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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 7, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Ohio Socialist Released, O’Hare Schedule to Speak
The town of Canton was the scene of joyous celebration on December 2nd when Comrades Ruthenberg, Wagenknecht, and Baker were released from the Stark County Workhouse. On hand to greet them was none other than Eugene V. Debs, along with several prominent Ohio Socialists.
Canton will be visited on December 9th by Kate Richards O’Hare who is expected to begin serving her prison term shortly thereafter.
From The Ohio Socialist of December 4, 1918:
FREE THE
POLITICAL PRISONERSWithin the walls of American prisons are held many of the noblest men and women of this land. Many others, men and women with the highest attributes, which characterize true and noble manhood and womanhood, are under indictment and facing charges as political offenders. Men and women with the highest ideals which human beings are endowed are today rotting in American prisons.
For expressing an OPINION at variance with that which the law stated may be expressed these men and women are paying a penalty out of all proportion to their offenses. The espionage law has produced a crop of jail sentences in America absolutely undreamed of even in Germany under the rule of the junkers and their kaiser. Compare the four-year sentence of Liebknecht for “high treason” to that of ten years for Debs, for Kate O’Hare and Rose Pastor Stokes.
If we have been able to surmise correctly the reason (or excuse) for the passage of the espionage law, if punishment was not the purpose of the law then the further confinement of our political prisoners is an atrocity.
If to silence opposition to the war was the purpose of this law, there is now no longer any necessity for their confinement. The war is over. Liberties under which we formerly thrived should be returned to us.
Those in power today have nothing to gain by longer jailing political offenders. On the contrary they stand to lose considerable. This is no time to preach the gospel of hate nor to practice it. It is a false gospel at all times. Now that peace has come its teachings and practices are criminal.
The movement to free our political prisoners is gaining momentum. The great mass of the people, as well as liberal minds among the bourgeoisie, favor it. Those who oppose an early liberation of political offenders are of a class and character with those whom the workers of Europe have lately shorn of power. Let every worker’s voice rise in protest against the longer confinement of political prisoners.
Celebration Planned
Debs on Hand to Greet Released Comrades
OUT AGAIN AND AT IT!
Charles Baker, C. E. Ruthenberg and A. Wagenknecht were released from the Stark County Work House at 7:30 A. M., December 2. They were met at the prison gates by delegations of Socialists from Akron, Canton and Cleveland, most conspicuous in which was our veteran comrade, Eugene V. Debs.
A very invigorating and substantial breakfast was served the three released comrades and others at the home of Mrs. Hall, active worker in Local Canton. From there the comrades went to Akron to visit Margaret Prevey, who is at present convalescing from a bad cold. At the home of Comrade Prevey agents of the Department of Justice arrested Charles Baker, holding him to make his induction into the selective service army sure.
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—–Comrade Baker spent Monday night in the Summit county jail and was taken to Camp Sherman Tuesday morning. As demobilization is on, it is hoped that Baker’s stay at Chillicothe will be brief. However, it is possible that he will be held until the military company he would have joined, had he not been jailed, is discharged. Comrade Baker’s last words, when we left him in the office of the Department of Justice at Akron were:
Tell the comrades I expected to be inducted into the army and was on my way to Hamilton to do so, only having stopped to see our sick Comrade Prevey, before leaving for the southern part of the state. It will not be long now until I shall again find pleasure in the work to which I have given my life. Greetings to all.
C. E. Ruthenberg and A. Wagenknecht left Akron for Cleveland Monday afternoon, where they again met as co-workers hundreds of party members who greeted them, made offerings of flowers and were over-joyed at their return.
Ruthenberg and Wagenknecht have again resumed their official duties, the former as Secretary of Local Cuyahoga County and the latter of Secretary of the Socialist Party of Ohio. To every member and sympathizer these released comrades send words of cheer. These are days of big events. The color of the entire European map seems to be changing from a mixture of black and yellow to a healthy, inspiring, heart-warming red. Smile! We are on the road to victory. To work!
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SOURCES
Quote Kate Richards O’Hare, Dangerous to war profiteers, ab Dec 1917
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=CKE0AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA9
The Ohio Socialist
“Official Organ of the Socialist Parties of Ohio and Kentucky”
(Cleveland, Ohio)
-Dec 4, 1918
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/ohio-socialist/045-dec-04-1918.pdf
IMAGES
WWIR, Kate Richards O’Hare, OH Sc p1, Dec 4, 1918
WWIR, Welcome Home OH PPs, OH Sc p3, Dec 4, 1918
WWIR, Charles Baker, OH Sc p4, Dec 4, 1918
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/ohio-socialist/045-dec-04-1918.pdf
WWIR, Ruthenberg n Wagenknecht, Wiki, OH Sc p4, Dec 4, 1918
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/ohio-socialist/045-dec-04-1918.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._E._Ruthenberg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Wagenknecht
See also:
Kate Richards O’Hare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Richards_O%27Hare
Note: O’Hare actually began serving her sentence in April of 1919
https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22kate+richards+ohare%22&ymd=1919-04-15
Tag: Charles Baker
https://weneverforget.org/tag/charles-baker/
Tag: Socialist Party of Ohio
https://weneverforget.org/tag/socialist-party-of-ohio/
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