Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 9, 1912
Charleston, West Virginia – Usurped Power of Martial Law Disgraces the State
From The Wheeling Majority of December 5, 1912
-Taken from the Charleston LaborArgus:
[Part II of II]
[Charleston, W. Va., Dec. 5.]-Just for an example of the high hand tyranny of [West Virginia’s] military court we will take the cases of Dan Chain, [Silas] Frank Nantz [Socialist marshal of Eskdale] and a few others of their victims. Dan Chain was arrested, taken to Pratt, tried and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary for holding up a train at Cabin Creek Junction with two car loads of transportations Friday, Nov. 14th. To our knowledge Dan Chain was a passenger on the train that was supposed to be held up and did not know the transportation was on the train until he got to Cabin Creek Junction and the railroad crew refused to pull it up the creek, but Dan Chain was not given a chance to introduce evidence in his defense and was railroaded to the penitentiary for five years.Frank Nantz was charged with interfering with an officer in discharge of his duty. This case happened two weeks before martial law was declared at that time the soldiers were doing private guard duty, yet Nantz was railroaded to the penitentiary for five years.
Dan Chain and S. F. Nantz Sent to Moundsville Prison on Nov 21, 1912
Another case is that of [Charles] Coon Jarrell who was brought before the court as witness against another man, and because he did not know anything about the case was accused of perjury and sent to the penitentiary for five years. These are just a few of the many cases where men have been tried by court martial and railroaded to the penitentiary.
Under martial the court martial are supposed only to try offenses committed under martial law. Any offense committed before martial law was declared was no violation of the martial law. If this court has the right to go back two days, two weeks or two months, it has a right to go back two years or ten years. Not satisfied with railroading the men to the penitentiary but the tools of the coal barons are trying to terrorize and intimidate the strikers by arresting and trying the women before Gov. Glasscock’s uniformed court.
When before in the history of this nation have our women been hauled up before a drum head court? Gov. Glasscock made his loyalty to the barons clear when he declared the miners would remember it the longest day they lived. Gen. Elliott, the progressive Bull Mooser, is quoted as saying if he heard of any one alluding to a soldier as a ‘tin horn” he would see that they went to the penitentiary for a year.
Are we living under a despotic monarchy that the citizens should be imprisoned for “Les Majeste?”
And all of this in America, “the land of the free and the home the brave.” In a land where our fathers fought and bled that we might be left a heritage of liberty and be freemen. Have we sunk to the level of Mexican peons that we must submit to the despotism of a dictator, as becomes the cringing subject of a tyrannical czar? The miners of West Virginia are demanding only their constitutional rights as citizens of this great commonwealth, the Czar of Russia nor Diaz of Mexico, would never use any more barbarous or brutal methods than are being used by the state officials to deprive people of these priceless heritages.
Liberty is a sacred thing, more sacred than life itself. A man’s liberty is too sacred to be snatched from him by the arbitrary ruling of a [besmeared?] court, the laws made by the people say that the punishment shall be in accord with the crime committed, so what right has this military court to deprive men of their rights and liberty that a few bloated, foreign stock holders may reap dividends and profits by enslaving the working class?
The miners on Paint and Cabin Creek are fighting for the poorly clad, care-worn women. They are fighting for those bare footed, ragged children, that are shivering in tents these cold winter nights and though every man be locked in prison cells the fight will go on, for the women will take up the fight where the men left off. The working class will stand for just so much persecution before they rebel. Don’t push them too hard or West Virginia’s hills will be painted red with the blood of her sons.
The miners are fighting for freedom with a determination that knows no defeat. Undaunted they look into the muzzle of the soldier’s rifle or face that mockery on justice, the usurped power of a military court. The prison cell is no worse than the midnight darkness of the coal barons slave pen and even death is preferable to a life of slavery.—Labor Argus.
[Photographs, emphasis and paragraph breaks added.]
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 8, 1912
Charleston, West Virginia – Usurped Power of Martial Law Disgraces the State
From The Wheeling Majority of December 5, 1912
-taken from the Charleston LaborArgus:
[Part I of II]
Cincinnati Enquirer November 22, 1912
Charleston, W. Va., Dec. 5.—Never before in the history of America has the rights and liberties of the sovereign citizens been trampled beneath the feet of a military despotism as is now being done in the strike zone of Kanawha county. In the military court now setting at Pratt we have an example of mental pigmies drunk with power, usurping every right of citizenship. Justice blinded and bound is being raped by the venal uniformed tools of the “invisible government” while women shiver in snow covered tents and-little children suffer the sting of the biting frost. Gov. Glasscock’s military court has demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt the truth of that historical fact, a fool given authority becomes a despot; give a coward power and you have a tyrant.
