There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Monday August 5, 1918
Duluth, Minnesota – Workingmen Demand Freedom for Mooney
Labor mass meetings, demanding justice for Tom Mooney, were held across the nation on Sunday July 28th. The labor unions of Duluth, Minnesota, joined the nationwide protests, listened to speeches, and passed resolutions.
From The Labor World of August 3, 1918:
DULUTH WORKINGMEN ASK
“TOM” MOONEY’S FREEDOM
—–
Declare Condemned Man Was Convicted
on Perjured Evidence and Demand
He Be Granted New Trial Without Delay.
—–
Rena and Tom Mooney
Duluth workingmen, at a largely attended meeting held at Owls’ hall last Sunday evening [July 28th], joined in the nation-wide protest against the proposed legal murder of Thomas J. Mooney at San Francisco. A. G. Catlin of Duluth Typographical union served as chairman and speeches were made by W. E. Towne of Duluth and Arthur Le Sueur of St. Paul.
Mr. Towne reviewed the history of the Mooney case, pointing out that all other persons charged with being participants in the alleged conspiracy had been acquitted by juries, including Mrs. Mooney, wife of the condemned man. He revealed the fact that since Mooney was tried it has been conclusively proven and admitted by the attorney general of the state that two of the witnesses against him were self-confessed perjurers and had been so found in other cases where they seemed to have served as professional witnesses.
Such a group of men one is proud to be associated with
-workers, clean hearted, clear eyed;
all fighting for the principles so plainly set forth in
the Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World.
-Big Bill Haywood
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 7, 1918
Big Bill Haywood on Conditions in the Cook County Jail
From The Liberator of May 1918:
On the Inside
By William D. Haywood
CLANG! clang! a bell rang out, big iron doors slid back, the auto patrol wheeled up to the rear entrance of the Cook County Jail; and here we are.
We are in the wing of the “old jail,” a room about 60 by 60 with a double row of cells four tiers high; our cells face the alley to the west. Cells are six by eight, about eight feet high with ceiling slightly sloping to the rear.
This cell is parlor, bedroom, dining room and lavatory all in one. Decorations black and white-that is, the interior is painted solid black on two walls, black half way on the other two walls. The ceiling is mottled white. Wash bowl, toilet, water-pipe, small bench, a narrow iron bunk, flat springs, corn husk mattress, sheet and pillow case of rough material, blanket, tin cups and spoons, constitute the fittings of our temporary homes where we spend twenty hours out of every twenty-four, involuntary parasites, doing no more service to society than the swell guys who loll around clubs or attend the functions at fashionable resorts.
The reveille of this detention camp is the sharp voice of the “runner,” “Cups out! Cups out!”
It is the beginning of a new day. The light, streams through the grated. door and falls in a checkered pattern across the cell floor.
One stretches his body on the narrow cot and awakens to the fact that he is still in jail, accepting the situation philosophically, wondering, some of us perhaps, what manner of independence and freedom it was that our Forefathers fought for in this country.
A prison cell is the heritage we gain for the blood and lives our forefathers gave; they fought for religious freedom and left us with minds free from superstitious cant and dogma; they waged war for political justice; they carried on the struggle against chattel-slavery-these were the titanic battles that were fought, bringing us to the threshold of the greatest of all wars-the class war-in which we are enlisted as workers, against all kinds of exploiters.
The speculators, the employers,
the plutocracy…with lies and sophistries
they will whip up our blood until we are savage-
and then we’ll fight and die for them.
-Jack Reed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Friday May 3, 1918
New York, New York – John Reed Facing Federal Charges
From Portland’s Oregon Daily Journal of April 29, 1918:
John Reed, Writer For
“Masses,” Held
—–
An American [Atlantic] Port, April 29.-(I. N. S.)-John Reed, an American writer, bearing credentials from the Bolsheviki as consul general at New York, was detained aboard a Scandinavian steamer upon his arrival here Sunday.
Reed was one of the contributors to “The Masses” who were indicted by a federal grand jury for alleged conspiracy to defeat the draft law. He appeared in the federal court today and pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to obstruct the draft law.
—–
John Reed is a former Portland man, son of Mrs. Charles J. Reed.
———-
[Photograph added.]
