Tag: January 1908

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1908, Found Supporting the Unemployed in Chicago

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You, you miserable policemen!
What business have you here?
Your presence is and insult to
the honest workingmen
who are attending this meeting.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday February 15, 1908
Mother Jones News Round-Up for January 1908:
-Found Speaking with Lucy Parsons in Chicago

On the evening of January 17th, at a meeting for the Unemployed at Brand’s Hall in Chicago, Mother Jones and Lucy Parsons were both found making passionate speeches which were most unfavorably reported by the kept press.

From Indiana’s Fort Wayne News of January 18, 1908:

THE ANARCHISTS WERE RESTRAINED
—–

LUCY PARSONS THE LEADING FIGURE IN LAST
EVENING’S DEMONSTRATION IN CHICAGO.
—–

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

CHICAGO, Jan. 18.-The presence of a score of policemen and an equal number of plain clothes men prevented anarchy from ruling the meeting of the “unemployed” and others at Brand’s hall last night, but there was enough of it to make the occasion lively and cause J. H. Drake, who acted as chairman, to give up in disgust and leave the hall.

Not over 800 persons in all answered the call for the turnout, but it was decided to mass the unemployed next Thursday and march on the city hall to demand work. It was suggested, if no other means presented themselves, to tear down the city hall to furnish the desired work.

Mrs. Lucy Parsons, widow of the noted anarchist, Ben L. Reitman, who makes a comfortable living out of the Brotherhood Welfare association, and “Mother” Jones all took the opportunity to air their opinion of President Roosevelt and capitalists.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for January 1908, Found Supporting the Unemployed in Chicago” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs for the Appeal to Reason: Calls Goldfield Report “an exceptional document.”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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The people will ultimately see that
socialism is their only hope
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday January 29, 1908
From the Appeal to Reason: Eugene Debs on the Goldfield Report

From the Appeal of January 25, 1908:

DEBS AT THE WHITE HOUSE
—–
Interviews President and Arranges for
Congressional Action on Suppressed
Goldfield Report
-Washington News Service Established.
—–

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
Staff Correspondent Appeal to Reason.
—–

EVD, Roosevelt, Goldfield, AtR, Jan 25, 1908

Washington, Jan. 17.-Arrangements have been completed here for a special news service, and a weekly letter to the Appeal by a correspondent whose reports of the proceedings in congress will be made from the Socialist point of view. The Washington column will therefore contain matter which does not find its way into capitalistic newspapers, and will be a feature of special interest to Appeal readers.

It is generally understood here that there is to be no legislation of any account by the present session of congress. Measures of little or no consequence have been introduced for no other purpose than to consume time between now and the approaching national conventions of the two old parties. Labor legislation is urgently demanded as usual by committees representing trade unions, but all such efforts will as in the past be barren of results.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs for the Appeal to Reason: Calls Goldfield Report “an exceptional document.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Honeymoon of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Cut Short by Arrest of Husband on Mesabi Iron Range

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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It’s great to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl.
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday January 26, 1908
Mesabi Iron Range, Minnesota – Jack Jones Arrested

The honeymoon of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was cut short when her husband of less than three weeks, Jack Jones, was arrested on the Mesabi Iron Range. Jones is an iron miner and a union organizer.

From The Minneapolis Tribune of January 24, 1908:

Socialist Held as Suspect
at Biwabik
—–

D. A. Jonas and Two Austrians Are
Arrested by Village Marshal.
—–
Believes Men Know Something About
Dynamiting of Nicholas Home.
—–

EGF, DEN (ca) p 21, crpd, Sept 21, 1907

BIWABIK. Minn., Jan. 24.-(Special.)-D. A. Jonas [J. A. Jones], one of the most noted Socialistic agitators on the range, occupies a cell in the village at Aurora, formally charged with being implicated in the dynamiting of the dwelling of Captain Thomas J. Nicholas early Tuesday morning. John Oflin and Anton Mariovic, two Austrians, are keeping him company.

