Hellraisers Journal: “Military Stop A Paper At Mullan and Arrest Editor” – Wilbur H. Stewart Taken to Bullpen

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ed Boyce re Manly Blood per Gaboury 1967———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 29, 1899
Mullan, Idaho – Editor Wilbur H. Stewart Arrested

From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer of May 26, 1899:

ALL THE SALOONS CLOSED
—–

MILITARY STOP A PAPER AT MULLAN AND ARREST EDITOR.
—–
Before the Coroner’s Jury at Wardner the Books of
the Miners’ Union Were Produced,
Showing Lists of Men to Be Run Out
—–

New Bull Pen of 1899, Class War in ID by Harriman, 1900

—–

WARDNER, Idaho, May 25.-All saloons in Mullan, Gem and Burke were closed today, the publication of the Mullan Mirror stopped and its editor, W. H. Stewart [Wilbur H. Stewart], arrested on a charge of publishing seditious matter. Four hundred and seventy-seven permits for employment have been issued in Wardner. The Last Chance mine started up with a small force this morning. None of the mines above Wallace have started, but many men are coming in and they win soon start.

Gen. Merriam left today for Denver, leaving Maj. Smith in command of the United States forces in the Coeur d’ Alenes.

There are now 225 men accused of rioting, confined in the new prison [bullpen] just completed here.

The coroner’s investigation into the cause of the death of two men during the riot of May 9 [April 29-The Battle of Bunker Hill, near Wardner] is still in session, and will probably last a week longer. Three hundred witnesses have been examined, and some very damaging evidence is said to have been secured against the alleged rioters. Examination of the records of the miners’ unions which were seised by the military authorities, show lists of the men who were to be run out of the country.

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Hellraisers Journal: Bail Needed for Fellow Workers at Leavenworth; “Invincible IWW” by Floyd Dell for The Liberator

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Floyd Dell, Invincible IWW, Liberator p9, May 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 28, 1919
From Leavenworth Penitentiary Comes Urgent Request for Bail

From The New Solidarity of May 24, 1919:

BAIL URGENTLY NEEDED BY LEAVENWORTH MEN
[-by Fellow Workers Joseph J. Gordon and Pietro Nigra.]
—–

Frank Little, Grover Perry, Lbr Def Aug 1926, Lgr

This communication explains the necessity of getting some of the Fellow Workers out of jail as early as possible.

Four Fellow workers, Walsh, Lorton, Hamilton and Plahn are in permanent isolation, segregated from the others and have no way of keeping in communication with the other boys. These boys are always in danger of violence from the officials and should be gotten out on bonds immediately.

Fellow Worker Perry is in the hospital with tuberculosis, has had several relapses. Has no one who can go his bonds. Also Andreytchine is tubercular but has funds. Several of the Fellow Workers of the one year men will be released about June 18, 1919. Those who will be held for deportation will be arrested upon their release from prison and will have to stay in jail until the disposition of the cases by the Appellate Court, which may be from six months to a year or two. If these men can be released on bonds of $1,000.00 the authorities will have to pay their transportation to their homes.

Jos. Gordon.
Pietro Nigra.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Messenger on FW Ben Fletcher: “The best and bravest, the noblest and most courageous”

Janet RayeA. Philip Randolph
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 27, 1919
Prisons and Jails of the U.S.A. Now Hold the “Best and Bravest”

From The Messenger of May-June 1919:

POLITICAL PRISONERS

IWW, Ben Fletcher, 13126 Leavenworth, Sept 7 or 8, 1918
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher
—–

The recent conviction and sentenced of the national Socialist officials, the Supreme Court’s confirmation of the convictions of Eugene V. Debs and of Kate Richards O’Hare, definitely stamp the United States as the most archaic, antiquated and reactionary of the alleged civilized nations. In addition to these popular and well-known characters, there are 1,500 political and class prisoners in the prisons. Practically all other countries have granted amnesty to their political prisoners, but the U. S. is sentencing them more savagely now than during the War.

