Tag: Socialist Party of America

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts and Doings of Mother Jones for May and June, 1908-Found on Tour in Texas, Speaking for Socialist Party

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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EVD Quote re Mother Jones, AtR, Nov 23, 1907
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 16, 1908
-Mother Jones News Round-Up for May and June, 1908
–Found in Texas on Tour for the Socialist Party of America

During her tour of Texas, Mother was found speaking in the city of Austin where she spoke for two hours and touched on the evils of Child Labor.

From The Austin Statesman of June 17, 1908:

MOTHER JONES LECTURES.
—–
She Speaks of Economic and
Child Labor Conditions.
—–

Mother Jones, Fort Worth Telegram, Apr 26, 1907

An attentive audience heard Mother Jones last night at the East Austin Fire hall. The lecturer spoke for two hours, dealing in the main with the economic conditions of the country as she has found them, a science of hunger and misery.

She made her topic realistic by picturing experiences in the mines, shops and fields.

Mother Jones is most familiar with the child labor situation. She has worked with the “babies” and is cognizant of their struggles and the impossibility of helping these toilers under the present system. She said that she has faith in the people, and that the laborers are realizing that they must own the tools of production in order to be self-supporting and independent.

Tonight Mother Jones will speak at the court house. She is here under the auspices of the socialist local in this city, and the lecture is given free to those interested in the movement.

———-

[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Ohio Socialist: Comrade A. L. Hitchcock Arrives at Atlanta Penitentiary

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You need to know that you are fit for something
better than slavery and cannon fodder.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday July 14, 1918
From Atlanta Penitentiary: Comrade A. L. Hitchcock Sends Greetings

From The Ohio Socialist of July 9, 1918:

A Letter from Comrade A. L. Hitchcock
—–

June 16, 1918

Comrades:

A. L. Hitchcock in Court in Toledo, Cnc Enq p7, June 11, 1918
From the Cincinnati Enquirer
of June 11, 1918

I arrived here yesterday (Saturday) at 2:30. Had a very interesting trip down from Toledo. Was quite surprised to learn that I was going so soon. I suppose you will be anxious to know of how I am and what conditions are here. So I will say, for the present I am in a large ward with about 60 others. We are in quarantine, to wait until all danger of bringing any disease in here is passed. Everything is scrupulously clean. We are fitted out with clean and disinfected clothes from top to toe. Have shower bath twice a week. The food is good and there is enough of it, so there is no kick from the care I am receiving. There are men here of all descriptions and professions, for all the different kinds of wrongdoing imaginable. However, I must not discuss those who are here, but it is all very interesting to me. This paper is not adequate to hold all I should like to write, but as you are mostly interested in my welfare I will reassure you that there is absolutely nothing to worry about.

My time will peter out in a little over six years, so I am told, so that don’t amount to much. So long as I am good I can write once per week, but can receive all the mail that comes. All mail is read both ways, in and out, so you will not write anything so intimate that it could not be read by the officials here. The officers, or those I have come in contact with, seem like very decent fellows. You will have to pass this letter along and send it to Cleveland, too, so the friends there will know that all is well.

Atlanta is quite a large city, near 200,000, also it is the home of the state office of the Socialist Party, I believe.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Messenger: “Negroes Organizing in Socialist Party”- Republican Party, Worst Sort of Fraud

Janet RayeA. Philip Randolph
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Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure,
and still more pressure through broad,
organized, aggressive mass action.
-A. Philip Randolph
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 9, 1918
New York, New York – Randolph and Owen Recommend Socialist Party

From The Messenger of July 1918:

The editors of The Messenger decry the Republican and Democratic Parties as they give enthusiastic support to the Socialist Party of America.

A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen, Messenger, Nov 1917

—–

NEGROES ORGANIZING IN SOCIALIST PARTY

The new Negro is awakening. After having been the political Rip Van winkle of America for fifty years, sleeping in the cesspools of Republican reaction, he has at last opened his eyes. In New York City, in the very heart of the Negro settlement, there has been organized the Twenty-first Assembly District Socialist Branch which includes all white and colored Socialists in the district. The branch has grown to about one hundred members in two weeks, all of whom are dues paying and in good standing.

The new Negro leaders are pointing out the Republican party as the worst fraud under which Negroes have been laboring. The Democratic party is openly against the negro. The Republican party is ever striking him a blow in the the back. Either one or the other of those parties has been in power for the last fifty years, the Republicans the greater part of the time. The Jim Crowism, segregation, lynching, disfranchisement and discrimination are as much the work of the Republican as the Democratic party. Jim Crowism railroads was upheld in a decision by Chas. E. Hughes. Lynch laws thrived under McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft. The Grandfather disfranchisement laws were passed under the guardianship of the Republican party. The Sumner Civil Rights bill was declared unconstitutional by the Republican Supreme Court.

