Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 20, 1922 Washington, D. C. – Women’s Amnesty Committee Pickets White House
From the Oklahoma Leader of December 19, 1922:
MAGON DEATH MAY HASTEN AMNESTY ———-
(By the Federated Press.)
Ricardo Flores Magón
WASHINGTON.-The ghost of Ricardo Flores Magon has appeared in front of the White House [Monday November 27th], demanding of his recent jailers that other friends of freedom still shut behind American prison bars be set free before they perish.
Magon still living, and racked by disease in his cell at Leavenworth, was no burden on the official conscience. But when death a week ago commuted his 21-year sentence for saying the war was an evil thing it released forces which brought embarrassment to the White House gates.
Outraged by the crucifixion of Magon, Mrs. Elizabeth Glendower Evans, Boston; Mrs. Nathalie B. Ellis, Baltimore; Mrs. Marguerite Tucker, New York, and Mary LaFollette Tucker, Washington, appeared before the executive mansion with banners which read:
Ricardo Flores Magon, Political Prisoner, Died for Freedom, Leavenworth Prison, Nov. 21, 1922.
Mr. President, Another Political Prisoner Released, Death Is More Merciful Than the Administration, Magon Died in Leavenworth, Other Political Prisoners Are Dying From Consumption.
Mr. President, Charles W. Morse Did Not Die in Jail, Harry M Daugherty Was His Attorney, Ricardo Flores Magon, Political Prisoner, Died in Leavenworth, Attorney General Daugherty Was His Jailer.
The only crime ever committed by Magon was the writing of an anti-war article for which he was given the maximum sentence by the federal court of the southern district of California. The reason given for the failure to consider this case was on the grounds that Magon was not repentant-in other words, that he refused to renounce his views.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 5, 1922 Ricardo Flores Magon Found Dead in Prison Due to Brutal, Inhumane Conditions
From the OklahomaLeader of December 1, 1922:
RICARDO FLORES MAGÓN
Several times the writer of this column has called the attention of the country to the unspeakable outrage perpetrated against Ricardo Flores Magon, a Mexican citizen and patriot, who having been convicted in one of our federal courts of the crime of inciting revolution against a friendly republic, was sentenced to serve a long term in the Leavenworth penitentiary and until a few days ago occupied a cell there.
It was when we learned of his declining health, the information that he could not survive for many months, that we entered our first protest against his brutal confinement, and if the so-called department of justice had been animated with one atom of justice and moral courage, his life might have been spared, for now Ricardo Flores Magon is dead, another brave martyr to the cause of human liberty.
He was prosecuted and convicted and imprisoned at the instance of the corrupt agents of the still more corrupt and tyrannical government of the Dictator Porfirio Diaz. In fear of assassination he fled Mexico and on this side of the Rio Grande sought to enthuse the hearts of his fellow countrymen with those hopes and ideals which glorified the lives and characters of the fathers of American liberty.
Diaz, bloody and unscrupulous tyrant, was the bosom friend of the capitalists of this country, and their word and wish was law, so when Ricardo Flores Magon, raised his voice in protest against the cruel wrongs from which his countrymen were suffering-when his powerful pen delineated the indictment against Diaz and portrayed him as the braided beast he was-his friends on this side of the Rio Grande were wild with fury and Magon became their victim.
Notwithstanding, the flame which gallant and courageous Magon kindled, grew into a mighty conflagration, and Diaz, the usurper and autocrat, was exiled, never again to set foot in the country he had cursed by his presence-notwithstanding a free government was established and the constitutional liberties of the people of Mexico restored-notwithstanding the great cause for which he struggled was triumphant, Ricardo Flores Magon continued, for years afterward, to breath the foul air of a felon’s home, even until the day when merciful death closed his kindly eyes and composed in rest and peace a body which knew no weariness in toiling for the liberation of his oppressed countrymen.
