Month: July 2020

Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part III

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Zapata Die Fighting, Wikiquote———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 31, 1920
“The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part III

From The Liberator of July 1920:

The Mexican Revolution

By Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman

[Part III of III.]

Mex Rev, Zapatistas Mexico City, Liberator p5, July 1920

There are other interesting personalities behind the new revolution-Calles
[Plutarco Elías Calles] (pronounced Kah-yayz), for example, ex-military governor of Sonora, Secretary of Commerce and Labor and leader of the Sonora secession. He is without doubt the most forceful, the most radical, the most intelligent and widely informed among the present leaders of Mexico.

As governor of Sonora he proved himself a champion of labor, and he gave the Indians lands, and each a gun and five hundred rounds of ammunition with which to protect and hold them. Carranza immediately telegraphed him, when these acts became known, to take back the lands. Calles replied: “Send a stronger man than I am, for I can’t do it.” Calles has tried to enforce Article I23 of the Constitution, which is the most enlightened labor code of any capitalist country. As a result the Phelps-Dodge Company, which operates the great copper mines at Cananea, closed their works. Calles instructed the workers to take charge of them and run them. He told me how surprised he was to see how well they did it. The representatives of the Phelps-Dodge Company hurried back upon the scene with a great bill for damages. Calles admitted their claims, but then he turned to the Mexican constitution.

“I read here,” he said, “that any company that ceases operations without giving two weeks’ notice must pay three months’ salary to its employees. Go bring your payrolls, and we will strike a balance to see how much YOU owe the workers, whom I represent.” The mine representatives decided to return to Cananea and put in safety appliances, build club rooms, reading rooms, and, to crown all, a huge concrete swimming pool for the workers.

“Do you know of any other mine in the world that has a swimming pool for its workers?” Calles asked me as he told this story, and then he laughed. At the same time the same company, just over the international line in Bisbee, was driving its workers, across the heat-eaten sands of the desert. so Calles, not being able to enforce Article I23 in the civilized United States, did what he could by sending food to the unfortunate victims.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Zapata Die Fighting, Wikiquote———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 30, 1920
“The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part II

From The Liberator of July 1920:

The Mexican Revolution

By Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman

[Part II of III.]

Mex Rev, Obregon Mexico City, Liberator p4, July 1920

There have been a great many myths regarding the benefits of the Carranza régime, such as the opening of schools, giving lands to the Indians, nationalizing the sub-soil, etc., etc. One by one the pitifully few schools of the Diaz administration have been closed until Tacubaya and Mixcoac, two of the largest residence suburbs of Mexico City cannot boast a single public school. Land, given to the Indians, has in many cases, as in Yucatan, Tabasco and Morelos, been wrested away by military might, while a single grant to a General has often amounted to more in area than all the lands given away to the people during the whole of the Carranza rule. Under the cloak of the slogan of Mexico for the Mexicans, which has so attracted the imaginations of American radicals, he has stabbed every liberty in the back, and has built up a grasping, grafting, unprincipled military clique, the members of which have ridden across the land looting, murdering and stirring up revolt, until the federal soldier is more feared and hated than the bandit.

Directly the revolution resulted from two things: the attempt on the part of the government to railroad Bonillas, former ambassador at Washington, into the presidency; and the attempt to repeat the story of Yucatan and its murders in Sonora, the home state of Obregon.

To guarantee the election of Bonillas, government candidates were imposed by force in half a dozen states, Obregon meetings were broken up by the sabers of the man on horseback, Obregon himself was arrested on fake charges of inciting a rebellion. The knowing shook their heads, and predicted his murder within a week or two.

In the meantime Carranza was pouring soldiers into Sonora, against the repeated remonstrances of Governor de la Huerta, to crush the railroad strike and several mining strikes that were on, and probably in addition to break up the state government and impose his own officials as he had done in Yucatan, in Tabasco, in half a dozen other states.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Zapata Die Fighting, Wikiquote———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 29, 1920
“The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part I

From The Liberator of July 1920:

The Mexican Revolution

By Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman

[Part I of III.]

Mex Rev, Zapatistas Mexico City, Liberator p5, July 1920

AFTER ten years of practice any people should understand quite thoroughly the technique of conducting a respectable, eat-out-of-your-hand revolution. The Mexican revolution which brought a new régime into power some few days ago was orderly, efficient, easily successful. Less than a month from the day the sovereign state of Sonora raised the banner of revolt, the revolutionary army-el ejercito liberal revolucionario-galloped into the capital without the firing of a single shot.

They looked strange-those men from the hills, on their lean, tired ponies, as they pounded down Avenida Francisco Madero, Mexico’s fashionable Fifth Avenue, dusty and ragged-colorful with great red and blue bandana handkerchiefs and vivid shirts, with flowers hung on their carbines, but eyes grim with purpose. Yet Mexico paid little attention to them. The stores were open; the honking automobiles crowded the flanks of their ponies; fashionable women went unconcernedly about their shopping. Only occasionally did they stop with a rustle of their silk gowns to gaze at the queer outlaw crew of sandalled Indians and Mestizos sweeping by beneath their great, bobbing sombreros.

