them.”

The last day Annie worked she made 75 cents. Lots of days she said she made less.

“Some days I can make $1.25 and once in a while $1.50, but that’s only when I work on certain kinds of work, and just as fast as I can all day, without resting.”

The highest Annie has ever been paid for a day’s work, was $2. She never made that much again, she says. That day she was cutting paper rings to hold the rubber bulbs in packing. When Annie went home that night her hands were blistered from the scissors.

For some time before the strike Annie had been working in what is known as department 17-B, of the Goodrich. This is the rubber bulb branch. Her work is constantly changed, but for the most of the time she has been inspecting the hard rubber stems for the bulbs, she said. She is paid 9 mills a hundred for this work and makes around $1 when kept doing this all day.

But there’s stamping of time cards to be done, and the work is passed around. “Two mills a hundred is paid for this work,” says Annie, “and if you don’t work all day you couldn’t make over 25 cents.”

“In some of the departments the girls make more,” Annie states. “The buffers (a line of rubber bulb work), make as high as $2 a day when they get to work all the time, but lots of times there isn’t enough to keep them busy. Sometimes they are sent home and other times they stay around all day expecting more to do and only get about 25 cents worth of work.

“But I can’t make that much,” the girl says. “I suppose I’m not fast enough or something. But I work hard, ten hours every day and I have to do my own washing in the evenings, and skimp awful.”

When the strike started Annie didn’t quit. It ran from Tuesday until Friday. She wanted more money for her work, but she didn’t have anything saved and thought she couldn’t afford to lose a day.

“Friday Charlie, one of the pickets talked to me at noon. I decided I couldn’t be much worse off so I laid down my tools and four other girls in that department followed me out,” she explained.

“I haven’t any money and I have to pay board and-” she looked seriously out of the window, “but I suppose they’ll help me.”

“If I don’t get any more, though, when I go back, I don’t see how I can ever catch up out at Santo’s where I board.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part III” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH One Fist, ISR p458, Feb 1911—————-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 17, 1913
Akron, Ohio – The Speeding-Up System and the Akron Rubber Strike

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part II of IV]

Akron Rubber Worker, ISR Cv, Apr 1913

One of the strikers informs us that very recently the Speeding-Up System has forced the tire builders to produce 2,000 more than the regular output of tires in a single night. The same man reported that while it formerly took three hours to “cure” a tire, the time had been cut to 55 minutes in one plant. And that the “curing process” depends altogether upon the quantity of rubber used in the compound.

Five hundred to six hundred pounds of compound are made up at a time. In the good old days THREE POUNDS of actual pure rubber was used in a batch; much less is used now. A gum plant is one of the ingredients, also old rope, rags, alkali and shoddy (old rubber, such as worn-out tubing, worn-out rubbers, etc.). Although the price of pure rubber is lower than it was a few years ago, the rubber companies have cut down the quantity used steadily. Formerly tire curers earned $5.00 for curing five tires. They are now forced to cure 50 tires for the same sum. And there is NO LET UP IN THE SPEEDING UP SYSTEM. And the pay per worker goes steadily down.

Akron Rubber Workers Packed in One Room, ISR p716, Apr 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH One Fist, ISR p458, Feb 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 16, 1913
Akron, Ohio – 20,000 Workers on Strike Against Rubber Barons

From the International Socialist Review of April 1913:

800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part I of IV]

Akron Rubber Plant, ISR p711, Apr 1913

THE Rubber Aristocrats are having “tire trouble” in Akron, Ohio. Their mammoth 75-acre, 25,000-man-power, profit-making machines-known as the Goodrich-Diamond, Goodyear, Firestone and Buckeye rubber factories, have been badly punctured by a strike of 20,000 wage slaves.

The workers who have slaved for years laid down the bosses’ tools, rolled up their greasy working rags and walked out unorganized, on February 10, as a protest against tyrannical working conditions and repeated cuts in wages.

They are standing shoulder to shoulder and their arms are folded. There is no fire under the boilers; nor smoke issuing from the hundreds of industrial spires; the belts are on loose pulleys and even the wheels refuse to run.

The Rubber Barons refused to arbitrate with the state officials and threatened to move their plants from the city. Meanwhile the strike was rapidly being organized by militant members of the Socialist party working with the Industrial Workers of the World. The Socialist headquarters became the home of the strike committees while larger halls were secured for mass meetings, where thousands of workers hear the message of Revolutionary Socialism and Industrial Unionism. Comrades Frank Midney, “Red” Bessemer, George Spangler and fellow-workers George Speed, William Trautman, Jack Whyte and several more “live ones” are on the job speaking daily, organizing committees and strengthening the picket lines.

