Tag: Woman Suffrage

Hellraisers Journal: Debs Campaign Tours Kansas, Speaks with “Dear Old Battle-Scarred”Mother Jones at Pittsburg

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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Quote EVD, re Woman Suffrage, Ptt KS Dly Hdlt p4, Aug 20, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday August 31, 1908
Debs Campaign on the Road in Great State of Kansas

From the Appeal to Reason of August 29, 1908:

Tri-State Edition, Kansas, AtR p3, Aug 29, 1908

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DEBS’ TRIUMPHANT TOUR.

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Comrade Debs’ tour through the Third district was a continuous triumph, each meeting exceeding the other in interest and enthusiasm. Thousands of people, never heard with deepest interest the story of labor’s exploitation. Words utterly fail us to put in type the electric effect of these meetings, much less to express the truth of our beloved Des’ wonderful message. His appearance upon the platform was the signal for spontaneous enthusiasm and wildest applause and again and again as this mighty giant defender of labor hurried his impeachment into the heart of the cruel capitalist system or painted, as only a Debs can, in contrast the conditions of the toiler under the Co-operative Commonwealth, the audience was lifted into a new life and many an indifferent, tired, discouraged and all but defeated worker took fresh courage, which filled him with a new inspiration as he took his stand in the militant party for the emancipation of his class.

EVD, Socialist for President, Tpk St Jr p14, Aug 8, 1908
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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1918, Part II: Found in St. Louis, Missouri and Grafton, West Virginia

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Let me see you wake up and fight.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 23, 1918
Mother Jones News for May 1918, Part I: Gives Long Interview in St. Louis

From the St Louis Post-Dispatch of May 13, 1918:

Mother Jones Interview, St L Pst Dsp p3, May 13, 1918

Valiant Champion of the Workers Pink of Cheek
at 88 and Wears a Fussy Little Bonnet.
—–
Objects to Women Doing Heavy War Time Work;
Opposes Suffrage, Knitters Rile Her.
—–

BY MARGUERITE MARTYN.

Mother Jones Drawing St L Pst Dsp p3, May 13, 1918

I WOULD like to have had a union card to show. I was glad I was conversant with the after-the-war platform of the British Labor Party as voluminously printed in the Post-Dispatch, and that I could profess full faith in the justice of trade unionism, when I went to call on Mother Jones. As it was, I came out of the interview with the valiant little 88-year-old labor champion comparatively unscathed, though I sat meekly silent while her scorching tongue excoriated many institutions I have at least looked upon with toleration.

Women in war industries supplanting men, she had little patience with.

[She said:]

I see them climbing over engines with their oil cans. I see them pumping levers on street cars; I see them pushing heavy trucks of munitions, and I think, what of the future generation? Woman’s nervous organism is not equal to such work. One of the principles of trade unionism is that women shall work under conditions that will safeguard to the utmost their bodily welfare.

Woman suffrage she dismissed with equal scorn.

Women vote in Colorado and what have they done to improve industrial conditions? After the riots at Trinidad and 20 women and children were laid out in the morgue, committees of ladies came and looked over the scene, and they said, “Too bad, too bad!”

They knew the murder of these innocents, whose men were fighting only for the right to work and earn their bread, had been authorized by the [Democratic] Governor they had helped to put in power. They did not criticise the Governor and some of the women were in the militia that committed the crimes.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1918, Part II: Found in St. Louis, Missouri and Grafton, West Virginia” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1918, Part I: Found Supporting Strikers in St. Louis

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Let me see you wake up and fight.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 22, 1918
Mother Jones News for May 1918, Part I: Found in St. Louis

Mother Jones, DRW small, St L Pst p3, May 13, 1918

Mother Jones was first found missing from the May Day celebration in Springfield, Illinois. It appears she was called to an unspecified strike in Quincy, Illinois.

We next found her in Washington, D. C. where the May 1st edition of The Washington Times stated:

“Mother” Jones, noted labor leader, arrived here today to appear before the National War Labor Board and plead with former President William H. Taft, in the interest of commercial telegraphers demanding the right to organize.

