Tag: July 1908

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1908, Part II: Found in Denver at Convention of Western Federation of Miners

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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The fellows who are now in palaces
ought to be in jail.
The fellows who are in jail
ought to be in the palaces.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday August 21, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for July 1908, Part II
–Found Speaking at Denver Convention of W. F. of M.

On July 18th, Mother Jones was present in Denver at the Sixteenth Annual Convention of the Western Federation of Miners when she was invited to address the delegates gathered there. She was introduced by John M. O’Neill and spoke at length. The following summary of her remarks is taken from The Denver Post of July 19th (see full article below.)

MOTHER JONES, PEACEMAKER AT MINERS’ CONVENTION

Mother Jones re WFMC Speech, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

[From Speech by Mother Jones]

Mother Jones Speech Excerpts WFMC, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

The Western Federation has paved the way for labor to come together. The crucial time is on now with the guns of capital trained against you from Washington. Did not labor of the world stand behind you in your troubles? Take the United Workers of America by the hand and thank God you are getting together. Forget the little worries over the check-off system. When we all get together we will kick the check-off boss overboard.

When you join the United Mine Workers of America you will put some warm blood into them. Don’t forget, too, that they have good members and plenty of them.

We are working in a new century and must abandon the old things for the new. Women should organize as strongly as the men. I lined up 3,000 women in the Eastern mining camps and they took away the guns of the sheriffs and their dude deputies. These dudes carried little guns on their hips and sported miniature mustaches.

Do not wait for a written document from the other side in labor peace pacts. Take Tom Lewis by the hand. They were forced to adopt the check-off system when they were up against it. Feel that the United Mine Workers are still your brothers. The peace that Christ teaches should rule between your organizations.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for July 1908, Part I: Fond Farewell to the “Loyal Comrades” of the State of Texas

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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I have just closed a four months’ tour in Texas
and I want to say that I never met
with more loyal comrades
than I did in the State of Texas.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday August 20, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for July, 1908, Part I
–Closes Out Four Months’ Tour in Texas

From the Appeal to Reason of July 11, 1908:

Tri-State Edition, Texas, AtR p3, July 11, 1908

From Mother Jones

Mother Jones Standing, Bertha Howell Mrs Mailly, ab 1902

I have just closed a four months’ tour in Texas and I want to say that I never met with more loyal comrades than I did in the State of Texas. Their whole energy seems to be devoted to the Cause-even the young farmer girls refuse to dance with any young man who is not a subscriber the Appeal to Reason. I could not, in justice, single out any particular one to pay tribute to, because all are devoting their best efforts to the Cause that so much needs them. I must, though, make an exception of Galveston. The Comrades there were laboring under some terrible difficulties. They were not permitted to hold street meetings for many months. I called upon the chief of police and found him a gentleman in every sense of the word and he explained to me the reason why, and I felt from his explanation that he was perfectly justified. He allowed me the use of the streets for five nights and they are now open to any speaker who is not trying to advertise himself by breaking into jail. I wish every city in America had just such public officials. We would have less of this thing called anarchy.

It is not surprising, indeed, that the comrades of Texas are so self-sacrificing when without exaggeration I say that their state secretary is one of the most efficient secretaries in the movement today. I wish that every state in the union had him duplicated. His every energy is devoted to the Cause-clean, impartial and just. Every comrade knows that I would be the first to condemn him if he did not merit my honest approbation and regard. I ask no favors from any secretary in the country and so I am perfectly free to express my opinion.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Socialist Woman: City of Los Angeles Locks-Up Socialist Women for Speaking on Streets

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday August 9, 1908
Los Angeles – Socialist Women Raise Hell for Free Speech

From The Socialist Woman of August 1908:

SOCIALIST WOMEN IN JAIL.

LA FSF, SF Call -p9, July 10, 1908

Four Socialist women—Mrs. Bertha M. Dailey, Mrs. Alice Vail Holloway, Mrs. Helen A. Collins, Mrs. Cloudsley Johns—all of Los Angeles, have been spending the warm days of July in the jail of that city. This, for speaking on the streets of Los Angeles—the City of Angels.

The Los Angeles Herald asks, editorially, “Why arrest scholarly, refined, delicately nurtured, women, mothers of families, and irreproachable members of society, and allow men to exercise with impunity the right of free speech?…Salvation Army speakers, evangelists, and other reformers are not interfered with…The worst feature of all this wretched display of prejudice and lack of good judgment is in the fact that all the leading newspapers of the land—ALL—have published accounts of the arrest of the little women and the immunity of the big men, and are commenting on it unreservedly. Los Angeles may well afford to do without this kind of advertising, and we think the chamber of commerce should call a special meeting to review this whole subject, and set our city right before the United States of America.”

