Hellraisers Journal: Newly Freed, Kate Richards O’Hare Visits with Eugene V. Debs, Imprisoned at Atlanta Penitentiary

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Quote EVD, To Speak for Labor, Canton OH, June 16, 1918———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday July 14, 1920
Atlanta Penitentiary – Kate Richards O’Hare Visits Eugene Debs

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of July 12, 1920:

DRAMATIC VISIT PAID ‘GENE BY KATE O’HARE
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Two Comrades Meet in Atlanta Prison
After Long Separation;
Think of Others’ Suffering.
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(By the Federated Press.)

Kate Richards OHare w Children, Chg New Day, July 10, 1920, MxOrg

Atlanta, Ga., July 12.-In a visit full of dramatic incidents, Kate Richards O’Hare visited Eugene V. Debs in the federal penitentiary July 3.

Mrs. O’Hare, recently freed from the penitentiary, was ushered into the prison. The two comrades embraced.

“How glad I am to see you free, Kate,” Debs said.

“I’m not used to being free yet,” she answered. They sat down, facing each other across the table. It was a fair afternoon and the rays of the sun filtered through the steel bars of the visitors’ cell, and lighted up the features of Debs, who smiled a smile of joy to see his old friend.

“Your coming here is like a ray of sunlight to me,” said Debs. “Tell me of your prison experiences.”

“I am not thinking of myself,” Mrs. O’Hare answered, “but of little Mollie Steimer, who now occupies my cell at Jefferson City, and of her appalling sentence of fifteen years. She is a little 19-year-old girl, smaller than my Kathleen, and her sole crime is her love for the oppressed.” At Debs’ questions, Mrs. O’Hare related the story of the girl. Debs’ lashes damped and his eyes were tear-stained, his face showed the emotion in his heart.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1918 -Found Campaigning for Democratic Senate Candidate in West Virginia

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Quote Mother Jones, Praying Swearing, UMWC, Jan 17, 1918

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Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 20, 1918
Mother Jones News for October 1918
-Mother Found Campaigning for Coal Baron in West Virginia

Mother Jones, DRW small, St L Pst p3, May 13, 1918

It seems our dear Mother Jones has left off swearing when she talks to the mighty coal barons and commenced to campaigning for them. Such is the case in West Virginia, where we found her, during the month of October, campaigning for Colonel Clarence Watson, head of the Consolidated Coal Company and Democratic candidate for U. S. Senate. Not everyone was pleased with that state of affairs as the following demonstrates.

From The Wheeling Intelligencer of October 14, 1918:

Intelligence received from Charleston advises that Mrs. Clarence W. Watson and “Mother” Jones held a conference with Governor Cornwell a few days ago. It is learned since then that “Mother” will campaign among the “boys” up on Cabin Creek, as well as in the Fairmont region. It will be recalled that Colonel Watson, after years and years of antagonism to union labor, and particularly to the union miner, a few months ago “let down the bars” he had erected against unionism and invited the miners to organize. “Mother” Jones was made his principal mouthpiece in that little bit of political strategy, and she served her new master well in, making public Colonel Clarence’s handspring in the direction of union labor votes. She extolled him to the skies, christened him “the friend of the miner,” and told he “boys” that he ought to he elected to the United States senate.

Will she fool ’em? Hardly. The West Virginia miner is not so green as he used to be when “Mother” first introduced herself to him. They cannot so soon forget the Watsonian antagonism, the manner in which the Watsons treated organizers who were sent to that field, the Watson’s “special police patrol of the mines to keep organization.” Colonel Watson will have to prove his case, with them first, and they will hardly aid him to get to the senate and then run the risk of the “proof” falling down, being relegated to the rear or transported to the isles of the sea of oblivion.

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