To add to the already intense interest in the case, Jonas proclaimed publicly yesterday that he is the husband of Elizabeth Garley [Gurley] Flynn, one of the most noted Socialistic lecturers in the country. He avers most solemnly that he was wedded to the young woman some three weeks ago in Duluth [they were married January 7th at Two Harbors], and that she will now come to his assistance.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs in New York City to Boom Haywood for President, Plans to Unite Two Socialists Parties

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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The people will ultimately see that
socialism is their only hope
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday January 25, 1908
New York, New York – Debs Calls for Nomination of Haywood

From the New York Tribune of January 23, 1908:

DEBS HERE TO BOOM HAYWOOD.
—–
Says President Roosevelt Is Aiding Spread
of Socialism-May Unite Factions.

SPA, SLP, emblems buttons

Eugene V. Debs was in New York yesterday to help along the plan to amalgamate the two warring factions, the Socialist party and the Socialist Labor party, the latter representing the De Leon socialists. He said he was for William D. Haywood, secretary of the Western Federation of Miners, as the Socialist candidate for President.

A conference will be held to-day between Debs, the leaders of both parties and Haywood, at which a slate will be informally selected. The leaders on both sides said yesterday that it is practically certain that the amalgamation will take place.

[Debs said last night:

This financial crisis will end in an international crisis such as this world has not seen in our time. Then socialism will have its best chance.

President Roosevelt has done more to further the spread of the socialist propaganda than any man I know of. His policy, or lack of policy, whichever way you take it, along with his currency and tariff views, is paving the way for socialism. The more he says the longer the bread line will grow, and the people will ultimately see that socialism is their only hope. When the international crisis comes socialism will spread all over the world.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Thunder of Cheers Greets Bill Haywood at Brooklyn Labor Lyceum: “Socialism Is My Religion”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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We have no fight with capital.
All we want is the full equivalent for
the things which we produce.
Capital can take the rest.
-Big Bill Haywood

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday January 24, 1908
Brooklyn, New York – Haywood Speaks at Labor Lyceum

BBH, SF Call p17, Dec 8, 1907

On the afternoon of Sunday January 19th, Big Bill Haywood was greeted with cheers from thousands of men and women when he arrived at the Brooklyn Labor Lyceum. The hall was packed and thousands were turned away. Haywood declared himself a man of the west who always went armed and then produced two cards, one his union card and the other his Socialist Party card. Haywood said:

By the economic power of this gun, the working class is going to win political power.

At the conclusion of the speech, Haywood was taken upstairs for a meeting with delegates of the Brooklyn Central Labor Union whom he thanked for their assistance in saving himself, Moyer and Pettibone from being railroaded to the gallows by the Mine Owners of Colorado and Idaho.

Earlier in the day, Haywood had met with delegates of the New York City Central Federated Union where he announced that he would accept the nomination for President of the Socialist Party should such be offered him.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Thunder of Cheers Greets Bill Haywood at Brooklyn Labor Lyceum: “Socialism Is My Religion”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood Hailed as Hero, Cheered by Thousands at Grand Central Palace in New York City

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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One thing I never can forget—
that I owe my life and my liberty
to the working class of America,
and what you have accomplished for me
and my comrades you can do for yourselves.
-Big Bill Haywood

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday January 22, 1908
New York, New York – Haywood Speaks to Thousands of Cheering Workers

From the New York Tribune of January 18, 1908:

HAIL HAYWOOD, MARTYR.
—–
Grand Central Palace Audience Rises
in a Body to Honor Miner.

BBH, SF Call p17, Dec 8, 1907

William D. Haywood, ex-secretary-treasurer of the Western Federation of Miners, was greeted as a martyr by a large audience in the Grand Central Palace last night. He was tried for conspiracy in the murder of Governor Steunenberg of Idaho and acquitted. When he was introduced to the local socialists, anarchists and labor union men and women they rose in a body and cheered him for nearly five minutes. He told less of his prison and trial experiences than he did of his remedies for the social regeneration of the world, and denounced the persons whom he held responsible far the prosecution of himself, Moyer and Pettibone, who figured in the trial with Orchard.

