Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones 1898, Part II: June-December; Found in Kansas and Nebraska

11th February 201911th February 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 11, 1899
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for the Year 1898, Part II

Mother Jones Mrs AF Smith Preach Socialism, KC Str p9, Oct 91898 — Kansas City Star
October 9, 1898

In the pages of the Appeal to Reason of July 2, 1898, Mother Jones was found as “Mary G. Jones” on the list of delegates who bolted the Convention of the Social Democracy, held in Chicago during June of 1898. The disgruntled delegates immediately set about to establish a rival organization called the “Social Democratic Party of America,” and are now calling for “every loyal supporter of socialist principles” to “promptly come to the front and join” the new party. Mother Jones finds herself in good company as Eugene V. Debs and his brother, Theodore, are among the prominent Socialists who have joined the newly founded S. D. P.

July 1898 also found Mother Jones speaking in Omaha to packing house strikers. It was reported that she was speaking as “a traveling representative of the paper known as the “Appeal to Reason.”

In October 1898, Mother Jones was found in the “two Kansas Citys” preaching socialism along with Mrs. Anna Ferry Smith of San Diego. It was reported that the two women had traveled by a horse-drawn wagon from Chicago, speaking on street corners along the way.

In December 1898, Mother Jones was found leaving Kansas City and heading towards Texas “in a prairie schooner drawn by one white horse.” She was next found in Fort Scott and Mound City, Kansas. The Mound City Torch reported:

She is on her road to Texas, traveling in a private carriage alone. She is distributing literature and lecturing on needed reforms as she goes.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones 1898, Part I: January-May; Found in St. Louis, Missouri

10th February 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 10, 1899
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for the Year 1898, Part I

Mother Jones, Factory Girls, St L Rpb p14, May 12, 1898 — *The St. Louis Republic*
May 12, 1898

During February of 1898, Mother Jones was found in St. Louis, Missouri, preparing for a Conference of Labor and Labor Reform Organizations scheduled to be held in that city on May 2nd. She was also found advocating for Domestic Workers in that city who were seeking to establish “a home of their own.”

Mother departed St. Louis in early March and headed out on a tour of Eastern cities in order to “stir up sentiment among the several reform organizations in behalf of the reform convention” to be held in May. Mother was back in St. Louis in time to present at that convention which was, sadly, not well attended. Nevertheless, Mother was soon busy attempting to organize factory girls, of whom, she declared:

The factory girls should be organized because their condition should be improved. This can be effected by organization, and by no other means. The girls are, as rule, underpaid, kept in cramped, unhealthy quarters, and ground down till their young lives have been dwarfed and stunted. Through the children the world is made what it is. In the unions they could be educated how to better themselves.

I have been all through the factories of this and other cities, and find conditions in them such that the lives of these children will be shortened many years by having worked in them. We have war abroad and war at home. The conflict with Spain is not half so grinding upon humanity as the battle for bread. A few hundred go down in a naval battle; thousands perish beneath the grinding tread of greed every day. We have reconcentrados in our own country-they are the poor, without wealth or friends, who perish in sight of plenty.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: “Social Democratic Party of America” -Letter from Chicago Delegates

7th July 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 7, 1898
On the Formation of the Social Democratic Party of America

From the Appeal to Reason of July 2, 1898:

The Social Democratic Party of America.
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CHICAGO, June 16, 1898.

To Members of the Social Democracy of America:

COMRADES: There has been a division of the delegates who met in annual convention in this city in the name of the Social Democracy, beginning June 7th and ending June 11th, and the result has been the formation of a new party, known as the Social Democratic Party of America.

To report the truth respecting the withdrawal of the undersigned delegates from the convention, and the causes which led thereto, and to the formation of a new party, is the purpose of this address, and we bespeak for it the calm and serious consideration its importance demands.

Soon after the convention was called to order it became apparent that the delegates were divided into two factions, and as the deliberations proceeded the breach which separated them grew wider and all hope of bringing them into harmonious alliance vanished.

The prime factor in the disruption of the Social Democracy was the appearance in the convention of a number of delegates representing Chicago branches which were reported to have been organized within two or three days of the time the convention met, and these delegates were sufficient in number to control the convention. As a matter of fact they were chosen for that purpose and for that purpose alone, and it can be proved that the branches they were alleged to represent had not, and have not now, any existence.

That there was an undercurrent to defeat independent political action, especially in some sections in which certain delegates were personally interested, was too plainly evident to admit of doubt. The intense activity of certain other persons who are known to be violently opposed to political action emphasized the conviction that “colonization” was made the pretext for defeating the independent political program of the organization.

