Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1908, Found in Kansas and in Chicago

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Quote Mother Jones re Vote SPA, Coffeyvl KS Dly Jr p6, Nov 2, 1908

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Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 14, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1908
Found in Kansas: “Pioneer Socialist woman in the revolutionary movement…”

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

During the early days of November, we found Mother Jones* assisting the Kansas Comrades to wind up the 1908 election campaign on behalf of the Socialist Party. The Coffeyville Daily Journal described her speech in Coffeyville:

One of the most powerful Socialist lectures ever delivered in Coffeyville was given in the Coliseum Saturday night. “Mother Jones,” the pioneer Socialist woman in the revolutionary movement, was the orator. A large number of people were out to hear the speech on economics, despite the counter attractions.

“Mother” Jones has been trying to improve the industrial conditions of the working class for nearly four decades. She has particularly devoted her energies along the line of unionism. For nearly a score of years before the Socialists put out a ticket in this country she was going from coast to coast talking unionism to the wage workers. This she is still doing but her scope of work is now much larger than before she embraced international scientific Socialism. She is not only assisting in liberating those who work for wages but she is equally intent on emancipating the entire human race.

The Appeal to Reason credited her contribution:

Mother Jones lined up a great crowd of miners at Weir and Chicopee.

In Parsons:

“Mother” Jones, noted Socialist, spoke to a good sized audience at Edward’s opera house on Sunday afternoon [November 1st].

By November 20th, we found Mother back in Chicago where Clarence S. Darrow and Peter Sissman were part of the legal team engaged in a desperate fight to prevent the Russian Government from extraditing Christian Rudowitz, Russian revolutionist. Describing the court scene, the New York Sun stated:

Mother Jones and several other Socialists were also there.

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Hellraisers Journal: J. H. Walsh: Spokane to Made Headquarters for the Migratory Lumber Workers of the Great Northwest

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At the rate the organization is now growing
we shall soon have doubled our membership in this city
and the territory tributary to Spokane.
-J. H. Walsh
IWW National Organizer
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 6, 1908
Spokane, Washington – J. H. Walsh Has Returned from Chicago

From The Western News of December 2, 1908:

LABOR NEWS.
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IWW Emblem, IUB p1, Oct 24, 1908

SPOKANE, Nov. 24.-Spokane is to be made the headquarters for over 5,000 members of the Industrial Workers of the World employed in the lumber industry in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Northern California.

During the last year the number of sawmill workers and men employed in logging camps who have become members of the Industrial Workers, has attained large proportions, 3,000 members being located in Montana alone.

The Industrial Workers have now decided to form a department for men engaged in the lumber industry in these five states and in British Columbia, placing all local organizations in various towns and cities under the jurisdiction of the head officers of the department, who, it is stated, will have their offices in this city.

Organizer J. H. Walsh, of the Industrial Workers of the World, has returned from Chicago where he has been in conference with prominent members of his organization.

[Declares Mr. Walsh:]

Since the fourth annual convention of the I. W. W. at Chicago during the latter part of September, the organization has become thoroughly united and unaffected by factional differences.

The Western Federation of Miners is now practically co-operating with us. We have gained remarkable strength in the Coeur d’Alene country and in Montana we have control of the lumber situation and our organizers are meeting with phenomenal success in the formation of strong new unions. We are well organized in the Flathead country and after a few small tussels with employers have gained control of considerable work.

At the rate the organization is now growing we shall soon have doubled our membership in this city and the territory tributary to Spokane.

Mr. Walsh anticipates that he will shortly be ordered to Montana to assist in the organization work now in progress in that state.

—–

[Emblem of I. W. W. added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Socialist Woman on Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: Spirit of poet & revolutionist beautifully combined.

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EGF Quote, I fell in love with my country, RG 96

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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 5, 1908
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the Maud Gonne of the American Movement

From the Socialist Woman of December 1908:

The Cover:

Socialist Woman, EGF on Cover, Dec 1908

From the Editor, Mrs. Josephine Conger Kaneko:

Elizabeth G. Flynn.
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EGF, Socialist Woman Cv, Dec 1908

