Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “The Tour of the Red Special” by Charles Lapworth

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Quote EVD re Red Special, AtR p2, Sept 19, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 4, 1908
The Journey of Red Special as Told by Charles Lapworth

In this month’s edition of the Review, Comrade Lapworth tells the inspirational story of the journey of the Red Special which carried Eugene Debs, the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America, across the nation, ending with a big rally and last campaign speech at Terre Haute.

From the International Socialist Review of December 1908:

The Debs Red Special

EVD Red Special Cover Photo at Danville, ISR p1033, Dec 1908

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Hellraisers Journal: Joseph Wanhope, Socialist Candidate for Governor of New York, Boards the Red Special at Buffalo

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Quote EVD re Political Scabbing, AtR p2, Oct 3, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 23, 1908
Joseph Wanhope Comes Aboard the Red Special at Buffalo

From the Montana News of October 15, 1908:

ENTHUSIASM UNRIVALED
——

TREMENDOUS ARDOR REMINDS OLD RESIDENTS
OF LINCOLN’S CAMPAIGN.
—–

RED FLAGS FLYING
—–
People Greet Debs as Social Deliverer
-Huge Masses Pack Streets
-Capitalist Papers Break Silence Acknowledging
the Popularity of Socialism.
—–

[Continued.]

Wanhope on “Special.”

SPA Joseph Wanhope for NY Governor, Wilshire's 446, Sept 1908

Joe Wanhope and W. H. Leffingwell of Wilshire’s Magazine came aboard at Buffalo, and the expert work of Wanhope livened up the speech making during the day. Leffingwell made the collection appeal and literature talks. Wanhope came on his own trip, as the state committee of New York made no arrangements whatever to have him aboard, as requested by the national organization.

Thomas J. Mooney, a union iron molder who joined the special at San Jose, has been selling literature ever since and has made a record. At every evening meeting he is in the hall early and makes a “literature talk” that increases interest in the books offered and increases sales. He hopes to attend the University of Chicago this winter to add to his equipment as a labor agitator on the soap box and by writing.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Montana News: “Red Flags Flying” Debs Met in Buffalo with “Enthusiasm Unrivaled”

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The Red Special..is an inspiration,
and the trait it leaves
will blaze with Socialism that
can never be extinguished.
-Eugene Victor Debs
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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday October 22, 1908
Eastern Tour of Red Special Met with “Tremendous Ardor”

From the Montana News of October 15, 1908:

ENTHUSIASM UNRIVALED
——

TREMENDOUS ARDOR REMINDS OLD RESIDENTS
OF LINCOLN’S CAMPAIGN.
—–

RED FLAGS FLYING
—–
People Greet Debs as Social Deliverer
-Huge Masses Pack Streets
-Capitalist Papers Break Silence Acknowledging
the Popularity of Socialism.
—–

EVD w J Wanhop n G Wilshire, Wilshires Mag p7, Oct 1908

The “Red Special” of the socialists arrived in Buffalo October 1 after a campaign in the west, which Eugene V. Debs, candidate for president, says marks an epoch in the history of socialism.

“The biggest passenger engine in the world that draws the three cars composing the “Red Special,” tooted at the state crossing as it left Pennsylvania and entered New York on a tour which before it ends on October 21, will have embraced the eastern and southern states and covered since August 31 more than 20,000 miles.

More than 3,000 people greeted Debs when he appeared in Convention hall. It was an orderly, thoughtful assemblage, and cheers lasting three minutes were finally hushed by the uplifted hand of the socialist standard bearer.

He began the eastern campaign apparently well nurtured by the 18-cent meals served on the “red special.” His dinner consisted of tomato soup, roast lamb, baked potatoes, raisin biscuit, cheese for desert and black coffee. Debs was happy when he returned to the special and smoked a big cigar, the only smoke he permits himself in 24 hours.

