Tag: Buffalo NY

Hellraisers Journal: Social Democratic Herald: Eugene V. Debs Opines on Buffalo’s Kept Preachers, Labor, and Socialism

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Children of the Poor, AtR p2, Mar 17, 1900—————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 26, 1902
Eugene V. Debs on Opines on Kept Preachers, Labor and Socialism

From the Milwaukee Social Democratic Herald of March 22, 1902:

Battle Cry of Superstition.
———-

The Church Protests in Vain Against
the March of Civilization.
———-

By EUGENE V. DEBS.

EVD crpd Nw Orln Tx Dem p3, Jan 26, 1900The socialist movement encountered a great shock at Buffalo a few days ago. One Quigley, a Catholic bishop, and another Stauffer (Stuffer?) of the Protestant persuasion, jointly and severally assailed social democracy, the latter gravely declaring that it was the “unhatched egg of anarchy”-in other words, a bad egg. The bishop vaulted into the arena, made due exhibition of his asininity, and in the name of the hierarchy proclaimed excommunication as the fate of all who cast their lot with the wicked socialists.

No opposition to organized labor, declared the bishop, was intended, except in so far as it was tainted with the virus of socialism-a hint that union men would be wise to profit by.

It is not my purpose to write about religion, or to interfere with that of any man. I am trusting to the light and logic of the future to abolish creeds and dispel the darkness of superstition.

But we have those in the socialist movement who are so supersensitive that they rise in passionate protest when the church is even mentioned. They are doubtless honest and sincere, but their prejudice is such that if the orders and injunctions of such priests as Quigley and Stauffer could be and were obeyed, they would look on in silence and submission, while the church with iron boots crushed out the socialist movement and the sun of labor set in gloom to rise no more.

What has the church, as such, ever done for working men and women except to keep them in darkness, preach obedience to their masters, and promise them a future home in heaven as the reward of patience and submission in the present hell?

The fulmination of this precious combination at Buffalo reveals the true attitude of the church, which profanes the name of Jesus Christ. In all its pomp and power today it stands for all he abhorred and against all he loved; and socialists would be worse than cowards, they would be base-born traitors not to speak the truth and challenge the enemy of the socialist movement in whatever form he may appear; and when the church consents to prostitute its functions in the service of the ruling class, its robes turn into rags and every honest man should help to strip it naked and expose the whited sepulcher to the world.

For more than 25 years I have watched the church in its attitude toward labor and I know it is the enemy of the toilers and strives and strains to keep them in industrial bondage. The freedom of the working class will mean the end of the church as we know it today. It will simply be out of a job.

During the Chicago strikes the priests and preachers grew hysterically violent in demanding the shooting and hanging of the strikers in the name of the meek and merciful Jesus. All denominations melted into one and all the ministers were likewise a unit in defense of the corporations and denunciation and damnation of the strikers.

There is something almost melancholy in seeing a meek, sad-eyed, dyspepsic preacher suddenly grow fierce and bloodthirsty. It seems strange, but it is easily accounted for. The priest is simply the echo of the capitalist. if he declines the function he ceases to preach.

In every labor strike I have ever known the church and those who speak for it have lined up solidly with the corporations. This has been and must be the attitude of the church whose priests now direct its fiery fulmination against socialism at Buffalo.

Through all the centuries the church has been the handmaid of tyranny and oppression-there she stands today, red with impotent rage because socialism has stripped her of her mask and challenged her to do her worst. Can the church extinguish the socialist movement? Can a bat snuff out the sun? It is high time the working class were opening their eyes, time that they were discarding the sacred (?) symbols of superstition and proclaiming their royal right to represent themselves without the vulgar and impertinent intervention of priests who are but the emissaries of their oppressors and exploiters.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mrs. Frederick Douglass Speaks on Evils of Convict Lease System at Buffalo Convention of N. A. C. W.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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WEB DuBois quote 1901, Slavery Convict Lease—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 13, 1901
Mrs. Douglass Speaks at Buffalo Convention of National Assoc. of Colored Women

From The Buffalo Review of July 12, 1901:

Convict Lease System.

