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Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 9, 1919
From Leavenworth Penitentiary – “Moths” by Ralph Chaplin
From the Leavenworth New Era of June 6, 1919:
From The One Big Union Monthly of June 1919:
Our Prisoners
THE eleventh annual convention has sent telegraphic greetings to the Class War prisoners in fifteen prisons. Some of the prisoners have answered, and those answers are unanimous. All of them tell us that the only hope upon which the prisoners care to build is the industrial organization of the working-class. All of them repeat the advice given by Joe Hill, “Don’t mourn, but organize!” The I. W. W. and its brother organizations thruout the world are the forces upon which they count to open the prison doors. But not only that. In reading the numerous letters we have received from them, we get the impression that it not only is their hope, but those organizations are for the prisoners the only thing that makes life worth living. It seems they will gladly submit to any suffering, if we are able to furnish them with the news of the progress of our movement.
Some of the prisoners in Leavenworth on the Chicago indictment have been admitted to bail and a few of them are now with us. In speaking to these liberated prisoners, we get the same impression. The long time they have already spent in prison has not in the least changed them, and if it has changed them, it has been in the direction of strengthening their will and determination to fight for the new social order outlined in the I. W. W. preamble.
But prison is prison. The mental and spiritual anguish our fellow workers have to go thru is frightful. It takes the strongest mind and the noblest characters to bear up under such pressure. Many of them have caught diseases in prison, which will put them in a premature grave, others are having their physical health undermined, and of course their life is one of unspeakable misery which only their stout hearts can make them bear up with, in expectation that we on the outside shall do our best get them out.
For the present, we have two different ways of demonstrating our solidarity with these fellow workers. One way is to follow the standing advice of building up the industrial organizations for the purpose of creating a new society. This is a long and difficult task and requires the organized and combined effort of all of us, working according to a common plan and advancing in organized masses. The individual is here more or less submerged in the body of the organization.
The other way is of an opposite nature. It gives the individual all the play he wants and can possibly ask for. There are some thirty prisoners admitted to bail, who are still in prison for lack of the necessary sureties to bail them out. Our organization consists mainly of woodsmen, farm laborers, railroad laborers, miners , sailors, longshoremen, textile workers, factory workers of different kinds, etc. nearly all of them are utterly poor, having the means of existence only for a day, a week or a month, as the case may be. But, nevertheless, there are perhaps a few thousand within our ranks who are the possessors of Liberty Bonds bought by compulsion, or who have cash in the bank or who own some little real estate. Now is their chance to prove their solidarity with those who have fought for the principles they endorse.
But even if we combed the whole membership, we doubt if we would be able to get the necessary funds for bailing out those now admitted to bail and those who will be admitted to bail in the near future, if we have the funds. For that reason, we do not hesitate to address ourselves even to such readers of this publication as are not members of our organization. We know there are a great many people reading this magazine who could and would assist us in getting our fellow workers out of Leavenworth and other prisons. This is the chance of their life to put their wealth to the service of their fellow human beings without cost to themselves. The Liberty Bonds or the cash deposited as bail will continue to pay interest, and real estate scheduled for the liberation of our friends will neither suffer nor deteriorate in any manner. By all means, let us hear from you. Get in touch with the General Defense Committee, 1001 W. Madison St., Chicago, Ill.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
Quote Ralph Chaplin, When we claim our Mother Earth, Leaves 1917
https://archive.org/stream/whenleavescomeou00chapiala#page/4/mode/1up
Leavenworth New Era
(Leavenworth, Kansas)
-June 6, 1919
POEM Moths by Ralph Chaplin, Lv Nw Era p2, June 6, 1919
https://www.newspapers.com/image/488896744
The One Big Union Monthly
“Published Monthly by the General Executive Board
of the Industrial Workers of the World”
(Chicago Illinois -John Sandgren, Editor)
-June 1919
https://libcom.org/library/one-big-union-monthly-june-1919
https://libcom.org/files/OBUMjune1919pt1.pdf
IMAGE
Joe Hill button worn at Chicago funeral, Nov 25, 1915
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lbc1ic/x-lbc.0307/LBC0307.TIF?lastkey=subject;lastpage=browse;lastvalue=l;size=50;start=1;subview=detail;view=entry
See also:
Tag: Ralph Chaplin
https://weneverforget.org/tag/ralph-chaplin/
Tag: Leavenworth Penitentiary
https://weneverforget.org/tag/leavenworth-penitentiary/
Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 14, 1919
From New Solidarity: “Bail Set for Thirty-Six Leavenworth Prisoners” Funds for Bonds Needed
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 28, 1919
Bail Needed for Fellow Workers at Leavenworth; “Invincible IWW” by Floyd Dell for The Liberator
War-Time Prosecutions and Mob Violence
[April 1, 1917 to March 1, 1919]
National Civil Liberties Bureau, NCLB, March 1919
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Pm4yAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.RA3-PA1
From: Pamphlets on the European War
https://books.google.com/books?id=Pm4yAQAAIAAJ
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Commonwealth of Toil – Pete Seeger
Lyrics by Ralph Chaplin