Hellraisers Journal: Debs Bids Farewell to Cleveland Comrades at Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Appeals for Solidarity

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Quote EVD, re Red Roses, OH Sc p4, Mar 19, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 21, 1919
Cleveland, Ohio – Eugene Debs Presented with Red Roses at Farewell Address

From The Ohio Socialist of March 19, 1919:

Eugene V. Debs’ Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Cleveland
[Wednesday Evening, March 12, 1919]

EVD, Bstn Glb p3, Sept 13, 1918

Before a capacity audience of 3,000 which filled West Side Turn hall one hour before his scheduled appearance Debs made his farewell speech.

Debs was calm, His opening words were accorded an instantaneous silence. He said:

How true it is that there is a divinity that shapes our ends, roughhew them how we will! It may seem strange to you, but in my plans, in my dreams, I did not think of going to the penitentiary-and I-I had a thousand times rather go there and spend my remaining days there than to betray this great cause.

So far as I am concerned it does not matter much. The margin is narrow, the years between now and the sunset are few, and the only care that I have personally is that I may preserve to the last the integrity of my own soul and my loyalty to the only cause worth living for, fighting for, and dying for.

It is so perfectly fine to me to look into your faces once more, to draw upon you for the only word I have ever had, the only word that I can ever speak for myself. I love mankind, humanity. Can you understand? I am sure you can.

We are close of kith and kin, we are human and when we get into close touch with each other we come to understand that our good depends upon the good of all humanity.

Opposed to System.

I am opposed to the system under which we live. I am opposed to the government that compels you, the great body of the American people, to pay your tribute to an insignificant few who enjoy life while the great body of the people suffer, struggle, and agonize without ever having lived. Can you understand? I am sure you can.

Let me get in touch with you for a while. I am going to speak to you as a Socialist, as a revolutionist, and, if you please, as a Bolshevist.

And what is the thing that the whole world is talking about? What is it that the ruling class power of the world are denouncing, upon which they are pouring a flood of all their malicious lies-what is it? It is the rise of the workers, the peasants, the soldiers, the common man, who for the first time in history said, “I have made what there is, I produced the wealth; I want to be heard.”

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “About the Second Masses Trial” by John Reed, Drawings by Art Young

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Quote John Reed, Rebellious People, Ten Days, 1919
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 27, 1918
New York, New York – Jack Reed & Art Young on Second Masses Trial

From The Liberator of December 1918:

-Defense Attorney Seymour Stedman by Art Young

2nd Masses Trial Oct, Stedman by Art Young, Liberator p4, Dec 1918

SEYMOUR STEDMAN, attorney for the defense, in his eloquent summing up, referred as follows to the fact that the Masses editors asked an injunction compelling the Post Office to mail the very magazine for publishing which they were later indicted:

Do men who are committing a crime go into a Federal Court and face a District Attorney and ask the privilege of continuing it? A strange set of burglars! A strange set of footpads! A strange set o smugglers! A strange set of criminals! I ask Mr. Barnes to tell you when before in his experience, men in the City of New York came in and filed an appeal, opening all their proof and all their evidence and all their testimony and said, “if the Court please, we insist on the right to continue this deep, dark, infamous conspiracy, and have it sanctified by an advocate of the United States Court.” History finds no parallel that I know of in any criminal procedure which has ever taken place.

-John Reed on Second Masses Trial

About the Second Masses Trial

by John Reed

IN the United States political offenses are dealt with more harshly than anywhere else in the world. In the amendment to the Espionage Act [the Sedition Act] it is made a crime equivalent to manslaughter to “criticize the form of government.” The sentences in Espionage cases run anywhere from ten to twenty years at hard labor, with fines of thousands of dollars.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Trial of Eugene Debs” by Max Eastman -Cleveland, September 1918

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Quote EVD Duty of Love, Canton June 16, 1918~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 12, 1918
Max Eastman on the Federal Trial of Eugene Debs at Cleveland

From The Liberator of November 1918:

-Note: Comrade Debs was convicted of violating the Espionage Act in Federal Court in Cleveland on September 12, 1918.