On May 10th and 11th, we find Mother in the pages of the St. Louis, Missouri, newspapers where her efforts on behalf of the men and women on strike against the Wagner Electric Manufacturing Company are well covered.

We will pick up the story of Mother Jones in St. Louis in Part II of our Mother Jones News Round-Up for May 1918.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for May 1918, Part I: Found Supporting Strikers in St. Louis” →

Hellraisers Journal: Suffragist Alice Paul Sentenced to Six Months in Workhouse for “Obstructing Traffic”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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We feel that we are not subject
to the laws of this court,
in the making of which we have no part.
-Alice Paul

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday October 26, 1917
Washington, D. C. – Rebel Alice Paul Jailed for Freedom’s Cause

Although the following report from the News and Observer scores Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party as “the laughing stock of Washington,” we nevertheless find therein the statement issued by Miss Paul and her supporters shortly after sentence was passed upon her.

From North Carolina’s Raleigh News and Observer of October 24, 1917:

ALICE PAUL HAPPY IN JAIL UNDER
THE CLAIM OF MARTYR
—–
She Will Serve at Least Half a Year Unless
There Is Un-expected Turn
—–

SHE WAS ILL WHEN FIRST PICKETS
WERE ARRESTED
—–
Congressional Union For Woman Suffrage or Its Successor
The National Woman’s Party
Considered More or Less a Fake Organization
Since It Started
—–

By H. E. C. BRYANT.

Suffragists, Alice Paul, Eve Pb Ldg p1, Philly, Oct 22, 1917

Washington, Oct. 23.-Miss Alice Paul is happy now that she is in jail, and can make the claim of martyr. She was ill when the first White House pickets were arrested, tried and sent to prison but as soon as she got well she began to try to force the authorities of the District of Columbia to recognize her as the leader of the lawbreakers. She was sentenced to six months for one offense and one month for another. She will serve at least a half a year unless some unexpected turn comes to free her.

The Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage or its successor, the National Woman’s Party, has been more or less a fake organization ever since it started. Conventions have been held, and delegates “selected” from the “various States.” A few years ago, when a national convention was held here, and all the States were to be represented, the News and Observer correspondent went to the Columbia Theatre, where it assembled, to get a list of the North Carolina suffragists. The Tar Heel seats were filled with women carrying North Carolina standards but only one or two out of the score who “represented” the State had ever as much as passed through it. Most of the women claiming to be North Carolinians lived in the District of Columbia, where they were born. The “national convention” was made up of fake-delegates. Like the three famous tailors of Tooley street they met and resoluted.

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Hellraisers Journal: Suffragist Picket Now in Prison & Susan B. Anthony Remembered by Eugene Debs

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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EVD Quote, Susan B Anthony, Pearson's Mag, July 1917

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday October 25, 1917
Occoquan Workhouse, Virginia – Photograph of Abby Scott Baker

From Indiana’s Richmond Palladium of October 22, 1917:

Suffragists, Abby Scott Baker, Prison, Rmd IN Pldm, Oct 22, 1917

Here are shown two photographs of Mrs. Abby Scott Baker, one of the most prominent women members of army set in Washington, recently arrested with other militant suffragists outside the White House and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment in the workhouse at Occoquan.

The first photograph depicts her in evening dress, and the second shows her in the coarse uniform given her after she had begun serving her sentence. This uniform consists of underwear made of ticking, thick cotton socks, man’s size shoes with the soles worn through, and a blue gingham apron held at the waist with a string that also served as a corset. In the pocket of the apron she carried a comb and tooth brush, given her by the officials of the workhouse.

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DEBS REMEMBERS SUSAN B. ANTHONY

While the suffragists picketing the White House in Washington D. C. are being dragged off to jail, we offer this remembrance of Susan B. Anthony, whose long and unrelenting struggle for full citizenship these brave women carry on. The fond memorial tribute to Miss Anthony is gleaned from an article by Eugene V. Debs which appeared in the July 1917 edition of Pearson’s Magazine. (We urge our readers to seek out the entire article):

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1917, Part II: Found in Illinois & Washington D. C.

