Tag: Socialist Party of America

Hellraisers Journal: Socialists Visit Debs at Atlanta Prison to Notify Him That He Has Been Nominated for President

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD re SP n Working Class, Atlanta Cstn p2, May 30, 1920———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday June 1, 1920
Atlanta Penitentiary – Eugene Debs Accepts Nomination for President

From The Atlanta Constitution of May 30, 1920:

DEBS POINTS WAY FOR SOCIALISTS
———-
Praises Russian Russian Revolution, and
Criticises Platform When Notified of
Presidential Nomination.
—–

Expression of keen but friendly criticism of the socialist platform, as adopted in New York city, and of sentiments of sympathy with the Russian revolution, which Eugene V. Debs declared the greatest achievement of all time, were the features of the unique ceremony conducted in the federal prison in Atlanta Saturday morning, when the prisoner was formally notified by a committee of his party that he had been nominated for president by the socialists.

EVD f Prz w Sc Com Madge,ed, LW p3, June 12, 1920

Every possible courtesy was extended the committee and the aged convict by the prison authorities. There were some fifteen people present at the notification, some seven of them socialists, perhaps as many newspaper men, and a fellow prisoner of Debs-Joe Caldwell, of Rhode Island, a member of the communist party.

The exercises were held in a beautifully lighted room on the ground floor, with a nice view through the barred windows. Just before this took place. Debs met his friends in the hallway and kissed each one, four men and one woman-Dr. Madge Patton Stephens, from Terre Haute, his home town, and a friend of his family. Then, for half an hour, a moving picture man snapped all conceivable poses of the nominee and his committee.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for April 1910, Part II: Found in Senate Lobby of Nation’s Capitol Berating Senator Charles Dick

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones to Sen Dick, WDC, LW p1, Apr 30, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 20, 1910
Mother Jones News Round-Up for April 1910, Part II:
-Found in Washington D. C. Berating Author of Dick Military Law

From the Duluth Labor World of April 30, 1910:

MOTHER JONES RAKES OHIO’S
WATCH CHARM SENATOR
OVER COALS
——–

Mother Jones, Latest Picture, Ft Wayne Dly Ns p9, Apr 9, 1910

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 29.— Mother Jones, whose “boys” are working in every coal mine in Pennsylvania and every mineral camp of Colorado, met Senator Dick, of the notorious Dick military law, as that urbane member of the upper house was standing in the senate lobby of the [Capitol].

All smiles and gladness the senator acknowledged the introduction to the white-haired woman and offered his hand, but “Mother” dropped hers significantly to her side:

I’m fighting you, Senator Dick. It was your work that sent two thousand guns out to Colorado in the last big strike, and shot us up.

“You don’t look as if you had been injured, Madam,” flushed the senator.

“No thanks to your law and the guns that killed others while they missed me,” answered the woman whose appearance and participation in almost every miners’ strike during the last thirty years has earned for her the name of “stormy petrel.”

“But, madam,” argued Senator Dick, “don’t we need soldiers in time of revolution?”

[Flashed Mother Jones:]

In the revolution that drove King George back across the sea, yes. But do we need a law that will do for America what the Irish constabulary law did for Ireland? No, no. Senator Dick, I saw the brutal and bloody work of the militia in Colorado, and the truth is that the guns your law would place in the hands of the mine owners and the mill owners are loaded with bullets for the hearts of the workers.

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Hellraisers Journal: Socialists Party Convention Nominates Eugene Debs, Convict 9653, for President

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, Be True Labor Will Come Into Its Own, OH Sc p1, Nov 5, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday May 16, 1920
New York, New York – Socialists Nominate Convict 9653 for President

From the Washington Herald of May 14, 1920:

CONVICT 2253 MADE NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT
———-
Socialist Convention Delegates in Tears
at Mention Of Eugene V. Debs.
—–

CHEER SOVIET RUSSIA
—–
Stedman, Chicago Lawyer, Running Mate
on “Conservation Platform.”
—–

EVD Lionize Leader of Socialists, WDC Hld p1, May 14, 1920

New York, May 13.-Eugene Victor Debs, convict 2253 [9653] in Federal Prison at Atlanta, where he is serving a ten-year sentence for violation of the espionage act, today was nominated as candidate for President of the United States by the Socialist party convention. Seymour Stedman, of Chicago, attorney and close friend of Debs, was chosen as candidate for Vice President.