What a mighty and cruel force is capitalism! It knows no country. It does not respect international boundaries. It follows its victims, even within the temple where sanctuary, except for its cruel sway, might be obtained, and upon the very tree of liberty it hangs its victims, and in the name of the law, does them to death. Ricardo Flores Magon, pure and gentle, unselfish and brave, should have lived through many happy years, and died at last in the arms of loved ones, amid the worshiping prayers and tears of those compatriots to whom he was an inspiration, but thanks to the international powers of capitalism, whom he had offended, he died a felon and with his last gasp paid the last installment of the penalty which capitalist hate demanded.
So long, Magon, at last your body rests calmly and sweetly in the land you loved. We are ashamed of our part in your cruel murder. Some day we hope we shall be able to make partial restitution, for as the train which bore your wasted and emaciated form, wound its way across the Western plains, the hopes and prayers of many more than a million souls followed you, and some day, please God, our countrymen shall join yours in the erection of a monument to your memory which will express in some small measure the love we bear you.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 22, 1922 Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, Kansas – Ricardo Flores Magón Dead at Age 48
From The Leavenworth Post of November 21, 1922
DEATH COMES TO POLITICAL PRISONER
AT FEDERAL PRISON
———- Ricardo [Flores] Magon, Noted Revolutionist
Victim of Heart Disease Early Today. ———-
Ricardo [Flores] Magon, noted Mexican revolutionist and generally regarded as an anarchist, died in the Federal prison early this morning. The body was removed to the Davis Undertaking establishment awaiting word from relatives. Marie B. Magon, his wife, resides at 2132 Fargo street, Los Angeles.
Magon called an attendant at 4:30 o’clock this morning and said he was not feeling well. He had retired in bis usual health. A physician was called and it was discovered Magon was suffering with an acute attack of heart disease. While the physician was preparing a dose of medicine, Mason died.
Magon lad served terms in three penitentiaries. In 1912 he was arrested in Arizona on a charge of violating the neutrality laws. The trial resulted in conviction and he was sentenced to serve a year and a day in the Yuma state penitentiary. He was next arrested in June, 1916, on charges of obstructing the military service, violating the trading with the enemy act, mailing unmailable matter and conspiracy against the government.
The trial resulted in a conviction on all charges and he was given a total sentence of 21 years in the Federal prison at McNeil Island. On November 3, 1919, Magon was transferred to the Federal penitentiary here.
Since Magon has been in the Federal prison there have been several efforts to obtain his freedom by so-called radical organizations.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 13, 1922 Vera Cruz, Mexico – Maritime Workers Strike for Release of Ricardo Flores Magón
From El Paso Herald of November 9, 1922:
VERA CRUZ, Mex., Nov. 9.—(By the Associated Press.)—Workers belonging to the maritime league were on strike here today in protest against the alleged unlawful imprisonment of Ricardo Flores Magon, former Mexican rebel leader in Leavenworth, Kan., prison.
Magon in 1917 was sentenced to 20 years for complicity in a communist plot in Los Angeles.
Want Release Of Radicals.
The workers made a demonstration before the American consulate and presented a petition for the release of Magon and other Mexicans imprisoned in the United States as dangerous radicals. A cable message embracing the protest and the petition was sent to the Mexican charge d’affaires in Washington. Other demonstrations were held in various Mexican gulf ports.
A boycott against American ships in Mexican ports is being considered and other measures also are threatened if the United States government refuses to liberate the Mexicans.
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Magon was arrested in Los Angeles after he had been trailed for several months by government operatives. In his possession at the time of arrest was found circulars and other propaganda issued with intent of creating a revolution in Mexico.
Ricardo Magon and a brother, Enrique were prominent in a revolution in Sonora in 1910 coincident with the Pascual Orozco uprising in the state of Chihuahua. The Magon brothers several times were charged with conspiring against the Diaz government.