Lastly the Republican party is the party of plutocracy, of wealth, of monopoly, of trusts, of big business. But the Negroes-99 per cent of them-are working people. They have nothing in common with big business and their employers. They ought to belong to the workers’ party. And that is the Socialist party. The object of the employer is to get the greatest amount of work from the laborer and to give the least amount of pay. The object of the laborer is to get the greatest amount of pay for the least amount of work. In a word, the interests of the employer and the employee are opposed.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Compassionate Heart of Eugene Debs Re-Converts Florence Kelley to Socialism

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, re Knocked Down Women, Miners Mag, July 17, 1913
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday July 6, 1908
Compassion of Eugene Debs Re-Converts Florence Kelley

From The Socialist Woman of July 1908:

A RE-CONVERT.
—–
Rose Pastor Stokes.

Florence Kelley, Am Mag, July 1910
Florence Kelley

Mrs. Florence Kelley is one of the noblest women I know, and has worked for twenty years or more for Socialism among trades unionists and other classes of men and women. She used to belong to the Socialist party, but has not been a party member for many years. Last Sunday Mrs. Kelley was present at the mass meeting of the Christian Socialist Fellowship, when Eugene V. Debs spoke.

She was there when everybody else on the program spoke; but when she heard his wonderful plea for the woman who is not “fallen” but “knocked down;” for his sisters who are forced by a cruel and heartless system to sell their honor for a living, when she heard him declare, in a voice broken with emotion, that he honors these sisters of his and places his arm about them, and takes his stand by their side, Mrs. Kelley could not hear more.

Her face was flushed, and I saw the tears she wouldn’t let come to her eyes, as she exclaimed: “I am ashamed to be out of the party that has a man like that at its head! I’ll take out my membership card for him tomorrow.”

And her word is as good as her bond. Welcome to another new comrade!-The New York Evening Call.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Ohio Socialist: “Eugene Debs Under Indictment Is Now Free on Bail of $10,000”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Debs is a SOCIALIST and a
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST at that.
Prepare to do your share in his defense!
-The Ohio Socialist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday July 3, 1918
Cleveland, Ohio – Debs Arrested Sunday June 30th

From The Ohio Socialist of July 2, 1918:

EVD Under Indictment, OH Sc p1, July 2, 1918

—–
Working Class Champion Arrested on Alleged
Violation of Espionage Law
—–
Deb’s Canton Speech in Demand; Officers
Diligent Search Reveals Naught
—–

EVD Lansing MI St Jr p10, July 1, 1918

Eugene Victor Debs, several times Socialist Party candidate for President of the United States, champion of Labor and the cause of the underdog, was arrested on an indictment drawn by the Federal Grand Jury as he was about to enter the Bohemian Gardens at Cleveland, Sunday, June 30th, where he was scheduled to address the Socialists. The indictment is based on alleged violations of the Espionage law, which it is claimed, he committed in his speech at Canton, June 16th.

An audience of three thousand people awaited Debs’ appearance at the meeting, which was addressed by Tom Clifford and John Brahtin of Cleveland, Marguerite Prevey of Akron and Harry Kritzger, agent of John Reed, who was in the city arranging a meeting which Reed will address on Wednesday, July 3rd.

When the arrest of Debs was announced to the audience it immediately showed its determination to stay in the fight to the finish. Wild applause greeted the name of Debs. A grim determination was noticeable upon the faces of every one and a spirit of sacrifice and comradeship was evident. There were no weak kneed ones there.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason: Eugene Debs Watch Fobs on Sale for 25c; 20,000 on Order

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 30, 1908
Souvenir Available to Honor Socialist Party’s Presidential Candidate

From the Appeal to Reason of June 27, 1908:

EVD, Debs Watch Fobs, AtR p4, June 27, 1908

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Hellraisers Journal: Ben Hanford on the Republican Party, Bill Taft, and the Unemployed: “Go and Eat Grass!”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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The unemployed were clubbed by the police
under republican Mayor Busse in Chicago
and under democratic Mayor McClellan in New York.
-Ben Hanford, 1908
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 28, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – Republican Party to Unemployed: “Go and eat grass!”

From the Socialist Montana News of June 25, 1908:

Ben Hanford and Republicans
—–

“GO AND EAT GRASS” IS ADVICE.
—–
Socialist Candidate for Vice President
Scores Hypocrisy and Vulgarity
of Wall Street’s Recent Convention.
—–

SPA, Ben Hanford, VP Candidate, AtR p4, May 23, 1908

“Go and Eat Grass!”

“If the people have no bread, why don’t they eat cake?”

So says the national convention of the republican party to the more than five million unemployed men in the United States. What sweet consolation to them and the twenty millions of people dependent on them.

We are a prosperous people, declared the leaders of the convention.

We have wealth to the value of $110,000,000,000, more than one quarter of all the wealth on earth.

We make more than one-third of the world’s modern manufactured products.

The republican convention was opened each day with prayer, and by a different clergyman—but there is no evidence that it was closed with a benediction.

