Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 16, 1919
Jefferson City, Missouri – Kate Richards O’Hare Behind the Prison Bars
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of April 15, 1919:
KATE RICHARDS O’HARE ‘DRESSED IN ‘ AT PRISON
—–
Socialist Will Sew on Jumpers in Shop With
Emma Goldman at Jefferson City.
—–
By a Staff Correspondent of the Post-Dispatch.
Kate Richards O’Hare & Children: Richard, Kathleen, Victor, and Eugene. April 1919-taken before she turned herself over to begin serving prison term. ———-
JEFFERSON CITY, April 15.-Mrs. Kate Richards O’Hare of St. Louis, the Socialist leader convicted of violating the espionage law by speaking against war, was “dressed in” this morning at the Missouri penitentiary, to which she has been sentenced to serve five years, was given a bath and designated as “No. 21,669.” She will be put to work tomorrow sewing jumper jackets and suspenders on a machine, in the same shop with Emma Goldman, the anarchist.
Mrs. O’Hare is the wife of Frank P. O’Hare and the mother of four children. She is the author of a number of essays, pamphlets and at least one play on social and economic subjects. She was Socialist candidate for Senator from Missouri in 1916, and once was a candidate for the Socialist nomination for Vice President.
Mrs. O’Hare, after the affirmation of her conviction by the Supreme Court, made a study of criminology for the purpose of making a scientific analysis of crime and the causes of it, when she became a prisoner. She consulted several noted psychologists and criminologists, and studied the mental tests used in the army. With the aid of these she prepared an exhaustive questionnaire for prisoners to answer.
More than a month ago she visited Gov. Gardner here and obtained permission from him to purse her studies in the prison…..
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 15, 1919
The Journey of Eugene Debs from Terre Haute to Moundsville Prison
From The Indianapolis Sunday Star of April 13, 1919:
Debs Leaves Alone on Way to Serve Sentence
—–
(Special to The Indianapolis Star.)
TERRE HAUTE, Ind., April 12,-When Eugene V. Debs was advised by long distance telephone today that no Federal officer would be sent for him, but that he would be expected to report as early as possible to the authorities in Cleveland, O., he made arrangements to depart at 10 o’clock tonight. He engaged his berth on the Big Four train, then quietly proceeded to put his house in order for his period of absence.
Mr. Debs observed his farewell dinner at home with only Mrs. Debs and her mother at the table. He was surprised when advised that he would be permitted to report voluntarily to the Federal Building in Cleveland. It had been thought that an officer would come to accompany him to the prison at Moundsville, W. Va., where he is to serve ten years.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 12, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for March 1909, Part I:
-Found in Denver, Colorado, Speaking at Protest Meeting
On the evening of Thursday March 1st, Mother Jones spoke before trade unionists, assembled together at the People’s tabernacle, to protest against the jail sentences imposed upon Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell, and Frank Morrison by District Court Judge Daniel Thew Wright.
From The Denver Post of March 1, 1909:
MOTHER JONES TO ADDRESS DENVER
LABOR MEETING
—–
Protest Against Federal Judge Sending
Labor Leaders to Jail.
—–
3,000 ARE TO TAKE PART
—–
Resolutions to Be Adopted Strongly
Censuring Judge Wright.
—–
Tonight at the People’s Tabernacle, Twentieth and Lawrence, labor will enter its protest against the recent decision of Judge Wright of the district of Columbia, sentencing Samuel Gompers, John Mitchell and Frank Morrison to prison for alleged contempt of court. A monster massmeeting has been arranged for, to commence at 8 o’clock. State senators, representatives and many of the representative labor men of Colorado will take part.
[…..]
“Mother Jones,” one of the famous women advocates of the rights of labor, a woman who saw many of the early conflicts of labor when blood was shed in Easter miners’ strikes, and one of the most interesting orators among the women of the country today will be one of the principal speakers.
“Mother Jones” is known to every laboring men in the country. She attends many labor conventions, and last year delivered one of her characteristic speeches before the annual convention of the Western Federation of Miners. She has been travelling through the West seeking to raise funds for three Western men who are being held in Mexican prisons on the ground that they were seeking to overthrow the Mexican government.
“Mother Jones” is a guest at the home of John M. O’Neill, editor of the official organ of the Western Federation of Miners, 1229 Kalamath street.
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 31, 1909
Oakland, California – Big Bill Haywood Speaks to Trade Unionists
From the Oakland Tribune of March 30, 1909:
“LABOR MUST ENTER POLITICS,”
CRIES HAYWOOD TO GREAT THRONG
—–
‘ROASTS’ RICH AND MINISTERS
—–
Pastors Afraid to tell Truth About
Money-Devil, He Says
—–
DEMANDS FULL RETURN OF TOIL
—–
Speaker Urges Workers Not to Let Others
Idle Away Their Earnings
—–
Many of the leaders of labor say that your industrial organization should not mix in politics. That is all wrong. Although I am addressing you tonight under the auspices of three of your most powerful local central labor bodies, I am not afraid to declare to you that the man who advises you to keep politics out of your organization is the worst enemy you ever had, be he ever so powerful a factor in the councils of your association.
And I will go a step further. The man who tells you that the interests of capital and labor are mutual and that they should work hand in hand, is either a fool or a knave.
