Tag: Kept Press

Hellraisers Journal: From the Cleveland Toiler: Eugene V. Debs on the Power of the Capitalist Press, Fed Fat by Ruling Class

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote AtR p1 Nominates EVD for President, May 24, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 21, 1920
Power of Press Underestimated by American Socialist Movement

From the Cleveland Toiler of February 20, 1920:

The Power of the Press
—–

– by Eugene V. Debs –

EVD f President by OK SP, Mpl Str Tb p2, Feb 2, 1920

The power of the press is sadly underestimated in the socialist movement. The ruling class make no such mistakes. They are keenly alive to the power of the press in molding public sentiment and in shaping affairs in accordance with their interests. The capitalist papers do not suffer for the want of support and never die of starvation. They are fed fat and ungrudgingly by the class in power and in return serve that class with all their power.

Not so with the press of the working class. With scarcely an exception the papers and periodicals published in the interest of labor eke out a precarious existence. Ninety-five percent of them line the highway of the past with their skeletons. They lingered for a brief while and then gave up the ghost, falling victims to the chronic labor-paper malady, starvation.

Of course not all papers claiming to be labor papers are fit to exist. Many of them are fakes and run by political grafters. These often thrive in their blackmail and graft while an honest paper is allowed to die for the want of support.

Working men and women ought to have intelligence enough by this time to discriminate between an honest labor paper and a grafting sheet and they ought to be loyal enough to the working class to give their support to the paper that uses its influence to mold sentiment in favor of their cause and fights their industrial and political battles.

It is when the strike comes that the working class suffer most keenly the lack of a powerful press that reaches the people. They are always at a fearful disadvantage on this account. The capitalists get in a thousand licks to their one, not only because they can get their case before the people in its most favorable light and keep it there, but because they can put the case of the workers in the most unfavorable light and keep it there.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Cleveland Toiler: Eugene V. Debs on the Power of the Capitalist Press, Fed Fat by Ruling Class” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1919, Part III: Found Wherever a Good Fight For Freedom Is Going On

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Home Good Fight Going On, Ptt Prs p17, Sept 24, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 31, 1919
Mother Jones News for September 1919, Part III
Her Home? “Wherever there is a good fight for freedom going on.”

From The Pittsburgh Post of September 24, 1919:

Mother Jones, crpd, Chg Tb p120, Oct 26, 1919

‘Mother’ Jones Heard
in Labor Trial
—–

“Mother” Jones, aged organizer for the United Mine Workers, appearing yesterday as a witness before Judge Richard H. Kennedy, gave her address as “wherever there is a good fight for freedom going on.”

She testified in the hearing of a large number of appeals from fines imposed by Mayor James S. Crawford in connection with a meeting held in Duquesne last September 7.

After leaving the stand “Mother” Jones declared that had been her first experience as a witness in “a regular court trial.” She was one of the organizers arrested, but was not fined. That was the first time, she said, that she had been placed behind bars, although she had been arrested more than once.

———-

[Photograph added.]

From The Pittsburgh Press of September 24, 1919:

“MOTHER” JONES FREED FOR LABOR ACTIVITY.
—–

“Mother” Jones was freed today following her arrest in the steel mill districts Sept. 7. She came before Judge Kennedy and was permitted to go without a fine.

“What is your age?” queried the court.

“Ninety on the first day of next May.”

“Where is your home?”

“Wherever there is a good fight for freedom going on,” replied the old lady, vigorously.

“You may go.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1919, Part III: Found Wherever a Good Fight For Freedom Is Going On” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Steel Strikers at Gary, Indiana: “Fight for Righteousness and Justice on Earth.”