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Hellraisers Journal: “What’s the Matter with Debs?” -Buchanan Questions Exit from Social Democracy of America

5th July 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 5, 1898
Controversy Continues over Division in Social Democracy

From the Omaha Western Laborer of July 2, 1898:

Social Democracy:
The Withdrawal of Debs and What It Means

by Joseph R. Buchanan

“What’s the matter with Debs?”

I have heard that query propounded many times during the past four weeks. Men whom I met at different places on a trip from New York to Omaha and return asked me the question. The division in the Social Democracy was in the mind of everyone who asked it, and what they really wanted to know was the cause of the split in that organization. I was in Chicago two or three days after the break occurred [June 11th], and I met and talked with representative men of each wing of the divided movement. I tried hard to see Debs but failed. However, I saw two men who undoubtedly had the knowledge to speak for his side, and they claimed the authority to do so. However, both sides agree as to the real reason of the division, and that reason is not a secret, as it was given in the daily press of Chicago at the time.

A minority of the delegates to the national convention held in Chicago [June 7-11] wanted to change the program and policy of the Social Democracy by abandoning the colonization feature. When the test vote was taken, the result showed 52 for retaining the colony scheme and 37 against. The 37 bolted the convention and Debs joined them. They afterward met and decided to reorganize the minority on educational and political lines, entirely abandoning the colony project and to go forth with a new plan for a socialistic political party

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Hellraisers Journal: Convention of Social Democracy of America Ends in Fracture; Debs, Keliher, Mailly, and Others Bolt

13th June 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday June 13, 1898
Chicago, Illinois – Debs Rejects Utopian Colonization Scheme

The Social Democracy of America was founded just one year ago in the same city where now that party is torn asunder as the result of a bitter disagreement between those who prefer to purchase themselves a refuge from the oppression of Capitalism and those who are willing to remain in thick of the fight against the forces of Capitalism.The latter group of Socialists includes Eugene Debs who has always and ever stood shoulder to shoulder with working class men, women and children,-injunctions, gunthugs, and prison bars be damned.

EVD, SDA Fdg Conv, Chg 6-15-97, wiki, Chg Chc, June 16, 1897 — *Debs Addressing Founding Convention of Social Democracy of America,*
*Chicago, June 15, 1897*

From The Chicago Chronicle of June 12, 1898:

Debs Goes Out:
Social Democracy is Split into Two Factions

Eugene V. Debs left the Social Democracy of America, which he founded and of which he was President, at 2:30 o’clock yesterday morning [June 11th] and the men who seceded under his leadership formed the Social Democratic Party of America. In one year’s experience he had determined that the colonization scheme which he had fathered was chimerical and that political action should be the purpose of the organization. When the convention in Ulhich’s Hall, after a night of bitter debate, upheld colonization by a vote of 52 to 36, Debs and his followers walked out and in the Revere House organized a new society and adopted a new platform.

While the old Social Democracy will embark at once on the establishment of its first cooperative community in the mining industry at Green Mountain Falls, Colorado, the Social Democratic Party will confine its work to propagating the principles of socialism by the use of the ballot. The division extends to the old leaders. Of the men who were imprisoned in Woodstock Jail in consequence of the great railroad strike of 1894 E.V. Debs and Sylvester Keliher are in the seceding faction, while W.E. Burns, James Hogan, Roy Goodwin, and J.F. Lloyd adhere to the old party. In both organizations the officers are new, but the former leaders are the ruling spirits.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Chicago Social Democrat: Eugene V. Debs Opposes Fusion of SDA with Populists

23rd May 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

The Social Democracy is a socialist party
and is pledged to the principles of socialism.
It can not and will not fuse with any capitalist party,
by whatever name it may be called.
-Eugene Victor Debs
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday May 23, 1898
From Spring Valley, Illinois – Debs Address Issue of Fusion

From the Chicago Social Democrat of May 19, 1898:

Against Fusion

[by Eugene V. Debs]

Spring Valley, Ill., May 14, 1898

Notwithstanding our repeated declarations as to the attitude of the Social Democracy in respect to fusion with other political parties, there are still those who persist in misunderstanding our position.

The Social Democracy is a socialist party and is pledged to the principles of socialism. It can not and will not fuse with any capitalist party, by whatever name it may be called. As special allusion to the Populist party is made by our inquirers, let it be said that the Populist party is a capitalist party and the Social Democracy will not fuse with it any more than it will with the Republican or Democratic party.

It is urged by some that we should encourage alliance with the Populist party because it inclines in our direction. Their advice, if followed, would wreck our party. If socialism is right, Populists should become socialists and join the Social Democracy. If they are not ready to do this they are not socialists, and hence opposed to socialism, and fusion with their party would result in inevitable disaster.

