Tag: Capitalism

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May 1910, Part II: Found Fighting for Milwaukee Brewery Girls and Mexican Revolutionaries

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Brutal Ruling Class, Cnc Pst p7, May 31, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 12, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May 1910, Part II:
-Found Continuing Fight for Milwaukee Brewery Girls and Mexican Comrades

From Missouri’s Scott County Kicker of May 14, 1910:

OF INTEREST TO WOMEN.

Mother Jones, ed Cameron Co PA Prs p1, Apr 7, 1910

Perhaps the noblest woman in America today is “Mother Jones.” From a school teacher she consecrated her life to the cause of oppressed humanity, and where-ever the fight is thickest, there is Mother Jones-some 70 years old. Jails have no terror for her. She champions the freedom of all the race-men and women alike. In a recent speech at Milwaukee she said to the women:

Put away your parlor airs and get out into the street and fight, fight, fight! It may not be ladylike, but it is womanly. God made woman; rotten society made the lady.

[Photograph added.]

From the Appeal to Reason of May 14, 1910:

Mexican Refugees Left to Their Fate

Mother Jones and others made strenuous efforts to secure an investigation of the cases of Magon, Villareal and other Mexicans imprisoned in American bastiles at the instance of the tyrant of Mexico and the interest of American investment in that land. Resolutions were introduced into congress asking for such investigation. Now the resolutions have been recommended unfavorably by the judiciary committee before which they went, and that with a pointed insult to American labor and patriotism.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May 1910, Part I: Found Speaking for Workers in Sioux City, Iowa, and Fort Wayne, Indiana

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Capitalism Owns, Black Hills Dly Rg p1, May 4, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 11, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for May 1910, Part I:
-Found Speaking in Sioux City, Iowa, and Fort Wayne, Indiana

From The Sioux City Journal of May 2, 1910:

FIGHTING WORKERS NEEDED.
—–
Mother Jones Says Capitalism Drives
Laboring Men to Drink.

Mother Jones, Cprd, Dly Missoulian p28, May15, 1910

We don’t get the philosophy we want from the preachers, that is why we don’t go to church.

-declared Mother Jones, known country wide as a battler for the cause of the working man, during her address before a large socialistic audience at Bennett’s hall last night.

[She continued:]

Ministers never work. We need fighting workers now.

Mother Jones is well advanced in years and small in stature. In her opinion the capitalistic class owns the officials, the policemen and the ministers. She has her own theory regarding prohibition. She figures the antisaloon leagues are going at the question from the wrong side. In her opinion the factories in which the working men toil away their lives and the hardships imposed upon them by the capitalistic class drive them to drink, and it is through a radical change from this source that temperance will come.

The speaker said the womanhood of the nation is sinking slowly but gradually because girls and women are forced from home to sweatshops, where also may be found little children. When the history of this age is written, in her opinion, it will go down on the books as the most corrupt of all times. If the women would assert themselves she believes the trouble of the working man would be cleared up over night.

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May 1910, Part I: Found Speaking for Workers in Sioux City, Iowa, and Fort Wayne, Indiana” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs: “Pious Pickets of Capitalism Prostitute Religion in the Service of Mammon.”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Religion n Socialism, AtR p2, Apr 23, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 25, 1910
Eugene Victor Debs on the Pious Pickets of Capitalism

From the Appeal to Reason of April 23, 1910:

EVD on Prostitution of Religion, AtR p2, Apr 23, 1910—–

EVD, crpd, Ipl Ns p16, Jan 21, 1910It may be set down as a rule that the gentry who constitute the self-appointed protectorate over the domain of religion and who charge socialists with being infidels and socialism with attacking religion are themselves hypocrites who are profiting by the ignorance and superstitions of the people and who use the cloak of religion to conceal their evil practices. Their pretended solicitude for socialism is a sham. What they really fear is not that religion will be destroyed, but that hypocrisy and false pretense will be discovered.

