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 Sunday November 1, 1908
Cincinnati and Evansville Socialist Give Red Special a Red Welcome
From the Appeal to Reason of October 31, 1908:
FROM THE RED SPECIAL.
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Debs and Taft in Evansville Same Day, But Latter
Ignores Proposal of the Socialists
to Exchange Audiences.
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Special Telegram to the Appeal.
St. Louis, Oct. 23.-At Evansville last night there were rival political demonstrations between the republicans and the Socialists. Taft and Debs both arrived at about the same time, and the old town was hot with excitement.
From the Evansville Press October 22, 1908
The local committee of the Socialists proposed to the republican committee an exchange of audiences for twenty minutes by the republican and Socialist orators for educational purposes, thus giving each orator the opportunity to address both audiences. The invitation was respectfully or otherwise ignored. Thus is there another bluff called. The republicans and the democrats both put up the claim that their campaigns are educational, but when they are called by the Socialists, and given a chance to make good, they expose their dishonesty and false pretense by refusing to address Socialists meetings or allowing Socialists to address their meetings.
Taft did but little at Evansville other than to explain his labor record. It surely needs explaining, and he has been working on the job ever since his nomination. The Socialist candidate, in his speeches at Evansville, put Taft on the rack and showed what his true attitude toward labor is by recalling the trip he made to Idaho to support the infamous Gooding in the conspiracy to murder Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone.
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.”
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday October 18, 1917
Mother Jones News for September, Part I: Speech in Springfield
From the Illinois State Register of September 1, 1917:
On the evening of August 31st, Mother Jones spoke in Springfield, Illinois, to striking carmen and their supporters. The speech was well-covered the next day by the Register.
MOTHER JONES ASKS AID
FOR CAR STRIKERS
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Tells Unionists to Unite in Fight
Against Street Car Company and Win
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4,000 HEAR SPEAKER
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Crowds Throng Court House Yard
and Cheer as Advocate of Labor Talks
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Four thousand striking car men, members of allied labor organizations and curious outsiders last night on the court house square heard “Mother” Jones, self-confessed labor agitator and proud of it, urged the strikers and their sympathizers to disregard judges, courts, injunctions or any other power that might be invoked and to fight the street railway company until it is forced to meet the demands of the union.
Less extreme than she is reported to have been in other cities where labor troubles were in progress, “Mother” Jones did not directly urge the strikers to resort to violence in gaining their ends, but she demanded that every allied labor organization in Springfield take up the cause, have their meters removed and go out on “sympathy” strikes to tie up the city’s industries until pressure is brought to bear to force the utility company to admit itself beaten.
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, Friday September 21, 1917
Mother Jones News for August, Part II: Plans for Labor Day
From the Evansville Press of August 29, 1917:
An advertisement indicates that Mother Jones will be the principle speaker at the Henderson, Kentucky, Labor Day Celebration on Monday September 3rd. The event is being sponsored by the Central Labor Unions of both Evansville, Indiana, and Henderson.
From the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of August 27, 1917:
The death of Senator John Worth Kern is an opportunity to recall the role played by the good Senator in freeing Mother Jones from the grip of West Virginia’s Military Bastille during the Cabin Creek-Paint Creek Strike of 1912 & 1913.
The miners need no angel.
They are living in hell
and they want to raise hell.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday October 12, 1916
Mother Jones Found in Indiana During Month of September
Mother Jones spent the much of the month of September 1916 in Indiana campaigning for the re-election of both President Wilson and Senator Kern. But before beginning our coverage of Mother’s activities in Indiana, we found an article from an Arizona newspaper which complained of her campaign on behalf of the re-election of Governor Hunt in that state.
Hellraisers Journal of September 2nd republished an article from the September 1st edition of the Graham Guardian of Safford, Arizona, which expressed much outrage over “The Stormy Petrel” and the bad language use by the supposedly foul-mouthed union agitator at a rally held in Phoenix on August 21st. The Guardian claimed that Mother campaigned as much for whiskey as she did for Governor Hunt.
Hellraisers Journal of September 5th republished two interviews with Mother Jones conducted while she was in Evansville, Indiana, to speak at the city’s Labor Day Celebration. Mother Jones declared herself in favor of the re-election of President Wilson and the Indiana Senator, John Kern. She demanded the six-hour day, and, on the subject women and the economic struggle she stated:
The problem of this age is not suffrage, not feminism, not liquor: it’s the industrial question. That’s the nation’s disease, that has bred nearly every war of mankind, for most wars are wars fought for capital.
You never can change the situation in which those who toil are illfed and ignorant, until woman is awakened to the economic situation in this country. She is by nature more human than man. When she becomes more enlightened to real labor conditions in this country, she will not rest until every child is well fed, well clothed and well educated.
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday September 5, 1916
Evansville, Indiana – Two Interviews with Mother Jones
The people of Evansville were fortunate enough to enjoy the presence of Mother Jones at their Labor Day celebration yesterday. While in Evansville, Mother was interviewed by two of the town’s newspapers-which interviews we are pleased to offer in full.
From the Evansville Press of September 4, 1916:
MOTHER JONES DEMANDS 6-HOUR DAY;
WANTS WILSON
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Eight-hour day! Huh!
Mother Jones, in Evansville Monday to speak at the Labor day picnic, thinks that six hours a day is enough.
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