The martial law administered by tools of the coal baron has about as much respect for the law and the constitutional rights of the citizens as the Baldwin thug system that preceded it and is just as illegal, despotic brutal and tyrannous. Under its administration every right of citizenship has been suspended, the right of peaceable assemblage denied and even a censor has been placed on the lips of men and women, forced to endure this infamous usurpation of power. Men have been railroaded to the penitentiary for daring to take an open stand for their rights as American citizens.
Realizing that the strike was going against them, the coal operators through their subsidized, press and venal tools in public office brought about this last declaration of martial law for the purpose of railroading to the prison all of the active union leaders. These men had struck terror to the cowardly hearts of the coal barons by their courage and bravery and had to be removed. The militia was used as a cat’s paw to pull these chestnuts out of the fire and Gen. Elliott and his entire aggregation of strike breakers became the servile tools of the coal barons for this purpose. Despotism and tyranny were resorted to and justice was publicly outraged. Men were arrested on trumped up charges and sent to the penitentiary from two to five years without being given a chance to defend themselves. All laws and precedents were set aside and the will of the military was supreme.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 27, 1921 Atlanta Penitentiary – Debs Weeps as 2,300 Convicts Cheer His Release
From The Indianapolis Star of December 26, 1921:
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(Special to The Indianapolis Star.)
ATLANTA, Ga. Dec. 26.-Eugene V, Debs left prison today. His going was the occasion of the most unique demonstration in American prison history.
Twenty-three hundred men, convicted of crimes unnumbered, their faces pressed against the bars of the windows on three floors of the big Federal penitentiary, shouted and cheered him and before them all, in the great foreground, he broke down and cried like a child.
Recovering himself, he stepped into an automobile and was driven off, the voices of the 2,300 following him for half a mile.As this is written, on a train bound for Washington, with Debs as a passenger in a day coach, the mystery surrounding the celebrated convict deepens. Why is he going to the capital? He refuses to say, but he has admitted he has a mission there. Whether or not the trip is a condition of his release he declines to say, but the fact that he was driven to the station in the automobile of the warden, four of whose deputies are aboard this train, would indicate that while Debt is out of prison he is not yet free.
“Citizen of the World.”
So far as he himself is concerned, however, he construes himself a liberated “citizen of the world,” the phrase having to do with President Harding’s refusal to grant a pardon which would have restored the prisoner’s civil rights.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 15, 1919
Atlanta, Georgia – Comrade Debs Now an Inmate at Federal Penitentiary
From The West Virginian of June 14, 1919:
DEBS IS MOVED FROM MOUNDSVILLE
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Marshall Ned Smith Took Famous Prisoner
to Federal Prison at Atlanta.
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(By Associated Press.)
WHEELING, W. Va., June 14.-Eugene V. Debs, former Socialist candidate for President, who was placed in the Moundsville penitentiary two months ago on being sentenced to a term of ten years for violation of the Federal Espionage law, this morning is an inmate of the Federal prison at Atlanta, Ga.
Debs, who was taken by surprise by the action, was removed from the penitentiary yesterday morning, it was learned today, by United States Marshal Ned Smith and deputies and brought to Wheeling where he was placed on a train for Atlanta by way of Cincinnati.
Up to early today the reasons for Debs’ removal had not been stated officially but it was reported that the greater safety of the Southern prison had something to do with the move.
While in Wheeling and on the train en route to Cincinnati every effort was made by the officers to keep the identity of their prisoner a secret.
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:
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[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.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday April 17, 1919
Moundsville, West Virginia – With Eugene Debs at West Virginia State Prison
From The Ohio Socialist of April 16, 1919:
Debs’ First Day In Prison
By DAVID KARSHNER [KARSNER].
Moundsville, W. Va., April 14.-Eugene Victor Debs will sleep tonight, not in a cage like a wild beast, as he slept last night, his first night in the West Virginia State Prison, but in a little room in the hospital of the prison, for “Our Gene” has been appointed a hospital attendant, and he has a separate room to himself, with a white iron bed, newly clothed, a table and a chair.
