Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Conviction of Alexander Scott, Editor of the Weekly Issue of Passaic Co.

3rd July 20236th July 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Alexander Scott re Conviction n Free Speech, ISR p11, July 913 —————-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday July 3, 1913
The Conviction of Alexander Scott, Editor of the Weekly Issue

From the International Socialist Review of July 1913:

The Conviction of Alexander Scott

A STATES Prison sentence of not more than fifteen years nor less than one year, with a fine of $250, was imposed, June 6th, on Alexander Scott, editor of the Weekly Issue, official organ of the Socialist party of Passaic County, who was convicted on June 3rd on a charge of “aiding and abetting hostilities to the government of the City of Paterson,” by Judge Klenert in the Court of Quarter Sessions.

No sooner was sentence announced when Henry Carless, a Socialist attorney of Newark, and Henry Marelli, both of whom defended Scott, filed notice that a writ of error had been applied for, a copy of which notice was presented to the judge. Bail of $3,000 was fixed and Scott was later released when Samuel Ginsburg, of Passaic, furnished the bond.

Scott was found guilty and sentenced under a law placed on the statute books in 1902 shortly after the assassination of President McKinley, but never before invoked in the State of New Jersey. Scott’s indictment was caused by the publication of editorials and pictures in the Issue in which the police, especially Chief Bimson, was characterized as the “boss anarchist” and the “boss strike-breaker.”

Scott’s conviction practically makes it a crime for any paper to criticize public officials, and makes the constitutional guarantee of free press a dead letter. In the prosecution of the case the state contended that the police were a part of the city government and that ridiculing the police was ridiculing the government.

“If we can’t criticize a policeman for his brutality, we might as well give up publication of newspapers in this country,” remarked a prominent newspaper man who was a visitor in court when sentence was imposed on Scott. He was highly indignant over the sentence, and said he would start a nation-wide movement to have the Scott verdict reversed.

That the authorities of Paterson have made up their minds to suppress the Issue was evidenced by the fact that they forced the sentence of Scott as soon as he was convicted. Though Patrick L. Quinlan, the silk strike leader, was convicted several weeks ago, the authorities made no move to sentence him, but they hurried the sentence of Scott.

While Scott’s case was rushed through, the authorities have made no move to prosecute the policemen who stole an edition of the Issue by breaking in the Socialist party headquarters and taking possession of 5,000 copies of the paper. The policemen are now out on $200 bail each, while Scott’s bail is fixed at $3,000.-N. Y. Call.

While the lawyers were arguing over technicalities, Scott, unconcerned, was busily engaged noting the proceedings in a notebook. “I am in the fight to win, and I am confident of exoneration in the higher courts,” said Scott. “They cannot suppress the Issue”

But the Socialists and Industrial unionists do not propose that Scott should serve one month in prison if they can help it. The S. P. of New Jersey, will appeal to the National Socialist Party to take up the Scott case and make a nation-wide fight in his behalf.

Solidarity, the I. W. W. organ has issued a call for protest meetings. “Scott has stood by the I. W. W. and the I. W. W. must stand by him,” writes Justus Ebert.

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Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason: “Judas Hatfield Unmasked”-John Kenneth Turner on Military Despotism in W. Va.

23rd June 202325th June 2023 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 23, 1913
John Kenneth Turner Reports on Hatfield’s Military Dictatorship in West Virginia

From the Appeal to Reason of June 21, 1913:

[Note: article by Turner continues on page 2.]

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Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason: “Judas Hatfield Unmasked”-John Kenneth Turner on Military Despotism in W. Va.” →

Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Arrives in Kensington to Cheer Textile Strikers, Speaks to 3000 at Labor Lyceum

17th June 202319th June 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Mother Jones Stock in These Little Children, Quote, AB Chp 10 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 17, 1903
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Mother Jones Arrives to Support Textile Strikers

From The Philadelphia Inquirer of June 15, 1903:

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From The Philadelphia Inquirer of June 16, 1903:

[…..]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Mother Jones Arrives in Kensington to Cheer Textile Strikers, Speaks to 3000 at Labor Lyceum” →

Hellraisers Journal: “What the Reds are Doing in Paterson” by Alexander Scott, Editor of the Socialist Weekly Issue

14th June 20236th July 2023 Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn

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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 14, 1913
Paterson, New Jersey – Socialists Party Members Support Strike of Silk Weavers

From the International Socialist Review of June 1913:

What the Reds are Doing
in Paterson

By Alexander Scott

Editor of The Weekly Issue,
Socialist Party Paper of Passaic County.