The Trial of Eugene Debs

By Max Eastman

EVD Rose Stokes Max Eastman, Cleveland During Trial, Sept 1918

AT a Russian Socialist convention held in Stockholm in 1907 it was estimated that the delegates-140 of them-had spent, collectively, one hundred and thirty-eight years, three months and fifteen days in prison. They had been in exile one hundred and forty-eight years, six months and fifteen days. The length of time the convention as a whole had been active in Socialist propaganda was 942 years.

“It follows,” says Trotsky in a preface to one of his books, “that the time spent in prison and exile is about one-third of the time a Social-Democrat is active.” Reading that preface on my way west to attend the trial of Eugene Debs, I was struck by Trotsky’s unconscious assertion that the time spent in prison is part of the time that a Socialist is “active.” It is often the time that his influence is most active. And though the government may succeed in accelerating the immediate war program by imprisoning Debs, they will also accelerate the effect of his life-long service to the social revolution.

Whatever else he may be, Debs is the spiritual chief and hero of American Socialism, and I find myself in a very real perplexity in trying to report his trial on a charge of obstructing the war program. I believe that the postal authorities will recognize the necessity I am under, as a Socialist editor, of giving this news to the readers of the LIBERATOR. And, of course, I cannot write the news without some special appreciation of his life and character and the elevation of his motives. Yet, on the other hand, I recognize the necessity that the postal authorities are under of keeping out of circulation anything designed to obstruct the war program of the government. Therefore I assure the reader in advance, not only that I shall not quote or refer to anything that Debs said about the war, but that I shall not in any indirect way imply any such quotation or reference; or any discussion of what he said. As a Socialist, bidding a kind of temporary hail and farewell to a companion who is dear to the hearts and minds of millions of Americans-whether pro-war or anti-I write the news of his trial for Socialists.

When I slipped into the court-room at Cleveland a pretty young man in a pressed suit and a bow tie was reading Debs’ speech at Canton to the jury. He was manifestly embarrassed to find so much eloquence in his mouth. Debs was never younger, more spirited, more full of love and irony, than he was in that speech of June 16th.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: Floyd Dell Recounts The Masses Trial; “Constitutional Rights…are not a gift.”

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Quote Morris Hillquit, 1st Masses Trial Apr 1918, Liberator June 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday June 6, 1918
New York, New York – The Masses Trial as Told by a Defendant, Part II

The trial of the those connected with The Masses began on April 15th of this year and resulted in the dismissal of the jury on April 27th, for failure to agree on a verdict. Another trial of the defendants is certain, according to the prosecution. Floyd Dell, one of the defendants, tells the story of that trial wherein the defendants were facing up to twenty years in prison for alleged violations of the Espionage Act of 1917. We began with Part I yesterday and conclude today with Part II.

The Story of the Trial [Part II]
By Floyd Dell

Masses 1st Trial, Malone by Art Young, Liberator p14, June 1918

Speech of Dudley Field Malone

[Said Mr. Malone:]

This is a case of large issues-issues which go to the very source and purpose of our Government. And so I would like to read to you very briefly a historic statement of these issues-for these things have been spoken with classic utterance, and doubtless you would rather hear them from the original sources than from me-in order that you may have in your minds certain fundamental considerations in reaching a verdict and a judgment in this case.

In I792, Thomas Erskine defended one of the signers of our Declaration of Independence for printing a book-the “Rights of Man.” Thomas Paine had written that book, and it was being defended, and at that time Erskine laid down certain fundamental propositions from which flow the liberties of the press in all English-speaking countries.

Erskine said: “Every man not intending to mislead and confound, but seeking to enlighten others with what his own reason and conscience, however erroneously, may dictate to him as truth, may address himself to the universal reason of a whole nation

And that is the basis, gentlemen, that is the crux thought, underlying the freedom of the press. If anyone in this country has the power to say by autocratic power that a certain thought, because he disagrees with it, shall be taken out of the public discussion, there will no longer be a free expression of opinion.

