Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs on Journey with Fred Warren to Leavenworth Prison for Visit with Comrade Araujo

15th March 2019 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

Quote RF Magon, no AtR in jail, p1, Mar 13, 1909 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 15, 1909
Eugene Debs and Fred Warren Travel to Leavenworth, Visit Mexican Comrade

From the Appeal to Reason of March 13, 1909:

With Araujo in Prison

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.

Returning from Texas whither he had hastened to ascertain the true facts in the Araujo case, the managing editor of the Appeal, Fred D. Warren, was up in arms, declaring the affair a monstrous injustice and his determination to aid the convicted Mexican by all the means in his power. This determination was made stronger by the connection he discerned between the case and the cases pending in Arizona with which Appeal readers are familiar and by its important bearing upon the whole question of the war in Mexico.

For, be it understood, the war in Mexico has begun. The despotism of assassination has done its worst and at last the people have revolted, for which thank God!

In this Mexican war the working class of the United States is deeply and vitally interested, whether it knows it or not.

In Mexico fourteen million working people are in peon slavery. Their wages, in American money, will not average 25 cents a day.

American capitalists virtually own these millions of slaves and grind out their lives to amass fortunes to squander upon syphilitic parasites. These American capitalists, in collusion with Diaz, the despot, have taken possession of Mexico. Millions upon millions of wealth are in sight. Diaz and his government-government by assassination-keep down the slaves. No labor leaders there. They are shot. Strikers are hanged and agitators waylaid and assassinated.

The Mexican government is the slave herder of the American capitalists. Diaz is the chief herder in the service of Rockefeller, Morgan, Harriman and other American plutocrats who own Mexico.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: John Reed’s Latest Book Tells the Truth About the Russian Revolution

13th March 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote John Reed, Weak Gov Rebellious People, 10 Days Chp III, 1919 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 13, 1919
“Ten Days That Shook the World,” John Reed on the Russian Revolution

From the Appeal to Reason of March 8, 1919:

John Reed’s Latest Book Tells
Truth About Russia

“Ten days that Shook the World,” by John Reed, is the newest, and it is safe to say, the best book written about the Russian Revolution. The Appeal Book Dept., the largest mail order book house in the world, has a large stock of this new book and is ready to fill orders at once.

Do you know what occurred during the ten days of the Bolshevik Revolution in Petrograd? John Reed was there, and he will tell you if you do not know.

What did Trotzky prophesy seven days before the insurrection? John Reed knows, and his book will tell you. What was Kerensky thinking just before his government fell? John Reed had the last interview with him, and the report of this important interview is given a prominent place in “Ten Days That Shook the World.” How did the Bolsheviki make up their minds to revolt? John Reed knows what went on in the secret Bolshevik Conference of October 23, 1917, and his book tells the story accurately.

This book is a moving picture of those thrilling days in Petrograd. It is a serious attempt to tell all the details about the bolshevik coup d’ etat. It will be used as an original source by historians of the great Russian Revolution.

Can you answer these questions?

What is Bolshevism? What is the history of the Bolsheviki? Who are the cadets? What was the role of the Russian bourgeoisie in the Revolution? What kind of a governmental structure did the Bolsheviki set up? If the Bolsheviki championed the Constituent Assembly before the November Revolution, why did they disperse it by force of arms afterward? And if the bourgeoisie opposed the Constituent Assembly until the danger of Bolshevism became apparent, why did they champion it afterward?

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Hellraisers Journal: The Appeal to Reason Returns to Its “Good Old Name” with Issue No. 1213, the Special Amnesty Edition

9th March 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Here’s to the “little old Appeal”!
———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 9, 1919
Appeal to Reason Returns to “Good Old Name”

From the Appeal to Reason of March 1, 1919:

Back to the Good Old Name

Beginning with this issue, No. 1213, the Special Amnesty Edition, this paper will be known as the Appeal to Reason. In returning to our old name we are doing nothing but accepting the judgment and wishes of our readers. Ever since December, 1917, when the old name was changed to The New Appeal, we have been receiving letters from our workers and subscribers urging us to go back to the good old name. In addition we have been impressed with the fact that in spite of the many months that have passed, half of our mail today is addressed, “Appeal to Reason, Girard, Kans.” Not only does the Socialist world stick to the old name, but even capitalist newspapers and magazine in referring to us either name us by the old title or speak of “The New Appeal” formerly “Appeal to Reason.” When, after a year’s use of a name, it is necessary to identify it, plainly the best thing to do is to go back to the good old, familiar name, Appeal to Reason. Of your practically unanimous approval of this change we are confident. Here’s to the “little old Appeal”!

