Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Describes the Shipping of the Special Judiciary Edition of the Appeal to Reason

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Law ag Working Class, AtR p1, Apr 29, 1911—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 15, 1912
Girard, Kansas – Eugene Debs on Shipping Special Edition of the Appeal

From The Coming Nation of May 11, 1912
-April 22nd, Shipping the Special Judiciary Edition of April 27th:

AtR Judiciary Ed Apr 27, Ship Apr 22, Cmg Ntn p 14, May 11, 1912

A view of part of the great record-breaking edition of the Appeal to Reason, at the railroad station, Girard, Kansas

The photographer’s lens was not wide enough to catch all of the piles of the special Judiciary Edition of the Appeal to Reason which were delivered to one single train. The total edition was over 3,000,000.

From the Appeal to Reason of May 4, 1912:

Greed Kills Titanic etc, AtR p4, May 4, 1912

April 22, 1912, at Girard

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.

SITTING at my desk at the APPEAL office, I hear the whirl and roar of the mammoth press. The Judicial Edition is racing through it-20,000 copies an hour. “Old Chap,” the veteran pressman, is pitted against his own record.

At the rate of a quarter of a million a day it will take twelve days to turn out this marvelous edition the greatest ever issued by any paper, in any nation, since the printing art was born.

“Old Chap” and the boys are standing by the racing, roaring old leviathan to win the wager that “she will not make it” and she does not miss a throb of her swift-beating heart in all the twenty-four hours of the day and night.

All about the APPEAL today the boys and girls are tense with trial-“drinking in the breath of their own swiftness”-making the record that is to stand against the world.

There is no night in Girard this week-there is but one long day-the day of Wayland, Warren and Phifer’s defiance to Pollock, Hook and Bone-the day of the APPEAL triumphant over the criminal courts of capitalist America. 

* * *

IT is now ten-thirty in the morning. I am near the depot platform and I gaze upon a mountain raised by human hands and human hearts and human brains-in sweet and sympathetic social alliance-the like of which the eyes of man never saw before.

Piled high enough to hide the depot and extending far enough to tower like a range of mountain peaks, the APPEAL,-a thousand pouches and a million copies-is awaiting transportation. And this is but the first installment of the fabulous edition.

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We Never Forget: Fellow Worker Joe Hill-Four Postcard Drawings Sent to Childhood Friend, Charles Rudberg in San Francisco

Janet RayeJoe Hill Rebel Songwriter
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—————

Drawings of Joe Hill, 1911 & 1914, from Postcards
Sent to Charles Rudberg

From Labor History Journal of Fall 1984:

JOE HILL-CARTOONIST

by PHILIP MASON

In 1980, the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University acquired four postcards written by Joe Hill, the “Wobbly songwriter and poet,” to a friend, Charles Rudberg, between the years 1911 and 1914. The four postcards contained more than the usual short message-each included a cartoon of drawing by Joe Hill…..

Mason goes on to describe the postcards (see below).

Mason fails to mention exactly how the postcards were acquired, but perhaps they came from Rudberg’s daughter, Frances Horn, of Ventura, California, with whom Mason had communicated. Horn stated that her father and Joe Hill were childhood friends in Galve, Sweden, and reunited later in San Francisco shortly before the San Francisco Fire. Both Rudberg and his daughters cherished the postcards from Joe Hill and kept them as “priceless heirlooms.”

Mason was, in 1984, Director of the Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs , Wayne State Univ., Professor History Dept.

Franklin Rosemont states that in a letter to Mason on January 29, 1980, Frances Horn wrote that her father told her older sister that Joe could also “sing like an angel, play the violin like a master and write like a fury.”

POSTCARD DRAWINGS by JOE HILL

January 24, 1911
-from Joe Hill at Coalinga CA
to Charles Rudberg at Sailors Rest Mission, San Pedro CA:

Big Show Tonight from Joe Hill at Coalinga to Rudberg at Sailors Rest San Pedro, Jan 24, 1911
“Doings of Väran Kalle”

—————

April 29, 1911
-from Joe Hill at Sailors Rest Mission, San Pedro CA
to Charles Rudberg at Sailor’s Union Hall, East Street, San Francisco CA:

From Joe Hill at San Pedro to Rudberg at San Francisco, Mission to Fill, Apr 29, 1911
“I’ve Got a Mission to Fill Don’t Ye Knauw, JO-EL”

—————

September 2, 1911
-from Joe Hill at San Pedro CA
to Charles Rudberg at Sailors Union Hall, East Street, San Francisco CA:

From Joe Hill at San Pedro to Rudberg at San Francisco, Hobo Gets Boot, Sept 2, 1911
“Oh you Hoboeing”

With Poem by Joe Hill:

The song of Mauser bullets
may be exciting
and the rattle of machine-guns
may also have its thrills-
but Oh you hoboeing!