Erskine said further, speaking of Paine-and he disagreed entirely with the opinions of his client, he did not agree with Paine’s views at all-“His opinions indeed were adverse to our system, but I maintain that opinion is free and that conduct alone is amenable to the law.”

I hope you will take that as the crux idea in this case in formulating your judgment-that opinion in a democracy like ours, must be free freely spoken, freely written. Only conduct is amenable to law.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: Floyd Dell Recounts The Masses Trial; Art Young Found Asleep in Courtroom

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“For heaven’s sake, wake Art Young up,
and give him a pencil!
Tell him to try to stay awake
until he gets to jail!”
-Attorney Malone

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 5, 1918
New York, New York – The Masses Trial as Told by a Defendant

The trial of the those connected with The Masses began on April 15th of this year and lasted for about two weeks, ending in a hung jury. A new trial is certain, according to the prosecution. Floyd Dell, one of the defendants, tells the story of that trial wherein the defendants were facing up to twenty years in prison for alleged violations of the Espionage Act of 1917. We begin with Part I today and will conclude tomorrow with Part II.

From The Liberator of June 1918:

The Story of the Trial [Part I]
By Floyd Dell

Masses 1st Trial, Dell by B Robinson, Liberator p13, June 1918

AT 10:30 o’clock in the morning on April 15 we filed into one of the court-rooms on the third floor of the old Postoffice Building, and took our places about a large table in the front enclosure. Ahead was a table at which sat three smiling men from the district attorney’s office; higher up, on a dais, behind a desk, a black-gowned judge, busy with some papers; to the right a jury-box with twelve empty chairs; and behind us, filling the room, a venire of a hundred and fifty men from among whom a jury was presently to be selected.

It was with the oddest feelings that we sat there, waiting. It seemed strange that this court-room, this judge, this corps of prosecutors, those rows of tired men at the back, had any personal relationship to us. It took an effort to realize that we were not there as interested observers, but as the center of these elaborate proceedings.

It was more than strange, it was scarcely credible. Was it possible that anyone seriously believed us to be conspirators? Was it conceivable that the government of the United States was really going to devote its energies, its time and its money to a laborious undertaking, with the object of finding out whether we were enemies of the Republic! It was fantastic, grotesque, in the mood of a dream or of a tragic farce. It was like a scene from “Alice in Wonderland,” re-written by Dostoievsky. But it was true. We did not expect that the judge, frowning as he read over the papers before him, would suddenly look down at us over his spectacles and ask: “What the devil are you doing here? Don’t you know that I am a busy man, and that this is no place for silly jokes?”

No….For we knew that war produces a quaint and sinister psychology of fear and hate, of hysterical suspicion, of far-fetched and utterly humorless surmise, a mob-psychology which is almost inevitably directed against minorities, independent thinkers, extreme idealists, candid and truth-telling persons, and all who do not run and shout with the crowd. And we of the Masses, who had created a magazine unique in the history of journalism, a magazine of our own in which we could say what we thought about everything in the world, had all of us in some respect belonged to such a minority. We did not agree with other people about a lot of things. We did not even agree with each other about many things. We were fully agreed only upon one point, that it was a jolly thing to have a magazine in which we could freely express our individual thoughts and feelings in stories and poems and pictures and articles and jokes. And when the war came we were found still saying what we individually thought about everything-including war. No two of us thought quite alike about it. But none of us said exactly what the morning papers were saying. So–

We rose to answer to our names: Max Eastman, Floyd Dell, Merrill Rogers, Art Young, Josephine Bell*-a poet-philosopher, a journalist, a business manager, an artist, and a young woman whom none of us had ever seen until the day we went into court to have our bail fixed. And there was another, invisible “person” present, the Masses Publishing Company, charged, like the rest of us, with the crime of conspiring to violate the Espionage Act-conspiring to promote insubordination and mutiny in the military and naval forces of the United States and to obstruct recruiting and enlistment to the injury of the service. We all sat down, and the trial had begun.

