Tag: March 1909

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1909, Part II: Found in Southeast Kansas

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones re Wall St Gov, Lbr Wld p4, Mar 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 13, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1909, Part II:
-Found in Pittsburg and Girard, Kansas

Mother praised by Appeal to Reason:

Mother Jones is in the field appealing to the workers with the eloquence and force for which she is noted. She has already raised by her own efforts over three thousand dollars for the defense of the Mexican comrades. Her meetings are uniformly crowded and at the close resolutions are adopted voicing the protest of the working class and demanding the liberation of the patriots.

[Emphasis added.]

From the Appeal to Reason of March 13, 1909:

….PREPARING FOR THE BATTLE….

Mother Jones w edit crpd ag, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909

The Mexican cases become more important hourly. Along the Rio Grande the pickets, sentinels and spies are posted and there is a state of actual war, although the capitalist press makes no report of it. The war is between the rising proletariat under the leadership of such patriots as Araujo and Magon, and the Mexican despotism with the tyrant Diaz at its head. Stripped of all collateral developments it is simply a war between labor and capital, between freedom and peon slavery.

The managing editor of the Appeal [Fred Warren] has for some days been at San Antonio, Waco and other points in southern Texas, making a personal investigation. He reports a far more serious and complicated situation than most of our readers imagine. He is convinced that these cases are but the beginnings of what is going to prove a serious and far-reaching conflict.

Efforts are being mede to appeal the case of Antonio Araujo to the supreme court, and at all events to fight the case to a finish. Additional evidence has accumulated to emphasize the infamy of the conviction. A number of other Mexican patriots have been arrested in secret in Texas and Arizona, waylaid, beaten jailed and held “incommunicado” by collusion of the American police in the employ of the Mexican government.

So powerful are the Mexican influences in those states that the papers are silenced and the courts are virtually Mexicanized in their treatment of the patriots who are fighting for liberty.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for March 1909, Part I: Found Speaking in Denver

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p3, Mar 2, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 12, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1909, Part I:
-Found in Denver, Colorado, Speaking at Protest Meeting

On the evening of Thursday March 1st, Mother Jones spoke before trade unionists, assembled together at the People’s tabernacle, to protest against the jail sentences imposed upon Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and Frank Morrison by District Court Judge Daniel Thew Wright.

From The Denver Post of March 1, 1909:

MOTHER JONES TO ADDRESS DENVER
LABOR MEETING
—–
Protest Against Federal Judge Sending
Labor Leaders to Jail.
—–

3,000 ARE TO TAKE PART
—–
Resolutions to Be Adopted Strongly
Censuring Judge Wright.
—–

Mother Jones w edit crpd, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909

Tonight at the People’s Tabernacle, Twentieth and Lawrence, labor will enter its protest against the recent decision of Judge Wright of the district of Columbia, sentencing Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell and Frank Morrison to prison for alleged contempt of court. A monster massmeeting has been arranged for, to commence at 8 o’clock. State senators, representatives and many of the representative labor men of Colorado will take part.

[…..]

“Mother Jones,” one of the famous women advocates of the rights of labor, a woman who saw many of the early conflicts of labor when blood was shed in Easter miners’ strikes, and one of the most interesting orators among the women of the country today will be one of the principal speakers.

“Mother Jones” is known to every laboring men in the country. She attends many labor conventions, and last year delivered one of her characteristic speeches before the annual convention of the Western Federation of Miners. She has been travelling through the West seeking to raise funds for three Western men who are being held in Mexican prisons on the ground that they were seeking to overthrow the Mexican government.

“Mother Jones” is a guest at the home of John M. O’Neill, editor of the official organ of the Western Federation of Miners, 1229 Kalamath street.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood Speaks & Heartily Applauded by Oakland Trade Unionists of Central Labor Council

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote BBH Corporation Soul, Oakland Tb p11, Mar 30, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 31, 1909
Oakland, California – Big Bill Haywood Speaks to Trade Unionists

From the Oakland Tribune of March 30, 1909:

“LABOR MUST ENTER POLITICS,”
CRIES HAYWOOD TO GREAT THRONG
—–

‘ROASTS’ RICH AND MINISTERS
—–
Pastors Afraid to tell Truth About
Money-Devil, He Says
—–

DEMANDS FULL RETURN OF TOIL
—–
Speaker Urges Workers Not to Let Others
Idle Away Their Earnings
—–

HMP, BBH Haywood, AtR, Feb 16, 1907

Many of the leaders of labor say that your industrial organization should not mix in politics. That is all wrong. Although I am addressing you tonight under the auspices of three of your most powerful local central labor bodies, I am not afraid to declare to you that the man who advises you to keep politics out of your organization is the worst enemy you ever had, be he ever so powerful a factor in the councils of your association.