THE Socialists of Paterson have from the beginning of the silk strike taken an active part and have performed real service for the strikers. How could they help doing so? The fight of the 25,000 silk workers, organized in the I. W. W., was their fight. A majority of the party members are themselves silk workers.

When the general strike was called, the Socialists rolled up their sleeves, ready for any emergency. No question arose as to whether the workers were being organized by the I. W. W., the A. F. of L., or S. L. P. That did not matter then.

Had the strike been called by the A. F. of L.-much as some of us might doubt the sincerity of the organizers of that organization, and dubious as we might be of the outcome of the strike-there is no doubt but that the Paterson Socialists would have as readily jumped into the fray. In fact, when a year or so ago, the Detroit faction of the I. W. W. (S. L. P.) attempted, or pretended to organize the textile workers of the Passaic county, the Socialist Party members assisted, and when it was seen that the workers had been defeated through petty political trickery, they just as readily denounced them as traitors to the working class.

In the present strike, the two arms of the revolutionary labor movement have worked in unison. The Industrial Workers of the World and the Socialist Party have demonstrated the tremendous power of their organizations when united to fight a common enemy. No force is powerful enough to overcome them.

It is the opinion of the writer that the strike would have been lost had we not all fought together, throwing the weight of our organization and press in with the I. W. W.

Let it here be understood that this article is not written with the purpose of showing the superiority of political action over direct action, but with the view of showing the necessity of both political and industrial union action in the struggle of the working class for emancipation.

The general strike was called for February 28. “Nip the strike in the bud,” ordered the mill owners. “Righto. At your service,” replied the city administration, the police, the press and some of the clergy.

The police gave orders that all halls be closed against the I. W. W., and got their clubs in readiness. The newspapers put their lying pens to work, and the clergy prepared sermons to suit the occasion. The strikers had already engaged Turn Hall as their headquarters, and the police had ordered this closed, too, and, moreover, intended to enforce the order by means of their clubs and guns, if necessary.

On the first day of the general strike a few hundred strikers filed out of Turn Hall and proceeded peacefully along the sidewalk in double file, when they were brutally attacked by a gang of blue-coated, brass-buttoned ruffians, headed by their Chief. Clubs were swung right and left, and no discrimination was made as to sex or age. One girl was struck and her cries could be heard two blocks distant.

“Well done!” said the silk bosses, and their editorial lackeys echoed, “Well done!” The bosses’ papers appeared with headlines announcing, “Rioting Strikers Suppressed by Timely Work of Chief of Police Bimson and his Squad of Men-Strike Being Nipped in the Bud.”

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “On the Paterson Picket Line” by William D. Haywood, Part II

13th June 202313th June 2023 Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn

Quote BBH, IU Socialism w Working Clothes On, NYC Cooper Union Debate w Hillquit, Jan 11, 1912 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 13, 1913
Paterson, New Jersey – 15,000 Striking Silk Workers Cheer the I. W. W.

From the International Socialist Review of June 1913:

On the Paterson Picket Line

By William D. Haywood

[Part II of II]

Industrial Worker
May 8, 1913

The night preceding this silent manifestation of protest against capitalist brutality the wildest demonstration of the strike took place in Armory Hall, where John Golden and Sarah Conboy, of the American Federation of Labor, escorted by manufacturers and policemen, came to try to repeat the infamous strikebreaking tactics they attempted a year ago in Lawrence. They came heralded by the local press, by the civil authorities, by the clergy, and the employers as the instruments through which the great silk strike would be settled. The armory had been obtained for them through state officials. The state militia had been called out and stood in the ante-rooms with guns loaded for action. Chief of Police Bimson and his entire force were on hand. The fire department had been ordered to hold themselves in readiness and had their hose attached to hydrants in the immediate vicinity.

The striking silk workers were invited to attend this meeting. It had been previously arranged that they would attend in a body and listen to what the A. F. of L. had to say, providing that they would be given a chance to reply to state the position of the strikers and the principles of the Industrial Workers of the World.

15,000 Cheer for I. W. W.

