Hellraisers Journal: President Wilson Signs Sedition Bill; “The bill declared frankly to be aimed against the I. W. W.”

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Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 22, 1918
Washington, D. C. – I. W. W. to be Target of Sedition Bill

From this morning’s New York Times:

President Signs Sedition Bill

WASHINGTON. May 21, President Wilson today signed the Sedition bill giving the Government wide powers to punish disloyal acts and utterances.

From The Labor World of May 11, 1918:

Senate Passes Sedition Bill, IWW, Labor World p1, May 11, 1918

———
OUTLAWS THE USE AND ADVOCACY OF VIOLENCE
———-
To Bring About Governmental, Social, Industrial or
Economic Reforms-Destruction of “Wabblies” Opens
Opportunities for Labor Unions.
———-

WWIR, In Here For You, Ralph Chaplin, Sol Aug 4, Sept 1, 1917

WASHINGTON, May 9.-The bill declared frankly to be aimed against the I. W. W., outlawing organizations which use or advocate violence to bring about “any governmental, social, industrial or economic change,” during the war, was passed Monday by the senate after brief debate and went to the house.

The bill provides that

any association, organization, society or corporation, one of whose purposes or professed purposes is to bring about any governmental, social, industrial or economic change within the United States by the use, without the authority of law, of force, violence, or physical injury to person or property, or by threats of such injury, or which teaches, advocates, defends or advises the use, without authority of law, of force, violence, or physical injury to person or property, or threats of such injury, to accomplish such change or for any other purpose, and which, during any war in which the United States is engaged, shall by any means prosecute or pursue such purpose or professed purpose, or shall so teach, advocate, advise, or defend, is hereby declared to be an “unlawful association.”

It also makes it a felony, punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment and $5,000 fine, for anyone to continue to be a member or agent of such and “unlawful association,” or who shall defend its acts.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: President Wilson Signs Sedition Bill; “The bill declared frankly to be aimed against the I. W. W.””

Hellraisers Journal: From Behind the Bars of the Cook County Jail, Fellow Workers Publish Weekly Menu

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Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 15, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Worse and More of it in the Cook County Jail

Remember Political Prisoners by Bingo, OH Sc, Mar 10, 1918

In Chicago, the Federal Trial of the Industrial Workers of the World is ongoing. The prosecution has been presenting its case, beginning on May 2nd, and shows no signs of wrapping things up any time soon. As Chief Prosecutor, Frank K. Nebeker, drones on and on, reading in his unrelenting monotone from the I. W. W. literature and letters seized in the federal raid upon Union Headquarters, the defendants, the jury, and the spectators struggle to stay awake. Meanwhile, we pause to remember that not all of our fellow workers have been able to secure bail, and they remained locked behind the bars of the Cook County Jail. From behind the bars of that institution, the class-war prisoners have managed to smuggle out the weekly menu from the Cook of Cook Jail.

From The Industrial Worker of April 27, 1918:

Menu Cook County Jail-1, Eat Bye and Bye, IW, Apr 27, 198Menu Cook County Jail-2, Eat Bye and Bye, IW, Apr 27, 198

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From Behind the Bars of the Cook County Jail, Fellow Workers Publish Weekly Menu”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Reporter Talks with Louise Bryant & Interviews Jack Reed

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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, Tuesday May 14, 1918
Greenwich Village – Home of Jack Reed and Louise Bryant

After a short conversation with Louise Bryant, wife of John Reed, a reporter recently conducted an interview with Mr. Reed in the couple’s Greenwich apartment. Both Bryant and Reed were witnesses to the Bolshevik Revolution during their tour of duty there as war correspondents.

