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Wednesday January 24, 1906
From the Reading Times: Mother Jones Speaks to Large Gathering on Socialism

A large crowd gathered in Reading, Pennsylvania, Monday evening to hear Mother Jones speak. Tuesday's Reading Times reported the event:

LABORS' STRUGGLE FOR AN EXISTENCE
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THEME OF EARNEST APPEAL MADE BY "MOTHER" JONES,
BEFORE LARGE AUDIENCE IN THE COURT HOUSE.
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The main room of the Court House was scarce large enough to accommodate the crowd of citizens who gathered there last evening to hear "Mother" Jones expound her theories of socialism. The meeting was held under the auspices of Local Reading, of the Socialist party, and, although the meeting was announced for 8 o'clock, half an hour before that time men and women began to gather and before the hour of opening, every seat in the auditorium was taken and as many were standing as could crowd into the aisles. The space within the bar was also filled with men and women.

As the clock struck the hour of 8, T. J. Netheary, who presided during the session, called the gathering to order and briefly stated the purpose of the meeting. He felt highly honored by so large and intelligent an audience having gathered to hear live issues discussed. The meeting, he said, was being held under the auspices of Socialists, who had met to give vent to the opinions held by millions of people today. Socialism is the same the world over, and represents the only philosophy which, if put into practice, will bring relief to down-trodden mankind. To attain liberty and freedom is the goal of all well thinking people. The only difference is in the method to reach this end. The Socialist is not a pessimist, but verily believes the dawn is coming and is striving heartily to hasten that day.

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Friday December 31, 1915
From the Archives of the Industrial Worker: The "Life" of the Migratory Timber Worker

As the Industrial Workers of the World begins a campaign to organize the timber workers of Northern Minnesota, Hellraisers offers this account of the life of a migratory timber worker from an anonymous logger, originally published in the Industrial Worker of July 2, 1910. The conditions under which the "timber beasts" live and work have not improved much, if at all.

WHO SAID A LOGGER LIVES?

The question has often been asked: "What constitutes living?" If it is the mere fact that we have life in our bodies and are plodding along in search of a job with our blankets on our back, then we are all living.

If "living" means to have all the good things of life, all the comforts of a home, and a life guarantee that such comforts shall continue as long as we are willing to do our share of the work, then we are not living, but simply saving funeral expenses.

It is estimated that there are 50,000 loggers along the Pacific coast, and it is a conservative statement to make that not one percent of them can say that their home consists of anything better than a dirty bunk furnished by the boss and a roll of blankets that they are compelled to tote about from pillar to post, many times only to make room for another toiler who has left $2 for the job in the tender care of the fat Employment Hog, who will divvy up with the foreman or superintendent. This is incentive enough to soon discharge him, so that a new recruit can be divorced from his $2, and so this endless chain of men tramping to and from the employment shark and the job.

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Wednesday December 22, 1915
From the International Socialist Review: No Budget, No Problem for the Agricultural Workers' Organization

From the Review of December 1915:

A NEW CHAPTER IN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

By J. A. Macdonald

THIS is the story of the success of the Agricultural Workers' organization. This story is not finished, it cannot be till the doomed industrial system of today has also been damned and over thrown. It is the story of the moving of the propaganda of revolutionary industrial unionism from the open forum and the street corner, to the primary theater of the industrial revolution—the job.

The wise men of the labor movement—generally too wise to work—the philosophers of the easy chair and the big salary, said the migratory worker could not be organized. They said the work was too casual. A union for them would have to be too migratory. It would have to have its office in a box car.

The Powell memorandum told the Republicans to go forth and use ownership of media and industry by the super-rich to change American popular culture from top to bottom — in order to put a stop to the social and political ferment of the Sixties and Seventies, crush the so-called counterculture, and try to make any revival of such developments impossible once and for all.

A few years ago Ron Paul made a somewhat controversial statement.