Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: Luella Twining Reports on Convention of Western Federation

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Quote Mother Jones, Palaces and Jails, AtR, Feb 29, 1908
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday August 3, 1908
Denver, Colorado – Miss Luella Twining Reports on Convention

From the Appeal to Reason of August 1, 1908:

THE WESTERN FEDERATION
—–
The Late Convention Shows the Old-Time
Vigor and Aggressiveness.

Luella Twining ab 1907

Miss Luella Twining, who attended the Sixteenth annual convention of the Western Federation of Miners at Denver, reports to the Appeal that no discouragement is observable because of severe trials through which the organization has passed during the Colorado war. Addresses were made by Moyer, Haywood, Lewis and Mother Jones that breathed the militant and aggressive spirit. The late meeting brought about much better feeling between the Western Federation and the United Mine Workers, and it is evident the two organizations will hereafter co-operate. News of the acquittal of Steve Adams was received with demonstrations of joy. Reports from Douglas Island, Alaska, show a bitter fight in progress there. Stockades are built around the mines, and citizens cannot appear on the public highways without being molested by the militia, sent to break the strike. A system of peonage prevails there.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Part II-“The Cry of the Poor” by George Howard Gibson of Social Gospel

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Whoso stoppeth his ears
at the cry of the poor,
he also shall cry himself,
but shall not be heard.
-Proverbs 21:13
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 2, 1898
From Commonwealth, Georgia – George Howard Gibson Speaks

From the Appeal to Reason of July 30, 1898:

Cry of Poor by GHG Social Gospel Cwealth GA, AtR p4, July 30, 1898

[Part II of article by George Howard Gibson]

In Italy the bread riots in the last few weeks have been almost general and desperate enough to cast down the throne and government. The uprising in many portions of Italy took the form of looting the homes and business places of the wealthy. A millionaire miller in Minervino named Bantella was killed in a brutal manner after he had offered the mob a fortune for his life. His wife also was reported killed. From his window he scattered a thousand francs among the mob, but they could no longer be placated by charity. They destroyed his warehouses and littered the whole country around with his cornered grain.

They also corner wheat and sugar and oil and coal and lumber and houses and land and everything in America. And the masses here love liberty and their inalienable rights.

Force is no remedy. The torch and bomb may destroy the rich, but they can never emancipate the poor. “All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword”—the rich and poor together. Christ-love, brotherhood, unselfish voluntary association is the only way of salvation for both rich and poor. This is the word of prophecy, of warning, of entreaty which we send out today to all classes. Be brothers, live in peace, love one another; or be economic enemies and expect increasing selfishness and poverty that shall ultimate in awful war. It must be the feast of love (Rev. 19:7-9); or the feast of vultures (Rev. 19:17-18).

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Part I-“The Cry of the Poor” by George Howard Gibson of Social Gospel

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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The needy shall not always be forgotten;
the expectation of the poor
shall not forever perish.
-Psalm 9:18
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday August 1, 1898
From Commonwealth, Georgia – George Howard Gibson Speaks

From the Appeal to Reason of July 30, 1898:

Cry of Poor by GHG Social Gospel Cwealth GA, AtR p4, July 30, 1898

[Part I of article by George Howard Gibson]

“When a man finds himself going down and down, without power to mend things, freezing, hungering and dying by inches, he’s sure to get desperate, In the last week I’ve been an atheist, anarchist and devil. I’ve sat here and cried out that there was no God except for the rich. I’ve said that if I could get down stairs I’d burn and kill. I’ve looked at my wife and children with murder In my heart.”

Those words were spoken to a reporter for the New York World by a sick man, living with his wife and children in a dingy room on the third floor of a miserable tenement house in New York City. There are millions in like circumstances, landless, homeless, destitute—and they are wealth producers. They are workers, but they must beg for a job and pay tribute for each day’s work when men choose to hire them.

When products cannot be sold at a net profit, the workers can get nothing to do and have no income to live on.

Read another item clipped from a New York paper of about the same date:

At a dinner party given in New York the other day to thirty-three persons, the bill was $6,500, or $200 a plate.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Union Bulletin: James Wilson on the Power of Music to Rouse the Toilers

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Then raise the scarlet standard high,
Beneath its folds we’ll live and die,
Tho’ cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the Red Flag flying here!
-Jim Connell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday July 31, 1908
Fellow Worker James Wilson on the Songs of Social Revolution

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of July 25, 1908:

MUSIC
—–
One of the Most Powerful
of the Natural Forces.

[by James Wilson]

IWW Emblem, IUB -p1, July 25, 1908

Among the physical forces, made useful to men, sound has played one of the most important parts. We use the word light, in a literal as well as figurative sense. But sound has more often a real, plain meaning.

