My friends, it is solidarity of labor we want.
We do not want to find fault with each other,
but to solidify our forces and say to each other:
"We must be together; our masters are joined together
and we must do the same thing."
-Mother Jones
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Monday June 5, 1905
From the Chicago Broad Ax: Race Riots Are a Disgrace to the City
From The Broad Ax of May 27th:
WHOSE RACE WAR IS IT?
It is only in a figurative and exaggerated sense that there is any race war in Chicago. If the Negroes were as numerous here as they are in the south they would probably be treated worse than they are there, and we should have a race war in the literal sense, but at present all we have is a series of riots between whites and blacks, accompanied by murder, which are a disgrace to the city.
It is possible that these disturbances have been occasioned by the Negroes who were brought to the city by the Employers' Teaming association, but they were only the innocent occasion of them, just as the apostle Paul's appearance in Ephesus was the occasion of the tumult involving the whole population. The Negroes came here to earn an honest living by honest work and they had just as much right to come to this city as President Roosevelt had.
Most of these Negroes were peaceable and went about their work in the most orderly and well-behaved manner possible. It was not until scores of them had been frightfully beaten and several of them murdered that they showed any pugnacity. If they have even now exhibited any riotous inclinations it is because they have been slugged, stabbed and shot into resentment by white men.
It follows that the blame of the so-called race war rests upon these white men and still more on the yellow newspapers of William R. Hearst, which have for several weeks past systematically incited them to violence. The white men referred to are the pickets and other members of the teamsters' union and the means by which they have been incited to assault, beat and kill these honest workmen are hideous pictures, the shameless falsehoods and the reckless denunciations of Hearst's newspapers.
Without justifying in the least any act of violence of which these colored teamsters may have been guilty, we must say that there is nothing surprising in their lawless attitude nor in the riotous excitement that prevailed last Sunday among the colored people of Armour avenue. It is exactly what might have been expected from two scurrilous newspapers whose circulation is chiefly among Negroes and among white people who are a much lower class than the Negroes, and the worst of Negroes at that.
The police department is entitled to great credit for the summary manner in which they put down the "race war" last Sunday, and we hope Mayor Dunne and Chief O'Neill will not feel hurt if we remark that it was in sharp contrast with the manner in which they utterly failed to put down the strike riots.
Our police force is always brave and effective except when it is opposed by the labor union rioters and murderers.-The Chicago Chronicle.
The Chronicle deserves the highest commendation for possessing the courage to speak the absolute truth in these exciting times, while racial prejudice is running very strong against all classes of colored people residing in this city.
In the majority of cases the whites are to blame themselves for the unlawful acts and crimes committed on the part of the Negroes. For since the beginning of the teamsters' strike it has been impossible for any respectable colored man, woman or child to ride or walk in any section of the city without being grossly insulted and many times assaulted by that class of whites who claim to be educated and civilized.
In many instances the police have stood idly by and permitted the so-called better element of the whites to assault colored people-to drag them from the street cars-to beat them up and otherwise mistreat them, simply to furnish them with amusement, and as long as some of the police encourage lawlessness on the part of the whites respecting the colored people; the only wonder is that more Negroes do not commit acts of violence and arm themselves to protect their wives, their children and their lives.
Lastly, let the decent Afro-Americans from henceforth absolutely refuse to support in any manner, shape or form, such Negro-hating sheets and The Chicago American and The Chicago Tribune.
-----
The Broad Ax on the Role of Clarence Darrow:
Clarence S. Darrow Is Attorney For The Chicago American,
Mayor Edward F. Dunne, and the Striking Teamsters.
Clarence S. Darrow, at the present time, is the one man in Chicago who is between the devil and the deep sea, for he is the attorney for the Chicago American and as such he is closer to William R. Hearst than any other living man and if he was inclined, he could change the policy or the course of the "Nigger" hating sheet and breeder of race riots, anarchy and lawlessness in the twinkling of an eye.
As the attorney for Mayor Dunne, Mr. Darrow could advise him to adopt a more vigorous policy in dealing with the striking teamsters and the lawless element which are backing them up, and either crush out or end the strike at once, or call out the state troops to handle the strikers and to fill every man full of lead and powder who participates in race riots and other unlawful acts in connection with the strike.
And as the attorney for the striking teamsters and their leaders, he should advise them, that other people residing in this city, possess some rights which they should be taught to respect, even if it is necessary to resort to fire-arms in the hands of expert marksmen in order to shoot this idea into their heads.
If, Mr. Darrow is actuated by a high sense of honor, it ought to be perfectly apparent to him that he cannot successfully serve three separate and distinct masters at the same time, and if he wants to continue to represent the striking teamsters and The Chicago American, which should be spurned aside by all respectable colored people, then let him cut loose from Mayor Dunne.
-----
From the Duluth Labor World of June 3, 1905:
Hellraisers was pleased to find a voice from the labor movement which addressed the evils of race prejudice. However, we do feel that the violence perpetrated against the Afro-American strikebreakers, their families, and even their communities in Chicago should have been strongly condemned and in no uncertain terms. Hellraisers is against all strikebreaking under all circumstances. But violence against scabs is never justified.
We should never forget that once the strike is over, the scab becomes our fellow worker once more, and all of our efforts should then be directed toward reconciliation with and organization of those fellows workers.
