There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 10, 1907
From Ada County Jail, Idaho: Big Bill Haywood Makes a Statement
The following statement by Big Bill Haywood is being widely published and republished by newspapers large and small across the nation:
The President says that I am an “undesirable citizen,” the inference being that, as such, I should be put out of the way. His influence is all-powerful, and his statement, coming as it does on the eve of my trial for life, will work me irreparable injury and do more to prevent a fair trial than everything that has been said and done against me in the past.
From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of April 8, 1907:
The Roosevelt-Harriman Controversy
and Organized Labor.
Replying to the letter of Edward H. Harriman, which probably the whole world has read by this time, the President said, if correctly reported:
It shows the cynicism and deep-seated corruption which make the man uttering such sentiments, and boasting, no matter how falsely, of his power to perform such crimes, at least as undesirable a citizen as Eugene V. Debs or Moyer or Haywood.
This sentiment furnished the topic of conversation among labor men generally throughout the city during the past few days. In fact, it has been condemned by organized labor in every section of the country. Joseph R. Buchanan, of Big Six, thus expressed himself:
Of course, every one understood that the President’s words were intended as a reflection upon the citizenship qualities of Moyer and Haywood, as well as upon those of Mr. Harriman, and as he has the reputation of always hitting as hard as he can, it is assumed that he could think of none who were such “bad citizens” as the officials of the Western Federation of Miners.
Organized labor of New York has held many meetings of protest against the unjust and unlawful treatment of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone by the officials of Colorado and Idaho, and has contributed thousands of dollars to the fund raised by union labor all over the United States to defray the expenses of their defense. That they have committed any crime or broken any law of the land has still to be proven.
