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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday August 7, 1918
Canon City, Colorado – Poem from Imprisoned Anarchist Comrade
We have not forgotten our Comrade, Louise Olivereau, who is now serving a ten-year prison sentence at Colorado’s state prison. Miss Olivereau was convicted last November on charges of violating the Espionage Act due her her anti-war and anti-conscription writings.
From the Mother Earth Bulletin of April 1918:
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday June 6, 1918
New York, New York – The Masses Trial as Told by a Defendant, Part II
The trial of the those connected with The Masses began on April 15th of this year and resulted in the dismissal of the jury on April 27th, for failure to agree on a verdict. Another trial of the defendants is certain, according to the prosecution. Floyd Dell, one of the defendants, tells the story of that trial wherein the defendants were facing up to twenty years in prison for alleged violations of the Espionage Act of 1917. We began with Part I yesterday and conclude today with Part II.
The Story of the Trial [Part II]
By Floyd Dell
Speech of Dudley Field Malone
[Said Mr. Malone:]
This is a case of large issues-issues which go to the very source and purpose of our Government. And so I would like to read to you very briefly a historic statement of these issues-for these things have been spoken with classic utterance, and doubtless you would rather hear them from the original sources than from me-in order that you may have in your minds certain fundamental considerations in reaching a verdict and a judgment in this case.
In I792, Thomas Erskine defended one of the signers of our Declaration of Independence for printing a book-the “Rights of Man.” Thomas Paine had written that book, and it was being defended, and at that time Erskine laid down certain fundamental propositions from which flow the liberties of the press in all English-speaking countries.
Erskine said: “Every man not intending to mislead and confound, but seeking to enlighten others with what his own reason and conscience, however erroneously, may dictate to him as truth, may address himself to the universal reason of a whole nation
And that is the basis, gentlemen, that is the crux thought, underlying the freedom of the press. If anyone in this country has the power to say by autocratic power that a certain thought, because he disagrees with it, shall be taken out of the public discussion, there will no longer be a free expression of opinion.
Erskine said further, speaking of Paine-and he disagreed entirely with the opinions of his client, he did not agree with Paine’s views at all-“His opinions indeed were adverse to our system, but I maintain that opinion is free and that conduct alone is amenable to the law.”
I hope you will take that as the crux idea in this case in formulating your judgment-that opinion in a democracy like ours, must be free freely spoken, freely written. Only conduct is amenable to law.
“For heaven’s sake, wake Art Young up,
and give him a pencil!
Tell him to try to stay awake
until he gets to jail!”
-Attorney Malone
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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 5, 1918
New York, New York – The Masses Trial as Told by a Defendant
The trial of the those connected with The Masses began on April 15th of this year and lasted for about two weeks, ending in a hung jury. A new trial is certain, according to the prosecution. Floyd Dell, one of the defendants, tells the story of that trial wherein the defendants were facing up to twenty years in prison for alleged violations of the Espionage Act of 1917. We begin with Part I today and will conclude tomorrow with Part II.
From The Liberator of June 1918:
The Story of the Trial [Part I]
By Floyd Dell
AT 10:30 o’clock in the morning on April 15 we filed into one of the court-rooms on the third floor of the old Postoffice Building, and took our places about a large table in the front enclosure. Ahead was a table at which sat three smiling men from the district attorney’s office; higher up, on a dais, behind a desk, a black-gowned judge, busy with some papers; to the right a jury-box with twelve empty chairs; and behind us, filling the room, a venire of a hundred and fifty men from among whom a jury was presently to be selected.
It was with the oddest feelings that we sat there, waiting. It seemed strange that this court-room, this judge, this corps of prosecutors, those rows of tired men at the back, had any personal relationship to us. It took an effort to realize that we were not there as interested observers, but as the center of these elaborate proceedings.
It was more than strange, it was scarcely credible. Was it possible that anyone seriously believed us to be conspirators? Was it conceivable that the government of the United States was really going to devote its energies, its time and its money to a laborious undertaking, with the object of finding out whether we were enemies of the Republic! It was fantastic, grotesque, in the mood of a dream or of a tragic farce. It was like a scene from “Alice in Wonderland,” re-written by Dostoievsky. But it was true. We did not expect that the judge, frowning as he read over the papers before him, would suddenly look down at us over his spectacles and ask: “What the devil are you doing here? Don’t you know that I am a busy man, and that this is no place for silly jokes?”
