Author: Janet Raye

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “Social Democratic Party of America” -Letter from Chicago Delegates

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote SDP, Class-Conscious & Revolutionary, AtR p4, July 2, 1898
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 7, 1898
On the Formation of the Social Democratic Party of America

From the Appeal to Reason of July 2, 1898:

The Social Democratic Party of America.
———-

CHICAGO, June 16, 1898.

To Members of the Social Democracy of America:

1890s? Theodore Debs, IndStateEdu, Debs

COMRADES: There has been a division of the delegates who met in annual convention in this city in the name of the Social Democracy, beginning June 7th and ending June 11th, and the result has been the formation of a new party, known as the Social Democratic Party of America.

To report the truth respecting the withdrawal of the undersigned delegates from the convention, and the causes which led thereto, and to the formation of a new party, is the purpose of this address, and we bespeak for it the calm and serious consideration its importance demands.

Soon after the convention was called to order it became apparent that the delegates were divided into two factions, and as the deliberations proceeded the breach which separated them grew wider and all hope of bringing them into harmonious alliance vanished.

The prime factor in the disruption of the Social Democracy was the appearance in the convention of a number of delegates representing Chicago branches which were reported to have been organized within two or three days of the time the convention met, and these delegates were sufficient in number to control the convention. As a matter of fact they were chosen for that purpose and for that purpose alone, and it can be proved that the branches they were alleged to represent had not, and have not now, any existence.

That there was an undercurrent to defeat independent political action, especially in some sections in which certain delegates were personally interested, was too plainly evident to admit of doubt. The intense activity of certain other persons who are known to be violently opposed to political action emphasized the conviction that “colonization” was made the pretext for defeating the independent political program of the organization.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Compassionate Heart of Eugene Debs Re-Converts Florence Kelley to Socialism

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, re Knocked Down Women, Miners Mag, July 17, 1913
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday July 6, 1908
Compassion of Eugene Debs Re-Converts Florence Kelley

From The Socialist Woman of July 1908:

A RE-CONVERT.
—–
Rose Pastor Stokes.

Florence Kelley, Am Mag, July 1910
Florence Kelley

Mrs. Florence Kelley is one of the noblest women I know, and has worked for twenty years or more for Socialism among trades unionists and other classes of men and women. She used to belong to the Socialist party, but has not been a party member for many years. Last Sunday Mrs. Kelley was present at the mass meeting of the Christian Socialist Fellowship, when Eugene V. Debs spoke.

She was there when everybody else on the program spoke; but when she heard his wonderful plea for the woman who is not “fallen” but “knocked down;” for his sisters who are forced by a cruel and heartless system to sell their honor for a living, when she heard him declare, in a voice broken with emotion, that he honors these sisters of his and places his arm about them, and takes his stand by their side, Mrs. Kelley could not hear more.

Her face was flushed, and I saw the tears she wouldn’t let come to her eyes, as she exclaimed: “I am ashamed to be out of the party that has a man like that at its head! I’ll take out my membership card for him tomorrow.”

And her word is as good as her bond. Welcome to another new comrade!-The New York Evening Call.

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Hellraisers Journal: “What’s the Matter with Debs?” -Buchanan Questions Exit from Social Democracy of America

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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EVD Quote, Revolutionary Solidarity, ISR Feb 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 5, 1898
Controversy Continues over Division in Social Democracy

From the Omaha Western Laborer of July 2, 1898:

Social Democracy:
The Withdrawal of Debs and What It Means

by Joseph R. Buchanan

“What’s the matter with Debs?”

Joseph Ray Buchanan (1851-1924), Western Laborer, July 2, 1898

I have heard that query propounded many times during the past four weeks. Men whom I met at different places on a trip from New York to Omaha and return asked me the question. The division in the Social Democracy was in the mind of everyone who asked it, and what they really wanted to know was the cause of the split in that organization. I was in Chicago two or three days after the break occurred [June 11th], and I met and talked with representative men of each wing of the divided movement. I tried hard to see Debs but failed. However, I saw two men who undoubtedly had the knowledge to speak for his side, and they claimed the authority to do so. However, both sides agree as to the real reason of the division, and that reason is not a secret, as it was given in the daily press of Chicago at the time.

