Tag: Haywood-Moyer-Pettibone Case

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Opens Socialist Party Campaign with Speech at Chicago’s Riverview Park, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 20, 1912
Riverview Park, Chicago, Illinois – Debs Opens Socialist Party Campaign

[Eugene V. Debs Speaks to Thousands at Grand Picnic
Sunday June 16, 1912 – Full Text of Speech, Part II:]

Ad Socialist Picnic Riverview Park, Chicago, EVD to Speak, Inter Ocn p33, June 16, 1912The national convention of the Socialist Party recently held at Indianapolis was in all respects the greatest gathering of representative socialists ever held in the United States. The delegates there assembled demonstrated their capacity to deal efficiently with all the vital problems which confront the party. The convention was permeated in every fiber with the class-conscious, revolutionary spirit and was thoroughly representative of the working class. Every question that came before that body was considered and disposed of in accordance with the principles and program of the international movement and on the basis of its relation to and effect upon the working class.

The platform adopted by the convention is a clear and cogent enunciation of the party’s principles and a frank and forceful statement of the party’s mission. This platform embodies labor’s indictment of the capitalist system and demands the abolition of that system. It proclaims the identity of interests of all workers and appeals to them in clarion tones to unite for their emancipation. It points out the class struggle and emphasizes the need of the economic and political unity of the workers to wage that struggle to a successful issue. It declares relentless war upon the entire capitalist regime in the name of the rising working class and demands in uncompromising terms the overthrow of wage-slavery and the inauguration of industrial democracy.

In this platform of the Socialist Party the historic development of society is clearly stated and the fact made manifest that the time has come for the workers of the world to shake off their oppressors and exploiters, put an end to their age-long servitude, and make themselves the masters of the world.

To this end the Socialist Party has been organized; to this end it is bending all its energies and taxing all its resources; to this end it makes its appeal to the workers and their sympathizers throughout the nation.

In the name of the workers the Socialist Party condemns the capitalist system. In the name of freedom it condemns wage-slavery. In the name of modern industry it condemns poverty, idleness, and famine. In the name of peace it condemns war. In the name of civilization it condemns the murder of little children. In the name of enlightenment it condemns ignorance and superstition. In the name of the future it arraigns the past at the bar of the present, and in the name of humanity it demands social justice for every man, woman, and child.

The Socialist Party knows neither color, creed, sex, or race. It knows no aliens among the oppressed and downtrodden. It is first and last the party of the workers, regardless of their nationality, proclaiming their interests, voicing their aspirations, and fighting their battles.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Leavenworth Post: “Haywood Flees to Russia to Escape Prison” -Left from New York April 1st

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH re Capitalist Class, Lbr Arg p4, Mar 23, 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday April 22, 1921
Chicago, Illinois – Federal Officials Confirm Haywood is in Russia

From The Leavenworth Post of April 21, 1921:

BBH Flees to Russia, Lv Pst p1, Apr 21, 1921

(By The Associated Press.)

BBH in Boise Cell 1907 ed, Lv Pst p1, Apr 21, 1921

Chicago, April 21.-Federal officials today received confidential information that William D. Haywood, secretary of the Industrial Workers of the World who was scheduled to begin a sentence at United States penitentiary, at Leavenworth this week, had fled from the United States and now is in either Moscow or Riga.

Attorney Admits Departure.

Otto Christensen, attorney for Haywood, said he had been informed that Haywood sailed from New York on the Oscar Second about April 1, and landed at Riga about April 16. He said he thought Haywood had gone to Russia on a personal mission and was not fleeing from the penitentiary sentence.

Authorities Start Search.

Charles F. Clyne, United States district attorney announced that search had been started for Haywood.

“He is not at Leavenworth, Chicago, nor New York, and we have private information that he has landed either at Moscow or Riga,” said Clyne.

“That is all we know about it but we expect to have definite information very quickly.”

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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: From Fellow Workers Morrie Preston and Joseph Smith, “A Cry from the Depths of Nevada’s Prison”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD Movements of Undesirables, AtR p4, Oct 31, 1908———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 30, 1910
Carson City, Nevada – Fellow Workers Preston and Smith Remain Behind Bars

From the International Socialist Review of April 1910:

Preston n Smith by ME Eldridge, ISR p894, Apr 1910

Letter T, ISR p894, Apr 1910HREE years ago the 10th of March, John Sylva, a restaurant keeper at Goldfield, Nevada, was shot and killed by M. R. Preston, a miner and member of the Western Federation of Miners at that time affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, and on May 9th, just two months later, Preston and Joseph Smith, the latter a cook and member of the I. W. W., were found guilty on an indictment charging them with murder and were sentenced to imprisonment, Preston to twenty-five and Smith to ten years.
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Hellraisers Journal: “You are waging a class fight!” Eugene Debs Speaks at Philadelphia’s Labor Lyceum, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Starve Quietly, Phl GS Speech IA, Mar 19, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 21, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Eugene Debs Speaks at Mass Meeting

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of March 20, 1910:

PRATT AND DEBS AT LABOR MEETING
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EVD, Spk Chc p15, Nov 22, 1909

Sympathetic strikers crowded Labor Lyceum Hall, at Sixth and Brown streets, when their big mass meeting was called to order at 3 o’clock yesterday afternoon [Saturday March 19th], and the streets about the building were blockaded with hundreds who were unable to enter the hall.