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1909, Part I; Found in Girard, Kansas, and in Springfield, Illinois

15th February 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, re Ruling Class, AtR p2, Jan 23, 1909 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday February 15, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1909, Part I:
-Found Writing and Speaking on Behalf of Mexican Patriots

During the month of January 1909, we first find Mother Jones in the pages of the Appeal to Reason advocating on behalf of the Mexican Patriots imprisoned in the United States and facing deportation to Mexico where certain death awaits them at the hands of the Tyrant, Porfirio Díaz.

Hellraisers Journal of January 10th republished an article from the Appeal to Reason of January 9, 1909, in which Mother was quoted:

The Appeal can and will arouse the American People. Its voice rings like a clarion over all the nation. How the hearts of the refugees must be cheered when they hear the Appeal’s ringing challenge to the czar of Russia and the dictator of Mexico! More power to the Appeal! May every one of its more than three hundred thousand readers resolve this very hour to double its circulation, that a million more American people can be shaken from their lethargy and swell the mighty protest against Russian bastiles and Mexican dungeons on American soil.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for November 1908, Found in Kansas and in Chicago

14th December 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones re Vote SPA, Coffeyvl KS Dly Jr p6, Nov 2, 1908

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 14, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1908
Found in Kansas: “Pioneer Socialist woman in the revolutionary movement…”

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

During the early days of November, we found Mother Jones* assisting the Kansas Comrades to wind up the 1908 election campaign on behalf of the Socialist Party. The Coffeyville Daily Journal described her speech in Coffeyville:

One of the most powerful Socialist lectures ever delivered in Coffeyville was given in the Coliseum Saturday night. “Mother Jones,” the pioneer Socialist woman in the revolutionary movement, was the orator. A large number of people were out to hear the speech on economics, despite the counter attractions.

“Mother” Jones has been trying to improve the industrial conditions of the working class for nearly four decades. She has particularly devoted her energies along the line of unionism. For nearly a score of years before the Socialists put out a ticket in this country she was going from coast to coast talking unionism to the wage workers. This she is still doing but her scope of work is now much larger than before she embraced international scientific Socialism. She is not only assisting in liberating those who work for wages but she is equally intent on emancipating the entire human race.

The Appeal to Reason credited her contribution:

Mother Jones lined up a great crowd of miners at Weir and Chicopee.

In Parsons:

“Mother” Jones, noted Socialist, spoke to a good sized audience at Edward’s opera house on Sunday afternoon [November 1st].

By November 20th, we found Mother back in Chicago where Clarence S. Darrow and Peter Sissman were part of the legal team engaged in a desperate fight to prevent the Russian Government from extraditing Christian Rudowitz, Russian revolutionist. Describing the court scene, the New York Sun stated:

Mother Jones and several other Socialists were also there.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for October 1908, Found in Kansas and Missouri

9th November 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

Quote Mother Jones re Child Labor in AL, AtR p2, Oct 24, 1908
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 9, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1908
Found in Kansas: “working with her sleeves rolled up…”

Other than a brief appearance in St. Louis, Missouri, at a campaign event for Eugene Debs, Mother Jones was found, during the month of October, mostly in the Girard area of Kansas campaigning for the Socialist candidates of the Third District. The Kansas Edition of the Appeal described her activities there as “working with her sleeves rolled up.”

From the Appeal to Reason of October 31, 1908:

[…..]

MOTHER JONES MEETINGS.

