Tag: Charles Baker

Hellraisers Journal: From Ohio Socialist: O’Hare Headed to Prison; Ruthenberg Wagenknecht, & Baker Released

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Kate Richards OHare, Dangerous to war profiteers, ab Dec 1917
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 7, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Ohio Socialist Released, O’Hare Schedule to Speak

The town of Canton was the scene of joyous celebration on December 2nd when Comrades Ruthenberg, Wagenknecht, and Baker were released from the Stark County Workhouse. On hand to greet them was none other than Eugene V. Debs, along with several prominent Ohio Socialists.

Canton will be visited on December 9th by Kate Richards O’Hare who is expected to begin serving her prison term shortly thereafter.

From The Ohio Socialist of December 4, 1918:

Kate Richards O'Hare, OH Sc p1, Dec 4, 1918

FREE THE
POLITICAL PRISONERS

Within the walls of American prisons are held many of the noblest men and women of this land. Many others, men and women with the highest attributes, which characterize true and noble manhood and womanhood, are under indictment and facing charges as political offenders. Men and women with the highest ideals which human beings are endowed are today rotting in American prisons.

For expressing an OPINION at variance with that which the law stated may be expressed these men and women are paying a penalty out of all proportion to their offenses. The espionage law has produced a crop of jail sentences in America absolutely undreamed of even in Germany under the rule of the junkers and their kaiser. Compare the four-year sentence of Liebknecht for “high treason” to that of ten years for Debs, for Kate O’Hare and Rose Pastor Stokes.

If we have been able to surmise correctly the reason (or excuse) for the passage of the espionage law, if punishment was not the purpose of the law then the further confinement of our political prisoners is an atrocity.

If to silence opposition to the war was the purpose of this law, there is now no longer any necessity for their confinement. The war is over. Liberties under which we formerly thrived should be returned to us.

Those in power today have nothing to gain by longer jailing political offenders. On the contrary they stand to lose considerable. This is no time to preach the gospel of hate nor to practice it. It is a false gospel at all times. Now that peace has come its teachings and practices are criminal.

The movement to free our political prisoners is gaining momentum. The great mass of the people, as well as liberal minds among the bourgeoisie, favor it. Those who oppose an early liberation of political offenders are of a class and character with those whom the workers of Europe have lately shorn of power. Let every worker’s voice rise in protest against the longer confinement of political prisoners.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Socialist Milwaukee Leader: Debs Speaks to Jury, Refuses to Retract Canton Speech

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 13, 1918
Cleveland, Ohio – Eugene Debs Addresses the Jury

From The Milwaukee Leader of September 12, 1918:

Jury in Eugene Debs’ Trial
on Free Speech Gets Its Instructions:

Former Candidate for President Makes Address in Own Defense,
Refusing to Retract Anything Uttered in his Canton Talk—
Case Will Be Appealed if Jury Returns Verdict of Guilty.

by J. Louis Engdahl

EVD, Debs Orator Canton June 16, 1918, IN U
Comrade Debs at Canton, June 16, 1918

(CLEVELAND) — Federal Judge D.C. Westenhaver Thursday instructed the jury in the case of Eugene V. Debs, national Socialist leader, charged with making disloyal utterances.
The jury is expected to retire by noon or before.

Westenhaver defined the four counts on which Debs is being tried. They are:

-Caused and attempted to incite insubordination, disloyalty, and mutiny and refusal of duty in the military and naval forces of the United States.

-Obstructed the recruiting and enlistment service.

-Provoked, incited, and encouraged resistance to the government.

-Opposed the cause of the United States at war with Germany.

There is a penalty of 20 years’ imprisonment and a $10,000 fine on each count.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs: ”To serve the working class has always been to me a high privilege.”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 19, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Echoes from Nimisilla Park

EVD, Debs Orator Canton June 16, 1918, IN U

On Sunday June 16th, Eugene Debs arrived at the Nimisilla Park, in Canton, for a grand picnic given by the Socialist Party of Ohio on the final day of the state convention. He came directly to the park following a brief visit with the Ohio Comrades, C. E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker who are now residing behind the bars of the Stark County Work House, across the street from the park.

Comrade Debs walked through the crowd smiling and came to the front of the platform. He gave a speech which is certain to be remembered for years to come.

