Tag: Eugene Victor Debs

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Answers Charges of Idaho Statesman: “Who Are the Wolves?” Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Since the earth belongs to the capitalist class,
why should a grand jury concern itself
in such a small matter as
helping itself to the state of Idaho?
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 14, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Eugene V. Debs Responds to The Statesman

On April 20th (see below), The Idaho Daily Statesman published an editorial in which it referred to the Appeal as the “Appeal to Treason” and insisted that the Socialists of the Appeal were actually “anarchists…wolves of society.” In the the May 11th edition of the Appeal, Comrade Debs asks, “Who Are the Wolves?” We will publish the entire response in two parts, beginning today with Part I:

WHO ARE THE WOLVES?
—–
An Inquiry Into Some of the Charges Made Against
the Appeal to Reason by the
Criminal Idaho Statesman.
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
—–

HMP, Death to WFM, Ryan Walker, AtR May 11, 1907

UT few people are so blind or indifferent as to be oblivious of the mighty struggle now in progress in the existing social and economic order. It is true that only the few who have studied historic and social evolution have any proper understanding of the forces underlying society, or any clear perception of the trend of its development, but the fact that we are living in an era of industrial transformation and that economic conditions are rapidly changing is pretty generally understood by the whole people.

Now the system under which we live, like the one preceding it, and from which it sprang, has its historic limitations and when its mission is accomplished it will be relegated to the past, but this will happen only after the system that is to succeed it has evolved and taken its place in the orderly march of events and the unceasing progress of civilization.

Capitalist society, corner-stoned in wage slavery, will no more last forever than did the feudal system based upon serf-labor. It will serve its historic time and purpose and that will be the end of it. Another and better system will take its place, out of which will rise a higher civilization.

But the dominant class in every system want that system to last forever. They are on top and want to remain there. That is natural enough. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Answers Charges of Idaho Statesman: “Who Are the Wolves?” Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Ida Crouch-Hazlett of Montana News Gives Touching Account of Haywood Family’s Reunion

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday May 12, 1907
From Montana News: The First Meeting of Haywood Family

Haywood Family Reunited, Boise, Wilkes-Barre Leader, May 10, 1907, Crpd

In the May 9th edition of the Montana News, official organ of the Socialist Party of Montana, was published an article by the editor, Ida Crouch-Hazlett which gives a touching account of the reunification Comrade Bill Haywood with his family. The prisoner had not seen his wife and daughters for the past fourteen months.

Just Before the Battle
—–

Family Reunion in Ada County Jail
-Everything Ready for Trial
-“Statesman” Gets Rabid”

Boise, Idaho, April 30, 1907.

One week from next Thursday is the date set for the trial of William D. Haywood. All sides state that they are ready for the great battle. The work that the defense has done throughout Ada county in safeguarding the interests of their clients is a marvel in painstaking and thorough news. The county has been thoroughly polled, and, as Mr. Richardson says, the conditions are certainly nothing like those in Canyon county. C. A. Johnson of Seattle and M. Barber of Caldwell, the men who had charge of the Canyon county work, have had the work here, and they have had a most able corps of assistants in learning what the sentiment is generally concerning the coming trials.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Ida Crouch-Hazlett of Montana News Gives Touching Account of Haywood Family’s Reunion” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for April 1907: Found on Speaking Tour in Texas

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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President Roosevelt and others class
Moyer, Haywood and other labor leaders
as undesirable citizens.
For my part I am glad to be classed with them.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday May 9, 1907
Mother Jones News for April: Found Touring in Texas

Mother Jones, Tacoma Times, Sept 19, 1904

During the month of April 1907, Mother was found touring Texas and giving speeches on Socialism, on economic conditions, and in support of Charles Moyer and Bill Haywood who remain imprisoned in Idaho.

From The Fort Worth Telegram of April 3, 1907:

SOCIALISTS PLAN AN ACTIVE YEAR
—–

Mother Jones and E. V. Debs
Among Speakers Scheduled
—–

To The Telegram:

The Socialists in this city are making plans for a great propaganda work this summer.

Local Fort Worth meets every Sunday at 3 p. m. in Red Men’s hall, and never fails to have an interesting program.

They recently collected $125 to defray expenses of a representative to the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone trial in Idaho. W. M. McClain was chosen to go and left last week for the scene of the impending trial.