Radicals in the convention experienced their second defeat at the hands of the conservatives when an attempt to substitute the left wing platform, declaring for a soviet form of government in the United States, was defeated by a vote of 74 to 55.

Swept by an emotion which brought tears to their eyes, the delegates sprang to their feet at the first mention of the name of Debs, whose nomination was proposed by Edward Henry, of Indiana. For thirty minutes delegates and visitors shouted and gesticulated, sang [the “Internationale”] and cheered…..

[Emphasis added.]

Note: The Herald is using “Convict 2253,” the number given to Debs at Moundsville Prison. When Debs was transferred to Atlanta in June of 1919, he became “Convict 9653.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Luella Twining on the Philadelphia Carmen’s Strike and Formation of Woman’s Auxiliary

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD, Lawmakers Felons, Phl GS Speech, IA, Mar 19, 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday May 12, 1910
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Carmen’s Strike Continues; Women Organize

From The Progressive Woman of May 1910:

The Philadelphia Situation

LUELLA TWINING

Luella Twining ed, Prg Wmn p9, Oct 1909

The most significant features of the Carmen’s strike in Philadelphia are the sympathetic strike that was called soon after the carmen went out, involving 200,000 men and women; the awakening of the workers of this city to the fact that the government is the bulwark of capitalism; and the great organization of carmen’s wives that has been built up in two weeks, now numbering five thousand women.

Government Officials Control Situation

Senators Penrose, McNichols, Director Clay and other officials have taken charge of affairs for the Transit company. There was not even an attempt at a settlement till those senators appeared, Mr. McNichols coming from Florida where he had fled to get away from the strike. Indeed, so apparent has been the connivance between the Transit company and national, state and city officials that even the least observing have been forced to see it. Mayor Reyburn has issued statements for the Transit company showing that the city hall is openly against the strikers; policemen are put on the cars to run them and scab on the carmen; when the carmen attempted to hold a meeting in the ball park, which had been rented for that purpose, mounted policemen rode into men, women and children, trampling them down and beating them on the heads with clubs, till the pavement was covered with blood. So active has the government been in attempting to break the strike that the strikers and their wives discuss the political situation almost exclusively. It might well be called a “political strike.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for March 1920, Part I: Found Supporting Shipyard Strikers of San Francisco and Vicinity

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Home Good Fight Going On, Ptt Prs p17, Sept 24, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 7, 1920
-Mother Jones News for March 1920, Part I
Found Supporting Shipyard Strikers of San Francisco and Vicinity

From The Los Angeles Times of March 11, 1920:

Mother Jones Seeks Shipyard, LA Tx p23, Mar 11, 1920———-

Mother Jones, Crpd Lg, Chg Tb p120, Oct 26, 1919

“Mother”‘ Jones, one of the most widely known union labor agitator in the world, who has been resting in this city for the last week, will leave today for Oakland to lend her support to the shipyard strikers in the Bay cities, according to information given out yesterday at the oil workers headquarters, room 111, Central Labor Temple.

The aged agitator last night stated that she did not know whether she was going to Oakland today or not, and intimated that it was none of the newspaper’s business what she was going to do. But at the home of Frank Flaherty, 2759 Marengo street, where “Mother” is staying, it was announced that she would leave tonight.

A telegram also was sent to V. C. Doaslaugh, secretary of the Alameda county Metals Trade Council, yesterday, in which it was stated that “Mother” Jones would arrive there Friday. The message was signed by C. B. Harvey, vice-president of the local Oil Workers’ Union.

“Mother” Jones came to Los Angeles to recuperate from a nervous breakdown, it was said at the Central Labor Temple, yesterday. The elderly woman participated in the recent fiasco of the Pennsylvania Steel workers, and report indicate that the collapse of that strike brought on an attack of “nerves” which caused her to retire to this city.

During her stay in this city, “Mother” Jones has had only one opportunity to talk. Last Sunday [March 7th] she addressed a few union laborites at the Labor Temple.

