Tag: Eugene Victor Debs

Hellraisers Journal: Dramatic Story of Eugene Debs’ Unguarded Visit to Washington to See Attorney General

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD if Crime to oppose bloodshed, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920—————

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 5, 1921
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary – Debs Returns After Unguarded Visit to Washington

From the Appeal to Reason of April 2, 1921:

Dramatic Story of Debs’ Sensational Visit
to Attorney General Daugherty

BY SAMUEL CASTLETON 
Personal Attorney for Eugene V. Debs
and member of Debs Amnesty Lobby.

By Telegraph to the Appeal.

EVD Returns to Pen ed crpd, Perth Amboy NJ Eve Ns p12, Rck Isl IL Arg p15, Apr 1, 1921

Atlanta, Ga.—In spite of the mysterious secrecy that shrouded Gene Debs’ dramatic departure for Washington to hold his conference with the United States Attorney General, a leak was sprung from the effort to suppress all information about his movements when it became rumored a few hours after his departure that he had been pardoned and had left the city.

I immediately telegraphed to the Appeal’s Amnesty Lobby in Washington for Verification at the department of Justice. The rumor also had reached the city editors of the three Atlanta newspapers and reporters went scurrying to the federal penitentiary in taxi cabs and to the office of the Warden. Some of them even went at midnight to the Federal prison farm on the McDonough road ten miles from the outskirts of the city, over almost impassable highways. All communication with the prison officials was completely shut off and it was impossible to obtain either a verification or denial of the rumor. An error of the Western Union Telegraph Company caused my message to Washington to miscarry and I was unable to learn anything from that source.

The next day the Attorney General issued a statement relating to the conference between Debs and himself. Then it became known in Atlanta that the rumor of the day before was partially based on facts and that Gene had been extended an invitation by the Attorney General to clarify misunderstandings.

I was certain that this administration, well as the preceding one, knew that Gene was adamant and uncompromising in his principles and ideals and that the administration did not summon him for the purpose of the decantation of his convictions or retraction of his views.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Comrade Eugene V. Debs Found in Solitary at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD if Crime to oppose bloodshed, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 7, 1921
Atlanta Federal Penitentiary – Comrade Debs Found in Solitary Confinement

From the Appeal to Reason of February 26, 1921:

EVD in Solitary HdLn, AtR p4, Feb 26, 1921

Eugene V Debs Federal Prisoner No 9653, has been placed incommunicado in Atlanta prison, has been forbidden even to communicate with his wife and brother, and is threatened with solitary confinement, “in the hole,” on bread and water—this fiendish and barbarous punishment being inflicted upon the Grand Old Man of the American labor movement in mad revenge for the latest statement of Debs printed in the Appeal [see below], in reply to President Wilson’s final contemptuous denial of a pardon to Debs.

The above is the startling news that is flashed over the wires of the Appeal, shortly before going to press, in the following telegram from Theodore Debs, brother of ‘Gene:

Terre Haute, Ind., 4:26 p. m., Feb. 21, 1921,

Appeal to Reason, Girard, Kans.

By President Wilson’s special order Gene Debs is now in isolation cell and is deprived from receiving or sending mail even to his wife and is denied all visitors. It is rumored he is to go into the hole on bread and water. This is his punishment for his reply to Wilson’s attitude on his release. It is evident that the intention is to break his spirit and completely destroy his health.

THEODORE DEBS.

This is without doubt the most ghastly information that has come out of Atlanta, where Our Gene is suffering the most brutal torture that his political jailers can inflict in an effort to make him recant, make him renounce the dictates of his conscience, make him betray the comrades in whose cause he became the target of all the enemy’s hatred and venom.

There can be no questioning the accuracy of Theodore Debs’ message, monstrously incredible as it may seem. We know Theodore Debs to be a most careful informant; furthermore he has been constantly in direct touch with Atlanta since his brother Gene was confined in the federal bastile of the South. Theodore Debs is not the kind of man to make rash or hasty statements. Be sure that Theodore Debs’ emergency wire to the Appeal was the result of the most absolute and authentic information and carries with it the most desperate urgency and alarm over the possible fate of his fearless and martyred brother.