From The Liberator of May 1918:
John Reed located and series on “Red Russia” continues-
Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday April 11, 1918
From The Liberator – I. W. W. Secretary on Tulsa Mob Violence
Tulsa, November 9th
[EDITOR’S NOTE:-In this story of persecution and outrage at Tulsa, Oklahoma, told in the sworn statement of one of the victims, there is direct and detailed evidence of one of the most menacing by-products of the war. Here in Tulsa, as in Bisbee and Butte and Cincinnati, patriotic fervor was used by employers with the connivance or open co-operation of local officials, as a mask for utterly lawless attacks upon workingmen who attempted to organize for better conditions. This false resort to loyalty on the part of certain war profiteers is emphasized in the recent report of the President’s Mediation Commission. These cowardly masked upper-class mobs, calling themselves “Knights of Liberty” and mumbling hypocritical words about “the women and children of Belgium,” will not succeed in terrorizing the labor movement of America, nor will they tend to make it more patriotic.]
On November 9, 1917, seventeen men, taken from the custody of the city police of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were whipped, tarred and feathered, and driven out of the city with a warning never to return.
In a letter dated December 21, a resident* of Tulsa, writes:
I think it is only fair to say that the bottom cause of this trouble locally was that a few men, presumably belonging the I. W. W. came into the oil fields something like a year ago and were meeting with considerable success in getting oil-field workers-especially pipe-line and tank builders-to fight for better wages and shorter hours.
To Charles M. Schwab,
It is our aim to enlighten all members of the human family
in regard to the new order of things…
We wish to assist you in every way and to prepare you,
and your class for industrial democracy.
-Big Bill Haywood
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Monday March 25, 1918 The Liberator on Schwab’s Heresy by Art Young
In the relations of a weak Government
and a rebellious people
there comes a time when every act of the authorities
exasperates the masses,
and every refusal to act excites their contempt.
-Jack Reed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday March 16, 1918
From The Liberator: John Reed on the Russian Revolution
Correspondent John Reed was in Russia with his wife, Louise Bryant, during the amazing events of October and November 1917. In the latest edition of The Liberator is published Reed’s account of what he witnessed, and which we republish, in part, below:
RED RUSSIA-
The Triumph of the Bolsheviki
I.
THE real revolution has begun. All the swift events of the last eight crowded months–the sudden debacle of Czarism in February, the brief inglorious attempt of Miliukov to establish a safe and sane bourgeois republic, the rise of Kerensky and the precarious structure of hasty compromise which constituted the Provisional Government–these were merely the prologue to the great drama of naked class-struggle which has now opened. For the first time in history the working-class has seized the power of the state, for its own purposes–and means to keep it.
There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 10, 1918
From San Francisco to Petrograd, Workers Fight for Life of Tom Mooney
From The Liberator of March 1918:
The Peril of Tom Mooney
By Robert Minor
THE story of the manner in which Tom Mooney’s death sentence was procured is stock conversation in American working-class homes. It has gone as far as the trenches of the European armies. There is hardly a Russian village where the name of “Tom Muni” has not been heard. Actually, the names of the witnesses in the case are spoken in Siberian villages, and a certain California district attorney is regularly cursed around the samovar.
The only evidence against Tom Mooney that a sensible man would listen to, was that of an Oregon cattleman, Frank C. Oxman, who came into the trial at the last moment, took the stand like a breeze from the prairie, swore that he was a country gentleman, loved his wife, and had seen Israel Weinberg drive Tom Mooney, Mrs. Mooney, Billings and an unidentified man to the scene of the crime in Israel Weinberg’s jitney bus, of the number of which car he had made a note on a telegraph envelope which he had in his pocket at that moment. He never made a mistake in his life in the identity of a person, as he was used to identifying cattle on the range….Mooney was condemned to die on the gallows.
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday March 3, 1918
Helen Keller Raisers Her Voice to Defend the I. W. W.
From The Liberator of March 1918:
In Behalf of the I. W. W.
By Helen Keller
Down through the long weary years the will of the ruling class has been to suppress either the man or his message when they antagonized its interests. From the execution of the propagandist and the burning of books, down through the various degrees of censorship and expurgation to the highly civilized legal indictment and winking at mob crime by constituted authorities, the cry has ever been “crucify him!” The ideas and activities of minorities are misunderstood and misrepresented. It is easier to condemn than to investigate. It takes courage to steer one’s course through a storm of abuse and ignominy. But I believe that discussion of even the most bitterly controverted matters is demanded by our love of justice, by our sense of fairness and an honest desire to understand the problems that are rending society. Let us review the facts relating to the situation of the “I. W. W.’s” since the United States entered the war with the declared purpose to conserve the liberties of the free peoples of the world.
During the last few months, in Washington State, at Pasco and throughout the Yakima Valley, many “I. W. W.” members have been arrested without warrants, thrown into “bullpens” without access to attorney, denied bail and trial by jury, and some of them shot. Did any of the leading newspapers denounce these acts as unlawful, cruel, undemocratic? No. On the contrary, most of them indirectly praised the perpetrators of these crimes for their patriotic service!