The next lecturer to visit Fort Worth will be Mother Jones, who will be here some time during this month.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for April 1907: Found on Speaking Tour in Texas” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Reveals: Roosevelt Read “Undesirable Citizen” Letter to Supreme Court Justices

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Ring Out May Ninth, O Bells of Labor;
Ring out O’er all the Nation;
This Day They Heroes Consecrate
to Thy Emancipation.
-Appeal to Reason, May 5, 1907

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

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday May 5, 1907
“Undesirable Citizen,” Eugene V. Debs, Takes on President Roosevelt

From page one of the Appeal to Reason of May 4, 1907:

COLLUSION BETWEEN ROOSEVELT
and SUPREME COURT
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
—–

HMP, EVD v Roosevelt, AtR, May 4, 1907

The one point of the most vital character in the kidnaping cases is the collusion of President Roosevelt and the Supreme court of the United States, clearly indicated in the dispatches from the white house published in the capitalist press. Read carefully the following extract from the Washington Post of April 4th:

It was ascertained at the white house yesterday that when the president wrote to Chairman Sherman (Oct. 8th, 1906), the letter which was made public yesterday, denouncing Harriman, he expected it would be made public at the time. He authorized Sherman to show it to Harriman, and the republican chairman did so. It was immediately afterward that a friend of Harriman came to Washington and assured the president that the railway magnate had not made some of the statements attributed to him by Sherman. For this reason, it is said, the president did not make public the letter then.

HE DID HOWEVER, SHOW IT TO MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, WHO MADE THE ANNUAL CALL UPON HIM THAT DAY WITH THE COMMENT THAT HE BELIEVED SOME PEOPLE THOUGHT HE DENOUNCED TOO FREQUENTLY WEALTHY EVIL-DOERS AND DID NOT CONDEMN OFTEN ENOUGH MEN OF THE HAYWOOD AND MOYER TYPE. HE, THEREFORE, TOOK CONSIDERABLE PLEASURE IN DEALING COLLECTIVELY WITH HARRIMAN AND HAYWOOD AND MOYER, ALL OF WHOM WERE MENTIONED IN THE SAME CATEGORY IN THE SHERMAN LETTER.

 

Here we have the most startling and extraordinary disclosure, inadvertently made to cover up another Roosevelt exposure, in the political history of the United States. We see the president before the supreme court pronouncing his condemnation upon three citizens on trial for their lives, in a state case which may, and probably will, be appealed to this same supreme court, and whose members are to finally decide whether these three citizens shall live or die. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Reveals: Roosevelt Read “Undesirable Citizen” Letter to Supreme Court Justices” →

Hellraisers Journal: Thousands of Undesirable Citizens Prepare to March in Haywood-Moyer Protest Parades

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday May 3, 1907
From the Montana News: Organized Labor Plans Protests

Massive protests parades in support of the officials of the Western Federation of Miners, now imprisoned in Boise, Idaho, will take place this weekend in New York City and in Boston. This week’s Montana News describes the preparations now underway:

Undesirable Citizens
—–

Action Taken by Organized Labor to
Resent the Insult of Roosevelt
and to Insure Justice

HMP, Undesirable Citizen, Walker 3, AtR, Apr 20, 1907

“Undesirable citizens” clubs were started throughout the country yesterday. In Chicago members of the Moyer-Haywood conference prepared to order a supply of buttons for organized working men bearing the Words: “We are undesirable citizens.”

This is intended to amalgamate the men branded by President Roosevelt as “undesirable citizens” and show that the men be puts such a brand on are really the men who do the world’s work, the men who always stand as a class for lofty measures in public life and progress of the human race.

In New York plans are made to place 100,000 badges on the men who will parade in protest against the mine owners’ conspiracy to hang Mover, Haywood and Pettibone.

The New York Plan.

New York.—The executive committee of the Moyer and Haywood protest committee called off its expedition to the White House. In a statement the committee declared: “Only the respect in which we hold the presidential office restrains us from characterizing Roosevelt’s assertion by the term which the incumbent of that office so frequently employs—’an in famous lie.'”

The committee of three named to call upon Roosevelt will read a report at the next meeting of the organization Sunday morning. An order was placed today for 10,000 buttons bearing the inscription:

We are undesirable citizens. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Thousands of Undesirable Citizens Prepare to March in Haywood-Moyer Protest Parades” →

Hellraisers Journal: May Day Messages from Comrades Big Bill Haywood and Eugene V. Debs

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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BBH Quote re May Day, AtR p2, Apr 27, 1907

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 1, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Thoughts on May Day and The Red Flag

William D. Haywood writes to the Appeal from the Ada County Jail:

Haywood, Wilshire's Magazine, 1906

May Day of all the year is the most momentous to the workers of the world. In every civilized country the first of May is recognized as International Labor Day. On this day thought-waves are carrying around the globe messages of love and encouragement. “The world is my country man is my brother,” expresses the sublime sentiment of a world-wide fraternity in every land where men and women are straining under the galling chains of oppression. This noble thought quickens the soul and kindles the spark of hope in the breast of the heavy laden.

Brave hearts of every clime are beating in unison and millions of feet are keeping step in the onward, upward march to industrial liberty.

This era of evolution is blotting out racial and national hatreds, the toilers are awakened and conscious of the truth that sufferings now endured are but the labor pains that foretell the new democracy to be born.

WM. D. HAYWOOD,
Ada County Jail, Boise, Idaho.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: May Day Messages from Comrades Big Bill Haywood and Eugene V. Debs” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Montana News: Undesirable Citizens of Organized Labor Are Aroused to Action

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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To advocate peace with things as they are
is treason to humanity.
This is a class struggle and on class lines
it must be fought out to a finish.
-Ida Crouch-Hazlett

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

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday April 27, 1907
American Labor Responds to President Theodore Roosevelt

From The Montana News of April 25, 1907:

ORGANIZED LABOR AROUSED

HMP, Undesirable Citizen, Walker 1, AtR, Apr 20, 1907

The statement of President Roosevelt in a letter to James S. Sherman, regarding the Harriman controversy, re-which he refers to Debs, Moyer, and Haywood as ‘undesirable citizens’ has raised a storm of protest among the labor unions and aroused to action those few that were hitherto luke-warm. The Executive Committee of the Moyer-Haywood Protest Conference of New York, representing over three hundred labor organizations, with a membership aggregating more than two hundred thousand men, addressed an open letter to the president protesting against the stand he has taken in this matter and asking him to “make such public amends as any true gentleman is bound to offer when inadvertently he has made a mistake and inflicted grievous wrongs upon men who have nothing to do with his personal quarrel.”

The Central Federated Union of New York adopted a motion calling upon Roosevelt to retract his statement that Moyer and Haywood are “undesirable citizens.”

The Boston Central Labor Union adopted a resolution condemning Roosevelt for “usurping prerogatives which neither the laws nor the constitution of the United States gave him.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Montana News: Undesirable Citizens of Organized Labor Are Aroused to Action” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Undesirable Citizen” Eugene Debs Takes on “Roosevelt and His Regime” for the Appeal to Reason

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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A thousand times rather would I be
one of those men in Ada county jail
than Theodore Roosevelt in
the White House at Washington.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 24, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Eugene Debs on Theodore Roosevelt

HMP, Moyer Haywood Pettibone, ab 1906

Eugene Debs, who, along with Bill Haywood and Charles Moyer, has been adjudged an “Undesirable Citizen” by President Theodore Roosevelt, had a few words to say upon the subject in this week’s edition of the Appeal to Reason:

When Roosevelt stepped out of the White House and called Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone murderers, men he had never seen and did not know; men who had never been tried, never convicted and whom every law of the land presumed innocent until proven guilty, he fell a million miles beneath where Lincoln stood, and there he grovels today with his political crimes, one after another, finding him out and pointing at him their accusing fingers.

No president of the United States has ever descended to such depths as has Roosevelt to serve his law-defying and crime-inciting masters.

The act is simply scandalous and without a parallel in American history.

What right has Theodore Roosevelt to prejudge American citizens, pronounce their guilt and hand them over to the hangman? In a pettifogging lawyer such an act would be infamous; in the president of the nation it becomes monstrous and staggers belief.

All that Roosevelt knows about Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone he knows from his friends, their kidnapers.

The millions of working men and women, embracing practically ever labor union in America, count for nothing with him. He is not now standing for their votes. He is fulfilling his obligation to the gentlemen (!) who put up the coin that elected him; paying off the mortgage they hold upon his administration.

Theodore Roosevelt is swift to brand other men who even venture to disagree with him as liars. He, according to himself, is immaculate and infallible.

The greatest liar is he who sees only liars in others.

When Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States, denounced Charles Moyer, William Haywood and George Pettibone as murderers, he uttered a lie as black and damnable, a calumny as foul and atrocious as ever issued from a human throat. The men he thus traduced and vilified, sitting in their prison cells for having dutifully served their fellow-workers and having spurned the bribes of their masters, transcend immeasurably the man in the White House, who, with the cruel malevolence of a barbarian, has pronounced their doom.

