Hellraisers Journal: President Wilson Signs Sedition Bill; “The bill declared frankly to be aimed against the I. W. W.”

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Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 22, 1918
Washington, D. C. – I. W. W. to be Target of Sedition Bill

From this morning’s New York Times:

President Signs Sedition Bill

WASHINGTON. May 21, President Wilson today signed the Sedition bill giving the Government wide powers to punish disloyal acts and utterances.

From The Labor World of May 11, 1918:

Senate Passes Sedition Bill, IWW, Labor World p1, May 11, 1918

———
OUTLAWS THE USE AND ADVOCACY OF VIOLENCE
———-
To Bring About Governmental, Social, Industrial or
Economic Reforms-Destruction of “Wabblies” Opens
Opportunities for Labor Unions.
———-

WWIR, In Here For You, Ralph Chaplin, Sol Aug 4, Sept 1, 1917

WASHINGTON, May 9.-The bill declared frankly to be aimed against the I. W. W., outlawing organizations which use or advocate violence to bring about “any governmental, social, industrial or economic change,” during the war, was passed Monday by the senate after brief debate and went to the house.

The bill provides that

any association, organization, society or corporation, one of whose purposes or professed purposes is to bring about any governmental, social, industrial or economic change within the United States by the use, without the authority of law, of force, violence, or physical injury to person or property, or by threats of such injury, or which teaches, advocates, defends or advises the use, without authority of law, of force, violence, or physical injury to person or property, or threats of such injury, to accomplish such change or for any other purpose, and which, during any war in which the United States is engaged, shall by any means prosecute or pursue such purpose or professed purpose, or shall so teach, advocate, advise, or defend, is hereby declared to be an “unlawful association.”

It also makes it a felony, punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment and $5,000 fine, for anyone to continue to be a member or agent of such and “unlawful association,” or who shall defend its acts.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Prison Song” by Ralph Chaplin from Latest IWW Song Book, General Defense Edition

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For Freedom laughs at prison bars
Her voice re-echoes from the star;
Proclaiming with the tempest’s breath
A Cause beyond the reach of death!
-Ralph Chaplin

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 22, 1918
From the Chicago I. W. W. Publishing Bureau:

IWW Songs, 14th, Gen Def Ed, Cover, LRSB, April 1918

—–

“I. W. W. Prison Song” by Ralph Chaplin:

IWW Songs, 14th, Gen Def Ed, LRSB, Prison Song, April 1918

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Hellraisers Journal: As Jury Selection Continues in Chicago, New York Tribune’s Full-Page Article Finds IWW Guilty, II

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Quote Ralph Chaplin"all the world that's owned", Leaves
-Ralph Chaplin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 17, 1918
As Chicago Trial Continues, IWW Found Guilty by Kept Press, Part II

Today we offer the conclusion of our two-part series featuring the article by Boyden R. Sparkes which appeared as a full-page spread in the April 14th edition of the New York Tribune.

THE I. W. W.: AN X-RAY PICTURE

Chicago Trial Shows Searing Sparks from the Anvil Where Industrial-Military Power is Being Forged Endanger Progress-
Sabotage, Malcontents’ Principal Weapon,
a Menace to Farm, Factory and Home.

By Boyden R. Sparkes
Chicago, April 13, 1918.

[Part II]

WWIR, IWW Leaders BBH StJ BF etc, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918

WWIR, IWW Leaders Sketched in Court by MM Evers, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918

—–

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: As Jury Selection Continues in Chicago, New York Tribune’s Full-Page Article Finds IWW Guilty, II”

Hellraisers Journal: As Jury Selection Continues in Chicago, New York Tribune’s Full-Page Article Finds IWW Guilty

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The worst thief is he who steals
the playtime of children.
Join the I. W. W. and help put
the thieves to work.
-Big Bill Haywood

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday April 16, 1918
As Chicago Trial Continues, IWW Found Guilty by Kept Press

Today we offer Part One of the following article by Boyden R. Sparkes which appeared as a full-page spread in the April 14th edition of the New York Tribune. We will conclude tomorrow with Part Two.

THE I. W. W.: AN X-RAY PICTURE

Chicago Trial Shows Searing Sparks from the Anvil Where Industrial-Military Power is Being Forged Endanger Progress-
Sabotage, Malcontents’ Principal Weapon,
a Menace to Farm, Factory and Home.

THE I. W. W. PRINCIPLES AS SHOWN IN THEIR OWN CARTOONS

By Boyden R. Sparkes
Chicago, April 13, 1918.

WWIR, IWW, Sabotage Beware, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918

OUT in the hill country of Oklahoma last August a group of tenant farmers and oil field workers were just a little too quick on the trigger, and what Federal officials believe was intended to have been a country-wide uprising of American “Bolsheviki” against the draft law was quelled almost before it started.

At the hearing in the Federal court in Enid, Okla., it was developed that forty-eight organizations under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World had planned a nation-wide revolution. The anti-draft rioters in Seminole, Hughes and Pontotoc counties began shooting just a little too soon, and posses of patriotic citizens had put 500 of them under arrest before many persons had been killed.

WWIR, IWW, Sabotage Sabots, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918

The men arrested belonged to organizations affiliated with the I. W. W., chief among these being the “Working Class Union.” The government is still trying to find out where the money used to purchase arms for the rioters came from.