When organizers of the I. W. W. appeared in the hall, the 15,000 people present went wild. For minute after minute they yelled and cheered with ever-increasing -volume. The floor and gallery was a waving forest of the red membership books of the I. W. W. held aloft by what seemed to be countless thousands. After a time Organizer Ewald W. Koettgen of the I. W. W., appeared on the platform and announced that the I. W. W. speakers would not be allowed to present their side. Or rather, he intended to announce this, but he got no further than “I. W. W.”-when the audience leaped to its feet, and for perhaps fifteen minutes drowned every utterance with frantic cheers. Koettgen at last managed to make himself heard and said: ”Let’s all go home.” As one man the audience arose and began to file out. As these departed thousands on the outside who had not been able to enter, rushed in and soon the armory was again filled. Those who left went to their own halls where they greeted every utterance of their speakers with roars of applause.

For an hour and three-quarters Golden and Mrs. Conboy tried to speak, only to be drowned down by the unceasing cheers that the audience sent up for the I. W. W. In desperation Mrs. Conboy tried the appeal-to-home-mother-and-patriotism stunt and seizing an American flag, waved it from the stage, which act was greeted by another outburst of derisive cheers. When Golden finally made himself heard about 300 persons stayed to listen, the hall having been cleared by police clubs.

It was the funeral of the A. F. of L., so far as Paterson was concerned. It was remarked afterward that it was indeed fitting and appropriate that the A. F. of L. should choose an armory, the training quarters of the bayonet-carrying murderers of the capitalist class, as its own burying place.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: “On the Paterson Picket Line” by William D. Haywood, Part II” →

Hellraisers Journal: “A Comrade’s Tribute! Eugene V. Debs on the Tribune of the Proletaire: Frederic O. MacCartney.”

11th June 202311th June 2023 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal – Thursday June 11, 1903
Eugene Debs Pays Tribute to Frederic O. MacCartney, Gone Too Soon

From the Social Democratic Herald of June 6, 1903:

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A COMRADE’S TRIBUTE!
Eugene V. Debs on the Tribune of the Proletaire:
Frederic O. MacCartney.

It is hard to write of the death of Frederic O. MacCartney. He belongs to the living, not the dead, and it will be long before we can realize that his eloquent voice is hushed and his great heart stilled forever. In the very spring of life-the ripening glory of his powers-he was cut down, and with such swiftness did the fatal blow descend that we who now stand over his prostrate flesh are so shocked and stunned that we cannot realize that death has come so near and snatched from us in all the flush of youth a comrade so loved and honored of us all.

Frederic MacCartney was an interesting, unique, and towering figure in the socialist movement. He had brain and heart, soul and conscience in large measure and fine proportion. He was a clear, clever, and versatile writer, a ready and resourceful debater, and as an orator had few equals in the movement.

MacCartney was born in Wisconsin, educated in Iowa, and received his theological training at Andover. It is fortunate that in his youth he came under the influence of George D. Herron, who then held the chair of Applied Christianity at Iowa College. The bright, honest, warm-hearted youth was soon impregnated with the new social philosophy and progressive spirit which at that time permeated the institution.

With such qualities of head and heart and such environment and training it is not strange that soon after he entered the ministry he concluded that creeds were cold and pulpits narrow. The more he thought about it the less theology satisfied the hunger of his soul. He sorrowed with the poor and wept with the oppressed and heavy laden. Something was surely wrong that this fair earth should be so scarred with misery. He investigated social conditions and studied economic science, gradually the darkness in which he groped was dispelled. The scales fell from his eyes and his vision was now clear. A new sun had risen for him. Henceforth his duty was plain and he would apply himself to his task with all the strength he could summon to his command.

Too honest to profess what he was not, he made without fear the full avowal of his convictions and as a sequence cleared the pulpit that was too narrow and dogmatic to hold him.

From the beginning he became a factor in the movement. He was filled to the brim with the spirit of international socialism. He felt himself aroused as if by Jehovah’s own command. He burned with the social passion for freedom, equality, and brother-love, and from his own intensity scattered the sacred fire among his fellow men.

At Rockland, his home, MacCartney was the idol of the working class; they loved and laureled him as their own hero, and even those opposed to him were moved to pay to him the tribute of respect.

The legislative labors of our comrade need no notice here, the General Assembly of Massachusetts will be poorer far without him and the people may well feel that they have lost a friend. With his two Socialist colleagues, MacCartney was a tower of strength in the legislative halls of the old Bay State. From the day they entered a new and distinctive power has been felt-a power with portent for the reign of capitalist corruption-the beginning of the end.