Helen Pitts Douglass 1838-1903, wiki

There was a larger attendance at last night’s session than at any time during the convention [of the National Association of Colored Women]. After vocal music by a local musical club, the president, Mrs. Terrell, introduced the chief speaker of the evening, Mrs. Frederick Douglas, widow of the man who espoused the negro’s cause so earnestly during his life time. Mrs. Douglas has gone deep into the study of the convict lease system of the South, and it was of that she spoke last night.

She explained why the system came to be adopted. After the war, she said, many of the Southern cities had no penitentiaries and they had many prisoners, sentenced for small or great offenses. They were leased to companies whose only interest was to wring every cent possible out of their labor. Mrs. Douglas said it has been proved that in the State of Alabama the death rate in the convict camps is 41 out of 100, annually, and at one investigation only three prisoners were found to have survived an eight-year sentence and not one lived to complete a ten-year imprisonment.

She spoke of the conditions in the convict camps in Georgia, Florida, Arkansas and other states where the greatest cruelty is practised on the prisoners, the large majority of whom are negroes. Boys, women and men are chained together in gangs and the utmost immortality prevails among them. Mrs. Douglas said the cruelty of the punishments inflicted on the prisoners equals that of inquisition times, the disease and filth that abounds in the camps are beyond description.

The National Association of Colored Women is seeking to arouse the people of the United States to the enormity of the evil of the lease system. The women feel they are powerless to stop the evil but they are anxious to enlist the help of all right-minded Americans…..

[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1919, Part I: Found with Steel Strikers in New York, West Virginia, & Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones GSS American Liberty, Bff Eve Tx p4, Oct 3, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 20, 1919
Mother Jones News for October 1919, Part I
Found with Steel Strikers of New York, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania

From the New York Daily News of October 1, 1919:

GSS Mother Jones, WZF, NY Dly Ns p2, Oct 1, 1919

From the Buffalo Courier of October 4, 1919:

USES DISCRETION IN HER UTTERANCES
AT LACKAWANNA
—–
‘Mother’ Jones Heeds Warning and
Refrains From Fiery Words.
—–

COUNSELS STRIKERS TO BE CALM
—–
Companies Say More Men Are
Reporting For Work.
—–

“Mother” Jones’ visit to Lackawanna yesterday afternoon was the occasions for a display of the police and state constabulary which watched all her movements and never let her get out of their sight.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1919, Part I: Found with Steel Strikers in New York, West Virginia, & Pennsylvania” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Steel Workers of Buffalo: “The Revolution Is On and Nothing Can Stop It.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones GSS American Liberty, Bff Eve Tx p4, Oct 3, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday October 8, 1919
Buffalo, New York – Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Steel Workers

Mother Jones spoke Thursday evening, October 2nd, at Miller’s Harmonia Hall and said in part:

The revolution is on and nothing can stop is now. Old George III didn’t think the Americans would rise and lick h— out of him, and Gary thinks the same way. They call me an agitator well, the United States was founded on agitation by radicals, and we will make no apologies for that name if that is what they want to call us until we clean the whole lot of them out. American liberty was bought not by the money of men like Gary, but by the blood of men like you, who have left you that glorious emblem, the Stars and Stripes, of which the first stripe is red the color of the blood they shed.

The labor union represents the only Christianity of the present time. The labor union has done more of humanity than all the churches, universities, Y. M. C. A. and other institutions of capitalism. When the miners’ union took the children out of the mines and put them into the school the cry of anarchy went up. The master class has a new word now-Bolshevism-for those who do not agree with the capitalists. If Bolshevism makes the world any better for the workers, I am for the Bolsheviki. I want the spies who have followed me all day today to know this.

—–

GSS Mother Jones, WZF, NY Dly Ns p2, Oct 1, 1919

[Photograph added is from New York Daily News of October 1, 1919.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Buffalo Labor Journal: “Steel Strikers Holding Firmly” & Message from William Z. Foster

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Strikes are not peace Clv UMWC p537, Sept 16, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 7, 1919
Buffalo, New York – Steel Strikers Standing Firm as Gibraltar

From Buffalo Labor Journal of October 2, 1919:

STEEL STRIKERS HOLDING FIRMLY
—–
Propaganda in Sunday Papers Fails in Desired Effect
-Gunmen Modest in Their Retirement
-Big Mill and the Assessors

GSS William Z Foster, Binghamton Prs n Ldr, p11, Oct 1, 1919

A flood of printer’s ink and a mountain of good white paper was utterly wasted in the campaign of propaganda which the barons of the Steel Trust and their affiliations poured forth in last Sunday’s papers of this good, old America of ours.