And I will go a step further. The man who tells you that the interests of capital and labor are mutual and that they should work hand in hand, is either a fool or a knave.

When William Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners uttered these words with dramatic force from the platform in Rice’s Institute, corner of Seventeenth street and San Pablo avenue, last night, they were like a firebrand applied to a powder house. The audience cheered them to the echo and manifested in every other possible way its-hearty concurrence in the sentiment.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Spokane’s Industrial Worker: “Employment Sharks Must Go!” -Part II, Industrial Control

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote JH Walsh, re Employment Sharks, IUB p1, Feb 27, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday March 27, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Industrial Control Will Defeat Employment Sharks

From Spokane’s Industrial Worker of March 25, 1909:

IWW re Emply Sharks, Spk IW p3, Mar 25, 1919

[Part II.]

How to Fix Things

The importance of a systematic fight can hardly be overestimated. The employment agencies are IN OUR WAY. It is not worth while to try to reform them, even if it were possible. They MUST BE DONE AWAY! There are a number of very good reasons for this, and there is every certainty of success of the I. W. W. in doing it. So well known to the workingmen is it that the Union is fighting this thing that it would a dull day for the Secretary if from a dozen to fifty men did not come into the hall who had been robbed and who want the Union to recover the money for them. The instinct of the workers teaches them where their interest is. A systematic boycott of these dives, the continue advertising they get from the Union and other means, such as picketing, etc., etc., are having a great and good effect. The opposition of the agents themselves shows us that we are on the right track. But the fight must be urged, kept up, increased! Down with the employment shark! Up with the Union! During the few weeks that the Union has been unable to hold street meetings some may imagine that we have got slack in this fight. It is only the lull before the storm. The I. W. W. men know well enough who started the riot on the streets of Spokane and then tried to throw the blame on the Union! We have forgotten none of these things. They are simply drawing interest for the near time to come.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Spokane’s Industrial Worker: “Employment Sharks Must Go!” -Part I, The System of Graft

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote JH Walsh, re Employment Sharks, IUB p1, Feb 27, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 26, 1909
Spokane, Washington – I. W. W. Declares: “Employment Sharks Must Go!”

From Spokane’s Industrial Worker of March 25, 1909:

IWW re Emply Sharks, Spk IW p3, Mar 25, 1919

[Part I.]

This heading ought to interest every worker who sees it. If there is one thing more than another that brings the I. W. W. to the notice of the WORKINGMEN in the Northwest it is the fight that the INDUSTRIAL UNION is carrying on against the licensed robbers known as the employment sharks. These places are run in connection with other grafts like them. Some of these “employment” offices are in the corners of saloons and others in connection with religious outfits. The Beacon Bible Class of the Central Christian Church is running an employment offices, so is that resort for “weak men,” the Young Men’s Christian Association. The last joint, the Y. M. C,. A., has a higher price list, even than the Peerless. The sucker has to pay the Y. M. C. A. one-third of the first week’s pay for the job. This one hired goes to the “Lawd.” Lord in English.

Law Is No Law, without Force.

No longer ago than last year the employment thieves in Spokane grew fat and rich and never a man to try to fix things. The I. W. W. was the first Union to begin a regular fight against this abuse. The employers of the state of Washington have made a law against getting money by fraud: that is, by false pretense. Some men who are not yet acquainted with the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney were foolish enough to think that this law against fraud could be made to apply to an employment shark. They have learned different, however! The Prosecutor told them that the cases of fraud committed by the employment sharks were so common that it would bankrupt the county to try them all! As for a civil suit for damages it was the exception rather than the rule for a worker to win out. All this, though, was in the days when the Union was small and little known. Continual agitation and hard work built up the I. W. W. from a low dozen to hundreds of members-a social power, for the first time in Spokane. As a result, the Judges began to grant decisions in favor of the working men: few at first, then more often.

Organized Power Better Than Law.

Today the I. W. W. in Spokane numbers thousands of members. It is generally enough to send a few men from the Union Hall to reason with the employment shark in a case where he has robbed a victim. The employment shark pays back the amount stolen. He has had a change of heart.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Report from Luella Twining on Arrival of Mexican Patriots in Tucson

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

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 24, 1909
Tucson, Arizona – Mexican Patriots “Chained Together Like Wild Beasts”

From the Appeal to Reason of March 13, 1909:

CHAINED TOGETHER LIKE WILD BEASTS
—–
Magon, Villarreal and Rivera are Delivered in Tucson Jail
Under Heavily Armed Escort
-Appeal to Reason Trampled Upon By Guard.
—–
Latest Developments in the Mexican-Washington Conspiracy
-The Inauguration of Taft Was Signalized by an Event
Not Chronicled in the Daily Papers.
—–

BY LUELLA TWINING
Special Correspondence Appeal to Reason
—–

Tucson, Ariz., March 4.

