The instinct that forces the animals of the jungle to make a bee line for the eats when hungry,
has been chloroformed almost to death in the underdog by civilization
and any old thing that has a tendency to arouse the instinct
would be beneficial to the revolutionary movement.
-Joe Hill
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Saturday February 20, 1915
New York, New York - I. W. W. Continue Fighting for the Unemployed
Despite the Mayor's committee on unemployment headed by Judge Gary, the destitute and hungry unemployed of New York City continue to suffer. The Industrial Workers of the World have attempted to organize the unemployed for the purpose of a rent strike and moratorium on payment of debts until jobs become available. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Smiling Joe Ettor are leading this movement.
From The Washington Herald of February 2nd:
NO JOBS, WILL PAY NO RENT.
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I. W. W. Leaders Plan to Form Union of Unemployed.
Special to The Washington Herald.
New York, Feb. 1-The I. W. W. today took a hand in the unemployment situation in New York City. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, James Larkin, of Ireland, Joseph Ettor, and Frank Stawn Hamilton have opened headquarters and plan to enroll the unemployed in a union without dues.
The slogan of this union is to be "a rent strike; no wages no rent" and "a workers" moratorium: don't pay your debts until the jobs come around.
----------
[photograph added]
The Chronicle-Telegram of Elyria, Ohio, does not like the I. W. W. "butting" into the situation, and clearly wishes the unemployed would starve quietly and without too much fuss about. From the February 4th edition:
No Wages; No Rent; War Cry In New York
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New York, Feb. 4.-A rent strike. "No wages, no rent." A workers' moratorium.
"Don't pay your debts till the jobs come round."
Not satisfied with what the city has accomplished for 300,000 unemployed in establishing a Hotel De Gink and a Mayor's committee, headed by Judge Gary, the I. W. W. is butting into the local situation.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Jim Larkin, late of Ireland; Joe Ettor, late of Ohio, and Frank Strauss Hamilton are beginning a campaign this week whose principal features are set forth in the above quotations from their announcements.
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[photograph added]
And from Chicago, scene of the
Hunger "Riot" last month, we find this statement by Joe Ettor in the
Day Book of February 13th:
THE REAL UNEMPLOYED PARADE
Smiling Joe Ettor
"The real unemployed parade of Chicago is on Michigan avenue," says Joseph J. Ettor, I.W. W. organizer. "It is a parade of people who are not employed, who don't want to be employed. They don't have to work. Others are working for them. The so-called unemployed over on Clark st. and Halsted st. and in the crowds that wait for the want ads to come out are employed at hunting employment. They are the unemployable, the disemployed. The real unemployed parade of the out-of-works and the won't-works is over on the lake front boulevards past the clubs, theaters and style shops."
----------
[photograph added]
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SOURCES
The Washington Herald
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Feb 2, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The Chronicle-Telegram
(Elyria, Ohio)
-Feb 4, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The Day Book
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Feb 13, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
IMAGES
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
http://mobile.ztopics.com/...
IWW Button
http://iww.ca/
Joseph Ettor
http://www.gompers.umd.edu/...
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Joe Hill: Letters From Salt Lake County Jail
Lest we forget Fellow Worker Joe Hill these many long months that he has been confined in the state of Utah, we republish here a few of his letters from January and February of 1915. We find him writing songs, and actively participating in planning the "No Wages; No Rent" Campaign. His Soupline Song has made its way from San Francisco all the way to New York City. "Casey Jones," the song about the union scab, is being sung in far-off London. Joe Hill writes to his friend, Sam Murray:
"Casey Jones," he was an Angelino you know, and I never expected that he would leave Los Angeles at all.
January 3, 1915:
Salt Lake City
Jan. 3, 1915
Dear Gus:
Jud Ricket was telling me the other day he had had two or three contributions from you for the defense fund. You know I never was very sold on the sky pilots, but you're one preacher I'll let into heaven whenever I happen to be tending door. Ricket tells me funds keep coming in and there is going to be enough to finance the appeal clear to the supreme court. I'm still pretty sure no man is worth that much, but if I get sore and tell them to give the money to strike relief somewhere they don't pay any attention, so I have learned to keep still. Keep still and sit still. I'd make a first class toadstool.