No….For we knew that war produces a quaint and sinister psychology of fear and hate, of hysterical suspicion, of far-fetched and utterly humorless surmise, a mob-psychology which is almost inevitably directed against minorities, independent thinkers, extreme idealists, candid and truth-telling persons, and all who do not run and shout with the crowd. And we of the Masses, who had created a magazine unique in the history of journalism, a magazine of our own in which we could say what we thought about everything in the world, had all of us in some respect belonged to such a minority. We did not agree with other people about a lot of things. We did not even agree with each other about many things. We were fully agreed only upon one point, that it was a jolly thing to have a magazine in which we could freely express our individual thoughts and feelings in stories and poems and pictures and articles and jokes. And when the war came we were found still saying what we individually thought about everything-including war. No two of us thought quite alike about it. But none of us said exactly what the morning papers were saying. So–
We rose to answer to our names: Max Eastman, Floyd Dell, Merrill Rogers, Art Young, Josephine Bell*-a poet-philosopher, a journalist, a business manager, an artist, and a young woman whom none of us had ever seen until the day we went into court to have our bail fixed. And there was another, invisible “person” present, the Masses Publishing Company, charged, like the rest of us, with the crime of conspiring to violate the Espionage Act-conspiring to promote insubordination and mutiny in the military and naval forces of the United States and to obstruct recruiting and enlistment to the injury of the service. We all sat down, and the trial had begun.
*John Reed, war-correspondent, and H. J. Glintenkamp, artist, also indicted, were not on trial
People who demand neutrality
in any situation
are usually not neutral
but in favor of the status quo.
-Max Eastman
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 4, 1918
New York, New York – Retrial of Masses Editors Expect
From The Liberator of June 1918:
The Masses Case
THE prosecution of the editors of The Masses for “conspiracy to obstruct recruiting and enlistment” is an attack on the lawful freedom of the press.
It is not an attempt to defend the country against conspirators, spies, or any other classes of criminals contemplated by those who framed the espionage law.
It is an attempt to put four American citizens in jail for expressing their lawful opinions. And it is the culmination of a series of acts which the New York Evening Post has described as “governmental persecution.”
Not one word of evidence to prove that these men ever wrote to each other, or ever discussed the subject of the draft or enlistment with each other, after the passage of the espionage law, was adduced by the government.
Not a word of direct evidence that they intended to, or wanted to, or ever even imagined or discussed the possibility that they might obstruct recruiting or enlistment.
Proudly went out Joe unto his death
With smiling lips and fearless eyes
this message gave with his last breath
“Don’t mourn for me, but ORGANIZE.”
-Richard Brazier
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 1, 1918
“Farewell, Joe” by Richard Brazier
From I. W. W. Songs, “General Defense Edition” of April 1918:
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday May 18, 1918
Mother Jones News for April 1918, Part II: Found in San Francisco
Mother Jones was the featured speaker at a mass meeting held at the Auditorium in San Francisco on Tuesday evening, April 16th. The next day the following telegram was sent to the Machinists’ Union headquarters in Washington, D. C.:
From the San Francisco Chronicle of April 17, 1918:
Mass Meeting Is Held by Partisans
Of “Tom” Mooney
—–President to Be Told New Trial Is
Favored by Large Audience
—–
Thousands of Thomas J. Mooney sympathizers gathered in the Auditorium last night to hear Mrs. Rena Mooney, Mrs. Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, Israel Weinberg, Mother Jones and others discuss the Preparedness day bomb cases.
“Ten thousand persons in mass meeting in San Francisco favor unanimously a new trial for Mooney,” is the effect of a message they voted to send to President Wilson.
Many of the people left when they found they couldn’t hear Mother Jones, the first speaker, whose voice did not carry far enough to be of value to those in the back of the Auditorium. A burst of applause at a time when applause scarcely was necessary apprised Mother Jones of her audience’s difficulties, and she quit speaking shortly after 10 o’clock.
