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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 26, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1920:
–Found in Washington, D. C., Pleading for Release of Debs
From Virginia’s Richmond Times-Dispatch of December 15, 1920:
DEBS MUST SERVE TERM,
SAYS PRESIDENT WILSON
———-
Socialist Leader Not Included in Christmas
Pardons in List From White House.
—–THREE RECEIVE CLEMENCY
———-
Executive’s Refusal Is Blow to Aspirations of Liberals,
Who Have Been Working to That End.
“Mother Jones” Visits Capital.(By United News.]
WASHINGTON, Dec. 24.-Two men convicted of murder and one man convicted of selling drugs unlawfully, received Christmas pardons today from President Wilson. Eugene V. Debs, choice of a million citizens for President in the recent election, did not. His ten-year term, under conviction of violating the espionage act, still stands, subject only to abbreviation through good behavior….
The President’s refusal to extend mercy to Debs is a blow in the face for Socialists and liberals all over the country. The Socialist party, as such, has not interceded in his behalf, but individual members of the party have been campaigning consistently ever since the signing of the peace treaty eighteen months ago to obtain Debs’ release. The Bureau of Civil liberties has been the center of activity of others working for pardon for him.
Mother Jones, aged friend of the miners, spent some time in Washington last week working in Debs’ behalf….
It became known recently that Attorney-General Palmer, who has been considered opposed to clemency for Debs, actually had recommended to the President that the grant the pardon. Partly because this fact was rumored among those working for Debs’ release and because of the frequent revival of the report that the President planned to grant the pardon at Christmas time, the general feeling In this city had been that the Socialist leader would be a free man Christmas Day. The statement that this would not be the case, made Thursday by the United News, was a profound shock, and many still clung to hope until the issuance of the pardon list by the Attorney-General’s office Friday revealed only the three names given above.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
Mother Jones Pleads for Eugene V. Debs:
December 16th, 1920.
Hon. Woodrow Wilson,
President,
Washington, D. C.My dear Sir:
In the spirit of the season I come to you with an appeal addressed to your heart and conscience in behalf of a fellow-citizen who languishes in a federal prison.
Without in any manner questioning the wisdom or justice of the punishment that has been meted to him for what he has consistently contended has been a rigid adherence to his inherent rights, I do respectfully represent that the cause of justice has been completely vindicated, and from my mother’s heart comes only horror and repugnance when the laws of a great nation are liable to be subverted to the ignoble demands of vengeance.
Those of us who know this prisoner best are absolutely convinced that he is incapable of harming his government—of harming any living creature. I have been associated with him for thirty years and make this statement without reservation. His life has been one of unceasing devotion and heavy sacrifice to those principles which he has deemed to be worthy and righteous. If he has erred it has been at the urging of a great love for his own kind.
In the name of that broad humanity for which you, too, have suffered; in the name of all those who are downtrodden and oppressed; in harmony with the universal aspiration for “peace on earth, good will to all men,” I earnestly and humbly petition you to exercise the gracious prerogative of pardon that you alone possess and bestow upon Eugene V. Debs his freedom and restore him to his family before Christmas.
Sincerely yours,
Mother Jones[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
EVD Quote re Mother Jones, AtR, Nov 23, 1907
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67587088/
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Richmond, Virginia)
-Dec 15, 1920
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1920-12-25/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1920-12-25/ed-1/seq-5/
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
(search: “to woodrow wilson”)
Note: from Woodrow Wilson Papers.
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ
IMAGE
Mother Jones, UMWJ p11, July 15, 1920
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=2hg5AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PT328
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 11, 1920
Mother Jones News for October & November 1920
“Veteran Organizer” Found in West Virginia and Washington D. C.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 25, 1920
Atlanta Penitentiary – President Wilson Refuses to Release Eugene Debs
The Correspondence of Mother Jones
-ed by Edward M. Steel
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985
https://books.google.com/books?id=EZ2xAAAAIAAJ
Dec 14-31, 1920-Pages 213-219 (264-271 of 416)
https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735057897435/viewer#page/264/mode/2up
Correspondence for December 1920:
December 14, 1920
Mother Jones writes from Charleston WV to Terence V. Powderly at the U. S. Department of Labor to introduce Fred Mooney, Secretary-Treasurer of the UMW District No. 17.
December 28, 1920
Terence V. Powderly writes from Washington DC to Mother Jones re corruption involved in 99-year leases granted by various levels of government and specifically one in Pennsylvania whereby “the company endeavored to overawe the workmen and oblige them to surrender land they had held possession of without let or hinderance for over thirty years…”
December 28, 1920
Mother Jones writes from Charleston WV to John H. Walker, President of IL State Federation of Labor, re her plans to leave soon for Mexico.
December 31, 1920
John H. Walker writes to Mother Jones at Charleston WV re recent UMWA elections, charging vote stealing and general corruption within the Union. Walker had supported Howat and Harlin over Lewis and Murray. He wrote:
….It is too horrible to describe or even contemplate. I sincerely hope that everybody who loves humanity and the movement, will take a chance on doing everything they can to clean this rottenness out of out union and to put clean, honest men in the official positions again….
See Steel for notes on persons and events mentioned in correspondence.
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