Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1909, Part II; Found in Chicago and in Denver

9th March 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Great Church upon Bodies of Girls, Dnv Rck Mt Ns p2, Feb 28, 1909 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Monday March 8, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1909, Part II:
-Found in Denver, Colorado; Scheduled to Speak at Protest Meeting

At the end of February, Mother Jones arrived in Denver, Colorado, where she was scheduled to speak at a “Gompers Protest Meeting” on March 1st. According to the Rocky Mountain News of February 28th, Mother made the following statements:

There is an industrial panic in the United States today, and it is not confined to any particular locality. The steel trust is now engaged in stamping out the independent steel concerns, and God have pity on the iron and steel workers when this happens and the rest of the people, too. In Illinois the coal miners are having their trouble, some working only one day a week, and some three days a week. The shoemakers all over the country are struggling against similiar conditions, and everywhere you turn you find this industrial stagnation…..

How can you expect labor to make very much headway with 10,000 judges ruled by the capitalists? Where can they get justice? Where can justice be had with Wall Street dictating the policies of the president, congress and the governors of the states?

Even religion is mixed up in the conditions. I saw in an Eastern city a $2,000,000 church built with the subscriptions of men whose daughters work in factories and stores for $3 and $4 per week. Oh, the farce of it all! Dare you tell me that a girl can work for $3 a week and be respectable? The idea of building a great church upon the sold bodies of girls!…..

I tell you that there is a limit to all things-and the limit will come in the present economic conditions of this country, and people will arise and take the industries into their own hands and right the wrongs that are making of this nation the most grasping in the world today.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1909, Part II; Found in Chicago and in Denver” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1909, Part I; Found Praising the Appeal to Reason

7th March 20198th March 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Wall Street Knows Fears, AtR p1, Feb 13, 1909 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday March 7, 1909
Mother Jones News Round-Up for February 1909, Part I:
-Found Praising the “Appeal to Reason”

From the Appeal to Reason of February 13, 1909:

“WALL STREET KNOWS AND FEARS.”

The Appeal feels a pardonable pride in the compliment paid to it by that grand old agitator, Mother Jones. She has been with the Appeal from the day of its first issue and she knows its record as few others do. She knows its trials and its struggles, its privations and reverses, it’s mistakes and defeats, and she also knows what its motive and purpose has been through all its career. She knows that while the Appeal, like every other paper, has its shortcomings and has committed its follies its one unflinching purpose has been to serve and strengthen the Socialist movement in the struggle for industrial emancipation.

It is gratifying therefore to have one who so well knows the Appeal and who is so well known for her own spotless integrity and courage to write us that the Appeal

is the one Socialist paper that Wall street knows and fears!

The Appeal values this appreciative expression from Mother Jones sufficiently to move it to exert all its effort to increase the fear of Wall Street and the confidence and good will of all who are helping to overthrow capitalism and usher in the reign of the people.

———-

[Photograph added.]

—————

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1909, Part I; Found Praising the Appeal to Reason” →

Hellraisers Journal: Debs on Deported Radicals: They are human beings, his brothers, & is ready to share their lot.

27th February 2019 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

Quote EVD re Deportations, Btt Dly Bltn p1, Feb 21, 1919 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 27, 1919
Terre Haute, Indiana – Eugene V. Debs on Deportations of Working Men

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 21, 1919:

Debs Brands Plot to Deport
Radicals “Crime of Crimes”
—–

Recalls Lincoln’s Birthday. Says Rail Splitter Was
Murdered by the Ruling Class, that Same Power That
Today Is Shipping Men Overseas Like Cattle Because
They Are Protesting Against Wage Slavery.
—–

By EUGENE V. DEBS.

Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. 12.-This is Lincoln’s birthday. It is a day rich with memory and dark with tragedy. Lincoln was and is the sweetest product of American soil. Like the Nazarene, he loved the poor, sympathized with the lowly, and was hated, vilified and finally murdered by the ruling class of his time.

The birthday of the immortal rail splitter is being celebrated in part by deportation from the land he loved of the men of honest toil, who, like himself, hated the money power and believed in government of and by and for the people. This is one of the beautiful ironies of capitalism. Its vaunted love of freedom is but the velvet cloak which conceals its iron-fisted despotism.