The first time I saw Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was at a Socialist meeting in New York City in 1906. She was the speaker of the evening. A sixteen year old high school girl, she was indeed an interesting personality. The last time I saw her was in Chicago, where she came as a delegate to the convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. Meanwhile, she had become “famous” in New York City, all the big dailies writing up her activity for Socialism, some of them giving whole pages to it. Although a “mere slip of a girl” she promises much for the future, both from an intellectual standpoint, and as a “soap boxer.” For she has made most of the eastern part of the continent, speaking night after night for weeks at a time. The spirit of the poet and the revolutionist are beautifully combined in her, together with a power of logic, which often is wanting in older heads. She has been called the Maud Gonne of the American movement.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Tour of the Red Special” by Charles Lapworth

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Quote EVD re Red Special, AtR p2, Sept 19, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 4, 1908
The Journey of Red Special as Told by Charles Lapworth

In this month’s edition of the Review, Comrade Lapworth tells the inspirational story of the journey of the Red Special which carried Eugene Debs, the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America, across the nation, ending with a big rally and last campaign speech at Terre Haute.

From the International Socialist Review of December 1908:

The Debs Red Special

EVD Red Special Cover Photo at Danville, ISR p1033, Dec 1908

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Hellraisers Journal: The Socialist Woman: School Children Starving in Chicago & Caroline Lowe Speaks to Teachers

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 10, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – 5,000 Children Go to School Hungry

From The Socialist Woman of November 1908:

American School Children Starving

Hunger in America, School Children, Chicago Tb p1, Oct 5, 1908
Chicago Tribune of October 5, 1908

When we are talking of the number of men who are tramping the country looking for work—hungry, broken-spirited, abject creatures, who once thought themselves men, as good as any of their kind—let us not forget the women, and the little children of these men.

Last winter in Chicago after the first flurry of the panic, I had occasion to visit a number of the “homes” of those who had been thrown out of work. In every case the men were out, hunting feverishly for the chance to make even a little money by any kind of hard labor. And in every case my heart ached and my soul grew sick when I thought of the future of the women and children of those families.

“It is awful when the children cry for food, and we cant give it to them,” said one woman who had never before known what it was to be down and out. Another mother, about thirty, and strong and handsome, had to sit by and watch her seven-year-old daughter burning with fever, and without the care of a doctor because she had lost her job in a department store, and there was no money even to buy food. She had applied for work at all the large stores again and again. She had tried everywhere—and was told that they might need her during the holidays. But the holidays were weeks away. Already she had moved into a questionable quarter because rent was cheap. And unless that mother got work within two weeks, there was but one resource left her, if she would save herself and her child from death through starvation. And that was the sale of her body.

It was for a charitable institution I was working—and I knew that those institutions were crowded to their utmost with destitute cases.

Such, indeed, was the condition of the poor in Chicago last winter, that the superintendent of compulsory education, W. Lester Bodine, took up the case of hungry school children, followed his investigations for six months, and finally ascertained that there are 5,000 starving children, and 10,000 that are underfed, in the schools of the city.

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Hellraisers Journal: Gene Debs Welcomed Home; Tour of Red Special Ends in Big Demonstration at Terre Haute

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Quote EVD re Political Scabbing, AtR p2, Oct 3, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 8, 1908
Tour of Red Special Ends in Home Town of Eugene Debs

From The Indianapolis News of November 3, 1908:

TERRE HAUTE WELCOMES
“GENE” DEBS BACK HOME
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BIG DEMONSTRATION FOR THE SOCIALIST CANDIDATE.
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REGARDS TO BRYAN AND TAFT
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(Special to The Indianpolis News.)

EVD Red Special detail, Zanesville OH Tx Rcdr p1, Oct 20, 1908

TERRE HAUTE, Ind., November 3.-“Gene” Debs came home last evening in his “Red Special,” and had a welcome surpassing in enthusiasm any political demonstration seen in Terre Haute in many years. His train was three hours late, owing to a breakdown at Cayuga, but the crowd waited for him, cheering for “Gene.” when he appeared on the stage at the Colosseum 3,000 persons, who had each paid 10 cents admission, packed the place, and as great a crowd outside listened to other speakers. At the Armory another big audience waited for him until after 10 o’clock. Besides paying the admission at the Colosseum there was a liberal contribution when collectors, some of whom were women, wearing red sashes, went down the aisles.

Debs began with a feeling acknowledgment of the personal note in his welcome, referring to the fact that he was born in and always had lived in Terre Haute, where, if any one had ever said an unkind word about him, he never heard of it.

Refers to Rockefeller.

[He said:]

All great movements in their incipiency are unpopular and are led by “undesirable citizens.”

