Tag: May 1919

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1919, Found in West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Fight for Flag Apr 8, Rockford IL Morn Str p4, Apr 9, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 20, 1919
Mother Jones News for May 1919
-Found Speaking to Coal Miners in Watson, West Virginia

From the Fairmont West Virginian of May 31, 1919:

Mother Jones at Parade for Soldiers, WVgn p1, May 31, 1919
Mother Jones Speaks, WVgn p1, May 31, 1919

Organized labor paid its tribute to the returned soldier boys yesterday when a parade was held in the morning between Fairmont and Watson under the auspices of United Mine Workers’ local union 4005, of Watson which closed with an open air meeting at the grove at Watson. Two thousand United Mine Workers participated in the parade.

The parade started at Fairmont avenue and Twelfth street and was escorted by Chief of Police Harr and a cordon of police. W. M. Rogers, Fairmont, president of the State Federation of Labor lead off the procession.

The Moose band, of Fairmont, was next in line, wearing their new uniforms, which are composed of a pretty blue with appropriate trimmings. The band rendered a fine program of march music. Thirty-five service men who reside near Watson, were in line. There were 200 members of local 4005, United Mine Workers, in line. One hundred and twenty-five members of local 4006, Kingmont, were in line and local 4017, Norway, had 55 men in line. Local union 4021, of Dakota, had 58 men in line and local 4027, of Barnstown had 120.

Local 4006, Rivesvllle, had 50 men, while local 2358 Rivesville, had 56 men. United Mine Workers, local 4048, Carolina, had 41 men. Then came the largest delegation in the parade that of local 1643 Monongah, which had 500 United Mine Workers in line. The next largest delegation was from local 4047, Grant Town, which had 400 men.

Mother Jones occupied a seat in an auto that led off the parade. R. E. Fitzhugh, of Watson, was marshal of the parade, which was a great success.

After the parade the column moved to Crawford’s Grove Watson, where meeting was held in the presence of 3,000 United Mine Workers and their families. W. M. Rogers, Fairmont, president of the State Federation of Labor, introduced the speaker in well chosen words.

“Mother Jones” was the first speaker. She urged all of the United Mine Workers to remain loyal to their organization. Later she paid a high tribute to the returned soldiers, many of whom appeared in uniform at the meeting. She praised the democracy of America.

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Hellraisers Journal: Bail Needed for Fellow Workers at Leavenworth; “Invincible IWW” by Floyd Dell for The Liberator

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Floyd Dell, Invincible IWW, Liberator p9, May 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 28, 1919
From Leavenworth Penitentiary Comes Urgent Request for Bail

From The New Solidarity of May 24, 1919:

BAIL URGENTLY NEEDED BY LEAVENWORTH MEN
[-by Fellow Workers Joseph J. Gordon and Pietro Nigra.]
—–

Frank Little, Grover Perry, Lbr Def Aug 1926, Lgr

This communication explains the necessity of getting some of the Fellow Workers out of jail as early as possible.

Four Fellow workers, Walsh, Lorton, Hamilton and Plahn are in permanent isolation, segregated from the others and have no way of keeping in communication with the other boys. These boys are always in danger of violence from the officials and should be gotten out on bonds immediately.

Fellow Worker Perry is in the hospital with tuberculosis, has had several relapses. Has no one who can go his bonds. Also Andreytchine is tubercular but has funds. Several of the Fellow Workers of the one year men will be released about June 18, 1919. Those who will be held for deportation will be arrested upon their release from prison and will have to stay in jail until the disposition of the cases by the Appellate Court, which may be from six months to a year or two. If these men can be released on bonds of $1,000.00 the authorities will have to pay their transportation to their homes.

Jos. Gordon.
Pietro Nigra.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Messenger on FW Ben Fletcher: “The best and bravest, the noblest and most courageous”

Janet RayeA. Philip Randolph
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 27, 1919
Prisons and Jails of the U.S.A. Now Hold the “Best and Bravest”

From The Messenger of May-June 1919:

POLITICAL PRISONERS

IWW, Ben Fletcher, 13126 Leavenworth, Sept 7 or 8, 1918
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher
—–

The recent conviction and sentenced of the national Socialist officials, the Supreme Court’s confirmation of the convictions of Eugene V. Debs and of Kate Richards O’Hare, definitely stamp the United States as the most archaic, antiquated and reactionary of the alleged civilized nations. In addition to these popular and well-known characters, there are 1,500 political and class prisoners in the prisons. Practically all other countries have granted amnesty to their political prisoners, but the U. S. is sentencing them more savagely now than during the War.

Men like Victor Berger, Adolph Germer, Louis Engdahl, Irwin St John Tucker and Charles Kruse have each been sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years for speaking a word in favor of human liberty and for making statements concerning profiteering and patriotism, the truth of which has been amply corroborated by the Federa Trade Commission and the Federal Income Tax Reports. Among the 1,500 political and class prisoners are men of practically all races and nationalities.

Negro men like Ben Fletcher, who have done more to improve the actual economic and social life of Negro workers than the much heralded so-called leaders, are in prison for fifteen and twenty years. There is no race, color or sex line involved. The best and bravest, the noblest and most courageous, are in the dark and cavernous prison cells of this country.

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Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason Nominates Debs for President & Kate Richards O’Hare for Vice-President

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 25, 1919
Eugene V. Debs, No. 2253 of Moundsville Prison, for President

From the Appeal to Reason of May 24, 1919:

EVD for President, AtR p1, May 24, 1919—–

[Debs for President, 1920.]