The Appeal feels certain that this ruthless treatment of Gene has been inspired by the recently and suddenly active Anti-Debs Lobby which is now functioning night and day at the nation’s capital in an attempt to thwart the wishes of the American people and keep Gene and his comrades behind the prison bars and Gene himself “in the hole” if possible. It is maddening to reflect that while the minions of Wall Street are active in Washington, the friends of Debs have not yet made possible a powerful Debs lobby which should be on the spot night and day to checkmate and counteract the infamous and unscrupulous activities of the sworn foes of Eugene V. Debs. It is not yet too late to speed our full forces to the defense of our beloved Gene.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1920: Found in Nation’s Capital Pleading for Release of Eugene V. Debs

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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EVD Quote re Mother Jones, AtR, Nov 23, 1907———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 26, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1920:
–Found in Washington, D. C., Pleading for Release of Debs

From Virginia’s Richmond Times-Dispatch of December 15, 1920:

DEBS MUST SERVE TERM,
SAYS PRESIDENT WILSON
———-
Socialist Leader Not Included in Christmas
Pardons in List From White House.
—–

THREE RECEIVE CLEMENCY
———-
Executive’s Refusal Is Blow to Aspirations of Liberals,
Who Have Been Working to That End.
“Mother Jones” Visits Capital.

(By United News.]

Mother Jones, UMWJ p11, July 15, 1920

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24.-Two men convicted of murder and one man convicted of selling drugs unlawfully, received Christmas pardons today from President Wilson. Eugene V. Debs, choice of a million citizens for President in the recent election, did not. His ten-year term, under conviction of violating the espionage act, still stands, subject only to abbreviation through good behavior….

The President’s refusal to extend mercy to Debs is a blow in the face for Socialists and liberals all over the country. The Socialist party, as such, has not interceded in his behalf, but individual members of the party have been campaigning consistently ever since the signing of the peace treaty eighteen months ago to obtain Debs’ release. The Bureau of Civil liberties has been the center of activity of others working for pardon for him.

Mother Jones, aged friend of the miners, spent some time in Washington last week working in Debs’ behalf….

It became known recently that Attorney-General Palmer, who has been considered opposed to clemency for Debs, actually had recommended to the President that the grant the pardon. Partly because this fact was rumored among those working for Debs’ release and because of the frequent revival of the report that the President planned to grant the pardon at Christmas time, the general feeling In this city had been that the Socialist leader would be a free man Christmas Day. The statement that this would not be the case, made Thursday by the United News, was a profound shock, and many still clung to hope until the issuance of the pardon list by the Attorney-General’s office Friday revealed only the three names given above.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “Debs the Dreamer..His dreams are all for you.” -Poem by Ellis B. Harris

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD if Crime to oppose bloodshed, AtR p1, Oct 23, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 22, 1921
“For country, home and liberty, Come voyage on with Debs.” 

From the Appeal to Reason of February 19, 1921:

POEM Debs the Dreamer by Ellis B Harris, AtR p4, Feb 19, 1921

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1901, Part III: Found in Indianapolis Speaking on Evils of Child Labor in Pennsylvania

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re School for Little Breaker Boys, Ipl Ns p3, Jan 29, 1901———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 13, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1901, Part III
Found Speaking in Indianapolis on Evils of Child Labor in Pennsylvania

From the Indianapolis Sunday Journal of January 27, 1901:

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail Crpd, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900

“Mother” Jones and Mr. Debs.

Eugene V. Debs and “Mother” Jones will deliver public addresses in the Criminal Court room to-morrow night. Mrs. Jones will speak especially to the women, and particularly to women who belong to labor or trades organizations. To-morrow afternoon Mr. Debs will speak to the miners at their convention.

———-

[Photograph added.]

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 29, 1901:

OFFICERS’ REPORT 
[-from Miners’ Convention]

In the afternoon many resolutions, principally of importance to the miners only, were passed then the committee on officers’ reports was heard. After some discussion the report was adopted by sections. Of important bearing was the adoption of President Mitchell’s recommendation to organize a woman’s auxiliary union. The convention adopted the recommendation and gave the power of appointing an organizer to President Mitchell. It is understood that “Mother” Jones will be appointed organizer…..

