You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Sunday August 2, 1903
From The Comrade: Part II of "Child Slaves of Philadelphia" by John Spargo
One of the effects of child labor, the illiteracy of adults, I have observed here and in the surrounding towns and villages to a much greater extent than anywhere else in this country. It is by no means an uncommon thing to meet native born Americans of twenty-five years of age, or over, unable to read or write even their own names! What a terrible price to pay for the folly and crime of child labor!
Of course, the first break in the ranks of the strikers took place among the children. Poor children! they entered upon the strike with light hearts. To them it meant a chance to rest; to straighten their little backs. But they were in most cases easily browbeaten by the brutal bosses or their agents. I heard of several cases where mothers took their children — literally dragged them — to the mill gates and forced them inside to "scab." One little fellow I heard of was dragged and beaten by his mother right up to the mill door when he was roughly pulled inside by a bully of a foreman who hurled a volley of curses at the cowering child.. And the burden of the little fellow's cry was "Don't make me scab! I'll die first! Don't make me scab!"
Morally Philadelphia seems to be quite dead. There seems to be no means of rousing it to a sense of shame. "Corrupt and content" in political affairs, it is cruel and content in industrial affairs. Only now, among the textile workers themselves, is there any sign of moral revolt against the infamy of robbing the children of their childhood for profit. There are numerous "reform" societies in the city; there is no dearth of churches or preachers; there is an oversupply of "charitable institutions." But here, as elsewhere, only a small, but happily growing, band of workers — a few Socialists and others whose consciences have been quickened by Socialist propaganda — dare protest against the ruthless slaughter of the children. They alone affirm the right of every child to a free, unhindered access to life's riches of health and joy.
One morning recently I saw a group of small children gazing with awed reverence at the old "Liberty Bell" in the historic "Independence Hall." One little girl of perhaps nine or ten summers had evidently been telling the story of the famous old bell to her younger friends. "So now we's free," I overheard her say. Poor little child! Not yet is Freedom even for babes like you. Not till the brain and heart of the world declares for the Co-operative Commonwealth will there be anything worthy of the holy name. Socialism alone can make the world free and gladsome and beautiful — a fit dwelling for such as you.
SOURCE
The Comrade
-of August 1903
http://archive.org/...
To read on google:
(includes photos of first day of march & a great cartoon of Mother Jones and President Roosevelt.)
Search google books with:
The Comrade: An Illustrated Socialist Monthly, Volume 2
Search the book with:
"Child Slaves of Philadelphia"
Choose page 253
More on John Spargo:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
Saturday August 2, 1913
From The International Socialist Review: A Reply to Comrade Debs
Comrade W. H. Thompson is editor of the
Socialist and Labor Star of Huntington, West Virginia. This is one of the socialist newspapers which was raided and destroyed on the orders of Governor Hatfield. The staff was rounded up and taken to the military Bastille. No wonder, then, that the West Virginia Socialists express much bitterness toward what they call the National Committee's "whitewash" of Governor Hatfield. This letter by Comrade Thompson was previously printed in the
Call. We will reprint this letter over the next three days.
Part I-"Whitewashing a cheap political tool of the capitalist class."
Editor of the Call:
In your issue of June 28 appears an article by Comrade Eugene V. Debs [reprinted in yesterday's Hellraisers], headed "Debs Denounces Vilifiers of West Virginia Committee Report." As one of the parties referred to as "vilifiers," I would like to answer a few of the points made in the article.
The Socialist and Labor Star bitterly condemned the committee's report; it did not publish it, but it did give an explanation for suppressing it, in the following words: "We have never, and will never, devote any of our space to, not even when the whitewash is mixed by a committee representing our own party."
From Comrade Debs' own words I will endeavor to prove that our condemnation of the report was justified. Our charges against the report were that it was a "weak mass of misstatements and a sickening eulogy of Dictator Hatfield." The truth of the last clause of the charge is plainly apparent to everyone who has read the report. The truth of the first clause is well known to all who have taken the trouble to inform themselves regarding the trouble in this state.
Comrade Debs says that when the committee arrived in West Virginia more than sixty of our comrades were in jail and two of our papers were suppressed. All true. Now pay particular attention to dates. The committee arrived in West Virginia on May 17. Hatfield was inaugurated governor on March 4, something over two months previous. These comrades had been held in — or put in — jail at Hatfield's orders, and the papers had been suppressed at his command. Mother Jones, Editor Boswell, National Committeeman Brown, and forty-six other Socialists were placed on trial before a military drumhead court-martial on March 7. On March 9, the Circuit Court of Kanawha County issued a writ forbidding the trial of these prisoners by the militia. The sheriff went into the military zone to serve this writ, only to be met by the Provost Marshal, who, acting under orders from Hatfield, forcibly prevented the serving of the papers, and the drumhead trial proceeded in defiance of the civil courts.
The report of our committee says: "It was under the administration of Glasscock, and not Hatfield, that Mother Jones, C. H. Boswell and John Brown were court-martialed and convicted."
SOURCE
The International Socialist Review
-of August 1913
http://archive.org/...
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Comrade Fred Merrick on the Betrayal of the West Virginia "Red Necks"
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Friday August 2, 2013
From Global Labor and Human Rights: 11 year-old Halima sews clothing for Hanes
Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights
Report: "Child Labor is Back
Children Are Again Sewing Clothing for Major U.S. Companies"
This is a 2006 report, but one does wonder how much has changed.
http://www.globallabourrights.org/...
News from 2013
http://www.globallabourrights.org/...
Turn Around-Harry Belafonte