———-
Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 28, 1919
New York, New York – National Civil Liberties Bureau on Political Prisoners
From the Appeal to Reason of April 26, 1919:
Deny Attorney General’s Statement Regarding
Number of War Prisoners
(The National Civil Liberties Bureau of New York City makes public the following statement in reply to the assertion of the Attorney General that the number of political prisoners in the United States has been greatly exaggerated:)
—–
In a published statement the Attorney General intimates that the current estimate that there are 1,500 political prisoners in the United States is the result of either frenzied imagination or deliberate intent to deceive the public.
We accept full responsibility for the estimate in question and wish to reassert our belief in its moderation and accuracy. The Attorney General evidently does not regard a person who is under indictment or is out on bail pending appeal as a political prisoner. His view is that liberty on bail is the same thing as liberty without the threat of prison. Such an assertion needs no comment. Nor does the Attorney General include conscientious objectors. The following table shows how our estimate has been derived and we challenge the Attorney General to show that it is inaccurate in any substantial particular. The figures for prosecution under the Espionage Act are taken from the report of the Attorney General for the year ending June 30,1918, and are the most recent published officially. We have repeatedly requested more recent figures but our requests have been refused.
Moreover the figures for the Espionage Act prosecutions given above refer to prosecutions and not to individual defenders. In many cases there are more than one defendant. It should also be noted that the foregoing estimate does not include any of the 8,326 persons who had by June 30, 1918, been convicted of violation of the Selective Draft Law, for the reason that sentences in these cases were generally short.Mr. Palmer’s further statement that “there are no men in prison because of the expression of their views on social, economic, or political questions” is only legalistically correct. The Espionage Act, especially in its original form, was not very honest. It did not in clear words make views criminal; it purported to punish only the doing of various things such as obstruction of the recruiting service. But almost invariably the evidence consisted principally, if not solely, in expressions of views. It was not for visible acts or results, but for possibilities supposedly latent in opinions, that people were punished.
———-
[Emphasis and photograph added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
Quote Ralph Chaplin, Prison Reveille, Lv New Era p2, Apr 4, 1919
https://www.newspapers.com/image/488895981
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Apr 26, 1919
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587347/
IMAGES
Political Prisoner Numbers per NCLB, AtR p3, Apr 26, 1919
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587347/
Remember by Bingo (Ralph Chaplin), OH Sc, Mar 10, 1918
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/ohio-socialist/016-mar-10-1918.pdf
See also:
April 1918
Truth about the IWW
NCLB, 1918
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000956287
July 1918
War-time prosecutions and mob violence: involving the rights of free speech, free press, and peaceful assemblage. (April 1, 1917 to May 1, 1918)
NCLB, 1918
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011213960
Nov 21, 1918
Political Prisoners in Federal Military Prisons
NCLB, Nov 21, 1918
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001134232
Jan 15, 1919
American Deportation and Exclusion Laws
Charles Recht for NY Br of Legal Advice
pubd by NCLB
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t3222xh4h;view=2up;seq=4
http://debs.indstate.edu/r296a4_1919.pdf
March 1919
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IWW Prison Song by Ralph Chaplin
-from LRSB, April 1918
https://digital.wolfsonian.org/WOLF045327/00001/1j
