You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Friday July 23, 1915
From The New York Times: Strikers Battle Police in Bayonne, Part 1
Yesterday's
New York Times carried a long front-page article describing the July 21st battle between strikers and police in Bayonne in which one young striker was killed.
The New York Times gives the name of the fallen striker as John Stovanchik, an 18 year-old laborer from Bayonne. He was shot in the head during the battle and died later that day in City Hospital.
Hellraisers will feature the entire article in three parts beginning today with part one.
The Battle of Bayonne, Part One
From The New York Times of July 22, 1915:
MILITIA TO QUELL BAYONNE RIOTERS;
1 DEAD, MANY HURT
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Two Regiments Await Order to Subdue Strikers
at Standard Oil's Plant.
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FIVE FIRES START IN WORKS
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Forty Huge Tanks Menaced by Rivulets of
Flame from Cut Feed Pipes.
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PITCHED BATTLE IN STREET
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Mob Routs Police, While Bullets and Stones Fly-
Guards Carrying Rifles Man Stockade.
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Two regiments of New Jersey militia were ready at midnight last night to proceed to Bayonne to quell riots in the strike at the great plant of the Standard Oil Company. Early yesterday morning [July 21st] there were conflicts in which one man was killed, a dozen others were seriously hurt, and many slightly injured, and which ended in the company's guards being driven back within the concrete stockade and the city police practically leaving the field to the strikers.
The efforts of Sheriff Eugene F. Kinkead calmed the strikers in the afternoon, but at night several fires, supposedly incendiary, started in the plant, and until they were under control threatened the entire place.
Mayor Pierre P. Garven asked Governor Fielder for militia early in the day, but the Governor refused to call the troops out without a request from the Sheriff. At night Sheriff Kinkead left for the Governor's Summer home at Sea Girt, and it was understood that the Second Regiment, of Trenton, and the Fourth Regiment of Jersey City, except Company I, which is composed of Bayonne men, were held in readiness. It was also said that the Essex county troop of cavalry might be called out.
[Continued below.]
[Continued from above.]
Calls for Militia.
The Chamber of Commerce of Bayonne asked the Governor for militia protection, and the Texas Oil Company, whose plant, a mile away from that of the Standard, has not been affected by the strike, also asked that the troops be called out.
Director of Public Safety Henry Wilson said that the appeal of the Chamber of Commerce for militia was premature, Sheriff Kinkead held a conference late at night with Governor Fielder and Adjutant General Wilbur F. Sadler at the Sheriff's summer home at Deal Beach. Afterward he said:
While there is some disorder in Bayonne it is not yet of a nature to warrant calling out the National Guard. The Governor is ready to aid us with any relief which may be found necessary.
The company refused to treat with the men unless they first returned to work, and this they would not do. Rival organizers of the American Federation of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World were busy among the strikers, who were unorganized when they went out. Besides the 5,000 employes of the Standard the 2,000 men working for the Vacuum and Tidewater Oil companies had also gone out, and a committee of the Bayonne strikers went yesterday afternoon to the Standard's plant in Linden Township, near Elizabeth, and tried to get the 2,000 men working there to quit.
The officials in Linden said there was no dissatisfaction, and that their men had no affiliations with the Bayonne strikers, but a general meeting of the Elizabeth workmen was called for noon today to hear the arguments of the visitors from Bayonne.
Dead.
STOVANCHIK, JOHN, 18 years old; Prospect Avenue and Twenty-second Street, Bayonne; shot in the head and died in the City Hospital. The strikers believed he was shot by a policeman, but there was no evidence to corroborate this view.
Injured.
CADY, DANIEL, Police Inspector; lacerations all over the body.
HARRIS, SAMUEL, policeman; hit by stone.
LANGTREE, JOHN, policeman; hit by stone.
McGEEHAN, HUGH, policeman; hit by stone.
VAN WOERT, Marvin, policeman; cut by a thrown bottle.
WHITNEY, FRED, policeman; right writs slashed with a knife.
GRAGLIA, MICHAEL, laborer 48 East Twenty-third Street; cut in head.
JIMNEH, JOHN, laborer; shot in the arm.
KARETSKI, MARTIN, laborer; leg broken,
KEEVER, ADAM, laborer; shot in the knee.
MACHAKOS, WALISKA, laborer; shot in the wrist.
POLOCA, FRANK, laborer; shot in the leg.
URNITZ, JOSEPH, laborer; shot in the thigh and abdomen.
Urnitz may die. All of the injured were taken to the City Hospital except Inspector Cady, who went home. It is believed that at fewest thirty other strikers and guards were cut or bruised less seriously than those listed in the rioting of the morning.
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SOURCE
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-July 22, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
http://www.newspapers.com/...
http://query.nytimes.com/...
IMAGE
Bayonne Strike, Police Patrol
http://www.loc.gov/...
See also:
The New Republic
-Aug 14, 1915
"The Bayonne Strike"
https://books.google.com/...
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-Aug 16, 1915
"HIT ROCKEFELLER IN BAYONNE REPORT; Industrial Board's Investigations Lay Strike to Low Wages and Oppression. SHERIFF'S ACTS CRITICISED Findings Given Out by Chairman Walsh Constitute an Arraignment of Standard Oil Methods."
http://query.nytimes.com/...
For more on condition which led to the strike:
"Hellraisers Journal: Bayonne, NJ- 900 Coopers Join Stillcleaners
on Strike at Standard Oil Refinery" by JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
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Dear Readers of Hellraisers,
This year for my vacation, Hellraisers will not be as scaled back as it was for the past two vacations. This happy change is due to my new & much faster computer and to the library of photos, songs, resources, etc, that I have built up over the past 2 and 1/2 years.
The big change that my readers will see, starting July 16th, will be the shorter length of the postings along with fewer links. I'm writing three Hellraisers per day right now and don't have the one or two hours extra that I usually take to find and put in the links.
When my readers find unfamiliar names, places, or events, please use the tags along with JayRaye (in diarist section of search feature). Or just leave a question for me in the comments and I will get back to you.
When I actually leave for Minnesota, I'll let everyone know. My access to computer will be limited while I'm away, probably about twice a week. But I will definitely be checking in.
Solidarity,
JayRaye
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The Road I Must Travel - The Nightwatchmen Tom Morello
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