These men are charged by the ruling class and its prostitute press with being enemies of the government. Precisely the same charge that is being brought against these men today under capitalist despotism was brought against Abraham Lincoln by the slave power of his day. Lincoln was murdered by same power that is now tearing our brothers from their families and friends and shipping them over the wide seas like cattle for the crime of protesting against wage slavery and aspiring to walk the earth free men.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Debs on Deported Radicals: They are human beings, his brothers, & is ready to share their lot.” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Ohio Socialist: “Side Lights on The Seattle Strike” by An Observer

20th February 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Anna Louise Strong, NO ONE KNOWS WHERE, SUR p1, Feb 4, 1919 ———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday February 20, 1919
Notes on the Seattle General Strike from an Observer

From The Ohio Socialist of February 19, 1919:

Side Lights on Seattle Strike
By An Observer

The five-day general strike of 70,000 Seattle workmen and working women brought about by the refusal of General Mgr. Piez of the Emergency Fleet Corporation to allow ship yard workers to negotiate directly with their employers and threatening to cut off the supply of steel to the local yards if they negotiated directly with the workers, was the most complete walkout that has ever occurred in America. At the same time it was the most peaceful.

The week’s mail has brought us some strike bulletins issued by the strike committee of the workers, and a personal letter from which we quote below. The whole tone of the bulletin is against any interference of the processes of the law or violence of any kind. It repeatedly advises the workers to “keep cool” and to visit the public libraries. The A. F. of L. takes entire responsibility for the strike though of course the I. W. W. and the Socialist Party were active participants.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Ohio Socialist: “Side Lights on The Seattle Strike” by An Observer” →

Hellraisers Journal: Stanley J. Clark, Socialist Imprisoned at Leavenworth, Confirms IWWs Brutally Beaten

26th January 20197th June 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Stanley J Clark, Workers Demand World, AtR p2, Nov 19, 1921 —–

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 26, 1919
Leavenworth Prison – Stanley J. Clark Confirms Brutal Treatment

From The New Appeal of January 25, 1919:

I.W.W.’s Beaten Up, Says Stanley Clark

International Socialist Review
February 1918

Confirmation of the story of brutalities inflicted upon political prisoners in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kans., published in a recent issue of The New Appeal, has reached us in the form of a letter from Mrs. Dorothy Clark, wife of the well-known Socialist lecturer, Stanley J. Clark. Clark was convicted of having violated the Espionage Act and is a fellow prisoner of the I. W. W.’s and other radicals at Leavenworth.

Mrs. Clark, hearing of the occurrences at the federal prison and anxious to learn whether her husband had been injured, came to Kansas City, Mo., which is within an hour’s car ride of the prison doors. While learning that Clark had escaped maltreatment she also learned that The New Appeal’s report of the manhandling of other prisoners was not exaggerated. In a letter to The New Appeal Mrs. Clark says:

I came here because I had heard of the inhuman treatment that men were receiving in this prison at Leavenworth and I knew that I should go insane unless I could see Stanley and know just what had happened. I was relieved of course to find that nothing had happened to him personally, but I found him terribly stirred up and in a perfect frenzy of indignation over the treatment that the other prisoners had received.

It seems that they have a new warden, who at once began to lengthen the hours of work and to cut down food rations. Some of the poor boys, not realizing that they were buried in there and by the world forgotten and absolutely at the mercy of their captors, attempted to strike to enforce the old and regular system of hours of work.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Stanley J. Clark, Socialist Imprisoned at Leavenworth, Confirms IWWs Brutally Beaten” →

Hellraisers Journal: IWW Attorney Fred Moore and Miss Caroline Lowe Report on Brutal Conditions at Leavenworth

15th January 201916th January 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 15, 1919
Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas – Brutal Treatment of Prisoners Reported

From The New Appeal of January 11, 1919:

[Part 1 of 2.]

In its issue of last week The New Appeal reproduced a report of conscientious objectors at Camp Funston, Kans., detailing the brutal treatment to which they were subjected at the command of certain officers, contrary to the express directions of the war department in Washington. This report was published primarily as a matter of record, the guilty officers having been dismissed from the service and the conditions complained of corrected.