The meeting was opened with the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Everybody stood up except a man in the audience and Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington. The man arose under pressure, but the woman on the speakers’ platform remained seated.
After Mother Jones spoke a collection was taken. John P. [H.] Beckmeyer of the machinists’ union presided. A large number of Mooney sympathizers from Alameda county marched to the Auditorium from the Ferry building.
In an open letter Mooney told his friends “organized labor is the one weapon that will bring us speedy justice.”
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[Photograph added.]
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday May 17, 1918
Mother Jones News for April 1918, Part I: Found in West Virginia
From The Wheeling Intelligencer of April 1, 1918:
MOUNDSVILLE
—–
Miners Here Today.Miners from the mines in this section of the Ohio valley gather here today to participate in the miners’ convention, which is to be held in commemoration of the eight hour day for miners. The session will be held on the campground and the speaking in the camp ground auditorium Hon. James D. Parriott will preside. Two hands have been hired for the occasion and a street parade will held this morning previous to going to the camp grounds. Congressman M. M. Neely, Mother Jones, John Moore and William Roy are among the speakers. The Red Cross will have charge of the refreshments.
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[Photograph added.]
From The Wheeling Intelligencer of April 2, 1918:
BIG CELEBRATION BY MINERS
—–With the speaking of “Mother” Jones, Congressman M. N. Neely, President William E. Roy of the district, members Fifth district coal miners, held their observance of the twenty-eighth anniversary of the “Eight hour law” yesterday at the Moundsville camp ground. The occasion was the largest celebration ever staged in the Mound City, and there were more than a thousand workers from all parts of Ohio and this state present.
The speculators, the employers,
the plutocracy…with lies and sophistries
they will whip up our blood until we are savage-
and then we’ll fight and die for them.
-Jack Reed
Hellraisers Journal, Friday May 3, 1918
New York, New York – John Reed Facing Federal Charges
From Portland’s Oregon Daily Journal of April 29, 1918:
John Reed, Writer For
“Masses,” Held
—–An American [Atlantic] Port, April 29.-(I. N. S.)-John Reed, an American writer, bearing credentials from the Bolsheviki as consul general at New York, was detained aboard a Scandinavian steamer upon his arrival here Sunday.
Reed was one of the contributors to “The Masses” who were indicted by a federal grand jury for alleged conspiracy to defeat the draft law. He appeared in the federal court today and pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to obstruct the draft law.
—–
John Reed is a former Portland man, son of Mrs. Charles J. Reed.
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[Photograph added.]
From The Liberator of May 1918:
John Reed located and series on “Red Russia” continues-
When you wear that button, the “Wobblies” red button
And carry their red, red card,
No need to hike, boys, along these old pikes, boys
Every “Wobbly” will be your pard.
-Richard Brazier
Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 29, 1918
From the Chicago I. W. W. Publishing Bureau:
A new song from Richard Brazier:
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday April 23, 1918
Mother Jones News for March 1918, Part III: Found in Evansville, Indiana
On Thursday evening March 28th, Mother Jones spoke before a meeting organized by the local labor leaders of Evansville, Indiana. She was there to speak on behalf of Tom Mooney now facing the gallows in San Francisco. The Evansville Press of March 29th described her speech:
URGES MOONEY BE SAVED FOR SAMMIES’ SAKE
Altho she’d much rather be in Europe “cleaning up on the kaiser,” Mother Jones told an audience of workers Thursday night that the business of the people at home was to fight for the Sammies here.
She said the way to do this was to save the life of Thomas Mooney, the labor leader who is being railroaded to the gallows in San Francisco at the behest of labor-crushing interests.
[She said:]
Sometimes I feel almost ashamed that I’m not over there, putting heart into those boys, so they can give the kaiser hell.
But my place is here, fight ing for them while they’re gone. When those boys come back, after having fought your battles across the sea for democracy, you’ll be able to say: “Boys, while you’ve been gone we haven’t shirked; we’ve fought and won your battles here for industrial democracy.”
