Hellraisers Journal: Mexican Patriots Transported from Los Angeles to Tucson Shackled and Heavily Guarded

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Quote Freedom Ricardo Flores Magon, ed, Speech re Prisoners of Texas, May 31, 1914———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday March 23, 1909
Tucson, Arizona – Mexican Patriots Arrive in Shackles

From the Appeal to Reason of March 20, 1909:

Uncivilized Methods of Treatment.

From Los Angeles Herald, News Report.
[-of March 4, 1909]

Mex Rev, Sarabia, R Magon, Rivera, Villarreal, ISR p642, Mar 1919

—–

With expressions of appreciation for even the temporary enjoyment of God’s sunlight, three patriots, Ricardo Flores Magon, Antonio Villarreal and Librado Rivera, yesterday left the iron confines of the county jail, which has been their home for eighteen months. The three men were charged with breaches of the neutrality laws of the United States, and strongly guarded and shackled like the most dangerous of criminals, apparently to give a color of desperation to their inoffensive, characters, they were started on the journey to Arizona to stand trial.

Friends of the men declare it was an insult to their law abiding spirit to effect the removal with such secrecy and circulate the report that an attempt would be made to rescue them from the hands of their guards. None was made, and the only impression created by the strong protection against “attack” was one of amusement.

Loaded into an automobile at 8:00 o’clock the men were whirled quickly to the Arcade depot and boarded the train leaving for the east at 8:05. They arrived in Tucson early this morning [March 4th] and were immediately turned over to the United States marshal for Arizona.The trial probably will take place in Tombstone at the next term of the United States court.

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Hellraisers Journal: Staff Writer for Appeal to Reason Interviews Mexican Revolutionaries in Los Angeles Jail

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Quote Freedom Ricardo Flores Magon, Speech re Prisoners of Texas, May 31, 1914~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 11, 1909
Los Angeles, California – Against All Odds, Shoaf Meets with Mexican Patriots

From the Appeal to Reason of January 9, 1909:

Mex Rev, Shoaf Interviews in LA Jail, Dec 30, 1908, AtR p1, Jan 9, 1909

[by George H. Shoaf]

Los Angeles, Dec. 30.

SOCIALISTS and trade unionists with whom I talked relative to seeing the revolutionists, who were in jail “incommunicado,” declared emphatically that United States District Attorney Oscar Lawler would never let me see them. Only once in six months, they said, had the “incommunicado” rule been broken, and that was when Mrs. Librado Rivera was permitted to hold a few minutes’ conversation with her husband, in the presence of the jailer. Local newspaper men also who had been denied the usual privileges of the press in regard to interviewing prisoners stated that the matter of my seeing Magon and his comrades was entirely out of the question. Even Attorneys Harriman and Holstan, the only persons who were permitted to see the men, seriously doubted whether District Attorney Lawler would grant my request….

The surprise of the jailer, when the marshal ordered him to let me see Magon et al., can better be imagined than described, and when he learned that I was merely the correspondent of a Socialist paper-the Appeal to Reason-he nearly fell off his seat. Socialists are rare visitors at the county jail, except when they are locked up for some crime alleged to have been committed against the government, and I was the object of much curiosity on the part of the mailer and his assistants. So unusual was the order that even the jailer would not be convinced until he verified it by telephoning direct to the district attorney himself. I was invited into a room adjoining the jailer’s office, in which were a number of chairs and a table. Ten minutes later the door was thrown open and, accompanied by their guards, Magon, Villarreal and Rivera walked in…..

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Kidnapping of Mexican Revolutionaries, “Another Moyer-Haywood Case”

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We are free, truly free, when we don’t need to rent
our arms to anybody in order to be able to lift
a piece of bread to our mouths.
―Ricardo Flores Magón

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday October 27, 1907
Los Angeles, California – Mexican Revolutionaries Under Arrest

From the Appeal to Reason of October 26, 1907:

ANOTHER MOYER-HAYWOOD CASE
—–

BY W. A. COREY.
—–

Mexican Revolution, Ricardo Flores Magon, SF Call p21, Sept 29, 1907
Ricardo Flores Magón

Probably most readers of the Appeal have received some inkling through the capitalist press of the case of the four Mexican revolutionists now in jail in Los Angeles and fighting extradition to Mexico.

It is another Moyer-Haywood case; another attempt on the part of capitalist tyranny to put men out of the way who have become dangerous to it; another instance of capitalism’s cowardly Black Hand methods. As usual, the capitalist press has acted its part either by blackening the characters of the men or by refusing the case the space its importance warrants.

Three of the men-Magon, Villarreal and Rivera were arrested August 23, in the office of their publication, “La Revolucion,” in Los Angeles, while the fourth, De Lara, was arrested at his lodging September 27th. The first arrests were made without warrants or any show of authority whatever by officers of the Los Angeles police department, acting in conjunction with the Mexican authorities. The three Mexicans, who are powerful men, put up a stiff fight and were overcome with the greatest difficulty.

It was the evident intention of the police to hurry the men to a train and get them over into Mexico before legal steps could be taken to protect them. Once across the Mexican line they would be lined up against a brick wall and summarily shot. It was a case of kidnaping pure and simple; though not as simple as the kidnapers hoped, for they did not reckon with the Socialists, whose lawyers, Job Harriman and A. F. Holston, instantly took up the fight for the prisoners and forced the “persecution” to show their hand in the courts.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: the SPA Emergency Convention at St. Louis

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I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth;
I am a citizen of the world.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday May 4, 1917
The Socialist Party of America on War and Militarism

From April 7th to the 14th, delegates gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, for a “National Emergency Convention” to consider the Socialist position on the “orgy of war.” A Majority Report and two Minority Reports on War and Militarism were the end result of that convention and those Reports are being put up to a vote of the membership this month.

From this month’s International Socialist Review:

SPA ER St Louis Conv, War Com, ISR May 1917

The Emergency National Convention

By LESLIE MARCY

IN compliance with a mandate hurriedly issued by the National Executive Committee, delegates assembled at the Planters Hotel in St. Louis on Saturday morning, April 7th. All states were represented with the exception of Alabama, Alaska, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, while Texas was represented part of the time by one delegate.

This convention was called without a referendum vote and in face of the fact that there was very little demand on the part of the membership for it. The Constitution nowhere empowers the National Executive Committee to call a special convention. In many states the membership was not even given an opportunity to elect delegates but the rank and file will be asked to dig up $15,000.00 to cover the cost of the convention. The excuse for the convention was to find out how the party stood on the question of war. All the National Executive Committee had to do was to say, Let there be a convention, and there was a convention.

As many theories were represented regarding war, its cause and cure and the attitude the party should take in the present crisis, as there were tongues around the Tower of Babel. Many of the delegates came uninstructed but there were half a dozen delegations which came instructed to vote against all wars, offensive or defensive. The delegates from Illinois, Michigan, Washington and Ohio were cleancut and uncompromising and voted solidly together for a clear, concise statement of the party’s position.

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