Hellraisers Journal: From the Socialist Party of America: Principles and Platform Adopted by 1908 Chicago Convention

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Hellraisers Journal: Saturday June 20, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – Socialist Party Platform and Principles

From the International Socialist Review of June 1908:

Socialist Platform.

PRINCIPLES.

Socialist Party of America Button

Human life depends upon food clothing and shelter. Only with these assured are freedom, culture and higher human development possible. To produce food, clothing or shelter, land and machinery are needed. Land alone does not satisfy human needs. Human labor creates machinery and applies it to the land for the production of raw materials and food. Whoever has control of land and machinery controls human labor, and with it human life and liberty.

To-day the machinery and the land used for industrial purposes are owned by a rapidly decreasing minority. So long as machinery is simple and easily handled by one man, its owner cannot dominate the sources of life of others. But when machinery becomes more complex and expensive and requires for its effective operation the organized effort of many workers its influence reaches over wide circles of life. The owners of such machinery become the dominant class.

In proportion as the number of such machine owners compared to all other classes decreases, their power in the nation and in the world increases. They bring ever larger masses of working people under their control, reducing them to the point, where muscle and, brain are their only productive property. Millions of formerly self-employing workers thus become the helpless wage slaves of the industrial masters.

As the economic power of the ruling class grows it becomes less useful in the life of the nation. All the useful work of the nation falls upon the shoulders of the class whose only property is its manual and mental labor power—the wage worker—or of the class who have but little land and little effective machinery outside of their labor power—the small traders and small farmers. The ruling minority is steadily becoming useless and parasitic.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs: ”To serve the working class has always been to me a high privilege.”

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To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 19, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Echoes from Nimisilla Park

EVD, Debs Orator Canton June 16, 1918, IN U

On Sunday June 16th, Eugene Debs arrived at the Nimisilla Park, in Canton, for a grand picnic given by the Socialist Party of Ohio on the final day of the state convention. He came directly to the park following a brief visit with the Ohio Comrades, C. E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker who are now residing behind the bars of the Stark County Work House, across the street from the park.

Comrade Debs walked through the crowd smiling and came to the front of the platform. He gave a speech which is certain to be remembered for years to come.

Debs spoke for about two hours, and said, in part:
-(Emphasis added.)

Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.

To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women and children who toil; to serve the working class, has always been to me a high privilege; a duty of love.

I have just returned from a visit over yonder, where three of our most loyal comrades are paying the penalty for their devotion to the cause of the working class. They have come to realize, as many of us have, that it is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.

I realize that, in speaking to you this afternoon, there are certain limitations placed upon the right of free speech. I must be exceedingly careful, prudent, as to what I say, and even more careful and prudent as to how I say it. I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything that I do not think. I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets. They may put those boys in jail—and some of the rest of us in jail—but they can not put the Socialist movement in jail. Those prison bars separate their bodies from ours, but their souls are here this afternoon. They are simply paying the penalty that all men have paid in all the ages of history for standing erect, and for seeking to pave the way to better conditions for mankind.

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We Never Forget: Eugene Victor Debs Speaks at State Socialist Party Picnic Canton, Ohio, June 16, 1918

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To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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The Canton Anti-War Speech of Eugene Victor Debs
Sunday June 16, 1918

Note: clicking on the five tweets below will lead to threads with excerpts from the famous speech by Eugene Debs, 45 in all-some long, some short. Based on charges steming from this speech, Comrade Debs was later prosecuted and sent to Atlanta Federal Prison. Follow Hellraisers Journal for the rest of the story.

Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.

Highest Duty

To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women and children who toil; to serve the working class, has always been to me a high privilege; a duty of love.

Free Speech or Lack Thereof

It is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.

The Blood of Childhood

The history of this country is being written in the blood of the childhood the industrial lords have murdered.

Unpalatable Truth

And the truth, oh, the truth has always been unpalatable and intolerable to the class who live out of the sweat and misery of the working class.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Harp: “To Irish Wage Workers in America” by Fellow Worker James Connolly

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We appeal to you then, fellow countrymen,
to rally around the only banner that
symbolises hope for you in America as in Ireland
–the banner of Socialism.
-James Connolly

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 12, 1908
James Connolly Speaks to Irish Workers of America

From The Harp of May 1908:

To Irish Wage Workers in America
James Connolly

Fellow-Workers:

James Connolly, 1902, Multitext of U College Cork

As all the political forces of the United States are busily engaged to-day in lining up for the great conflict of the Presidential election of 1908, as on every hand there is a measuring of strength, a scanning of ‘issues’, and a searching of souls we desire on our part to approach you for the purpose of obtaining your earnest consideration of our principles before determining where to cast your support in the campaign. Let us reason quietly together! We speak to you as fellow workers and as fellow countrymen, and we ask where do you stand in politics to-day? Hitherto the Irish in the United States have almost entirely supported the Democratic Party, but the time has come when the majority of thoughtful Irishmen are beginning to realise that as the causes that originally led to that affiliation are no longer existent, the affiliation itself must be reconsidered. Political parties must thrive or fail according to the present development of the class in society they represent, and cannot be kept alive by a mere tradition of their attitude in past emergencies. The antagonism of the Democratic party towards the Know Nothing movement in the past won for it the support of the Irish Workers, but Know Nothingism is not an issue to-day, and as the Democratic party is going down to an unhonored grave because of its inability to grasp the problems of our own time shall we Irish Workers suffer ourselves to be dragged to social perdition with it?

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Hellraisers Journal: The Blanket Stiff: He walks and walks the road he built and carries his home upon his back.

