Hellraisers Journal, Thursday October 3, 1907
Girard, Kansas – J. A. Wayland Publishes Darrow’s Greatest Speech
From Girard, Kansas, home of the Appeal to Reason, Socialist weekly, comes the publication of the entire speech made by Clarence Darrow on July 24th and 25th. This speech resulted in the famous “Not Guilty” verdict which was cheered by working men and women the world over.
From Wayland’s Monthly of October 1907:
—–
We ask the membership to redouble their efforts
to build up the organization to the end that
the lot of the workers may be bettered,
and their toil-worn existence brightened.
-Big Bill Haywood
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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday October 2, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: Raids and More Raids
This month’s edition of the Review describes the raids conducted September 5th by Federa Agents at the behest of the U. S. Department of Justice upon the headquarters and regional offices of the Industrial Workers of the World and the Socialist Party of America:
—–
The I. W. W. and the Socialist Party
SIMULTANEOUSLY on September 5th, representatives of the U. S. Government raided the national offices of the Socialist party and of the I. W. W. Chicago, and of some twenty branch offices of the I. W. W. in different states. U. S. marshals armed with search warrants have taken files, records, pamphlets, leaflets and in many places the entire offices were cleaned out.
Such a wholesale and simultaneous invasion upon the offices of a labor and Socialist organization have never taken place before in the history of this country. The charge has been made that the I. W. W. is a seditious organization and that the I. W. W. and the Socialist Party headquarters are guilty of violating the Espionage Act.
From the National Office
SEPTEMBER 5th a force of Federal Agents took possession of the national office. A thoro search of the office was made and later copies of books, leaflets, records and lists were taken.
This material is to be placed before the grand jury. The charge made against the national office is that some of the comrades have violated the Espionage Act.
It may have been the intention to conceal the real purpose of this search, but the inference was left that there was no disposition to interfere with the routine work of the party. If the information given us is correct, we will be permitted to continue our regular activities except so far as we interfere with the war program.
We appeal to the members of the party to lay special stress on organization at this time. Every member should enlist as a recruiting officer in order to build up the party machinery so that we can win a sweeping victory in the congressional elections of 1918.
True patriotism hates injustice
in its own land
more than anywhere else.
-Clarence Darrow
Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 28, 1917
Everett, Washington – Editor Watts Warned of Warrant
From The Northwest Worker of September 27, 1917:
HOW THEY LOVE US
We are informed by “Red” Doran I. W. W. organizer, that he has seen a warrant that has been issued for the arrest of ye editor [H. W. Watts], three other Socialists and four I. W. W. It seems too bad that the authorities will persist in disturbing us from our peaceful pursuits. We have been in jail four times already and if they keep it up it will soon be like home to us. Guess we must be too autocratic and they want to get us out of the way in order that America might be “made safe for Democracy.” We know, dear reader, that you are sick and tired of hearing that term, but it is the only string the jingoes have on their fiddle and we want to help them fiddle it so that it will wear out.
———-
Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 27, 1907
From the Montana News: Ida Crouch-Hazlett Speaks
Socialist Editor Makes Her Voice Heard, September 26, 1907:
Guilty as Charged
—–Mrs. Hazlett Fined by Spokane Judge
For Being Good Speaker-
Appealed to Superior Court
Wednesday, Sept. 18, was the day set by Judge Hide for hearing the arguments of the attorneys upon my case, and rendering his decision. The trains are running so irregularly that to make sure of being in court at two o’clock, I was obliged to take the night train from Rathdrum after the meeting. It should have gone at 11 o’clock, but did not start out till three in the morning. So I was obliged to lose my night’s sleep, although I got several hours after reaching Spokane.
The court room was filled again, with policemen scattered through the working class audience. To be a working man is prima facie evidence of criminal tendencies according to capitalist jurisprudence.
The prosecuting attorney, a redheaded, sharp-eyed fellow with the stamp of a character on his face that must necessarily belong to one who would put in his time perpetrating injustice upon his helpless fellow creatures that are herded in a police court, said with much emphasis that I had violated a city ordinance against any one who would do anything that would have a tendency to obstruct the streets.
Our attorneys were A. Kirby and Comrade Pence. Mr. Kirby made the argument. He showed conclusively that by our 15 witnesses to the prosecution’s two neither the sidewalks nor streets were blockaded. He went over the constitutional right to hold meetings on the street where they were peaceably and interfering with no one. He quoted many authorities and made a fine argument.
After he had closed the prosecuting attorney pulled out from under the table where he had hidden them a steak of law books. So trivial are the silly tricks upon which the great structure of capitalist injustice depends that he acted as though that were the heavy part of his argument to perform a little, trifling schoolboy trick like that, as if perchance he might mystify the defense attorney. There was nothing to his argument whatever. He did not make a single definite point. He acted as though the whole thing were cut and dried anyhow, as it evidently was, and he was just talking to make a show.