I have just come from the train that brought Magon, Villarreal and Rivera from the Los Angeles jail, in shackles, to be locked up in the jail at Tucson. At three o’clock in the morning a large party was there to greet them and let them know they are remembered.

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

It was difficult for them to alight, chained together as they were. Mrs. Sarabia ran up to speak to them and give them some sweet peas, but a deputy threw them down with, “You can’t give them any flowers.” Flowers are not for patriots-only chains and jails. I offered Mr. Magon a copy of the Liberty Edition of the Appeal, which had just come, but a deputy took it and would not allow him to have it.

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

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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: From Appeal to Reason: Araujo Addresses American People from His Leavenworth Prison Cell

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Antonio Araujo, Human Brotherhood, AtR p1, Mar 20, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 22, 1909
Antonio de Pio Araujo, An Innocent Man Imprisoned in a Strange Country

From the Appeal to Reason of March 20, 1909:

Araujo’s Address from His Prison Cell.
—–

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:

Mex Rev, Mass Mtg Protest, edt, Evl IN Prs p3, Mar 20, 1909
Evansville Press, Indiana
March 20, 1909

It is hard to be sentenced as an innocent man to a long term of imprisonment in a strange country. It is in this unfortunate position that I find myself. But I have no regret and I address you in no spirit of despair. I have felt from the first that if the American people knew the truth about my case I would not now be in a convict’s cell. But the American people do not know the truth. In fact but few of them know anything at all about my conviction. The silence of the press was a part of the conspiracy to destroy my activity by sending me to prison.

Through the medium of the Appeal I have been given the opportunity of addressing myself to the American people, and I gladly avail myself of this privilege. Readers of the Appeal know that for some time there has been trouble in Mexico growing out of the awful condition of the people. For this the administration of Diaz, backed by American capitalists, is responsible. Myself and comrades of the liberal party were opposed to the administration. We were persecuted, spied upon and hunted down until we had to leave the country. When we landed on this side of the Rio Grande we felt ourselves secure under the stars and stripes of the American republic. But alas, we soon realized that the same power which had driven us from our native land also ruled the American states. Our papers were suppressed and we were tracked from place to place by the spies of the Mexican government, reinforced by American detectives, also in its employ. In due time we were arrested upon baseless charges. Some of my comrades have been in jail almost two years. This seems very strange in a land of freedom. Why is trial denied them? I do not know and no one can tell me.

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Hellraisers Journal: Charles Grant on Free Speech & Law and Order from the First Edition of Spokane’s Industrial Worker

Janet RayeFree Speech Fights
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Quote Charles Grant, Spk IWWs Sing in Jail, IW p3, Mar 18, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 19, 1909
Spokane, Washington – Free Speech and Law Order

From the Industrial Worker of March 18, 1909:

Industrial Worker Spokane, Vol I No I, Mar 18, 1909
—–

LAW AND ORDER IN SPOKANE

By Charles Grant

[Since the I. W. W. began holding outdoor meetings in Spokane…..]

…The capitalistic papers, Spokesman-Review-morning dollar sign-and its concubine, the Chronicle, were quick to take up the cry against the I. W. W. The Spokane Press brought up the rear. Rev. Dr. Bull wrote several [withering?] articles against the union, saying he considered these the most dangerous men in Spokane.

The City Council.

The city council was influenced by Dr. Bull to draw upon an ordinance [which] prohibited free speech and peaceful assemblage upon the streets of Spokane, but this applied only to the revolutionists and Industrial Workers of the World.

The Fourth of March.

The I. W. W. still persisted in the fight and forced the council to a general application of the law in all organizations, Salvation Army, Volunteers of America, etc., and on the 4th of March an ordinance was put into effect, and on that date J. H. Walsh violated the ordinance and was arrested, put in jail and fined $10 and costs. The Salvation Army and Volunteers also violated the ordinance and were arrested, but not put in jail. Their fines were also $10 and costs. All the cases were appealed to the superior court, but the members of the I. W. W., as individuals, continued to speak upon the streets, were arrested and placed in jail. The conditions there equalled the black hole of Calcutta. Mexican dungeons were not to be compared as regards brutality and utter hate for humanity.

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