Shortly after 11 o’clock this morning Debs was taken from his cell, No. 51, in the second tier of the south wing, to the prison baths. He was examined by Dr. O. P. Wilson, the prison physician, and then donned prison underclothing and the prison uniform. But when I saw Debs late this afternoon the prison suit was not unbecoming to him. It was well fitting and contained the tiniest check. It is the kind of a suit that anybody might purchase at a cheap clothing store.
Warden Joseph Z. Terrill explained that he had at first thought of placing Debs in the prison library because of his knowledge of books and literature, but he did not do this because he thought that he might be too much subjected to curiosity. As hospital attendant Debs will have a rom entirely to himself. The room is of a good size, larger than most rooms of the Bronx apartments. It is on the ground floor. There are two ample windows one facing the south, and one the east. There are no bars at his windows. The door will be open at all times, and Debs has full privilege to come and go as he pleases. He has full and complete access to the prison yard and the lawns.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 15, 1919
The Journey of Eugene Debs from Terre Haute to Moundsville Prison
From The Indianapolis Sunday Star of April 13, 1919:
Debs Leaves Alone on Way to Serve Sentence
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(Special to The Indianapolis Star.)
TERRE HAUTE, Ind., April 12,-When Eugene V. Debs was advised by long distance telephone today that no Federal officer would be sent for him, but that he would be expected to report as early as possible to the authorities in Cleveland, O., he made arrangements to depart at 10 o’clock tonight. He engaged his berth on the Big Four train, then quietly proceeded to put his house in order for his period of absence.
Mr. Debs observed his farewell dinner at home with only Mrs. Debs and her mother at the table. He was surprised when advised that he would be permitted to report voluntarily to the Federal Building in Cleveland. It had been thought that an officer would come to accompany him to the prison at Moundsville, W. Va., where he is to serve ten years.
Hellraisers Journal, Friday May 17, 1918
Mother Jones News for April 1918, Part I: Found in West Virginia
From The Wheeling Intelligencer of April 1, 1918:
MOUNDSVILLE
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Miners Here Today.
Miners from the mines in this section of the Ohio valley gather here today to participate in the miners’ convention, which is to be held in commemoration of the eight hour day for miners. The session will be held on the campground and the speaking in the camp ground auditorium Hon. James D. Parriott will preside. Two hands have been hired for the occasion and a street parade will held this morning previous to going to the camp grounds. Congressman M. M. Neely, Mother Jones, John Moore and William Roy are among the speakers. The Red Cross will have charge of the refreshments.
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[Photograph added.]
From The Wheeling Intelligencer of April 2, 1918:
BIG CELEBRATION BY MINERS
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With the speaking of “Mother” Jones, Congressman M. N. Neely, President William E. Roy of the district, members Fifth district coal miners, held their observance of the twenty-eighth anniversary of the “Eight hour law” yesterday at the Moundsville camp ground. The occasion was the largest celebration ever staged in the Mound City, and there were more than a thousand workers from all parts of Ohio and this state present.
Hellraisers Journal, Friday March 15, 1918 Mother Jones News for February 1918: Found at Hearings in Chicago
Towards the end of February, we found Mother in attendance at the Alschuler Hearings in Chicago. Federal Judge Samuel B. Alschuler was appointed by President Wilson to arbitrate differences between Packinghouse Workers, now in the midst of a massive organizing campaign, and the Stockyard Employers. The Alschuler Hearings were held in Chicago from February 11th until March 7th and a ruling is expect soon.
From the Oregon Daily Journal of February 27, 1918:
Chicago, Feb 27.-(I. N. S.)…..
Like a clap of thunder from a clear sky. “Mother” Jones of labor strike fame, came into the midst of representatives of the packers Tuesday during a five-minute recess in the hearing.
“Why am I here-why?” she exclaimed in a high pitched voice that penetrated the courtroom.
I’m here to tell you bloodsuckers where you get off at. I’m here to help drive out you crooks. I’ll not let up-I’ll not let up.
She directed her attack against John E. O’Hern, general superintendent of Armour & Co. plants, and others. Louis F. Swift, standing back some distance, heard her fiery statements.
A fist fight was threatened when Frank P. Walsh, counsel for the workers, read a series of letters indicating the packers sought to spike corrective legislation in various states.
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