I was thinking the other day, when the new year rolled around, that I've been in this calaboose almost a full year, and that's a long time to live on the kind of stew they serve here, The coffee is a little better than you used to make, but not enough to get excited about. Well, when we used to sit in the kitchen and drink that turpentine we never thought that pretty soon you'd be hoeing corn and I'd be where I am. I keep myself in good spirits by reminding myself that the worst is yet to come.
No chance to read anything here. Once a month or so a missionary of some kind comes around with a basket of books, but they're all full of moral uplift and angel food, and I'd rather read old letters over again than waste time on that. The missionary is a lot like you used to be. I think he prays for me.
Write me when you can. One thing this jail has made out of me is a good correspondent.
Your friend
Joe
January 18, 1915:
-
County Jail S.L. C'y
Jan 18-15
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
N.Y.City
Friend & F.W.
Saw your address in the "Sol" and am enclosing a letter for Jos. J Ettor and if you would try to locate him for me I would appreciate it very much. It is a receipt for some money & that's why I am anxious to locate him. While I am at it I want to thank you for what you have done for me and for the interest you have taken in my welfare, but on the square I'll tell you that all the notoriety stuff is making me dizzy in the head and I am afraid I am getting more glory than I really am entitled to. I put in most of the later years among the wharf-rats on the Pacific coast and am not there with the lime light stuff at all. I am feeling well under the circumstances and the boys & girls here are taking care of me like a mother would her first born babe--
With Best Regards to all
I am yours for the O.B.U.
Joe Hill
January 27, 1915:
County Jail, Jan 27-15
S. L. Cy Utah
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn N. Y. Cy
Friend & F. W.
Your optimistic letter rec. o.k. and it certainly was very refreshing to receive a cheerful note. God know that there are enough of gloomy hard-luck reports coming in about conditions in general. The "Workers Moratorium" or Pay-ye-by & by movement is certainly a very bright idea. If it works all right in England I see no reason why it shouldn't be a success in the US. of A. How would it be to have a "certificate" of Moratorium to distribute among the unemployed which they, in turn, would hand to their respective Landlords when they come around for the rent. It may look like a worthless joke, of course, at first, but still if you think it over it has some value. It would show that the No-Rent League was an organized movement and not a temporary notion of an individual. It would also, through its originality attract the attention of the public and of the news-hungry Press.
A committee should also be appointed to visit a the mayor and Judge Gary and tell them that the "Rent Problem" was solved and all the mayor would have to do would be to "recognize" the Certificate of Moratorium and refuse to let the "Law" evict any person holding such a certificated That would take a load of worry off their chests and they wouldn't need to lose any more sleep about the "Rent Problem." If this plan works out all right then the next move would be to tackle the Food Problem and issue certificates "good for one meal" at any swell cafe in town and another one good for one "Dolling up" at the Starvation Army 2nd Hand Store.
The thing the matter with the "Underdog" today is that he has drifted too far away from nature. The instinct that forces the animals of the jungle to make a bee line for the eats when hungry, has been chloroformed almost to death in the underdog by civilization and any old thing that has a tendency to arouse the instinct would be beneficial to the revolutionary movement. If suicide, or attempt to suicide is a crime according to capitalistic laws then the slow suicide by the starvation route most certainly must be a crime of the gravest kind.
Realizing that you have lots of writing to do I do not expect any answer to this letter.
Joe.
Dee-lighted to see in the Papers that young John D. & Guggenheimer are becoming strong union men.
Attached to the above letter was a paper about the size of a playing card:
On one side was printed:
DECLARATION OF MORARORIUM
Our Motto: "No Wages--No Rent."
This is to certify that the holder of this certicate is a worker unable to find employment and is therefore entitled to shelter without the paying of rent until able to secure a position.
