You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Saturday July 24, 1915
From The New York Times: Strikers Battle Police in Bayonne, Part Two
Thursday'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 is featuring the entire article in three parts. Today we offer the second part of the article.
The Battle of Bayonne, Part Two
From The New York Times of July 22, 1915:
Three Plants Shut Down.
The entire Bayonne plant of the Standard Oil Company, which occupies a square mile at Constable Hook, was shut down on Tuesday [July 20th] after about a fourth of the 5,000 laborers had struck for a 15 per cent increase in wages and what they considered fairer treatment by the foremen. At day break yesterday [July 21st] crowds gathered in east Twenty-second Street, where there are the main entrances to the plants of the Standard, Tidewater, and Vacuum Oil Companies, and here union pickets were waiting. The strikers asserted that the two other oil companies were subsidiaries of the Standard, and although this was denied by their officers, several hundred of the Tidewater's workmen quit early in the morning. Both plants were shut down, which added 2,000 to the workmen out.
The Standard plant was guarded by 150 guards, armed with clubs. The strikers crowded along East Twenty-second Street in the early morning, and the presence of almost the entire Bayonne police force, seventy-five in number, under Inspector Cady, who was unpopular because of his part in minor conflicts on Tuesday, incensed the striking workmen.
The first conflict occurred at 7:30 o'clock, when seventy-five guards suddenly sallied out from the entrance to the plant in Avenue J and swarmed into East Twenty-second Street to disperse 200 strikers in front of the works. The strikers joined battle with enthusiasm, and there occurred a melee with clubs and bricks in which a number of persons were slightly hurt. The guards were driven back across the tracks of the Central Railroad of New Jersey toward the plant. At the main gate they were reinforced by forty policemen, who used their clubs, but the strikers drove the whole body back into the plant.
This success gave the strikers courage, and they crowded East Twenty-second Street in increasing numbers. The firehouse of Engine Company 4 is in Twenty-second Street, and in front of this the strikers surged back and forth.
At about 10 o'clock Inspector Cady gathered sixty policemen to clear the street. As his force advanced on the crowd 100 guards issued from the main entrance of the Standard plant to assist him, and the strikers concluded that the two forces had much the same footing. Later Sheriff Kinkead ordered the arrest of many of the guards who took part in the sortie, on the ground that they had no right to appear armed with clubs outside the Standard plant.
[Continued below.]
[Continued from above.]
Fugitive in Swamp Stoned.
The first assault of the guards and police was a failure, the guards being scattered on all sides. One man fled through a swamp at the end of East Twenty-second Street and fell into a ditch used for drawing off waste oil. Strikers stoned him there and inflicted serious injuries. He escaped and staggered up a pile of cinders some fifty feet high, and here he buried himself until the mob went away, believing he had been suffocated. After the coast was clear he squirmed out and got back to the plant.
The main body of the guards retreated in safety, but two parties were cut off. Fifteen men escaped into the plant of the Tidewater Company, further down the street. Here the doors were closed against the pursuing mob, which burned down a watchman's house at the gate. A dozen others fled to the fire engine house, where they were reinforced by policemen who backed up against the wall, and fired revolvers into the crowd, Inspector Cady drove up in a buggy and tried to force his way through. His horse was wounded by one of the few bullets fired by the strikers, and he clambered out of the buggy under a shower of stones, fought his way to the shelter of the police guard, and was dragged into the fire house.
An ambulance from the City Hospital got through the crowd and Cady was placed in it. As it drove away the crowd let go a shower of stones which shattered the upper part of the vehicle, Cady, lying on the floor, fired out of the rear of the ambulance which proceeded to Police Headquarters, where Cady was treated.
The fighting subsided after Cady left. It was in this melee that Stovanchik was shot.
~~~~~~~~~~
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, Strikers in Battle with Police
https://en.wikipedia.org/...
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
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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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Hold the Fort-One of Labor's Oldest Songs
We meet today in Freedom's cause,
And raise our voices high;
We'll join our hands in union strong,
To battle or to die.
Chorus:
Hold the fort for we are coming-
Union men, be strong.
Side by side we battle onward,
Victory will come.
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