Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: A Shameful Picture of Poverty in “The Greatest Country in the World”

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Plea for Justice, Not Charity, Quote Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday March 14, 1898
From the Salvation Army: A Picture of Poverty in America

From the Appeal to Reason of March 12, 1898:

A SHAMEFUL PICTURE.

Gen William Booth, Salvation Army, Bff Eve Ns, Jan 6, 1898

Comrade Booth, of the Salvation Army gives us some facts that ought to make the “greatest country in the world” ashamed of itself. Read this and wonder no longer why socialism is growing:

The pauper world-there’s a world for you! A world with starvation. Then the vicious world, the gambler and the harlot. Last the criminal world-why, in this country alone there are 80,000 men and women who are behind bars. These are the three worlds in which our work lies. We have 415 different institutions, ninety of which are at work in the United States. We feed 250,000 hungry men, women and children every night and shelter 13,000 ragged men and women, of which 4,500 are in the United States. On cold nights the figures sometimes double. We give them hot and cold water with which to wash, and if the person is afflicted with those strange little pests-unknown, of course, in Denver-we furnish crematories for them. While the poor fellow is taking a bath we bake his garments, so that if he comes in 20,000 strong he goes out one single personality. In addition to this we furnish him with a rousing salvation meeting and give him something to think about. If a man falls we offer a hand to help him onto his feet again. We have sixty-nine institutions for the rescue of young girls. Talk of pity! Am I not talking to a people who are sending pity to that island Cuba? Yet in their midst they have objects of pity.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Jane Addams on Society, the Social Evil and the Christian Attitude

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Girls in this way, fall every day,
And have been falling for ages,
Who is to blame? you know his name,
It’s the boss that pays starvation wages.
A homeless girl can always hear
Temptations calling everywhere.
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday January 15, 1918
From Hull House, Chicago – Miss Jane Addams Speaks for “Fallen” Women

In this week’s Appeal, we find a reprint of an article by Jane Addams which previously appeared in The Survey of May 4, 1912.

From the Appeal to Reason of January 12, 1918:

Jane Addams, Society and Social Evil, AtR, Jan 12, 1918

Jane Addams, Survey, Apr 6, 1912

A great English preacher has said that life holds for every man one searching test of the sincerity of his religious life, and that although this test is often absurdly trivial, to encounter it is to “fall from grace.” We all know these tests: a given relative or familiar friend has an irritating power of goading us into anger or self-pity; a certain public movement inevitably hardens us into a contemptuous mood of all uncharitableness; one particular type of sinner fills us with an unholy sense of superior virtue.

If we may assume that society itself is subject to one such test, if it too possesses a touchstone which reveals its inmost weakness and ultimate meanness, may we not say that the supreme religious test of our social order is the hideous commerce of prostitution, and that the sorry results of that test are registered in the hypocrisy and hardness of heart of the average good citizen toward the so-called “fallen” woman. May we of claim that in consequence of this irreligious attitude, prostitution remains today a hard, unresolved mass in the midst of so-called Christian civilization, until it has come to be regarded as a vice which cannot be eradicated, as a sin which cannot be forgiven, as a social disease which cannot be cured.

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Hellraisers Journal: Henry Dubb Gets What He Votes For by Comrade Ryan Walker for the Northwest Worker

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday March 29, 1917
From the Everett Northwest Worker: Dubb Votes Old Party Ballot

Henry Dubb Gets the Things He Votes For
-by Ryan Walker

Henry Dubb Uses His Vote, Ryan Walker, Nw Wkr, Mar 29, 1917

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Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Speaks to Striking Chicago Garment Workers, “Don’t be afraid of their jails!”

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No matter what your fight don’t be ladylike!
God Almighty made women
and the Rockefeller gang of thieves
made the ladies.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday February 28, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – Mother Jones Jumps into Garment Strike

From The Day Book of February 27th:

MOTHER JONES URGES STRONG ACTION
IN GARMENT STRIKE

Mother Jones Speaks to Chg Garment Strikers, ISR Dec 1915

The same old Mother Jones, with her scream of hatred for the bosses who grind their workers, jumped into the garment ladies garment strike yesterday. Twice she addressed the strikers and twice the crowd of workers yelled back in answer when she shouted for more vim in the strike.

“Picket,” she screamed at the packed hall at 180 W. Washington st.,

Picket! Let them arrest you. Don’t picket in ones or twos. Go in hundreds-five hundreds of you. Get out there, and if they arrest one they’ll have to arrest all of you.

When they start taking you to cells by the hundreds, taxpayers will begin asking questions. Pretty soon they’ll find out what this is all about and your strike will be won.

The substance of Mother Jones’ talk yesterday, which is as yet unprinted, follows:

They call me a radical agitator. They call your organizers radical agitators. Let me tell you that the most radical agitators we have ever had were those who founded our government. It was founded on a mighty revolt against tyrants. Let us keep up our revolt against indecent labor conditions until we clean up the bosses in Chicago.

They served me with a copy of an injunction Sunday as I came into the city. I thought it was the Salvation Army because it was handed me on the Sabbath. Then I read the name of one of your judges and I knew it was an injunction sent in violation of the Lord’s commandments. Why I’ve had enough injunctions served on me to fill 99 coffins when I go to meet my master.

I hope that Judge Baldwin has his lap dog here because I want to give him a message to carry back. I want him to hear what I have to say about this strike that I am butting into.

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