———-

DOWN IN THE COAL MINES.
———–
“Mother” Jones Graphically Describes
Child Labor In Pennsylvania.

“Mother” Jones addressed a meeting of mine workers and their friends in the Criminal Court room last evening on the subject of “Employment of Child Labor in the Mines.” Although her address was primarily intended to be in the interest of the miners, she made a general plea for all branches of labor. Quite a number of working girls were present and the eloquent appeals made in their behalf met with hearty applause from them. The speaker described the condition which prevails among the breaker boys of the mines of Pennsylvania, where boys of eleven years work thirteen hours a day for a wage scale of 1 cent an hour.

The miners and their families, she declared, are the helpless slaves of the great combinations of capital and the operators who own and control the mines. In those regions when a child is born, the day is eagerly looked forward to when he will be old enough to do a day’s work, and when that day arrives he is taken by his father to the operator of the mine, to whom his services are offered for a pittance. Some of the worst details of the present system were gone into and the need of organization among all the miners of the country was strongly urged.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for January 1901, Part II: Found Speaking at Convention of United Mine Workers of America

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Love Each Other, UMWC Ipl IN, Jan 25, 1901———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 12, 1901
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1901, Part II
Found Speaking in Indianapolis at Mine Workers’ Convention

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 26, 1901:

“Mother” Jones Heard

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900At the opening of the afternoon session [January 25th, United Mine Workers Convention], Henry J. Skifington [Skeffington], of the Boot and Shoe Makers’ Union, addressed the convention and urged the delegates to buy none but union made shoes. Following his address, “Mother” Jones spoke. The work of Mrs. Jones among the miners is known to every miner in the country and her appearance was the signal for loud and prolonged applause. She addressed the delegates as “fellow-toilers.” She said the miners had wisely chosen the month of January for holding their convention, as it is the intermediate month between the closing of the year and the opening of spring. It was appropriate, she said, to use this opportunity to look behind and to the front.

The review of experiences of the past should be applied to preparations for the future, and the work of the miners should not be entirely for the present, but foundation should be laid for coming generations. Her pointed and witty expressions caused many outbursts of laughter and her ability to appeal to the deeper feelings was equally as effective with the delegates. When “Mother” Jones wished to say something she said it and spared none, but even members of the organization to whom she said: “if the shoe fits you must wear it.” Mrs. Jones is a Socialist and an ardent admirer of Eugene V. Debs, and she could not refrain from paying a tribute to both.

PATRICK DOLAN’S REMARKS.

At the close of her speech Patrick Dolan, of Pennsylvania, sought the floor to take objections to what Mrs. Jones had said about Debs. He said while he had the highest respect for “Mother” Jones, he did not think Debs was the only man who ever did anything for labor. So slow was he in making his point that many delegates arose to a point of order and tried to have him seated, but President Mitchell was lenient and gave him further time to express himself. The convention became noisy in an attempt to force him to his seat, but it was some time before it could be accomplished……

By vote an invitation was extended to Eugene V. Debs to address the miners while in session here, and it was later announced he will speak Monday afternoon.

———-

[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph break added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers: “You have traveled over stormy paths.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Stormy Paths, UMWC Ipl IN, Jan 25, 1901 ———–

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 28, 1901
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks to Miners, Part I

January 25, 1901-Convention of United Mine Workers of America:

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900

President Mitchell: Ladies and gentlemen: There are few persons in the Industrial movement who have impressed themselves upon the toilers as has the one who will address you this afternoon. During the long years of struggle in which the miners engaged they have had no more staunch supporter, no more able defender than the one we all love to call Mother. I don’t believe there is a Mine Worker from one end of the country to the other who does not know her name. It gives me great pleasure to pre- sent to you this afternoon Mother Jones.

Mrs. Mary Jones: Fellow toilers, it seems strange that you should have selected the month of January for your conventions. It has a lesson by which you may well profit, and no craft needs more to profit by that lesson than the miners. The month of January represents two seasons, a part of the dead winter and a part of the beautiful coming spring. I realize as well as you do that you have traveled over stormy paths, that you have rubbed up against the conflict of the age, but I am here to say that you have come out victorious, and in the future you will stand as the grand banner organization. My brothers, we are entering on a new age. We are confronted by conditions such as the world perhaps has never met before in her history.