Mother Jones is in the third district. She is working with her sleeves rolled up and is going after the democrats and republicans in her usual way showing them both to be the tools of an exploiting class. At Galena the opera house was full and a good spirit prevailed; but the meeting at Scammon was great. Mother was in her element, having a hall crowded to the doors with miners, and you may be sure that she delivered the right kind of goods and the democrats that thought that the party for which he works, stands for labor, was disillusioned by the recital of the terrible conditions in democratic Alabama. Mother is to spend the time in the mining and industrial centers until after election and expects to see Ben Wilson come in under the wire a winner.

———-

[Photograph of Mother Jones added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “Mother Jones in Alabama” -Infants Betrayed in Their Infancy

27th October 20189th November 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Alabama Child Labor, AtR p2, Oct 24, 1908 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 27, 1908
Mother Jones Visits Girard; Reports on Child Labor in Alabama

From the Appeal to Reason of October 24, 1908:

—–

When Mother Jones returned from her recent trip to Alabama she stopped in Girard long enough to write the following story of her experience for the Appeal and its readers, and then hurried on to other fields to continue her work of agitating and organizing workers to battle for their emancipation.

T HAD been thirteen years since I bid farewell to the workers in Alabama and went forth to other fields to fight their bitter battles. I returned again in 1908 to see what they were doing for the welfare of their children. Governor Comer, being the chief star of the State, I went out to Avondale, on the out skirts of Birmingham, to take a glance at his slave pen. I found there some where between five and six hundred slaves. The governor, who in his generous nature could provide money for Jesus, reduced the wages of his slaves first 10 per cent, and then 16.

As the wretches were already up against starvation, a few of them struck, and I accompanied an organizer and the editor of the Labor Advocate to help organize the slaves into a union of their craft. I addressed the body, and after I got through quite a large number became members of the Textile Workers’ Union. I returned again inside of an other week, held another meeting with them and another large number joined. I was also going to complete my work on Monday, the 12th, but I had to leave for southern Illinois. He has not yet discharged any of them nor has he threatened to call an extra session of the legislature to pass the vagrancy bill in case they struck against the last reduction. Of all the God-cursed conditions that surround any gathering of slaves, or slave pen, Comer’s mill district beats them all. As you look at them you immediately conclude they have been lashed into fear, but they still have some spirit of revolt in them. They work all of thirteen hours a day. They are supposed to go in at 6 in the morning, but the machinery starts up soon after five, and they have to be there. They are supposed to get forty-five minutes for dinner, but the machinery starts up again after they are out for twenty minutes and they have to be at their post.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs and the Children of Girard; Some Thoughts on Childhood, “A Holy Theme”

20th October 201820th October 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

Quote EVD Childhood, Socialist Woman p12, Sept 1908 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 20, 1908
Eugene V. Debs: “Childhood! What a holy theme!”

The story, published in yesterday’s Hellraisers, about Comrade Debs bringing the Red Special to a halt in order to meet with the school children of Trenton, Michigan, brought to mind the following article from the September 1908 edition of The Socialist Woman:

—–

CHILDHOOD.
—–

EUGENE V. DEBS.

What emotion the recollection of childhood inspires, and how priceless its treasured memories in our advancing and declining years!

Laughing eyes and curly hair, little brown hands and bare feet, innocent and carefree, trusting and loving, tender and pure, what an elevating and satisfying influence these little gods have upon our maturer years!

Childhood! What a holy theme! Flowers they are, with souls in them, and if on this earth man has a sacred charge, a solemn obligation, it is to these buds and blossoms of humanity.

Yet how many of them are prematurely plucked, fade and die and are trampled in the mire. Many millions of them have been snatched from the cradle and stolen from their play to be fed to the forces that turn a workingman’s blood into a capitalist’s gold, and many millions of others have been crushed and perverted into filth for the slums and food for the pottersﬁeld.

Childhood is at the parting of the ways which lead to success or failure, honor or disgrace, life or death. Society is, or ought to be, profoundly concerned in the nature of the environment that is to mold the character and determine the career of its children, and any remissness in such duty is rebuked by the most painful of penalties and these are inflicted with increasing severity upon the people of the United States.

