You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Friday May 19, 1905
Chicago, Illinois - Teamster Strike Continues With City in Turmoil
Today and tomorrow, Hellraisers presents a series of newspapers articles intended to update our readers on the progress of the Chicago Teamsters Strike now engulfing that city in turmoil. We begin today, with this article from the Chicago Daily Tribune of May 10th:
NEGROES PROTEST AGAINST RACE PREJUDICE
IN STRIKE.
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Stirring Speeches Made at Massmeeting Attended by
More than One Thousand Persons.
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More than 1,000 negroes assembled at the Bethel African Methodist church, Thirtieth and Dearborn streets, last night and adopted resolutions read by Mrs. Ida Wells Barnett protesting against the action of the Department Store Drivers' union, which, the resolution asserted, circulated a "slanderous" letter against negro drivers, declaring them to be "loafers," not willing to work.
This charge was denounced as a willful and malicious falsehood urged against men who proved their value by risking their lives to obtain work. The resolutions also called upon the mayor to "save hard working citizens from the kind of protection which lets the rioter go free and sends the victim to the jails and hospitals."
The speakers were the Rev. A. J. Carey, pastor of the church; ex-County Commissioner Edward H. Wright, Dr. George C. Hall, Mrs. Ida Wells Barnett, and George T. Kersey.
"We deplore the fact that in this controversy between labor and capital race prejudice should have a part when there is no race issue in the strike that now holds our city in its grasp," said Mr. Carey.
"As long as the negro remains a law abiding citizen he should have the right to labor and be protected at his labor," said Mr. Wright. "This is a public right and should not be influenced one way or the other because of the color of a man's skin."
Dr. George C. Hall said: "We must be allowed to go upon the streets peacefully and not be subjected to the infamous treatment which we have received at the hands of both these agents. We are not going to ask the people to stop this; we are going to stop it ourselves."
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[Photograph added.]
From the Illinois Rock Island Argus of May 10, 1905
STRIKE DISORDER HALTS FOR
PRESIDENT'S VISIT
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Teamsters and Employes Agree
to be Less Aggressive
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ONLY FOR THE DAY
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Men Decide Against Asking Chief Executive
to Arbitrate
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President Roosevelt
at his home at Oyster Bay
Chicago. May 10.-Representatives of labor have abandoned the plan of petitioning Roosevelt while in Chicago today to use his good offices in bringing about a settlement of the strike. A lengthy petition had been prepared protesting against the use of federal troops.
President Shea said this afternoon:
Roosevelt will not be asked to arbitrate the strike. None of the committee appointed will call on him. We don't see what good it will do labor to asked the president to arbitrate the strike.
Promise Peace and Order.
Chicago, May 10.-Promises of peace and order for today, the president's day, were made by both sides in the teamsters strike. The Employers' Teaming company decided to reduce its teaming and delivery operations, and the teamsters' joint council voted against a general strike, and determined no further sympathetic movements should be made, except in cases where teamsters were ordered to make deliveries to boycotted houses in which event individuals should walk out.
[Photograph added.]
From the Rock Island Argus of May 11, 1905
PRESIDENT HEARS LABOR'S PROTEST
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Expresses Regret at Language Used and
Declares Law Must be Enforced.
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Teamsters' President Cornelius Shea
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Chicago, May 11.-The committee of labor men appointed to call on President Roosevelt and lodge with him the protest against the employment of federal troops during the present teamsters' strike, was granted an audience late yesterday afternoon. Outside of the members of the committee, President Roosevelt and Secretary Loeb, no one was present during the conference. The following account of what passed in the room was given out by Secretary Loeb:
Protest is Present
President Shea presented the protest, accompanying it with a few words of explanation. The president read the protest at once, and then told the committee that no suggestion had come to him from any source that he should take action. He said that he was wholly ignorant of the merits of the case and had no knowledge of what the situation is or what steps should properly be taken to end it. In view of the statements made in the letter, he regretted that it should have spoken of the use of the army as it did.....
Repeated Statement.
