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Title: Ralph Chaplin Speaks Author: Ralph Chaplin Date: 1950s Language: en Topics: Labor Union, history, strike, anarcho-syndicalism Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvYIa8wJYTM Notes: âRalph Chaplin Speaksâ Transcript, Speech given by Ralph Chaplin published under Joe Glazer. Transcriberâs note: The original date and title of this speech are unknown to me. The mention of âhigh finsâ implies it takes place in the late â50s but this is a rough guess. I have done a meticulous job going over the recording writing it down as faithfully as possible. At certain points, Chaplin misspeaks or slurs words so there may be some errors. Particularly the sentences starting with âI can show you a bridge between here and Tacomaâ and âConsidering the going downâ were hard to understand. I hope you enjoy this transcript.
âThanks, friends. Iâm very happy and I feel very humble being here with
you. Of course, there is this much about the story of the labor
movement; in the pacific northwest in particular, and even more
particular in the lumber workers out here. If you had a big mirror up
here, look at yourselves, boys and girls everybody in that mirror. Your
lumber workers, you know what you were in those days? There were no
girls around, maybe just a few ârebel girlsâ who liked to lead in the
singing. You were âtimber-beasts!â They didnât have homes, they didnât
have wives, they didnât have families, they slept in muzzle-loading
bunks. They worked 12, 14, 16 hours a day in all kinds of weather. So,
what has happened? The evolution of the timber-beast into a human being
and an American citizen. Thatâs one reason I say I feel happy and humble
being here.â
(applause)
âIt isnât a question of saying to young people, âOh we were great guys
back in our days, we were the real men. We were giants in those days.â
That isnât it. We were no bigger, no smarter, no stronger than you are.
We had youth! That labor movement was born out of the youth of a
generation of young workers, who would not be kicked around. When they
first started to face the predatory powers, particularly in the lumber
industry, where the timber-beast was everybodyâs dog, and the bull of
the woods was his stooge. And the whistle punk was at the very bottom.
They had to start from scratch. A new light came into their eyes and a
new feeling came into their hearts, a new spirit dominated their lives;
they found fellowship and companionship in solidarity with one another.
It was either that, or go down, and not go down slugging. They preferred
to go down slugging.â
(applause)
âRiding here from Tacoma, youâll find one battlefield after another,
where men gave up their lives and their liberties and gave up those
precious hours of their youth to make it possible for you people to
enjoy the conditions you are enjoying today. I can show you a bridge
between here and Tacoma; where the United States Army caught on, back
from overseas a pair of union loggers was dangling from hangmanâs
bridge, there at Centralia, a logger. Was he fighting for himself or his
generation? He was fighting for every one of you, in this industry
today! I can show you blood-stained trails all over that state! Is it
history? It isnât history, only the stuffed shirts make history. They
are the ones who have their pictures hung up in the museums. They are
the ones whose names are preserved on monuments. Well as far as Iâm
concerned Iâm still the untamed, uncured, rebel and I canât see that
point of view for smoke. Some of you remember a book called âFrom Here
to Eternity.â In the midst of the narration of that story, is a recital
of what happened at Spokane. When the free-speech fight was on in full
force, we were riding boxcars in there from every part of the country
singing songs along the way. As soon as people would get up to speak,
[they would be arrested.] It was a free speech fight for what? For a man
to get up and try to organize a Union! They werenât only trying to keep
free speech out, they were trying to keep unionism out! Here was the
Spokane jail, filled to overflowing, and you could hear them from miles
away, singing Solidarity Forever and that little red songbook through
and through. Out in the streets every they would go, the coppers keeping
them moving, they were all singing. A singing organization. What happens
when an organization sings? There is no absenteeism at the union
meetings, thereâs nobody complaining about paying their union dues,
thereâs nobody groveling at the feet of the boss, or at the feet of the
labor boss. No there isnât much more I can say except this; one of the
most stalwart men I ever met and could call a friend was Frank Little,
who was left dangling, at the end of a rope, in Butte Montana, after the
strike there on Anaconda Hill. [They were doing] pioneering work;
clearing the ground for a stable union of miners. I am not saying to
build up those men, only this. When you look at a tv set, when you get
into your car with high-fins on the back of it, when you sit down and
look at your family across the table, just remember that the history of
your union ties in with the history of the work those people did. If
there is ever a time when your enthusiasm and interest lags in your
union meetings, just remember that you wouldnât have the eight-hour day
if five men hadnât been hanged in the Cook County jail in 1886! Remember
that all along the line it took dedicated men who would rather go down
slugging than endure industrial serfdom. You go to any one of these
towns with a strike history, take a little town I know all too well down
in West Virginia with that horrible strike of 1912 occurred. There was
actual guerilla warfare between the Baldwin-Felts guards and the miners.
Down there if you read the history of the state of Virginia you wouldnât
know there had ever been a strike. Read a history of the state of
Washington and I dare you to show me a strike! Go to Centralia, go to
Aberdeen, go over across the hump to Yakima. Ask anybody there whoâs
gone through school or high school: Were there any strikes in this
state? No! Labor didnât make history. Labor didnât improve these
conditions! Men didnât give up their lives for this cause! Only the
stuffed shirts, the big shots, if you please. Who bow from the waist
real low and hang their pictures up in the museums. When you see the
story of the IWW, in one volume complete, youâre gonna read one of the
most amazing stories that was ever put down with little black marks on
white paper. Considering the going down and the grass-roots, building it
up, and looking forward to the future, which by the grace of God you are
going to have. Because labor must remain organized, either that or go
under. And now goodbye, thank you a lot, and God bless you.
(applause)