Tell her we done the best we could,
but the cards were against us.
-J. D. Moore
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 10, 1917
Butte, Montana – Fire Claims Lives at Speculator Mine
From the Salt Lake Telegram of June 9, 1917:
Solemnly facing iron bars and prison walls,
I assert my love for justice
and my faith in its ultimate triumph.
-John R Lawson
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 9, 1917
From the United Mine Workers Journal: John Lawson Is Freed!
From the Journal of June 7, 1917:
Colorado Supreme Court Reverses
Lawson Judgment
Denver, Colo., June 4.—The Colorado supreme court today handed down a unanimous decision, all seven judges present and concurring, reversing judgments against John R. Lawson, who had been convicted by picked judge and jury in the Las Animas circuit court on the charge of first degree murder of a mine guard who fell in an attack upon the Ludlow tent colony, and against Louis Zancanelli, convicted in the court presided over by the same judge, Granby J. Hilliard, ex-coal operators’ attorney, on the charge of killing George Belcher, Baldwin-Feltz mine guard, on the streets of Trinidad, Colo.
The trials accorded these two miners have long been recognized by the decent lawyers and citizens of Colorado as a glaring intentional perversion of justice and a disgrace to the state. The decision rendered by the supreme court, reversing judgment, was based upon the fact that objection was entered by the defense against Judge Hilliard, recognized as an operators’ attorney, who had been appointed special judge by Governor Carlson to try, and convict, miners charged with crimes alleged to have been committed during the strike of 1913-14. After the trials of Lawson and Zancanelli, the supreme court handed down a decision prohibiting Judge Hilliard from trying any others of the strike cases.
The objection raised at the opening of the trial of John R. Lawson and Louis Zancanelli by lawyers for the defense—charging prejudice against Judge Hilliard and challenging his right to preside as judge, was considered sufficient cause for the reversal of judgment by the members of the supreme court. Other objections, equally as well founded, were not considered as the first objection was upheld. The defense had proof that the juries were selected from known enemies of the union miners, including several hired gunmen of the companies; that those of the jurymen who objected to rendering a verdict of guilty had been threatened with starvation, by order of the court, and one juryman in the Lawson case was told that his wife was dangerously ill, thus breaking down his opposition to the iniquitous verdict.
While the eases against John R. Lawson and Louis Zancanelli have been remanded back to Las Animas county for trial, there is little doubt but that the cases will be “nol-prossed” by the present district attorney at the first term of circuit court. Our persecuted brothers are practically free.
If they hang Moyer and Haywood,
they’ve got to hang me.
-Eugene Victor Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 8, 1907
Current Literature on Moyer-Haywood Case, Part II
—–
THE murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg, as viewed by the state authorities of Idaho and by most of the daily papers of the country, came as a sequel to a long series of labor troubles between the miners and the mine-owners of the Coeur d’Alene district in Idaho. This district, twenty-five miles in length and one to five miles wide, contains rich mines of lead. Trouble began in 1892 and continued for seven years, off and on, with all the usual violent accompaniments of a war between labor and capital in a region where the forces of government are none too strong and the leaders on either side none too scrupulous. There were pitched battles between the union men and the non-union men. Dynamite was used to wreck mills, men were assassinated, and on May 8, 1897, the feeling had become so intense that President Boyce, of the Western Federation, advised every local union to organize a rifle corps, “so that in two years we can hear the inspiring music of the martial tread of twenty-five thousand armed men in the ranks of labor.” The trouble reached a climax in April, 1899, when the $250,000 mill of the Bunker Hill Company was destroyed by the miners with dynamite.
If they hang Moyer and Haywood,
they’ve got to hang me.
-Eugene Victor Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 7, 1907
Current Literature on Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone Case, Part I
—–
WHAT Mr. Debs, once a Socialist candidate for President, calls “the greatest legal battle in American history,” is now in progress in Boise City, Idaho. Fifty special correspondents of newspapers and magazines from all parts of the country hastened last month to the little city to report the case, and the telegraph company installed ten additional circuits to handle the press of business. Boise City itself is not excited. It has not furnished any of the defendants, nor any of the lawyers, nor the victim whose murder is the cause of all this excitement. All it furnishes is the jury to try the case. But the country at large is furnishing the excitement. The President of the United States has been involved in a heated controversy over the character of the defendants. The United States Supreme Court has rendered a decision which is likened by Socialist orators to the Dred Scott decision of half a century ago. Thousands of men have been parading the streets of many cities—50,000 in New York alone according to The Herald’s estimate—waving red flags, singing the Marsellaise, denouncing the Supreme Court and assailing the President in terms of bitter reproach. And a collection of $250,000, according to some estimates, has been gathered from the members of labor unions to insure for the defendants in this trial an adequate defense.