Janet RayeFannie Sellins
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Quote Mother Jones, Raise Hell in Jail, Gary IN Oct 23, NYT p2, Oct 24, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday October 25, 1919
Gary, Indiana – Mother Jones: “Fight for Righteousness and Justice on Earth”

Mother Jones at Gary, Indiana, October 23, 1919:

Christ himself would agitate against [the Steel Barons]. He would agitate against the plutocrats and hypocrites who tell the workers to go down on their knees and get right with God. Christ, the carpenter’s son, would tell them to stand up on their feet and fight for righteousness and justice on the earth.

[Emphasis added.]

From The New York Times of October 24, 1919:
-The kept press is suddenly concerning itself with strike violence. Not a word, have they, of course, for the strikers and organizers (including Mrs. Fannie Sellins) slaughtered thus far, before and during the strike. But should the strikers decide to get off their knees and stand up and fight for their lives, well, that’s another matter altogether.

MOTHER JONES URGES STRIKERS TO VIOLENCE
—–
Col. Mapes Says Situation in Gary Is Serious
and Orders Troops to Shoot Rioters.
—–

Special to The New York Times.

CHICAGO, Oct. 23.-Making the first public appeal for violence since the steal strike started in the Calumet region and declaring herself a Bolshevik, Mother Jones stirred to enthusiasm some twelve hundred strikers and their wives in Turner Hall, Gary, Ind., today following the refusal of the authorities to permit her to speak in East Side Park.

GSS Mother Jones w WZF, NY Dly p2, Oct 1, 1919
Mother Jones with William Z. Foster -from New York Daily News of October 1, 1919

[Said Mother Jones, who was cheered for five minutes:]

So this is Gary. Well, we’re going to change the name and we’re going to take over the steal works and were going to run them for Uncle Sam. It’s the damned gang of robbers and their political thieves that will start the American revolution and it won’t stop until every last one of them is gone.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Steel Strikers at Gary, Indiana: “Fight for Righteousness and Justice on Earth.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1909: Found in South Dakota Black Hills

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote John ONeill re Mother Jones Resting Place, Miners Mag p6, Sept 23, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday October 15, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for September 1909:
-Found Speaking at Labor Day Celebration in Lead, South Dakota

From The Deadwood Daily Pioneer-Times of September 1, 1909:

Ad Mother Jones Labor Day, Dwd SD Dly Pr Tx p5, Sept 1, 1909

From the Appeal to Reason of September 4, 1909:

Mother Jones Doing Good Work.

Mother Jones is speaking in Texas and New Mexico in behalf of the accused [Mexican] revolutionists and is attracting great crowds of workers. Even the papers are compelled by the force of public opinion to speak well of her work. The Houston Chronicle recently devoted a column to her full of praise. It quotes her as saying:

I hope the time will come when the lead which is now used for making bullets will be used for making type to educate the masses.

Everywhere she goes she is greeted with large and enthusiastic audiences.

—–

Note: We last found Mother in Texas, speaking in San Antonio, on August 21st.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for September 1909: Found in South Dakota Black Hills” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Buffalo Labor Journal: “Steel Strikers Holding Firmly” & Message from William Z. Foster

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Strikes are not peace Clv UMWC p537, Sept 16, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 7, 1919
Buffalo, New York – Steel Strikers Standing Firm as Gibraltar

From Buffalo Labor Journal of October 2, 1919:

STEEL STRIKERS HOLDING FIRMLY
—–
Propaganda in Sunday Papers Fails in Desired Effect
-Gunmen Modest in Their Retirement
-Big Mill and the Assessors

GSS William Z Foster, Binghamton Prs n Ldr, p11, Oct 1, 1919

A flood of printer’s ink and a mountain of good white paper was utterly wasted in the campaign of propaganda which the barons of the Steel Trust and their affiliations poured forth in last Sunday’s papers of this good, old America of ours.

According to the writings of the lads employed by Kaiser Gary and his entourage, the gates of the big mills would be choked on Monday morning with the men, eager to bend their backs to the crack of the driver’s whip

Their fond anticipations failed to realize and there was no response to the weasel voice of the hired scribblers. The men are standing as firm as the rock of Old Gibraltar.