We have in the last century solved one great problem that has confronted the ages in the mighty past. It had ever been the riddle of the people of the world. The problem of production has been solved for the human race; the problem of this country will lie with the workers to solve, that great and mighty and important problem, the problem of possession. You have in your wisdom, in your quiet way, with a little uprising here and a little uprising there solved the problem of the age. You have done your work magnificently and well; but we have before us yet the grandest and greatest work of civilization.

We have before us the emancipation of the children of this nation. In the days gone by we found the parents filled with love and affection. As the mother looked upon her new-born boy, as she pressed him to her bosom, she thought, “Some day, he will be the man of this nation; some day I shall sacrifice myself for the education, the developing of his brain, the bringing out of his grander, nobler qualities. But, oh, my brothers, that is past, that has been killed! Today, my friends, we look into the eyes of the child of the Proletariat as it enters into the conflict of this life, and we see the eyes of the poor, helpless little creature appealing to those who have inhabited the world before it. Now when the father comes home the first question he asks is “Mary, is it a boy or a girl?” When she answers, “It is a boy, John,” he says, “Well, thank God! he will soon be able to go to the breakers and help earn a living with me.” If it is a girl there is no loving kiss, no caress for her for she cannot be put to the breakers to satisfy capitalistic greed.

But my friends, the capitalistic class has met you face to face today to take the girls as well as the boys out of the cradle. Wherever you are in mighty numbers they have brought their factories to take your daughters and slaughter them on the altar of capitalistic greed. They have built their mines and breakers to take your boys out of the cradle; they have built their factories to take your girls; they have built on the bleeding, quivering hearts of yourselves and your children their palaces. They have built their magnificent yachts and palaces; they have brought the sea from mid-ocean up to their homes where they can take their baths—and they don’t give you a chance to go to the muddy Missouri and take a bath in it.

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Hellraisers Journal: “The One We All Love to Call Mother” Speaks at Convention of United Mine Workers of America

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote John Mitchell, re Mother Jones, UMWC PM Session, Jan 25, 1901———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 27, 1901
Indianapolis, Indiana – Mother Jones Speaks at Mine Workers’ Convention

From The Indianapolis Journal of January 26, 1901:

“Mother” Jones Heard

[U. M. W. of A. Convention, January 25th]

Mother Jones, at Her Lecture Stand, Detail, Phl Iq p1, Sept 24, 1900At the opening of the afternoon session Henry J. Skifington [Skeffington], of the Boot and Shoe Makers’ Union, addressed the convention and urged the delegates to buy none but union made shoes. Following his address, “Mother” Jones spoke. The work of Mrs. Jones among the miners is known to every miner in the country and her appearance was the signal for loud and prolonged applause. She addressed the delegates as “fellow-toilers.” She said the miners had wisely chosen the month of January for holding their convention, as it is the intermediate month between the closing of the year and the opening of spring. It was appropriate, she said, to use this opportunity to look behind and to the front.

The review of experiences of the past should be applied to preparations for the future, and the work of the miners should not be entirely for the present, but foundation should be laid for coming generations. Her pointed and witty expressions caused many outbursts of laughter and her ability to appeal to the deeper feelings was equally as effective with the delegates. When “Mother” Jones wished to say something she said it and spared none, but even members of the organization to whom she said: “if the shoe fits you must wear it.” Mrs. Jones is a Socialist and an ardent admirer of Eugene V. Debs, and she could not refrain from paying a tribute to both.

PATRICK DOLAN’S REMARKS.

At the close of her speech Patrick Dolan, of Pennsylvania, sought the floor to take objections to what Mrs. Jones had said about Debs. He said while he had the highest respect for “Mother” Jones, he did not think Debs was the only man who ever did anything for labor. So slow was he in making his point that many delegates arose to a point of order and tried to have him seated, but President Mitchell was lenient and gave him further time to express himself. The convention became noisy in an attempt to force him to his seat, but it was some time before it could be accomplished……

By vote an invitation was extended to Eugene V. Debs to address the miners while in session here, and it was later announced he will speak Monday afternoon.

