On tour to build the I.W.W. during the Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone trial, and fresh from the Goldfield fight, Vincent St. John’s stops in Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Pittsburgh, New Castle, and Troy in the summer of 1907.

‘St. John’s to Speak’ from The Weekly People (S.L.P.). Vol. 17 No. 18. July 27, 1907.

ST. JOHN TO SPEAK IN CHICAGO, CLEVELAND, PITTSBURG, AND NEW YORK.

Organizations In Charge Call Upon Workers to Assist in Their Respective Cities -Each Meeting to Be Addressed by the Stuttgart Representative of the I.W.W. Will Be Made a Great Success.

ST. JOHN IN CHICAGO. Chicago, Illinois, arrangements are complete for the monster mass meeting which Vincent St. John, the delegate of the I.W.W. to the Stuttgart International Socialist Congress, will address here on next Saturday, the 27th, on his way to New York to embark for Europe. The spacious auditorium of Uhlich’s Hall, 27 North Clark street, has been hired for the meeting, which will be called to order at 7:30 P.M. A monster audience is expected and the hall was chosen accordingly. The visit of St. John to Chicago has already raised a wave of eagerness among the working class here, to see and hear this staunch defender of true labor unionism. St. John’s sterling services to the revolutionary element in last year’s I.W.W. Convention; his subsequent slugging by the Sherman-Boland detectives; his arrest on the trumped up charge of murdering saloon keeper Silva at Goldfield; his manful fight against reaction in the recent Goldfield labor troubles; and finally his recent efforts in behalf of Industrial Union- ism in the convention of the Western Federation of Miners in Denver, all combine to make St. John a prominent figure in the movement, and interest runs high in his coming address here.

ST. JOHN IN CLEVELAND. Vincent St. John, of Goldfield, Nevada, the well-known unflinching revolutionist and stalwart of the Western Federation of Miners, will speak in Cleveland, O., on Tuesday, July 30th, at 8 p.m. at Acme Hall (formerly Germania Hall), July 21. All under the auspices of the Cleveland District Council, I.W.W. Admission is free. We take it for granted that every Socialist and I.W.W. man, as well as the many friends and sympathizers of both the I.W.W. and S.L.P., will avail himself of this rare opportunity to see and hear the loyal servant of his class. St. John, like Haywood, Moyer, and Pettibone, was among those whom the Mine Owners’ Association is trying to railroad to the gallows or the penitentiary on the trumped up charge of “conspiracy to commit murder.” Cleveland should give St. John a most hearty welcome! Don’t let the hot weather be an excuse for your absence. Germania Hall is as cool place as any that can be found in Cleveland. Fellow workers of Cleveland! Turn out in full force to hear St. John and don’t forget place and date of meeting: Tuesday, July 30th, at 8 p. m., Germania Hall, Erie street.

ST. JOHN IN PITTSBURG. A public meeting to be addressed by Vincent St. John, has been arranged for Wednesday, July 31st, 8 p.m., at Central Turner Hall, Forbes street, Pittsburg, Pa. All workingmen and women should come and hear something about the labor war in Colorado and Idaho, and the famous Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone case, Admission free. Local 215, I.W.W.

ST. JOHN IN NEW YORK The I.W.W. Headquarters League: will hold its grand annual picnic this year on SATURDAY, August 3rd, 2 p. m., at Doerlinger’s Park, Southeast corner of 147th street and Southern Boulevard, Bronx. VINCENT ST. JOHN, of Goldfield, Nevada, the delegate of the Industrial Workers of the World to the Stuttgart International Socialist Congress, will deliver an address, Dancing starts at 5 p.m. I.W.W. music. Bowling for cash prizes. The Council drawing will take place on this occasion. Tickets, 25 cents. Children free. Take Third Avenue “L”, transfer at 133rd street to Southern Boulevard car. Or, take Ninth Avenue “L”, transfer at 135th street for 138th street surface car and again to Southern Boulevard car.

‘St. John’s Meetings’ from The Weekly People (S.L.P.). Vol. 17 No. 20. August 10, 1907.

HE IS GREETED BY LARGE, ENTHUSIASTIC AUDIENCES.

Enemy of Mine-Owners’ Association Reviews Western Labor Movement- Analyzes Craft Scabbery-Revolutionary Sentiment Provokes Thunders of Applause.

