Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1912-10-03
Makes Appeal To
Negro Workers

The Brotherhood of Timber Workers
have Issued, from their general head
quarters at Alexandria, La, the follow
ing appeal to- the negroes, Which is
self explanatory:
To All Negro Workers and Especially
To the Negro Forest and Lumber
Workers of the South, We Send
This Me- sage and Appeal.
Fellow Work ers:
When the forest slaves of Louisiana
and Texas revolted against peonage
and began, about two years ago, the
organization of the Brotherhood of
Timber Workers, an Industrial Union
taking in all tie workers in the saw
mills and camps, the lumber kings at
once recognized the power inherent
in such a moven ent and Immediately
began a campaign Of lying and viol-
ence against the union and all persons
connected with it or suspected of
sympathizing with US.
First among the cries they raised
against US, was, of course, the old
bunco cries of white supremacy and
social equality" coupled with that
other cry, '"They are organizing the
negroes against the Nhites!" which
the capitalists and landlords of the
South and their political buzzard and
social carrion crows always raise in
order to justify the smuggling and as
sassination of white and colored work
hing men who seek to organize and bet
ter the conditions of their class. From
the day you, the negro workers, were
! freed" down to the present hour
i these cries have been used to cloak
the vilest crimes against the workers,
white and colered, and to hide the
wholesale rape of the commonwealth
of the South bya as soulless and cold
blooded set of Industrial scalawags
and carpet-baggers as ever drew the
breath of life.
Fighting Each other.
For generation, under the lnf;u-
ence4of these specious cries, they nave
kept us fighting each otherLus to Sc
cure the white supremacy OF a
tramp and you the social equality
Of vagrant. Our fathers fell for
it," but we, their children, have come
to the conclusion that porterhouse
! steaks and champagne will look as
well on our tables as on those of the
Industrial Scalawags and Carpet-Dag-
gers; that the white supremacy" that
means starvation aWges and child
slavery for us and the social equality
that means the same for you, tho they
may mean the "high life" and Chris
tian civilization" to the lumber kings
and landlords, will have to go. AS
far as we, the workers of the South,
, are concerned, the only Supremacy
and equality they have ever granted
us. is the supremacy of misery and
the equality of rags. This SUPREMACY
and this equality we, the brotherhood
Of Timber Workers, mean to stand no
longer than we have an organization Dig
and strong enough to enforce your de-
mands, chief among which is q man 5
life for all the workers in thfs mills
and forests Of the Southf' because
the negro workers comprise ope-half
or more of the labor employed IN the
Southern lumber industry, this Pattle
cry of ours, "a mans life for am the
workers" has been considered a mlen-
ace and therefore a crime in the eyes
Of the Southern Oligarchy, for they,
as we'll as we, are fully alive to the
fact that we can never raise our stan-'
dard of living and better our condi-
tons so long as they can keep us
split, whether on race, craft, religious
or national lines. and they have tried
and are trying all these methods of
division in addition to their campaign
OF terror. wherein deeds have been
and are being committed tllat would
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