The home of Comrade Frank and Margaret Prevey was thrown open to the strikers and became a busy center of strike activity-sending out appeals for support, press notices and planing the work of taking care of those who were in need. Here was a hive that hummed twenty hours out of the twenty-four. Of course the Capitalist hirelings suddenly discovered that this was “an Agitators’ meeting place,” and made dire threats.

But the Rubber Barons in their palaces out on West Hill were also busy moulding public opinion through press and pulpit against this “foreign devil” called a strike. Were not collections dwindling on Sundays and business becoming “bad” during the week, and is not idleness the devil’s workshop?

Akron Women ag Goodrich, ISR p712, Apr 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “800 Per Cent and the Akron Strike” by Leslie H. Marcy, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: From IWW’s Industrial Worker and Solidarity, Updates on Three Strikes: Merryville, Little Falls, and Akron

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 24, 1913
Updates on Three Strikes: Merryville, Little Falls and Akron

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of February 20, 1913
-Covington Hall on Merryville, Louisiana, Lumber Workers’ Strike
-Joseph J. Ettor on Prisoners of Little Falls, Massachusetts, Textile Strike

Merryville Strike, Little Falls Prisoners, by C Hall n Ettor, IW p1, Feb 20, 1913

From Solidarity of February 22, 1913
-“20,000 Rubber Workers Revolt in Akron! I. W. W. in Full Control.”

Akron Rubber Strike IWW in Control, Sol p1, Feb 22, 1913

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From IWW’s Industrial Worker and Solidarity, Updates on Three Strikes: Merryville, Little Falls, and Akron” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1910, Part II: “Trinity of Sleek Parasites,” Roosevelt, Mitchell, Bishop of Scranton

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Quote Mother Jones, Capitalists Money Grabbing Parasites, AtR p2, Nov 5, Mnrs Mag p11, Nov 17, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 29, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1910, Part II:
–Roosevelt, Mitchell and Bishop of Scranton: “Trinity of Sleek Parasites”

From The New York Call of November 14, 1910:

MOTHER JONES’ LATEST VISIT
TO THE ANTHRACITE FIELDS

Mother Jones, the friend of the miners, the Socialist apostle, is now seventy-seven years old, but her activities in behalf of the oppressed are as vigorous as ever. Only lately she paid a visit to the anthracite fields. Her account of her visit, written for The Call, is as follows:

What I Saw in the Anthracite Fields.

Mother Jones, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

My work in connection with the Mexican cases being completed at Washington, and feeling assured that the victims of this “bloodocracy” would not be rearrested on their liberation from prison, I decided to visit the boys in the anthracite regions, investigate conditions, and see what progress, if any, had been made in the way of organization and education since the last general strike. My visit to the anthracite regions which border on the inferno followed that of Roosevelt and his ex-labor leader, John Mitchell [ex-President of United Mine Workers of America], who had visited the coal fields, so it is said, for the purpose of making some observations and investigations as to the condition of the slaves whose lifeblood is coined into profits that the few may riot in luxury.

When Roosevelt and his bodyguard arrived at Scranton they were received by the Bishop of Scranton, who wined and dined them and who remarked during the meal that it was the first time in his life he had had the honor of sitting between two Presidents. On the right of the bishop sat Mr. Roosevelt, friend of the workingman. It was he who, in order to show his friendship, sent 2,000 guns to Colorado to shoot the miners into subjection and, if they did not obey, blow their brains out, and who, while president of the United States, sent hundreds of messages to Congress, but never one in the interest of the working class. Not even when the explosion in the Monongah mine sent 700 souls, the souls of wage slaves, into the shadows and shocked the civilized world, did he find it in his sterile conscience to send a message to Congress demanding protection for the men whose labor feeds the mammoth maw of industry and warms the fireside of the world. Roosevelt’s real interest in the working class is only aroused when he seeks their votes. On the left of the bishop sat the $6,000 Civic Federation beauty [Mitchell], pet of the mine owners, decorated with diamonds, gifts from the coal barons.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1910, Part II: “Trinity of Sleek Parasites,” Roosevelt, Mitchell, Bishop of Scranton” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1910, Part I: Holds Roosevelt Responsible for Ruin of Mine Workers in Anthracite

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Quote Mother Jones, Oligarchy, Sops, Rise Up, Giants, Clv Oct 12, Lbr Arg p1, Oct 13, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 28, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1910, Part I:
–Blames Roosevelt for State of Miners Union in Anthracite Field

From the Muskegon News Chronicle of November 4, 1910:

Workers of the World Peter Power, Muskegon MI Chc p5, Nov 4, 1910

[Mother Jones] Holds T. R. Responsible
for Ruin of Coal Union.

Mother Jones, Tacoma Tx p7, Oct 24, 1910

That man Roosevelt is responsible for the wrecking of the once powerful union of anthracite miners; he turned John Mitchell’s head by flattery and did what Geo. F. Baer and the combined hard coal barons couldn’t do. I repeat, the overrated Roosevelt wrecked the anthracite miners union.