We are now in the way of making a more important exposure-an exposure of brutalities committed upon Socialists, I. W. W.s. and others imprisoned in the Federal penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., brutalities that we have reason to believe have not been brought to the notice of the higher authorities since the efforts of interested persons to investigate these brutalities have been baffled at every turn by prison officials. Enough evidence has been dragged into the light, however, to make it shamefully plain, to use the words of Mrs. Floyd Ramp, wife of a Socialist prisoner, “that things are occurring in this penitentiary which citizens of a democracy should not knowingly countenance.”

Could Not Question Prisoners.

On December 12, F. H. Moore, a Chicago attorney, went to Leavenworth to discuss certain legal steps with the group of prisoners sentenced under the Chicago indictment of the I. W. W. alleged anti-war agitators. He also desired to make personal inquiry of the treatment the prisoners were receiving, disquieting reports of which had reached him through “underground” channels. In company with Miss Caroline A. Lowe, who assisted in the defense of the prisoners at the trial, Mr. Moore called upon the warden. They were told by the warden that they could talk over legal matters connected with the case, but they were absolutely forbidden to question the prisoners as to conditions in the penitentiary.

Mr. Moore, in a somewhat lengthy communication sent to The New Appeal, repeatedly emphasizes this autocratic censorship of the warden. As they interviewed, separately, each one of twenty-two prisoners held in solitary confinement with unusual punishment, the deputy warden, who was present during the interviews, sternly suppressed every attempt to question the prisoners as to the manner in which they had been handled and as to their physical condition at the time. Nor were Mr. Moore and Miss Lowe, when they met and conferred with the majority of the prisoners in a body permitted to refer to the condition of their fellow prisoners who were “in solitary.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: IWW Attorney Fred Moore and Miss Caroline Lowe Report on Brutal Conditions at Leavenworth” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1908; Found in Springfield, Illinois, Speaking to UMW Locals

12th January 2019 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Spgfld IL Jr, Dec 20, 1908

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 12, 1909
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for December 1908
Found with Locals of U. M. W. in Springfield, Illinois

Mother Jones, Dnv Pst p2, July 19, 1908

During the month of December 1908, we found Mother Jones in Springfield, Illinois, where it was reported by the December 17th edition of the Illinois State Register that:

“Mother” Jones, a noted leader among the miners’ organization of the country, addressed the Springfield sub-district quarterly meeting [U. M. W.] at Arion hall yesterday afternoon [December 16th], and in consequence the meeting was very largely attended. “Mother” Jones is engaged in soliciting assistance for Mexican workingmen who are engaged in a struggle against the despotism of the Mexican government, and who, when their plans became apparent to that government escaped to the United States, their extradition now being sought. The efforts of “Mother” Jones has the endorsement of the Illinois executive board of the United Mine Workers of America [John H. Walker, President], and it is her intention to make a tour of the state visiting the miners’ locals in behalf of these men.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for December 1908; Found in Springfield, Illinois, Speaking to UMW Locals” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: Floyd Dell on America’s Political Prisoners & Conscientious Objectors

9th January 2019 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

While there is a soul in prison
I am not free.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 9, 1919
America’s Political Prisoners by Floyd Dell

From The Liberator of January 1919:

“What Are You Doing Out There?”

[by Floyd Dell]

THIS magazine goes to two classes of readers: those who are in jail, and those who are out. This particular article is intended for the latter class. It is intended for those who wish to prove themselves friends of American freedom rather than those who have had it proved against them.

The relation between these two classes of people is embarrassingly like that in the old anecdote about Emerson and Thoreau. Thoreau refused to obey some law which he considered unjust, and was sent to jail. Emerson went to visit him. “What are you doing in here, Henry?” asked Emerson.

“What are you doing out there?” returned Thoreau grimly.

That is what the people who have gone to prison for the ideas in which we believe seem to be asking us now.

And the only self-respecting answer which we can give to this grim, silent challenge, is this: “We are working to get you out!”

That is our excuse, and we must see that it is a true one. We are voices to speak up for those whose voice has been silenced.

There are some silences that are more eloquent than speech. The newspapers were forbidden to print what ‘Gene Debs said in court; but his silence echoes around the earth in the heart of workingmen. They know what he was not allowed to tell them; and they feel that it is true.