(signed) THE WORKERS MORATORIUM LEAGUE OF NEW YORK
And on the other side was a note:
P. S. My idea is to have something in this line printed and give it a kind of a "legal" appearance, that is use the kind of "type" used in legal documents. Then hold a mass meeting for the unemployed and explain the idea to them. Put the scheme up to the "bunch" and see what they think about it anyway. We started the scheme to print a song on the back of a throw away card in S. Pedro and it made a hit.
J.H.
February 13, 1915:
Salt Lake City,
Feb. 13, 1915.
Sam Murray
Friend and Fellow worker;
Should have answered your letter before, but have been busy working on a song named "The Rebel Girl" (Words and Music), which I hope will help line up the women workers in the OBU, and I hope you will excuse me.
I see you made a big thing out that Tipperary song [$50 had been raised in San Francisco selling song cards at 5 cents each]. In fact, a whole lot more than I ever expected, I don't suppose that it would sell very well outside of Frisco, though by the way I got a letter from Swasey in NY and he told me that "Casey Jones" made quite a hit in London and "Casey Jones," he was an Angelino you know, and I never expected that he would leave Los Angeles at all.
The other day we got ten bucks from a company of soldiers stationed on the Mexican line. How is that old top? Maybe they are remembering some of the cigars in glass bottles that they smoked at the expense of the "Tierra e Libertad" bunch.
Don't know much about my case. The Sup. Court will "sit on" it sometime in the sweet bye and bye and that's all I know about it.
Give my best to the bunch. -- Joe Hill
February 19, 1915:
County Jail S. L. Cy Ut.
Feb. 19-15
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn N.Y. Cy
Friend & F.W.
Rec. your welcome letter & am glad to note that there is something doing all the time in "little old N.Y." Yes I realize fully well now how hard it is to get the unemployed to do something for themselves. They are just like the chattel slaves of the south-When John Brown started out to Emancipate them, he found to his surprise that the slaves themselves were the ones that fought him the hardest. But still there are a few who have the nerve & audacity to think that "the World owes them a living" and we are acting accordingly and that is the encouraging feature about it - So the Soupline song made its way clean across the continent and little "Buster" [son of EGF] is joining the chorus with the rest, Eh? Well I hope that when he has grown up to be a big man that there will be no such a thing as a soupline and that wage slaves will be a thing of the past. If F.W. Ashleigh wants to change the "Soupline song" to make it fit the brand of soup that they are dishing out in N.Y. he can hop right to it.
Well its 10 P.M. and I'll have to count the straws in my mattress. Can't afford to lose any of them nohow.
Yours for the OBU
Joe Hill
Best Regard to all.
Have instructed Sec'y here to send data for protest meeting and think he will try to do his best.
I would like to know how the Rent strike comes out in N.Y. somebody around the hall having more time than you have might drop me a line later on & let me know.
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SOURCE
The Letters of Joe Hill
-ed by Philip s Foner
Oak Pub, 1965
IMAGE
Joe Hill
http://www.freedomarchives.org/...
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````Soppkö i Reinfeldts Sverige 2012
Bill Brown was just a working man like others of his kind.
He lost his job and tramped the streets when work was hard to find.
The landlord put him on the stem, the bankers kept his dough,
And Bill heard everybody sing, no matter where he'd go:
CHORUS:
It's a long way down to the soupline,
It's a long way to go.
It's a long way down to the soupline,
And the soup is thin I know.
Good bye, good old pork chops,
Farewell, beefsteak rare;
It's a long way down to the soupline,
But my soup is there.
So Bill and sixteen million men responded to the call
To force the hours of labor down and thus make jobs for all.
They picketed the industries and won the four-hour day
And organized a General Strike so men don't have to say:
The workers own the factories now, where jobs were once destroyed
By big machines that filled the world with hungry unemployed.
They all own homes, they're living well, they're happy, free and strong,
But millionaires wear overalls and sing this little song:
-Joe Hill
Link to explanation of video, translated from Swedish into English
http://translate.google.com/...
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