American Federation of Labor

Hellraisers Journal: The Outlook on the Youngstown Strike, Private Detectives & Immigrant Workers

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

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Thursday January 20, 1916
From The Outlook: Speculations on Causes of Youngstown Strike & Riot

From The Outlook of January 19th:

YOUNGSTOWN: THE STRIKE
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Youngstown Steel Strike of 1915-16, Ohio National Guard patrols ruins after Jan 7, 1916.png
Ohio National Guard on duty in ruins of East Youngstown.
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If it is true, and we have not seen it contradicted, that the battle in Youngstown, Ohio, in which several men were shot dead and many others wounded was one between detectives hired by employers, and strikers, and was on the public street, then that fight and those deaths were a disgrace to town, county, and State. Private detectives, hired by one party to a quarrel, are not the guardians of public order; they correspond rather to the paid bravos of mediaeval private war.

Hellraisers Journal: East Youngstown Steel Strike Settled, Offer of 10% Wage Increase Accepted

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

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Friday January 14, 1916
East Youngstown, Ohio - Steel Strike Settled with 10 Percent Wage Increase

From the January 12th edition of the Decatur Herald of Illinois:

EAST YOUNGSTOWN STRIKE IS SETTLED
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Men Vote to Accept Company's Offer
of 10 Per Cent Increase in Wages
and to Return.
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FLYNN'S CHARGES DENIED
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Grand Jury Investigates Trouble and Calls
Employers and Union Leaders.
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Youngstown Steel Strike, Ruins, The Decatur Herald, IL, Jan 12, 1916.png
Militia patrolling burned district.
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Hellraisers Journal: Report of Ohio State Investigation Vindicates Labor in East Youngstown Riot

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

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Wednesday January 12, 1916
From The Day Book: State Investigation Vindicates Labor at East Youngstown

The state of Ohio, upon an order issued by Governor Willis, is investigating the recent strike disturbances at East Youngstown, Ohio. Attorney A. M. Henderson of Mahoning County who is conducting the investigation has issued a report which vindicates labor. Tuesday's Chicago Day Book, 2nd edition, reported the news:


LABOR VINDICATED IN THE
YOUNGSTOWN RIOTS
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East Youngstown, OH, Burning, Jan 7, 1916.png
East Youngstown Burning, January 7-8, 1916
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Hellraisers Journal: Walsh Report Vindicated by Rebuke from Philanthropists’ Organ, The Survey

Let the voice of the people be heard.
Albert Parsons

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Sunday January 9, 1916
From The Labor World: Rebuke of Walsh Report by The Survey Taken as Vindication

Roosevelt NJ meeting with Mother Jones, Jan 1915.png
Mother Jones meets with women and children after Roosevelt Massacre

Apparently, the professional philanthropists do-gooders of The Survey are concerned that the employing class has not been given a fair shake by the Manly Report, prepared as a summary of the findings of the Commission on Industrial Relations. This report has been signed by all three of Labor's representatives on the Commission as well as by its Chairman, Frank P. Walsh, to his everlasting credit.

One might consider that impartiality is no longer called for after hours and hours of testimony from plain-spoken working men and women who described the daily despair of working long hours at starvation wages. Not to mention the horrific testimony which followed upon the Ludlow Massacre, the Roosevelt Massacre, and the shooting down of working people in strikes too numerous to mention here. Nevertheless, The Survey, through the pen of John A. Fitch, rebukes the Manly Report as sounding too much like "an extended editorial in the labor press."

Perhaps Mr. Fitch is concerned that the employing class with its company controlled governors who control the state militias, the county sheriffs who deputized the company gunthugs, and the major newspapers, owned and operated by the employers for the employers, have not adequately represented the interests of the class which rules America.