In the meantime, the “little women” are doing a good stroke of agitation work for the Socialist movement. They are advertising the Los Angeles movement as it was never advertised before, and are creating sympathy where it never before existed. A daintily gotten-up “At Home” card sent out by them, reads as follows:

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Hellraisers Journal: Western Federation of Miners Drops Industrial Workers of the World; Constitution Amended

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, UMWC, Indianapolis, July 19, 1902
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday August 4, 1908
Denver, Colorado – W. F. of M. Makes Break Official

The reporting by Luella Twining from the recent convention of the Western Federation of Miners, as published by the Appeal to Reason of August 1st, failed to mention that the convention, on July 22nd, officially severed all ties between the Federation and the Industrial Workers of the World. Other newspaper accounts did not ignore the rupture.

From the Illinois Moline Daily Dispatch of July 22, 1908:

WESTERN FEDERATION DROPS INDUSTRIALS
—–
Adopts Amendment to Constitution
Which Strikes Out All Reference to
Industrial Workers of the World.
—–

WFM button

Denver, July 22.-The Western Federation of Miners today officially repudiated the Industrial Workers of the World by adopting an amendment to its constitution striking out the words “mining department of Industrial Workers of the World” where they appear and inserting in lieu thereof Western Federation of Miners.”

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Union Bulletin: James Wilson on the Power of Music to Rouse the Toilers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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]

IWW Emblem, IUB -p1, July 25, 1908

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!

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Industrial Union Bulletin: “Shall we Die Starving or Shall We Die Fighting?” -J. H. Walsh

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Am I to die, starving in the midst of plenty?
Or shall I die fighting?
For my part, a thousand times over,
I’ll die fighting before I’ll die starving.
-J. H. Walsh
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 30, 1908
National I. W. W. Organizer Reports from the Pacific Northwest

From The Industrial Union Bulletin of July 25, 1908:

SHALL WE DIE STARVING, OR SHALL WE DIE FIGHTING?
[by J. H. Walsh]

IWW Emblem, IUB -p1, July 25, 1908

We are confronting a new condition in the labor movement in the northwest, and judging from all the labor reports it is the same throughout the United States, as well as many of the foreign countries.

Every train in this country is loaded with dozens of “hoboes” (working men looking for jobs), and in some instances there are hundreds in place of dozens. Last night there arrived on one train in this city [Spokane?] 313 men who were beating their way. The previous night 73 arrived in one box car, and in another car 53. The men coming to the headquarters report the same news day after day, and that is that the unemployed army is growing larger and larger.

There are ten men in the harvest fields in this country for every job. They are working for as low as 75 cents per day. There are women and children in this country actually starving. This is not the worst. The worst is yet to come. After the harvest is over the hundreds who secured work, although at small wages, will return to the army of unemployed. Its ranks will be swelled again. And swelled just on the verge of winter, when hardships will be added to the workers’ struggles for an existence.

Those who are getting their “feet under dad’s table,” coupled with those who have a job sufficiently remunerative to eke out an existence, will stand united with the philosophers in passing resolutions condemning the conditions-Bryan, “God Knows” Taft, etc., etc. But resolutions, no matter how philosophically drawn, will not fill empty stomachs.

I am with the “down-and-outs”-I am broke. I am in a land of plenty. Am I to die, starving in the midst of plenty? Or shall I die fighting? For my part, a thousand times over, I’ll die fighting before I’ll die starving.

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Hellraisers Journal: Socialist Red Special Will Make Possible 500 Meetings Across Nation for Debs Campaign

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday July 26, 1908
Socialist Party to Use “Special Train” for Debs Campaign

From the Socialist Montana News of July 23, 1908:

AD ed, Fundraisers Socialist Red Special, MTNs p1, July 23, 1908

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Hellraisers Journal: “Open Letter” from Los Angeles County Jail by Comrades Magón, Rivera, and Villarreal

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday July 25, 1908
From Los Angeles County Jail: “Open Letter” by Mexican Revolutionaries

From the Montana News of July 23, 1908:

MEXICAN REVOLUTIONISTS
APPEAL TO ROOSEVELT.
—–

MX Revs, Magon, Rivera, Villareal, El Paso Hld, Aug 30, 1907

—–

The “open letter”, of which this is a copy, was mailed to President Roosevelt, upon May 28, by Messrs. Magon, Villarreal, and River, the three Mexican political prisoners who are still in Los Angeles county jail. They have now been in prison over nine months without trial. If their case goes to the supreme court, they m ay be without trial for another year to come. So far, release under bond has been denied them, though it is at times granted even to persons accused of murder.