Chicago, Ill., July 30. The Vincent St. John meeting in Chicago was a great success, both in point of enthusiasm and attendance. An eager crowd thronged Ulrich’s Hall when Vincent St. John appeared on the platform at 2 P.M. July 28. St. John reviewed the western labor movement, and particularly the part played by the I.W.W. therein. The A.F. of L. scabbery was next taken up and analyzed. The remarks on this point were received with thundering and enthusiastic applause from the audience. “There is no middle ground in the choice between revolutionary industrial unionism and antiquated reactionary craft unionism,” said St. John. “One or the other must go.” Every one is highly pleased with the results of the meeting. St. John has gone to fill his dates in the East,

Cleveland, O., July 31. One of the “inner circle” men, St. John of Goldfield, spoke here at Germania hall last evening. When chairman Paul Campbell introduced the little fellow to his audience, the intrepid fighter for correct labor principles was given a splendid ovation. The audience then lay back and many audible expressions of surprise were heard. Could it be that St. John was that quiet and unassuming looking fellow, who did not appear as though he would harm a fly. Though hoarse, and speaking with difficulty at the beginning, the speaker made! a fine address, scoring many good points for industrial unionism. The A.F. of L. was put on the grill and done to a rich brown. Quite a number of pure and simplers were present and if they did not learn the difference between the A.F. of L. and correct unionism, they are well-nigh hopeless. Afterward, St. John met many of the members of the locals. His quiet and modest manner won him many friends, for it did not require a second look to assure any one that behind the quietness lay a world of determination. Committee, Local 33, Metal and Machine Workers.

The New York picnic of Saturday, August 3, arranged by the I.W.W. Headquarters League, held at Doerrlinger’s Park. One Hundred and Forty-seventh street and South- ern Boulevard, turned out to be a huge success. Vincent St. John, of Goldfield, Nev., the well-known I.W.W. organizer, took the platform, and was greeted with loud and ringing applause. He began by saying: “I believe that if a man of the working class does his duty by his class, he does no more than he should do. In doing his duty a member of the working class requires no eulogy.” He further told of the rapid growth of the Industrial Workers of the World. He explained how and why the I.W.W. was opposed to the A.F. of L. both in principle and in the plan of organization. A greater success or more pleasant day could not have been anticipated.

‘Vincent St. John’s Tour’ by W.H. Carroll from The Weekly People (S.L.P.). Vol. 17 No. 22. August 24, 1907.

SHOWS DIFFERENCE BETWEEN I.W.W. AND CRAFT UNIONS.

Clearly Explains There Is No Identity Between Capitalist and Worker- Throws Scorching Light on A.F. of L. Scabbery In Goldfield-Victory of Our Class In Sight In Our Time.

New Castle, Pa., August 13. Vincent St. John, one of the foremost men in the Industrial Workers of the World, was in New Castle Sunday evening and addressed a large gathering of men and women in Hughes Hall, corner Mill street and Long avenue. St. John did not discuss the result of the Haywood trial, as was generally expected but seemed to center his discussion on the relative merits of the I.W.W. and the A.F. of L

E.R. Markley, of Youngstown, accepted the Invitation of the New Castle workmen to preside over the meeting. He introduced St. John as one of the fighters for workmen’s rights in the west which has, within recent years, become the center of the real conflict between capital and labor.

St. John has appeared here before and is personally known to the majority of the people who composed his audience.

He at once took up a discussion of the principles of the I.W.W., in an effort to prove that if the A.F. of L. correctly represented the working class there would be no need of the I.W.W. or any other labor organization. The I.W.W. is opposed, he said, to the policy of the A.F. of L, which claimed there was a bond of interest between the employer and the employe.

The I.W.W. is opposed to the form of organization of the A.F. of L. on craft lines in special operation of industry. Still further is the I.W.W. opposed to the A.F. of L. for its justification of the sacred contract–the allowing of working people who perform different operations in different industries and enter into contracts irrespective of the interests of their fellow workers in other operations of the same industry.

Bitter experience, said St. John, has shown that the officials of the A.F. of L. took advantage of the craft. forms of organization in order to betray the workers to the employers. St. John showed that because the United Brewery Workers refused to allow themselves to be divided up into crafts, they were compelled, not only to night the employers, but also the paid agents of the A.F. of L.

Referring to the recent trouble in Goldfield, Nevada, St. John’s home, the speaker said the agents of the A.F. of L. were placed squarely before the working class as the paid agents of the capitalist class. Profiting by experiences of the past an attempt was made to build an organization that would withstand the assaults of the employers. They had organized under the W.F. of M. and the I.W.W. The camp was organized from one end to the other, but the employers were not asleep and the usual efforts to combat the workers were begun.

The Tonopah Sun was especially chosen to slander the organization. The paper was placed on the unfair list and the mine owners responded with a lockout, giving the men to understand that as soon as they withdrew the boycott the mines would reopen.

