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Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 1, 1920
Moscow, Russia – John Reed Died at His Post on October 17th
From The Liberator of November 1920:
Tag: John Reed
Hellraisers Journal: The Toiler: “John Reed Is Dead” by Robert Minor -Great Funeral Demonstration Held in Moscow
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 31, 1920
Moscow, Russia – Great Funeral Demonstration Panned for John Reed
From the Cleveland Toiler of October 30, 1920:
John Reed Is Dead
By Robert Minor.
The Tzar Nicholas once complained that he was unable to have the best of Russian music because, unfortunately, the best composers were guilty of the crime of sedition and he could not encourage them.
Today the Tzar Nicholas lies in a hole in the ground of a Siberian village, and the sweetest music of Russia is played in his palace to the ears of the plain workingmen for whom the composers really wrote their music anyway.
In Moscow there died the other day a great American literary artist, John Reed. He was a young man, only thirty-three, and already known about the earth as one of the finest of American artists.
John Reed began his career ten years ago as a reporter for the New York World and for the New York Tribune. He did well. Very soon he graduated from the ranks of daily reporters and was acknowledged as one of the most brilliant writers on the high-priced magazines that spend their thousands to get the best of writing.
Hellraisers Journal: John Reed Dies in Moscow; Well-Known Radical Writer Succumbed to Typhus Last Sunday
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 19, 1920
Moscow, Russia – John Reed Has Died of Typhus, According to Cable
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of October 18, 1920:
JOHN REED DlES IN MOSCOW SAYS CABLE
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Well Known American Radical Writer and Editor
Succumbs to Typhus, According to Message.
——-(Special United Press Wire.)
Portland, Ore., Oct. 18.-John Reed, well known radical writer and editor, died Sunday at Moscow, Russia, according to cablegrams received by his relatives here. Typhus was the cause.
Reed spent considerable time in Russia as a war correspondent and writer for magazines. He had been previously on the staff of the American magazine. He returned to the United States after the war with a commission as Soviet ambassador to the United States, but his commission was later recalled.
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Reed’s commission as ambassador to the United States was refused recognition by the state department.
An address by Reed recently delivered in Moscow was widely quoted in the press of the United States and Europe within the last two weeks. In his address Reed was quoted as declaring that the workers in the United States and Europe were in favor of recognition of the Soviet republic, but that the opposition to such recognition was being fostered by reactionary interests connected with the international financial interests.
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[Emphasis added; Newsclip added from Utah’s Ogden Standard of February 19, 1918.]
WE NEVER FORGET the Men, Women and Little Children Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause at Ludlow, Colorado, on April 20, 1914
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Sept 15, 1913 – Trinidad, Colorado
Convention of District 15 of the United Mine Workers of America
The delegates opened their convention by singing The Battle Cry of Union:
We will win the fight today, boys,
We’ll win the fight today,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union;
We will rally from the coal mines,
We’ll fight them to the end,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.
The Union forever, hurrah boys, hurrah!
Down with the Baldwins and up with the law;
For we’re coming, Colorado, we’re coming all the way,
Shouting the Battle Cry of Union.
The miners faced the grim prospect of going out on strike against the powerful southern coalfield companies, chief among them, John D Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. The coal operators had steadfastly refused to recognize the Union and had ignored all attempts at negotiation.
The miners had had their fill of dangerous working conditions, crooked checkweighmen, long hours, and low pay. They lived in peonage in company towns, were paid in company scrip, and were forced to shop for their daily needs in high-priced company stores which kept them always in debt. But, mostly they hated the notorious company guard system. Every attempt to organize had been met with brutality on the part of the coal operators.
Mother Jones addressed the convention for over an hour, urging the men to:
Rise up and strike! …Strike and stay with it as we did in West Virginia. We are going to stay here in Southern Colorado until the banner of industrial freedom floats over every coal mine. We are going to stand together and never surrender…
Pledge to yourselves in this convention to stand as one solid army against the foes of human labor. Think of the thousands who are killed every year and there is no redress for it. We will fight until the mines are made secure and human life valued more than props. Look things in the face. Don’t fear a governor; don’t fear anybody…You are the biggest part of the population in the state. You create its wealth, so I say, “Let the fight go on; if nobody else will keep on, I will.”