Is not the ear the most perfect of the organs of sense? We can remember a tune, long after the words have been forgotten.

The association of sounds, and in a higher degree, music, is one of the most lasting and forcible of impressions.

What old cavalry veteran does not know that even the war horse remembers the different bugle calls, and will neigh and paw the ground with excitement when he hears the stirring blast of the trumpet?

We know that music stirs the emotions in every way. The majestic funeral march of Beethoven appeals to the mind with its solemn and awful grandeur; the latest rag-time dance tune fills us with the feeling of gaiety and enlivens our care-worn existence.

What more powerful to excite ridicule than a comic song? How very useful to bring out the hollowness of the sham religionists, with their sounding drum and doleful chants while they pick our pockets and tell us that “he that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord!” The debt to be repaid in the next world-probably Mars-for that its the world nearest to the earth!

The sky-pilots have long told us of reviving grace-whatever that may be. They also tell us to “taste of the Lord and see that He is good.”

How comforting to a hungry man!

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Industrial Union Bulletin: “Shall we Die Starving or Shall We Die Fighting?” -J. H. Walsh

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Am I to die, starving in the midst of plenty?
Or shall I die fighting?
For my part, a thousand times over,
I’ll die fighting before I’ll die starving.
-J. H. Walsh
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 30, 1908
National I. W. W. Organizer Reports from the Pacific Northwest

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of July 25, 1908:

SHALL WE DIE STARVING, OR SHALL WE DIE FIGHTING?
[by J. H. Walsh]

IWW Emblem, IUB -p1, July 25, 1908

We are confronting a new condition in the labor movement in the northwest, and judging from all the labor reports it is the same throughout the United States, as well as many of the foreign countries.

Every train in this country is loaded with dozens of “hoboes” (working men looking for jobs), and in some instances there are hundreds in place of dozens. Last night there arrived on one train in this city [Spokane?] 313 men who were beating their way. The previous night 73 arrived in one box car, and in another car 53. The men coming to the headquarters report the same news day after day, and that is that the unemployed army is growing larger and larger.

There are ten men in the harvest fields in this country for every job. They are working for as low as 75 cents per day. There are women and children in this country actually starving. This is not the worst. The worst is yet to come. After the harvest is over the hundreds who secured work, although at small wages, will return to the army of unemployed. Its ranks will be swelled again. And swelled just on the verge of winter, when hardships will be added to the workers’ struggles for an existence.

Those who are getting their “feet under dad’s table,” coupled with those who have a job sufficiently remunerative to eke out an existence, will stand united with the philosophers in passing resolutions condemning the conditions-Bryan, “God Knows” Taft, etc., etc. But resolutions, no matter how philosophically drawn, will not fill empty stomachs.

I am with the “down-and-outs”-I am broke. I am in a land of plenty. Am I to die, starving in the midst of plenty? Or shall I die fighting? For my part, a thousand times over, I’ll die fighting before I’ll die starving.

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Ralph Chaplin on the War and the Draft, Advice and Statement Was His Alone

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Ah, slaves, you fight your masters’ battles well-
The reek of rotting carnage fills the air!
Your swollen bodies yield their noisome smell,
Sweet incense to the ghouls who sent your there…
-Ralph Chaplin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday July 29, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Ralph Chaplin on the War and the Draft

From The Bisbee Daily Review of July 20, 1918:

CHAPIN ADMITS HE PERSONALLY OPPOSED WAR
—–
I. W. W. Defendant Assumes Full Responsibility
for Editorial Advice to Wobblies of Nation
—–

(By Review Leased Wire)

CHICAGO, July 19.-Ralph R [H]. Chaplin editor of Solidarity, one of the chief organs of the I. W. W. a defendant, was on the stand today in the trial of the 101 I. W. W.

Chaplin, in his direct testimony, had dwelt on the evil of the exploitation of labor and told of the vast amount of money wrested from the toilers by such means.

The attention of Chaplin was called to an editorial printed in Solidarity defining the attitude of the I. W. W. toward the war and the draft. It advised any member drafted to claim exemption as an I. W. W., and to write on his card: “The I. W. W. is opposed to war.”

Chaplin assumed full responsibility for this article.

“The Red Feast” by Ralph Chaplin:

Ralph Chaplin, The Red Feast, Long, When Leaves, 1917

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Ralph Chaplin on West Virginia and His Undying Hate for Industrial Tyranny

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Quote Ralph Chaplin, US Flag Arrogated, Chg IWW Trial, July 19, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday July 28, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Testimony of Ralph Chaplin

Report from Defendant Harrison George:

Ralph Chaplin, Leaves, 1917

Ralph Chaplin, defendant, artist-poet, and editor of “Solidarity” during 1917, took the stand on the morning of July 19th, 1918, and gave an account of how his life’s events had influenced his conclusions upon industrial and political questions. Born in Kansas thirty years ago, he had studied art at night-school while working during the day-time in the darkroom, “Spot-knocking” photographs. Later, another boss, knowing he was a “scissor-bill,” had him pledge $10 a week out of a $16 wage to invest $500 in the boss’ business. When that was paid in, the boss told him to go to hell and got another victim. This $500 was recovered because Chaplin was a minor when the contract was made; so he took this and started into business for himself with the ambition to be “independent.” But—he found a trust controlled all supplies and he was unable to buy anywhere and had to quit. So he went back to the easel, working for wages.