—————

December 18, 1914
-from Joe Hill at Salt Lake County Jail, Salt Lake City UT
to Charles Rudberg at San Francisco (?) CA 
Note: Joe was not moved to Utah State Pen until July 1915, after appeal for new trial was denied by Utah Supreme Court.

From Joe Hill at SL County Jail to Rudberg, Merry XMass, Dec 18, 1914
“Merry X-mas and then some. Joe”

—————

Continue reading “We Never Forget: Fellow Worker Joe Hill-Four Postcard Drawings Sent to Childhood Friend, Charles Rudberg in San Francisco” →

Hellraisers Journal: The Nation: “Children’s Crusade for Amnesty” by Mary Heaton Vorse, Grief on Parade in New York City

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, Red Feast, Montreal 1914, Leaves 1917—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 13, 1922
Mary Heaton Vorse on Children’s Crusade for Amnesty

From The Nation of May 10, 1922:

The Children’s Crusade for Amnesty

By MARY HEATON VORSE

Childrens Crusade w Signs, Regina Mrn Ldr p16, May 4, 1922

A GROUP of travel-worn working women and their children paraded from the Grand Central Station up Madison Avenue. The young girls stared straight ahead of them; babies stumbled with fatigue. Women, carrying children, sagged along wearily. They carry banners. The little boy who walks on ahead has a firm mouth and holds his head up. His banner reads “A Little Child Shall Lead Them.” There are other banners, which read “A Hundred and Thirteen Men Jailed for Their Opinions”; “Eugene Debs Is Free-Why Not My Daddy?” One banner inquires “Is the Constitution Dead?” One young girl carries a banner, “My Mother Died of Grief.” One woman with a three-year-old baby holds a banner saying “I Never Saw My Daddy.”

Reporters, movie men, and members of the bomb squad accompany the band of women and children. This is a new sort of show. This is a grief parade. These are the wives and children of men serving sentences under the Espionage Act, the wives and children of political prisoners jailed for their opinions. Some of the men did not believe in killing, and some belong to labor organizations. Not one of them was accused of any crime. They are serving sentences from five to twenty years.

Their wives and children are on a crusade. They have come from Kansas corn-fields and from the cotton farms of Oklahoma, from New England mill towns, from small places in the Southwest. They have been through many cities. They are on the way to Washington to see the President of the United States.* They have come here showing their wounds and their humiliation. They have spread out before us their frugal, laborious days. With a terrible bravery they have displayed them so that you and I might see them and be moved—perhaps, and, perhaps, help.

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Hellraisers Journal: Inquiry into San Diego Free Speech Fight Strips Mask from Army of Thugs and Brutal Vigilante Justice

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 12, 1912
San Diego, California – Weinstock Inquiry Proves Brutality of Vigilantes 

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of May 9, 1912:

INQUIRY STRIPS MASK FROM THUGS

GOVERNOR ORDERS INVESTIGATION OF SAN DIEGO
-INQUIRY REVEALS FRIGHTENED OFFICIALS
-MEN STILL ENTERING CITY.

[-by Stumpy]

San Diego FSF, Jail re Death of Hoey, Cmg Ntn p13, May 4, 912

San Diego, Cal., April 22, 1912

To the “Worker”-The most notable event of the past week has been the taking of testimony in the Free Speech fight by commissioner, Mr. Harris Weinstock, appointed by Governor Johnson to come to San Diego to get the facts in regard to the complete abrogation of all laws by the police and vigilantes, and incidentally this investigation has been the means of showing as fine an example of unqualified heroism as the world has ever seen.

The governor has appointed the commissioner in response to requests from scores of people here and elsewhere who knew of the lawlessness that was being carried on here, and he had issued invitations to all who wished to come forth and testify regarding the methods of the police and the justification for the vigilantes.

It would seem that here was a chance for the lovers of “law and order” to come forth and prove what martyrs the people of San Diego had been, but with the exception of two police officials and two others, one of them a vigilante, there was no one in all the town who had the nerve to come forth and justify their actions.

The first of the “citizens” to come forth had been well loaded with whisky, and he wanted to know if the commissioner was going to take the word of a lot of “anarchists and ragamuffins who were there to make trouble.” He then wanted the commissioner to go somewhere to get the statements of “a thousand citizens who were willing to testify, but the room where the investigation was being held was no fit place for them to come.” His scheme failed, as the commissioner told him plainly that no star chamber proceedings would be held.

Detective Shepherd was also on the job, but was unable to hold it down for more than a few minutes. When he was asked one or two questions about taking men out to be slugged by the vigilantes his prompter at a side door said “Telephone message for Shepherd,” and that was the end of his talk.