The mine owners reasoned that the I.W.W. was the more radical organization and traced every step of progress that had been made to them. They used the carpenters’ union of the A.F. of L. to precipitate trouble. The carpenters’ union was officered by contracting carpenters and was a pliant tool. St. John said that M. Grant Hamilton, an organizer of the A.F. of L., was called in and given the use of the rooms of the swell club of Goldfield, the meeting place of all the fanatics that infest the mining camp. Hamilton’s meetings at first were open, but afterwards became select, and the men who dared to open their mouths or to question anything said by the capitalist agent in the employ of the A.F. of L. were thrown out.

Lesser lights followed Hamilton to the number of a score, but in spite of all they could do there was no results to show that benefited the workers. Laundry workers, who under the I.W.W. received $4.50 per day, dropped down to $3.

The Industrial Workers of the World recognize that there is no middle ground in this conflict, and is going ahead on the principles it has espoused until it is able to overthrow the cause of the class struggle. If there is an identity of interests between the employer and employed, then labor organizations have no right to exist.

The fact of there being an identity of interests would make it necessary for both employer and employed to be in one organization and we better all join the Civic Federation and have done with it.

The principles on which the A.F of L. is founded fit it to an essential part of the Civic Federation.

In spite of all the obstacles that were put in the way of the I.W.W. and the slanders that are continually circulated against it the organization is forging ahead. It is not teaching that we could get a glorious social system for our children or our grandchildren, but that by working together we can get what we want for ourselves. Being now relieved of the demands made to satisfy the hungry maw of lawyers and workers can give more of their time and means to propagate the doctrines of the I.W.W. The future calls for courage and determination, and the victory of our class is in sight in our time.

Troy, N.Y., August 12. During the past week meetings have been held in Troy, Albany, Schenectady, and Rotterdam Junction. The event of the week was St. John’s meeting in Schenectady, Friday evening. St. John held the large crowd in close attention for one. and one-half hours without any interruption, while he analyzed the labor problem and showed the part played by the pure and simple “labor leaders.” He proved clearly that these labor misleaders cannot be allowed to plead ignorance, that men in a position to observe as they are, after meeting defeat after defeat, after ten and twenty years of such positive evidence of the lack of proper discipline and tactics in their organizations are proved to be in the service of the capitalist class.

The speaker then took up the great railway strike in Chicago, the subway strike in New York, the labor troubles in San Francisco, coolly, calmly, and deliberately he showed how the labor lieutenant of capital assist the employing class and defeat the workers.

When St. John finished at ten p.m., the crowd seemed loath to leave, but pressed closer to the band stand from which the speaker was speaking. One pure and simpler began to create a great noise, claiming that Gompers had been vilified and demanding that St. John debate with Gompers. The crowd began to shout and call him “scab” when the writer, who Was chairman, called for order and explained that while St. John spoke as he did it was not in reality St. John: it was the Industrial Workers of the World, and that St. John’s words were the voice of the I.W.W., which stood back of him, and while he could not say when he would be in Schenectady again, the I.W.W. stood back of everything uttered by St. John, and was prepared to furnish a man at any time Gompers or any other “labor misleader” dared to come to Schenectady to face an I.W.W. man and that we would pay his car fare and hire the hall. At this the crowd set up a cheer and shouted “coward!” as the labor leader ran from the crowd.

St. John then took up the question or statement, and explained to the workers to their further satisfaction the correctness of the I.W.W.

Mr. Cole, of the Socialist party, opened the meeting. He is a staunch I.W.W. man, as is also Jackson, one of the leading S.P. men, who resigned from that party some time ago.

The meeting was pronounced a great success and those present expressed their determination to have Heslewood speak in Schenectady on his return from the International Congress,

Fraternally,

W. H. Carroll.

New York Labor News Company was the publishing house of the Socialist Labor Party and their paper The People. The People was the official paper of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP), established in New York City in 1891 as a weekly. The New York SLP, and The People, were dominated Daniel De Leon and his supporters, the dominant ideological leader of the SLP from the 1890s until the time of his death. The People became a daily in 1900. It’s first editor was the French socialist Lucien Sanial who was quickly replaced by De Leon who held the position until his death in 1914. Morris Hillquit and Henry Slobodin, future leaders of the Socialist Party of America were writers before their split from the SLP in 1899. For a while there were two SLPs and two Peoples, requiring a legal case to determine ownership. Eventual the anti-De Leonist produced what would become the New York Call and became the Social Democratic, later Socialist, Party. The De Leonist The People continued publishing until 2008.