September 27, 1919 THE COMMUNIST Page Fifteen The Massacre at Hammond were a AMMOND, Indiana, can now be added By WICKS.
The corporation owned paper of Hamto the long and ever increasing list mond and also the daily press of Chicago of towns the mention of which conAs soon as the police arrived upon the declared the strike breakers were Americans jures up in the minds of class conscious scene they attempted to disperse the men who had decided to return to work, while workers the spectacle of brutal massacre.
and used violent tactics in the attempt. those who remained out on strike There on Tuesday, September 9th, the thugs uniformed policeman tore the flag from the foreigners influenced by the radical agitaand gunmen in the employ of the Standard hands of the soldier and threw it upon the Steel Company, assisted by the police force tors. While most of the strikers are people ground and then arrested the flag bearer.
of the city of Hammond, prepared another This act dissilusioned the strikers and at of foreign birth a large number of the page in the blood streaked history of the that moment they realized the fact that strike breakers are also aliens. If it is true American labor movement.
emblems such as the flag exist as subjects of that the majority of the seabs were AmerThe strike in the Standard Steel works patriotic orators, but are really meaningless icans it is certainly a comment on the inteldates from July 18th, when the workers when workmen attempt to exercise their ligence of the free born American workingwho had been recently organized struck for so called constitutional right under man. and again justifies the charge that a raise in wages. One of the firrst acts of them. The next act on the part of the police the American slaves are the most stupid on the corporation and the petty authorities of was to draw their revolvers and aim them earth. As most of the population of Flamthe city of Hammond was to bring about at the strikers. As some of the men in the mond is foreign born it is natural the a condition which gave them an excuse to front ranks turned to tell the others to majority of the strikers should also be call in the state militia. Goodrich, the gov disperse the first volley from the revolvers, foreigners. The statement that the scabs are ernor of the state, ordered the militia into rifles and sawec off shot guns was fired all Americans is simply cheap propaganda the district where it remained until a week directly into the crowd, rapidly followed on the part of the hirelings of the Standard ago, as it was apparent there was no desire by other volleys. This continued for only Steel Car Company for the purpose of inon the part of the strikers to precipitate the short period of two minutes, but after timidating the strikers. Some of the dollar violence Since the withdrawal of the troops the crowd had dispersed the scene resembled patriots are offering their services free to the thugs who are employed by the corpora a battlefield. There were twenty two bodies the Hammond police department and by tion have repeatedly attempted to provoke upon the ground, some writhing in agony, accident a writer for The Communist, while acts of violence on the part of the strikers, others had been killed instantly. Many sitting in the police station trying to get as an exuse to prevent them from picket others, including two women and a number an interview with some of the participants ing. The strikers had secured federal of children were wounded and the strikers int he murders, overheard a telephone conjudicial decision giving them right to picket could be seen dragging many of their versation between the seargeant of police and resented any infringment upon that wounded from the field of battle. Ambul and one Dave Emory, who is connected with right. For many days it had been rumored ances soon arrived and it was learned that the principal banking establishment of Hamaround Hammond that blood was to be spil three of the victims had been instantly mond. Emory requested to be sworn in as led in order to stop the strike. Finally on killed. Their bodies were removed to a a special policeman, along with a number Monday the police thugs of the corporation morgue and the wounded taken to hospitals, of his friends, so they could help clean announced that on Tuesday morning there where one of them died later in the day. out the damned foreigners. The patriotie would be serious disturbances. The police At the morgue it was learned that all the gag is still being employed by the employforce of Hammond were ordered to be pre dead had been shot in the back as they ers in the industries of the country, wherpared to assist the corporation thugs, a turned to disperse. That fact alone gives the ever there are any labor disturbances. There moving picture machine was placed where lie to the capitalist press, which claimed have been threats from the employers that the operator could secure a picture of the the strikers had assulted the police. There every person who participates in the strike scene and the drama of blood shed was was only one policeman injured and his shall be driven from the district.
produced as per schedule.
injury was caused by a fall and not in the The strikers at Hammond have been There were about two hundred workmen, conflict. If the strikers had been armed, as taught the same lesson the ruling class of guarded by the police who had been march reported, some of the thugs and the gunmen this country taught the workers in all the ing into the plant in a body for a number would have been killed or at least injured. industrial struggles of recent years. That of days. The strikers would gather within The scene in the district following the lesson is that those who are supposed to upthree or four blocks of the works endeavor massacre was indescribably horrible. At least hold law and order have abolutely no ing to influence the scabs. The police deter fifty men, women and children had received respect for so called constitutional rights, mined to disperse them and on Tuesday gun shot wounds and were being cared for when workingmen attempt to exercize them, morning deliberately started the massacre. by strikers and their families. Other women and that the police and the armed force of The strikers had heard reports of the threat and children who were unable to locate the state are maintained in the interest of of the police to cause bloodshed, so one of their husbands and fathers attempted to the ruling class and against the workers.
their number, Thos. Skuba, a returned approach the bodies upon the field, but were The labor question is not a question of soldier, in full uniform and carrying an held back by the police. Dozens of houses right or wrong but a question of American flag, led the strikers. Most of the in the district show hundreds of marks power.
men were foreigners who had been em where bullets and gun shot penetrated. The new organization in Hammond has ployed at the plant for two or three years.
While the massacre was being perpetrated received its baptism in blood. Let us hope During the war they, like all the other the moving picture operator, who was it emerges from this experience with an slaves, had been surfeited with drivel about stationed on the roof of a nearby hotel understanding of the true significance of democracy and freedom and were told calmly took pictures of the whole affair. the struggle, and the members come to that the American flag symbolized these That faet is significant and lends support realize the necessity for militant organizatwo abstractions. Hence they considered to the charge that the slaughter of the tion of the workers for the purpose of dethemselves perfectly safe in carrying on strikers was deliberately premediated by stroying the system that makes possible such their demonstration under the flag the police thugs.
needless slaughter of the workers.
It calls upon The Communist Party is now a fact.
every conscious worker to rally to its support. Our first requirement is to build a solid, disciplined, while organization. Then the revolutionary struggle. Comrades act!