But it was not the end of the record. Thomas Kilcullen and one of the other I. W. W. men at once took the stand and testified that Shepherd was telling a point blank lie in the very essence of his testimony. He had had the nerve to state that no men were beaten up and that no one was turned over to the vigilantes. But men were there to prove him to be an unqualified liar, and the proof went into the record next after Shepherd’s attempt at a whitewash.

The true heroes were seven men who had been driven from the town and clubbed, some of them to insensibility, and told that if they ever returned to San Diego they would be killed. Some of them had been driven out two or three times, some had been clubbed on the streets of rotten San Diego, all had been threatened with death if they ever returned, yet they were defying the most vicious gun men of the west to give their story of cruelty to the governor that there might be the evidence for him to give us a measure of justice and fair dealing in our fight.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: “Worse and More of It” for Free Speech in San Diego, California, 1912

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote EGF, re Spk FSF, ISR p618, Jan 1910—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 11, 1912
San Diego Free Speech Fight – “Worse and More of It” 

From the Spokane Industrial Worker of May 9, 1912:

San Diego FSF, Worse n More, IW p1, May 9, 1912

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: “Worse and More of It” for Free Speech in San Diego, California, 1912″ →

Hellraisers Journal: President Harding Refuses to See Kate Richards O’Hare of Children’s Crusade for Amnesty

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote Kate O’Hare re War Profitters, Address to Court, Dec 14, 1917—————

Hellraisers Journal –  Wednesday May 10, 1922
Washington, D. C. – President Refuses Petitions for Political Prisoners

From the Vancouver Daily World (British Columbia) of May 2, 1922:

Childrens Crusade, in WDC, Vcvr BC Dly Wld p 6, May 2, 1922

From the Regina Morning Leader (Saskatchewan) of May 4, 1922:

Childrens Crusade w Signs, Regina Mrn Ldr p16, May 4, 1922

From the Oklahoma Leader of May 9, 1922:

[-from page 1]

CREDIT CHILDREN FOR HARDING ACT
———-
President Calls For Reports On Politicals
———-

By LAURENCE TODD
Federated Press Staff Correspondent

WASHINGTON, May 8.-President Harding has called for reports from the department of justice on the Philadelphia [?] I. W. W. cases.

News of this response to renewed pressure for release of the political prisoners was given by the attorney general’s office on Monday, to a delegation from the Women’s International league, which on Sunday adopted resolutions demanding general amnesty. Action by this national organization of women was prompted by the coming of the Children’s Crusade and the hostile reception given the children and their mothers by President Harding and his associates.

Credit for apparent anxiety on the part of the administration to get rid of the issue of amnesty is given to the children, who have touched the hearts of even the most hardened politicians and idlers in the capital. Something near indignation is manifested by the general public as it learns of the driving of these children away from the president’s church on Sunday on the pretext that the place of worship was already crowded to the limit of the fire regulations. Moving picture men pose the weary and work-bowed mothers and the tired little girls and boys, and local newspapers publish many groups of them with sympathetic comment.

The Crusaders are digging in to make the fight, however long, to change the attitude of Harding, whether they soften his heart or no.

[Reference to Philadelphia makes little sense here. Most of the families represented by Children’s Crusade were from Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri.)

[-from page 4]

CHILD CRUSADERS STAY AT CAPITAL
———-
President Refuses To See Petitions For Prisoners
———-

WASHINGTON, May 9.-Even though President Harding refused to see Mrs. Kate Richards O’Hare and the children’s crusade, the results of the trip will be far from in vain. When Attorney General Daugherty, to whom the President referred them, was seen he stated that there would no general amnesty decree, that each case would be considered on its merits and action taken only upon application for pardon being made by the “offenders.”

“We shall stay here on the doorstep of the federal government until the fathers of these children and all other political prisoners are released,” Mrs. O’Hare has announced. Living quarters have been provided by the Farmer-Labor party and the American Civil Liberties union.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1902: Found Speaking in Streator, Illinois, at Celebration of Eight-Hour Work Day

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Elect Labor Reps, Streator IL Dly Prs p1, Apr 3, 1902—————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 9, 1902
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1902
Found Speaking in Streator, Illinois, at Celebration of Eight-Hour Day

From the Streator Daily Free Press of April 2, 1902:

EIGHT-HOUR WORK DAY.
———-
Various Labor Unions Are Celebrating
Its Fifth Anniversary.

Mother Jones, Ipl Ns p11, Jan 21, 1902

The fifth anniversary of the establishment of the eight-hour work day in Streator is being celebrated here today, and an excellent program has been prepared for the occasion by the committee having the affair in charge. Owing to the very disagreeable weather the attendance from the surrounding towns is not as large as was hoped for, although there is a goodly sprinkling of visitors in the city, many of them coming in on the noon trains to hear the addresses in the opera house this afternoon by a number of distinguished speakers.