During those first days I roamed the streets disconsolately-box seats at a Mexican revolutionary melodrama and no thrills. I tried to imagine the turnover as being a cross-your-heart-to-die proletarian revolution, but merely spoiled the afternoon wishing I were in Russia.

Nevertheless, I made the most of it; hired an automobile and dashed around town taking snapshots of generals-who were easier to find than soldiers-scoured the countryside looking for the victoriously approaching Obregon who was expected in the capital within forty-eight hours with an immense force, of which the bands of cavalry we had seen were the paltry forerunners. Early in the afternoon we burnt up the road to Guadelupe Hidalgo-that venerated religious mecca of Mexico five miles outside of the capital, whishing past red-cross machines speeding back from the wreck of one of the Carranza military trains that had evacuated the capital some twenty minutes before the rebels arrived.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “A Personal Letter to the Appeal Army” by Eugene V. Debs

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Starve Quietly, Phl GS Speech IA, Mar 19, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 28, 1910
Eugene V. Debs to the Appeal Army, “It All Depends on You”

From the Appeal to Reason of July 23, 1910:

A Personal Letter to the Appeal Army
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
—–

EVD Life Size Photo by Jas Soler ed small, ISR p1044, May 1910

Comrades-During the past year or more my work in the field has brought me into personal touch with most of you and I want to express to you this word of appreciation of your personal kindness and your service to the cause. You have made the Appeal the most widely circulated labor and Socialist paper in the world and given it a power which is making capitalist culprits in high places tremble with fear and misgiving. But for this power Warren would long since be in jail and along with him Wayland, myself and the rest of the Appeal staff. The order to this effect was duly issued and the papers prepared but when the time came to move the puppets were paralyzed with fear. They were palsied by the silent power of the Appeal and did not dare to defy its lightning.

This power of the Appeal created by you is the power of the rising people and the degree it registers on the indicator is the degree of their progress toward emancipation.

This power is subject to the laws of growth and decay. Daily hourly, it must advance or it must decline. It cannot remain at a standstill. The very law of its being forbids.

IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOU.

You not only created that power, YOU ARE THAT POWER!

The moral power of the Appeal, in the revolutionary movement of the people is the concrete expression of the moral power of the Appeal Army.

To the extent that you add to the moral stature and strength of the Appeal to Reason you hasten the day of deliverance from the tyranny of plutocracy.

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Hellraisers Journal: Reward Offered for Slayer of Fannie Sellins, UMW Organizer Who Lost Her Life in Freedom’s Cause

Janet RayeFannie Sellins
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Quote M. Robbins, for Fannie Sellins, Wkrs Wld p4, Nov 28, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 26, 1920
Reward of $5,000 Offered for Apprehension of Slayer of Fannie Sellins

From The Pittsburgh Post of July 23, 1920:

Slayer of Woman In Riot Sought
—–

Reward Offered For Apprehension
of Guilty Person.
—–

Fannie Sellins in Jail, Hgtn WV Lbr Str p1, May 22, 1914
Fannie Sellins in Marion County Jail at Fairmont, W. V.
-from the Huntington Labor Star of May 29, 1914
———-

A reward of $5,000, thought to be offered either by the United Mine Workers of America, or by Fred Broad of New Kensington, a son-in-law of the slain woman, will be paid for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the slayers of Fannie Sellins, labor organizer, who was killed in a mine strike riot near Brackenridge almost a year ago. The reward has been advertised in the local papers.

The circumstances surrounding the death of the woman leader was a subject for discussion at recent labor meetings in Montreal, and it is said that the campaign for a solution will be continued this summer.

Mrs. Sellins was shot down the night of August 26, 1919, during a riot between guards and strikers near the pit mouth of the Allegheny Coal and Coke Company at Brackenridge. The guards were arrested after the riot but they were released because of insufficient evidence. Since then there have been no new developments or arrests in the case.

[Note: there was no riot. Company gunthugs attacked picketers who were peacefully assembled, as was their right.]

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1920, Part II: Found Speaking in Mingo County, WV: “You can’t make me take back water”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Every Damned Robber, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel p222———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday July 25, 1920
-Mother Jones News for June 1920, Part II
Found Speaking in Williamson, Mingo County, West Virginia

From Hellraisers Journal of June 23, 1920:

Williamson, West Virginia – Sunday Evening June 20, 1920
-Mother Jones Speaks at Public Meeting in Front of Courthouse.

[Excerpts from Part II of Speech of Mother Jones]

[Mother Jones on Agitators.]

