Tag: Socialist Press

Hellraisers Journal: From the Cleveland Toiler: Eugene V. Debs on the Power of the Capitalist Press, Fed Fat by Ruling Class

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote AtR p1 Nominates EVD for President, May 24, 1919———-

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday February 21, 1920
Power of Press Underestimated by American Socialist Movement

From the Cleveland Toiler of February 20, 1920:

The Power of the Press
—–

– by Eugene V. Debs –

EVD f President by OK SP, Mpl Str Tb p2, Feb 2, 1920

The power of the press is sadly underestimated in the socialist movement. The ruling class make no such mistakes. They are keenly alive to the power of the press in molding public sentiment and in shaping affairs in accordance with their interests. The capitalist papers do not suffer for the want of support and never die of starvation. They are fed fat and ungrudgingly by the class in power and in return serve that class with all their power.

Not so with the press of the working class. With scarcely an exception the papers and periodicals published in the interest of labor eke out a precarious existence. Ninety-five percent of them line the highway of the past with their skeletons. They lingered for a brief while and then gave up the ghost, falling victims to the chronic labor-paper malady, starvation.

Of course not all papers claiming to be labor papers are fit to exist. Many of them are fakes and run by political grafters. These often thrive in their blackmail and graft while an honest paper is allowed to die for the want of support.

Working men and women ought to have intelligence enough by this time to discriminate between an honest labor paper and a grafting sheet and they ought to be loyal enough to the working class to give their support to the paper that uses its influence to mold sentiment in favor of their cause and fights their industrial and political battles.

It is when the strike comes that the working class suffer most keenly the lack of a powerful press that reaches the people. They are always at a fearful disadvantage on this account. The capitalists get in a thousand licks to their one, not only because they can get their case before the people in its most favorable light and keep it there, but because they can put the case of the workers in the most unfavorable light and keep it there.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs on Roosevelt’s Quandary: What to do with Troops in Goldfield, Part II

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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The people are as capable of achieving
their industrial freedom as they were
to secure their political liberty,
and both are necessary to a free nation.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday January 7, 1908
Goldfield, Nevada – What to do with Roosevelt’s Troops, Part II

From the Appeal to Reason of January 4, 1908:

CAUGHT IN THEIR OWN NET
—–
Federal and State Authorities in a Quandary
as to What to Do With the
Soldiers at Goldfield.
—–

Instantaneous and Widespread Effect of the
“Goldfield Extra” Issued by the
Appeal to Reason Protesting
Against Troops.
—–
BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
[Part II]

Goldfield Strike, Scrip, AtR p4, Dec 28, 1907

The history of strikes shows beyond question what soldiers are used for. Honest union men who dare assert their rights are not protected, but scabs who are imported from slums and reek with crime, “gun-men” and professional strike-breakers, and other degenerates hired to undermine labor and defeat its aspirations, are saints and saviors, and must have the soldiers of the republic to see that no harm comes to them in their holy mission, and that nothing occurs to prevent them from consummating the munificent work to which their energies are so unselfishly consecrated.

In the eyes of soldiers in the employ of this capitalistic government of ours, honest workingmen who seek to defend their rights, and stand up for their homes, their wives and babes, are traitors to be shot and rioters to be bayoneted, while scabs are patriots to be protected in the name of law and order.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs on Roosevelt’s Quandary: What to do with Troops in Goldfield, Part I

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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The people are as capable of achieving
their industrial freedom as they were
to secure their political liberty,
and both are necessary to a free nation.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Monday January 6, 1908
Goldfield, Nevada – What to do with Roosevelt’s Troops, Part I

From the Appeal to Reason of January 4, 1908:

CAUGHT IN THEIR OWN NET
—–
Federal and State Authorities in a Quandary
as to What to Do With the
Soldiers at Goldfield.
—–

Instantaneous and Widespread Effect of the
“Goldfield Extra” Issued by the
Appeal to Reason Protesting
Against Troops.
—–
BY EUGENE V. DEBS.
[Part I]

Pres T Roosevelt, SF Call p37, Dec 29, 1907

When President Roosevelt issued his order, based upon the requisition of Governor Sparks and the Mine Owners of Nevada, converting the mining town of Goldfield into a military camp, the whole country was more or less surprised. It was the suddenness of the action of the president rather than the action itself which created such intense interest and elicited approval of provoked condemnation, according to the point of view.

The telegraphic dispatch containing this military order struck the APPEAL almost as if it had been a blow in the face.

There was absolutely nothing in the Goldfield situation to warrant such an arbitrary act of interference in a purely local situation. The president knew it, and so did every one else at all familiar with the situation. The act could have but one meaning and one purpose. The APPEAL instinctively understood it. The blow had been struck without warning; it must be returned without delay. The facts of the case must be given to the working class as promptly and as fully as the means and facilities at the command of the APPEAL would allow.