Morris Brown, of the Cigar Makers Union, was the chairman and introduced Albert Abrams, of the Central Federated Union. William Coakley was speaking when Haywood entered the hall. Joseph Wanhope, an editor of a socialistic magazine, was the next speaker. Then a collection was taken up, Mr. Haywood said:

One thing I never can forget—that I owe my life and my liberty to the working class of America, and what you have accomplished for me and my comrades you can do for yourselves. I do not feel, in my arrest and trial, that I have been a martyr. The months I spent in jail were the best I ever spent in my life. They gave me an opportunity to think, to reflect. That is what all working men should do, no matter how busy they may be.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Shattering Grief of Monongah Illustrated by Joseph Stella and Described by Paul Kellogg

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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And it’s what will I tell to my three little children?
And what will I tell his dear mother at home?
And it’s what will I tell to my poor heart that’s dying?
My heart that’s surely dying since my darling is gone.
-Jean Ritchie

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday January 17, 1908
Monongah, West Virginia – A Town of Broken Hearted Women and Girls

New Graves for Half the Town’s Breadwinners

Monongah MnDs, Graves by Stella, Charities and Commons, Jan 4, 1908

Within a recent edition of the “Weekly Journal of Philanthropy and Social Advance,” Charities and the Commons, we find a long article, written by Paul U. Kellogg and illustrated by Joseph Stella, which tells the heartbreaking story of Monongah in the aftermath of great mine disaster of December 6th of last year. Today we offer a brief example of the writing of Mr. Kellogg along with illustrations by Mr. Stella.

From Charities and the Commons of January 4, 1908:

Monongah

Paul U. Kellogg

…..That morning five priests had held mass in St. Stanislaus’s Church and over twenty coffins were ranged in the low-ceilinged room in the basement. They were the first of one hundred and ten whom Father Joseph Letston counted as lost. Many of his people had come early to the church, a-foot, with bowed heads, sorrowing in low voices, sometimes a woman half held up by her companions, to that basement where the coffin lids closed in on blistered, swollen faces and parts of men. Four or five widows wept convulsively. An older woman read from a religious book held to the flickering light of a candle at the head of a closed coffin. A peasant, ugly with her pitted face, but beautiful in her great sorrow, bent often and kissed the lips of her husband.

All of a sudden there was a cry more piercing than the others. It was from an old mother who had lost seven—her husband, a son, two sons-in-law and three nephews. She had come upon one of them, and the people with her could scarcely hold her. She threw her head on the casket, and spoke to the boy fondly, trying to caress the crumpled face with poor, wrinkled hands. She had moaned all the way that morning from her lonely house to the church door, giving infinite sorrow to those who heard, and here her grief had at last found vent.

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Hellraisers Journal: Widows and Orphans of Monongah Crying for Bread; One-Half of Coal Camp’s Breadwinners Are Dead

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote, Paul U Kellogg, re Monongah, Labor World, Jan 11, 1908
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday January 16, 1908
Monongah, West Virginia – Hunger Reigns with Breadwinners Dead

Who among us could ever forget the following from journalist Dorothy Dale reporting from the devastated town after the great mine disaster:

Please letta me work, lady; gotta getta money…Please you get something for me, I can do.

A little hand touched my arm. The curl-framed face of a girl of 10 years looked into mine.

[She said pitifully:]

You know mans all dead. Boys all dead. Only girls left to work.

From The Labor World of January 11, 1908:

WIDOWS AND ORPHANS CRYING FOR BREAD
—–
Entire Burden of Every Industrial Disaster Falls
Upon the Poor Wage-earners’ Family.
—–
Bread Winners Killed By Wilful Negligence of
Their Employers, the Union Smashers.
—–

Monongah MnDs, Tots Beg for Work, Ptt Prs, Dec 10, 1907

In the appeal issued by the Monongah Relief Committee it is stated that of the 3,000 inhabitants of Monongah the mine disaster destroyed one-half of the breadwinners. Two hundred and fifty wives, 1,000 children and many unborn children are left without means of support. The company has declared that the families occupying these houses may remain in them until other provision is made for them and in other ways has been generous in its attitude, but it states that operations cannot be resumed at the damaged mines until these houses are available for the new force. $200,000 is asked for by the Relief Committee to meet these needs. Commenting on the situation Paul U. Kellogg, special representative of Charities and The Commons, says:

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Widows and Orphans of Monongah Crying for Bread; One-Half of Coal Camp’s Breadwinners Are Dead” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Defends Thomas McGrady “to rescue the memory of a faithful and devoted comrade.” Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Thomas McGrady found joy in social service
And his perfect consecration to his social ideals
Was the crowning glory of his life
And the bow of promise at his death.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday January 14, 1908
Eugene V. Debs Defends the Memory of Thomas McGrady, Part II

From the Appeal to Reason of January 11, 1908:

CALUMNIATING THE DEAD.

