Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 12, 1902 George F. Baer Expounds Upon the Divine Rights of the Capitalist
From the Appeal to Reason of September 6, 1902:
GEO. F. BAER ———-
Kansas Agitator September 5, 1902
Before he became president of the Reading railroad:
Extracts from an address delivered by Geo. F. Baer, before the law department of the university of Pennsylvania, on October 3, 1887:
States Resources Fabulous.
The natural resources of this state, (Pennsylvania ) are simply fabulous. How much of this great wealth falls to the share of our state and her citizens? It has passed into the hands of giganticassociations, kept together by state charters, or some cunning called a trust, whose principal stockholders are not among us nor of us. Daily they carry off our treasures, and leave only enough to pay the labor, which prepares them for and transports them to market. The profit which should enrich our citizens and state, goes beyond our borders and we thus receive little benefit from it. All this has only become possible through the mistaken policy of attempting to foster the development of our resources by departing from the simple principles of honest, free government. It is thru the manipulation of these associations that men ride to ‘sudden fortune,’ and thereby provoke the discussion of social problems and the promulgation of theories, which are at variance with all sound thinking and past experience.”
After he became president of the Reading railroad:
Wilkesbarre, Penn., Aug. 20.-W. F. Clark, a photographer of this city, recently addressed a letter to President Baer, of the Philadelphia & Reading railroad company, appealing to him as a Christian to settle the miners’ strike. The writer said that if Christ was taken more into our business affairs there would be less trouble in the world, and that if Mr. Baer granted the strikers a slight concession they would gladly return to work, and Baer would have the blessing of God and the respect of the nation.
Baer’s Reply Was:
“I see you are evidently biased in your religious views in favor of the right or the working man to control a business in which he has no other interest than to secure fair wages for the work he does. I beg of you not to be discouraged. The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for, not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in his in his infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country. Pray earnestly that the right may triumph, always remember that the Lord God Omnipotent still reigns, and that His reign is one of law and order, and not of violence and crime.”
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 12, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1910, Part I:
-Found Fighting for Working Women of Philadelphia and Milwaukee
From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:
Fighting to Live
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By Tom A. Price.
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[Mother Jones in Philadelphia.]
Mother Jones. This little woman whose heart is as big as the nation and beats wholly for humanity, came to Philadelphia while the trumpet was still reverberating after the call to arms had been sounded. Under her bold leadership the fighters were organized before the manufacturers had fairly realized that their workers had at last been stung to revolt by the same lash which had so often driven them to slavery.
In impassioned speech after impassioned speech Mother Jones urged the girls on to battle. Shaking her gray locks in defiance she pictured the scab in such a light that workers still shudder when they think of what she would have considered them had they remained in the slave pens of the manufacturers. Every man and woman and child who heard her poignantly regrets the fact that her almost ceaseless labors at last drove her to her bed where she now lies ill.
But she had instilled into the minds of her followers the spirit which prompted her to cross a continent to help them. That spirit remains and is holding in place the standard which she raised. It is leading the girls to every device possible to help the cause. Many of them are selling papers on the street that they may earn money to contribute to the union which they love.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 6, 1899
Duluth, Minnesota -“Our Gene” Speaks at the Armory
From the Duluth Labor World of July 1, 1899:
Eugene V, Debs, accompanied by L. W. Rogers, one of the men who was incarcerated in Woodstock prison with Mr. Debs, arrived in Duluth Wednesday morning from West Superior, where he addressed a large audience the evening before [June 27th]. Mr. Debs spoke to a large, assemblage at the Armory in the evening [June 28th]. When the noted orator appeared and commenced his address unannounced, it being his wish that everything should be done in the most simple manner, there was literally a storm off applause.
Mr. Debs has, a striking personality. His smooth-shaven face is full of force of character. His firm jaw speaks of his will and energy which makes him a leader among men. His eyes are sharp and piercing, yet their expression is gentle and kindly in the extreme. He is a forceful speaker. His talk is an elevating one and if any man ever preached the true Christianity and the brotherhood of man, those eternal doctrines were discussed by Eugene V. Debs.
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