Hellraisers Journal: Man Arrested for Remarks about Peace Treaty, “Red Flag” Poem by Ralph Chaplin Found in Pocket

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Quote Ralph Chaplin, Red Feast, Montreal 1914, Leaves 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 17, 1919
Chicago, Illinois – Arrested for Speech Critical of Government
-Dissident to be “turned over to the government.”

From The Chicago Sunday Tribune of July 13, 1919:

Find Red Flag Poem on
Peace Treaty Assailer
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WWIR IWW Remember the Boys in Jail, OH Sc p3, Aug 21, 1918

Frank Michalucine, of 14 West Superior street, was arrested in a poolroom at North Clark and West Huron streets yesterday after he is said to have made derogatory remarks about the government and the treaty which is now before congress for ratification.

When searched at the detective bureau a copy of a poem called “The Red Flag” and said to have been written by Ralph Chaplin an inmate of the Leavenworth penitentiary, was found in his pocket.

Michalucine was arrested some time ago by federal agents on the same charge but was released. He will be turned over to the government tomorrow.

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[Photograph and emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Wichita Class-War Prisoners & “Hell Holes in America” by Upton Sinclair

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Quote Ralph Chaplin, Mother and Boy, Lv Nw Era p4, Mar 14, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 14, 1919
Upton Sinclair Exposes the Barbaric Sedgwick County Jail

From the Appeal to Reason of May 10, 1919:

Upton Sinclair Page, AtR p4, May 10, 1919

Hell Holes in America

In the Amnesty Edition of the Appeal I reproduced a circular sent out by the I. W. W. boys, describing the terrible conditions in the Sedgwick county jail at Wichita, Kans. I made no investigation of their statements, but acted on my general impulse to believe the worst about American jails. Those which I have investigated in past times have disposed me to believe that nobody could possibly exaggerate their evils. But soon after this article appeared in the Appeal I received letters from several correspondents who reported that they had complained to the Governor of Kansas about the matter, and had received from him a report of a confidential investigation which he had had made into this Wichita jail. The report stated that conditions in the jail were excellent, and that all the accounts sent out by the I. W. W. were false.

Now the Governor of Kansas, Henry J. Allen, is a progressive politician and a gentle man. I feel acquainted with him from reading “The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me,” by William Allen White-Governor Allen being the Henry” of that book. So I began to feel real bad about what I had published, and made ready to apologize to Governor Allen, and also to the readers of the Appeal for the blunder I had made.

But I studied that report again and noted that the Governor’s investigator denied that the I. W. W. boys had been arrested for trying to call a strike of the oil workers. He said they had been arrested for hindering the prosecution of the war. I have encountered that official bunk so often that I know the type of mind that swallows it.

And then I recalled the many, many times in my life when I had followed the work of official investigators, in cases with which I myself was entirely familiar. I recalled, for example the statement given out about the county jail here in Los Angeles, that the prisoners had had lice brought in and put them on their bodies prior to my inspection! I recalled Major Louis L. Seaman of the United States army, who investigated the Chicago stockyards for Collier’s Weekly, at the time when the Appeal to Reason was publishing “The Jungle.” Major Seaman was a gentleman of undoubted integrity, and he reported that everything was lovely in that inferno of graft. You see, these gentlemen of undoubted integrity have their class point of view, and they let themselves be escorted around, and they only see what they are shown-and even then, most of the time they don’t realize what they are seeing!

So I decided that before I apologized to Governor Allen, I would inquire a little farther. I wrote to Caroline Lowe, a woman who has interested herself in the defense of political prisoners, and asked if she happened to know anything about this particular jail. In reply came a letter which speaks for itself and which I quote:

Regardless of any denial made by the Governor of the State of Kansas, I can testify of my own knowledge that the conditions not only in the Wichita jail but in the jail at the State capitol at Topeka, Kans., beggar description. The rotary tank in the jail at Wichita is a relic of barbarism. I have been in the jail many times and have seen this tank in operation.

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Hellraisers Journal: National Civil Liberties Bureau Corrects Attorney General on Number of Political Prisoners

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Quote Ralph Chaplin, Prison Reveille, Lv New Era p2, Apr 4, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 28, 1919
New York, New York – National Civil Liberties Bureau on Political Prisoners

From the Appeal to Reason of April 26, 1919:

Deny Attorney General’s Statement Regarding
Number of War Prisoners

Remember Political Prisoners by Bingo, OH Sc, Mar 10, 1918

(The National Civil Liberties Bureau of New York City makes public the following statement in reply to the assertion of the Attorney General that the number of political prisoners in the United States has been greatly exaggerated:)

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In a published statement the Attorney General intimates that the current estimate that there are 1,500 political prisoners in the United States is the result of either frenzied imagination or deliberate intent to deceive the public.

We accept full responsibility for the estimate in question and wish to reassert our belief in its moderation and accuracy. The Attorney General evidently does not regard a person who is under indictment or is out on bail pending appeal as a political prisoner. His view is that liberty on bail is the same thing as liberty without the threat of prison. Such an assertion needs no comment. Nor does the Attorney General include conscientious objectors. The following table shows how our estimate has been derived and we challenge the Attorney General to show that it is inaccurate in any substantial particular. The figures for prosecution under the Espionage Act are taken from the report of the Attorney General for the year ending June 30,1918, and are the most recent published officially. We have repeatedly requested more recent figures but our requests have been refused.

Clas War n Political Prisoner Numbers per NCLB, AtR p3, Apr 26, 1919
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Hellraisers Journal: From the Leavenworth New Era: “Prison Reveille” by Ralph Chaplin, Prisoner No. 13104

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Quote Ralph Chaplin, Prison Reveille, Lv New Era p2, Apr 4, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 7, 1919
Poetry from Leavenworth Prisoner No. 13104, Ralph Chaplin

From the Leavenworth New Era of April 4, 1919:

IWW, Poem, Prison Reveille by Ralph Chaplin 13104, Lv New Era p2, Apr 4, 1919

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LIBRARY NOTICE

…..A donation of ten volumes of “The Wit and Humor of America,” edited by Marshall P. Wilder, has been added to the library by Ralph Chaplin. It is a fine set of books , filled with chuckles and laughter…..

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