According to the writings of the lads employed by Kaiser Gary and his entourage, the gates of the big mills would be choked on Monday morning with the men, eager to bend their backs to the crack of the driver’s whip

Their fond anticipations failed to realize and there was no response to the weasel voice of the hired scribblers. The men are standing as firm as the rock of Old Gibraltar.

None went back-divel the wan.

In all this pyrotechnical display of the propagandists we fail to catch the sonorous voice of our old friend, False Alarm Donner. In the first week of the strike Donner could be heard with his discordant bray over the thunderous voices of both master and men. That lad made a high mark for himself as the Grand Claimant of All. He spouted interviews like a Texan oil gusher.

They have put the soft pedal on Donner and the atmosphere no longer vibrates with his amazing prognostications.

So much for friend Donner; now for the big mill with its company houses, its Moses Taylor hospital, its Smokes Creek and its favored assessments. All are interwoven closely with its desire for welfare work and its Oh! Be Joyful efforts at uplifting.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1909, Part II: Found in Western New York

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Injunction Shroud, Bff Exp p7, Apr 24, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 10, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1909, Part II:
-Found in Speaking and Touring in Western New York

After being disappointed by her missed visit last February, the working men and women of Olean, New York, were pleased to welcome Mother Jones into their midst for a speech given Tuesday evening, April 20th.

From the Olean Evening Times of April 19, 1909:

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

Reception Tonight-This evening Mother Jones will arrive in Olean, and will be given a reception in the Trades and Labor Council hall at 8 o’clock, at which time those who desire will be given an opportunity to meet her. Tomorrow evening she will deliver an address in the opera house on “Peonage in Mexico, and what it means to the American workingman.” The meeting will be called to order by Elmer E. Evans and August Klenke will act as chairman. An invitation has been extended to the officers of all the local labor organizations to take seats on the platform. Music for the occasion will be furnished by the Red Mens’ band. It is anticipated that the opera house will be filled, and those desiring seats are advised to be early.

[…..]

Peon Labor and Its Effects on American Workmen, will be the subject of Mother Jones’ lecture at the opera house Tuesday night.

When miners were evicted because they dared to strike for more wages it was Mother Jones, who will speak at the opera house Tuesday night, took the wives and children to the woods and sheltered them in tents and secured food for them until the strike was won.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for Chicago Propaganda League on Working Class Women and Suffrage

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Pious women, Servant girls, Bff Cr NY p6, Mar 1, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 10, 1909
Chicago, Illinois – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks for Propaganda League

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of February 27, 1909:

PROPAGANDEA LEAGUE LECTURES.

EGF, Socialist Woman Cv, Dec 1908

Sunday evening, February 21, Elizabeth G. Flynn gave a very instructive lecture under the auspices of the Chicago Propaganda League, at 55 North Clark street, on the subject, “Why Women of the Working Class Need Not Be Interested in Woman Suffrage.”

The speaker argued not so much against woman suffrage in itself, as against the emphasis now being placed by Socialists upon a question of secondary importance. She pointed out that woman’s activity in the labor movement promised more fruitful results along the line of building up the economic organization, by which alone conditions in industry could be improved and rendered more nearly equal for both men and women, and the danger of “sex war” averted, which was one of the grave possibilities of the agitation merely for “equal political rights.”

The meeting was well attended, and interest manifest throughout the lecture and the discussion which followed.

Next Sunday, February 28, at the same hour (8 o’clock) and place (55 North Clark street). Theodore Hertz will speak on “Tendencies in the European Trades Unions towards Industrial Unionism.” The change in dates for these two lectures was made on account of the fact that Miss Flynn will speak in Buffalo on the 28th.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Joseph Wanhope, Socialist Candidate for Governor of New York, Boards the Red Special at Buffalo

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD re Political Scabbing, AtR p2, Oct 3, 1908
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 23, 1908
Joseph Wanhope Comes Aboard the Red Special at Buffalo

From the Montana News of October 15, 1908:

ENTHUSIASM UNRIVALED
——

TREMENDOUS ARDOR REMINDS OLD RESIDENTS
OF LINCOLN’S CAMPAIGN.
—–

RED FLAGS FLYING
—–
People Greet Debs as Social Deliverer
-Huge Masses Pack Streets
-Capitalist Papers Break Silence Acknowledging
the Popularity of Socialism.
—–

[Continued.]

