Tag: Mexican Revolution

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1921: Journalist Claims Mother Jones Helping to Make Mexico Safe for American Business

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote Mother Jones PAFL Congress, p72, Jan 13, 1921———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 25, 1921
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1921
-C. H. Newell Claims Mother Jones is Helping to Make Mexico Safe

From the Salt Lake Telegram of February 1, 1921:

MAKING MEXICO SAFE PLACE FOR ALL
———-
Obregon, Villareal, Gompers and
“Mother Jones” Fight Bolshevism
———

By C. H. NEWELL

Mother Jones, ed WDC Tx p2, Aug 29, 1920

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 1.-Mexico’s “big four” are Obregon, Gompers, Villareal and Mother Jones.

They’re making Mexico safe for Americans and American business.

The great American drive to capture the immensely rich Mexican trade is on full blast…..

“MOTHER” IS HELPING.

Mother Jones, America’s 90-year-young labor leader, is helping to put the skids under bolshevism in Mexico.

Her visit to Mexico, at first hailed with glee by Communist party organizers, has resolved itself into a characteristic crusade for trade union organization.

This means, employers and government officials say, a better chance for the Obregon administration to get the country back on a productive basis.

[Mother Jones says:]

Education is the fundamental need of Mexico. I’m down here to preach the gospel of education for workers.

When they get education they will know how to act to achieve full industrial as well as political rights. And the agency through which they will make the most rapid, peaceful progress is the Pan-America Labor federation, backed as it is by the American Federation of Labor.

This is what Mother Jones told the communists at the labor convention:

SAYS IT IS BEST.

Uncle Sam’s government may not be perfect, but it is the best one on earth today. So you rats may just as well understand that if you open your mouths against my country, I will grab you by the collar, drag you out of your hole, and shake hell out of you.

Mother Jones is the personal guest of General Antonio Villareal, who, as secretary of agriculture, is trying to restore farming and ranching pursuits, with real success.

Several years ago an effort was being made by mining and timber interests of northern Mexico have Villareal deported from the United States. His deportation would have meant his death.

Mother Jones made a trip to Washington in his behalf and he was not deported.

Villareal has been one of the foremost in restoring mail, wire, railway and ship service, so all important lines of communication are now open in the country.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: Jack London Calls Himself a “Chicken Thief” -Supports Comrades of Mexican Revolution

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Jack London, Comrades of Mexican Revolution, Sac Str p1, Feb 6, 1911———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 9, 1911
Jack London Supports “Dear Brave Comrades of Mexican Revolution”

From The Sacramento Star of February 6, 1911:

JACK LONDON CALLS SELF
CHICKEN-THIEF

Jack London, The Comrade p 122, March 1903

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 6-Friends of Jack London, the author, today are expressing surprise over a communication the writer sent to a gathering of Socialist and Mexican revolt sympathizers here last night in which he proclaimed himself a “chicken thief and a revolutionist.” Although used to the radical socialistic expression of London, his friends say be went further last night than ever before. His letter to the meeting follows:

To the dear, brave comrades of the Mexican revolution:

We Socialists, anarchists, hoboes, chicken thieves, outlaws and undesirable citizens of the United State are with you heart and soul in your effort to overthrow slavery and autocracy in Mexico. You will notice that we are not respectable. Neither are you. No revolutionist can possibly be respectable in these days of the reign of property. All the names you are being called we have been called. And when graft and greed get up and begin to call names, honest men, brave men, patriotic men and martyrs can expect nothing else than to be called chicken thieves and outlaws.

So be it. But I, for one, wish that there were more chicken thieves and outlaws of the sort that formed the gallant band that took Mexicali, of the sort that is heroically enduring the prison holes of Diaz, of the sort that it fighting and dying and sacrificing in Mexico today.

I subscribe myself a chicken thief and revolutionist.

JACK LONDON.

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: “Madre Juanita” in Mexico City, Greeted by Thousands of Workers and Shower of Flowers

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Un-Christ-Like Greed, IN DlyT Ipls p1, July 15, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 13, 1921
Mexico City – Mother Jones Greeted by Shower of Flowers

Translated from Mexico City’s  El Universal of January 10, 1921:

Mother Jones Arrives in Mexico City

Mother Jones, UMWJ p11, July 15, 1920

Upon arriving at Buena Vista station in Mexico City [on the morning of January 9th], Mother Jones was met by 2,000 workers among whom were a large feminine contingent from the factories: El Recuerdo, El Buen Tono, Tabacelera, Cigarrera, La Estrella, Departmentos Fabules, and from the Trade Union of Waitresses, etc., all of whom carried, as did the male element, the banners of their respective groups…..

Mother Jones was the object of singular interest. With ninety years on her shoulders, she is one of the most indefatigable fighters for working-class organization in the United States.