What pity, what pathos that such a brilliant career should be snuffed out at its very sunrise!

Ah, nature is forever the same-neither merciful nor vindictive-always inexorable.

Our dear comrade’s zeal exceeded his discretion. He had no thought that powers of endurance have limitations. Early and late, in legislative debate and committee room, on the rostrum, the street corner, anywhere, everywhere, all the time at work, pleading protesting, appealing, with tongue and pen in the name of oppressed and suffering humanity, his drafts upon nature were too deep and frequent and the inevitable protest followed, the protest sealed by death.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “A Comrade’s Tribute! Eugene V. Debs on the Tribune of the Proletaire: Frederic O. MacCartney.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Challenge to West Virginia’s Socialist Party by L. H. Marcy, Part III

6th June 20236th June 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 6, 1913
Clarksburg, West Virginia – Comrade Kintzer’s Plea for Help

From the International Socialist Review of June 1913:

Hatfield’s Challenge to the Socialist Party

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part III of III]

The National Committee received the following plea for help at its meeting held in Chicago, May 10th, and it is up to the rank and file of the party to force immediate action in this crisis. The conditions are so well known that investigating committees are only an insult to the intelligence of the comrades in West Virginia and elsewhere. What they ask for is regular or volunteer organizers. Why should not their request be granted immediately?

The Plea for Help

Clarksburg, W. Va., May 9, 1913.

To the National Committee, Socialist Party, Chicago:

Dear Comrades-Owing to the temporary absence of State Secretary Houston, the State Executive Committee motion following was instituted by myself, asking that the four comrades send their vote upon the motion to Executive Secretary Work, so that in the event it carries it may be properly put before you at the annual convention. The committeemen are widely scattered, and there is a possibility that their votes upon the motion will fail to arrive in time.

Following is the motion and comment by myself:

“That the National Committee, in session of May 11, be requested to furnish a number of regular or volunteer organizers to be routed through West Virginia, for the purpose of apprising the people of the outrages upon life, liberty and constitutional right, perpetuated and practiced by government officials, with Hatfield’s consent. That the financial deficit, if any, be borne by the national organization.”

COMMENT:

Comrade John W. Brown, National Committeeman, is now held incommunicado, in the county jail at Clarksburg, by order of Governor Hatfield. When I last saw him we spoke of this plan of reaching the people of West Virginia.

We all are aware of the subsidy of our state press, and now that Governor Hatfield has set the gauge of battle for the Socialists, having eliminated every other element, we must accept the fight or be conquered.

“In this state issue is involved the greatest violation of constitutional guarantees the American labor movement ever experienced. If we submit tamely we deserve the galling chains of slavery. If we fight as a united working class, we mark another mile post on the road to economic freedom.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Challenge to West Virginia’s Socialist Party by L. H. Marcy, Part III” →

Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review: The Challenge to West Virginia’s Socialist Party by L. H. Marcy, Part I

4th June 20236th June 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

Quote Ralph Chaplin, WV Miners Longing for the Spring, Leaves, Paint Creek Miner, ISR p736, Apr 1913 —————

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday June 4, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – Governor Hatfield Vows to Jail or Deport Socialists

From the International Socialist Review of June 1913:

Hatfield’s Challenge to the Socialist Party

By Leslie H. Marcy

[Part I of III]

Governor Hatfield has declared that every active Socialist in West Virginia shall be jailed or deported. Wholesale arrests of Socialists without warrants have already been made; trials by jury denied; our papers confiscated; presses wrecked and Editors jailed. Shall we stand for our comrades being absolutely within the power of this tool of the Coal Trust and the tin soldiers whom he commands?

AFTER a reign of terror and absolute lawlessness on the part of the mine owners and some of the constituted authorities in West Virginia for many months, the United Mine Workers of America have signed a truce with Governor Hatfield.

The representatives of the miners on Paint and Cabin Creeks and Coal River, after a stormy session, acceded to the Governor’s recommendation as a basis for a settlement of the strike.