It would be wrong to think of this as an opportunity to do something for Debs; it is rather our opportunity to make ourselves worthy of what he has done for us.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: Floyd Dell on America’s Political Prisoners & Conscientious Objectors” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1918 -Found Campaigning for Democratic Senate Candidate in West Virginia

20th December 201820th December 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Mother Jones, Praying Swearing, UMWC, Jan 17, 1918

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Friday December 20, 1918
Mother Jones News for October 1918
-Mother Found Campaigning for Coal Baron in West Virginia

Mother Jones, DRW small, St L Pst p3, May 13, 1918

It seems our dear Mother Jones has left off swearing when she talks to the mighty coal barons and commenced to campaigning for them. Such is the case in West Virginia, where we found her, during the month of October, campaigning for Colonel Clarence Watson, head of the Consolidated Coal Company and Democratic candidate for U. S. Senate. Not everyone was pleased with that state of affairs as the following demonstrates.

From The Wheeling Intelligencer of October 14, 1918:

Intelligence received from Charleston advises that Mrs. Clarence W. Watson and “Mother” Jones held a conference with Governor Cornwell a few days ago. It is learned since then that “Mother” will campaign among the “boys” up on Cabin Creek, as well as in the Fairmont region. It will be recalled that Colonel Watson, after years and years of antagonism to union labor, and particularly to the union miner, a few months ago “let down the bars” he had erected against unionism and invited the miners to organize. “Mother” Jones was made his principal mouthpiece in that little bit of political strategy, and she served her new master well in, making public Colonel Clarence’s handspring in the direction of union labor votes. She extolled him to the skies, christened him “the friend of the miner,” and told he “boys” that he ought to he elected to the United States senate.

Will she fool ’em? Hardly. The West Virginia miner is not so green as he used to be when “Mother” first introduced herself to him. They cannot so soon forget the Watsonian antagonism, the manner in which the Watsons treated organizers who were sent to that field, the Watson’s “special police patrol of the mines to keep organization.” Colonel Watson will have to prove his case, with them first, and they will hardly aid him to get to the senate and then run the risk of the “proof” falling down, being relegated to the rear or transported to the isles of the sea of oblivion.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for October 1918 -Found Campaigning for Democratic Senate Candidate in West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: From Ohio Socialist: Eastern City Fathers Pass Ordinances to Ban Red Flag, But Cannot Yet Ban Ties

19th December 2018 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 19, 1918
New York, Youngstown, Cleveland, Etc., Seek to Ban Red Flag

From The Ohio Socialist of December 18, 1918:

“THE RED FLAG ROAD”

We stole the caption because it sounded good. And now listen to our story.

You’ve heard of the Red Flag. You may never have seen one but we are sure you have heard about it. A Red Flag is a piece of cotton, wool or silk that’s been dyed red and in appropriate size is then hoisted to enjoy the breezes that blow.

There is a certain class of people in this land that go mad at sight of the Red Flag just as a bull does at sight of a red rag, and they chase it around with mouthings and ordinances.

The sport began in New York some weeks ago and seems to be traveling westward. The city fathers of Youngstown, Cleveland, Detroit and other cities have seen red and with heroic mien are chasing the Red Flag around and around.

We feel sorry for the Red Flag, folks. Poor, inanimate thing! Can neither talk back nor defend itself while it’s being banished and disgustingly discussed by those whom people have deemed wise enough to run cities.

Passing ordinances that the Red Flag shall fly no more is acting much like the fellow who cut off his little finger to make his hand quit stealing. The Red Fag is only an appendage. The real stuff is a matter of brains. And when brains accept the Red Flag as the insignia for Industrial Democracy then, whether the Red Fag flies or not, the trick is done.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Ohio Socialist: Eastern City Fathers Pass Ordinances to Ban Red Flag, But Cannot Yet Ban Ties” →

Tag: Socialist Party of America

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1909, Part II; Found in Chicago and in Denver

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for February 1909, Part I; Found Praising the Appeal to Reason

“WALL STREET KNOWS AND FEARS.”

Hellraisers Journal: Debs on Deported Radicals: They are human beings, his brothers, & is ready to share their lot.

Debs Brands Plot to Deport
Radicals “Crime of Crimes”
—–

By EUGENE V. DEBS.