RACE PREJUDICE.
Among the many vexed questions which this nation has to face none is more prominent nor the solution thereof more vague or uncertain than is the race problem. This question is all the more serious owing to its complexity, involving, as it does, political, social and economic phases.
The prejudice against the colored man in America-for it exists nowhere else-has two causes: the first of these is the former status of the negro as a slave, and of the white man as master. Slavery has ceased to exist and before the law all races are equal, yet the reluctance of the dominant class to receive on equality that class which it so recently held in bonds, and which has not yet emerged from its degradation, is as natural as it is unchristian. Time, bringing with it the culture of the individual, both black and white, alone can aid here. This cause includes the social and political aspects of the question.
The second occasion of prejudice against the negro is economic, and arises in the breast of the white wage-earner from the presence of the colored man as a competitor in the field of labor. All too frequently examples of this are seen as in the Chicago teamsters' strike. Under the existing industrial system, which engenders a surfeit of labor, each additional competitor in the labor market, forced by necessity to offer his labor power for the bare price of sustenance, forces down the level of wages and becomes an embarrassment and menace to every other labor. This is particularly true of the negro, whose scale of living is generally lower than that of the white. As he can, and will work for less wages, so proportionately is the animosity of his white fellow worker kindled against him.
This latter occasion for prejudice can be removed by granting absolute economic equality for white and black, covering perfect uniformity not only in opportunities for labor and the admission of both races into trade unions on equal terms, but also in all those public services, such as education, transportation, entertainment, etc., which may be collectively rendered.
The other is more difficult. The drawing of social caste distinctions must be left to the private individual alone. The white man may gradually learn that, real as his feeling of repulsion for his black brother may be, it is a base and ignoble thing, an occasion not of pride but of shame. The negro must learn that no legal mandate can confer on him a standing or secure for him a consideration he has not as an individual fully earned and wholly merited. Even then he must accustom himself to denial, while still asserting with courage and persistence the justice of his claims.
-----
[Paragraph break added.]
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SOURCES
The Broad Ax
(Chicago, Illinois)
-May 27, 1905
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-June 3, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGE
Clarence Darrow
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/...
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Samuel Gompers Threatens "Race Hatred"
From the American Federationist of September 1905:
TALKS ON LABOR.
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ADDRESSES AT ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS.
By Samuel Gompers.
[Many requests are received at headquarters of the American Federation of Labor from men in the ranks of labor intensely interested in the study of the labor movement and the economic problem with which it deals. These inquiries also come frequently from professors, students, and others engaged in the study of the economic problem. Most of these requests for information are coupled with an inquiry as to the attitude of the American Federation of Labor. It is with the object of furnishing this information in the most concrete and public form that the following addresses and talks on labor are published.]
SURROUNDED on the stage by many of the most active of the leaders of the union movement, Samuel Gompers, president of the A. F. of L., made his bow on Wednesday [May 24th] evening at Mozart Hall before the St. Paul public. Among those present who are not identified with the movement of organized labor was Mayor Robert A. Smith, who was evidently much pleased with the address of President Gompers. He was quick to applaud every strong point made by the speaker throughout....
The speaker declared he was always ready to assert his patriotism on behalf of the colored man, saying: "'Tis true that some white men have been angered at the introduction of black strike breakers. I have stood as a champion of the colored man and have sacrificed self and much of the movement that the colered man should get a chance. But the Caucasians are not going to let their standard of living be destroyed by negroes. Chinamen, Japs, or any others."
Mr. Gompers said that the stories about the riot and bloodshed accompanying labor strikes reminded him of the moving pictures which had been presented to the audience that evening. The pictures themselves were but small, but when brought under the influence of the light played on them they were vastly increased in the proportion the various figures were made to assume. The boy and the girl took on the proportions of the man and woman, the man and woman were giants, and the cow was a hippopotamus. Such was an illustration of the light in which the daily press presented everything that might operate to the discredit of the union movement...
—Union Advocate, St. Paul, Minn.
[...]
SPEAKS TO BIG AUDIENCE IN MINNEAPOLIS.
Samuel Gompers, president of the A. F. of L., delivered a masterly address on the labor problem to over 2,500 people who crowded the big Auditorium. The address was a practical demonstration of the subject from a labor point of view.
It was enlivened with witty sallies, and the attention of the audience was held by the speaker every moment throughout his discourse.
Mr. Gompers is a man of fine figure and striking appearance. Upon taking the stage, he is one who at once creates a favorable impression....
Attitude Toward Strikes.
The speaker spoke of the right of organized labor to strike. He said that labor must be in a position to go to battle when war is forced upon it.
Mr. Gompers spoke pointedly of the strike breaking in Chicago by negroes. He stated that organized labor desired no controversy with the negroes; "but," he said, "if the colored man continues to lend himself to the work of tearing down what the white man has built up, a race hatred worse than any ever known before will result. Caucasian civilization will serve notice that its uplifting process is not to be interfered with in any such way."...
-Minneapolis Journal, May 24.
Minneapolis Journal
(Minneapolis, Minnesota)
-May 25, 1905
(Source for date of St Paul speech.)
http://www.newspapers.com/...
American Federationists
(Washington, DC)
-September 1905
https://books.google.com/...
"Talks on Labor" by S. Gompers
https://books.google.com/...
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A Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke
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