Debs spoke for about two hours, and said, in part:
-(Emphasis added.)

Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.

To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women and children who toil; to serve the working class, has always been to me a high privilege; a duty of love.

I have just returned from a visit over yonder, where three of our most loyal comrades are paying the penalty for their devotion to the cause of the working class. They have come to realize, as many of us have, that it is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.

I realize that, in speaking to you this afternoon, there are certain limitations placed upon the right of free speech. I must be exceedingly careful, prudent, as to what I say, and even more careful and prudent as to how I say it. I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything that I do not think. I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets. They may put those boys in jail—and some of the rest of us in jail—but they can not put the Socialist movement in jail. Those prison bars separate their bodies from ours, but their souls are here this afternoon. They are simply paying the penalty that all men have paid in all the ages of history for standing erect, and for seeking to pave the way to better conditions for mankind.

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Hellraisers Journal: “If I find Debs used the words reported to me, I will take immediate action to have him prosecuted,”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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You need to know that you are fit for something
better than slavery and cannon fodder.
-Eugene Victor Debs
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 18, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Federal Agents Were on Hand at Nimisilla Park

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer of June 17, 1918:

DEBS URGES AID FOR BOLSHEVIKI FROM AMERICA
—–
Suggests Army of 1,000,000 Socialists to Help
Russia Resist Prussian Aggression.
—–

FIGHT CAPITALISTIC WAR
—–
U. S. Agents Hear Speeches
at Canton Convention;
May Act.
—–

BY C. R. MILLER.
Staff Correspondent Plain Dealer.

EVD, Debs Canton Nimisilla Park, June 16, 1918

CANTON, June 16.-Hundreds of Socialists, including scores of delegates to the Ohio Socialist party convention which has been in progress here since Friday [June 14th], went on record today as being unequivocally opposed to “a war of capitalism.”

The Socialists of Ohio were urged to stand by the party’s program by Eugene V. Debs, three times Socialist candidate for president, who addressed the closing session of the convention which took the form of a picnic at one of Canton’s public parks.

J. J. Fried, Cleveland Socialist, said Debs had approved a plan for American Socialists’ co-operation with the Bolsheviki by sending an army of 1,000,000 men to their assistance.

Mr. Debs, after paying tribute to Socialist leaders, particularly to those of Cleveland who had “the moral course” to go to jail for the sake of their principles, praised I. W. W. members, referred to the Bolsheviki as “our comrades who have made Russia a land of living light,” and charged the purposes of the allies in the war is the same as that of the central powers-a desire for plunder.

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Hellraisers Journal: Statement of Ohio Socialist, Ruthenberg and Wagenknecht, Before Leaving for the Canton Prison

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I am not conscious of having committed any crime.
The thing that I am conscious of is having endeavored
to inspire higher ideals and nobler lives.
If to do that is a crime in the eyes of the government,
I am proud to have committed that crime.
-C. E. Ruthenberg

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday February 16, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Prison Doors Close Behind Ohio Socialists

The New York Evening Call of January 17th reported that the United States Supreme Court had affirmed the prison sentences of C. E. Ruthenberg, Secretary of Local Cleveland, Alfred Wagenknecht, State Secretary and Charles Baker, State Organizer, all of the Socialist Party of America. All three stand sentenced to serve a year in Canton prison by Federal Judge Westenhaver. The statements of Ruthenberg and Wagenknecht, made before they were taken to Canton, were published this month in the International Socialist Review:

NEWS AND VIEWS

From Ohio-As the prison doors at Canton, Ohio, open to receive our comrades, Ruthenberg and Wagenknecht, for one year, they send greetings and these words to the REVIEW and its readers:

WWIR, SPA, Ruthenberg, ISR Feb 1918

THE Supreme Court has decided we must spend a year in jail.

The “crime” of which we are convicted is truth-telling.

We believe in certain principles. We fought for those principles. We go to jail.

Ostensibly we are convicted of inducing a certain Alphonse Schue not to register. The charge is merely the excuse. Neither of us knew Schue. Neither of us heard of him until his name appeared in the indictment against us.

The ruling class is always able to find a Judas. Schue was induced to say he heard our speeches and had been influenced thereby not to register, by the promise of his freedom.

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