The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-07-10
Veteran .Agitator Still
Battling After Years
of Activity


capitalism extraordinary" declared
Alexander Trachtenberg in a tri-
butte to Ella Reeve ('Mother''l
Bloor on the occasion of her list
birthday. His speech which fol-
lows-made on behalf of the Cen
trail Committee OF the Communist
Party-was made at a recent con-
ference of the Party held in New
York.
Comrade Ella Reeve Bloor is II
years old today.
We note this fact not only be-
cause she reached the list birthday,
but because this year she reached
the 40th year of her continuous &C
tivity in the revolutionary labor
movement of America.
Ella Reeve Bloor was born July
9th, 1852, the second year of the
Owl War. She was born while
her father was at the front fight
Ing in the army of the North
against the South. - She comes,
therefore on the fathers side from
the stock of soldier in the Civil
War of tits. Thus we have in Com
of real American stock.
Became Rebel at IA.
At the age of IA she already
showed herself to be a rebel by
breaking with the religious influ-
cpce of her family, by openly dis
apciating herself from the church,
to which her family belonged This
helped to clear her mind and pre-
pare for further development. And
from that time she begins her edu-
cation by reading the works of
Thomas Paine and Ingersoll
Her first connection with the la
Dor movement came about as a re-
suit of a struggle in 1893. She
joined the Textile Workers Union,
one of the first unions in the tex
tile MISUNDERSTANDING strike-to try
TO help organize the women workers
on strike into the union
She therefore entered the move
ment as she is today, as an organ
izer Of workers for struggle. This
participation in the class struggle
and in the trade union led her to
take up the study of Socialism.
just about that time, the American
Railway Union strike Of 1894, led by
Debs, took place and stopped all the
railroads west of Chicago and as
result Of which Debs was sent to
Jail The AR.U. led TO the organi-
zation Of las it was called the Debs
Social Democracy. Ella Bloor be-
came acquainted with Debs. She
however did not like entirely the
Of lo
cause it had certain colonization
schemes. Therefore, in 1897 she
Joined the organized Socialist move
ment in this country, at that time,
the Socialist Labor Party.
Early Activities.
When the Socialist Trade and La
Dor Alliance, the first independent
labor union movement under the
auspices of the Socialist movement,
was organized by the Socialist La
Dor Party led by De Leon, Conlrade
Bloor was delegate at the first
convention of that organization and
was elected to its General Executive
Board. Comrade Bloor participated
in the struggles of that period. Al
though the mother of young chill
dren, she nevertheless went from
place to place helping to organize
and lead the strikes of the workers
Strikes of maehinists, the weavers,
the street car men, etc.
During the same time she con-
tributed weekly column to the
People" the official organ of the
S. L. p, writing survey of the oc-
curences in the labor movement. But
she soon found the S. L. P. to be a
sectarian organization. She realized
that the S. L. P. neglected broader
fields of work, and joined the So
cialist Party recently formed.
She was National Organizer Of the
Socialist Party for fourteen years,
travelling through the country and
in six states she acted as State Or
ganizer of the Party There is no
great struggle in the history of the
American Labor movement during
that period and for that matter up
to the present time, in which Com
rade Bloor did not take an active
part. We have heard of Ludlow,
Lawrence, Calumet, the Colorado
strikes: Conrade Bloor participated
in these and in many more. I worked
with Comrade Bloor twenty -odd years
ago in the Socialist Party in Con-
necticut and I remember about her
activities throughout the country.
She appeared to us as sort Of a
phantom organizer, defying all the
laws of physics. Today she was in
Colorado and tomorrow in Massa-
chusetts,
Exposed Stockyards
OF course her record of arrest will
probably fill many pages, and many
times when she was arrested her
small children had to go with her to
jail. She was always interested in
the conditions of work and life of the
workers and wherever she went she
would study these conditions. One
of the best works of Upton Sinclair
was THE Jungle" Much of the ma
terial on the stockyards of Chicago
was gathered for Sinclair by Com
rade Bloor who got employment there
as an ordinary worker and then gave
Sinclair the inside story Of what was
happening there
In relief work her activities were
widespread. I remember very wildly
how in every western strike she par
ticipated she rushed back East to de-
nland that the Party and labor or
ganizations provide means for carry
ing on the struggles.
During the World war and after
Comrade Bloor took the stand that
was expected of her on the war and
the Russian Revolution. Along with
other revolutionary Socialists who