Amidst a veritable shower of flowers, Mother Jones was brought in an auto from the platform of the station to the Glorieta Cuauhtémoc, where another contingent of trade union workers were awaiting her. They applauded her and threw fragrant sprays of roses. In the Glorieta, a demonstration was organized to honor Mother Jones, and was followed by a parade to the Hotel St. Francis where several Mexican workers spoke, and the guest of honor answered. She did so in virile and intrepid language, saying , in short, that when she first visited Mexico [in 1911], she never believed the workers’ movement in this country would have reached its present numbers and effectiveness; that she had been struggling in the field of ideas and action for years and years, a a struggle which would end only with her death; that she had dedicated her existence to seeking the economic, moral, and cultural development of the working class. She ended with a tribute to the Mexican workers affirming that only on the day when a single language and a single nation would exist on earth, would human happiness have been achieved.

Mother Jones is an elderly lady whose appearance is as modest as it its admirable, a woman with a very friendly behavior.

———-

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: Mexico’s Díaz Regime Replies to Reporting from the Appeal to Reason

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote John Murray re Rio Blanco Martyrs, ISR p653, Mar 1909———–

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 2, 1910
“Mexico Replies to the Appeal to Reason” by C. M. Brooks

From the International Socialist Review of October 1910:

Mexico Dictator Diaz, ISR p211, Oct 1, 1910

Letter T, ISR p894, Apr 1910

HE exposures of the horrible conditions in Mexico by John Kenneth Turner, in the Appeal to Reason, are arousing a spirit of inquiry all over the United States that is going to prove increasingly embarrassing to the government on this side of the border line. Famous captains of industry who have invested heavily in Mexican industries are becoming alarmed. It is interesting to note the sudden bursts of enthusiasm experienced by some of the radical magazines and newspapers on matters Mexican these days. Evidently somebody’s palm has been crossed, or somebody’s pocket-book has been touched or somebody’s skin has been threatened. One grows curious to see just how far the epidemic will spread.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part III

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Zapata Die Fighting, Wikiquote———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 31, 1920
“The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part III

From The Liberator of July 1920:

The Mexican Revolution

By Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman

[Part III of III.]

Mex Rev, Zapatistas Mexico City, Liberator p5, July 1920

There are other interesting personalities behind the new revolution-Calles
[Plutarco Elías Calles] (pronounced Kah-yayz), for example, ex-military governor of Sonora, Secretary of Commerce and Labor and leader of the Sonora secession. He is without doubt the most forceful, the most radical, the most intelligent and widely informed among the present leaders of Mexico.

As governor of Sonora he proved himself a champion of labor, and he gave the Indians lands, and each a gun and five hundred rounds of ammunition with which to protect and hold them. Carranza immediately telegraphed him, when these acts became known, to take back the lands. Calles replied: “Send a stronger man than I am, for I can’t do it.” Calles has tried to enforce Article I23 of the Constitution, which is the most enlightened labor code of any capitalist country. As a result the Phelps-Dodge Company, which operates the great copper mines at Cananea, closed their works. Calles instructed the workers to take charge of them and run them. He told me how surprised he was to see how well they did it. The representatives of the Phelps-Dodge Company hurried back upon the scene with a great bill for damages. Calles admitted their claims, but then he turned to the Mexican constitution.

“I read here,” he said, “that any company that ceases operations without giving two weeks’ notice must pay three months’ salary to its employees. Go bring your payrolls, and we will strike a balance to see how much YOU owe the workers, whom I represent.” The mine representatives decided to return to Cananea and put in safety appliances, build club rooms, reading rooms, and, to crown all, a huge concrete swimming pool for the workers.

“Do you know of any other mine in the world that has a swimming pool for its workers?” Calles asked me as he told this story, and then he laughed. At the same time the same company, just over the international line in Bisbee, was driving its workers, across the heat-eaten sands of the desert. so Calles, not being able to enforce Article I23 in the civilized United States, did what he could by sending food to the unfortunate victims.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Zapata Die Fighting, Wikiquote———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday July 30, 1920
“The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part II

From The Liberator of July 1920:

The Mexican Revolution

By Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman

[Part II of III.]

Mex Rev, Obregon Mexico City, Liberator p4, July 1920

There have been a great many myths regarding the benefits of the Carranza régime, such as the opening of schools, giving lands to the Indians, nationalizing the sub-soil, etc., etc. One by one the pitifully few schools of the Diaz administration have been closed until Tacubaya and Mixcoac, two of the largest residence suburbs of Mexico City cannot boast a single public school. Land, given to the Indians, has in many cases, as in Yucatan, Tabasco and Morelos, been wrested away by military might, while a single grant to a General has often amounted to more in area than all the lands given away to the people during the whole of the Carranza rule. Under the cloak of the slogan of Mexico for the Mexicans, which has so attracted the imaginations of American radicals, he has stabbed every liberty in the back, and has built up a grasping, grafting, unprincipled military clique, the members of which have ridden across the land looting, murdering and stirring up revolt, until the federal soldier is more feared and hated than the bandit.