Many policemen, under command of Lieutenants Nippes and Ehrsman, were stationed about the entrance to the hall and along Sixth and Brown streets to prevent possible rioting, and riot wagons from City Hall were placed in near-by streets.

C. O. Pratt, the executive chairman of the carmen’s organization, arrived at the Labor Lyceum soon after 3 o’clock in an automobile, and was cheered by the crowd as he made his way to the entrance. The doors had been ordered closed by the police, but the lieutenant in charge made way for Pratt and the speakers with him. As soon as Pratt was inside the hall the crowd picked him up and passed him along to the platform.

Pratt in his speech exhorted the labor men to stand firm in their demands. In concluding he asked all who would remain out on strike to say “aye.” The answering chorus of “ayes” was heard in the streets.

Eugene [V]. Debs, a former Presidential candidate on the Socialist ticket, also addressed the meeting.

[He said:]

You are waging a class fight. I am not here to philosophize, but to tell you to fight and fight to the end, and you will win. There is nothing to concede, nothing to arbitrate. If you concede anything you will lose all. Fight the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company. J. Pierpont Morgan could end the strike in a minute if he wanted to.

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[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1910, Part II: Found Supporting Black Hills Miners of South Dakota

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, No master no slave, Speech Dec 9, NY Cl p2, Dec 10, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 13, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1910, Part II:
-Found Supporting the Miners of the Black Hills in South Dakota

From the Black Hills Daily Register of February 22, 1910:

Mother Jones Sends Money

Organ D2 WFM, Black Hills Dly Rg p2, Feb 22, 1910

James Kirwan yesterday received a letter from Mother Jones, who is now in Milwaukee, informing him that she was coming to Lead to take a hand in the fight for the right to organize. She asked no money, but, on the contrary, enclosed a check for one hundred dollars, with these words:

My boys in Lead gave me one hundred and fifty dollars for the 1909 Labor Day speech. Fifty dollars of this sum I gave to the Mexicans and I am sending you the balance for the locked-out Black Hills boys.

Further along in her letter, Mother says:

Tell the boys to keep up that fight. Have no surrender written on the banners of the Western Federation of Miners. I am coming up there to take a hand. The Hearst crowd of blood-suckers are organizing to get more profits. We also have a right to organize to give that crew of blood-suckers less profits. Tell my boys to stand pat. Mother.

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From the Socialist Montana News of February 24, 1910:

[Mother Jones in Milwaukee]

A non-partisan anti-high-price mass meeting was called for Feb. 15 by the Milwaukee Federated Trades Council Among the speakers who addressed the meeting were A. M. Simons, editor of the Chicago Daily Socialist, and Mother Jones. This so hurt the feelings of Senator Stephenson’s organ, the Free Press, that it indulged in several columns of abuse against the meeting. It had a great deal to say about the “poor attendance” of the meeting, although the hall was packed to the doors, and many were obliged to stand.

The real grievance of this capitalist sheet was that the capitalist politician who addressed the meeting cut a poor figure, having no remedy to offer except the enforcement of the law and investigation of facts which our pocket-books already understand all too well, while the Socialist speakers made ringing addresses which were roundly applauded. Resolutions that the people must own the trusts were adopted by the audience without one dissenting vote.

[Paragraph break added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1910, Part I: Found Fighting for Working Women

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Ladies Women, NYT p3, May 23, 1914———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 12, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1910, Part I:
-Found Fighting for Working Women of Philadelphia and Milwaukee

From the International Socialist Review of February 1910:

Fighting to Live
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By Tom A. Price.
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* * *

[Mother Jones in Philadelphia.]

Mother Jones. This little woman whose heart is as big as the nation and beats wholly for humanity, came to Philadelphia while the trumpet was still reverberating after the call to arms had been sounded. Under her bold leadership the fighters were organized before the manufacturers had fairly realized that their workers had at last been stung to revolt by the same lash which had so often driven them to slavery.