A minority of the delegates to the national convention held in Chicago [June 7-11] wanted to change the program and policy of the Social Democracy by abandoning the colonization feature. When the test vote was taken, the result showed 52 for retaining the colony scheme and 37 against. The 37 bolted the convention and Debs joined them. They afterward met and decided to reorganize the minority on educational and political lines, entirely abandoning the colony project and to go forth with a new plan for a socialistic political party

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Ohio Socialist: “Eugene Debs Under Indictment Is Now Free on Bail of $10,000”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Debs is a SOCIALIST and a
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST at that.
Prepare to do your share in his defense!
-The Ohio Socialist
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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday July 3, 1918
Cleveland, Ohio – Debs Arrested Sunday June 30th

From The Ohio Socialist of July 2, 1918:

EVD Under Indictment, OH Sc p1, July 2, 1918

—–
Working Class Champion Arrested on Alleged
Violation of Espionage Law
—–
Deb’s Canton Speech in Demand; Officers
Diligent Search Reveals Naught
—–

EVD Lansing MI St Jr p10, July 1, 1918

Eugene Victor Debs, several times Socialist Party candidate for President of the United States, champion of Labor and the cause of the underdog, was arrested on an indictment drawn by the Federal Grand Jury as he was about to enter the Bohemian Gardens at Cleveland, Sunday, June 30th, where he was scheduled to address the Socialists. The indictment is based on alleged violations of the Espionage law, which it is claimed, he committed in his speech at Canton, June 16th.

An audience of three thousand people awaited Debs’ appearance at the meeting, which was addressed by Tom Clifford and John Brahtin of Cleveland, Marguerite Prevey of Akron and Harry Kritzger, agent of John Reed, who was in the city arranging a meeting which Reed will address on Wednesday, July 3rd.

When the arrest of Debs was announced to the audience it immediately showed its determination to stay in the fight to the finish. Wild applause greeted the name of Debs. A grim determination was noticeable upon the faces of every one and a spirit of sacrifice and comradeship was evident. There were no weak kneed ones there.

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Defense Calls Red Doran; Courtroom Treated to “Chalk Talk” on Economics

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Doran, IWW Trial Chg, June 28, 1918
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 2, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – “Chalk Talk” by Red Doran at I. W. W. Trial

On Friday, June 28th, Attorney Otto Christensen called forth John T. “Red” Doran as a witness for the defense. In place of the usual witness chair was found a large easel and a cloth blackboard upon which Fellow Worker Red Doran launched into an illustrated address describing the current economic system and explaining how it is based upon robbery, degradation and exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few.

From El Paso Morning Times of June 30, 1918:

Chg IWW Trial, Red Doran, ISR Jan 1918


Red Doran, Lecturer
for I.W.W. Society,
Given Trial in Court
—–

By Associated Press.

Chicago, June 29.-Red Doran, who was permitted to lecture in court [June 28th] as part of the evidence in the I. W. W. defense and spoke of alleged unsanitary conditions in northwestern lumber camps, had only spasmodic experiences as a worker in these camps, it appeared on cross examination today. He admitted that he never had worked in a lumber camp or mill, except in the blacksmith.

Charles Ashleigh, the third defendant to take the witness stand, said he became interested in the labor movement in England. In 1903 when he came to the United states he became interested in the I. W. W. in New York he said he did some work for Miss Anne Morgan.

He testified that the I. W. W., aims at industrial rather than governmental reform. In the United States, he said, there is an advanced political democracy and an industrial autocracy.

“So long as this condition exists, industry is little more than a sentiment,” he said.

Charles R. Griffith [Griffin], another defendant, related numerous experiences with his employers during 18 years spent in the woods as a lumberjack. He defended the I. W. W. propaganda and told of conditions which he said had been responsible for many strikes in the northwest lumber camps.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Socialist Woman: A Message from Theresa Malkiel to Her Sisters in Toil: “Come, Arise!”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote T Malkiel, Sisters Arise, Sc Woman p10, July 1908
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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday July 1, 1908
Theresa Malkiel Speaks to “Sisters in Toil”

From The Socialist Woman of July 1908:

MY SISTERS lN TOIL

Theresa Malkiel.

