Friday May 19, 1916
New Castle, Pennsylvania - James Connolly Edited Socialist Free Press

From the New Castle News of May 15, 1916:

First photographs to reach this country of James Connolly, who was executed as one of the leaders of the Irish rebellion, and had been proclaimed head of the army of the Irish republic in Dublin, confirm the exclusive announcement made in The News on the day following the uprising in Ireland that he was the same man that was at one time editor of the Free Press, a Socialist publication in New Castle.

The photograph printed in this column was shown to Frank Hartman, local Socialist, who was intimately associated with Connolly while he was in this city, also to Dr. L. P. Knoll, who knew Connolly, and to others who were acquainted with the man when he was in New Castle, and the identification is positive. Here he was known as Jim Connolly, and Mr. Hartman has a picture of Connolly in a group taken at the time he was in New Castle which shows that there is no chance of the Irish leader, who was executed, being other than the former New Castle man.

Further corroboration of the fact that Connolly was the former New Castle man is shown in the following, taken from the American Socialist a day or two previous to the date upon which Connolly's execution occurred:

Fight For Jim Connolly.

Hoping that James Connolly, one of the leaders in the recent rebellion in Ireland, may still be alive, the Chicago Federation of Labor, by unanimous vote decided to send a cablegram to Premier Asquith of Great Britain, as follows:

"The Chicago Federation of Labor, in convention assembled, representing over 250,000 workers, by unanimous vote, asks that James Connolly and other leaders of Irish rebellion, be given same humane consideration given by Abraham Lincoln to leaders in American Civil war."

In commenting upon the career of James Connolly, Socialist and struggler in the cause of labor, the Milwaukee Leader says:

A militant fighter to the last, and always best in a forlorn cause, James Connolly's stormy career is now reported to have reached an end in a British prison, where he is said to be mortally wounded. His thousands of American friends in Socialist and labor circles will remember him as a cheerful, fearless fighter, with little thought of consequences to himself.

As a worker in the Socialist party he did much to break down the prejudice that had been created against Socialism through clerical antagonism. While here he made several lecture trips across the country, wrote many pamphlets, edited successfully The Irish Worker, The New Castle Free Press and The Harp, and organized many centers of Socialist activity.

Later he went into the Socialist Labor Party, had the inevitable disagreement with Daniel DeLeon and then gave his strength to the organization of he dock workers of New York. He was prominent in the biggest strike of these workers and did much to bring solidarity among them.

He then returned to Ireland where he edited a labor paper, and was a leader with James Larkin in the great Dublin transport workers' strike. When this collapsed he threw his energies in the Sinn Fein movement, and the rest of the story has been told by the cables of the last few days.

-----

SOURCE
New Castle News
(New Castle, Pennsylvania)
-May 15, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/73037116

IMAGE
Irish Rebels, James Connolly, New Castle (PA) News, May 15, 1916
-with text added,
https://www.newspapers.com/image/73037116

See also:

The Connolly-DeLeon Controversy of 1904
https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1904/condel/index.htm

From the Workers' Republic of April 22, 1916:
"Labour and Ireland, Dublin Working Class, amid Great Emotion,
Hoist and Salute the Flag of Ireland" by James Connolly
https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1916/04/labireland.htm

This report by Connolly provided the editorial for the final issue of Workers’ Republic.

James Connolly Archive
https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/index.htm

We Only Want the Earth - Cornelius Cardew
Lyrics by James Connolly, 1907
https://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1907/xx/wewnerth.htm

Some men, faint-hearted, ever seek
Our programme to retouch,
And will insist, whene’er they speak
That we demand too much.
’Tis passing strange, yet I declare
Such statements give me mirth,
For our demands most moderate are,
We only want the earth.

“Be moderate,” the trimmers cry,
Who dread the tyrants’ thunder.
“You ask too much and people fly
From you aghast in wonder.”
’Tis passing strange, for I declare
Such statements give me mirth,
For our demands most moderate are,
We only want the earth.

Our masters all a godly crew,
Whose hearts throb for the poor,
Their sympathies assure us, too,
If our demands were fewer.
Most generous souls! But please observe,
What they enjoy from birth
Is all we ever had the nerve
To ask, that is, the earth.

The “labour fakir” full of guile,
Base doctrine ever preaches,
And whilst he bleeds the rank and file
Tame moderation teaches.
Yet, in despite, we’ll see the day
When, with sword in its girth,
Labour shall march in war array
To realize its own, the earth.

For labour long, with sighs and tears,
To its oppressors knelt.
But never yet, to aught save fears,
Did the heart of tyrant melt.
We need not kneel, our cause no dearth
Of loyal soldiers’ needs
And our victorious rallying cry
Shall be we want the earth!