[T]he reference to the designation of him by President Roosevelt causing laughter and applause. He said the two old parties stand for the same system, which has reached the climax of its existence. He declared that Rockefeller “was not born yesterday”; that he knew better than any one else how unpopular he is and the effect of his interview for Taft. The interview, he said, was the shrewdest move in the campaign. He knew that he had exhausted the usefulness of the Republican party to him, and desires Bryan.

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Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Worker J. H. Walsh Completes Tale of the Overall Brigade’s Journey to IWW Convention

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Quote JH Walsh Overall Brigade, IUB p1, Oct 24, 1908~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 2, 1908
The Overall Brigade “Abroad the Nation” from Missoula to Chicago

IWW Gen Adm Emblem, IUB, Mar 14, 1908

In the Industrial Union Bulletin of September 19th, J. H. Walsh described the journey of the Overall Brigade, riding the rails from Portland, Oregon, to the I. W. W. Convention in Chicago. He ended his account with the Brigade encamped near Missoula, Montana. The Brigade was bent on making it to Chicago by September 21st, the first day of the Convention. The story of the journey to Chicago is found completed in the latest edition of the Bulletin.

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of October 24, 1908:

ABROAD THE NATION

By J. H. WALSH.

The “Overall Brigade,” en route from Portland, Ore., to Chicago to the Fourth Annual Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World at this point, has finished another successful propaganda meeting at Missoula, Mont. This makes three successful meetings in this city. Literature sales have been the best here of any place so far on our route, while the song sales have doubled, running as high as $10 or $12 per meeting. The collections have been in the same proportion. In fact, it is the first place where the audience has thrown dollars into the crowd at the feet of the singers, as well as many smaller pieces of change that came jingling along at the same time. One collection in the hat was $14.25. This all tells one story in brief-and that is the growing sentiment toward Industrial Unionism.

It is plain to see that the lumbermen’s union, which was generally understood to be a part of the W. F. of M., will soon be a part of the I. W. W. But with all the favorable conditions and enthusiasm, and a thousand invitations for the “bunch” to return, we are off again for the railroad yards to continue our journey to the city of Butte-the noted mining camp.

Our special car is found. It goes in our direction as far as Garrison Junction. It is not a long ride, and we are now spinning along at passenger speed. The long blast of the whistle which sounds and resounds through the mountain tops and valleys on this cold morning, announces that we are approaching the junction. We are there, unloaded and off for the jungles. The cook and a delegate are on their way to the store for supplies, while the rest and the “bunch” is shivering around the camp fire.

Soon the fire is burning bright, the breakfast is cooking and the sun is making its appearance above the horizon, which adds some comfort to our condition on these cold mornings in the Rocky Mountain country. The delicious breakfast is ready and the “bunch” is congregated to partake of the passover.

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Hellraisers Journal: Industrial Workers of the World Publishes New Preamble, One of “Most Important” Acts of Convention

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Between these two classes a struggle must go on
until the workers of the world organize as a class,
and take possession of the earth
and the machinery of production
and abolish the wage system.
-Industrial Workers of the World

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Hellraisers Journal – Monday October 12, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – Recent I. W. W. Convention Revises Preamble

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of October 10, 1908:

CONVENTION NOTES.

The fourth annual convention of I. W. W. finished its work Thursday evening, Oct. 1, 1908…..

The change in the preamble of the constitution was one of the most important of all the acts of the convention…..

IWW New Preamble, IUB, Oct 10, 1908

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, “The East Side Joan of Arc,” Found in Chicago in “Long, Romantic Cape”

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Quote EGF re Useless Capitalist Class, Ptt Prs p47, Sept 27, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 8, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – Photograph of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Jones

Mrs. J. A. Jones, better know as Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, New York’s “East Side Joan of Arc,” was recently photographed wearing a “long, romantic cape” and standing next to her husband whom she married in Two Harbors, Minnesota, ten months ago.

From The Spokane Press of October 7, 1908:

EGFand JA Jones Beat Freights to Chg IWWC, Spk Prs p2, Oct 7, 1908

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Western Overall Brigade Present at Chicago Convention of IWW

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Quote Dolly Walsh re IWW Overall Brigrade, Itr Ocn p3, Sept 30, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 1, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – I. W. W. Convention “Running Full Blast”

From the Chicago Inter Ocean of September 30, 1908:

IWWC, EGF n Dolly Reed Walsh, Chicago Itr Ocn p3, Sept 30, 1908

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IWWC, Overall Brigade, Chicago Itr Ocn p3, Sept 30, 1908

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