Childhood is the most precious charge of the family and the community, but our capitalist civilization sacrifices it ruthlessly to gratify its brutal lust for pelf and power, and the march of its conquest is stained with the blood of infants and paved with the puny bones of children.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1908, Found in Kansas and Alabama

11th October 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

EVD Quote re Mother Jones, AtR, Nov 23, 1907

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 11, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1908
In Alabama: “Old Mother Jones..claims every miner as her son…”

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

At the beginning of the month of September, we found Mother Jones attending a picnic in Girard, Kansas. By the 20th of September, we found the “Miners’ Angel” in Birmingham, Alabama. She went to Alabama in answer to the call of the miners on strike there, cutting short her visit in Girard, as promised in August.

From the Pittsburg Daily Headlight of
August 19, 1908:

WILL GO TO ALABAMA.
Mother Jones to Assist in the Alabama Strike.
—–

…[Mother Jones] arrived in Girard only a few days ago from a trip through Oklahoma and Texas, where she has been delivering lectures. She expected to remain for some time, but circumstances have come up which compel her to leave for Alabama, where a strike is on among the miners of the coal fields of that state. Strikes are one of her specialties and she has followed strikes in all parts of the United States for years and has spoke in every state in the union except two and her motherly attitude towards the miners makes her a favorite among them….

From The Biloxi Daily Herald of September 23, 1908:

S. W. ROSE ON HIS TRAVELS

Cullman, Ala. Sept. 20, 1908

To The Biloxi Daily Herald.

[…..]

I came this morning from Birmingham to “this side,” and am now domiciled at Cullman…

Birmingham will not let socialists speak on the streets. They hurt the feelings of the mighty city chiefs and the great governor, who is interested in working children in his cotton mill.

However, the socialists held a hall meeting that was filled to the doors. Old Mother Jones, who claims every miner as her son, was there, and the fire of her tongue is enough to terrify Birmingham city and Alabama’s state government, and yet her kind old mother heart will bring the mist to men’s eyes as she tells the woes of childhood as she has seen them in the miner’s and cotton-worker’s families. Mother Jones has been to jail again and again for her fiery words, but jails have no terrors for this modern “Joan of Arc,” and she is loved by all who known her…..

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1908, Part II: Found Visiting the Appeal to Reason

18th September 201826th August 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

Quote re Battle Scarred Mother Jones, AtR p3, Aug 29, 1908
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 18, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for August, 1908, Part II
Found Visiting the Appeal to Reason at Girard, Kansas

From the Appeal to Reason of August 22, 1908:

Two Noted Agitators.
—–

The Appeal has the distinction this week of entertaining two of the most distinguished agitators in the Socialist movement. At almost precisely the same hour Mother Jones and Luella Twining entered the Temple of the Revolution. There was genuine delight and surprise all around. The heartiest greetings were exchanged and the visitors made to feel that they were among comrades who know of their work and appreciate them at their full value.

And here let it be said that it is a distinction of no ordinary account to entertain two such crusaders. The work Mother Jones has done for the downtrodden of this nation can never be told. Her three score years have whitened her hair, but not in the least abated her ardor in the cause. She is a born agitator and wherever she goes there is something doing. A grand old warrior she is who will be known better long after she is at rest, for then only will the true story of this warrior in the cause of human freedom be known.

Luella Twining, though much younger in years and in service, has already a wonderful work to her credit. Her service during the Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone struggle is well remembered, and if she had not lived a day after this was completed she would have written her name indelibly into the labor movement. But she has all her years still before her, and is filled with the spirit which seeks to serve without thought of personal reward, and she is certain to add fresh luster to the future chapters of her life work.

Truly it is an honor to have such royal guests and the Appeal and its comrades will leave nothing undone to make them feel that here they are thrice welcome and always at home.

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Tag: Girard KS

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs on Journey with Fred Warren to Leavenworth Prison for Visit with Comrade Araujo

With Araujo in Prison

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: John Reed’s Latest Book Tells the Truth About the Russian Revolution

John Reed’s Latest Book Tells
Truth About Russia

Hellraisers Journal: The Appeal to Reason Returns to Its “Good Old Name” with Issue No. 1213, the Special Amnesty Edition

Back to the Good Old Name