Diaries

Hellraisers Journal: The Spirit of a Little Child Crushed by the Wheels of the Mill-by May Beals

Come out of bed little sleepy heads
And get your bite to eat
The factory whistle's calling you
There's no more time to sleep.
-Dorsey Dixon

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Friday December 29, 1905
From the Montana News: A Story of the Crushing of a Child's Spirit by May Beals

From the December 27th edition of Montana's leading Socialist newspaper comes this story by May Beals:

Story by May Beals
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The Wheels that Cheated the Wheels of the Mill-
Atrocities on Helpless Children.
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May Beals, Fort Wayne (IN) Jr-Gz, May 27, 1906.png

All night she had walked back and forth between flying spindles. The roar of the machinery was still numbing her tired brain as she sat down by the road to rest a minute for the long walk homeward. She was a very little girl-one of those who are ceremoniously bundled out of the mill while the inspector is being entertained in the office; one of those whose pitiful and well proven wrongs would take many men from legislative halls and the pews of fashionable churches to spend long terms behind prison bars if our laws were enforced against the rich as they are enforced against the poor.

But the child knew nothing of this. She could not understand, she could only feel, the injustice that was crushing the life from her frail little body. Her blindness and ignorance caused the worst of her suffering.

For she was not yet past suffering the sharp mental anguish that is so much worse than any physical pain. You can work a child until it grows incapable of thought-incapable of any feeling save physical sensations. She had not worked long enough for that.

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Socialists from Three Nations Ask to End War

I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth;
I am a citizen of the world.
Eugene Victor Debs

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Tuesday December 28, 1915
From the Appeal to Reason: Socialist Legislators from Three Nations Seek to End the War

From the Christmas Day edition of the Appeal comes the news that Socialists from the legislative bodies of Great Britain, Germany, and the United States have asked for an end to the war now raging in Europe:

Socialists Ask to End War in Parliament of Three Nations
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Great Britain

Philip Snowden, House of Commons 1906-1924.png

On December 8, 1915, Philip Snowden, Socialist member of House of Commons, called upon the British Prime Minister for a statement as to the possibility of ending the war. This was Asquith's reply made in Parliament:

If proposals of a serious character for a general peace are put forward by the enemy governments either directly or through a neutral power they will be discussed by the allied governments.

Asquith thinks it is a sign of weakness for his country to begin peace negotiations. If that view is taken by all seriously and adhered to nothing but death of all the soldiers at the front could possibly end the war. Somebody must begin. Why not Great Britain?

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones on Arizona Governor Hunt, "a most human and just man."

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

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Monday December 27, 1915
From the Tombstone Weekly Epitaph: Clifton-Morenci Strike May Be Drawing to a Close

It was reported yesterday by the Tombstone, Arizona, newspaper that a settlement could soon be reached in the Clifton-Morenci strike which began last September:

REPORTS CLIFTON STRIKE AS NEARING END
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Clifton Morenci Strike of 1915, WFM local & national leaders, .png
National & local leaders of the Western Federation of Miners.
Back row, 2nd & 3rd from left: Charles Moyer-WFM President,
& Henry McCluskey-Organizer for Miami Local 70.
Front row from left, John Murray, Canuto Vargas, Pascual Vargas, Luis Soto.
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Open Thread Sunday 12-27-15

Good morning 99percenters!
Morning climate/weather dump and music by the late, great Vassar Clements.

Texas Storms, Tornadoes Leave at Least 11 Dead Around Dallas Area

A new line of storms was barreling through Texas on Sunday as officials worked to assess damage from a series of tornadoes and severe weather which left at least 11 people dead overnight.

Authorities said the full extent of the damage from Saturday's spate of storms was not yet known — but warned the region should get ready for another hit. Forecasters warned of more "severe" weather and heavy rain.

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