Hellraisers Journal: Beautiful Portrait of Eugene Victor Debs, Head Unbent, Graces Cover of Liberator Magazine
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 19, 1919
Eugene Victor Debs with Head Unbent and Spirit Untamed
From the Liberator of May 1919
-by Clive Weed:
Hellraisers Journal: From The Appeal Book Dept.: “Irish Rebellion of 1916 or Unbroken Tradition” by Nora Connolly
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 16, 1919
“The Unbroken Tradition” by Miss Nora Connolly
From the Appeal to Reason of March 15, 1919:
The Appeal Has the Literature of the
World’s New Revolutions
The Appeal Book Dept., the greatest mail order book house in the world, distributes the kind of books radicals want. For example, we are now placing particular emphasis on literature about the Irish Rebellion, the German Revolution and the Russian Revolution.
[The article goes on to describe “The German Revolution”-documents compiled by the Appeal Book Dept., and “Ten Days That Shook the World” by John Reed, offered with “The Constitution of the Russian Soviet.”]
Finally, we have the story of the Irish Rebellion by Nora Connolly. Her book is entitled “The Unbroken Tradition.” Of all the episodes that belong to the war the episode of the Irish Insurrection of 1916 is the most dramatic and the most picturesque. Here is that episode as lived through by the daughter of the Commandant of the Irish Republican Army, James Connolly. Miss Connolly’s story related with the utmost simplicity, is most moving in its human and dramatic appeal. And apart from its extraordinary interest as a narrative it gives a memorable glimpse of the Irish spirit, of the steadfast adherence of the Irish people to their ideals-what Miss Connolly called “The Unbroken Tradition.” A thrilling story thrillingly told. The Appeal Book Dept. has a large edition of this large, clothbound book, illustrated with maps and reproductions of street scenes during the revolution, and orders can be promptly filled at $1.50 per copy, postage prepaid by the Appeal.
[Photograph added.]
Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: John Reed’s Latest Book Tells the Truth About the Russian Revolution
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday March 13, 1919
“Ten Days That Shook the World,” John Reed on the Russian Revolution
From the Appeal to Reason of March 8, 1919:
John Reed’s Latest Book Tells
Truth About Russia
“Ten days that Shook the World,” by John Reed, is the newest, and it is safe to say, the best book written about the Russian Revolution. The Appeal Book Dept., the largest mail order book house in the world, has a large stock of this new book and is ready to fill orders at once.
Do you know what occurred during the ten days of the Bolshevik Revolution in Petrograd? John Reed was there, and he will tell you if you do not know.
What did Trotzky prophesy seven days before the insurrection? John Reed knows, and his book will tell you. What was Kerensky thinking just before his government fell? John Reed had the last interview with him, and the report of this important interview is given a prominent place in “Ten Days That Shook the World.” How did the Bolsheviki make up their minds to revolt? John Reed knows what went on in the secret Bolshevik Conference of October 23, 1917, and his book tells the story accurately.
This book is a moving picture of those thrilling days in Petrograd. It is a serious attempt to tell all the details about the bolshevik coup d’ etat. It will be used as an original source by historians of the great Russian Revolution.
Can you answer these questions?
What is Bolshevism? What is the history of the Bolsheviki? Who are the cadets? What was the role of the Russian bourgeoisie in the Revolution? What kind of a governmental structure did the Bolsheviki set up? If the Bolsheviki championed the Constituent Assembly before the November Revolution, why did they disperse it by force of arms afterward? And if the bourgeoisie opposed the Constituent Assembly until the danger of Bolshevism became apparent, why did they champion it afterward?
Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: John Reed and Art Young with Eugene Debs in Terre Haute, July 4th, Part II
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, Sunday September 8, 1918
Terre Haute, Indiana – John Reed and Art Young with Debs on July 4th
From The Liberator of September 1918:
With Gene Debs on the Fourth
By John Reed
[Part II]
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It was on the Fourth of July that Art Young and I went to Terre Haute to see Gene. Barely a month before, the terrible rumor had gone round, chilling all our hearts- “Gene Debs is going back on the party!” That lie he nailed in the ringing statement published in the New York Call, and the Wallings, the Simonses, the Bensons cringed under the lash of his words…. Then came his tour through the middle states, menaced everywhere with arrest, violence, even lynching…and Debs calmly speaking according to schedule, fearless, fiery and full of love of people…. Then his Canton speech, a clear internationalist manifesto, and the Cleveland arrest.