Mother Jones, ISR Cover crpd p673 ed, Feb 1910

In impassioned speech after impassioned speech Mother Jones urged the girls on to battle. Shaking her gray locks in defiance she pictured the scab in such a light that workers still shudder when they think of what she would have considered them had they remained in the slave pens of the manufacturers. Every man and woman and child who heard her poignantly regrets the fact that her almost ceaseless labors at last drove her to her bed where she now lies ill.

But she had instilled into the minds of her followers the spirit which prompted her to cross a continent to help them. That spirit remains and is holding in place the standard which she raised. It is leading the girls to every device possible to help the cause. Many of them are selling papers on the street that they may earn money to contribute to the union which they love.

* * *

[Photograph from cover of February Review.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “Francisco Ferrer Spanish Martyr” -Miners Magazine on Execution of Gentle Professor

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Ferrer, Aim Well, per Avrich Modern School Mv p32———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 9, 1909
Western Federation of Miners Reports Execution of Prof. Ferrer

From The Miners Magazine of October 21, 1909:

Francisco Ferrer Spanish Martyr.

Francisco Ferrer, Cronaca Sovversiva p1, Oct 23, 1909

America gave a gasp of horror this morning when it read that Spain had condemned Francisco Ferrer to be shot for the crime of spreading intelligence in that country, says the Chicago Socialist.

“That would be going back ten centuries in the progress of civilization,” declared Dean Albion W. Small of the Chicago University graduate school and head of its department of sociology, when told of the death sentence that had been passed on Ferrer. “To execute a man of Ferrer‘s character and position would be a reversion to the dark ages,” he continued. “It would be a blot on the page of progress of today. I certainly do protest against it. I will join in any general protest that is made.”

“I also wish to join in any protest that is being made to save Ferrer from the sentence of execution that has been passed upon him. It is the duty of every man to protest,” said Dr. Herbert F. Fisk, head of the department of education at Northwestern University.

Numerous other educators of Chicago were equally emphatic in their denunciation of the tactics pursued by the Spanish government in seeking the death of one who is doing so much for the enlightenment of the human race. They were unanimous in their protest against a government so backward as to desire the destruction of one of its greatest intellectual leaders.

The feeling with which the death sentence that had been passed on Ferrer was received was akin to horror. It was known that Ferrer was in prison, the climax of several years of persecution by the church and government officials of Spain. It was known that his death was desired by many. It was not believed, however, that they would go so far as to make Ferrer a martyr in the face of the combined protest of civilized Europe.

Ferrer is looked upon in this country as the John Dewey of Spain. As Prof. Dewey of Columbia University urged his ideas in education in this country, so Ferrer has introduced modern education into Spain. It is considered that Spain is now in a position where the United States would be if it sought Dewey’s life because of his ideas on the education of children.

Since the execution of Ferrer there has been rioting in many cities in Spain, France, Italy, Belgium and other continental countries; Spaniards have had to bear the brunt of assaults by the enraged populace, and soldiers have with difficulty dispersed angry multitudes. It is feared that the martyrdom will result in further violence, loss of life and destruction of property.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Your Liberties Will Go With ‘Gene Debs When He Goes to Prison

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD Slave is My Brother, AtR p1, May 1, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 30, 1919
“…while Debs is in prison, you are not free, no honest man is free…”

From the Appeal to Reason of March 29, 1919:

Banner Headline EVD to Go to Prison, AtR p1, Mar 29, 1919
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The decision of the United States Supreme Court upholding the prison sentence passed upon Eugene V. Debs by a lower federal court came as a distinct shock to several millions of the American people. It is true that the hopes of these people were not pinned to the slender faith that Debs would find a just refuge in this high court of the powers that be. While the Supreme Court frequently sets aside laws with an astonishing alacrity, they are such laws as are obnoxious to privileged interests rather than to plain citizens. Setting aside the Espionage Act, especially to remove the threat of prison from Debs the spokesman of labor, was the last thing the Supreme Court could have been rationally expected to do.

The reply of the Appeal to the Supreme court is simply this: Whatever you can or cannot do, whatever you will or will not do, in the case of Debs makes little difference in the actual and final settlement of the issue. Where ignorance and prejudice are blissfully enthroned, ’tis folly to look for wisdom and tolerance. If you had it in your power and province to make Debs a free man by a mere effortless nod of the head, we know well that you would not do so. Politically you may safely defy any storm of public opinion, because you are secure in your arbitrary life jobs. But there are other branches of the government that depend upon the suffrage of the people and that must, unless madness has seized them and they are led to listen to the most stupid of counsels, place themselves responsive to the manifested will of public opinion. We believe that President Wilson and certain members of his official family are really inclined to favor action that a sufficient sentiment of the people, clearly expressed, may demand. That is to say, we believe that they are wise enough to listen to the people when the people talk loud enough and that they are not so wrapped in reactionary stupidity and prejudice that they will obdurately refuse to follow a course that demonstrates itself to be popular.

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