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Hellraisers Journal: Appeal to Reason Invites Czar to America, “Conditions here are good for your line of business.”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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While Elihu Root is advising
the new Russian democracy,
you can come over and advise
the new American autocracy.
–Appeal to Reason to Czar Nicholas II

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

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 12, 1917
Girard, Kansas – Invitation Sent to “Mr. Nicholas Romanoff”

From the Appeal to Reason of June 30, 1917:

The Appeal Invites “Czar Nick”
to Come to America

Girard, Kansas, June 27, 1917.

Mr. Nicholas Romanoff, Care Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates, Petrograd, Russia.

Czar Nicholas II, March 1917, wiki

Dear Nick: Not knowing just how to reach you directly, we are sending this letter in care of the Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates, who are doubtless keeping an eye on you and whom we trust to deliver this message uncensored as the mail of other private citizens is now being delivered-in Russia.

We expect you to be surprised at hearing from us, but not more surprised than we are at finding ourselves writing to you, a perfect stranger, you might say. Still, we feel that we have had an introduction to you after a fashion, having read about you a great deal and followed your recent career with much interest; so we think, Nick, that you’re the very man for a job that is now open over here in this land of the recently free. Here is a new and promising field for the exercise of your peculiar talents.

You will drop your hoe and come over on the next ship when we tell you that Czarism has been introduced in America, that the United States has taken the place of Russia with a vengeance that is rather characteristic of your own past rule.

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Hellraisers Journal: Summary of Moyer-Haywood Case From Current Literature: Socialist Press & “Undesirable Citizens”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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If they hang Moyer and Haywood,
they’ve got to hang me.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 8, 1907
Current Literature on Moyer-Haywood Case, Part II

HMP, Gooding Steunenberg, Current Lit June 1907

—–

THE murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg, as viewed by the state authorities of Idaho and by most of the daily papers of the country, came as a sequel to a long series of labor troubles between the miners and the mine-owners of the Coeur d’Alene district in Idaho. This district, twenty-five miles in length and one to five miles wide, contains rich mines of lead. Trouble began in 1892 and continued for seven years, off and on, with all the usual violent accompaniments of a war between labor and capital in a region where the forces of government are none too strong and the leaders on either side none too scrupulous. There were pitched battles between the union men and the non-union men. Dynamite was used to wreck mills, men were assassinated, and on May 8, 1897, the feeling had become so intense that President Boyce, of the Western Federation, advised every local union to organize a rifle corps, “so that in two years we can hear the inspiring music of the martial tread of twenty-five thousand armed men in the ranks of labor.” The trouble reached a climax in April, 1899, when the $250,000 mill of the Bunker Hill Company was destroyed by the miners with dynamite.

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Hellraisers Journal: Summary of Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone Case From Current Literature: Kidnapping and Supreme Court

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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If they hang Moyer and Haywood,
they’ve got to hang me.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 7, 1907
Current Literature on Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone Case, Part I

HMP, re Undesirable Citizen, June 1907

HMP, NYC Moyer Haywood Protest, Current Lit, June 1907

—–

WHAT Mr. Debs, once a Socialist candidate for President, calls “the greatest legal battle in American history,” is now in progress in Boise City, Idaho. Fifty special correspondents of newspapers and magazines from all parts of the country hastened last month to the little city to report the case, and the telegraph company installed ten additional circuits to handle the press of business. Boise City itself is not excited. It has not furnished any of the defendants, nor any of the lawyers, nor the victim whose murder is the cause of all this excitement. All it furnishes is the jury to try the case. But the country at large is furnishing the excitement. The President of the United States has been involved in a heated controversy over the character of the defendants. The United States Supreme Court has rendered a decision which is likened by Socialist orators to the Dred Scott decision of half a century ago. Thousands of men have been parading the streets of many cities—50,000 in New York alone according to The Herald’s estimate—waving red flags, singing the Marsellaise, denouncing the Supreme Court and assailing the President in terms of bitter reproach. And a collection of $250,000, according to some estimates, has been gathered from the members of labor unions to insure for the defendants in this trial an adequate defense.

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Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs Now in Girard Assisting Appeal to Reason in Effort to Save Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 10, 1907
Girard, Kansas – Debs Rallies Readers of Appeal to Reason

From The Girard Press of February 7, 1907:

Eugene Debs, Wilshire's Magazine, Nov 1905

Eugene V. Debs, twice the candidate of the Socialist party for President, has been in Girard during the past week, and is assisting in preparing matter for a special edition of the Appeal to Reason.

“The Kidnaping Edition” of the Appeal to Reason is now one week away from publication, and orders for Number 585 have already surpassed the one million mark. On the front page of this week’s edition, we find Comrade Eugene Debs rallying the troops of the Appeal Army to:

Turn on the Light! Spread the Truth!! Every labor and every Socialist paper is engaged in this righteous and supremely important work.

Now is the time to widen the circulation of these heralds of light and truth.

Let the workers everywhere bestir themselves as never before in this crucial hour, so fraught with possibilities for weal or woe to the American people.

Let every atom of latent energy and determination be aroused and the cloud that now threatens will be dispelled and the cause of Justice triumphantly vindicated.

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