There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday February 19, 1907
From the Appeal to Reason: Kidnaping Anniversary Edition
This week’s edition of the Appeal to Reason commemorates February 17, 1906, the one-year anniversary of the state-sponsored kidnaping of the valiant leaders of the Western Federation of Miners, under the banner:
Labor Is Forging The Thunderbolt
for the Conspiracy!
Eugene V. Debs is the special editor of the first page of this edition, and raises his voice on behalf of our imprisoned comrades:
THESE are the three comrades whose kidnaping under the most extraordinary circumstances ever recorded we are celebrating with a special edition of three million copies and with fresh consecration to the holy cause of emancipation for which they have offered up their liberty and jeopardized their lives.
Verily, “it is an ill wind that blows no good,” and “God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.”
At first glance the kidnaping of our comrades by the chief magistrate of a state sworn to execute the law against kidnapers, and who, if not a perjurer is a felon, and if not a felon a perjurer would seem to be a monstrous crime without a feature to redeem it from execration. But not so. What else, or what less than this would have served to arouse the working class of the whole nation like an alarm blast from the trumpet of an avenging deity?
What else could have lashed the stagnant waters of organized labor into foaming billows, tossing high their spray of life and discontent?
In all the history of labor there is no event to equal it. A year ago the names of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone were known to but a few thousands in the Western states; today they are hailed and honored by millions, who applaud their fidelity and honor their fortitude.
And thus are heroes snatched from the common multitude.
