Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 8, 1899
Saginaw, Michigan – Eugene Debs Speaks on “Labor and Liberty”
From The Saginaw Evening News of February 6, 1899:
LABOR AND LIBERTY
—–
Subject of Eugene V. Debs’
Address Yesterday.
—–
SOCIALISM WILL COME.
—–
Is His Belief-Urges Workingmen
to Read, Think and Study.
—–
The Saginaw Evening News February 4, 1899
Yesterday afternoon [February 5th] a fair-sized house greeted Eugene V. Debs, the noted labor leader, who spoke upon “Labor and Liberty” at the academy of music. Preceding the lecture the academy orchestra rendered a number of selections.
Upon the stage, besides the speaker of the afternoon, were seated Mayor Baum, W. D. Mahon of Detroit, president of the Amalgamated Street Railway Employes, James F. Welch, president of the Central Labor union of this city, and the presidents of the various unions of Saginaw.
At the appointed hour C. E. Lewn, president of the Barbers’ union, introduced Mayor Baum, who in turn in a few brief words expressed his pleasure at being able to present to the audience the speaker of the afternoon, Eugene v. Debs. Mr. Debs spoke eloquently and entertainingly. Indeed, his remarks evoked applause from every portion of his audience, which was composed largely of employers and business men. He said:
There are those who view with widespread alarm the proposition of self-government. There are those who fear the sun of the republic is to set in universal gloom. But I am persuaded that the grand old ship of state will breast all the storms and billows and safely reach the haven port. The social system is in the process of dissolution. A new system of order is evolving from competitive chaos. We stand upon the eve of the greatest change the world has ever seen. Lamentable is the fact that the man who works longest and hardest has the least to show for his labors.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 7, 1919
Sacramento, California – Fellow Workers Sang Their Way Back to Jail
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 3, 1919:
43 I.W.W. RECEIVE THEIR SENTENCE
WITH A LAUGH
The Defiant Stand of Unionists in Sacramento Trial Told in Eye-Witnesses’ Account.
An eye-witness’ account of the courtroom scene when 43 members of the I. W. W. were sentenced in Sacramento 10 days ago, after having maintained a “silence strike against capitalist justice” during the trial, has just been published by the New York defense committee, 27 East Fourth street, New York City. After being out only 70 minutes the jury brought in a verdict of “guilty as charged” against all of the defendants, showing that the case of each had been dispatched in a minute and a half.
The men seemed rather glad to have it over with, it is reported. There never had been any doubt in their minds as to what the verdict would be. As they were led out of the courtroom they sang “Solidarity Forever!”
The next morning, Jan. 17. the 43 “silent defendants” were brought in for sentence. The three who had refused to join in their decision to put up no defense were absent. “Have any of the defendants anything to say before I pass sentence?” asked Judge Frank H. Rudkin.
They had, indeed. Their pledge of silence, “in contempt of court,” was to last only until they had been convicted. Their tongues were now loosed. Eleven of them spoke, occupying the entire morning, during which time the 43 stood shoulder to shoulder before the court and delivered probably as scathing an arraignment of capitalist justice as has ever been voiced by workingmen.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 4, 1919
Seattle, Washington – General Strike of 60,000 Workers Set for Thursday
At 10 o’clock next Thursday morning 60,000 organized workers in the city of Seattle will stand shoulder to shoulder in the first general strike that has ever been successfully inaugurated in the history of this country. Insolently and contemptuously Mr. Charles Piez and his labor-snubbing shipping board threw down the defiant gauntlet which has now been taken up with a firmness of resolution and a solidarity unmatched in the annals of the American Labor movement.
The workers of the northwest believe that they have been flouted and fooled by Piez and his fellow labor-baiters, that they have been deceived and betrayed by the politicians, both state and federal, and they have resolutely grasped the only weapon over which they have any direct control, determined to make a fight that will demonstrate whether or not they have the power to secure the justice that has been denied them by industrial barons and bureaucratic despots.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 3, 1899 Eugene V. Debs: “The name of the Social Democratic Party suits me precisely.”
From the Social Democratic Herald of January 28, 1899:
The March of Socialism
[by Eugene V. Debs]
Each passing day adds new testimony to the progressive march of socialism throughout the civilized world. A letter just received from Russia contains words of greeting and congratulation, and prompts me to pen this article for The Herald. The Social Democratic Party of the United States commands the confidence and respect of the leading socialists of other nations, and they look to our party to organize the socialists of this country and bring them into harmonious alliance with the hosts of international socialism, in the universal battle for the overthrown of capitalism.
The work accomplished during the past few months is as gratifying and inspiring to socialists as it is abhorrent and alarming to their enemies. The superb victory at Haverhill sent a thrill of joy and consternation, hope and horror through the country. The plutocratic press is still harping upon it, wondering how it happened and predicting all sorts of evils if there is any spread of this dread affliction. They are straining their old power to scare the people and make them mind their masters, as they have been so long in the habit of doing. Riley’s nursery tale warning aptly illustrates the situation:
The plutocrats and their parasites will not contemplate with calm indifference the march of socialism. Every artifice known to their Machiavellian resources will be employed to resist the advance. The ignorant and servile can be easily deflected from their course, but the thinking and vigilant will do ceaseless sentinel service and be prepared to parry every blow and expose every device and intrigue of the enemy.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday February 2, 1919
Seattle, Washington – City Braces for General Strike
From the Seattle Union Record of January 31, 1919:
With every vote in the affirmative, Electrical Workers’ Union No. 16 went down the line for the General sympathetic strike Thursday night.
“We propose to stand by the Metal Trades Council because the Metal Trades Council is right,” said William Delaney, speaking for the union following the meeting, “and because we recognize that this is a class struggle.”
Other unions which last night went on record for the general strike were the sheet metal workers and the lady barbers, the latter by a unanimous vote. The cigarmakers endorsed the strike with the same unanimity.
The street car men at meetings held Thursday afternoon and Thursday evening voted to hold referendums at the various car barns all day Saturday.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 1, 1919
Sacramento, California – I. W. W. Defendants Silent Except for the Coughing
From The Liberator of February 1919:
The Silent Defense in Sacramento
By Jean Sterling
Silent Defenders
—–
“Do the defendants, not represented by attorneys, wish to interrogate the talesman?”
The court reporter held his pencil suspended. The forty-three defendants faced with mocking eyes and closed lips their jailers, prosecutors and the presiding judge.
“Do they wish to exercise the right of challenge?”
For a tense second the inexorable wheels of justice stopped turning. Some one had thrown a felt slipper in the cogs. The defendants gave the prospective juror not so much as a glance. They had read and yawned and gazed vacantly out of the high windows while the attorneys for the prosecution had been probing the talesman’s soul for any humane or modern ideas on the subject of labor.
Then, after a decorous silence, such as is observed in court procedures and funeral rites, the Judge said quietly, “If, then, there are no objections to the talesman, he may take his seat in the jury box.”
And so the juryman, an ancient rancher, the prophesy of the type to follow, took his seat.
And in this manner did the forty-three defendants, I. W. W.’s, now being tried in Sacramento, California, on charges of conspiracy, under the Espionage Act, open their “silent defense.”
—–
—–
—–
—–
—–
—–