———-

[Photograph, emphasis and paragraph break added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Fred Warren, the Fighting Editor of the Appeal to Reason, Must Go to Jail for Six Months

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Fred Warren, Justice Will Triumph, ISR p166, Aug 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 16, 1911
Girard, Kansas – Fred Warren, Editor of Appeal Reason, Must Go to Jail

From the International Socialist Review of January 1911:

EDITORIAL

Fred Warren Goes to Jail.

Fred Warren Fighting Editor of Appeal, ISR p427, Jan 1911

On December 30, 1905, Frank Steunenberg was killed by the explosion of a dynamite bomb at Caldwell, Idaho. Several weeks later Charles H. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners; William D. Haywood, Secretary, and George E. Pettibone, an honorary member of the organization, were kidnapped from their home in Colorado and secretly carried off to Idaho on a special train to be tried for the murder of Steunenberg. Requisition papers were issued by the Governor of Colorado on an affidavit signed by the County Attorney in Idaho, setting forth that the men were present in Idaho when the crime was committed and had fled from the state, although every one concerned knew perfectly well that they had not been in Idaho for months. The Western Federation of Miners was at that time engaged in a death struggle with the mine owners, and it is a fair inference that this kidnapping was a preconceived plan to discredit and crush this organization.

The capitalist press of the whole country united to fasten the charge of conspiracy to commit murder upon these men, while the Socialist press, with scarcely an exception, defended them. They were held for nearly a year and a half without trial, while strenuous efforts were made by both accusers and defendants to arouse public opinion on one side or the other. In this situation Fred D. Warren, editor of the Appeal to Reason at Girard, Kans., conceived the idea of giving the American people a striking object lesson. With this in view, he had postal cards printed offering a reward for the kidnapping of ex-Governor Taylor of Kentucky, who was at that time under indictment for murder in his own state and was safe in Indiana, because the Republican governor of that state refused to sign extradition papers.

This object lesson was an important factor in arousing public sentiment for the imprisoned miners, and when Haywood was finally put on trial he was acquitted; the other men were finally discharged. But the government officials and their capitalist masters did not forget the part Fred Warren played in their defeat, and an indictment was brought against him for having “sent scurrilous, defamatory and threatening matter through the mails.” After long delay he was tried and convicted by a packed jury, every member of which was a Republican. From this decision he appealed. Again long delays, and finally, after election is over, the Appellate Court has sustained the decision of the District Court, and Fred Warren must go to jail for six months. On the 21st of January, he is to begin serving his sentence.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1910: Found Standing with Striking Miners and Their Families in Pennsylvania

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones, Greensburg PA Cmas 1910, Steel 2, p83———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 15, 1911
Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1910:
–Praised by Max Hayes and Eugene Debs for Work in Pennsylvania

From the International Socialist Review of December 1910:

THE WORLD OF LABOR 

BY MAX S. HAYES.

[…..]

Mother Jones, Latest Picture, Ft Wayne Dly Ns p9, Apr 9, 1910

MOTHER JONES has been busying herself during the past few weeks in trying to bring cheer and comfort to the poor miners in the Irwin-Greensburg soft coal district of Pennsylvania [Westmoreland County], and assisting those unfortunate victims of one of the most heartless lockouts in American industrial history (as has been shown in THE REVIEW) to gain a semblance of humane working and living conditions. Mother is never so happy as when helping “the boys” in the mining fields, and, as every officer and member of the U. M. W. knows, she has gone into districts in Colorado, Alabama, West Virginia and other places where many of the bravest of men have feared to tread. She has faced injunction judges, served time in jail, lived on bread and water and has undergone a thousand hardships where others have hesitated or flunked, and never a word of complaint as to her own sufferings escape her lips. In fact she is as jolly and happy-go-lucky as a girl of sixteen and always refers to her direful experiences as humorous escapades.

Mother Jones only grows sorrowful and indignant when she discusses the fool factionalism among the miners and the sufferings endured by “the boys” and their wives and children, whom she knows and loves and for whom she has done organizing work in past campaigns. She has little patience with the penny-ante politics of this or that alleged leader who aspires for place or power, and when in a reminiscent mood she can relate some wonderful stories.

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