He then went to Mexico for one year and noted the extreme poverty of the peon class under the Diaz regime. Coming back, he had worked for the Chicago Portrait Company until the artists struck against conditions there. When that strike was lost he went to West Virginia, where he did artist work in the coal mining region. For several years previous he had been an enthusiastic member of the Socialist Party, “soap-boxing” and writing articles.

In West Virginia he did much work on the “Socialist and Labor Star” at Charleston [Huntington], which paper became the spokesman for the U. M. W. of A. coal miners’ strike at Paint Creek and Cabin Creek. During this strike Chaplin acquired his hatred of the labor-crushing militia. He described to the jury the “Bull Moose Special,” an armored train, built by union machinists in the C. & O. shops, loop-holed for machine guns and rifles; a train that was manned by Baldwin-Felts detectives and commanded by Quinn Morton, a company superintendent, and in the darkness run through the strikers’ colony at Holly Grove, belching death to men, women and children.

Chaplin came out of that strike zone with undying hate for industrial tyranny. He had written many poems about that strike and Vanderveer read them to the jury: “What Happened in the Hollow,” “The Mine Guard,” “When the Leaves Come Out,” and “Too Rotten Rank for Hell.” The latter Vanderveer asked about. “Does it express your contempt for the prostitute newspaper men?” “Well,” said Chaplin, “a part of it.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Why Workers Walk and Why “Wandering Willies” Tramp While Plutocrats Wallow in Luxury

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You pity yourselves,
but you do not pity your brothers,
or you would stand together
to help one another.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday July 27, 1898
Chicago, Illinois – Workers Walk in Rain as Street Cars Pass By

From the Appeal to Reason of July 16, 1898:

Your Turn May Come to Be a Tramp, AtR, July 16, 1898

WHY DO WE WALK?

E. B. Webster in National Tribune.

As I started home from “down town,” when I reached Madison street I noticed hundreds of people walking, all going west.

I was intending to take a car, but seeing so many people walking, I says to myself: “The cars must have stopped.” But, no, the cars were moving right along, one every half minute.

Then why do the people walk? I determined to walk home with the rest and punish myself for having been dormant and letting the street railway company buy up the street for a few thousand dollars from the aldermen who had the power to give away what they never owned and had cost them nothing.

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Hellraisers Journal: Socialist Red Special Will Make Possible 500 Meetings Across Nation for Debs Campaign

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday July 26, 1908
Socialist Party to Use “Special Train” for Debs Campaign

From the Socialist Montana News of July 23, 1908:

AD ed, Fundraisers Socialist Red Special, MTNs p1, July 23, 1908

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Hellraisers Journal: “Open Letter” from Los Angeles County Jail by Comrades Magón, Rivera, and Villarreal

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We are free, truly free, when we don’t need to rent
our arms to anybody in order to be able to lift
a piece of bread to our mouths.
―Ricardo Flores Magón
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday July 25, 1908
From Los Angeles County Jail: “Open Letter” by Mexican Revolutionaries

From the Montana News of July 23, 1908:

MEXICAN REVOLUTIONISTS
APPEAL TO ROOSEVELT.
—–

MX Revs, Magon, Rivera, Villareal, El Paso Hld, Aug 30, 1907

—–

The “open letter”, of which this is a copy, was mailed to President Roosevelt, upon May 28, by Messrs. Magon, Villarreal, and River, the three Mexican political prisoners who are still in Los Angeles county jail. They have now been in prison over nine months without trial. If their case goes to the supreme court, they m ay be without trial for another year to come. So far, release under bond has been denied them, though it is at times granted even to persons accused of murder.

These men have violated no law. Their crime is that of working for the oppressed of their own country, agitating in behalf of education, improvement in the conditions of labor (throughout Mexico, men, women and children alike, work from 16 to 18 hours per day for wages of from 15 cents to 75 cents), and a more liberal government such as would permit freedom of speech and of the press, as well as election of public officials by the people. Such measures as these are contrary to the policy of the Mexican government. Therefore Magon, Villarreal, Rivera, and their associates are “wanted in Mexico.”

Newspapers and individuals are requested to help these men by giving all possible publicity to this letter.

The letter to President Roosevelt follows:

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