Wanhope on “Special.”

SPA Joseph Wanhope for NY Governor, Wilshire's 446, Sept 1908

Joe Wanhope and W. H. Leffingwell of Wilshire’s Magazine came aboard at Buffalo, and the expert work of Wanhope livened up the speech making during the day. Leffingwell made the collection appeal and literature talks. Wanhope came on his own trip, as the state committee of New York made no arrangements whatever to have him aboard, as requested by the national organization.

Thomas J. Mooney, a union iron molder who joined the special at San Jose, has been selling literature ever since and has made a record. At every evening meeting he is in the hall early and makes a “literature talk” that increases interest in the books offered and increases sales. He hopes to attend the University of Chicago this winter to add to his equipment as a labor agitator on the soap box and by writing.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Montana News: “Red Flags Flying” Debs Met in Buffalo with “Enthusiasm Unrivaled”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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The Red Special..is an inspiration,
and the trait it leaves
will blaze with Socialism that
can never be extinguished.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 22, 1908
Eastern Tour of Red Special Met with “Tremendous Ardor”

From the Montana News of October 15, 1908:

ENTHUSIASM UNRIVALED
——

TREMENDOUS ARDOR REMINDS OLD RESIDENTS
OF LINCOLN’S CAMPAIGN.
—–

RED FLAGS FLYING
—–
People Greet Debs as Social Deliverer
-Huge Masses Pack Streets
-Capitalist Papers Break Silence Acknowledging
the Popularity of Socialism.
—–

EVD w J Wanhop n G Wilshire, Wilshires Mag p7, Oct 1908

The “Red Special” of the socialists arrived in Buffalo October 1 after a campaign in the west, which Eugene V. Debs, candidate for president, says marks an epoch in the history of socialism.

“The biggest passenger engine in the world that draws the three cars composing the “Red Special,” tooted at the state crossing as it left Pennsylvania and entered New York on a tour which before it ends on October 21, will have embraced the eastern and southern states and covered since August 31 more than 20,000 miles.

More than 3,000 people greeted Debs when he appeared in Convention hall. It was an orderly, thoughtful assemblage, and cheers lasting three minutes were finally hushed by the uplifted hand of the socialist standard bearer.

He began the eastern campaign apparently well nurtured by the 18-cent meals served on the “red special.” His dinner consisted of tomato soup, roast lamb, baked potatoes, raisin biscuit, cheese for desert and black coffee. Debs was happy when he returned to the special and smoked a big cigar, the only smoke he permits himself in 24 hours.

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Tour on Hold; Great Speaking Skill of Young IWW Orator Described

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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It’s great to fight for freedom
with a Rebel Girl.
-Joe Hill

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday April 25, 1908
Western Speaking Tour of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Postponed

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of April 18, 1908:

Flynn Lecture Tour Temporarily Postponed

EGF, DEN (ca) p 21, crpd, Sept 21, 1907

Fellow Worker Elizabeth Gurley Flynn will be unable to undertake the Western trip, for which arrangements had been in part completed, owing to the advice of physicians that to do so would endanger her health. She was compelled to abandon her program at Detroit, and will rest for several months in Minnesota, where she hopes to regain her strength and be prepared for active work in the fall of the year.

Readers of THE BULLETIN will, with us, regret this enforced abstinence from the lecture platform of our talented friend and sincerely hope for an early and complete restoration to health.

The Detroit News of April 9 gives the following appreciative notice of Comrade Flynn’s meeting in that city:

A union not to break the law, but a union to enforce the law when it is being broken by the capitalist class. A union that will enforce the will of the working class as expressed at the ballot box. A union that seeks not to enslave labor, but to emancipate it. A union that is organized on the principle that labor produces all wealth and is entitled to all it produces. A union that says there is no identity of interests between the owners of the tools of production and the workers who are bought by the week to run them for the benefit of the few and the the impoverishment of the many.

This is in part the outline given by Mrs. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Jones, of what the Industrial Workers of the World are organized for and what they expect to accomplish before an audience that filled Arbeiter hall to the doors Wednesday night.

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