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.

[Part II]

Father Thomas McGrady, Arena, July 1907

Now, as to the next lie-and we must be excused for so characterizing these malicious calumnies-the lie that McGrady renounced the doctrines of Socialism. Five months prior to his death, when already stricken with what he knew to be his fatal illness, he wrote his last paper on “The Catholic Church and Socialism,” which appeared in the Arena for July, 1907. Let anyone who dare say that he renounced Socialism read this article, his last published word upon the subject, and find the least possible justification for such an atrocious libel. On the contrary, in this paper McGrady exposes the hypocrisy of the church, and its secret alliance with capitalism and reaffirms his absolute faith in the principles of the Socialist movement. This article, which may be regarded as McGrady’s last authoritative declaration, and which should be read, not only by every Catholic, but by every seeker after truth closes with the following paragraph:

The triumph of monopoly will swell the ranks of Socialism by the accession of the toilers and the middle professional class. Catholics will gradually break their allegiance with Rome, for necessity will compel them to join the army of revolutionists which the church condemns. The political character of the church will be revealed by her open defense of commercial and industrial despotism, for when there are only two classes she will be driven to the necessity of committing herself, and taking the side of the exploiter, the sacred charm of her mysterious influence will fade, religious rebellion will follow, and Rome will ultimately go down in ignominious defeat with her capitalistic allies.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Defends Thomas McGrady “to rescue the memory of a faithful and devoted comrade.” Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Defends Thomas McGrady “to rescue the memory of a faithful and devoted comrade.” Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Thomas McGrady found joy in social service
And his perfect consecration to his social ideals
Was the crowning glory of his life
And the bow of promise at his death.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Monday January 13, 1908
Eugene V. Debs Defends the Memory of Thomas McGrady, Part I

From the Appeal to Reason of January 11, 1908:

CALUMNIATING THE DEAD.

BY EUGENE V. DEBS.

[Part I]

HMP, EVD, Eugene OR Guard, May 30, 1907

THE Appeal does not court religious or sectarian controversy. Its columns bear sufficient testimony of this fact. We may go farther and say that the Appeal, for obvious reasons, shrinks from such discussion and avoids it whenever possible. This has been the policy under the most extreme provocation, and when there is an exception to this rule it must be for good and sufficient reason. The Socialist movement is made up of people of all religions, and of no religion at all, the same as any other political party; and no more than any other political party does it interfere with the religious beliefs of its adherents. This is well known to every Socialist.

The charge so frequently made that the Socialist party is an irreligious party and that its aim is to destroy the church and wipe out religion is simply a made-to-order falsehood, one of the many coined in the mint of capitalism, and circulated through its propaganda to injure the Socialist movement.

The facts above stated can be verified by simply reading the platform of the Socialist party, in which its essential principles and purposes are clearly enunciated, and by reading any of the numerous Socialist papers in which these principles and purposes are discussed with the widest freedom. It is true that an occasional article appears in the Socialist press touching the institutional church, and the priesthood or ministry but in such cases it will usually be found that the Socialist press is on the defensive, not on the offensive.

When the Pope issues an encyclical misrepresenting Socialism, the Socialist press cannot without stultifying itself remain silent. When a popular and pampered minister slanders Socialists from a rich and fashionable pulpit, they would be cowardly not to resent the insult. When a priest is engaged to tour the country under the patronage of capitalists to disseminate the falsehood that Socialism will destroy the home, and turn the family into a harem, and love into lust, what would be said of the Socialist press if it sat by in mute and supine submission? When a catholic paper publishes a special edition filled with capitalist advertisements, and with editorial and contributed matter exhorting wage-slaves to be meek and lowly and submit to the will of their masters, and this special edition, ordered and paid for by capitalist exploiters, is delivered in bundles at factories where the slaves are fettered and fleeced, and they ar asked to read this rot-which Christ would have trampled and spat upon-as the law and gospel of their spiritual advisors, is it likely that self-respecting Socialists who seek the freedom and uplifting of the working class could contemplate such an unspeakable outrage in silence without sinking to fathomless depths of self-contempt?

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Defends Thomas McGrady “to rescue the memory of a faithful and devoted comrade.” Part I” →