Since political power has put Eugene V. Debs in a felon’s cell, political power will place him in the White House. To test the power of the reactionary ruling class as against the power of the enlightened working class, the Appeal to Reason hereby formally places in nomination for the presidency of the United States to be voted on at the 1920 election Eugene v. Debs, a citizen of Terre Haute, and at present confined by a Democratic party administration in a federal prison at Moundsville, W. Va.

[O’Hare for Vice-President, 1920.]

Because the United States Constitution forbade Congress from passing any law that would interfere with the rights of free speech and free press, and because an enlightened jurist like Federal Judge Amidon has said that the espionage law should not have been used to interfere with innocent expressions of belief, the Appeal to Reason considers Kate Richards O’Hare as a martyr to the cause of liberty and therefore places her name for the nomination of the vice presidency of the United States to be voted on in the general election of 1920.

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Hellraisers Journal: WEB Du Bois on Black Soldiers: “We Return. We Return from Fighting. We Return Fighting.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote WEB DuBois, Disfranchise Citizens, The Crisis p14———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 23, 1919
W. E. B. Du Bois on “Returning Soldiers”

From The Crisis of May 1919:

Cover The Crisis, Returning Soldiers DuBois, May 1919

—–

RETURNING SOLDIERS

We are returning from war! THE CRISIS and tens of thousands of black men were drafted into a great struggle. For bleeding France and what she means and has meant and will mean to us and humanity and against the threat of German race arrogance, we fought gladly and to the last drop of blood; for America and her highest ideals, we fought in far-off hope; for the dominant southern oligarchy entrenched in Washington, we fought in bitter resignation. For the America that represents and gloats in lynching, disfranchisement, caste, brutality and devilish insult—for this, in the hateful upturning and mixing of things, we were forced by vindictive fate to fight also.

But today we return! We return from the slavery of uniform which the world’s madness demanded us to don to the freedom of civil garb. We stand again to look America squarely in the face and call a spade a spade. We sing: This country of ours, despite all its better souls have done and dreamed, is yet a shameful land.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Lawrence Strike…a Struggle Simply for Living Wage” by Ruth Pickering

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Raising Hell, NYT p1, Oct 6, 1916———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 22, 1919
Lawrence, Massachusetts – Textile Strikers Stand Firm

From The Liberator of May 1919:

The Lawrence Strike

[by Ruth Pickering]

American Freedom Detail, Liberator p31, May 1919

THE causes of the Lawrence strike are the most elemental in the whole history of the labor movement. It is a struggle simply for a living wage. But the “law and order” fraternity are doing their best to bring on what they so much fear-a revolution. Partly as an excuse for breaking the strike, partly out genuine nervousness, they are attempting to obscure the primary issues in the fog of “Bolshevism.” And the more they advertise the revolution as something which they hate, as something so manifestly dangerous to them, the more do the workers wonder: “If they hate this thing so-whatever it is-it must have something in it for us.” Fear of Bolshevism and memories of 1912 have made the Lawrence citizens and the press applaud all repressive measures. Mounted police have been imported from Lynn, and stray recruits have been added which cost the city 3,000 extra dollars per week to maintain. Their horses are scrawny and rickety and they ride with some difficulty, but what pride they lose in their consciousness of these facts, they take out on the pickets.

Men come in from the picket-line with their heads cut open and blood covering their shirt fronts. That the strikers have a legal right to maintain the picket-line is out of the question. Liberty has come to be a joke. There is no law for the “damned Bolshevik foreigner.” The brave mounted police ride up on the sidewalk cursing and swinging their sticks. The pickets retreat before these onslaughts-but they will never forget.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for April 1919, Part II-Found Speaking in Peoria, Illinois

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Kaisers here at home, Peoria IL Apr 6, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 17, 1919
Mother Jones News for April 1919, Part II
-Found Speaking in Peoria, Illinois

On Sunday April 6th, Mother Jones spoke at the Peoria Coliseum on behalf of Tom Mooney. She shared the stage with Duncan MacDonald and T. H. Tippett, both of whom also delivered addresses.

Sunday April 6, 1919, Peoria, IL
Mother Jones Speaks at “Mooney Day” Event

Tom Mooney, Prison Garb, NY Tb p26, Dec 8, 1918

Friends, fellow workers, we are living today in the greatest age the world has ever passed through in human history. The whole world is ablaze with revolt. The uprising among the unfortunate workers is suppressed in the daily press. I took a clipping while in New York the other day, out the New York World, which said that the human race has never in human history passed through an age like this.

There was once back in Greece, a young man, two hundred years after the world’s greatest agitator was marred, crucified, hung, maligned, vilified, by the powers there. There arose in Carthage an agitation and the courts became uneasy. They sent down to Carthage in those days a force that arrested all those who were in the agitation movement which was eighteen hundred years ago. We have not changed the program very much since. We have talked a lot about Christianity, but we have never seen any Christianity yet. There has never been any Christianity on the earth and there is not going to be any for a while yet! They held them in slavery or sold them, if they did not need them, and so, they brought them into court.

Among those was a young man and the judge said to him “Who ar you?” He said, “I am a man,” a member of the human family. The judge asked, “Why do you carry on this agitation” The boy replied, “Because I belong to a class that in human history have always been crucified, robbed, murdered, jailed, maligned, vilified, starved and because I belong to that class, I feel it is my duty to awaken that class to their power and their duty.” He was sentenced, of course.

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