Tag: Appeal to Reason

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: From the Appeal to Reason: Wichita Class-War Prisoners & “Hell Holes in America” by Upton Sinclair

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, Mother and Boy, Lv Nw Era p4, Mar 14, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 14, 1919
Upton Sinclair Exposes the Barbaric Sedgwick County Jail

From the Appeal to Reason of May 10, 1919:

Upton Sinclair Page, AtR p4, May 10, 1919

Hell Holes in America

In the Amnesty Edition of the Appeal I reproduced a circular sent out by the I. W. W. boys, describing the terrible conditions in the Sedgwick county jail at Wichita, Kans. I made no investigation of their statements, but acted on my general impulse to believe the worst about American jails. Those which I have investigated in past times have disposed me to believe that nobody could possibly exaggerate their evils. But soon after this article appeared in the Appeal I received letters from several correspondents who reported that they had complained to the Governor of Kansas about the matter, and had received from him a report of a confidential investigation which he had had made into this Wichita jail. The report stated that conditions in the jail were excellent, and that all the accounts sent out by the I. W. W. were false.

Now the Governor of Kansas, Henry J. Allen, is a progressive politician and a gentle man. I feel acquainted with him from reading “The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me,” by William Allen White-Governor Allen being the Henry” of that book. So I began to feel real bad about what I had published, and made ready to apologize to Governor Allen, and also to the readers of the Appeal for the blunder I had made.

But I studied that report again and noted that the Governor’s investigator denied that the I. W. W. boys had been arrested for trying to call a strike of the oil workers. He said they had been arrested for hindering the prosecution of the war. I have encountered that official bunk so often that I know the type of mind that swallows it.

And then I recalled the many, many times in my life when I had followed the work of official investigators, in cases with which I myself was entirely familiar. I recalled, for example the statement given out about the county jail here in Los Angeles, that the prisoners had had lice brought in and put them on their bodies prior to my inspection! I recalled Major Louis L. Seaman of the United States army, who investigated the Chicago stockyards for Collier’s Weekly, at the time when the Appeal to Reason was publishing “The Jungle.” Major Seaman was a gentleman of undoubted integrity, and he reported that everything was lovely in that inferno of graft. You see, these gentlemen of undoubted integrity have their class point of view, and they let themselves be escorted around, and they only see what they are shown-and even then, most of the time they don’t realize what they are seeing!

So I decided that before I apologized to Governor Allen, I would inquire a little farther. I wrote to Caroline Lowe, a woman who has interested herself in the defense of political prisoners, and asked if she happened to know anything about this particular jail. In reply came a letter which speaks for itself and which I quote:

Regardless of any denial made by the Governor of the State of Kansas, I can testify of my own knowledge that the conditions not only in the Wichita jail but in the jail at the State capitol at Topeka, Kans., beggar description. The rotary tank in the jail at Wichita is a relic of barbarism. I have been in the jail many times and have seen this tank in operation.

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Hellraisers Journal: National Civil Liberties Bureau Corrects Attorney General on Number of Political Prisoners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ralph Chaplin, Prison Reveille, Lv New Era p2, Apr 4, 1919———-

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

Remember Political Prisoners by Bingo, OH Sc, Mar 10, 1918

(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.

Clas War n Political Prisoner Numbers per NCLB, AtR p3, Apr 26, 1919
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Hellraisers Journal: From Appeal to Reason: U. S. Supreme Court Legalizes Traffic in Daughters of the Working Class

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Joe Hill, White Slave, Girls in this way, LRSB 1913———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 19, 1909
Chicago, Illinois – Crusade Against Traffic in Girls Halted by U. S Supreme Court

From the Appeal to Reason of April 17, 1909:

TRAFFIC IN GIRLS.
—–

White Slavery Ernest A Bell, War on White Slave Trade p194, 1909

When it comes to suppressing real crime the law, as administered under the present system, always proved a mockery and a farce. The decision is invariably in favor of the strong and against the weak; in favor of the class in power and against its subjects.