A thousand times rather would I be one of those men in Ada county jail than Theodore Roosevelt in the White House at Washington.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Undesirable Citizen” Eugene Debs Takes on “Roosevelt and His Regime” for the Appeal to Reason” →

Hellraisers Journal: The Industrial Union Bulletin on Roosevelt’s Square Dealings with Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone

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The labor giant has slept long,
but is now awakening.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday April 14, 1907
From The Industrial Union Bulletin: Roosevelt’s “Square Deal”

IUB, Official Publication, IWW, April 13, 1907

The official publication of the Industrial Workers of the World yesterday discussed the remarks of President Roosevelt regarding the citizenship qualities of Comrades Debs, Moyer and Haywood, and included the statement of Bill Haywood, made in response to being termed an “undesirable citizen” by the President of the United States on the eve of his trial.

IS THIS A “SQUARE DEAL”?

HMP, Def Fund, IUB Apr 13, 1907

Nothing has happened in Theodore Roosevelt’s career as president of the United States that so entirely discredits his fitness for that position as the recent reference by him to Debs, Moyer and Haywood, as being “undesirable citizens.” The two latter are soon to appear in court and stand trial for their lives, yet the “chief magistrate” of the nation, oblivious to the ordinary rule that anyone charged with crime is presumed to be innocent until his guilt is proven, has made public an opinion that must be prejudicial to their interests. It is an outrage that ranks with the unlawful acts of the mine owners and McParlands of Colorado. Neither of these men has ever been convicted of any crime, yet their case is prejudged in advance of their appearance in court. It is a shameful and brutal spectacle.

IWW, Gen Sec Trautmann, Ex Brd St J, IUB, Apr 13,1907

The facts are these: The president addressed a letter to Congressman James S. Sherman in which certain matters in dispute between himself and the railway magnate, E. H. Harriman; entirely without warrant and apparently with the sole purpose of creating prejudice against Moyer and Haywood, he denounced the conduct of Harriman in the following terms:

It shows a cynicism and deep-seated corruption which make the man uttering such statements, and boasting, no matter how falsely, of his power to perform such crime, at least as undesirable a citizen as Debs, or Moyer or Haywood.

Fellow-worker Haywood, awaiting his trial in Idaho, gave out the following statement:

 

I do not desire to make an extended statement with regard to President Roosevelt’s reference to me in his letter to Congressman Sherman.

The president says that I am an “undesirable citizen,” the inference being that, as such, I should be put out of the way. His influence is all-powerful, and his statement, coming as it does, on the eve of my trial for my life, will work me irreparable injury, and do more to prevent a fair trial than everything that has been said and done against me in the past.

President Roosevelt is the leading exponent of the doctrine of “fair play and a square deal,” but his reference to me in his letter to Sherman demonstrates that he does not practice what he preaches.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: The Industrial Union Bulletin on Roosevelt’s Square Dealings with Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs Pleads with Organized Workers of America to Stand Up and Save Life of Tom Mooney

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Comrades, the red blood in you
must now prove itself.
I pledge myself to you
in this fight to its finish.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday April 13, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: Debs Fights for Life of Tom Mooney

Eugene Victor Debs, ISR, Oct 1916

TOM MOONEY SENTENCED TO DEATH

An Appeal to the Organized Workers of America!
By EUGENE V. DEBS

Tom and Rena Mooney, ISR, Dec 1916

A TELEGRAM just received from San Francisco announces the sentence of Tom Mooney. He is to hang by the neck until he is dead. The day set for his murder is May 17th. The capitalist jury and judge have done their foul work, and it is now up to us to do ours.

Tom Mooney is an absolutely innocent man and his conviction an infamous crime. We, the workers of America, are duty bound to challenge the verdict of the capitalists’ jury and set aside the sentence of the capitalist judge. We constitute a court, a jury and a judge of our own.

We sat thru this case from the hour the vile conspiracy was concocted and we knew beyond doubt that Mooney was framed and that he is to be murdered for no other reason than that the corporation criminals, the big capitalist thieves and their official highbinders could not buy him, or silence his agitation.

More than twenty reputable witnesses not only testified to Mooney’s innocence but proved it beyond even the shadow of a doubt. His alibi was without a flaw. He was miles away from the bomb when it exploded in the preparedness parade. He had absolutely no connection with and no knowledge of the affair. Bourke Cockran, the eminent New York lawyer who defended him, is positively convinced of this and so is every other man or woman who attended the trial and is not in the pay or under the influence of the United Railroads, the Manufacturers’ Association, and other red-handed bandits who have for years been plundering San Francisco and have now set themselves up as the autocratic rulers of the Pacific coast.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs Pleads with Organized Workers of America to Stand Up and Save Life of Tom Mooney” →