None went back-divel the wan.

In all this pyrotechnical display of the propagandists we fail to catch the sonorous voice of our old friend, False Alarm Donner. In the first week of the strike Donner could be heard with his discordant bray over the thunderous voices of both master and men. That lad made a high mark for himself as the Grand Claimant of All. He spouted interviews like a Texan oil gusher.

They have put the soft pedal on Donner and the atmosphere no longer vibrates with his amazing prognostications.

So much for friend Donner; now for the big mill with its company houses, its Moses Taylor hospital, its Smokes Creek and its favored assessments. All are interwoven closely with its desire for welfare work and its Oh! Be Joyful efforts at uplifting.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Buffalo Labor Journal: “Steel Strikers Holding Firmly” & Message from William Z. Foster” →

Hellraisers Journal: From the Union Record: “In Retrospect,” an Editorial on the End of the Seattle General Strike

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Anna Louise Strong, NO ONE KNOWS WHERE, SUR p1, Feb 4, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 12, 1919
Seattle, Washington – An Editorial on the End of the General Strike

From the Seattle Union Record of February 11, 1919:

Seattle General Strike, Shipyard Strike Continues, SUR p1, Feb 11, 1919Seattle General Strike, Solidarity by I Swenson, SUR p1, Feb 11, 1919

—–

In Retrospect

The first general strike in the history of the American labor movement has come to an end.

Perhaps it would not be amiss to stop just a moment and take a slant at what happened-a post mortem , as it were . It sometimes happens that much can be learned from a careful analysis of events that have transpired and, perhaps, learn how to avoid mistakes of both omission and commission.

Four things stand out above all others like a mountain in the center of a plain. These are:

First-The splendid solidarity evidenced by the 100 per cent response to the strike call.

Second-The absolute orderliness of the workers on strike and the resolute refusal to be aggravated into any action that could in the least measure be interpreted as riotous conduct.

Third-The hysterical bombast and sometimes guttersnipe comment on events that emanated from the Mayor’s office down at the City-County building, and then retailed through the Seventh avenue “friend of labor” [The Seattle Star] that has at last been unmasked.

Fourth-The desperate efforts at “playing to the gallery” that was indulged in by the Star in an effort to curry favor with big business after the management had finally come to understand that its true character was known to the workers of the community.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Union Record: “In Retrospect,” an Editorial on the End of the Seattle General Strike” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: John Reed and Art Young Cover the Chicago IWW Trial, Part I

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

Hellraisers Journal, Monday September 2, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – “Small on the huge bench sits a wasted man…”

From The Liberator of September 1918:

Part I 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

Chg IWW Trial by A Young, Prosecution, Liberator Sept 1918
Chg IWW Trial by A Young, Defense, Liberator Sept 1918
—–

IN the opening words of his statement why sentence of death should not be pronounced upon him, August Spies, one of the Chicago martyrs of 1887, quoted the speech of a Venetian doge, uttered six centuries ago-

“I stand here as the representative of one class, and speak to you, the representatives of another class. My defense is your accusation; the cause of my alleged crime, your history.”

The Federal court-room in Chicago, where Judge Landis sits in judgment on the Industrial Workers of the World, is an imposing great place, all marble-and-bronze and mellow dark wood-work. Its windows open upon the heights of towering office-buildings, which dominate that court-room as money-power dominates our civilization.