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday June 6, 1907
Boise, Idaho – Prosecution Opens in Haywood Trial
From the Decatur Herald of June 2, 1907:
HAYWOOD’S ILLNESS DELAYS BOISE TRIAL
—–
Defendant Expected to Be Able to
Appear in Court Monday.
—–Boise, Idaho, June 1.-The trial of William D. Haywood was interrupted today by the illness of the defendant who suffered an attack of intestinal poisoning early this morning. Physicians called to attend the prisoner found it necessary to administer opiates before the severe pain was relieved.
At the beginning of the morning session it was expected Haywood would be all right by afternoon, but when court reconvened the prisoner was too weak to be present. Adjournment was then taken until Monday [June 3rd].
Attorney Richardson said Haywood’s illness was not serious and there was no doubt of his ability to be ready Monday.
———-
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 5, 1907
Wilshire’s Magazine Covers the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone Case
The above photograph is from page 8 of the June edition of Wilshire’s Magazine, which edition devotes much space to coverage of the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone Case now unfolding in Boise, Idaho. We offer a review of that coverage below.
———-
The worm turns at last, and so does the worker.
Let them dare to execute their devilish plot
and every state in this Union will resound
with the tramp of revolution
-Eugene Victor Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 4, 1907
Boise, Idaho – Eugene Debs Will Not Attend Haywood Trial
From the South Dakota Lead Daily Call of June 1, 1907:
DON’T WANT DEBS
—–Haywood’s Attorneys Request Debs,
the Famous Socialistic Labor Leader,
Not to Attend the Trial Now on at Boise
—–[…]
BOISE, Idaho, June 1.-Eugene V. Debs, the leading apostle of socialism in the country, has been requested by Attorneys Richardson and Darrow to stay away from Boise during the progress of the Haywood trial. Debs has replied to the letter of Haywood’s counsel announcing his acquiescence in their desire.
The correspondence was perfectly friendly, Debs accepting the reasons advanced by Richardson and Darrow as sufficient.
The socialist problem is a serious and difficult one for the defense attorneys. A dozen representatives of as many socialistic publications are attending the trial and each is at odds with the other….
The request to Debs was made because of a statement published over his signature a year ago in which he declared for an armed demonstration if the Colorado men were executed…
[Photograph added.]
From the June 3rd Evening Star of Independence, Kansas:
———-
Girard correspondence in the Pittsburg Headlight [Pittsburg, Kansas]: Eugene V. Debs, who is living in Girard for the present, treated the ladies who are employed at the Appeal to reason office very liberally to ice cream, cake and candy at Decker’s Candy Kitchen, after office hours last Friday afternoon.
I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth;
I am a citizen of the world.
-Eugene Victor Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 3, 1917
From The Masses: “Empty Shells” from the Battlefields of Europe
Drawing by F. A. Busing:
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Masses: “Empty Shells””
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 2, 1907
Wilshire’s Magazine Comments on the Kept Press
Wilshire’s Cover for June 1907 :
Don’t Mourn, Organize!
-Joe Hill
Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 1, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: Telegram from Washington
INDUSTRIAL ACTION NEWS
—–
ON the 5th of November, 1916, five working men, members of the Industrial Workers of the World, were shot to death on the docks at Everett, Wash., by hirelings of either the mill owners of the State of Washington, or the Commercial Club of Everett, Wash. Forty-six other workers were wounded.
For this crime, seventy-three workers were jailed for six months under various charges and on the 5th day of May, this year, Thomas H. Tracy was acquitted of a murder charge after a trial lasting two months. Now comes the good news of “all prisoners released.” Another clean cut victory for the fighting I. W. W.!
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Everett Prisoners Freed; IWW Organizing Drives Declared in Lumber, Mining, and Marine Transport”
