Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure,
and still more pressure through broad,
organized, aggressive mass action.
-A. Philip Randolph
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday August 28, 1918
New York City – Socialist Locals Organized Across Race Divide
From The Ohio Socialist of August 21, 1918:
-The following article is reprinted from The Messenger:
Negroes Organizing in
Socialist Party
Editors of The Messenger
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 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, defranchisement and discrimination are as much the work of the Republican as the Democratic party. Jim Crowism railroads was upheld in a decision by Charles E. Hughes. Lynch laws thrived under McKinley, Roosevelt and Taft. The Grandfather disfranchisement laws were passed under the guardianship of the Republican party. The Summer Civil Rights bill was declared unconstitutional by the Republican Supreme Court.
The Word is said; the Time is nigh.-
Stand fast, O rebel clan!-
For, what are gallows or jails to us
Upbuilders of the Plan?
You cannot stay the Debtor’s Day,-
The Heritage of Man!
-Charles Ashleigh
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday July 20, 1918
The Cook County Jail: “Ordeal of Iron and Stone and Monotony”
COOK COUNTY JAIL
in “The World.”
By Charles Asheigl [Ashleigh]
In the consideration of principles, theories and movements, we should never lose sight of the personal. Many people who are too bookfed, or whose cerebral diet has been too severely confined to the “practical,” or academic become inclined to live mentally among generalizations only. It is good to observe a great array of men-an army or a marching pilgrimage.
It is impressive, the sight of this moving mass in its slow and fluid immensity. But one should not forget that each unit of this host is a breathing bundle of emotions, a compact battle-ground, perhaps, of conflicting passions, warring instincts and twisted purpose. And some among them may even have souls which are as half-wild garden, purpled with the mist of dreams amidst which play the fountains of fantasy.
And so it is with us in jail. O friend of mine. You look upon us as a body, a band of men who are passing through this ordeal of iron and stone and monotony, so that one day, a larger and more colorful life shall be won for this world’s folk. A legion of crusaders, adventuring to win the Holy City of social and industrial freedom; a strong-souled company of knights, seeking the Holy Grail; which is liberty and myth and the space to laugh and love and live.
We are all this. It is indeed, true, that we represent the most significant and dynamic factor in America’s evolution towards a complete democracy political. In the mass we are all that, but considering us individually, each one of us adds to these common qualities the tang the color of his own personality.
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:
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.
Hellraisers Journal, Friday July 12, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – I. W. W. Trial, Third Week of June
New York Tribune, April 14, 1918
As the federal trial of the I. W. W. leaders continues in Chicago, we find through the reporting of Harrison George that evidence against Fellow Workers Fletcher and Ashleigh is non- existent. This fact was noted by Attorney Vanderveer in his request for dismissal of charges against them:
“What has Ben Fletcher ever shown to have done,” said he, “except that he got married and wrote in for his week’s wages?”
“Overruled,” said Landis.
“Whatever Charles Ashleigh might have done last year not one word of evidence is brought to show it and your honor knows as little about it as of the Angel Gabriel,” said Vanderveer.
“Overruled,” said Landis.
Judge Landis on the
Non-Submissive State of Mind
Another question fought over was Vanderveer’s motion to expunge from the record certain so-called “disloyal” acts and utterances under claim that they were acts of individuals not in furtherance of any possible conspiracy. “These acts,” said Landis, in overruling the motion, “although not criminal in themselves, nor apparently carried out by any plan, may tend to show a state of mind and therefore are admissible as evidence to be considered by the jury.” In comment Vanderveer said, “If this theory holds, nobody is safe and I, for one, want to take to the woods.”
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 11, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – I. W. W. Trial, Third Week of June
From The Ohio Socialist of July 9, 1918:
THE I. W. W. TRIAL
[Part I]
By Harrison George
The third week of June opened with the promise of a speedy passing as the prosecution had announced a purpose to close their case by Wednesday, the 19th.
With the closing of the prosecution’s side in view, the interest became heightened as all looked for “surprises” and expected some tremendous broadsides at the finish. It was a real disappointment when nothing of the kind occurred, when no climax came and everything merely fizzled out, like a bad firecracker.