“Gene Debs arrested! They’ve arrested Gene!” people said everywhere, with a shock, a feeling of pity, of affection, of rage. Nothing that has happened in the United States this year has stirred so many people just this way. The long sentences given to conscientious objectors, the suppression of the Socialist press, the indictment of editors, lecturers, Socialist officials under the Espionage and Sedition Acts-people didn’t seem to be deeply moved by these things; but the arrest indictment of Gene Debs-of Gene Debs as a traitor to his country! That was like a slap in the face to thousands of simple people-many of them not Socialists at all-who had heard him speak and therefore loved him. Not to mention the hundreds he has personally befriended, helped or even saved from every sort of evil….
“Gene Debs arrested! Our Gene! That’s going too far!”
Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: John Reed and Art Young with Eugene Debs in Terre Haute, July 4th, Part I
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, Saturday September 7, 1918
Terre Haute, Indiana – John Reed and Art Young with Debs on July 4th
From The Liberator of September 1918:
With Gene Debs on the Fourth
By John Reed
[Part I]
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“WHAT’LL it be, Mr. Sparks?” asked the drug-clerk, with the familiarity of common citizenship in Terre Haute, Indiana, and the respect due to a successful politician.
“Gimme a nut sundae, George,” said the lawyer, who lived around the corner on Sycamore street. Sparks is not his real name. He was dressed up in a new grey suit, adorned with a small American flag, buttons of the First and Third Liberty loans, and a Red Cross emblem. “Reg’lar Fourth o’ July weather, hey George?”
Through the windows of the drug-store Eighth Street looked extremely animated; with families trooping toward the center of the town, flags aslant in children’s hands, mother and pa in holiday attire and sweating freely; with patriarchal automobiles of neighboring farmers, full of starched youngsters and draped with bunting. Faintly came the sound of an occasional fire-cracker, and the thin strains of martial music from the parade. A hot, sticky wind blew occasional puffs of yellow dust up the street.
“Yes, we got a spell of heat all right,” responded George. “We’re going to close the store pretty soon and go up town to see the p’rade.” He scooped ice-cream and went on gossiping. “They say Gene Debs has got arrested up to Cleve-land….”
Everyone in the place stopped talking and looked up.
“Yes,” said the lawyer in a satisfied tone. “Ye-e-es, I guess from what the papers say Gene stepped over the line this time. I guess they’ll shut him up now.”
Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: John Reed and Art Young Cover the Chicago IWW Trial, Part IV
Remember, this is the only
American working-class movement which sings.
Tremble then at the I. W. W.,
for a singing movement is not to be beaten.
-Jack Reed
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday September 5, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – “Take care, most arrogant master-class…”
From The Liberator of September 1918:
Part IV of John Reed’s coverage of Chicago I. W. W. trial with drawings by Art Young-
The Social Revolution In Court
By Art Young And John Reed—–
—–Day after day, all summer, witness after witness from the firing-line of the Class Struggle has taken the stand, and helped to shape the great labor epic; strike-leaders, gunmen, rank and file workers, agitators, deputies, police, stool-pigeons, Secret Service operatives.
I heard Frank Rogers, a youth grown black and bitter, with eyes full of vengeance, tell briefly and drily of the Speculator mine fire, and how hundreds of men burned to death because the company would not put doors in the bulk-heads. He spoke of the assassination of Frank Little, who was hung by “vigilantes” in Montana, and how the miners of Butte swore to remember…. (In the General Headquarters of the I. W. W. there is a death mask of Frank Little, blind, disdainful, set in a savage sneer.)
Oklahoma, the tar-and-feathering of the workers at Tulsa; Everett, and the five graves of Sheriff McRae’s victims on the hill behind Seattle… all this has come out, day by day, shocking story on story. I sat for the better part of two days listening to A. S. Embree telling over again the astounding narrative of the Arizona deportations; and as I listened, looked at photographs of the miners being marched across the arid country, between rows of men who carried rifles in the hollow of their arms, and wore white handkerchiefs about their wrists.
