Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs Calls for Rescue of Mexican and Russian Patriots Now Held in American Jails

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Quote EVD, Right of Asylum, AtR p1, Jan 2, 1909

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Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 4, 1909
Five Patriots Illegally Imprisoned in American Jails 

With a banner headline and a wide column down the center of the front page of this weeks’s Appeal to Reason, Eugene V. Debs calls for the rescue of the Mexican and Russian patriots now held for deportation by American authorities at the behest of foreign tyrants.

AtR, Banner re Mxn Revs Patriots p1, Jan 2, 1909
EVD re Mxn Revs, AtR p1, Jan 2, 1909

From the Appeal to Reason for January 2, 1909:

RESCUE THE REFUGEES

By EUGENE V. DEBS.

Mex Rev, Villareal Magon Rivera, Barbarous MX p307, 3rd ed 1910

When Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian revolutionist, refugee from his native land for attempting to overthrow its government, reached the United States, in 1851, he was received as the “distinguished Hungarian patriot” by President Fillmore, hailed as another Washington by the American congress and welcomed by the American people amidst demonstrations of the wildest enthusiasm. He was a rebel and a revolutionist and before making his escape had been condemned for “treason” and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment “on account of taking a position favorable to six patriots who had been illegally imprisoned.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Boardman Robinson on Justice: for Capitalists (Bisbee Gunthugs), for Working Men (Mooney)

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Quote Mother Jones re Tom Mooney and Courts, Dec 16, 1918~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 3, 1919
Justice in America: for Capitalist, for Working Men.

From The Liberator of January 1919:

-Boardman Robinson on Justice for Capitalists

Bisbee Deportations of 1917, B Robinson, Justice for Capitalists, Liberator p12, Jan 1919

-Boardman Robinson on Justice for Working Men

Tom Mooney, B Robinson, Justice for Working Men, Liberator p13, Jan 1919

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Horror at Switchback, West Virginia; Scores of Miners Meet Death in Lick Branch Mine Explosion

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Pray for the dead and fight like hell for living.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday January 2, 1909
Switchback, McDowel County, West Virginia – Horror at Lick Branch Mine

From the Charleston Labor Argus of December 31, 1908:

HORRIBLE DISASTER
—–
In Another “Model” West Virginia Mine
in Which Scores of Miners
Met Their Death.
—–

WV Lick Branch Mine Disaster of Dec 29, Ptt Gz Tx p1, Jan 1, 1909

Another mine disaster was added to the long list that have occurred in the non-union fields of this state, on Tuesday at the Lick Branch mine in the Norfolk & Western field. Twenty-seven bodies had been recovered up to last night and it is estimated that the death roll will reach nearly one hundred.

Mine cars were shattered and debris was blown out of the entrances and a hundred feet away from the mines mouth. Eight crews or rescuers are at work and have been engaged in the search of bodies.

In a large building near the mines a temporary morgue has been established. There are many pitiful scenes about the little village. Watchers sit side by side of coffins in some homes of which there are three.

The explosion occurred in a mine that was looked upon as a “model” colliery. It was visited by the “legislative investigating committee” when that body toured the state and all pronounced it one of the “safest” and best equipped mines in the state.

———-

[Inset added from Pittsburgh Gazette Times of January 1, 1909.]

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Hellraisers Journal: News Year’s Greetings from The Crisis Magazine; Editorial On “Old Desires” for Peace and Democracy

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Quote DuBois, WWI We Return, The Crisis, May 1919~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 1, 1919
News Years Greetings from The Crisis & an Editorial on “Old Desires”

From The Crisis of January 1919:

The Crisis, Cover New Year, Tennyson, Jan 1919

From the Editorial Page:

The Crisis Editorial, Jan 1919

OLD DESIRES

“THE NEW YEAR,” sang the Persian poet, “awakens Old Desires.” Certainly at no time during the year does the realization of unfulfilled hopes weigh so heavily. Today when the whole world waits while the delegates at the Peace Table formulate the new rights of man, we are conscious that for us discrimination still lowers. All Europe rejoices in its new gifts—the British proletariat is promised a liberal labor program; the Czecho-Slovaks are tasting the joys of nationalism; France is rid of the Prussian menace; Belgium is bidden to bind up her wounds. But our men, who have helped mightily to awaken and preserve the spirit which makes these things possible, are returning to what?