Theresa Malkiel 1874-1949, wiki

Listen my sisters! I have made up my mind to talk it over with you. I have toiled from morn to night, from week to week, from year to year, without any bright memories of the past or dreams for the, future. Like you, I have lived to work. Each day brought forth the same dull program; the only variation being the time when work was slack, and then the fear of the morrow made matters still worse. We girls of the same workroom often rebelled against our nerve and body tearing tasks, often wished for a glimpse of the clear sky and the bright sunshine, the green fields and shady woods, which very few of us ever got a chance to enjoy. But what was the use of complaining? We saw no remedy for it, and what was more, didn’t care to look for one.

It is true there was the possibility of marriage, but how many of us look forth to married life as a relief from hard burdens, as easier living. What with the housework and small babies, that come soon enough, a few boarders or some homework, or the job of a janitress, there is little time for recreation, or thought for better things.

Toilers live the life of animals—that is work, and sleep, with short intervals for food. Now let us put our heads together and see if this is right; if things ought to, and will, go on for ever in this way.

I know you will say: “What is the use? We’ll not change the world, it’s our fate to work and struggle, and we might as well accept the inevitable. We are too tired to think, or read what others have thought out for us; when bones ache and the head reels, the bed, even if it is a hard one, is more inviting than the most attractive lecture room.”

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Eugene Debs Watch Fobs on Sale for 25c; 20,000 on Order

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 30, 1908
Souvenir Available to Honor Socialist Party’s Presidential Candidate

From the Appeal to Reason of June 27, 1908:

EVD, Debs Watch Fobs, AtR p4, June 27, 1908

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago Trial: FW Big Jim Thompson Weeps as He Recalls Wheatland Hop-Pickers Strike of 1913

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Chicago IWW Trial, H George, p71-2, JP Thompson, June 25-26, 1918
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 29, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Big Jim Thompson for the Defense

James P. Thompson, known to his Fellow Workers as Big Jim Thompson, was the first witness called by the defense in the Chicago I. W. W. Trial. He was on the stand for two days and spoke of his many years as an I. W. W. organizer.

FW Thompson wept as he recalled the Wheatland hop-pickers strike of 1913 and the massacre of the improvised workers there, shot down by sheriff’s deputies for the crime of attempting to organize.

Hop Pickers, Durst Ranch, Wheatland, California, 1913
Hop Pickers, Durst Ranch, Wheatland, California, 1913

Through his tears, Thompson predicted:

Some day, when Labor’s age-long fight for life and freedom is ended, then will there be a monument raised over the graves of the Wheatland martyrs-and it will show the little water-carrier boy and his tin pail lying there on the ground mingling his blood with the water that he carried, and over him, in a posture of defense, the brave Porto-Rican with the gun he had torn from the cowardly hands of the murderers who had fired upon a crowd of women and children.

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Hellraisers Journal: Ben Hanford on the Republican Party, Bill Taft, and the Unemployed: “Go and Eat Grass!”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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The unemployed were clubbed by the police
under republican Mayor Busse in Chicago
and under democratic Mayor McClellan in New York.
-Ben Hanford, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 28, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – Republican Party to Unemployed: “Go and eat grass!”

From the Socialist Montana News of June 25, 1908:

Ben Hanford and Republicans
—–

“GO AND EAT GRASS” IS ADVICE.
—–
Socialist Candidate for Vice President
Scores Hypocrisy and Vulgarity
of Wall Street’s Recent Convention.
—–

SPA, Ben Hanford, VP Candidate, AtR p4, May 23, 1908

“Go and Eat Grass!”

“If the people have no bread, why don’t they eat cake?”

So says the national convention of the republican party to the more than five million unemployed men in the United States. What sweet consolation to them and the twenty millions of people dependent on them.

We are a prosperous people, declared the leaders of the convention.

We have wealth to the value of $110,000,000,000, more than one quarter of all the wealth on earth.

We make more than one-third of the world’s modern manufactured products.

The republican convention was opened each day with prayer, and by a different clergyman—but there is no evidence that it was closed with a benediction.

The delegates considered themselves “the people”, and therefore they could truly say “the people” were prosperous. It was a convention of lawyers, office holders and millionaires. Why shouldn’t Senator Burrows be prosperous? For thirty-nine years he has drawn pay from a city, county, state or national treasury. Why shouldn’t Senator Lodge be prosperous? He graduated from Harvard Law School thirty-three years ago, and has been fed at the public crib for twenty-five of the years since past. These worthies fear lest socialism would “have the nation own the people.”

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