———-
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday August 22, 1909
Spokane, Washington – I. W. W. Publishes Songs Of Revolution & Blanket Stiffs
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of August 19, 1909:
Tag: Jim Connell
Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Union Bulletin: James Wilson on the Power of Music to Rouse the Toilers
Then raise the scarlet standard high,
Beneath its folds we’ll live and die,
Tho’ cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We’ll keep the Red Flag flying here!
-Jim Connell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Friday July 31, 1908
Fellow Worker James Wilson on the Songs of Social Revolution
From The Industrial Union Bulletin of July 25, 1908:
MUSIC
—–
One of the Most Powerful
of the Natural Forces.
[by James Wilson]
Among the physical forces, made useful to men, sound has played one of the most important parts. We use the word light, in a literal as well as figurative sense. But sound has more often a real, plain meaning.
Is not the ear the most perfect of the organs of sense? We can remember a tune, long after the words have been forgotten.
The association of sounds, and in a higher degree, music, is one of the most lasting and forcible of impressions.
What old cavalry veteran does not know that even the war horse remembers the different bugle calls, and will neigh and paw the ground with excitement when he hears the stirring blast of the trumpet?
We know that music stirs the emotions in every way. The majestic funeral march of Beethoven appeals to the mind with its solemn and awful grandeur; the latest rag-time dance tune fills us with the feeling of gaiety and enlivens our care-worn existence.
What more powerful to excite ridicule than a comic song? How very useful to bring out the hollowness of the sham religionists, with their sounding drum and doleful chants while they pick our pockets and tell us that “he that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord!” The debt to be repaid in the next world-probably Mars-for that its the world nearest to the earth!
The sky-pilots have long told us of reviving grace-whatever that may be. They also tell us to “taste of the Lord and see that He is good.”
How comforting to a hungry man!
Hellraisers Journal: From the Montana News: “Ode to the Red Flag” by Mary F. Merrill
It well recalls the triumphs past,
It gives the hope of peace at last;
The banner bright, the symbol plain,
Of human right and human gain.
-Jim Connell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday February 18, 1908
The Red Flag: “Symbol of International Brotherhood.”
From the Montana News of February 13, 1908:
Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “Red flag of the Revolution” flying in Petrograd.
The workers flag is deepest red;
It shrouded oft our Martyred Dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold
Their hearts’ blood dyed its ev’ry fold.
-Jim Connell, 1889
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday April 26, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: “The Russian Revolution”
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
“And let us not fear that we may go too fast. If, at certain hours, we seem to be running at a headlong and dangerous pace, this is to counter-balance the unjustifiable delays and to make up for time lost during centuries of inactivity.”
AS WE go to press, cablegrams bring the good news from Russia that “the national colors, with their eagles, have given place to plain red flags. The red flag of the Revolution is flying from almost every building in Petrograd, even over the famous winter palace of the Czar; tiny red ribbons have been distributed among the people and they are being proudly worn.”
While it is still too early to predict the results of the three day revolt, it is safe to say that the bloody absolutism of centuries is doomed and that the Russian people are on the way to a liberal democracy that will leave Germany the only remaining powerful autocracy on earth.
Hundreds of bread riots and strikes in many large cities culminated in mass action in Petrograd where 13,000 Cossacks were promptly dispatched to quell the “open and violent revolution of the people.” Several thousand imperial police were stationed about the city, provided with machine guns, with orders to mok [mow?] down the hungry crowds clamoring for bread.