The president said:
Mr. Shea, I can only repeat what I have said. I am a believer in unions. I am an honorary member of one union. But the union must obey the law just as a corporation must obey the law; just as every man, rich or poor, must obey the law. As yet no action has been called for by me, and most certainly if action is called for by me I shall try to do exact justice under the law to every man, so far as I have power. But the first essential is the preservation of law and order, the suppression of violence by mobs or individuals.
This closed the interview and the committee withdrew.
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From the Rock Island Argus of May 12, 1905
CHICAGO EMPLOYERS HAVE NEW POLICY;
FACTORIES CLOSED AND MEN LAID OFF
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Business Hurt by Strike is
Argument Put Forward.
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MAKE UP A BLACKLIST
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Those Not Returning to Work by End of Next Week
Permanently Barred.
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From the Chicago Daily Tribune
of May 10, 1905
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Chicago, May 12.-Employers today began the execution of a new policy as to the teamsters strike, the men in the various manufacturing industries being laid off because of lack of business in consequence of the strike.
Send Out Many Wagons.
Hundreds of wagons were sent out today by the strike-bound houses, advertisements for teamsters to "fill permanent positions" filled the newspapers and on every side was evidence of aggressiveness of the employers. Protection was promised to prospective drivers. Most advertisements state that union or nonunion men will be accepted.
Kinsley's restaurant has been turned into a hotel where nonunion teamsters are housed and fed.
Mistaken for Strike Breaker.
Charles Johnson, colored, employed by the Standard Oil company was mistaken for a strikebreaker by a mob in Wentworth avenue and probably fatally injured.
Walter St.Clair, colored, employed by Armour & Co., was attacked by strike sympathizers in Twenty-seventh street and beaten with clubs, blackjacks and other wagons. deputy sheriffs rescued him.
Move 1,900 Wagons.
A total of 1,900 wagons will be moved today by nonunion teamsters under protection of about 4,000 policemen and deputy sheriffs. This is the largest number of guards since the teamsters strike began....
[Photograph added.]
From The Appeal of Saint Paul, Minnesota, May 13, 1905:
THE STRIKE
There were several shooting affairs Sunday which did not result in the serious wounding of any person, but showed that the rough element in the ranks of the teamsters was seeking for opportunities to injure the Afro-American non-union men. At the barn of the Employers' Teaming association, at Eighteenth and Dearborn streets, Albert Wells, an Afro-American driver, was shot in the left wrist by a white man recognized as a union picket.
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Two non-union Afro-American teamsters of the Employers' Teaming Company were painfully hurt and escaped more serious injury only by the interference of the police in a riot today in the alley north of the Olympic theater. The injured men were Wade Crowder, who was cut about the head and face, and John Pitkins, struck on the head by a stone.
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Leon Mandel, a Jew, member of the firm of Mandel Brothers, said Monday:
We do not want the Negro Non-unionist. It was a mistake to import them. They breed jealousies and disturbances which lead to slugging, violence and rioting.
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Sheriff Barrett and county Commissioner Oscar De Priest, who is an Afro-American, had a lively tilt in the office of the sheriff, when De Priest appeared and urged Barrett to appoint several Afro-Americans as deputies. Barrett emphatically refused, declaring that the presence of Afro-Americans as deputies would only incite riot. This angered De Priest and hot words passed between the two county officials.
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Since the swearing in of special deputies began two days ago several Afro-Americans have appeared at the office of the sheriff, asking that they be appointed. They had letters of introduction from De Priest in some instances. They were refused by Chief Deputy Peters, who gave them no reason other than by inference why he could not appoint them.
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The riot press have attempted to make out that the strike is a race war. This is absolutely false. There are Afro-American members in nearly all of the labor unions, including the garment makers' and the teamsters' unions. The Afro-American non-union teamsters have certainly not shown the white feather.
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[Photograph added.]
From the Chicago Broad Ax of May 13, 1905
The Broad Ax, in an editorial last week, came out strongly against Afro-Americans serving as strikebreakers. The other point of view is expressed this week through a letter to the editor:
REFLECTIONS ON THE GREAT
TEAMSTERS STRIKE.