*John Reed, war-correspondent, and H. J. Glintenkamp, artist, also indicted, were not on trial

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: A Word from The Masses Defense Committee Regarding Recent Trial

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People who demand neutrality
in any situation
are usually not neutral
but in favor of the status quo.
-Max Eastman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 4, 1918
New York, New York – Retrial of Masses Editors Expect

From The Liberator of June 1918:

re Masses Trial, Liberator p5, June 1918

The Masses Case

Art Young, 1st Masses Trial, Liberator p11, June 1918

THE prosecution of the editors of The Masses for “conspiracy to obstruct recruiting and enlistment” is an attack on the lawful freedom of the press.

It is not an attempt to defend the country against conspirators, spies, or any other classes of criminals contemplated by those who framed the espionage law.

It is an attempt to put four American citizens in jail for expressing their lawful opinions. And it is the culmination of a series of acts which the New York Evening Post has described as “governmental persecution.”

Not one word of evidence to prove that these men ever wrote to each other, or ever discussed the subject of the draft or enlistment with each other, after the passage of the espionage law, was adduced by the government.

Not a word of direct evidence that they intended to, or wanted to, or ever even imagined or discussed the possibility that they might obstruct recruiting or enlistment.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Reporter Talks with Louise Bryant & Interviews Jack Reed

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In the relations of a weak Government
and a rebellious people
there comes a time when every act of the authorities
exasperates the masses,
and every refusal to act excites their contempt.
-Jack Reed

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 14, 1918
Greenwich Village – Home of Jack Reed and Louise Bryant

After a short conversation with Louise Bryant, wife of John Reed, a reporter recently conducted an interview with Mr. Reed in the couple’s Greenwich apartment. Both Bryant and Reed were witnesses to the Bolshevik Revolution during their tour of duty there as war correspondents.

From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of May 5, 1918:

TWO MONTHS LONGER OF KERENSKY AND GERMANY WOULD HAVE
RULED RUSSIA, SAYS JOHN REED
—–
Lenine and Trotzky Will Go Down Under 10,000 Feet the Moment
They Stop Representing the Masses-
People of the Bread Lines Real Rulers of Russia.
—–
Korniloff Allowed Riga to Fall to Scare the People Into Action-
If Kerensky Came Back the People Would Kill Him-
Lies About Bolsheviki Have Seriously Damaged
the American Cause in Russia.
—–

John Reed, Louise Bryant, Spart, Nov 1916The half-starved men and women on the bread lines are the rulers of Russia. The crowd is the government. The faction of which Kerensky was the head, once looked upon by the world as radical, became, comparatively, as conservative as Taft in his second campaign. This faction did not represent the crowd, so it fell, leaving Kerensky with about as much influence in Russia as one William Jennings Bryan has here. If Kerensky should return to Russia he would be killed. If he and his supporters and remained in power two months longer every city in Russia would have been under German control. Korniloff planned the fall of Riga to frighten the Russian people into action, and admitted it publicly. The Kerensky government, when the people threatened to take its power from it, practiced sabotage on the food supplies of the people, fomented strikes in the manufacturing plants, and closed down factories.

So, among many other things, says John Reed, war correspondent, soldier of fortune, unswerving Socialist, Bolshevik, Harvard graduate, friend and co-worker of Lenine and Trotzky, and the young American, who was some time ago reported as having been sent to America by Trotzky to act as American Consul General for the Bolsheviki. He returned to this country one day last week to face trial with Max Eastman, Art Young and others of the former editors of The Masses, who have been indicted on a charge of conspiring to encourage resistance to the draft.