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Hellraisers Journal: News from Spokane, Washington: IWWs Ready for Jail in Fight for Right to Hold Street Meetings

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Quote Thomas Paine re Liberty n Home, Age of Reason Into, 1908

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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 31, 1908
Spokane, Washington – I. W. W. Plans Free Speech Campaign

From The Spokane Press of December 28, 1908:

ALL GET READY FOR JAIL
—–

INDUSTRIAL WORKERS WILL HAVE 500 SPEAKERS
ON TAP TO BE ARRESTED FOR
MAKING TALKS ON CITY STREET
—–

IWW Emblem Label, IWWC 1906

Another problem similar to that of jailing all the saloonkeepers in town will be presented the police department when an attempt is made to enforce the ordinance recently passed to prevent public speaking on the street. The Industrial Workers of the World have organized systematic opposition and yesterday they asked the socialists to join them.

The Industrial Workers already have a list of 50 speakers, and expect to secure a total of 500 out of their membership of 1,500 in this city. These speakers will be numbered, a street meeting started and as soon as one speaker is confiscated by the police another will take his place. The industrialists hold the ordinance an invasion of the rights of free speech, and say they would rather go to jail than abide by its provisions.

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Hellraisers Journal: James Connolly, Editor of The Harp, Speaks on Socialism, Religion, and Conditions in Ireland

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Edit Irish Socialist Federation, James Connolly, NYC 1908
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 30, 1908
Trenton, New Jersey – Irish Socialist, James Connolly Speaks

From the Trenton Evening Times of December 28, 1908:

IRISH SOCIALIST MAKES ADDRESS

James Connolly, 1902, Multitext of U College Cork

J. C. Connelly [Connolly], an Irish Socialist, and editor of the Harp, of New York, addressed a meeting of the Trenton Socialists last night in Arcade Hall. Mr. Connelly spoke of the conditions in Ireland as regards the two great classes, the capitalist and the laborer.

He stated that the capitalist there, and in all other countries, disregarded the question of race and religion. He said that the Irish people were beginning to realize the folly of attempting to liberate the Irish race and on the very next day to find it necessary to [beg?] the capitalist for means of sustenance; that, although Cardinal Logue and other eminent men of the Catholic Church have scouted the idea of Socialism in Ireland, nevertheless there are many Socialist clubs in Ireland.

He said that the revolutionist of Ireland is taking the same stand as the Socialist, that religion is a private matter; that clerical leaders will not necessarily be safe guides in politics whatever they might be in theology.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison Sentenced for Contempt of Court in Bucks Stove & Range Case-Continued

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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 29, 1908
Samuel Gompers on the Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press:

Samuel Gompers addressed the Court, December 23rd, before being sentenced to one year in prison, and said, in part:

[T]he freedom of speech and of the press have not been granted in order that men may say the things that please, but to say the things that displease, which may convey the need of change and the unaccepted thought….

If in monarchical England these rights can be given, they ought not to be denied to the theoretically free citizens of this Republic.

From the Washington Evening Star of December 23, 1908:

Bucks Stove n Range, Morrison Gompers Mitchell, WDC Eve Str p3, Dec 23, 1908

From The Washington Times of December 23, 1908:

Bucks Stove n Range, AFL Leaders Sentenced, WDC Tx p1, Dec 23, 1908

[Continued.]

Defendants Before the Court.

All the while the reading [of Judge Wright’s opinion] proceeded the three defendants sat in the courtroom directly in front of Judge Wright. All were composed, betraying at times slight evidence of restlessness, but listening closely to the words of the court. When he had concluded his opinion, Justice Wright announced he was ready to pass sentence, and after the customary fashion, the defendants were ordered by the bailiff to stand up.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison Sentenced for Contempt of Court in Bucks Stove & Range Case-Continued”

Hellraisers Journal: Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison Sentenced for Contempt of Court in Bucks Stove & Range Case

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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 28, 1908
Leaders of American Federation of Labor Flayed by Justice Wright

From The Washington Times of December 23, 1908:

Bucks Stove n Range, AFL Leaders Sentenced, WDC Tx p1, Dec 23, 1908

FEDERATION’S HEAD IS GIVEN ONE YEAR
BY JUSTICE WRIGHT
—–
Vice President Gets Nine Months
and the Secretary Six Months
in Bucks Stove and Range Case.
Give Appeal Bond.
—–

DEFENDANTS FLAYED FROM THE BENCH
—–
Court Declares Violation of Order as to Boycott
and “We Don’t Patronize List”
Is Flagrant and Deserves Severe Punishment.
—–

Bucks Stove n Range, Gompers, Mitchell, Judge, Morrison, WDC Tx p1, Dec 23, 1908

President Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor,  Secretary Frank Morrison of this organization, and John Mitchell, former president of the United Mine Workers, were today sentenced by Judge Wright of the District Supreme Court to the District jail for contempt of court.

Their offense is the violation of the injunction issued some months ago by Judge Gould prohibiting the American Federation of Labor and its officials from publishing the name of the Bucks Stove and Range Company in the “We Don’t Patronize List” of the federation as it had appeared in the American Federationist, the official organ of the American Federation of Labor.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “About the Second Masses Trial” by John Reed, Drawings by Art Young

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Quote John Reed, Rebellious People, Ten Days, 1919
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 27, 1918
New York, New York – Jack Reed & Art Young on Second Masses Trial

From The Liberator of December 1918:

-Defense Attorney Seymour Stedman by Art Young

2nd Masses Trial Oct, Stedman by Art Young, Liberator p4, Dec 1918

SEYMOUR STEDMAN, attorney for the defense, in his eloquent summing up, referred as follows to the fact that the Masses editors asked an injunction compelling the Post Office to mail the very magazine for publishing which they were later indicted:

Do men who are committing a crime go into a Federal Court and face a District Attorney and ask the privilege of continuing it? A strange set of burglars! A strange set of footpads! A strange set o smugglers! A strange set of criminals! I ask Mr. Barnes to tell you when before in his experience, men in the City of New York came in and filed an appeal, opening all their proof and all their evidence and all their testimony and said, “if the Court please, we insist on the right to continue this deep, dark, infamous conspiracy, and have it sanctified by an advocate of the United States Court.” History finds no parallel that I know of in any criminal procedure which has ever taken place.

-John Reed on Second Masses Trial

About the Second Masses Trial

by John Reed

IN the United States political offenses are dealt with more harshly than anywhere else in the world. In the amendment to the Espionage Act [the Sedition Act] it is made a crime equivalent to manslaughter to “criticize the form of government.” The sentences in Espionage cases run anywhere from ten to twenty years at hard labor, with fines of thousands of dollars.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Charleston Labor Argus: Trade Unions Are Toilers Only Hope for Protection and Safety

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Don’t Mourn, Organize!
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 26, 1908
National Elections Pass into History; Hardships Continue for Toilers

From the Charleston Labor Argus of December 24, 1908:

Trade Union Are Toilers Only Hope
—–

Only Protection and Safety for the Working
Masses is Organized Labor
-Politicians Are But Tools of the Trusts.
—–

Labor Argus p4, Frank W Snyder, Charleston WV, Dec 24, 1908

Now that another national contest has, passed into history and the working people can take a sober view of the economic situation, the Cleveland Citizen calls attention to the fact that the labor problem was not solved on Nov. 3, 1908.

While the unsuccessful politicians are now in the dumps and the victors are celebrating their acquaintance of the spoils of office, the workingmen are confronted by exactly the the same conditions that they were to face the day before election.

The problem of unemployment for some and overwork for others, the evils for cheap women and child labor, the introduction of labor-displacing machinery, the threats of wage reductions, the attacks of union smashing open shoppers and similiar questions are here today just as they were here last week, and they must and considered for the reason that they cannot lie dodged.

Since there is no likelihood that the victorious politicians will establish the millennium week after next or next year or the year following, what are the working people going to do for their own betterment? Sit on their haunches and suck their thumbs. Go into a trance and give up the few advantages that they still possess?

We believe not. Down in their hearts the workingmen and women know that their only protection and safety lies in organizing-in combining the toilers into trade unions for offensive and defensive purposes.

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