[The Mexican Patriots] appeal to us
from their prison cells.
We hear their cry and, by the eternal,
we are with them and the dogs of Diaz
shall not tear their flesh.
-J. A. Wayland
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 10, 1909
Big Bill Haywood & Mother Jones Rally Support for Mexican Patriots
From the Appeal to Reason of January 9, 1909:
———-
CHAPTER OF HORRORS
THE Appeal is in the fight to thwart the conspiracy of the United States and Mexican governments to have the Mexican patriots now lying in jail at Los Angeles surrendered to the cannibal Diaz to be shot for treason. It is a burning disgrace that they are in jail at all. They are men and that is their crime in Mexico. The bloody butcheries of Diaz shocked and horrified them and they took up the cause of their mutilated and agonizing countrymen and hurled their defiance at the monster who posed as president. From that time to this they have been hunted like beasts. They have suffered everything and sacrificed every thing in the cause of freedom.
But they remain undaunted. They are of heroic fibre and complain not of their fate. The love of humanity throbs in their breasts and the passion for freedom flames in their souls.
They are patriots and revolutionists-our comrades!
They appeal to us from their prison cells. We hear their cry and, by the eternal, we are with them and the dogs of Diaz shall not tear their flesh.
In this issue of the Appeal the facts are graphically stated by the Appeal correspondent who is on the ground and whose keen scent has allowed nothing to escape him. In this international conspiracy the simple facts are monstrous and read like fiction.
The interview with Magon in his cell is an intensely dramatic episode and the interview itself is a classic. Every word is eloquent of the white-hot passion which inspired it. Magon and his fellow-patriots are revealed here, unconsciously, as the heroes of history.
Magon’s story is a cry of pain from a great soul. It is graphic, startling and at times makes the heart stop. And yet there is a reserve about it, a dignity and tone that make it all the more dramatic and impressive.
Nothing more marvelous and appealing than this revolutionary classic has ever appeared in these columns.
No reader can afford to miss a word of it, and every issue of this paper should be passed from hand to hand until a million people hear the cry and resolve that these patriots shall not be sent to their horrid doom.
Let there be no mistake about what these men are fighting for. Mexico is a republic in name, but Diaz has made it a shamble of despotism in fact. He has subverted its constitution which in its main features is the same as the constitution of the United States, erected a throne for his executive seat and has an army of from forty to sixty thousand rurales, soldiers, spies and cut-throats to execute his orders and hunt down and assassinate the brave souls who protest against his bloody reign.
Diaz and his confederates are the usurpers and murderers who ought to be driven from power, while Magon and his associates are the champions of the people and the true friends of peace and order.
The passionate cry of Magon should arouse the nation. His words flash and scorch like a flame and he who can read them unmoved “carries about a shriveled soul in a corpse.”
In the name of the American Socialist movement and in the name of the working class whose fearless champion they are, we demand the unconditional liberation of our Mexican comrades.
———-
MOTHER JONES’ APPEAL
—–
When the tocsin of battle sounds among the first, always the first, to take her place on the firing line is Mother Jones. She is by royal right of blood a warrior and, like Job’s war horse, she can smell the battle from afar.
In all the great strikes of recent years, Mother Jones has been a commanding figure and a dramatic personality. She has led the miners of the anthracite to the very muzzles of the enemy’s guns and by the sheer force of her superb womanhood has compelled the soldiers and deputies to lower their arms.
In the western mining camps the very name of Mother Jones lights and warms the cabins and little children tell of her motherly sympathy and her many acts of bravery to help the miners in their struggles.
Today Mother Jones is a the front fighting with all her intrepid spirit to save the Russian and Mexican refugees. It was largely through her fiery agitation that Sarabia, who was kidnaped at Douglas by the Mexican authorities, was reluctantly returned to this country. She happened to be in Arizona at the time and her burning appeals there will never be forgotten. Mother Jones realizes fully the work the Appeal is doing in this struggle and writes:
The Appeal can and will arouse the American People. Its voice rings like a clarion over all the nation. How the hearts of the refugees must be cheered when they hear the Appeal’s ringing challenge to the czar of Russia and the dictator of Mexico! More power to the Appeal! May every one of its more than three hundred thousand readers resolve this very hour to double its circulation, that a million more American people can be shaken from their lethargy and swell the mighty protest against Russian bastiles and Mexican dungeons on American soil.
These are inspiring words from a magnificent champion. There she stands! Snow-crowned by her more than seventy years she yet leads and cheer her comrades on to victory.
Who can resist the clarion call of Mother Jones? Who can fail to fall in line when such a captain leads the charge?
Now is the time to show the stuff that we are made of.
———-
[Emphasis and photograph of Mother Jones added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-January 9, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587592/
IMAGE
Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908
https://www.genealogybank.com/
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 4, 1909
Five Patriots Illegally Imprisoned in American Jails
Eugene V. Debs Calls for Rescue of Mexican and Russian Patriots Now Held in American Jails
Tag: Mexican Revolutionaries
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mexican-revolutionaries/
Note: Juan Sarabia and his brother, Manuel Sarabia, were both Mexican Revolutionaries.
Juan Sarabia
-Juan was arrested in Ciudad Juárez in 1907, transferred to the San Juan de Ulúa prison, and not released until May 1911.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Sarabia
Manuel Sarabia
-Manuel was kidnaped by authorities in Douglas, AZ, in 1907.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Sarabia_D%C3%ADaz_de_Le%C3%B3n
Ricardo Flores Magón
-Electronic Archive, Home
Regeneración
-and “Revolución” of Los Angeles
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