Those pious misfits who do not know what real religion is are one in raising the cry against socialism in the name of religion. Most of them have never read a chapter of socialist economics and are utterly ignorant of what socialism really means, or else, knowing what it means, deliberately misrepresent it to receive the “well done” and the stipend from their masters.

It is so much safer for the average clergyman to speak against socialism than for it, so far as his charge is concerned, his income and his position in society. Some of them are by reflex so imbued with the hostility for socialism of the capitalists who pay their salaries that they deem it their special duty to denounce socialism as an attack upon the church and a conspiracy against religion. Of course they speak in the name of religion, the religion of Jesus Christ, the homeless wanderer who sympathized and associated with the poor and lowly, and whose ministrations were among the despised sinners and outcasts.

These pious pickets of capitalism prostitute religion in the service of Mammon. Of all men on earth they are the least fit to speak in the name of religion. They have no religion or they would not serve in such a degenerate role.

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Speaks on Life and Liberty at Butte Miners’ Day Celebration

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Life and Liberty, Btt Inter Mt p1, June 14, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 18, 1909
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn at Butte Miners’ Day Celebration

From The Butte Inter Mountain of June 14, 1909:

EGF, Miners Un BD, Btt Inter Mt p1, June 14, 1909
EGF Speaks, Miners Un BD, Btt Inter Mt p1, June 14, 1909

The Butte Miners’ union has never had a more auspicious birthday than was today, its thirty-first. Thirty thousand people thronged the streets along the line of march and cheered the 2,000 miners and the 1,500 other union members who turned out in tribute to the parent union body of them all, so far as this city is concerned.

Flag day, too, secured its recognition, both from those who joined in the parade and those who watched it. The American flag was borne at the head of every union body. Nearly every individual member wore a tiny flag fast to the lapel of his coat, and it was to be noticed that the official badges of many of the organizations have in them the national colors, and particularly is this true of the Miners,’ union badge.

The parade was one of the longest that has ever taken place here, requiring an hour and five minutes to pass a given point. It started from the corner of Main and Copper streets at 10 o’clock, 30 minutes later than had been intended, but that is a remarkably small delay and speaks well for the able manner in which the bodies which swung into line were handled.

The line was led by a squad of 20 policemen, commanded by Sergeant Brinton. Following them cam President Flynn of the Miners’ union, grand marshal of the day, and his two aides, Robert Crane and John Harrington, all mounted. Immediately behind them marched the Boston & Montana band, once again under the leadership of Sam Treloar.

Next in line were 40 men, members of the Laundry Workers’ union, and behind them 26 carriages, all filled with women members of the Laundry Workers and members of the Woman’s Protective union.

The Clerks’ union turned out 500 strong and brought up the rear of the first division of the parade, which was in charge of John Connelly and Angus McLeod.

The second division in charge of Michael O’Brien and Eli Koskeli, was head by Butte City band, which was followed by the Mill & Smeltermen’s union , of whom there were 80 in line. Engineers’ union No. 83 came next, and nearly as strong in numbers. The Workingmen’s union, the Bartenders’ union and the Bricklayers’ union were also in this division, and the county and city officials in five carriages brought up the rear.

Then came the third division of the parade, the Miners’ union exclusively, headed by the Montana State band, and in charge of Joseph Shannon, Joseph Little, James R. Robinson and Tim Driscoll.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the orator of the day, occupied a carriage immediately following the band.

The miners marched four abreast and each one of his left breast wore the official badge of the union. There were just 1,000 men in the first section of the division. The second section was headed by a fife and drum corps, and first in line behind that came a four-horse carryall for old and disabled miners, who are always given a place of honor in the parade.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Ricardo Flores Magón, from Prison: “Mexico-the Workers’ Hell”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ricardo Flores Magon, Nothing But Death, AtR p2, May 29, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 31, 1909
From Tombstone, Arizona – Ricardo Flores Magón on Plight of Mexican Workers

From the Appeal to Reason of May 29, 1909:

Mex Rev, Mexico by Magon, AtR p2, May 29, 1909—–

Mex Rev, Sentenced to 18 Months, AtR p2, May 29, 1909—–

Written for the Appeal to Reason.