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Hellraisers Journal: From Fellow Workers Morrie Preston and Joseph Smith, “A Cry from the Depths of Nevada’s Prison”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote EVD Movements of Undesirables, AtR p4, Oct 31, 1908———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 30, 1910
Carson City, Nevada – Fellow Workers Preston and Smith Remain Behind Bars

From the International Socialist Review of April 1910:

Preston n Smith by ME Eldridge, ISR p894, Apr 1910

Letter T, ISR p894, Apr 1910HREE years ago the 10th of March, John Sylva, a restaurant keeper at Goldfield, Nevada, was shot and killed by M. R. Preston, a miner and member of the Western Federation of Miners at that time affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, and on May 9th, just two months later, Preston and Joseph Smith, the latter a cook and member of the I. W. W., were found guilty on an indictment charging them with murder and were sentenced to imprisonment, Preston to twenty-five and Smith to ten years.
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Hellraisers Journal: Latest News from Spokane Free Speech Fight by Fellow Worker Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Part II

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Compliment IWW, IW p1, Nov 17, 1909———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 4, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Gurley Flynn Reports from Free Speech Fight, Part II

From the International Socialist Review of March 1910:

Latest News from Spokane
—–

ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN.
—–

[Part II of II.]

IWW Spk FSF, George Prosser, ISR p831, Mar 1910

Since the release of the majority charged with disorderly conduct, suits have been entered amounting to $120,000 against Chief of Police Sullivan, Captain of Detectives Burns, Captain Miles and Officers Shannon, Warner, Nelson and Jelsett. These suits are based upon the treatment the men received in the sweat box and the Franklin School. Every man injured will certainly cost the city of Spokane thousands of dollars before the fight is settled. The tax payers seem to have no sense of justice or humanity, consequently an appeal to their pocket-books as a last resort will be the most effective. The I. W. W. have already been forced to spend hundreds of dollars from the defense fund caring for sick and disabled members as they were discharged from custody. At the present time one man, George Prosser, is ill at the Kearney Sanitarium, two others, Ed. Collins and M. Johnson, are confined in local hotels with extreme cases of rheumatism, and Frank Reed is in the Washington Sanitarium ill with erysipelas.

This little fellow [Frank Reed] who, by the way is one of Uncle Sam’s ex-soldiers, went through the hunger strike at Fort Wright and but a few days after his release was re-arrested charged with criminal conspiracy and desecrating the flag. When he was taken ill he was allowed to remain for 48 hours without medical treatment and in a terrible delirium. County Physician Webb excused this ill-treatment by saying that Reed had been left in charge of a trustee, in other words-a fellow prisoner. He was put under the care of a special nurse and during the first 48 hours he was in an extremely critical condition. The cost to the I. W. W. for the first two days alone amounted to $166.00. This is not reported in any mercenary sense for dollars are of course not to be considered in the balance with the life of a revolutionist, but the extreme character of his suffering and the costly treatment that it required is a severe reproach to the standard of civilization attained in the Spokane County jail.

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Hellraisers Journal: “How Girls Can Strike” -William Mailly on Uprising of the 20,000 for The Progressive Woman

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Esther of NYC Uprising Beaten by Father n Brother, Prog Wmn p6, Feb 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 4, 1910
New York, New York – Girls Persist Despite Hunger, Cold and Beatings

From The Progressive Woman of February 1910:

How Girls Can Strike

BY WILLIAM MAILLY

“A whole lot has been published about what the rich women have done in this shirtwaist strike,” said a woman friend, “but I haven’t seen very much about what the girls themselves have done. Why isn’t something said about them?”

I had been going the rounds of the halls where the shop meetings of the strikers were held, collecting the proceeds from the Special Strike Edition of the Call. It was a dull, wet day, the East Side streets were slippery and dirty with a nasty mush consisting of a week-old snow mixed with the regular refuse that the rich metropolis is too poor to remove promptly from its working class districts. One did not walk through such streets; one slid, splashed and floundered and felt lucky to be able to do that without falling. And the cold rain soaked one through to the skin in short order.