When William Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners uttered these words with dramatic force from the platform in Rice’s Institute, corner of Seventeenth street and San Pablo avenue, last night, they were like a firebrand applied to a powder house. The audience cheered them to the echo and manifested in every other possible way its-hearty concurrence in the sentiment.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 22, 1909
Antonio de Pio Araujo, An Innocent Man Imprisoned in a Strange Country
From the Appeal to Reason of March 20, 1909:
Araujo’s Address from His Prison Cell.
—–
TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE:
Evansville Press, Indiana March 20, 1909
It is hard to be sentenced as an innocent man to a long term of imprisonment in a strange country. It is in this unfortunate position that I find myself. But I have no regret and I address you in no spirit of despair. I have felt from the first that if the American people knew the truth about my case I would not now be in a convict’s cell. But the American people do not know the truth. In fact but few of them know anything at all about my conviction. The silence of the press was a part of the conspiracy to destroy my activity by sending me to prison.
Through the medium of the Appeal I have been given the opportunity of addressing myself to the American people, and I gladly avail myself of this privilege. Readers of the Appeal know that for some time there has been trouble in Mexico growing out of the awful condition of the people. For this the administration of Diaz, backed by American capitalists, is responsible. Myself and comrades of the liberal party were opposed to the administration. We were persecuted, spied upon and hunted down until we had to leave the country. When we landed on this side of the Rio Grande we felt ourselves secure under the stars and stripes of the American republic. But alas, we soon realized that the same power which had driven us from our native land also ruled the American states. Our papers were suppressed and we were tracked from place to place by the spies of the Mexican government, reinforced by American detectives, also in its employ. In due time we were arrested upon baseless charges. Some of my comrades have been in jail almost two years. This seems very strange in a land of freedom. Why is trial denied them? I do not know and no one can tell me.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday March 21, 1919
Cleveland, Ohio – Eugene Debs Presented with Red Roses at Farewell Address
From The Ohio Socialist of March 19, 1919:
Eugene V. Debs’ Speech at West Side Turn Hall, Cleveland
[Wednesday Evening, March 12, 1919]
Before a capacity audience of 3,000 which filled West Side Turn hall one hour before his scheduled appearance Debs made his farewell speech.
Debs was calm, His opening words were accorded an instantaneous silence. He said:
How true it is that there is a divinity that shapes our ends, roughhew them how we will! It may seem strange to you, but in my plans, in my dreams, I did not think of going to the penitentiary-and I-I had a thousand times rather go there and spend my remaining days there than to betray this great cause.
So far as I am concerned it does not matter much. The margin is narrow, the years between now and the sunset are few, and the only care that I have personally is that I may preserve to the last the integrity of my own soul and my loyalty to the only cause worth living for, fighting for, and dying for.
It is so perfectly fine to me to look into your faces once more, to draw upon you for the only word I have ever had, the only word that I can ever speak for myself. I love mankind, humanity. Can you understand? I am sure you can.
We are close of kith and kin, we are human and when we get into close touch with each other we come to understand that our good depends upon the good of all humanity.
Opposed to System.
I am opposed to the system under which we live. I am opposed to the government that compels you, the great body of the American people, to pay your tribute to an insignificant few who enjoy life while the great body of the people suffer, struggle, and agonize without ever having lived. Can you understand? I am sure you can.
Let me get in touch with you for a while. I am going to speak to you as a Socialist, as a revolutionist, and, if you please, as a Bolshevist.
And what is the thing that the whole world is talking about? What is it that the ruling class power of the world are denouncing, upon which they are pouring a flood of all their malicious lies-what is it? It is the rise of the workers, the peasants, the soldiers, the common man, who for the first time in history said, “I have made what there is, I produced the wealth; I want to be heard.”
Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday March 12, 1919
“The machinery of capitalism has completed its work…Debs must go to prison.”
From The Ohio Socialist of March 12, 1919:
DEBS GOES TO PRISON
The machinery of capitalism has completed its work and ground out the decision that Eugene V. Debs must go to prison.
No one who has studied the class character of the governmental institutions of this country expected a different verdict than that which has just been rendered by the United States Supreme Court.
It was inconceivable that the Supreme Curt would declare the Espionage law unconstitutional.
The interpretation of the constitution follows the needs of the ruling class. Only unsophisticated persons with a ludicrously naive belief in the “democracy” of modern capitalist government could imagine such a contingency as the Supreme cCourt declaring a law in the interest of the capitalist class unconstitutional in the hour of capitalism’s greatest need.
But if there was no hope for Debs, even though, as many people believe, the Espionage law violates clearly expressed provisions of the national constitution in regard to the right of free speech and free press, it did seem that the selfish interests of the ruling class of this country might save Debs from prison.
Capitalism in this country is resting upon a slumbering volcano-the volcano of a suppressed, oppressed and exploited working class.
In Russia and Germany the volcano has burst and is flinging the debris of capitalism to the four winds.
In England, France and Italy the rumbling which forecasts a similar activity can be distinctly heard.
Even here the warning signals are not wanting. Unemployment, strikes, discontent, Seattle’s [General Strike] and Lawrence’s [Textile Strike], all suggest a growing bitterness that is the sign of a coming eruption.
Well might the ruling class hesitate before adding another grievance, a grievance that will deepen and make more bitter the hatred of the working class of the system that holds them under its iron heel.
That is what the sending of Eugene V. Debs will mean to the ruling class of this country.
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-
———-