Comparatively few witnesses appeared, the most important ones taking the stand Monday, the 17th. To illustrate what was left of them after Vanderveer’s grilling, let us pick at random from the record, let us examine the testimony of Elton Watkins, special agent of the Department of Justice, stationed at Portland, Oregon, and sent from there last July to the lumber strike district at Astoria, Oregon.
On direct examination Watkins told of his Sherlockian methods with some pride. He didn’t go to Astoria to settle the strike, to ascertain the cause or to confer with both sides. He did talk with the bosses, he did ask the postmaster who the I. W. W. secretary was, and he did spy upon the strikers’ meetings through a crack in a partition to hear what A. E. Soper, then secretary, now a defendant, said in speeches.
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:
—–
Working Class Champion Arrested on Alleged
Violation of Espionage Law
—–
Deb’s Canton Speech in Demand; Officers
Diligent Search Reveals Naught
—–
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.
Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 14, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – The Sab-Cat Enters the Courtroom
From The Ohio Socialist of June 11, 1918:
A Second Runnymede
—–
By HARRISON GEORGE
It is no new thing-this struggle for human rights. Every morning we Chicago prisoners are taken in irons from the Cook County jail, the tomb of the old “Eight-Hour Movement,” and dumped into a gloomy court room of the Federal Building. How often have court rooms served as undertaking parlors for the aspirations of rebellious workers?
Here in the sepulchral atmosphere of the Law are gathered the class conscious social forces of this age in cut and thrust contest of Capital versus Labor.
Fathoming the shadows of the big room, our eyes discern an inscription within an arch among the mural decorations-“No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or otherwise damaged, but by lawful judgment of his peers. To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice.” Did Simon De Montfort and his followers, who forced he tyrant John to accept this Magna Charta at Runnymede, dream that six centuries later in a land whose boasted jurisprudence is based upon their great conquest, these words would lend a sanctity to such hypocritical persecution? We think of Ludlow and Lawrence, Paint Creek and Everett, of Bisbee and Butte-and we wonder why that inscription should not be painted out.
Throughout the month of April we I. W. W. men sat in the dock listening to the endless stream of questions and replies between lawyers and prospective jurors. Nebeker, the Copper Trust attorney, seeking always to constrain the issues and select employers; Vandeveer, for the I. W. W., groping in a basket of bad eggs for those the least bad, seeking to obtain men who have the social mind. “Industrial democracy”-“the class war”-“the right of revolution,” are phrases that flow like sparks from an anvil as Vandeveer, or Cleary, hammer home their questions and forged the tremendous issues. For here is a second Runnymede, and here the I. W. W. must enforce upon a tyrant master class the recognition of a new Magna Charta- the Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World..
And there’s Gene Debs—a man ’at stands
And jest holds out in his two hands
As warm a heart as ever beat
Betwixt here and the Jedgment Seat!
-James Whitcomb Riley
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 12, 1918
Canton, Ohio – “Monster Picnic” to Follow State Socialist Convention
Eugene Debs will be the featured speaker on Sunday, June 16th, at Nimisilla Park where the Socialist Party of Ohio will celebrate the end of their state convention which will begin June 14th at Tigers Hall in Canton. “A good time all day” is promised.
Nothing counts but pressure, pressure, more pressure,
and still more pressure through broad,
organized, aggressive mass action.
-A. Philip Randolph
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday March 13, 1918
New York, New York – Announcing a New Socialist Magazine
From The Ohio Socialist of March 10, 1918:
NEGRO COMRADES ESTABLISH MAGAZINE
A journal that will fill a long felt want is now published in New York. It is “The Messenger,” a Socialist monthly. Brilliantly edited by our colored comrades in New York city, A. Philip Randolph and Chadler [Chandler] Owen. The negroes of America are to be congratulated in having such able men in charge of their first revolutionary journal.
We predict a great success for them in their noble work. They have a vast field to themselves to cultivate, and there is no doubt that under their able leadership the negroes of America will soon take their rightful place in the ranks of the revolutionary army.
One dollar for eight months, $1.50 a year. Published at 230 William street, New York city.-Arizona Bulletin.
For Freedom laughs at prison bars;
Her voice re-echoes from the stars,
Proclaiming with the tempest’s breath
A cause beyond the reach of death!
-Ralph Chaplin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday March 12, 1918
From the Cook County Jail: “Prison Song” by Ralph Chaplin
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