Over one window is a mural painting of King John and the Barons at Runnymede, and a quotation from the Great Charter:

“No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled or any otherwise damaged but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land-

“To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice….”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: John Reed and Art Young Cover the Chicago IWW Trial, Part I” →

Hellraisers Journal: Coverage of IWW Convictions from The Chicago Sunday Tribune: “Disloyalists Hampered War”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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When our cause is all triumphant
And we claim our Mother Earth,
And the nightmare of the present fades away,
We shall live with love and laughter,
We who now are little worth,
And we’ll not regret the price we have to pay.
-Ralph Chaplin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday August 19, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Jury Out for Just 55 Minutes

From The Chicago Sunday Tribune of August 18, 1918:

100 I.W.W. Leaders Convicted-

IWW Guilty, Headline, Chg Tb p1, Aug 18, 1918IWW Guilty, All to Jail, Chg Tb p1, Aug 18, 1918

Fellow Workers Prashner, Doran, Haywood, and St. John-

Guilty, BBH, Prashner Doran, St John, Chg Tb p7, Aug 18, 1918

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Coverage of IWW Convictions from The Chicago Sunday Tribune: “Disloyalists Hampered War”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Even in Death, Not Allowed to Rest in Peace: FW Frank Little at Issue in Chicago IWW Trial

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Even in death they did not let him rest in peace.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 28, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Copper-Collared Reporters Testify for Prosecution

The copper collar upon the neck of Montana’s so-called “free” press was on full display this past week during the federal trial of officers and members of the Industrial Workers of the World. The following article presents the prosecution’s case, while giving short shrift to Vanderveer’s cross-examination for the defense. Tomorrow, Hellraisers will make up for that deficiency.

From the Phoenix Arizona Republican of May 24, 1918:

WWIR IWW Chg Trial, re Frank Little, Arz Rpb -1, May 24, 1918

DEPORTATIONS AT BISBEE ARE TRIAL FEATURE
—–
Reporter Tells of Threat Made to Arizona Governor
by I. W. W. Leader Who Afterwards Was Lynched
—–

(Republican A. P. Leased Wire)

Frank Little Martyr, Truth About Butte Tompkins, 1917

CHICAGO, May 23.-Activities of the I. W. W. in attempting to organize the miners at Butte, Mont., and the strike and violence which followed culminating in the lynching of Frank H. Little August 1, 1917, were graphically described today at the trial of 112 I. W. W. leaders before Federal Judge Landis by Charles L. Stevens, A. W. Walliser and Harold W. Creary [Crary], who were employed in Butte as reporters when the trouble occurred. Creary now is a student at the officers’ training field at Camp Johnson, Jacksonville, Fla., and appeared in uniform.

Little Seditious Talk

Walliser told of an open air mass meeting of miners in Butte July 19 at which Frank H. Little, member of the general executive board of the I. W. W. and others delivered seditious addresses. The witness said Little attacked the national and state governments, the capitalistic class and referred to soldiers as “Uncle Sam’s uniformed scabs,” “Pershing’s yellow legs,” and “Thugs.”

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Hellraisers Journal: New York Tribune Article Paints Haywood as “American Bolsheviki” Bent on “Reign of Terror”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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The mine owners did not find the gold,
They did not mine the gold,
They did not mill the gold,
But by some weird alchemy
All the gold belonged to them!
-Big Bill Haywood

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

Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 31, 1917
New York, New York – Kept Press Waxes Hysterical on Big Bill

From the New York Tribune of December 30, 1917:

BBH American Bolsheviki Terror, NYTb p22, Dec 30, 1917

The article, authored by Theodore Knappen, is a long one and describes Fellow Worker Haywood’s long history of service to the working class as an effort to seek “the destruction of the existing system of government and industry by means of direct action.”

Interesting that the same author seems to hold no such outrage for the enslavement of children in mine and mill, for the thousands of men who perish each and every year in the mines, for the strikers and their wives and children murdered at Ludlow, Calumet, Roosevelt and other scenes of massacres too numerous to mention, nor for the millions thrown onto the scrap heap to face homelessness and starvation when they can no longer work or find work. One might conclude that such an “existing system” deserves to be replaced with a system which honors and respects the working men, women and children who provide the labor that keep it running.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: New York Tribune Article Paints Haywood as “American Bolsheviki” Bent on “Reign of Terror”” →