These startling words were uttered by Mother Jones in conversation with the writer a few days ago, while en route to the Irwin-Greensburg coal field to assist the 20,000 striking miners who have been locked out since last spring [Westmoreland County Coal Strike].

Mother Jones is unquestionably the most influential figure among the American miners today, and has been for a decade. If she were a man she would be the life president of the United Mine Workers of North America. It was Mother Jones more than any other human being who rallied the hard coal miners in their helpless slavery 10 years ago and cheered them on a fight their way out.

[Said Mother:]

Now, after ten years of open shoppery, the boys are back in the old rut, back on the treadmill, not daring to call their souls their own, thanks to the scheming and hypocrisy of Roosevelt. And then that bluffer had the audacity to go down into the Scranton district recently, accompanied by photographers and press agents, and gloat and grin at the poor miners and announce ostentatiously, “I am ex-President Roosevelt.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1910, Part I: Holds Roosevelt Responsible for Ruin of Mine Workers in Anthracite” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1910, Part II: Found in Akron, Ohio, Speaking on Socialism at Central Labor Union Hall

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———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 13, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1910, Part II:
–Found in Akron, Ohio, Speaking on Socialism at Central Labor Union Hall

From the Akron Beacon Journal of October 14, 1910:

“MOTHER JONES” A SPEAKER HERE
—————
Famous Character Addresses
Socialists and Others.

Mother Jones crpd, WDC Tx p5, June 18, 1910

“Mother Jones,” well known among the laboring people as a speaker of ability and a woman who understands the conditions of the laboring man, spoke at the Central Labor Union hall in the Walsh block for an hour and a half Thursday evening, although she had declared she was here for a rest. Her talk was mostly devoted to socialism, and she told of reforms along the line that she considered would benefit the condition of the masses. “Mother” Jones has been called the “Stormy Petrel of the Industrial Revolution.”

She has also been called the “Angel of the Coal Miners,” and has had many interesting experiences during her life of 76 years, and the fire of her eloquence seems to burn as brightly as ever. At one time she addressed a crowd of striking miners in West Virginia in defiance of the police force and state militia.

—————

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1910, Part II: Found in Akron, Ohio, Speaking on Socialism at Central Labor Union Hall” →

Hellraisers Journal: From Ohio Socialist: O’Hare Headed to Prison; Ruthenberg Wagenknecht, & Baker Released

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Kate Richards OHare, Dangerous to war profiteers, ab Dec 1917
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 7, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Ohio Socialist Released, O’Hare Schedule to Speak

The town of Canton was the scene of joyous celebration on December 2nd when Comrades Ruthenberg, Wagenknecht, and Baker were released from the Stark County Workhouse. On hand to greet them was none other than Eugene V. Debs, along with several prominent Ohio Socialists.

Canton will be visited on December 9th by Kate Richards O’Hare who is expected to begin serving her prison term shortly thereafter.

From The Ohio Socialist of December 4, 1918:

Kate Richards O'Hare, OH Sc p1, Dec 4, 1918

FREE THE
POLITICAL PRISONERS

Within the walls of American prisons are held many of the noblest men and women of this land. Many others, men and women with the highest attributes, which characterize true and noble manhood and womanhood, are under indictment and facing charges as political offenders. Men and women with the highest ideals which human beings are endowed are today rotting in American prisons.

For expressing an OPINION at variance with that which the law stated may be expressed these men and women are paying a penalty out of all proportion to their offenses. The espionage law has produced a crop of jail sentences in America absolutely undreamed of even in Germany under the rule of the junkers and their kaiser. Compare the four-year sentence of Liebknecht for “high treason” to that of ten years for Debs, for Kate O’Hare and Rose Pastor Stokes.

If we have been able to surmise correctly the reason (or excuse) for the passage of the espionage law, if punishment was not the purpose of the law then the further confinement of our political prisoners is an atrocity.

If to silence opposition to the war was the purpose of this law, there is now no longer any necessity for their confinement. The war is over. Liberties under which we formerly thrived should be returned to us.

Those in power today have nothing to gain by longer jailing political offenders. On the contrary they stand to lose considerable. This is no time to preach the gospel of hate nor to practice it. It is a false gospel at all times. Now that peace has come its teachings and practices are criminal.

The movement to free our political prisoners is gaining momentum. The great mass of the people, as well as liberal minds among the bourgeoisie, favor it. Those who oppose an early liberation of political offenders are of a class and character with those whom the workers of Europe have lately shorn of power. Let every worker’s voice rise in protest against the longer confinement of political prisoners.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Ohio Socialist: O’Hare Headed to Prison; Ruthenberg Wagenknecht, & Baker Released” →