Letter I, AtR p2, May 29, 1909F MORE crimes are necessary to perpetuate slavery in the United States and Mexico, capitalism will perpetrate them. But capitalism holds a two edged sword, and even though it wound the working class it will mortally wound itself also. Our case exemplifies this. Before the Mexican revolutionists were the objects of persecution many American patriots beheld with rejoicing the power American capitalism was accumulating in Mexico. It was a matter of national pride for those sincere citizens that American plutocrats were acquiring the best mines, the richest lands and the most powerful industries in Mexico. The capitalist press has stimulated and nourished this sentiment in a masterly way and points with price to the fact that the capitalists of the great country of George Washington are aggrandizing themselves. They even feel great pride that ht creatures of wealth have eaten everything up. But this famous sword in hurting us has also wounded those who used it.

A spontaneous movement of protest is agitating the American people. It grows stronger day by day, extending from ocean to ocean, demanding the emancipation of the slaves of Mexico. Through our persecution the outrages existing in the southern republic have become known. Mexicans are miners in political matters, because they cannot vote. There, any one who dares to exercise his constitutional right of suffrage pays for it with his life.

A Land Without Freedom.

The right of freedom of speech, press and assemblage was buried thirty-three years ago, and each year the tyrant waters its grave with fresh blood. Porfirio Diaz appoints all officials, though the constitution provides for their election by the people, who are maltreated, exploited and assassinated. While surrounded by officials, rangers and soldiers one fears danger more than in a dense forest where wild beasts may be hidden behind any tree ready to spring on him any moment.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Rebel Worker: “Can the Capitalists Run the World?” (without ruin, waste and war?)

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Raising Hell, NYT p1, Oct 6, 1916———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 21, 1919
Can the Capitalists Run the World without Ruin, Waste, and War?

From the New York Rebel Worker of April 15, 1919:

CAN THE CAPITALISTS RUN THE WORLD?

Art Young, Capitalism All right so far, Liberator p19, Apr 1919

The March [April] Liberator wants to know, “Can the workers run the world?” This question tickles our risibilities and causes us to submit to an attack of the merry ha ha! It unconsciously re-echoes the capitalists’ claim that they run the world and that they are the only ones that can run the world. For a radical socialist magazine to re-echo capitalist misstatements is bad Marxian-ism-the sin of sins against the holy of holies. And then the question is preposterous in the light of contemporaneous events. What we behold, if our eye sight is not falling us, is not a world run by capitalists, but a world that is running the capitalists—running them out of existence, p. d. q. (By the way, we suggest that Art Young draw a cartoon for his new satirical weekly, “Good morning,” showing the capitalists “running” the world according to modern history.)

Then look at the way the capitalists run the world when the world is not running them. H. L. Gantt, one of New York’s foremost production engineers, says the present system is only 15 per cent efficient. There’s some running for you-running to waste-85 per cent. Will the Liberator please repeat its question again? We enjoy anything that suggests a collosal joke, such as the capitalists’ assumption that they are the efficient world runners par excellence. Ask Gantt; he knows.

Now, for a change, let us take seriously this question of running the world. Let us state frankly that if the workers ever run the world the way the capitalists are running it, we’ll start a bloodly counter-revolution against them! And we’ll inflict an antiproltetarian mismanagement dictatorship on them; by God, so we will. We want the world to be run, not ruined or wasted.