To The Editor:-
A great deal of indignation has been let loose in the past few weeks on the part of the colored people because certain Negro strike-breakers have been beaten and ill-treated while performing the duties of their employment, and because prejudice against the Negro has been intensified somewhat by his taking the places of the striking teamsters.
This indignation is but just and proper. It voices our protest against the unfair and dirty prejudice that would make a "strike-breaker" doubly cursed because he is black. At the same time, it also shows our stand for law and order, and our demand that citizens be protected in their right to work, which is but a part of their liberty.
But this indignation would not amount to a puff of wind, were there not men of our race, fighting for these rights and against this prejudice. The day has not yet come when the world rights wrong when its attention is called to it. No one goes about seeking whom he may help. Every man and every race, and every country, must help itself, must protect its own honor and rights, must fight its own battles, must blaze its own way to the front.
There are colored men who object to the bringing of these rough, burly Negroes from the South, to bear the burden of this industrial strike. They say it means only harm to those of the race already in Chicago; that they will create a greater prejudice here, and, when the white people have settled their differences, the Negroes of Chicago will have to pay, in the years to come, an awful price for the coming of these disturbers from the South. These be indeed, timed [timid?] souls, who would rather bear what ills they have with grace, than struggle for greater truth. They look not beyond today, and care for nothing more than that their own skins should remain whole.
If men have to, and ought to, fight for what they believe to be right,-and that is the only standard-what are they to do when they know they are right! Are they to yield and submit themselves to the tyranny and dictation of those whom they known to be in the wrong? If they do, do they not yield at the same time their manhood, and do they not submit to be branded with the mark of a coward? After such a course, can they expect that any other man or race or nation will respect their rights, or extend to them courteous consideration in their requests or demands? Never! The others will but add insult to insult, and vent their spleen upon this race who, they know, will kiss the hand that smites them.
It has cost treasures in life and money to obtain, to establish, and to keep, almost any human or national right which can be mentioned. Just now the Negro has two things for which he must yet struggle and fight-his citizenship rights, which, indeed, includes the other his right to work. What if it does cost life! or days of unrest? Should we not rather rejoice that since peace has refused her blessing, we have sought it in war?
Is it not true that the courage, the manhood, the determination to do what they lawfully may do, shown by the Negro strike-breakers in Chicago, have raised the Negro in the estimation of the people? Do you not know that doors will open to him now, for this struggle, that otherwise would remain forever closed?
Then let us pay the price, content to know that we are battling for what becomes a man!-B.
[Paragraph breaks added.]
The Broad Ax comments on the meeting held at Bethel Church:
Tuesday evening a meeting was held in Bethel church for the purpose of protesting against the treatment accorded to the Colored men called "Strikebreakers," by the police. Rev. Archibald James Carey, Dr. George C. Hall, Edward H. Wright, and Mrs. Ida Wells-Barnett, provided all the wind power, a resolution was passed denouncing The Chicago Tribune, and The Chicago American for the hostile attitude they have assumed against all Afro-Americans. These are the two leading daily newspapers that the Colored people of Chicago have for many years gladly assisted their owners to become millionaires in preference to supporting their own newspaper. Further comment is not necessary.
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SOURCES
Chicago Daily Tribune
(Chicago Daily Tribune)
-May 10, 1905
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Rock Island Argus
(Rock Island, Ill.)
-May 10, 1905
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
-May 11, 1905
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
-May 12, 1905
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
The Appeal
-May 13, 1905
(Saint Paul, Minnesota)
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
The Broad Ax
-May 13, 1905
(Chicago, Illinois)
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
IMAGES
Ida B Wells-Barnett, Chicago, Illinois
https://stylesource01.wordpress.com/...
Teddy Roosevelt at Sagamore Hill,
his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island
http://tr.amnh.org/...
Cornelius Shea, 1903
http://teamster.org/...
Transporting Scabs
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The Appeal, St Paul, MN, May 13, 1905
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
Broad Ax Banner
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...
See also:
Tag: Chicago Teamsters Strike of 1905
http://www.dailykos.com/...
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Solidarity Forever-UAW
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