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Hellraisers Journal: John Reed Returns to USA to Face Federal Charges of Conspiracy to Obstruct the Draft Law

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The speculators, the employers,
the plutocracy…with lies and sophistries
they will whip up our blood until we are savage-
and then we’ll fight and die for them.
-Jack Reed

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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday May 3, 1918
New York, New York – John Reed Facing Federal Charges

From Portland’s Oregon Daily Journal of April 29, 1918:

John Reed, Ogden Standard p12, Feb 19, 1918

John Reed, Writer For
“Masses,” Held
—–

An American [Atlantic] Port, April 29.-(I. N. S.)-John Reed, an American writer, bearing credentials from the Bolsheviki as consul general at New York, was detained aboard a Scandinavian steamer upon his arrival here Sunday.

Reed was one of the contributors to “The Masses” who were indicted by a federal grand jury for alleged conspiracy to defeat the draft law. He appeared in the federal court today and pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to obstruct the draft law.

—–

John Reed is a former Portland man, son of Mrs. Charles J. Reed.

———-

[Photograph added.]

From The Liberator of May 1918:
John Reed located and series on “Red Russia” continues-

John Reed Found, Liberator p3, May 1918

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Buffalo New Age: Kate Richards O’Hare, “Tribune of the People” Facing 5 Years in Prison

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Quote Kate Richards OHare, Dangerous to war profiteers, ab Dec 1917

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday February 27, 1918
Buffalo, New York – Kate O’Hare to Speak on Thursday

From the Buffalo’s Socialist New Age of February 23, 1918:


Tribune of The People,
–Speaker at Music Hall
—-Faces 5 Years in Jail
—–

FIVE YEARS AWAY FROM HER CHILDREN
-KATHLEEN, JUST STANDING WHERE CHILD TURNS TO MAIDEN;
AFFECTIONATE, BROWN-EYED GENE, NOW NINE YEARS OLD;
KEEN, ALERT VICTOR, THE OTHER TWIN,
AND DICK, 14 THE ELDEST.
—–

Kate Richards O'Hare Bff New Age p1, Feb 23, 1918

Kate Richards O’Hare, who was considered the most powerful woman orator in the Socialist movement, and whose ability as a lecturer is comparable only with such men as Eugene V. Debs and William Jennings Bryan, will deliver one of her mastery addresses under the auspices of the Socialist Party in Elmwood Music Hall on the evening of Thursday, February 28th. Mrs. O’Hare is known throughout the length and breadth of the land as a most eloquent advocate of the cause of Socialism, and a fearless defender of the rights of the oppressed.

SENTENCED FOR
FIVE YEARS.

Recently she has been sentenced to five years in a Federal prison for alleged violation of the espionage law, in which she was accused of stirring up opposition to the draft in a speech delivered last summer in North Dakota. She is out on bail pending the appeal of her case.

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Hellraisers Journal: Max Eastman, John Reed, Art Young & Four Others from The Masses Indicted by Federal Grand Jury

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In the relations of a weak Government
and a rebellious people
there comes a time when every act of the authorities
exasperates the masses,
and every refusal to act excites their contempt.
-Jack Reed

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

Hellrasiers Journal, Tuesday November 20, 1917
New York, New York – The Masses & Staff Indicted by Federal Grand Jury

Max Eastman, John Reed, Art Young, for HJ Nov 20, 1917

Max Eastman, John Reed, and Art Young, and others connected with The Masses now stand charged with conspiracy in violation of the Espionage Act.

From the Binghamton Press and Leader of November 19, 1917:

MAX EASTMAN OF MASSES INDICTED
—–

New York, Nov. 19.-Max Eastman, publisher of The Masses, a magazine recently denied second class mail privileges was indicted here today with six others connected with the publication of a charge of conspiracy in violation of the espionage act by the Federal Grand Jury. Bench warrants were immediately issued for their arrest.

Those named with Eastman were Floyd Dell, managing editor; C. Merrill Rogers, Jr., business manager; Henry R. Glenter-Kamp [Glintenkamp], cartoonist; Arthur Young, artist; John Reed, writer, and Josephine Bell, writer.

In addition two other indictments for attempting to use the mails for non-mailable matter were returned against The Masses Publishing Company as a corporation and C. Merrill Rogers, Jr., as an individual.

———-

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

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