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Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 14, 1909
Tombstone, Arizona – Citizens Protest Conviction of Mexican Revolutionaries
From the Appeal to Reason of June 12, 1909:
CITIZENS’ PROTEST.
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Monster Mass Meeting in Tombstone, Ariz.,
Petitions Taft for Pardon for Mexican Patriots.
Had it not been for the corporation influences in Arizona it is very unlikely that Magon, Villarreal and Rivera would have been convicted of the charge of conspiring to violate the neutrality laws of the United States. The organized miners and the unprejudiced farmers and stockmen were quite certain that the neutrality laws had not been violated by anybody-not even by Mexican peons who occasionally crossed the line into the United States for the purpose of buying arms and ammunition with which to prosecute the revolution against Dictator Diaz-and clearly not by the leaders of the junta of the Mexican liberal party, who admittedly were in Canada when the conspiracy was alleged to have been made. With the exception of mine managers, superintendents, shift bosses and corporation hirelings, including Pinkerton and Furlong detectives, virtually every persons in Arizona was in sympathy more or less pronounced with the cause for which Magon and his associates stood.
In Tombstone at the beginning of the trial there was some division of public sentiment, though the majority of those who expressed themselves were convinced of the innocence of the prisoners. As the trial progressed and the weakness of the prosecution became manifest expressions of sympathy for the Mexican prisoners were more frequent. The last day of the trial virtually every person in Tombstone declared the Magon, Villarreal and Rivera were innocent and that the jury ought not to have to leave the box to make up a verdict of acquittal. There were no bets made the last day, as there were no takers. The detectives, Mexican consuls, spies, thugs and gunmen employed by the United States government in its prosecution of the defendants kept together and stayed close around their headquarters; these were the only fellows who desired the conviction of the Mexicans.
Even The Tombstone Prospector, the only daily newspaper in the town, dependent as it is upon the good graces of the mining corporations for existence, saw the drift of public sentiment and governed itself accordingly. The Prospector was eminently fair at the beginning, and toward the close of the trial its news columns reflected a sentiment decidedly favorable to the defense. The Bisbee Miner, an afternoon paper published in Bisbee, the largest mining town in Arizona, and the headquarters of the Standard Oil and Amalgamated interest, came out in open championship of the defense. The day following the rendition of the verdict The Miner published an editorial reviewing the history of the Mexican case and denouncing the verdict of guilty as a plain miscarriage of justice. The Bisbee Review, a corporation organ, which had for years antagonized Magon and the Socialist and union labor movements, while stating that the verdict of guilty was to be expected a heavy penalty should not be imposed, as the mere finding of the verdict was in itself sufficient punishment for the crime alleged to have been committed.
As has been shown in a previous issue of the Appeal to Reason the jury which convicted the Mexican patriots was a corporation jury. The men on it were selected to convict regardless of the law and the evidence. After they were discharged by Judge Doan the members of the jury hunted holes, and it was only after several days that they dared appear upon the public streets. Finally one juryman in trying to square matters with his friends in Tombstone wept copiously as he declare that he voted guilty because he was given to understand that the law demanded such a verdict and that he could not escape returning such. He said he believed the defendants were innocent of crime, but as the district attorney announced that the prisoners would be taken to Texas where they perhaps would meet a worse fate he voted guilty to save them from a penalty severer than would be meted out to them in Arizona. Several other jurymen gave out explanations of their action about as foolish as the weeping juror.
So outraged were the citizens of Tombstone that it was decided to decided to hold a mass meeting of protest against, the unrighteous and unjust verdict. With Attorney Cleary, Miss Luella Twining and Senorita Andrea Villarreal Gonzalez as speakers the people of Tombstone assembled the following Friday night in the largest hall and passed resolutions asking that President Taft immediately pardon Magon, Villarreal and Rivera. These resolutions have been forwarded to Washington city. Similar resolutions will be sent to the secretaries of labor organizations throughout the country for adoption, to be sent to reinforce the one sent from Tombstone. Socialists and friends of the cause of the right of asylum in America are requested to cut out the resolution printed last week and circulate it for signatures, after which send, to President Taft.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From the Appeal to Reason of June 5, 1909:
A PETITION TO TAFT.
