While there is a soul in prison
I am not free.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 9, 1919
America’s Political Prisoners by Floyd Dell
From The Liberator of January 1919:
“What Are You Doing Out There?”
[by Floyd Dell]
THIS magazine goes to two classes of readers: those who are in jail, and those who are out. This particular article is intended for the latter class. It is intended for those who wish to prove themselves friends of American freedom rather than those who have had it proved against them.
The relation between these two classes of people is embarrassingly like that in the old anecdote about Emerson and Thoreau. Thoreau refused to obey some law which he considered unjust, and was sent to jail. Emerson went to visit him. “What are you doing in here, Henry?” asked Emerson.
“What are you doing out there?” returned Thoreau grimly.
That is what the people who have gone to prison for the ideas in which we believe seem to be asking us now.
And the only self-respecting answer which we can give to this grim, silent challenge, is this: “We are working to get you out!”
That is our excuse, and we must see that it is a true one. We are voices to speak up for those whose voice has been silenced.
There are some silences that are more eloquent than speech. The newspapers were forbidden to print what ‘Gene Debs said in court; but his silence echoes around the earth in the heart of workingmen. They know what he was not allowed to tell them; and they feel that it is true.
It would be wrong to think of this as an opportunity to do something for Debs; it is rather our opportunity to make ourselves worthy of what he has done for us.
There is nothing more important before the friends of American freedom at this moment than the task of effecting the release of the political prisoners who have been sent to jail during the war.
It is a task of some magnitude. For a year and a half our federal, state and municipal courts have been working overtime putting people in jail on the theory that their activities, or their opinions, or even their mere lack of patriotic belligerency, hindered the carrying on of the war. In many cases the defendants were obscure and powerless. Organizations which attempted to give them assistance and advice were hampered by government officials; their offices were raided, their files removed. Under these circumstances no complete record of the cases known to these organizations is at present available. Many cases of friendless and helpless people have been rushed through the courts without any publicity, and doubtless some of these have not yet come to light. The National Civil Liberties Bureau, however, has had reports of some 753 cases under federal, state and local laws, and estimates that more than 1,500 people are now in jail, or under sentence, or awaiting trial under these laws.
One case, characteristic of many, is that of a school teacher, Mrs. Flora I. Foreman, of Amarillo, Texas. A soldier was interested in a girl who failed to return his interest, saying that she was “no militarist.” He wanted to know who had given her such ideas, and when he found that Mrs. Foreman had talked with her about militarism he had the teacher arrested. She was charged with refusing to contribute to the Red Cross, and with referring to President Wilson as “the school teacher in the White House.” She was sentenced to five years in prison.*
Another case which illustrates the uses to which the wartime legislation easily lends itself is the arrest, ten days before the election, of Frank B. Hamilton, the Socialist mayor of Piqua, 0., together with a city official, a councilman and three others, all Socialists. The charge, “obstructing the Liberty Loan,” was based on statements made by spies in the pay of the “old gang” in the city council. The defendants are held under $10,000 bond, awaiting trial.
The armistice has not served to soften the execution of the Espionage Act. Within the last few weeks, in Auburn, N. Y., John Summerfield Randolph, a lineal descendant of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was sentenced to ten years in prison for “cursing the government;” and being a member of the I. W. W.
The Chicago I. W. W. trial has been only one of a number of persecutions in which the Espionage Act is being used in the attempt to stamp out this organization. In Wichita, Kan., thirty-four I. W. W. men who tried to organize the workers in the Kansas oil fields were jailed at instigation of Oil Trust officials in November, 1917, not indicted until last March, reindicted in September; and will not be tried until next March. In the meantime, one has died as a result of conditions in the jail, another has become insane, and two more are dying. The cells are unheated, unventilated, in total darkness except for a few seconds twice a day when food is shoved in.
In Sacramento, four out of sixty-seven imprisoned I. W. W. men have died in jail. They stand accused of conspiring against all the war measures passed by Congress from the declaration of war on. Among the overt acts charged are included telegrams to public officials protesting against jail conditions, and the receipt of letters from I W. W. prisoners in the Cook County jail; also circulating an article reprinted from the Public! In other parts of the country some hundred and fifty I. W. W. members are being held awaiting trial.
But, even if it were true that the I. W. W. ideal of society constituted a hindrance to war-operations; even if it were true that the hundred I. W. W.’s who were tried in Chicago had opposed the draft; now that the war is over, must they remain in prison until 1928? And Kate Richards O’Hare, who said that militarism turned women into breeding animals-is she to go to prison for five years? Is Rose Pastor Stokes to serve ten years for criticising the government in a letter to a newspaper?
And Krafft in New Jersey and Bentall in Wisconsin, Socialists who made speeches on conscription-are they to serve out their five years? And all those others of whom we have barely heard-the Vermont preacher who got fifteen years for saying that a Christian ought not to fight; the man in Iowa who got twenty years for calling this a capitalist war, and the other man in the same state who got the same sentence for circulating a petition opposing the re-election of a congressman because he had voted for the draft; the girl in Seattle who got ten years for a letter criticizing the draft; the man in Vermont who got fifteen years for “disloyal remarks” made in private conversation; all those hundreds** whose sentences total some 120,000 years, and those other hundreds still to be sentenced-now that there is no draft to be obstructed by quotations from the Declaration of Independence, nor even any morale of bellicosity to be undermined by references to the sayings of Jesus of Nazareth, are they to serve their sentences, and emerge-if they do emerge-from prison along in 1925, 1930 or 1938, broken in health and in mind, into a world which has forgotten their existence?