Los Angeles was used principally as headquarters by the brothers and it is said, that many attempts to foment revolution began there.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 30, 1912 Los Angeles, California – Mexican Comrades Sentence to Nearly Two Years -Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magón, Librado Rivera, and Anselmo L. Figueroa
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 21, 1922 Ricardo Flores Magón Denied Clemency, Remains at Leavenworth
Editorial from the Oklahoma Leader of June 15, 1922:
TO OUR EVERLASTING SHAME ———-
Ricardo Flores Magon, was transferred from McNeil Prison to Leavenworth, arriving there on November 3, 1919
The breadth and depth of the ever-widening and deepening gulf which separates this government from the lofty ideals which glorified the minds of the lovers of human liberty who founded it, was never so clearly illustrated than by the recent refusal of the so-called department of justice to extended clemency to Ricardo Flores Magon.
Magon, Mexican patriot, poet and idealist, fled from Mexico when the tyrant and usurper Porfirio Diaz, always popular in this country, sought to take his life because he raised his voice and pen in behalf of his oppressed countrymen. Across the Rio Grande, safe, as he thought, from the power of his persecutor, and in a country which in times past had offered asylum to those who were exiled by liberty hating tyrants, Magon sought to arouse his countrymen to rebel and repudiate the government which was traducing the spirit of liberty and trampling the Mexican constitution in the mire.
Because of his activity in this respect, and at the instance of the secret service agents of Diaz, Magon was arrested and indicted in federal courts for inciting revolution against a friendly nation, and was convicted and given a long sentence twenty years in Leavenworth. Meantime the little flame he had fearlessly kindled burst into a refining conflagration Diaz, the bloody tyrant and usurper, abdicated his throne and escaped to a foreign land, never daring to return to the country he had impoverished and betrayed.
But notwithstanding the goal for which Magon yielded his liberty was won, the usurper removed and his regime destroyed, a servant of the people placed in office, order restored and constitutional government instituted Ricardo Flores Magon is still a poor and miserable prisoner in a stone cell in a penitentiary, the property of the United States, a nation conceived in justice and born in the name of Liberty. More than that, Magon is going blind and unless he is shortly released will never see the result of his humble labor, so fearlessly performed, to achieve his country’s redemption.
The Mexican ambassador, the legislatures of the states of Yucatan and Coahuila de Zeragoza and the Mexican Federation of Labor have memorialized the alleged department of justice at Washington for clemency for Magon, and for his fellow prisoner, Libraro Rivera, all to no avail. The capitalist government at Washington is taking sweet revenge upon the man, who was most responsible for the exile of Diaz, the dear friend of the capitalists of this country.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 15, 1911 Mother Jones News Round-Up for November 1911, Part I Found Involved in Conflict Between Madero and Magón
From the Appeal to Reason of November 4, 1911:
Mexico.-The history of the Mexican revolution is too well known to need discussion here. Following the successful overthrow of Diaz there have appeared two tendencies of the working class movement in our sister republic. One of these, lead by [Ricardo Flores] Magon, is semi-anarchistic, while the other is socialistic. The Socialists have established a labor paper at the city of Mexico and both the Western Federation of Miners and the United Mine Workers have gone into the republic to organize the miners. Mother Jones is now there for that purpose, as is also Charles Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners. Madero has promised his protection. It is too early to make predictions as to the result.
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From Regeneración of November 4, 1911 -Page 4, English Section:
…..Our readers must pardon us for piling up, week after week, the evidence of Madero’s complete subjection to the money power, and we ourselves feel that every mind open to conviction must have become persuaded long ago of the truthfulness of the charges we have been making for the last eight months. Unfortunately such women as “Mother Jones” apparently can be still won over by a handshake from Wall Street’s president-elect, and communications from men who are intriguing day and night for Madero are still played up in Socialist publications. For the most part, however, the Socialist press has dropped the Mexican revolution like a hot potato, it will have to take it up again, and, it is to be hoped, from an amended standpoint…..
Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 20, 1911 Mother Jones News Round-Up for October 1911, Part II
Mother Writes From Mexico City; Is Denounced by Regeneración
From the Appeal to Reason of October 21, 1911:
Mother Jones In Mexico ———-
Mexico City, Oct. 4.-Just a line to let you know I have just returned from the palace where I have had a long audience with President De La Barra. At the close of my interview the Mexican guaranteed me protection and my right to organize the miners of Mexico. This is the first time that any one has ever been granted that privilege in the history of the Mexican nation. It is the greatest concession ever granted to any one representing the laboring class of any nation.
I also spent an hour with President-elect Madero and he granted me the protection and aid from the government that I called for. I am the first person who has been permitted to carry the banner of industrial freedom to the long suffering peons of this nation.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday July 8, 1911 Second Battle of Tijuana Ends in Defeat for Rebel Forces
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of July 6, 1911:
REBELS ARE DEFEATED BUT NOT CONQUERED —————
The liberal campaign in Lower California was practically ended with the defeat of the hundred men under General Jack Mosby at Tijuana, Mexico, on June 22nd, although there is yet two bands of armed rebel Mexicans, one near Santa Rosalia, in the southern end of the peninsula and another of about twenty-five men in the mountains between Tijuana and Mexicali in the north
[…..]
The rebels who surrendered were held at Fort Rosecrans for three days and then released with the exception of thirteenwho were deserters from the army and navyand Mosby and [Adjutant Bert] Laflin, whom the Madero government is trying to extradite to torture and murder in Mexico. Boys, will we stand for it? I’ll leave it to your actions. Will you act?
About the same time the battle took place the Liberal Junta in Los Angeles were arrested. They have already served three years in our vile American prisons and we must not let them serve any more years.
Subscribe for “Regeneracion” (address 519½ East Fourth street, Los Angeles) and learn the facts of the case.
Remember although the little campaign in Lower California has been smashed the Mexican people are not through revolting. Madero did not start the revolution NOR WILL HE END IT.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 28, 1911 “The Mexican Revolution is at an end. Diaz has resigned.”
From the Appeal to Reason of May 27, 1911:
Diaz Has Resigned ————
Taft Meets with Diaz El Regidor of October 21, 1909
The Mexican revolution is at an end. Diaz has resigned. Sick almost to the point of death, with the entire nation in revolt against him, with an army marching on Mexico City, and with his own advisers presenting a resignation asking his signature, the ancient tyrant finally called: “Bring the resignation; I’ll sign now. You are traitors all.” The resignation was brought, he affixed his signature and the Diaz dynasty was at an end. DeLa Bara was proclaimed provisional president. Madero officially declared the revolution at an end and disbanded his army, and then went to Mexico City to act as advisor to the new president.
This is one story as sent out from Mexico. Others says that Diaz has not yet resigned, but will do so soon. The one fact is clear that he has already lost.
Thus ends a remarkable historical event that was practically inaugurated by the APPEAL TO REASON. When three years ago, the APPEAL began its expose of the Mexican situation, Diaz was deemed impregnable, and almost every capitalist paper in America loudly denounced the Appeal for calling him a tyrant. But the exposure, once began, would not end. An eastern magazine supplemented it, and though it discontinued its expose for some mysterious reason, the light did not fail.
The American government imprisoned refugees from the tyranny of Diaz, Taft visited Diaz and called “him friend ; but the truth could not longer be hidden. Finally the Mexican people summoned sufficient courage to rebel openly. The American army was sent to the border and talk of “American intervention” was rife; but the revolution went right on. It came to the point where the capitalist papers, deserting the old lion and liar, Diaz, told the truth about him. Every charge the APPEAL made has been fully substantiated. Finally the overthrow of the tyrant came. It is the most notable case in history of a newspaper, by its exposure, overthrowing one who had for more than twenty-five years, held dictatorial powers and whose reign was buttressed by the flattery of thousands of beneficiaries of his tyranny in America. The APPEAL Army really did more than Madero’s army.
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