Directly the revolution resulted from two things: the attempt on the part of the government to railroad Bonillas, former ambassador at Washington, into the presidency; and the attempt to repeat the story of Yucatan and its murders in Sonora, the home state of Obregon.

To guarantee the election of Bonillas, government candidates were imposed by force in half a dozen states, Obregon meetings were broken up by the sabers of the man on horseback, Obregon himself was arrested on fake charges of inciting a rebellion. The knowing shook their heads, and predicted his murder within a week or two.

In the meantime Carranza was pouring soldiers into Sonora, against the repeated remonstrances of Governor de la Huerta, to crush the railroad strike and several mining strikes that were on, and probably in addition to break up the state government and impose his own officials as he had done in Yucatan, in Tabasco, in half a dozen other states.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part I

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Zapata Die Fighting, Wikiquote———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 29, 1920
“The Mexican Revolution” by Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman, Part I

From The Liberator of July 1920:

The Mexican Revolution

By Carleton Beals and Robert Haberman

[Part I of III.]

Mex Rev, Zapatistas Mexico City, Liberator p5, July 1920

AFTER ten years of practice any people should understand quite thoroughly the technique of conducting a respectable, eat-out-of-your-hand revolution. The Mexican revolution which brought a new régime into power some few days ago was orderly, efficient, easily successful. Less than a month from the day the sovereign state of Sonora raised the banner of revolt, the revolutionary army-el ejercito liberal revolucionario-galloped into the capital without the firing of a single shot.

They looked strange-those men from the hills, on their lean, tired ponies, as they pounded down Avenida Francisco Madero, Mexico’s fashionable Fifth Avenue, dusty and ragged-colorful with great red and blue bandana handkerchiefs and vivid shirts, with flowers hung on their carbines, but eyes grim with purpose. Yet Mexico paid little attention to them. The stores were open; the honking automobiles crowded the flanks of their ponies; fashionable women went unconcernedly about their shopping. Only occasionally did they stop with a rustle of their silk gowns to gaze at the queer outlaw crew of sandalled Indians and Mestizos sweeping by beneath their great, bobbing sombreros.

During those first days I roamed the streets disconsolately-box seats at a Mexican revolutionary melodrama and no thrills. I tried to imagine the turnover as being a cross-your-heart-to-die proletarian revolution, but merely spoiled the afternoon wishing I were in Russia.

Nevertheless, I made the most of it; hired an automobile and dashed around town taking snapshots of generals-who were easier to find than soldiers-scoured the countryside looking for the victoriously approaching Obregon who was expected in the capital within forty-eight hours with an immense force, of which the bands of cavalry we had seen were the paltry forerunners. Early in the afternoon we burnt up the road to Guadelupe Hidalgo-that venerated religious mecca of Mexico five miles outside of the capital, whishing past red-cross machines speeding back from the wreck of one of the Carranza military trains that had evacuated the capital some twenty minutes before the rebels arrived.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for August 1909, Part II: Found in San Antonio, Fighting for Imprisoned Mexican Revolutionaries

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones Save Our Mexican Comrades, AtR p3, Feb 20, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 13, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for August 1909, Part II:
-Found in San Antonio, Fighting for Mexican Revolutionaries

From the Beaumont Daily Enterprise of August 20, 1909:

“MOTHER” JONES GETTING BUSY
—–
She Will Actively Enter Fight For
“Liberty in Old Mexico.”

Special to the Enterprise.

Mother Jones, Elkhart IN Dly Rv p2, Crpd, July 19, 1909

San Antonio, Texas, Aug. 19-Much interest has been aroused in the case of Thomas [Tomás] Sarabia and Jose [José] M. Rangel, who are in the county jail charged with violation of the United States neutrality laws, by the arrival of “Mother Jones,” who will hold a series of mass meetings, protesting against the imprisonment of the men and the coming of Andrea Villareal [Villarreal], sister of Antonio Villareal an alleged revolutionist, now in prison in Los Angeles, Cal. The first of these meetings will be held Saturday night [August 21st] in a large tent on East Houston street and will be addressed by “Mother Jones.” Andrea Villareal is expected to arrive Monday.