These men have violated no law. Their crime is that of working for the oppressed of their own country, agitating in behalf of education, improvement in the conditions of labor (throughout Mexico, men, women and children alike, work from 16 to 18 hours per day for wages of from 15 cents to 75 cents), and a more liberal government such as would permit freedom of speech and of the press, as well as election of public officials by the people. Such measures as these are contrary to the policy of the Mexican government. Therefore Magon, Villarreal, Rivera, and their associates are “wanted in Mexico.”

Newspapers and individuals are requested to help these men by giving all possible publicity to this letter.

The letter to President Roosevelt follows:

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Hellraisers Journal: On Campaign Trail, Enthusiastic Crowd of 2,000 Follows Debs to Depot in Coalgate, Oklahoma

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Had the greatest meeting ever held in Coalgate-
thousands and thousands-woods full of ’em,
all blazing with zeal for Socialism.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday July 19, 1908
Coalgate, Oklahoma – Debs Draws Enthusiastic Crowd

From the Appeal to Reason of July 18, 1908:

Debs in Oklahoma
—–

Deb and Hanford, SPA Ticket, MT News p2, July 16, 1908

—–

Eugene V. Debs spoke at the Fourth of July celebration at Coalgate, Okla., after several other orators had been heard in dead silence, and immediately had the 5,000 auditors aroused to enthusiasm and applause. letters to the Appeal describe it as a wonderful meeting. It was a non-partisan gathering, but the enthusiasm was all one way, and at the conclusion of Debs’ address 2,000 people followed him to the depot, two miles away, to cheer him when he took his departure.

On the night of the 5th, Debs spoke in Oklahoma City, on a warm evening, in a close hall, and was greeted by 2,000 people who paid an admission price to hear him. This is the more remarkable since Mr. Bryan, when speaking in the same hall, an admission being charged, a year ago, had only 500 auditors. The Daily News estimates Debs’ audience at 3,000, and says: “Though the evening was hot and the speech almost two hours long, very few people left the building. Fully half of the audience was made up of women, who joined in the liberal applause.”

From Debs.

Dear Appeal: Haven’t had a ghost of a chance to write-am constantly besieged and surrounded, early and late, on the trains, everywhere. Had the greatest meeting ever held in Coalgate-thousands and thousands-woods full of ’em, all blazing with zeal for Socialism. Great meeting at Oklahoma City and two at Fort Smith. Spoke four hours and a half, afternoon and evening, yesterday. Same great crowds and lusty enthusiasm everywhere. Am to meet Lincoln Steffens for interview in Everbody’s soon as he gets through with Denver convention. The people all through here are red-hot about the Appeal’s persecution. We passed through Olney, Okla., where the postmaster was reported to have burned the Appeals. He now denies it. The indignation is great. One comrade went to his postmaster and said: “If you destroy my Appeal. I’ll not squeal to Uncle Sam, but I’ll make it a personal matter with you.” The postmaster assured him he would get his paper right along. They daren’t refuse delivery.-E. V. Debs.

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Hellraisers Journal: Socialist Party Gears Up for Campaign; Red Special to Visit Kansas City with Debs Aboard

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD Nature's Bounty, Girard, May 16, 1908

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday July 17, 1908
Kansas City, Kansas – “Red Special” Expected in August

THE “RED SPECIAL.”
Socialist Train With Debs on Board
Will Visit Kansas.
—–

Deb and Hanford, SPA Ticket, MT News p2, July 16, 1908

—–

Milwaukee, Wis., July 15.-Kansas will, in August, get a look at the “Red Special,” which the national Soicalist party will send out for a sixty-day tour, just before election, with candidate Debs aboard. When at Topeka, excursion will be run by the local committee to give all the Kansans a chance to hear him. Already over 200 speeches have been arranged for, and the number placed that wish to hear him is said to be nearly three times as large. The train will leave Chicago in August, visit the west first, then wind up the campaign in the east.

———-

[Photograph added.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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