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Then we’ll sing one song of the poor and ragged tramp,
He carries his home on his back;
Too old to work, he’s not wanted ’round the camp,
So he wanders without aim along the track.
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday March 4, 1908
“The Blanket Stiff, Product of Roosevelt’s Prosperity”

From the Socialist Montana News of February 27, 1908:

The Man Without a Country
Still on the Hunt for the Dinner Pail

The Blanket Stiff, Montana News p1, Feb 27, 1908

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The Wage Slave

A little more than half a century ago a question of great interest to the country was brought up by a few men and women who saw the evil effects of slavery and its consequences. The question was agitated so persistently that it spread through the world. Not to our own country was it confined, but it became the absorbing question in Europe, and it was acknowledged that it was an evil and a disgrace to humanity and to the civilized world that beings made in the image of God should be subjected and treated like animals.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs on attacks against Socialist Party: “anti-patriotic, seditious, traitorous…”

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I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth,
and I am a citizen of the world.
-Eugene V. Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday February 12, 1918
Eugene Debs Defends the Socialist Party of America

From the Chicago Eye-Opener of February of 9, 1918:

The Campaign This Year.

by Eugene V. Debs

EVD by LS Chumley, ISR Jan 1916

The Socialist Party is emerging from another struggle crowned with victory.

When the party declared its attitude toward war at the St. Louis convention [April 7-14, 1917] it was fiercely attacked from within as well as without as an anti-patriotic, seditious, traitorous organization. The chairman of the committee that framed the war resolution was indicted and sentenced to penitentiary for a term of five years. The National Secretary [Adolph Germer] was arrested upon one charge, indicted and tried upon another, and is still under bail pending further trial.

Hundreds of the party’s speakers and organizers were arrested and jailed, and hundreds of others forcibly prevented from speaking. Halls for meeting purposes were denied our lecturers, secret service agents dogged the heels of our comrades, while rowdies and strong-arm men, including not a few in the uniform of United States soldiers and sailors, were incited to raid our local headquarters, sack our offices, and break up our meetings. The party’s papers were either suppressed outright or sorely hampered by the authorities.

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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: Eugene Debs for the Appeal to Reason: Kidnapping Case Brought Before Congress

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Their only crime is
Loyalty to the Working Class.
-Eugene V. Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday March 12, 1907
Girard, Kansas – Eugene V. Debs Fights for Our Idaho Comrades

From the Appeal to Reason of March 9, 1907:

KIDNAPING CASE IN CONGRESS
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Appeal Succeeds in Placing Facts of the
Moyer-Haywood Case on Record
in Washington.
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BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
Staff Correspondent Appeal to Reason.
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HMP, Pettibone Moyer Haywood, AtR, Feb 16, 1907

Washington, D. C., March 2.-At the opening of congress this morning, the Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone case was introduced, together with petitions for investigation and the dissenting opinion of Justice McKenna, of the supreme court. Senator Carmack, of Tennessee, presented the case on the floor of the United States senate, with the request that it be admitted to the records, and this was consented to.

The introduction of the conspiracy was a great surprise to most of the senators, but when the statement was made that the demand for an investigation was backed by two millions of organized workers, the unanimous consent which was necessary, and without which it would have failed, was given by the senate, excepting that Heyburn, of Idaho, requested that the decision of the supreme court be included with the dissenting opinion of Justice McKenna, to which no objection was made on our side.

The foundation is now laid for a congressional investigation and both senators and congressmen agree that, in obedience to the demands of organized labor, this will certainly to be authorized by the next session of congress. Senator Carmack has been particularly helpful in this matter and Senator Lafollette, of Wisconsin, has also treated me with great courtesy.

With this impending congressional investigation, which will develop all the facts in the conspiracy and reveal the whole horrible truth to the people, it is now perfectly safe to predict that Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone will soon have been rescued from the clutches of their kidnapers and would-be murderers and walk forth free men without a blemish upon their honor.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1906: Articles Found in Appeal to Reason and Labor World

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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 January 10, 1907
Mother Jones Found Featured in Socialist and Labor Press

Mother Jones, Mar 11, 1905, AtR

As to the actual whereabouts of Mother Jones during the month of December 1906, we could find very little. However, we were able to find her featured in an article in the Appeal to Reason and as the author of an article in the Duluth Labor World. The article in the Appeal details the campaign, last fall, of William Dettrey in Pennsylvania where he ran as the Socialist candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives from Luzerne County. The article notes the hard work done by Mother Jones during that campaign and the lack of interest shown by the two most famous union leaders in the American labor movement.

From the Appeal to Reason of December 1, 1906:

DETTREY’S CAMPAIGN IN PENSLYVANIA.
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BY ONE OF THE BOYS.
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Hellraisers Journal: Minneapolis Elects Socialist Mayor: Thomas H. Van Lear, Member of Machinists’ Union

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Organize! Oh, toilers, come organize your might;
Then we’ll sing one song of the workers’ commonwealth,
Full of beauty, full of love and health.
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 23, 1916
Minneapolis, Minnesota – New Mayor Is a Socialist Union Organizer

From the American Socialist of November 18, 1916:

Elections of 1916, Am Socialist, Smashing Victories, Nov 18

Elections 1916, London & Van Lear, Am Socialist, Nov 18

For the first time in the history of the nation a Socialist congressman has been re-elected. Meyer London has been sent back to Washington for two years more by the twelfth New York district to speak for labor in the national capitol.

For the second time a Socialist has been elected mayor of a large city against the combined opposition of all the old parties. Thomas H. Van Lear has been chosen chief executive of Minneapolis, Minn., the metropolis of the northwest.

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