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Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood Speaks & Heartily Applauded by Oakland Trade Unionists of Central Labor Council

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH Corporation Soul, Oakland Tb p11, Mar 30, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 31, 1909
Oakland, California – Big Bill Haywood Speaks to Trade Unionists

From the Oakland Tribune of March 30, 1909:

“LABOR MUST ENTER POLITICS,”
CRIES HAYWOOD TO GREAT THRONG
—–

‘ROASTS’ RICH AND MINISTERS
—–
Pastors Afraid to tell Truth About
Money-Devil, He Says
—–

DEMANDS FULL RETURN OF TOIL
—–
Speaker Urges Workers Not to Let Others
Idle Away Their Earnings
—–

HMP, BBH Haywood, AtR, Feb 16, 1907

Many of the leaders of labor say that your industrial organization should not mix in politics. That is all wrong. Although I am addressing you tonight under the auspices of three of your most powerful local central labor bodies, I am not afraid to declare to you that the man who advises you to keep politics out of your organization is the worst enemy you ever had, be he ever so powerful a factor in the councils of your association.

And I will go a step further. The man who tells you that the interests of capital and labor are mutual and that they should work hand in hand, is either a fool or a knave.

When William Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners uttered these words with dramatic force from the platform in Rice’s Institute, corner of Seventeenth street and San Pablo avenue, last night, they were like a firebrand applied to a powder house. The audience cheered them to the echo and manifested in every other possible way its-hearty concurrence in the sentiment.

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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: Debs Bids Farewell to Cleveland Comrades at Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Appeals for Solidarity

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, re Red Roses, OH Sc p4, Mar 19, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 21, 1919
Cleveland, Ohio – Eugene Debs Presented with Red Roses at Farewell Address

From The Ohio Socialist of March 19, 1919:

Eugene V. Debs’ Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Cleveland
[Wednesday Evening, March 12, 1919]

EVD, Bstn Glb p3, Sept 13, 1918

Before a capacity audience of 3,000 which filled West Side Turn hall one hour before his scheduled appearance Debs made his farewell speech.

Debs was calm, His opening words were accorded an instantaneous silence. He said:

How true it is that there is a divinity that shapes our ends, roughhew them how we will! It may seem strange to you, but in my plans, in my dreams, I did not think of going to the penitentiary-and I-I had a thousand times rather go there and spend my remaining days there than to betray this great cause.

So far as I am concerned it does not matter much. The margin is narrow, the years between now and the sunset are few, and the only care that I have personally is that I may preserve to the last the integrity of my own soul and my loyalty to the only cause worth living for, fighting for, and dying for.

It is so perfectly fine to me to look into your faces once more, to draw upon you for the only word I have ever had, the only word that I can ever speak for myself. I love mankind, humanity. Can you understand? I am sure you can.

We are close of kith and kin, we are human and when we get into close touch with each other we come to understand that our good depends upon the good of all humanity.

Opposed to System.

I am opposed to the system under which we live. I am opposed to the government that compels you, the great body of the American people, to pay your tribute to an insignificant few who enjoy life while the great body of the people suffer, struggle, and agonize without ever having lived. Can you understand? I am sure you can.

Let me get in touch with you for a while. I am going to speak to you as a Socialist, as a revolutionist, and, if you please, as a Bolshevist.

And what is the thing that the whole world is talking about? What is it that the ruling class power of the world are denouncing, upon which they are pouring a flood of all their malicious lies-what is it? It is the rise of the workers, the peasants, the soldiers, the common man, who for the first time in history said, “I have made what there is, I produced the wealth; I want to be heard.”

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Hellraisers Journal: The Messenger: A. Philip Randolph on “The Truth About Lynching,” The Cause and The Cure

Janet RayeA. Philip Randolph
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Quote A Philip Randolph, White Church Lynch Law Profits, Messenger p9, Mar 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 6, 1919
The Messenger, A. Philip Randolph, “The Truth About Lynching”

From The Messenger of March 1919, the Cover:

The Messenger Magazine, Cover, March 1919

From page 23: Ad for “The Truth About Lynching”

AD "Truth ab Lynching", Messenger p23, March 1919

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