The convention roll was made up of ninety-three delegates, of which eighty-five were native West Virginians. At no time until the fourth day could those who favored the Governor’s recommendation have secured a majority vote. In fact, many of the delegates came to the convention instructed to vote against the recommendation. On the final ballot a number of the delegates requested to be recorded as having voted against adoption, despite the fact that the sixteen representatives of the United Mine Workers, both state and national, with the exception of two, exerted their influence in favor of the recommendation, as did the attorneys of the organization. They yielded to the Governor’s demands with great reluctance.

In accepting the proposition of the Governor, the miners called his attention to the fact that each of the promises made by him, with the exception of the nine-hour day and semi-monthly payday, to which the operators acceded, are statutory rights granted the miners by law.

The Governor promised that the guard system should be abolished under his administration.

The recommendations were as follows:
Rights of miners to select check weighman.
Nine-hour day, at same scale of wages as now paid.
No discrimination.
Prices at commissary stores same as elsewhere.
Semi-monthly payday.

There are many who do not believe the Governor will carry out his promises, but in the meantime the miners have gone back to work.

War on the Socialist Party.

Socialists in West Virginia write that nearly all of the imprisoned striking miners, who are not active in the Socialist Party, have been released. Mother Jones also has been set at liberty.

In writing Senator Kern, she says:

I do not yet know that I am free, but I am inclined to think it was none of his (the Governor’s) good wishes.

In the meantime Governor Hatfield has waged a relentless war against all active Socialists. No other one has been released. The Governor has sworn to DRIVE SOCIALISM from the state.

John F. Parsons, A. D. Lavender, E. B. Vickers, Tom Miskel, Charles Kenney, Cleave Vickers, John Sachrist, G. W. Lavender, Nelson Treadway, John Brown, National Committeeman of the S. P ., Charles H. Boswell, editor of the Labor Argus, all Socialists, are still held incommunicado.

Fred Merrick, editor of the Pittsburgh Justice, who was filling Boswell’s place on the Argus, was seized, thrown into prison by the Governor’s orders and the paper confiscated.

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Socialist and Labor Star: Debs, Berger and Germer Investigate Conditions in West Virginia

1st June 20234th June 2023 Janet RayeHellraisers Journal

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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday June 1, 1913
Charleston, West Virginia – Socialists Committee Investigates Industrial Conditions

From the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star of May 30, 1913:

From The Coming Nation of May 24, 1913:

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Huntington Socialist and Labor Star: Plant Destroyed, Staff Sent to Jail under Military Despotism

31st May 20233rd June 2023 Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs

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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 31, 1913
Huntington, West Virginia -Report on Military Raid of Socialist and Labor Star

From The Socialist and Labor Star of May 30, 1913:

—–—–

To the ‘Star’ readers who are no doubt wondering why they failed to receive the little truth teller the last few weeks we dedicate this explanation.

There was a reason!

On the morning of Friday May 9th, between the hours of 1 and 2 the printing establishment belonging to the Socialist Printing Co., and in which the mechanical work on the Star had been done for the last few months, was raided by militiamen acting under orders from Governor Hatfield. The raiding party was composed of Major Tom Davis and Lieutenants Rippitoe and Templeton who ruthlessly destroyed job work, type printing material, plates, etc.

The type “forms” of the Star had just been completed and were ready for the regular issue of the paper. Some of the type in the newspaper pages was beaten to a shapeless mass of massed metal. After the types and plates had been beaten and broken, the “forms” were hurled from the composing stones and their contents scattered over the office and street. Portions of the wrecked material were found the next morning two squares from the Star office.

Not satisfied with their destruction of the Star forms, the valiant soldiers proceeded to demolish departments in which the Socialist Printing Co. did commercial job printing. Every job in the department, including forms for several sets of By-Laws for local unions, which had not yet been printed, were smashed and printed matter ready for delivery to local merchants was destroyed.

All of the account books, letters, invoices, files, and copy in the office were confiscated and carried away.

The Socialist Printing Co. incorporated under the laws of W. Va. authorized to do business in this state, has suffered a loss conservatively estimated at $2,000.

[W. H. Thompson, editor of the Star, Elmer Rumbaugh, F. M. Sturm, R. M. Kephart and Geo. W. Gillespie were arrested and transported into the martial law zone of the State. The home of Thompson was then raided ransacked.]

We almost forget to state that these midnight proceedings were ordered because The Labor Star and its owners had dared to disagree with Gov. Hatfield in the matter of the miners strike which he has just settled so satisfactorily-to Tim Scanlon and the Huntington Chamber of Commerce…..

[Emphasis added.]

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