Recently there has been a federal investigation of the unspeakable white slave traffic in Chicago. District Attorney Edward W. Sims has been honestly trying, be it said to his credit, to suppress the revolting commerce in young girls which has blackened the centers of our so-called civilization. About the time the district attorney had his evidence complete and felt sure of his case the United States supreme court rendered a decision shattering the prosecution and in effect legalizing the shocking white slave traffic. It seems unbelievable and yet the facts stand forth beyond dispute. The decision in question has just been rendered and in referring to it District Attorney Sims says:

It will be necessary now to prove the actual importation in each case. I think the federal government will be able to do very little in obtaining convictions. The entire prosecution of such cases will be left to the state courts and to the police.

Which means that the white slave traffic will be left to the gamblers, blacklegs, hack-politicians and pimps, agents of the commercial pirates who established the traffic, and who are carrying it forward to the everlasting disgrace of the state and for their own private gain.

Under this odius and abhorrent traffic thousands of poor, innocent girls are lured to this country, ruined and placed in brothels under contract to end their blasted lives in nameless horror.

The point above all others to take into account is that these girls are uniformly the children of poverty, the daughters of the working class, and for this reason it is of grave significance and its lesson should be graven deeply upon the hearts of all the millions who toil.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1909, Part II: Found in Southeast Kansas

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Wall St Gov, Lbr Wld p4, Mar 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 13, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1909, Part II:
-Found in Pittsburg and Girard, Kansas

Mother praised by Appeal to Reason:

Mother Jones is in the field appealing to the workers with the eloquence and force for which she is noted. She has already raised by her own efforts over three thousand dollars for the defense of the Mexican comrades. Her meetings are uniformly crowded and at the close resolutions are adopted voicing the protest of the working class and demanding the liberation of the patriots.

[Emphasis added.]

From the Appeal to Reason of March 13, 1909:

….PREPARING FOR THE BATTLE….

Mother Jones w edit crpd ag, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909

The Mexican cases become more important hourly. Along the Rio Grande the pickets, sentinels and spies are posted and there is a state of actual war, although the capitalist press makes no report of it. The war is between the rising proletariat under the leadership of such patriots as Araujo and Magon, and the Mexican despotism with the tyrant Diaz at its head. Stripped of all collateral developments it is simply a war between labor and capital, between freedom and peon slavery.

The managing editor of the Appeal [Fred Warren] has for some days been at San Antonio, Waco and other points in southern Texas, making a personal investigation. He reports a far more serious and complicated situation than most of our readers imagine. He is convinced that these cases are but the beginnings of what is going to prove a serious and far-reaching conflict.

Efforts are being mede to appeal the case of Antonio Araujo to the supreme court, and at all events to fight the case to a finish. Additional evidence has accumulated to emphasize the infamy of the conviction. A number of other Mexican patriots have been arrested in secret in Texas and Arizona, waylaid, beaten jailed and held “incommunicado” by collusion of the American police in the employ of the Mexican government.

So powerful are the Mexican influences in those states that the papers are silenced and the courts are virtually Mexicanized in their treatment of the patriots who are fighting for liberty.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Your Liberties Will Go With ‘Gene Debs When He Goes to Prison

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD Slave is My Brother, AtR p1, May 1, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 30, 1919
“…while Debs is in prison, you are not free, no honest man is free…”

From the Appeal to Reason of March 29, 1919:

Banner Headline EVD to Go to Prison, AtR p1, Mar 29, 1919
—–

The decision of the United States Supreme Court upholding the prison sentence passed upon Eugene V. Debs by a lower federal court came as a distinct shock to several millions of the American people. It is true that the hopes of these people were not pinned to the slender faith that Debs would find a just refuge in this high court of the powers that be. While the Supreme Court frequently sets aside laws with an astonishing alacrity, they are such laws as are obnoxious to privileged interests rather than to plain citizens. Setting aside the Espionage Act, especially to remove the threat of prison from Debs the spokesman of labor, was the last thing the Supreme Court could have been rationally expected to do.