It is a noteworthy fact that the Mexican population of the city are taking a great interest in the matter pertaining to the imprisoned men. This is particularly noticeable among the laboring class of the Mexicans and the matter is being discussed in all quarters. The wealthy class and also Americans who have financial interests in Mexico are trying to belittle the matter and say it is the work of sensation mongers. They feel confident that the United States will uphold the Mexican government and extradite the men now being held. It is expected that these meetings will do much to encourage the cause of the revolutionists in the proposed overthrow of the Diaz government and will tend to arouse feelings against Diaz. “Mother Jones” says she will have much of interest to say at the protest meeting. “Mother Jones” figured prominently in the strikes in the anthracite regions and the Western Federation of Miners and is accountable for the release of Manuel Sarabia from prison. When Manuel Sarabia, brother of Thomas Sarabia, now in the Bexar county jail was arrested in Douglas, Ariz, two years ago, he was taken into Mexico. It was charged that he was taken across the line without the due process of law, and “Mother Jones” started the first meeting of protest. It resulted in a movement which ended only with a decision by the United States supreme court and Sarabia was returned to the United Sates from a Mexican prison. He met a wealthy Boston girl while in Arizona and married her several months ago. “Mother Jones” will tell the story of the rescue of Manuel Sarabia.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: John Murray on the Prisons of Diaz, Part III

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

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 6, 1909
John Murray on the Horrors of the Private Prisons of Diaz, Part III

From the International Socialist Review of April 1909:

Mex Rev, Diaz Prison by Murray, ISR p737, ISR Apr 1909

[Part III, Conclusion]

[John Murray’s interview with the escaped prisoner, Antonio, continues:]

The sick man’s pauses in this narrative were frequent. At times the old lady give him water to drink, and then again he would take two puffs at a cigarette rolled by the president, all of which kept him going to the end of his story.

We were accused of participating in the rebellion started in September, 1906, by the Junta Revolucionaria Mexicana in Jimenez, and in Acayucan. Chained in gangs with two hundred others, we were brought to the fortress and political prison of San Juan de Ulua.

Some of us were betrayed by that Judas, Captain Adolfo Jimenez Castro, an officer of the post at Cuidad Juarez, while others were betrayed by Trinidad Vasquez at Cananea.

Among the number were persons entirely innocent of any participation in the rebellion, but they received neither consideration nor mercy, and, like many of us, saw their homes burnt by the soldiery and their families left to starve.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: John Murray on the Prisons of Diaz, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote R Magon re John Murray, ISR p643, Mar 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 5, 1909
John Murray on the Horrors of the Private Prisons of Diaz, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of April 1909:

Mex Rev, Diaz Prison by Murray, ISR p737, ISR Apr 1909[Part II]

[John Murray at San Juan de Ulua Prison, continues speaking with the sympathetic soldier…]

Without a word the soldier turned and walked towards the archway. I followed at his heels and we made our way around outside the walls, entered the arsenal and climbed an inner staircase to the battlements of the fortress.

Pointing out to sea, my guide showed me a small man-of-war coming into the harbor.

“That’s the ‘General Bravo’—look at it. Keep looking at it, senor, and while we are here alone I will stand behind your back and tell you all I know of the martyrs imprisoned in Ulua.

“The friends of Magon in the army are many. Here, in Ulua, all would be glad to see a way out of this hell—but will it ever come?”

I answered as I believed, in all sincerity, “It will come,” and with a look of encouragement the young soldier went on:

Six months ago I came to Ulua from Sonora, and never once have I seen the political prisoners. But this I saw with my own eyes:

Late on a Sunday afternoon, a boat with two occupants came rowing towards the guardhouse of the west side landing. I saw it before the others, being far-sighted, and this my first day of guard duty on the island. As the boat touched the pier, a white-haired lady wrapped in a black shawl, and trembling with age, was just able to mount from the rocking gunnel to the first stone step, where she sank down, panting and exhausted. The oarsman was a small, black Indian from the mountain tribes near Orizaba. Martin Jose Pico, our hook-nosed, thief-of-a-sergeant—ration-robbing is his trade-roughly demanded her pass, but she had none.

This was such a strange occurrence—a white-haired woman of over eighty years trying to gain entrance to the prison without credentials—that the officer of the day was summoned.

Captain Garcia likes not old women, and to the black figure seated at his feet on the stone step, his words were short and sharp:

“Speak! What do you want?”

“To see a boy who is imprisoned here,” replied the trembling, low-toned voice of the old lady.

“A boy? We have no boys. Who is he?” testily demanded the officer.

“Juan Sarabia,” replied the white-haired woman.

At this name the captain took a sudden step back, for of all the prisoners most strictly kept “incommunicado” is this famous revolutionist, Juan Sarabia. Even to mention his name is forbidden the soldiers of Ulua.

White-faced, the officer gripped the old lady by her arm and stuttered a rasping question:

“Fool! who are you?”

“His mother,” came the answer.

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