Violence and the Labor Movement Part 21

[15] _Idem_, p. 20.

[16] _Appleton's Magazine_, October, 1906.

[17] Hillquit, History of Socialism in the United States, pp. 280-281.

[18] Investigation of the Employment of Pinkerton Detectives, Senate Special Committee Report, 1892, p. xiii.

[19] _Idem_, p. ii.

[20] _Idem_, p. xii.

[21] _Idem_, p. xv.

[22] Investigation of the Employment of Pinkerton Detectives: House Special Committee Report, 1892, p. 224.

[23] _Idem_, p. 225.

[24] Report on the Chicago Strike of June-July, 1894, by the United States Strike Commission, p. x.x.xviii.

[25] _Idem_, p. xliv.

[26] _Idem_, p. 356.

[27] _Idem_, p. 370.

[28] _Idem_, p. 397.

[29] _Idem_, pp. 366-367.

[30] _Idem_, p. 371.

[31] _Idem_, p. 368.

[32] _Idem_, pp. 368-369.

[33] _Idem_, p. 372 (from the testimony of Harold I. Cleveland).

[34] _Idem_, p. 360.

[35] Debs, The Federal Government and the Chicago Strike, p. 24 (Standard Publishing Co., Terre Haute, Ind., 1904).

[36] _Idem_, p. 24.

[37] Emma F. Langdon, The Cripple Creek Strike, p. 153 (The Great Western Publishing Co., Denver, 1905).

[38] Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1905, on Labor Disturbances in Colorado, p. 186.

[39] _Idem_, p. 206.

[40] _Idem_, p. 304.

[41] Cf. Clarence S. Darrow, Speech in the Haywood Case, p. 56 (_Wayland's Monthly_, Girard, Kan., October, 1907).

[42] Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1905, on Labor Disturbances in Colorado, p. 192.

[43] C. Dobrogeaunu-Gherea, Socialism _vs._ Anarchism, _New York Call_, February 5, 1911.

[44] Kropotkin, The Terror in Russia, p. 57 (Methuen & Co., London, 1909).

[45] Bamford, Pa.s.sages in the Life of a Radical, Vol. II, p. 14 (T.

Fisher Unwin, London, 1893).

[46] In Bamford's "Pa.s.sages in the Life of a Radical" (T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1893), we find that spies and _provocateurs_ were sent into the labor movement as early as 1815. In Holyoake's "Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life" (Unwin, 1900), in Howell's "Labor Legislation, Labor Movements, Labor Leaders" (Unwin, 1902), and in Webb's "History of Trade Unionism" (Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1902), the work of several noted police agents is spoken of. In Gammage's "History of the Chartist Movement" (Truslove & Hanson, London, 1894) and in Davidson's "Annals of Toil" (F. R. Henderson, London, n.d.) we are told of one police agent who gave b.a.l.l.s and ammunition to the men and endeavored to persuade them to commit murder.

Marx, in "Revolution and Counter-Revolution" (Scribner's Sons, 1896), and Engels, in _Revelations sur le Proces des Communistes_ (Schleicher Freres, Paris, 1901), tell of the work of the German police agents in connection with the Communist League; while Bebel, in "My Life" (Chicago University Press, 1912), and in _Attentate und Sozialdemokratie_ (_Vorwarts_, Berlin, 1905), tells of the infamous work of _provocateurs_ sent among the socialists at the time of Bismarck's repression.

Kropotkin, in "The Memoirs of a Revolutionist" (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, 1899), and in "The Terror in Russia" (Methuen & Co., London, 1909), devotes many pages to the crimes committed by the secret police of Russia, not only in that country but elsewhere. Mazzini, Marx, Bakounin, and nearly all prominent anarchists, socialists, and republicans of the middle of the last century, were surrounded by spies, who made every effort to induce them to enter into plots.

In the "Investigation of the Employment of Pinkerton Detectives: House and Senate Special Committee Reports, 1892"; in the "Report on Chicago Strike of June-July, 1894; U. S. Strike Commission, 1895"; in the "Report of the Commissioner of Labor on Labor Disturbances in Colorado, 1905"; in the "Report of the Industrial Commission, 1901, Vol. VIII", there is a great ma.s.s of evidence on the work of detectives, both in committing violence themselves and in seeking to provoke others to violence.

In "Conditions in the Paint Creek District of West Virginia: Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, U. S.