Mother Jones, NYC Dly Ns p12, May 7, 1920

I went to a meeting and the secretary of the steel workers went with me. He got up to speak. They took him. The next fellow got up; they took him. I got up. They arrested me. I wouldn’t walk. They had to ride me. A big old Irish buck of a policeman said, “You will have to walk.” “No, I can’t.” “Can you walk?” “No, I can’t.” “We will take you down to jail and lock you up behind the bars.”

After a few minutes the chief came along.
“Mother Jones?”
“Yes, sir.”

“There is some of the steel managers here want to speak to you.”
“All right, let the gentlemen come in. I am sorry gentlemen, I haven’t got chairs to give you.” (Laughter.)

One good fellow says, “Now, Mother Jones, this agitation is dangerous. You know these are foreigners, mostly.”
“Well, that is the reason I want to talk to them. I want to organize them into the United States as a Union so as to show them what the institution stands for.”

“They don’t understand English,” he says.
I said, “I want to teach them English. We want them into the Union so they will understand.”
“But you can’t do that. This agitation won’t do. Your radicalism has got to go.”
I said, “Wait a minute, sir. You are one of the managers of the steel industry here?”
“Yes.”
“Wasn’t the first emigrant that landed on our shore an agitator?”
“Who was he?”
“Columbus. Didn’t he agitate to get the money from the people of Spain? Didn’t he agitate to get the crew, and crossed the ocean and discovered America for you and I?

“Wasn’t Washington an agitator? Didn’t the Mayflower bring over a ship-full of agitators? Didn’t we build a monument to them down there in Massachusetts. I want to ask you a question. Right today in and around the City of Pittsburgh I believe there has assembled as many as three hundred thousand people [bowing the knee to Jesus during Easter season.] Jesus was an agitator, Mr. Manager. What in hell did you hang him for if he didn’t hurt your pockets?” He never made a reply. He went away.

He was the manager of the steel works; he was the banker; he was the mayor; he was the judge; he was the chairman of the city council. Just think of that in America—and he had a stomach on him four miles long and two miles wide. (Laughter.) And when you looked at that fellow and compared him with people of toil it nauseated you.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1920, Part II: Found Speaking in Mingo County, WV: “You can’t make me take back water”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1920, Part I: Found in Mingo County, WV: “Workers Must Be Waked From Their Sleep.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Doomed, Wmsn WV, June 20, 1920, Speeches Steel, p213———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 24, 1920
-Mother Jones News for June 1920, Part I
Found Speaking in Williamson, Mingo County, West Virginia

From the Baltimore Evening Sun of June 10, 1920:

REPORTS COMPANIES TERRORIZE MINERS
—–
Lawyers Sent To Pike County, Kentucky, By Union,
Tells Of Brutalities Perpetrated.
—–

FEARFUL DEPUTIES WILL BRING ON GREAT TRAGEDY
—–
Tells Of Man’s Hands Shot Off And Of Others
Chained Together On Long March.
—–

(Special Dispatch to the Evening Sun.)

Mother Jones, NYC Dly Ns p12, May 7, 1920

Charleston, W. Va., June 10.- Conditions in Pike county, Kentucky, are described in a written report to headquarters of the United Mine Worker here by Thomas West, attorney, of Williamson, W. Va., who visited the scene of the trouble. Pike county is opposite Matewan, across Tug river, in which section mine workers are organizing, miners being evicted from their homes by coal companies after joining the union. Frank Keeney, miner’ district president, asked West to go into Pike county, which he did. He reported:

The miners were chained together and, with a mounted armed guard, were walked through to Pike, 25 or 30 miles away, in a pouring rain. Mud was almost knee deep. Pike county deputies shot a man’s bands off on the Kentucky side at Borderland. About 30 of them are terrorizing both aides of the river. The miners came to Williamson and asked for assistance. I would not be surprised to hear any minute of a tragedy which would make the Matewan difficulty look like 30 cents. Pike county deputies were all drunk. In my opinion they constituted one of the most dangerous gangs of men I have ever come in contact with. I would not go back into Pike county for any amount of money.

The Borderland Coal Company and the Pond Creek Coal Company have employed the detectives. Fred Mooney, miners secretary, requested Attorney General Palmer to take some action. Governor Morrow, of Kentucky, was also asked by Mooney to help. It is feared that miners of Matewan will secure arms and cross the Kentucky Border to help their fellow miners. Mother Jones is here and will go to Pike county.

———-

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for June 1920, Part I: Found in Mingo County, WV: “Workers Must Be Waked From Their Sleep.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: The Progressive Woman: “The Outcast” -a Poem for a “Wayward Child” by Lydia Platt Richards

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Great Church upon Bodies of Girls, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 23, 1910
“The Outcast” -a Poem for a “Wayward Child” by Lydia Platt Richards

From The Progressive Woman of July 1910:

POEM Outcast by Lidia Platt Richards, Prg Wmn p5, July 1910

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