It is the opinion of government attorneys that these I. W. W. leaders believed they would receive the support of the American Federation of Labor. Naturally any such hope was doomed to disappointment. But the government is still picking up threads of evidence that strengthen the belief that the American Bolsheviki leaders were prepared and hoping for a reign of terror in America that would have far outdone the Bolsheviki uprising in Russia.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: As Jury Selection Continues in Chicago, New York Tribune’s Full-Page Article Finds IWW Guilty”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Ohio Socialist: “Prison Song” and a “Picture with a Story…The Man Behind the Bars”

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For Freedom laughs at prison bars;
Her voice re-echoes from the stars,
Proclaiming with the tempest’s breath
A cause beyond the reach of death!
-Ralph Chaplin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday March 12, 1918
From the Cook County Jail: “Prison Song” by Ralph Chaplin

From The Ohio Socialist of March 10, 1918:

Prison Song by Ralph Chaplin, OH Sc, Mar 10, 1918

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: IWW Leader Big Bill Haywood Released from Cook County Jail on Bail of $15,000

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Haywood Quote, re Cook Co Jail and Martyrs, Ab p 37, re Sept 1917

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday February 21, 1918
Big Bill Haywood Now Out on Bail from Cook County Jail

From North Carolina’s Cleveland Star of February 19, 1918:

William D. Haywood, international secretary and treasurer of the I. W. W., who with 165 other members of that organization, was indicted by a Federal grand jury in Chicago on a charge of conspiracy and sedition, has been released in bond of $15,000.

———-

[Photograph added.]

From The Chicago Daily Tribune of February 13, 1918:

HAYWOOD FREED ON $15,000 BOND
OVER U. S. PLEA
—–
Government Fears He Will Become Active
as an I. W. W. Agent.
—–

BBH, NYTb p22, Dec 30, 1917

William D. Haywood, international secretary of the I. W. W., and recognized as its guiding spirit, was released yesterday under $15,000 bond. He had been in jail since Sept. 28. Judge Landis permitted the reduction of the bond from $25,000.

The bond was signed by George W. Kohler, 9236 Commercial avenue; Jacob Brunning and his wife, Catherine, 4243 Lowell avenue, and William Bross Lloyd, capitalist and Socialist.

“I’ll take a chance,” was Judge Landis’ comment in granting Haywood’s release, after District Attorney Clyne and Frank K. Nebeker, special assistant attorney general, had opposed the action, declaring that Haywood, once out of jail, would at once renew his anti-government activities.

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Hellraisers Journal: Appeal for Defense of Our Imprisoned Fellow Workers: “They belong to the working class…”

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If you are a red-blooded worker
you will see that
this fight is your fight.
International Socialist Review

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday January 3, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – General Defense Committee Appeals for Funds

From the International Socialist Review of January 1918:

“WHERE LIBERTY IS THERE IS MY COUNTRY”

WWIR, IWW Johanson Ahlteen Lossieff Graber, ISR Jan 1918

—–

WWIR, IWW Chaplin, H George, ISR Jan 1918

—–

Six of the one hundred and sixty-six socialists and members of the I. W. W. who are indicted on a charge of seditious conspiracy.

Most of the boys are in Cook County or near-by jails as it would take a cash bail of over a million and one-half dollars to secure their liberty.

They belong to the working class and are in jail because they organized and educated the workers to fight for Industrial Democracy.

It will be a class trial. Capitalist interests will demand that these men be convicted and their union legally destroyed. They want the U. S. government to do what their gunmen and governors have failed to do by brute force.

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Hellraisers Journal: To the Preachers of “Morals” by Ralph Chaplin: “You do the work of hired thugs and spies..”

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The World’s great Wrong cries out; you do not heed,
But drivel rot with heaven-uplifted eyes,
Then creep away behind a cloud of lies
To kiss the palsied hand of murderous Greed.
-Ralph Chaplin

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 17, 1917
A Rebel Verse from Ralph Chaplin

Ralph Chaplin, Preachers of Morals, Leaves, 1917

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Cook County Jail: the First Prison Poem of Fellow Worker Ralph Chaplin

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When our cause is all triumphant
And we claim our Mother Earth,
And the nightmare of the present fades away,
We shall live with love and laughter,
We who now are little worth,
And we’ll not regret the price we have to pay.
-Ralph Chaplin

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 2, 1917
From the Cook County Jail, Chicago – A Prison Poem by Ralph Chaplin

Mourn Not The Dead

Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie-
Dust unto dust-
The calm, sweet earth that mothers all who die
As all men must;

Mourn not your captive comrades who must dwell-
Too strong to strive-
Within each steel-bound coffin of a cell,
Buried alive;

But rather mourn the apathetic throng-
The cowed and the meek-
Who see the world’s great anguish and its wrong
And dare not speak!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Cook County Jail: New Lyrics to an Old Song by Class War Prisoner Harrison George

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We laugh and sing, we have no fear
Our hearts are always light,
We know that every Wobblie true
Will carry on the fight.
-Harrison George

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday November 18, 1917
From Cook County Jail, Illinois – “For the O. B. U.”

REMEMBER

By HARRISON GEORGE.
Cook County Jail, Oct. 18, 1917
(Tune: “Hold the Fort”)

We speak to you from jail today
Two hundred union men,
We’re here because the bosses’ laws
Bring slavery again.

Chorus

In Chicago’s darkened dungeons
For the O. B. U.
Remember you’re outside for us
While we’re in here for you.

We’re here from mine and mill and rail
We’re here from off the sea,
From coast to coast we make the boast
Of Solidarity.

We laugh and sing, we have no fear
Our hearts are always light,
We know that every Wobblie true
Will carry on the fight.

We make a pledge-no tyrant might
Can make us bend a knee,
Come on you worker, organize
And fight for Liberty.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Cook County Jail: New Lyrics to an Old Song by Class War Prisoner Harrison George”