Uprising Scab Scared of Girl Strikers, New York Call p4, Dec 29, 1909

I was leaving Astoria hall on East Fourth street when Gottlieb, the chairman of Casino hall, across the street, accosted me. He was accompanied by a young girl. She was thinly clad, her clothes were shabby, her shoes were torn and sodden, and her face and hands blue with cold.

“Mr. Mailly,” said Gottlieb, “look at this girl. I want to tell you about her. This is the worst case I have in our hall. It’s the worst case I’ve heard of. This girl is only sixteen years old—she has no father or mother living; she has no relatives or friends; she has only been in this country about six months; she can hardly talk English.

“Listen, Mr. Mailly.” Gottlieb was getting more excited as he went on.

This girl hasn’t had anything to eat all day—she is hungry-she must have something—and we can’t give it to her. Also she can not pay the rent of the room she lives in—she must get out if she cannot pay. We can do nothing; we have nothing.

And listen. Think of it. This girl, she got from a man a five-dollar bill for one copy of the Call in the Cafe Monopole on Second avenue today and she brought it in and gave it over to me. And she so hungry and with not a cent, and we needn’t have known she got that five dollars. Think of it! And she says she won’t scab-she doesn’t care what happens to her. But oh, Mr. Mailly, we must help her. You must give her something now. I have brought her to show you.

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Hellraisers Journal: Russian Methods Prevail in Spokane Free Speech Fight, Report from The Progressive Woman

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote EGF, Heaven n Hell, ISR p617, Jan 1910———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 31, 1910
Spokane, Washington – Free Speech Fighters Suffer Sweating, Hunger and Cold

From The Progressive Woman of January 1910:

RUSSIAN METHODS IN SPOKANE.
—–

EGF ed, Prog Wmn p2, Jan 1910—–

Every once in a while things happen in the United States that seem for the world like Russia. The “bull-pen” episode in Colorado a few years ago was one of these. The present fight for free speech out in Spokane is another. The authorities out there took it upon themselves to deny the right of free speech to the Socialists, and the Socialist labor organization, the Industrial Workers of the World, with its official organ, The Industrial Worker, and its headquarters in Spokane, is bearing the brunt of this fight.

As fast as men are thrown into jail for attempting to hold their usual street meetings others come to take their places. In fact, the comrades are pouring in from every section of the country to help in this fight.

And it is a serious business. Young men, without funds, but anxious to help, take advantage of every possible means of reaching Spokane, even to “riding the rods” through the long dreary cold of the north west. One splendid young comrade from Chicago was killed while making his way in this manner; another was hurt in a wreck. Others suffered agonies from hunger and the cold. But none have turned back.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1919: “I hope that when I die, that I will not go where Judge Gary will be.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mother Jones, Home Good Fight Going On, Ptt Prs p17, Sept 24, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Friday January 16, 1920
-Mother Jones News for December 1919
Found Lambasting Judge Gary and Standing with Striking Steel Workers

From The Blacksmiths Journal of December 1919:
-Report of International Representative W. A. McArthur

-Gets Well Acquainted with Kaiserism at
the Buffalo Plant of Williams & Co.
-Meets Mother Jones at Lackawanna
Where a Monster Crowd Heard one of
Her Characteristic Talks.
Takes a Fling at Judge Gary.

Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 20, 1919.

Editor Journal:

Mother Jones, Crpd Lg, Chg Tb p120, Oct 26, 1919

In company with Brother Carey we have tried our best to make the J. H. Williams Company, Buffalo, see their error in discriminating against our men and as this matter has been reported by Brother Carey and I have previously dwelt upon it will not make any further report. I sincerely hope that the Kaiser of the plant will be made to abdicate.

From Buffalo I went to Lackawanna and addressed the steel workers in that place and while there had the pleasure of meeting Mother Jones. This grand old lady of 86 years’ experience, was also there and delivered one of her famous characteristic talks. She thrilled the crowd repeatedly and at one time caused a tremendous outburst of applause, when she said,

Judge Gary will never make slaves out of Americans, or any foreigners who come to America to make this their home, if I can help it. I hope that when I die, that I will not go where Judge Gary will be.

[…..]

[Photograph added.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for December 1919: “I hope that when I die, that I will not go where Judge Gary will be.”” →