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday October 19, 1917
Mother Jones News for September, Part II: Attends Root-Gompers Meeting

After her speech supporting the street car strikers in Springfield, Illinois, Mother Jones was blamed for a “riot” in that city. On September 15th, Mother attended a pro-war mass meeting in Chicago where the featured speakers were Elihu Root and Samuel Gompers.

From The Decatur Herald of September 5, 1917:

SPRINGFIELD IS CAUTIOUS AFTER RIOT
—–
People Warned, Troops Ready,
“Mother” Jones, Boose and Burnette Blamed.
—–

Mother Jones, IL State Rgstr p2, Springfield, Sept 1, 1917

SPRINGFIELD, Sept. 5-As a result of rioting here Monday night [September 3rd], which resulted in the wrecking of 6 street cars, the riddling with bricks of the front of the car companies office building and the arresting of 20 rioters, Mayor C. T. Baumann last night following a conference of city, county and military officials with assistance of Ajt. Gen. Richings J. Shand at the state house, issued a proclamation ordering all citizens of Springfield to keep off the streets as much as possible and forbidding all gatherings in the streets or public places under penalty of arrest and imprisonment. Mayor Baumann’s action was a direct result of Monday night’s trouble and reports that there would be further organized out breaks, with possible attacks in force on street car company property.

Soldiers On Guard.

Although there have been only isolated instances of trouble, last night, such as the stoning of cars in remote sections of the city, soldiers with fixed bayonets patrolled the main business streets with sentries on every corner keeping the people moving and breaking up gatherings. Additional forces were held at the court house and state arsenal, with automobiles in readiness to rush them to any danger point.

Men arrested by the soldiers Monday night are being held at the county jail, which is guarded by soldiers. It is said that they will be turned over to the civil authorities Wednesday.

Mackie Assigns Cause.

“Mother Jones, Burnette and Bloomington booze” were the three causes of the Springfield riots of Monday night as assigned by general Manager Mackie of the Springfield Utilities company Tuesday.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1917, Part II: Found in Illinois & Washington D. C.” →

Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1917, Part I: Found in Illinois and Kentucky

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Mother Jones Quote, 2x4 kaiser union recognition hell freeze over.

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday October 18, 1917
Mother Jones News for September, Part I: Speech in Springfield

From the Illinois State Register of September 1, 1917:

On the evening of August 31st, Mother Jones spoke in Springfield, Illinois, to striking carmen and their supporters. The speech was well-covered the next day by the Register.

MOTHER JONES ASKS AID
FOR CAR STRIKERS
—–
Tells Unionists to Unite in Fight
Against Street Car Company and Win
—–

4,000 HEAR SPEAKER
—–
Crowds Throng Court House Yard
and Cheer as Advocate of Labor Talks
—–

Mother Jones, IL State Rgstr p2, Springfield, Sept 1, 1917

Four thousand striking car men, members of allied labor organizations and curious outsiders last night on the court house square heard “Mother” Jones, self-confessed labor agitator and proud of it, urged the strikers and their sympathizers to disregard judges, courts, injunctions or any other power that might be invoked and to fight the street railway company until it is forced to meet the demands of the union.

Less extreme than she is reported to have been in other cities where labor troubles were in progress, “Mother” Jones did not directly urge the strikers to resort to violence in gaining their ends, but she demanded that every allied labor organization in Springfield take up the cause, have their meters removed and go out on “sympathy” strikes to tie up the city’s industries until pressure is brought to bear to force the utility company to admit itself beaten.

The meeting, advertised to be held in Carpenters’ hall, was transferred to the court house grounds, when it became evident long before the time set for “Mother” Jones to speak, that not one-third of those who wished to hear her would be able to get into the hall. Before half-past seven the hall was packed, and hundreds were thronging the street before the building seeking admittance. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for September 1917, Part I: Found in Illinois and Kentucky” →

Hellraisers Journal: From The Masses: Suffragists Picket “Kaiser Wilson” by Boardman Robinson

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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We women of America tell you that America
is not a democracy.
Twenty million women are denied
the right to vote.
-Alice Paul

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday October 7, 1917
Drawing by Boardman Robinson: Banner of Arrested Suffragists

From The Masses of October 1917:

Woman Suffrage, Jailed by Robinson, Masses Oct 1917

Detail-The Offending Banner:

Woman Suffrage, Jailed by Robinson, Detail 2, Masses Oct 1917

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Hellraisers Journal: From the New York Sun: “IWW Queen Fails to Get $10,000 Bail;” Miss Flynn Held in the Tombs

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote Giovannitti, Prevail

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday October 4, 1917
New York, New York – Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Returned to the Tombs

From the New York Sun of October 2, 1917:

I. W. W. QUEEN FAILS TO GET $10,000 BAIL
—–
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Alleged Plotter,
Sent Back to Tombs Cell.
—–

TRESCA STILL PRISONER
—–
Four Accused New York Radicals Will Be,
Arraigned at 2 P. M. To-morrow.
—–

EGF, Tresca, Giovannitti, 1915, 1916, 1913

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, accused of complicity in I. W W. plots, waited in vain yesterday for some fairy godmother to furnish the $10,000 bail demanded for release pending proceedings which have been brought to compel her extradition to Chicago. As the hours passed a hopeful smile that she had borne upon her arraignment before United States Commissioner Samuel M. Hitchcock faded and at nightfall she was hustled into a patrol wagon and returned to her little cell in the Tombs.

She wan not alone in her misery, for the fat, prosperous looking Carlo Tresca and the swarthy Giovanno Baldazzi found themselves in a similar plight. Tresca, who is editor of an Italian anarchist organ printed in this city, had twirled his thumbs all the afternoon waiting for Amos Pinchot to come around and ball him out. Such were the expectation that he expressed, but Mr. Pinchot failed to materialize. So the pair sat opposite their queen in the patrol wagon, manacled to each other and guarded by big deputy marshals.

Only Arturo Giovannitti, versemonger for the Industrial Workers of the World, he of the flowing hair and tie, idol of the unkempt and bane of the police, was permitted to breath freedom’s sweet air. The poet was bailed out and the queen returned to her cell.

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Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for February 1917: Found in New York City & Chicago Fighting for Working-Class Women

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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When half a million mothers
in the richest city
in the richest country in the world
feel the pinch of hunger
as they are feeling it here now
nothing can prevent trouble.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday March 8, 1917
Mother Jones News for February: Fighting for Working-Class Women

Mother Jones, Colorado Military Bastile, March 1914

During the month of February 1917, before she moved on to the struggles of the working-class women in the cities of New York and Chicago, we first found Mother Jones in Washington, D. C. Here she observed a women, one of them clad in a $7,000 coat, demonstrating for women’s suffrage. Now, Hellraisers does not agree with Mother on the issue of suffrage for women, but we acknowledge that, perhaps, her attitude is shaped by having been on the front lines of the Colorado Coal Miners’ Strike of 1913-1914. In Colorado, at that time, the vote for women did very little good for miners, their wives, or their children.

In that state, women had the right to vote, nevertheless, the miners and their families suffered greatly under the rule of Governor Ammons, Democrat of Colorado. Many of these coal-camp women were immigrants who could not vote. And those women who were citizens, and had the right to vote, had first to get past the company guards before they could exercise their franchise.

The duly elected Governor Ammons sent a brutal military general to rule over the striking miners and their families. It was this Military Despotism which then resulted in the Ludlow Massacre of April 20, 1914. Mother Jones was herself a guest of the Military Bastile established under General Chase who answered directly to the democratically elected Governor of the State of Colorado.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Whereabouts & Doings of Mother Jones for February 1917: Found in New York City & Chicago Fighting for Working-Class Women” →