As announced in our telegraph columns last week, a monster protest meeting was held by the citizens of Bisbee [Tombstone?], Ariz. The opera house was crowded to its capacity. Stirring resolutions were passed without a dissenting vote except a half dozen corporation employes and mint bosses. The resolutions are as follows:
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To the Honorable Wm. H. Taft, President of the United States of America, Washington, D. C.:
Sir: Whereas.-R. Flores Magon, Antonio I. Villarreal and Librado Rivera; the three alleged Mexican revolutionists who were arrested in Los Angeles, Calif., on August the 23, 1907, by the Furlong Detective agency, on behalf of the Mexican government for an alleged conspiracy under Section 5440, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, to violate the neutrality laws, more particularly Section 5286, of the Revised Statutes of the United States, in that they were charged with conspiring to set on foot and begin a military expedition within the territory of Arizona, and the Second judicial district of the supreme court of the territory of Arizona, to wit: At Douglas, Arizona, on or about the 27th day of August, 1906, by beginning, and starting a military expedition at said place to proceed thence to the Republic of Mexico, and,
Whereas: Said Magon, Villarreal and Rivera have laid in jail from August the 23rd, 1907 until May the 12th, 1909. (The supreme court of the United States having refused bail), and on said last mentioned day their trial duly coming up in the court of the Second judicial district of this territory, sitting at Tombstone, Cochise county, Arizona, and after having a trial by jury were convicted of the offence aforesaid, the judge sitting as the trial judge in said case, sentenced them and each of them to a term of eighteen months in the penitentiary without giving them any allowance for the time they had already served in jail, and,
Whereas: The jury in rendering the said verdict of guilty recommended the defendants to the mercy of the court, and,
Whereas: We the citizens and residents of Tombstone, Ariz., in mass meeting assembled at Schieffilins’ Opera House, on this the 2nd day of May, 1909, being conversant with the facts in the case and believing that the ends of justice have already been served by the long time that the defendants have already remained in jails at Los Angeles, Calif, and Tucson and Tombstone, Ariz., respectively petition you to grant a full pardon the said R. Flores Magon, Antonio I. Villarreal and Librado Rivera in order that they may be given their liberty forthwith.
Local organizations everywhere should pass similar resolutions and forward to the president.
[Emphasis within Resolution added.]
Note: The trial of the Mexican Revolutionaries commenced on May 12th; on Sunday morning, May 16th the jury returned a verdict of guilty.
From the Bisbee Daily Review of May 28, 1909:
–Note: The Editor of the Review bemoans attempts made by The Bisbee Miner, visiting Socialist, Mother Jones and the Western Federation of Miners to “make martyrs of the so-called revolutionists.”
WITHOUT REASON.
The continued attempt of the Bisbee Miner and the visiting socialists who have been in Tombstone recently to created public sympathy and sentiment for the Mexicans convicted on the charge of having violated the neutrality laws of this country, is without warrant or good reason. The friends of Magon, Villareal and Rivera will quite naturally be disturbed because of their punishment, but there is no reason why anyone should attempt to make martyrs of the so-called revolutionists. They had a fair trial in the court provided for trying those who violated the laws of the United States. They had able council and they were not without means in conducting their defense.
It is said that “Mother” Jones collected more than three thousand dollars for the defense fund of the revolutionists. The Western Federation of Miners became interested in the defense of these prisoners and gave what aid was possible, both in influence and money.
So far as this paper is concerned it is hoped that we have heard the last of theses cases. They were magnified far beyond their importance. The men now in prison were simply deluding a lot of poor and ignorant Mexicans with the belief that it would be easy to overthrow the Diaz government which resulted in several being shot on the other side of the line. Mexico never was in danger from the so-called revolution, but the agitation carried on by a few would-be leaders was breeding much trouble along the border which to our mind was calculated to do more harm to American interests in Mexico than to the Diaz government.
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones Save Our Mexican Comrades, AtR p3, Feb 20, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66981674
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-June 12, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66981942/
-June 5, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/66981928/
Source for date of conviction;
The Arizona Republican
(Phoenix, Arizona)
-May 17, 1909
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020558/1909-05-17/ed-1/seq-1/
Bisbee Daily Review
(Bisbee, Arizona)
-May 28, 1909
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024827/1909-05-28/ed-1/seq-4/
IMAGE
Villareal Magon Rivera, Barbarous MX by Turner p307, 3rd ed 1910
https://archive.org/stream/barbarousmexico00turnuoft#page/272/mode/2up
See also:
Tag: Mexican Revolutionaries
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mexican-revolutionaries/
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“Workers of the World” by Connell, from:
I.W.W. Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent
A Facsimile Reprint of the Popular Nineteenth Edition 1923
(search: “world’s workers”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=-5mpAgAAQBAJ
http://www.hobonickels.org/iwwsongs.htm#8
WORKERS OF THE WORLD
By Connell
(Air: “Lillibulero”)
Stand up, ye toilers, why crouch ye like cravens?
Why clutch an existence of insult and want?
Why stand to be plucked by an army of ravens,
Or hoodwink’d forever by twaddle and cant?
Think of the wrongs ye bear,
Think on the rags ye wear,
Think on the insults endur’d from your birth;
Toiling in snow and rain,
Rearing up heaps of grain,
All for the tyrants who grind you to earth.
Your brains are as keen as the brains of your masters,
In swiftness and strength ye surpass them by far;
Ye’ve brave hearts to teach you to laugh at disasters,
Ye vastly outnumber your tyrants in war.
Why then like cowards stand,
Using not brain or hand,
Thankful like dogs when they throw you a bone?
What right have they to take
Things that ye toil to make?
Know ye not, workers, that all is your own?
Rise in your might, brothers, bear it no longer;
Assemble in masses throughout the whole land;
Show these incapables who are the stronger
When workers and idlers confronted shall stand.
Thro’ Castle, Court and Hall,
Over their acres all,
Onwards we’ll press like waves of the sea,
Claiming the wealth we’ve made,
Ending the spoiler’s trade;
Labor shall triumph and mankind be free.