Men like Victor Berger, Adolph Germer, Louis Engdahl, Irwin St John Tucker and Charles Kruse have each been sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years for speaking a word in favor of human liberty and for making statements concerning profiteering and patriotism, the truth of which has been amply corroborated by the Federa Trade Commission and the Federal Income Tax Reports. Among the 1,500 political and class prisoners are men of practically all races and nationalities.

Negro men like Ben Fletcher, who have done more to improve the actual economic and social life of Negro workers than the much heralded so-called leaders, are in prison for fifteen and twenty years. There is no race, color or sex line involved. The best and bravest, the noblest and most courageous, are in the dark and cavernous prison cells of this country.

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Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason Nominates Debs for President & Kate Richards O’Hare for Vice-President

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote AtR p1 Nominates EVD for President, May 24, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 25, 1919
Eugene V. Debs, No. 2253 of Moundsville Prison, for President

From the Appeal to Reason of May 24, 1919:

EVD for President, AtR p1, May 24, 1919—–

[Debs for President, 1920.]

Since political power has put Eugene V. Debs in a felon’s cell, political power will place him in the White House. To test the power of the reactionary ruling class as against the power of the enlightened working class, the Appeal to Reason hereby formally places in nomination for the presidency of the United States to be voted on at the 1920 election Eugene v. Debs, a citizen of Terre Haute, and at present confined by a Democratic party administration in a federal prison at Moundsville, W. Va.

[O’Hare for Vice-President, 1920.]

Because the United States Constitution forbade Congress from passing any law that would interfere with the rights of free speech and free press, and because an enlightened jurist like Federal Judge Amidon has said that the espionage law should not have been used to interfere with innocent expressions of belief, the Appeal to Reason considers Kate Richards O’Hare as a martyr to the cause of liberty and therefore places her name for the nomination of the vice presidency of the United States to be voted on in the general election of 1920.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: Magón, Villarreal and Rivera Found Guilty at Tombstone Trial

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Ricardo Flores Magon, Serene bf Judges, AtR p3, May 22, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 24, 1909
Tombstone, Arizona Territory – Mexican Revolutionaries Found Guilty

This week’s edition of the Appeal to Reason, page one, informs us that our Mexican Comrades were found guilty at trial in Tombstone on May 16th. Page three carries a report from the trial by George H. Shoaf and a statement from Comrade Ricardo Flores Magón, written before the trial.

From the Appeal to Reason of May 22, 1909:

Mex Rev, Mexican Cases Tombstone Trial, AtR p3, May 22, 1909—–

THE TRIAL AT TOMBSTONE.
—–
Opening of the Case Against the Mexican Patriots
at the Town of the Significant Name.

By Telegraph to Appeal to Reason.

Mex Rev, Verdict of Guilty Magon etc, AtR p1, May 22, 1909

Tombstone, Ariz., May 14.-Before a jury of nine republicans and three democrats the government began the evidence against Magon, Villarreal and Rivera. The selection of the jury occupied one day. Men who were members of labor unions, members of the Socialist party or readers of the Appeal to Reason were disqualified. As a result no one on the jury has any sympathy with the laboring class and its struggles. If this jury acquits the defendants it will be because of the absence of any evidence that could tend to point to conviction.

Evidence so far introduced is incompetent and immaterial and is regarded by the spectators as having no bearing on the case. All objections made by the defense have been overruled. In spite of the numerous witnesses examined, most of them Furlong detectives and Mexican spies, it is believed that the jury will be forced to acquit. The worst that is expected is a disagreement.