It seems improbable. Yet it is easier to put people into jail than to get them out again. It has been the pious expectation of many “liberal” supporters of the war that a general amnesty for political prisoners would be proclaimed as soon as the war was over; and under the influence of this amiable notion they have seen without protest and without compunction the jailing, day after day and month after month, of radicals, Pacifists, Socialists, I. W. W.’s. But prison is a grave which keeps a jealous hold upon all except bank-presidents. It will not easily yield up its war-victims. Precisely because they are radicals, because they are Socialists, Pacifists, I. W. W.’s, there will be powerful influences at work to keep them right where they are; and if these elements have their way, they will rot there.
It is eminently desirable that we take advantage of the present situation to build up in the American public mind a conception of the difference between “political crime” and other crime. Political crime is simply the expression of the political will of repressed minorities or of oppressed majorities. Even when such expression takes the form of violence, it has a special dignity because of the intention, however mistaken, with which it is performed. It has become the custom of civilized nations to anticipate to some extent the verdict of history upon such “criminals,” and to distinguish, by more respectful treatment, between them and common law-breakers. Political crime, moreover, is generally crime only by definition; some ordinary and legal procedure has been denominated criminal in order that the group in power may pursue its plans without interference from those who disagree.
Our war-time legislation has served these purposes of medieval statecraft admirably-though not without putting in jeopardy the whole structure of our constitutional liberties. But if it really was “war-time” legislation, if it is not confessedly intended to serve the purposes of a capitalist peace, it is time now that its too-far-reaching results were swept away. The war is over; if the war was all they feared Debs might obstruct, they can let him go free. If it is some other plans which would proceed more smoothly with Debs, and the rest in jail, let us find it out now.
In addition to these political prisoners, there are some 280 conscientious objectors in Fort Leavenworth, and between fifty and a hundred others at various camps who are still awaiting sentence. These are the “absolute” objectors, who have refused to accept alternative service, or have been denied it, and who will therefore not be mustered out. Their sentences run from five to thirty years. They have been treated with incredible barbarity in camp, in gross violation of the administrative order which was supposed to secure proper treatment for them. Kicked, beaten with rifles, choked, starved, beaten with whips,*** and made the victims of disgusting brutalities,**** they have nevertheless remained firm in their convictions, only to be sent to a military prison, where still further tortures permitted by the military regulations are inflicted upon them.*****
It is hard to speak of these men without paying them the tribute of admiration which such conduct as theirs must necessarily arouse in any lover of heroism. During the war the expression of such admiration laid one open to an indictment under the Espionage Act; for the bureaucratic mind, which cannot understand heroism, is incapable of realizing that such courage cannot be created by pamphlets or speeches any more than it can be destroyed by curses and kicks. But if hearing the story of the conscientious objectors will not make the public feel disposed to emulate their conduct, it will nevertheless arouse in that public a just anger against the government which subjects them to such treatment; for though few of us have the stuff of martyrdom in our souls, we all have a sense of fair play. The whole story of the treatment of conscientious objectors is one which the government might well wish, for its own sake, to be left untold: and our bureaucracy will, if it is wise, see that the scandal is obliterated before it receives too much publicity.
FLOYD DELL.
* Mrs. Foreman’s health has broken down in prison, and money is urgently needed for bail during appeal. Part of this bail has been raised, but $300 is still wanting. Contributions and correspondence sent in care of THE LIBERATOR will be forwarded.
**Literature describing these cases can be obtained from the National Civil Liberties Bureau, 41 Union Square, N. Y. C., and the New York Bureau of Legal Advice, 118 East 28th Street, N. Y. C. Information about such cases should be communicated to these organizations.
*** “Colonel Barnes, the Provost Marshal, called while some of the objectors were taking their enforced exercise. He ordered them to stand at ‘Attention.’ When they refused, he beat them vigorously with his heavy riding crop. Shotkin was badly hurt, the Colonel breaking his crop over the former’s ankles. He deprecated the ruining of his stock.” Report of Treatment of Conscientious Objectors at the Camp Funston (Kas.) Guard House.
**** “We were marched to the latrine in a body. The Captain himself brought forth scrub brushes, used ordinarily for cleaning toilet seats, and brooms used for sweeping, and ordered that we scrub each other with them. Franklin. refused to use the filthy brush. He was seized and roughly thrown to the floor, dragged back and forth and viciously belabored until thoroughly exhausted. He was then placed under the cold spray and left there until he collapsed.”-Same.
***** Manacling to walls of cell was abolished by order of the Secretary of War on Dec. 6, but solitary confinement and the bread-and-water diet are still used.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE & IMAGE
The Liberator Internet Archive
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/
The Liberator
(New York, New York)
-Jan 1919
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/1919/01/v2n01-w11-jan-1919-liberator.pdf
See also:
Floyd Dell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd_Dell
American Political Prisoners
Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts
-by Stephen Martin Kohn
Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994
https://books.google.com/books?id=-_xHbn9dtaAC
WE NEVER FORGET: Political Prisoners of World War I Repression Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause, 1917-1931
Note esp the # of COs among this list of the dead.
From American Political Prisoners by Stephen M. Kohn
Tag: World War I Repression
https://weneverforget.org/tag/world-war-i-repression/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~