Senate; 1913"; in "Hearings before the Committee on Rules, House of Representatives, on Conditions in the Westmoreland Coal Fields"; in the "Report on the Strike at Bethlehem, Senate Doc.u.ment No. 521"; in "Peonage in Western Pennsylvania: Hearings before the Committee on Labor, House of Representatives, 1911," considerable evidence is given of the thuggery and murder committed by detectives, guards, and state constabularies. Some of this evidence reveals conditions that could hardly be equaled in Russia.

"History of the Conspiracy to Defeat Striking Molders" (Internatl.

Molders' Union of N. America); "Limiting Federal Injunction: Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate, 1912, Part V"; the report of the same hearings for January, 1913, Part I, "United States Steel Corporation: Hearings before Committee on Investigation, House of Representatives, Feb. 12, 1912"; the "Report on Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, Ma.s.s.: Commissioner of Labor, 1912"; and "Strike at Lawrence, Ma.s.s.: Hearings before the Committee on Rules, House of Representatives, March 2-7, 1912," also contain a ma.s.s of evidence concerning the crimes of detectives and the terrorist tactics used by those employed to break strikes.

Alexander Irvine's "Revolution in Los Angeles" (Los Angeles, 1911); F.

E. Wolfe's "Capitalism's Conspiracy in California" (The White Press, Los Angeles, 1911); Debs's "The Federal Government and the Chicago Strike"

(Standard Publishing Co., Terre Haute, Ind., 1904); Ben Lindsey's "The Rule of Plutocracy in Colorado"; the "Reply of the Western Federation of Miners to the 'Red Book' of the Mine Operators"; "Anarchy in Colorado: Who Is to Blame?" (The Bartholomew Publishing Co., Denver, Colo., 1905); the _American Federationist_, April, 1912; the _American Federationist_, November, 1911; Job Harriman's "Cla.s.s War in Idaho" (_Volks-Zeitung_ Library, New York, 1900), Emma F. Langdon's "The Cripple Creek Strike"

(The Great Western Publishing Co., Denver, 1905); C. H. Salmons' "The Burlington Strike" (Bunnell & Ward, Aurora, Ill., 1889); and Morris Friedman's "The Pinkerton Labor Spy" (Wilshire Book Co., New York, 1907), contain the statements chiefly of labor leaders and socialists upon the violence suffered by the unions as a result of the work of the courts, of the police, of the militia, and of detectives. "The Pinkerton Labor Spy" gives what purports to be the inside story of the Pinkerton Agency and the details of its methods in dealing with strikes. Clarence S. Darrow's "Speech in the Haywood Case" (_Wayland's Monthly_, Girard, Kan., Oct., 1907) is the plea made before the jury in Idaho that freed Haywood. Only the oratorical part of it was printed in the daily press, while the crushing evidence Darrow presents against the detective agencies and their infamous work was ignored.

Capt. Michael J. Schaack's "Anarchy and Anarchists" (F. J. Schulte & Co., Chicago, 1899); and Pinkerton's "The Molly Maguires and Detectives"

(G. W. Dillingham Co., New York, 1898) are the nave stories of those who have performed notable roles in labor troubles. They read like "wild-west" stories written by overgrown boys, and the manner in which these great detectives frankly confess that they or their agents were at the bottom of the plots which they describe is quite incredible.

"The Chicago Martyrs: The Famous Speeches of the Eight Anarchists in Judge Gary's Court and Altgeld's Reasons for Pardoning Fielden, Neebe and Schwab" (Free Society, San Francisco, 1899), contains the memorable message of Governor Altgeld when pardoning the anarchists. In his opinion they were in no small measure the dupes of police spies and the victims of judicial injustice. I have dealt at length with Thomas Beet's article on "Methods of American Private Detectives" in _Appleton's Magazine_ for October, 1906, but it will repay a full reading. "Coeur d'Alene Mining Troubles: The Crime of the Century"

(Senate Doc.u.ment) and "Statement and Evidence in Support of Charges Against the U. S. Steel Corporation by the American Federation of Labor"

are perhaps worth mentioning.

I have not attempted to give an exhaustive list of references, but only to call attention to a few books and pamphlets which have found their way into my library.

[47] Quoted by August Bebel in _Attentate und Sozialdemokratie_, p. 12.

[48] Limiting Federal Injunctions: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 1913, Part I, p. 8.

CHAPTER XII

[1] Sombart, Socialism and the Socialist Movement, p. 176.

[2] Liebknecht, Karl Marx: Biographical Memoirs, p. 46.