Duration of the trial cannot be determined at this time.-George H. Shoaf.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: WEB Du Bois on Black Soldiers: “We Return. We Return from Fighting. We Return Fighting.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote WEB DuBois, Disfranchise Citizens, The Crisis p14———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 23, 1919
W. E. B. Du Bois on “Returning Soldiers”

From The Crisis of May 1919:

Cover The Crisis, Returning Soldiers DuBois, May 1919

—–

RETURNING SOLDIERS

We are returning from war! THE CRISIS and tens of thousands of black men were drafted into a great struggle. For bleeding France and what she means and has meant and will mean to us and humanity and against the threat of German race arrogance, we fought gladly and to the last drop of blood; for America and her highest ideals, we fought in far-off hope; for the dominant southern oligarchy entrenched in Washington, we fought in bitter resignation. For the America that represents and gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality and devilish insult—for this, in the hateful upturning and mixing of things, we were forced by vindictive fate to fight also.

But today we return! We return from the slavery of uniform which the world’s madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Lawrence Strike…a Struggle Simply for Living Wage” by Ruth Pickering

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Raising Hell, NYT p1, Oct 6, 1916———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 22, 1919
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Textile Strikers Stand Firm

From The Liberator of May 1919:

The Lawrence Strike

[by Ruth Pickering]

American Freedom Detail, Liberator p31, May 1919

THE causes of the Lawrence strike are the most elemental in the whole history of the labor movement. It is a struggle simply for a living wage. But the “law and order” fraternity are doing their best to bring on what they so much fear-a revolution. Partly as an excuse for breaking the strike, partly out genuine nervousness, they are attempting to obscure the primary issues in the fog of “Bolshevism.” And the more they advertise the revolution as something which they hate, as something so manifestly dangerous to them, the more do the workers wonder: “If they hate this thing so-whatever it is-it must have something in it for us.” Fear of Bolshevism and memories of 1912 have made the Lawrence citizens and the press applaud all repressive measures. Mounted police have been imported from Lynn, and stray recruits have been added which cost the city 3,000 extra dollars per week to maintain. Their horses are scrawny and rickety and they ride with some difficulty, but what pride they lose in their consciousness of these facts, they take out on the pickets.

Men come in from the picket-line with their heads cut open and blood covering their shirt fronts. That the strikers have a legal right to maintain the picket-line is out of the question. Liberty has come to be a joke. There is no law for the “damned Bolshevik foreigner.” The brave mounted police ride up on the sidewalk cursing and swinging their sticks. The pickets retreat before these onslaughts-but they will never forget.

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Hellraisers Journal: Letter from Miner to President Boyce of Western Federation of Miners Describes the Wardner Bullpen

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 21, 1899
Burke Miner Describes Suffering in the Wardner Bullpen of Idaho

From The Salt Lake Herald of May 17, 1899:

SUFFERINGS OF MINERS
—–
Imprisoned Miner Describes Experience In Bullpen
—–

WFM, Wardner Bull Pen of May 1899, Hutton photo 1, 1900

—–

President Edward Boyce of the Western Federation of Miners has received a letter from a friend who was among the miners rounded up after the Wardner (Ida.) riots and penned up for several days on suspicion of participation in those riots. The letter gives a graphic description of the treatment received by the miners at the hands of the Twenty-fourth infantry during the days of their imprisonment and is perhaps the first authentic description by one of the miners themselves.

It describes the arrival of the regulars at Burke and how the miners were made prisoners as they came up out of the mines off shift. Without being given the privilege of changing their clothes or of getting anything to eat they were herded into box cars and taken down the canyon to Wardner Junction. There they were kept standing in their wet clothes until midnight and then driven to a big barn called the bull pen.Between 350 and 400 men were here confined in a space about 40 by 50 feet all without food and some with wet clothes. Not until noon did the prisoners get anything to eat. Then they were divided into squads of twenty-five, and each squad was given a pail of what the author of the letter describes as “swill,” and told to eat it. Some had not had anything to eat for nearly thirty-six hours, and even then could hardly down the food.

[The letter goes on:]

We asked for soap and towels to clean ourselves a little, but the authorities did not seem to think the Canyon creek people needed such luxuries, for they would not give them to us, so, with grease and dirt sticking to us, we were driven back to our sty.

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