Among these are “Mother” Jones, of Pennsylvania, and she entertained a constant stream of callers at the Plumb House this morning…..

—————

[Photograph added]

From the Streator Daily Free Press of April 3, 1902:

CELEBRATION A SUCCESS.
———-
Large Audience Hear Addresses
by Good Speakers.
———-

Mr. Chipperfield Talks Against Convict Labor-“Mother” Jones Tells of Conditions in West Virginia, and What Must Be Done There-Secretary Ryan Says Illinois Miners Can Expect No Increase in Scale Until West Virginia is Brought Into Line.

———-

When our report of the celebration of the eight-hour day anniversary closed yesterday Mr. Chipperfield, of Canton Ill., was speaking. He said that great problems confronted the United Mine Workers organization. Among those were the Chinese and convict labor questions. The Chinese exclusion bills should receive the hearty support of the organization. and it should see that the congressmen from this state voted for them. Convict contract labor is also a menace to free labor, and the constitution is violated when such contracts are entered into…..

The speaker closed with a eulogy of the organization, and when the applause ceased the chairman introduced “Mother Jones, who was given a most cordial welcome. She is a gray-haired woman of probably fifty years of age, and is possessed of a fire and spirit which makes her a power among the men in whose cause she is a timeless worker.

“Mother” Jones said that there was one great problem to be settled today, and that was the labor problem. It was an old one, and efforts had been made in olden times to settle it. Labor had always made the advancing step to better conditions. It had lined up its army time and again, and although the arm of the government had been against it in many ways, labor had marched on and upward until the time had come to settle the question forever.

The declaration of independence was the opening wedge to labor. If any class is entitled to enjoy the luxuries of life, it is the laboring class, for it makes them all. If it was not for labor there would be no luxuries. She told of the awful condition prevailing in the mining districts in West Virginia. where men and children work ten, twelve and fourteen hours in the mines, and the scale was a low one. It was that field which made it impossible for the miners of other states to get the scale increased, as the operators there can sell coal so much cheaper than the operators of Illinois. Now, said the speaker, if you will furnish ammunition we will make the fight and bring the miners up with you.

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We Never Forget: Mother’s Day 2022: “Suffer the Little Children”-Mother Jones on the Evils of Child Labor in America

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones on the Evils of Child Labor in America

From the Social Democratic Herald of March 9, 1901

Mother Jones, Drawing, SDH p4, Mar 9, 1901

From Pennsylvania’s Carbondale Leader of November 30, 1900:

Quote Mother Jones Children Suffer PA Silk Mills, Cdale Ldr p6, Nov 30, 1900

From the International Socialist Review of March 1901:

Quote Mother Jones re Child Labor AL 1896, ISR p539, Mar 1901

From the Wilkes-Barre Daily News of May 11, 1901:

Quote Mother Jones, Child Labor Silk Mills, WB Dly Ns p1, May 11, 1901

Continue reading “We Never Forget: Mother’s Day 2022: “Suffer the Little Children”-Mother Jones on the Evils of Child Labor in America” →

Hellraisers Journal: “The Industrial Workers of the World” and “Bound for San Diego” -Songs from the Industrial Worker

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Laura Payne Emerson IWW Singing, IW p5, May 1, 1912—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 7, 1912
Songs from the Front Lines of the San Diego Free Speech Fight

From the Industrial Worker of May 1, 1912:

-“Industrial Workers of the World” by Laura  Payne Emerson

IWW San Diego Jail Singing Song by LPE, IW p5, May 1, 1912

-“We’re Bound for San Diego”

Bound for San Diego, IW p2, May 1, 1912

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Coming Nation: Photograph by Lewis Hine of Young Spinner Shows “Toiling Childhood”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Child Labor Silk Mills, WB Dly Ns p1, May 11, 1901—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 6, 1912
Photograph by Lewis Hine of Young Spinner: “Toiling Childhood”

From The Coming Nation of May 4, 1912:

Toiling Childhood, Girl Spinner, Cmg Ntn Cv, May 4, 1912

November 1908, Vivian Cotton Mills, Cherryville, North Carolina
Young Spinner by Lewis Hine for National Child Labor Committee:

Young Girl Spinner, Cherryville NC by Lewis Hine, Nov 1908

“Spinner in Vivian Cotton Mills, Cherryville, N.C. Been at it 2 years. Where will her good looks be in ten years?”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Coming Nation: Photograph by Lewis Hine of Young Spinner Shows “Toiling Childhood”” →