The delegates considered themselves “the people”, and therefore they could truly say “the people” were prosperous. It was a convention of lawyers, office holders and millionaires. Why shouldn’t Senator Burrows be prosperous? For thirty-nine years he has drawn pay from a city, county, state or national treasury. Why shouldn’t Senator Lodge be prosperous? He graduated from Harvard Law School thirty-three years ago, and has been fed at the public crib for twenty-five of the years since past. These worthies fear lest socialism would “have the nation own the people.”

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Speaks in Terre Haute to Socialists of Indiana’s Fifth District, Defends Canton Speech

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth;
I am a citizen of the world.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday June 25, 1918
Terre Haute, Indiana – Debs Defends Canton Speech

From The Indianapolis News of June 24, 1918:


DEBS MAKES DEFENSE OF
HIS CANTON SPEECH
—–

FLAYS PROFITEERS IN ADDRESS AT TERRE HAUTE.
——

PRAISES WILSON PROGRAM
—–

Special to The Indianapolis News

EVD, re Canton n DoJ, Huntington IN Hld p10, June 21, 1918

TERRE HAUTE. Ind. June 24.-Challenging any one anywhere to show him a Socialist who is a pro-German in the sense of being in sympathy with the German government in the prosecution of this war. Eugene V. Debs, former Socialist candidate for President spoke Sunday afternoon [June 20th] in the ball park here from a flag bedecked platform at a picnic of the Socialists of the Fifth district.

Debs branded as a “lie” the printed reports that he made seditious remarks in a talk last week at Canton, O. He praised the Bolsheviki of Russia, and praised President Wilson for his attitude toward the Bolsheviki.

He declared the Russian revolution to be the most stupendous event in history and predicted the success of the Bolsheviki.

Impatient for Results.

The trouble is the world wants the bolsheviki to give a perfect democracy within twenty-four hours time. Our Wall street would rather see the czar back on the throne than the working people.

All of the profiteers are against President Wilson. Every profiteer despises Wilson.

Debs made a defense of his Canton (O.) talk which is said to have led to a federal investigation.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Socialist Party of America: Principles and Platform Adopted by 1908 Chicago Convention

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Hellraisers Journal: Saturday June 20, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – Socialist Party Platform and Principles

From the International Socialist Review of June 1908:

Socialist Platform.

PRINCIPLES.

Socialist Party of America Button

Human life depends upon food clothing and shelter. Only with these assured are freedom, culture and higher human development possible. To produce food, clothing or shelter, land and machinery are needed. Land alone does not satisfy human needs. Human labor creates machinery and applies it to the land for the production of raw materials and food. Whoever has control of land and machinery controls human labor, and with it human life and liberty.

To-day the machinery and the land used for industrial purposes are owned by a rapidly decreasing minority. So long as machinery is simple and easily handled by one man, its owner cannot dominate the sources of life of others. But when machinery becomes more complex and expensive and requires for its effective operation the organized effort of many workers its influence reaches over wide circles of life. The owners of such machinery become the dominant class.

In proportion as the number of such machine owners compared to all other classes decreases, their power in the nation and in the world increases. They bring ever larger masses of working people under their control, reducing them to the point, where muscle and, brain are their only productive property. Millions of formerly self-employing workers thus become the helpless wage slaves of the industrial masters.

As the economic power of the ruling class grows it becomes less useful in the life of the nation. All the useful work of the nation falls upon the shoulders of the class whose only property is its manual and mental labor power—the wage worker—or of the class who have but little land and little effective machinery outside of their labor power—the small traders and small farmers. The ruling minority is steadily becoming useless and parasitic.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs: ”To serve the working class has always been to me a high privilege.”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 19, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Echoes from Nimisilla Park

EVD, Debs Orator Canton June 16, 1918, IN U

On Sunday June 16th, Eugene Debs arrived at the Nimisilla Park, in Canton, for a grand picnic given by the Socialist Party of Ohio on the final day of the state convention. He came directly to the park following a brief visit with the Ohio Comrades, C. E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker who are now residing behind the bars of the Stark County Work House, across the street from the park.

Comrade Debs walked through the crowd smiling and came to the front of the platform. He gave a speech which is certain to be remembered for years to come.

Debs spoke for about two hours, and said, in part:
-(Emphasis added.)

Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.

To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women and children who toil; to serve the working class, has always been to me a high privilege; a duty of love.

I have just returned from a visit over yonder, where three of our most loyal comrades are paying the penalty for their devotion to the cause of the working class. They have come to realize, as many of us have, that it is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.

I realize that, in speaking to you this afternoon, there are certain limitations placed upon the right of free speech. I must be exceedingly careful, prudent, as to what I say, and even more careful and prudent as to how I say it. I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything that I do not think. I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets. They may put those boys in jail—and some of the rest of us in jail—but they can not put the Socialist movement in jail. Those prison bars separate their bodies from ours, but their souls are here this afternoon. They are simply paying the penalty that all men have paid in all the ages of history for standing erect, and for seeking to pave the way to better conditions for mankind.

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