To advocate peace with things as they are
is treason to humanity.
This is a class struggle and on class lines
it must be fought out to a finish.
-Ida Crouch-Hazlett
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday September 15, 1907
Spokane, Washington – Ida Crouch-Hazlett Arrested
From the Montana News of September 12, 1907:
Assail Free Speech in Spokane
—–Mrs. Hazlett Arrested
—–
Two Thousand People Storm Jail and
Form a Triumphal Procession After
She Is Released on Bond
The fool policemen of Spokane and the idiotic city “reform ” administration has broken out in a new place and attempted to put an end to socialist street speaking.
Saturday evening, September 7, Mrs. Hazlett [editor of the Montana News] was addressing a crowd of 5,000 people on the street. She had spoken for an hour and a half without any molestation. There was not the slightest disturbance, the crowd standing remarkably still in a compact mass during that time. Just as she had announced her collection and was beginning to sell her books and subscription cards, a policeman in plain clothes came up and said, she was obstructing the sidewalk. She said she was not obstructing the sidewalk as she was in the middle of the street, but asked the crowd to open up a passage, which it immediately did. She then told the policeman that it was his business to keep people off the sidewalk and not hers. Whereupon he jerked her down from the box and placed her under arrest. The vast crowd began a most vigorous protest, shouting and shaming the policeman and even threatening to use force.
Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 13, 1907
Mother Jones News for August, Part II: Travels to Chicago
On August 21st, Mother left Duluth, Minnesota, after concluding her time in Northern Minnesota where she had been traveling the Mesabi Range in support of the striking iron miners and giving speeches alongside of C. E. Mahoney of the Western Federation of Miners. She next traveled to Chicago where she was found speaking in support of the Telegrapher’s Strike. At one union meeting she advised young woman on the issue of keeping company with scabs:
When you find these fellows sneaking back to work, keep him out if you can; if you can’t, renounce them and see that any fellow who calls on you carries a union card or else order him from your door.
Mother also made a short trip to Cincinnati in order to speak at Socialist Picnic in that city.
From The Cincinnati Post of August 23, 1907:
I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth,
and I am a citizen of the world.
– Eugene V. Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday September 11, 1917
From The Masses: Art Young Comments on the Orgie of War
Pray for the dead
And fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
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From American Political Prisoners by Stephen M. Kohn:
Between 1917 and 1931, at least thirty-one young men died as a direct result of imprisonment for their opposition to World War I or for their radical trade union activities. For the most part, these men died in obscurity at a time when the general public ignored the First Amendment abuses that led to their imprisonment and death.
April 8, 1918 – Fort Hancock, New Jersey
-Ernest Gellert. Socialist CO.
June 29, 1918 – Leavenworth Penitentiary
(Date of death from Davenport Daily Times of July 1, 1918, page 1.)
-Daniel H. Wallace, convicted under Espionage Act for anti-war speech given at Davenport, Iowa. Member, League of Humanity.
October 14, 1918 – Bellevue Hospital, New York
-Jacob Schwartz of New York City. Anarchist who criticized US intervention in Russia.
Transferred to hospital from Blackwell’s (? needs verification) after severe beating.
November 1918 – Sacramento County Jail
-R. J. Blaine, IWW-Federal Prisoner, died while awaiting trial.
-Ed Burns, IWW-Federal Prisoner, died while awaiting trial.
-Ed Evans, IWW-Federal Prisoner, died while awaiting trial.
-James Nolan, IWW-Federal Prisoner, died while awaiting trial.
-Frank Travis, IWW-Federal Prisoner, died while awaiting trial.
Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 7, 1917
Nationwide Raids Against Industrial Workers and Socialists
The nationwide raids conducted by federal agents on September 5th against the Industrial Workers of the World and the Socialist Party of America are described by the Spokane Spokesman-Review of September 6th:
US Officers Raid I. W. W. Headquarters
Over Nation[Report from Associated Press]
Indictments May Follow.
MAGNOLIA, Mass., Sept. 5.— Attorney General Thomas W. Gregory was a guest at the summer home of Colonel E.M. House here this evening when he received word that raids on the headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World in many cities had been carried out as arranged by the federal Department of Justice.
“It is no secret,” said Mr. Gregory, “that the Industrial Workers of the World have been under suspicion for some time. The Department of Justice conducted a quiet investigation until I was convinced that we were warranted in taking such action as this.
“I do not need to say the the raids will be followed quickly by indictments if we find anything to warrant them, and the men will be prosecuted to the extent of the law if they deserve it.”
Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday September 6, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – I. W. W. and S. P. Headquarters Raided
The Headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World, located at 1001-1006 West Madison street, were raided by federal agents yesterday and vast amounts of property and documents seized. The offices of the Socialist Party of America and of its national newspaper, American Socialist, were also “visited.” The raids in Chicago were made simultaneously with raids of I. W. W. halls across the nation.
From The Chicago Daily Tribune of September 6, 1917:
