You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 10, 1908
Chicago, Illinois – 5,000 Children Go to School Hungry
From The Socialist Woman of November 1908:
American School Children Starving
Chicago Tribune of October 5, 1908
When we are talking of the number of men who are tramping the country looking for work—hungry, broken-spirited, abject creatures, who once thought themselves men, as good as any of their kind—let us not forget the women, and the little children of these men.
Last winter in Chicago after the first flurry of the panic, I had occasion to visit a number of the “homes” of those who had been thrown out of work. In every case the men were out, hunting feverishly for the chance to make even a little money by any kind of hard labor. And in every case my heart ached and my soul grew sick when I thought of the future of the women and children of those families.
“It is awful when the children cry for food, and we cant give it to them,” said one woman who had never before known what it was to be down and out. Another mother, about thirty, and strong and handsome, had to sit by and watch her seven-year-old daughter burning with fever, and without the care of a doctor because she had lost her job in a department store, and there was no money even to buy food. She had applied for work at all the large stores again and again. She had tried everywhere—and was told that they might need her during the holidays. But the holidays were weeks away. Already she had moved into a questionable quarter because rent was cheap. And unless that mother got work within two weeks, there was but one resource left her, if she would save herself and her child from death through starvation. And that was the sale of her body.
It was for a charitable institution I was working—and I knew that those institutions were crowded to their utmost with destitute cases.
Such, indeed, was the condition of the poor in Chicago last winter, that the superintendent of compulsory education, W. Lester Bodine, took up the case of hungry school children, followed his investigations for six months, and finally ascertained that there are 5,000 starving children, and 10,000 that are underfed, in the schools of the city.
Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 9, 1898
Debs on Capitalism Run Riot and the Battle for Social Democracy
From the Social Democratic Herald of October 8, 1898:
Social Democracy
-by Eugene V. Debs
In the outset, and to “clear the deck” for action, some attention should be paid to definitions. What is meant by the term, “Social Democracy?” The term “social” as applied to “democracy” means, simply, a society of democrats, the members of which believe in the equal right of all to manage and control it. Reading this definition, men are likely to say, “There is nothing new in that,” and they speak understandingly. The men and women who are engaged in organizing the Social Democratic Party of America are not pluming themselves upon the novelty of their scheme for the improvement of social, industrial, and political conditions. They claim for their movement a common-sense basis, free from the taint of vagary and in all regards preeminently practical.
The wise man is credited with saying, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun” [Ecclesiastes 1:9]. Crediting the declaration of Solomon as conclusive, there must have been a time before he lived when something like “social democracy” of which I write existed in the earth, the germ idea of which, though latent for centuries, has aroused men from their lethargy from time to time in the processes of evolution, to find its most potent expression in the present era of “progress and poverty,” civilization and savagery, wealth and war, charity and greed, aroused them to an interest in socialism, which, with the chivalric courage of crusaders and the revolutionizing zeal of iconoclasts, has appeared to do battle for the regeneration of society.
No one hesitates to admit that the task is herculean; no one underestimates the power of opposing forces. Their name is legion, and they are organized forces—close, compact, resourceful, and defiant. They do not propose to surrender, compromise, nor arbitrate. They have the masses in the dust, their claws upon their throats and their hooves upon their prostrate forms. In the face of all the verified facts that startle thinking men, there is no requirement for extravagant speech.
To serve the working class is to me
always a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday August 16, 1908
Eugene Debs Speaks to Delegates at Labor Gathering
Eugene Debs, Socialist Party candidate for President, was invited to speak at the State F. of L. convention. He arrived at the convention from Girard where he had been resting after touring through the eastern states.
Pittsburg, Kansas, August 12, 1908
Kansas State Federation of Labor Convention:
Introduction by Chairman Cable
Gentlemen of the Convention: I assure you it is a great privilege on my part to present to you at this time a gentleman who needs no introduction at my hands; a gentleman who is known to you and who is known to the workingmen throughout the length and breadth of this country as a true and tried trade unionist and the candidate of the Socialist party for President of the United States. I, therefore, take great pleasure in presenting to you Brother Eugene V. Debs.
—–
[Debs Speaks]
Mr. Chairman, Delegates and Fellow Workers: It is with pleasure, I assure you, that I embrace this opportunity to exchange greetings with you in the councils of labor. I have prepared no formal address, nor is any necessary at this time. You have met here as the representatives of organized labor and if I can do anything to assist you in the work you have been delegated to do I shall render that assistance with great pleasure.
To serve the working class is to me always a duty of love. Thirty-three years ago I first became a member of a trade union. I can remember quite well under what difficulties meetings were held and with what contempt organized labor was treated at that time. There has been a decided change. The small and insignificant trade union has expanded to the proportions of a great national organization. The few hundreds now number millions and organized labor has become a recognized factor in the economics and politics of the nation.
There has been a great evolution during that time and while the power of the organized workers has increased there has been an industrial development which makes that power more necessary than ever before in all the history of the working class movement.
This is an age of organization. The small employer of a quarter of a century ago has practically disappeared. The workingman of today is confronted by the great corporation which has its ironclad rules and regulations, and if they don’t suit he can quit.
In the presence of this great power, workingmen are compelled to organize or be ground to atoms. They have organized. They have the numbers. They have had some bitter experience. They have suffered beyond the power of language to describe, but they have not yet developed their latent power to a degree that they can cope successfully with the great power that exploits and oppresses them. Upon this question of organization, my brothers, you and I may differ widely, but as we are reasonable men, we can discuss these differences candidly until we find common ground upon which we can stand side by side in the true spirit of solidarity–and work together for the emancipation of our class.
You pity yourselves,
but you do not pity your brothers,
or you would stand together
to help one another.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday July 27, 1898
Chicago, Illinois – Workers Walk in Rain as Street Cars Pass By
From the Appeal to Reason of July 16, 1898:
WHY DO WE WALK?
E. B. Webster in National Tribune.
As I started home from “down town,” when I reached Madison street I noticed hundreds of people walking, all going west.
I was intending to take a car, but seeing so many people walking, I says to myself: “The cars must have stopped.” But, no, the cars were moving right along, one every half minute.
Then why do the people walk? I determined to walk home with the rest and punish myself for having been dormant and letting the street railway company buy up the street for a few thousand dollars from the aldermen who had the power to give away what they never owned and had cost them nothing.
Hellraisers Journal: Sunday July 10, 1898
Victor Hugo: “Not to be a slave is to Dare and Do.”
From the Appeal to Reason of July 9, 1898:
VICTOR HUGO’S LETTER TO THE POOR
Shall I now speak to the poor, after in vain having implored the rich? Yes, it is fitting. This, then, have I to say to the disinherited: Keep a watch upon your formidable jaw. There is one rule for the rich—to do nothing, and one for the poor—to say nothing. The poor have but one friend, silence. They should use but one monosyllable: Yes. To confess and to concede-this is all the “rights” they have. “Yes” to the judge. “Yes” to the king. The great, if it so please them, give us blows with a stick; I have had them, it is their prerogative, and they lose nothing of their greatness in cracking our bones. Let us worship the sceptre, which is the first among sticks.
If a poor man is happy he is the pickpocket of happiness. Only the rich and noble are happy by right. The rich man is he who being young has the rights of old age; being old, the lucky chances of youth; vicious, the respect of good people; a coward, the command of the stout-hearted; doing nothing, the fruits of labor.
The people fight. Whose is the glory? The king’s. They pay. Whose is the magnificence? The king’s. And the people like to be rich in this fashion. Our ruler, king or croesus, receives from the poor a crown apiece and renders back to the poor a farthing. How generous he is! The colossal pedestal looks up to the pigmy superstructure. How tall the manikin is! He is upon my back. A dwarf has an excellent method of being higher than a giant; it is to perch himself upon the other’s shoulders. But that the giant should let him do it, there’s the odd part of it; and that he should honor the baseness of the dwarf, there’s the stupidity. Human ingenuousness.
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 8, 1898
Terre Haute, Indiana – Debs Speaks in Favor of Socialism
From the Huntington Weekly Herald of June 3, 1898:
Debs Talks at Terre Haute.
Terre Haute, Ind., June 2-Eugene Debs Spoke on “The Coming Nation” at the Opera House here [on Tuesday May 31st] to a large audience. The address was for the benefit of the Central Labor union, which has been organized on a stronger basis than ever before in the city. The receipts were large and the fund for the union’s new headquarters will be considerably increased. Debs’ address was an argument in favor of socialism.
———-
[Photograph added.]
From the Terre Haute Gazette of June 1, 1898:
Debs’ Lecture on the “Coming Nation”
—–
For the first time in the record of the ages the inalienable rights of man—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—have been usurped.
On July 4th, 1776, our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence by which the ruler descended form his sceptered throne, the gem of liberty was planted in eternal truth, the workingman stood erect in his heaven-decreed prerogative, freed from his bonds.
It was decreed by the infinite that man should stand forth the coronated sovereign of the world. The song of liberty is the song of the stars. There is no more appropriate theme and to wave the banner of freedom. No matter how nature may be decked with beauty, no matter if she sends forth a succession of glorious melodies, if liberty is ostracized and expelled, the world wheels round the sun a gilded prison, a blot to the Siberian sphere of the heavens.
Strike down liberty, no matter by what subtle art, and the world becomes paralyzed by an indescribable power. Strike down the fetters of the plain, and it becomes a new world through the almighty genius of liberty. Its works redeem the poor man from animal suspense and make of him a new being. In our courts the product of our political liberty is being realized to a gratifying extent. I believe in a few years woman will be franchised and we will elect the officers of our country by direct vote. The political democracy will be complete.
Women of the World, Unite.
You have double chains to lose
and you have the world to gain.
-May Wood Simons
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday May 31, 1908
Chicago, Illinois: City of the Impoverished Men, Women and Children
From the Montana News of May 21, 1908:
Extracts from the speech of May Wood Simons at the opening of the Chicago convention:
When his auditors had come back from he heights to which Wanhope had lifted them, it remained for May Wood Simons to take them down into the Valley of the Shadow. It is safe to say that such a stirring appeal to the heart of an American audience was never made before. Before Mrs. Simons had spoken for five minutes there was hardly a dry eye in the house.
The sobs of women resounded through the vast auditorium. In one of the front seats William D. Haywood, who came through his great persecution and trial at Boise without batting an eyelash-the man who did not even pale before danger and death when they menaced him and his-was crying openly.
At the press table the hardened reporters, who have seen misery in all its many forms time and again, until their very souls were calloused, were coughing suspiciously and unbidden tears were falling on the shorthand notes of the speech. It was a masterpiece of pathos, that simple description of “The State of Things as They Are.”
Plain Little Recital.
And yet there was nothing theatrical about the little statement. It did not savor of the dramatic in the least. It was just a plain little recital of fact. That was all. And yet a big six-footer just behind the writer of this article was blubbering like a baby. And he was a magazine writer, too. Not for a small magazine, but for one of the most prominent in America.
It should be encouraging for workingmen
to see women enter their ranks and,
shoulder to shoulder, fight for economic freedom.
-Sophie Beldner Vasilio
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 27, 1908
A Letter from a San Francisco Woman to the I. U. B.
Women in the I. W. W.
To the Editor of THE BULLETIN:
1. Is a married women of the working class a chattel slave or a wage slave?
2. Has she the right to belong to a mixed local of the I. W. W.?
I ask these questions because objection has been raised by some member of the Denver local to the effect that a married woman, a housekeeper, has no right to belong to a workingmen’s organization.
I wish to be made clear as to the attitude of the general organization on this matter.
As far as I know, the purpose of a mixed local is to educate and organize branches of different industries when there are enough members to form a local. Does a woman, that keeps house for her husband, interfere with the progress of the organization by being a member of a mixed local?
Some assert that we have no grievance against the capitalist class, therefore we have no place in the union. Our grievance is against our husbands, if we are dissatisfied with our condition.
I believe the married woman of the working class is no parasite nor exploiter. She is a social producer. In order to sustain herself, she has to sell her labor power, either in the factory, directly to the capitalist, or at home, indirectly, by serving the wage slave, her husband, thus keeping him in working condition through cooking, washing and general housekeeping.
Her being a mother and a housekeepers are two different functions. One is her maternal, and the other is her industrial function in society. And as an industrial factor in society. I believe the wage slave’s wife has got a right to belong to a mixed local. I think it should be encouraging for workingmen to see women enter their ranks and, shoulder to shoulder, fight for economic freedom.
Then we’ll sing one song of the poor and ragged tramp,
He carries his home on his back;
Too old to work, he’s not wanted ’round the camp,
So he wanders without aim along the track.
-Joe Hill
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday March 4, 1908 “The Blanket Stiff, Product of Roosevelt’s Prosperity”
From the Socialist Montana News of February 27, 1908:
The Man Without a Country
Still on the Hunt for the Dinner Pail
—–
The Wage Slave
A little more than half a century ago a question of great interest to the country was brought up by a few men and women who saw the evil effects of slavery and its consequences. The question was agitated so persistently that it spread through the world. Not to our own country was it confined, but it became the absorbing question in Europe, and it was acknowledged that it was an evil and a disgrace to humanity and to the civilized world that beings made in the image of God should be subjected and treated like animals.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Debs Talks at Terre Haute.