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Hellraisers Journal: Socialists of Kansas Oppose Private Bonds; Public Ownership Victorious in Recent Elections

10th April 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Nature has been lavish to her children.
She has placed in this earth all the material of wealth
that is necessary to make men and women happy…
There is just one thing we lack, and we have only ourselves
to blame if we do not become free. We simply lack
the intelligence to take possession
of that which we have produced.
-Lucy Parsons

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday April 10, 1898
Fort Scott, Kansas – Socialist Education Society Acts

From the Appeal to Reason of April 9, 1898:

OBJECT TO BEING BONDED.

At a regular meeting of the socialist educational society of Fort Scott, Kan., by unanimous vote, the following resolutions were adopted and ordered signed by the President and Secretary in behalf of the society.

RESOLVED, That inasmuch as there is now a scheme on foot to bond ourselves and children to a private corporation for a large sum to pipe natural gas to Ft. Scott, that it is the pledge of this society that we will work to defeat these bonds, and in case these schemers succeed in hoodwinking the people, we pledge ourselves to devise a means to repudiate these bonds; and if we fail we will teach our children the infamy of such schemes that they may repudiate all such bonds.

RESOLVED, That these schemes, after they have been consummated have been laid at the door of the wage worker as “his folly.” We denounce any such accusations as false and defy the capitalistic class to point to a single scheme gotten up by the laboring class to vote any such private bonds.

RESOLVED, That we fully realize that all wealth is created by the laborer, and that all bonds are paid from this creation. Hence, the wealth producer ultimately pays both principal and interest, and the only reward is a false accusation and a little sop called “wage” while they are producing the wealth and giving it to the capitalist.

C. LIPSCOMB, Pres.

M. M. JONES
Secretary.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Social-Democrat: Anniversary of Paris Commune Celebrated by Socialists World-Wide

31st March 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

C’est la lutte finale
Groupons-nous et demain
L’Internationale
Sera le genre humain.
-Eugène Pottier – Paris, June 1871

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday March 31, 1898
Paris Commune Celebrated Annually by Socialists

From The Social Democrat of March 1898:

THE COMMUNE OF PARIS.

The 18th of March, the anniversary of the Paris Commune, is annually celebrated by Socialists throughout the world. The Commune of Paris is an event unique in history. It was the first working-class government that the world had ever seen. For the first time the working people had seized the reins of government, and taken into their hands the administration of a great city. No wonder the possessing classes were alarmed; no wonder all the forces of “respectability,” of reaction and obscurantism, rallied to the government of the “little man,” Theirs, and his gang of Imperialist mouchards and Royalist ruffians at Versailles. The revolution of the Parisian proletariat was not a mere political movement, it was a menace to all those interests which live and thrive by the enslavement, the exploitation, and the plunder of the workers.

The history of this epoch-marking insurrection is an oft-told tale. Who, among Socialists, does not know of the desertion of Paris by the reactionary Assembly; of the measures for disarming the Parisian National Guards; of the attempted seizure of the guns on the heights of Montmartre in the morning of the 18th of March; how that attempt was frustrated, and how the troops sent to carry it out fraternised with the National Guards, and shot the officer who ordered them to fire upon the people?

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs on Tour for Social Democracy of America, Found in Delaware and Washington, D.C.

21st March 2018 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism.
I am for Socialism because I am for humanity.
We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday March 21, 1898
Eugene V. Debs on Tour-Found in Wilmington, Baltimore, & Washington

From the Wilmington Every Evening of March 19, 1898:

Debs on Social Democracy.

Eugene V Debs, head of the Social Democracy movement, and C. Wesley Callahan, the secretary, explained the movement to a fair-sized audience in Turn Hall last evening. B. Lundy Kent presided. The aim of socialism is industrial equality, to be obtained by the co-operative commonwealth. The people, as explained by Debs are to seize the instruments and all means of production. The State is to run business as well as government. The local Social Democracy is to meet on Sunday afternoons at 610½ Market street.

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[Ad for The Social Democrat is from the Duluth Labor World]

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The Social Democratic Party of America. ———-

Social Democracy: The Withdrawal of Debs and What It Means

Debs Goes Out: Social Democracy is Split into Two Factions

Against Fusion

OBJECT TO BEING BONDED.

THE COMMUNE OF PARIS.

The Social Democratic Party of America.
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Social Democracy:
The Withdrawal of Debs and What It Means

Debs Goes Out:
Social Democracy is Split into Two Factions