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Hellraisers Journal: Speech by May Wood Simons at Socialist Party Convention Brings Delegates to Tears

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Women of the World, Unite.
You have double chains to lose
and you have the world to gain.
-May Wood Simons
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday May 31, 1908
Chicago, Illinois: City of the Impoverished Men, Women and Children

From the Montana News of May 21, 1908:

Montana News, Women's Clubs, MTNs p3, May 21, 1908

Socialist Party of America Button

Extracts from the speech of May Wood Simons at the opening of the Chicago convention:

When his auditors had come back from he heights to which Wanhope had lifted them, it remained for May Wood Simons to take them down into the Valley of the Shadow. It is safe to say that such a stirring appeal to the heart of an American audience was never made before. Before Mrs. Simons had spoken for five minutes there was hardly a dry eye in the house.

The sobs of women resounded through the vast auditorium. In one of the front seats William D. Haywood, who came through his great persecution and trial at Boise without batting an eyelash-the man who did not even pale before danger and death when they menaced him and his-was crying openly.

At the press table the hardened reporters, who have seen misery in all its many forms time and again, until their very souls were calloused, were coughing suspiciously and unbidden tears were falling on the shorthand notes of the speech. It was a masterpiece of pathos, that simple description of “The State of Things as They Are.”

Plain Little Recital.

And yet there was nothing theatrical about the little statement. It did not savor of the dramatic in the least. It was just a plain little recital of fact. That was all. And yet a big six-footer just behind the writer of this article was blubbering like a baby. And he was a magazine writer, too. Not for a small magazine, but for one of the most prominent in America.

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Hellraisers Journal: Photographs from Wilshire’s Magazine from Coverage of the Haywood Trial

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Quote MA Hamm, Wilshires July 1907

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday February 8, 1908
From Wilshire’s Magazine: Photographs from the Haywood Trial

Margherita Arlina Hamm, ab 1893

Following the sad news of the untimely death of Margherita Arlina Hamm, who, with her husband John R. McMahon, covered the trial of William D. Haywood in Boise for Wilshire’s Magazine, we took another look at the fine articles written by this husband-wife team and published in Wilshire’s from June until August of 1907. Those articles were accompanied by several photographs, some not found elsewhere, and those photographs we are happy to republish today.

From Wilshire’s Magazine of June 1907:

John R. McMahon-

HMP, John McMahon, Wilshires, June 1907

From Wilshire’s Magazine of July 1907:
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Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood Hailed as Hero, Cheered by Thousands at Grand Central Palace in New York City

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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: Summary of Moyer-Haywood Case From Current Literature: Socialist Press & “Undesirable Citizens”

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If they hang Moyer and Haywood,
they’ve got to hang me.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 8, 1907
Current Literature on Moyer-Haywood Case, Part II

HMP, Gooding Steunenberg, Current Lit June 1907

—–

THE murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg, as viewed by the state authorities of Idaho and by most of the daily papers of the country, came as a sequel to a long series of labor troubles between the miners and the mine-owners of the Coeur d’Alene district in Idaho. This district, twenty-five miles in length and one to five miles wide, contains rich mines of lead. Trouble began in 1892 and continued for seven years, off and on, with all the usual violent accompaniments of a war between labor and capital in a region where the forces of government are none too strong and the leaders on either side none too scrupulous. There were pitched battles between the union men and the non-union men. Dynamite was used to wreck mills, men were assassinated, and on May 8, 1897, the feeling had become so intense that President Boyce, of the Western Federation, advised every local union to organize a rifle corps, “so that in two years we can hear the inspiring music of the martial tread of twenty-five thousand armed men in the ranks of labor.” The trouble reached a climax in April, 1899, when the $250,000 mill of the Bunker Hill Company was destroyed by the miners with dynamite.

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Hellraisers Journal: Wilshire’s Comments on the Kept-Press Coverage of the Moyer-Haywood Case

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 2, 1907
Wilshire’s Magazine Comments on the Kept Press

Wilshire’s Cover for June 1907 :

HMP, Wilshires Cover, Daily Liar, June 1907

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