Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 22, 1909
Antonio de Pio Araujo, An Innocent Man Imprisoned in a Strange Country
From the Appeal to Reason of March 20, 1909:
Araujo’s Address from His Prison Cell.
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TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:
Evansville Press, Indiana March 20, 1909
It is hard to be sentenced as an innocent man to a long term of imprisonment in a strange country. It is in this unfortunate position that I find myself. But I have no regret and I address you in no spirit of despair. I have felt from the first that if the American people knew the truth about my case I would not now be in a convict’s cell. But the American people do not know the truth. In fact but few of them know anything at all about my conviction. The silence of the press was a part of the conspiracy to destroy my activity by sending me to prison.
Through the medium of the Appeal I have been given the opportunity of addressing myself to the American people, and I gladly avail myself of this privilege. Readers of the Appeal know that for some time there has been trouble in Mexico growing out of the awful condition of the people. For this the administration of Diaz, backed by American capitalists, is responsible. Myself and comrades of the liberal party were opposed to the administration. We were persecuted, spied upon and hunted down until we had to leave the country. When we landed on this side of the Rio Grande we felt ourselves secure under the stars and stripes of the American republic. But alas, we soon realized that the same power which had driven us from our native land also ruled the American states. Our papers were suppressed and we were tracked from place to place by the spies of the Mexican government, reinforced by American detectives, also in its employ. In due time we were arrested upon baseless charges. Some of my comrades have been in jail almost two years. This seems very strange in a land of freedom. Why is trial denied them? I do not know and no one can tell me.
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday April 23, 1918
Mother Jones News for March 1918, Part III: Found in Evansville, Indiana
On Thursday evening March 28th, Mother Jones spoke before a meeting organized by the local labor leaders of Evansville, Indiana. She was there to speak on behalf of Tom Mooney now facing the gallows in San Francisco. The Evansville Press of March 29th described her speech:
URGES MOONEY BE SAVED FOR SAMMIES’ SAKE
Altho she’d much rather be in Europe “cleaning up on the kaiser,” Mother Jones told an audience of workers Thursday night that the business of the people at home was to fight for the Sammies here.
She said the way to do this was to save the life of Thomas Mooney, the labor leader who is being railroaded to the gallows in San Francisco at the behest of labor-crushing interests.
[She said:]
Sometimes I feel almost ashamed that I’m not over there, putting heart into those boys, so they can give the kaiser hell.
But my place is here, fight ing for them while they’re gone. When those boys come back, after having fought your battles across the sea for democracy, you’ll be able to say: “Boys, while you’ve been gone we haven’t shirked; we’ve fought and won your battles here for industrial democracy.”
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