The concerns of the professional philanthropists are duly noted
in the January 8th edition of The Labor World:

Hellraisers Journal: Ralph Chaplin on Joe Hill's Funeral from the International Socialist Review

The murdering of martyrs has never yet made
a tyrant's place secure.
-Ralph Chaplin

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Monday January 3, 1916
From the International Socialist Review: Ralph Chaplin on Joe Hill's Funeral

In the latest edition of the Review, Fellow Worker Ralph Chaplin offers this account of the funeral of our martyred rebel songwriter which was held in Chicago this past Thanksgiving Day, November 25th:

Joe Hill Funeral, West Side Auditorium, ISR Jan 1916.png

JOE HILLS FUNERAL

By RALPH CHAPLIN

Hellraisers Journal: IWW Plans to Organize Timber Workers of Northern Minnesota from HQ in Duluth

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

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Thursday December 30, 1915
From The Labor World: I. W. W. to Begin Organizing Drive Among Timber Workers

The Labor World of Duluth, Minnesota, recently warned the American Federation of Labor that the Industrial Workers of the World intends to begin organizing the Timber Workers of Northern Minnesota. We would note that no great concern has, of yet, been demonstrated by the A. F. of L. for these underpaid and overworked migratory workers, that is, not until the I. W. W. arrived upon the scene.

From The Labor World of December 25, 1915:


I. W. W. ISSUES APPEAL TO TIMBER WORKERS
OF NORTHERN MINNESOTA TO ORGANIZE;
A. F. OF L. SHOULD GET BUSY WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY

Timber Beasts in bunk house near Hibbing, MN, about 1915-1917.png

The American Federation of Labor should pay some attention to the appeal of The Labor World to organize the timber workers of Northern Minnesota, before it is too late. Already the I. W. W. is making a strenuous effort to organize these men. Headquarters have been opened at 907 West Michigan street. They are in charge of Arthur Boose. A strong appeal has been issued to the timber workers to organize under the I. W. W. by J. A. McDonald of Virginia [a city on the Minnesota Iron Range].

The appeal is in printed form and states that the timber barons are employing young men and are discarding all of the old men to become "hobos, vagrants and bums."

[The appeal continued:]

The boss has thrown them to one side to starve, as they may, to die as they can. Those worn out timber beasts are pictures of their future.

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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Hellraisers Journal: United Mine Workers Supports Western Federation of Miners in Arizona Strike

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

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Sunday December 26, 1915
From The Arizona Republican: Mother Jones Raising Contributions for Clifton-Morenci Strikers

The Arizona Republican of December 23rd reports that the United Mine Workers of America has now taken on the cause of the Clifton-Morenci Strikers in Arizona. The strike has been on since September and is being led by the Western Federation of Miners. Mother Jones, it is reported, leads fund raising efforts in the middle west district, which district is raising large contributions for the striking miners:

UNITED MINE WORKERS HELP
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Mother_Jones__Boston_Globe__Jan_30__1915.png

From fifteen to twenty thousand dollars monthly is being contributed to the relief of the striking miners in the Clifton-Morenci district by the United Mine Workers of America. A concerted movement, inaugurated by officials of the Mine Workers, has resulted in the raising of funds by practically every local in the organization. Some of these donations are sent in by the locals as soon as collected and in other instances the contributions come as from districts.

Following the endorsement of the strike by the American Federation of Labor in convention at San Francisco, James Lord, president of the mining department of the federation took up the matter of securing aid for the strikers. Representatives of the United Mine Workers soon afterwards visited the district and members of the executive board, upon receiving individual reports approved the work and suggested that it be handled by districts.

Mother Jones, on the payroll of the United Mine Workers, is in charge of the work of raising funds in the middle west district. The contributions from her district are said to be larger than from almost any other section, although the Illinois district is contributing largely.

Hellraisers Journal: Edith Wyatt on "The Chicago Clothing Strike" in Harper's Weekly, Illustrated

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

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Wednesday December 15, 1915
From Harper's Weekly: Edith Wyatt on the Chicago Clothing Strike & Special Police Guards

In the December 11th edition of Harper's, Edith Wyatt offers the following account of the Chicago Garment Workers Strike, now ongoing in that city, along with news regarding police brutality, and some history on the practice of arbitration in the needle-work trades:

The Chicago Clothing Strike

by EDITH WYATT
Chicago Garment Workers Strike of 1915, Harpers Wkly, Dec 11.png

"THE story of civilization,” says Norman Angell in Arms and Industry, “is the story of development of ideas.”

One of the most interesting chapters of that chronicle is the narrative of the development of the idea of industrial arbitration in this country, in opposition to the idea of industrial war. Chicago is now watching intently a bitter contest between these two principles in one of her greatest industries, her trade in men’s clothing, a business truly enormous, the value of its product in this city being rated in the last census at over eighty five million dollars.

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