The reply of the Appeal to the Supreme court is simply this: Whatever you can or cannot do, whatever you will or will not do, in the case of Debs makes little difference in the actual and final settlement of the issue. Where ignorance and prejudice are blissfully enthroned, ’tis folly to look for wisdom and tolerance. If you had it in your power and province to make Debs a free man by a mere effortless nod of the head, we know well that you would not do so. Politically you may safely defy any storm of public opinion, because you are secure in your arbitrary life jobs. But there are other branches of the government that depend upon the suffrage of the people and that must, unless madness has seized them and they are led to listen to the most stupid of counsels, place themselves responsive to the manifested will of public opinion. We believe that President Wilson and certain members of his official family are really inclined to favor action that a sufficient sentiment of the people, clearly expressed, may demand. That is to say, we believe that they are wise enough to listen to the people when the people talk loud enough and that they are not so wrapped in reactionary stupidity and prejudice that they will obdurately refuse to follow a course that demonstrates itself to be popular.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Speaks at Delmonico’s in New York City to Club of Wealthy Men on Perils of Prison Labor

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD Prison Labor, NYC, Mar 21, 1899———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 25, 1899
New York, New York – Eugene Debs Speaks on Prison Labor

On Tuesday March 21st, Comrade Eugene Debs came before the wealthy members of the Nineteenth Century Club at Delmonico’s to lecture them on the evils of prison labor. The Indianapolis Journal quotes the speech in part; the full speech can viewed below.

From The Indianapolis Journal of March 22, 1899:

DEBS ON PRISON LABOR.
—–
Terre Haute Agitator Talks to Business,
Professional and Scientific Men.
—–

Great Annual Convict Sale Florida Crpd, SF Call, Jan 30, 1898
San Francisco Call – January 30, 1898

NEW YORK, March 21.-About 230 members of the Nineteenth Century Club gathered at the ballroom of Delmonico’s tonight to listen to an address to the organization by Eugene V. Debs, the labor agitator. There were a number of substantial business, professional and scientific men present. The interest in Mr. Debs’s words was rather out of the ordinary and the speaker was applauded mildly several times during his remarks. Mr. Debs spoke on “Prison Labor, Its Effects on Industry and Trade.” Among other things Mr. Debs said:

Here in this proud city, where wealth has built its monuments, grander and more imposing than any of the seven wonders of the world named in classic lore, if you will excavate for facts you will find the remains, the bones of toilers buried and imbedded in the foundations. They lived, they wrought, they died. In their time they may have laughed and sung and danced to the music of their clanking chains. They married, propagated their species and perpetuated conditions, which, growing steadily worse, are to-day the foulest blots the imagination can conceive upon our much vaunted civilization, and from these conditions there flow a thousand streams of vice and crime which have broadened and deepened until they constitute a perpetual and ever increasing menace to the peace and security of society. Jails, workhouses, reformatories and penitentiaries have been crowded with the victims, and the question how to control these institutions and the unfortunate inmates is challenging the most serious thought of the most advanced nations on the globe.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Report from Luella Twining on Arrival of Mexican Patriots in Tucson

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Freedom Ricardo Flores Magon, ed, Speech re Prisoners of Texas, May 31, 1914———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 24, 1909
Tucson, Arizona – Mexican Patriots “Chained Together Like Wild Beasts”

From the Appeal to Reason of March 13, 1909:

CHAINED TOGETHER LIKE WILD BEASTS
—–
Magon, Villarreal and Rivera are Delivered in Tucson Jail
Under Heavily Armed Escort
-Appeal to Reason Trampled Upon By Guard.
—–
Latest Developments in the Mexican-Washington Conspiracy
-The Inauguration of Taft Was Signalized by an Event
Not Chronicled in the Daily Papers.
—–

BY LUELLA TWINING
Special Correspondence Appeal to Reason
—–

Tucson, Ariz., March 4.

I have just come from the train that brought Magon, Villarreal and Rivera from the Los Angeles jail, in shackles, to be locked up in the jail at Tucson. At three o’clock in the morning a large party was there to greet them and let them know they are remembered.

Mex Rev, Sarabia, R Magon, Rivera, Villarreal, ISR p642, Mar 1919

It was difficult for them to alight, chained together as they were. Mrs. Sarabia ran up to speak to them and give them some sweet peas, but a deputy threw them down with, “You can’t give them any flowers.” Flowers are not for patriots-only chains and jails. I offered Mr. Magon a copy of the Liberty Edition of the Appeal, which had just come, but a deputy took it and would not allow him to have it.

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