From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of May 5, 1918:

TWO MONTHS LONGER OF KERENSKY AND GERMANY WOULD HAVE
RULED RUSSIA, SAYS JOHN REED
—–
Lenine and Trotzky Will Go Down Under 10,000 Feet the Moment
They Stop Representing the Masses-
People of the Bread Lines Real Rulers of Russia.
—–
Korniloff Allowed Riga to Fall to Scare the People Into Action-
If Kerensky Came Back the People Would Kill Him-
Lies About Bolsheviki Have Seriously Damaged
the American Cause in Russia.
—–

John Reed, Louise Bryant, Spart, Nov 1916The half-starved men and women on the bread lines are the rulers of Russia. The crowd is the government. The faction of which Kerensky was the head, once looked upon by the world as radical, became, comparatively, as conservative as Taft in his second campaign. This faction did not represent the crowd, so it fell, leaving Kerensky with about as much influence in Russia as one William Jennings Bryan has here. If Kerensky should return to Russia he would be killed. If he and his supporters and remained in power two months longer every city in Russia would have been under German control. Korniloff planned the fall of Riga to frighten the Russian people into action, and admitted it publicly. The Kerensky government, when the people threatened to take its power from it, practiced sabotage on the food supplies of the people, fomented strikes in the manufacturing plants, and closed down factories.

So, among many other things, says John Reed, war correspondent, soldier of fortune, unswerving Socialist, Bolshevik, Harvard graduate, friend and co-worker of Lenine and Trotzky, and the young American, who was some time ago reported as having been sent to America by Trotzky to act as American Consul General for the Bolsheviki. He returned to this country one day last week to face trial with Max Eastman, Art Young and others of the former editors of The Masses, who have been indicted on a charge of conspiring to encourage resistance to the draft.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Reporter Talks with Louise Bryant & Interviews Jack Reed”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “On the Inside” by Bill Haywood, IWW Class-War Prisoners in Cook County Jail

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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

BBH, Str Prs Muncie IN, -p11 edit, Apr 25, 1918

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.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “On the Inside” by Bill Haywood, IWW Class-War Prisoners in Cook County Jail”

Hellraisers Journal: John Reed Returns to USA to Face Federal Charges of Conspiracy to Obstruct the Draft Law

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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, Ogden Standard p12, Feb 19, 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-

John Reed Found, Liberator p3, May 1918

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: John Reed Returns to USA to Face Federal Charges of Conspiracy to Obstruct the Draft Law”

Hellraisers Journal: As Jury Selection Continues in Chicago, New York Tribune’s Full-Page Article Finds IWW Guilty, II

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Quote Ralph Chaplin"all the world that's owned", Leaves
-Ralph Chaplin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 17, 1918
As Chicago Trial Continues, IWW Found Guilty by Kept Press, Part II

Today we offer the conclusion of our two-part series featuring the article by Boyden R. Sparkes which appeared as a full-page spread in the April 14th edition of the New York Tribune.

THE I. W. W.: AN X-RAY PICTURE

Chicago Trial Shows Searing Sparks from the Anvil Where Industrial-Military Power is Being Forged Endanger Progress-
Sabotage, Malcontents’ Principal Weapon,
a Menace to Farm, Factory and Home.

By Boyden R. Sparkes
Chicago, April 13, 1918.

[Part II]

WWIR, IWW Leaders BBH StJ BF etc, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918

WWIR, IWW Leaders Sketched in Court by MM Evers, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918

—–

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: As Jury Selection Continues in Chicago, New York Tribune’s Full-Page Article Finds IWW Guilty, II”

Hellraisers Journal: As Jury Selection Continues in Chicago, New York Tribune’s Full-Page Article Finds IWW Guilty

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The worst thief is he who steals
the playtime of children.
Join the I. W. W. and help put
the thieves to work.
-Big Bill Haywood

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday April 16, 1918
As Chicago Trial Continues, IWW Found Guilty by Kept Press

Today we offer Part One of the following article by Boyden R. Sparkes which appeared as a full-page spread in the April 14th edition of the New York Tribune. We will conclude tomorrow with Part Two.

THE I. W. W.: AN X-RAY PICTURE

Chicago Trial Shows Searing Sparks from the Anvil Where Industrial-Military Power is Being Forged Endanger Progress-
Sabotage, Malcontents’ Principal Weapon,
a Menace to Farm, Factory and Home.

THE I. W. W. PRINCIPLES AS SHOWN IN THEIR OWN CARTOONS

By Boyden R. Sparkes
Chicago, April 13, 1918.

WWIR, IWW, Sabotage Beware, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918

OUT in the hill country of Oklahoma last August a group of tenant farmers and oil field workers were just a little too quick on the trigger, and what Federal officials believe was intended to have been a country-wide uprising of American “Bolsheviki” against the draft law was quelled almost before it started.

At the hearing in the Federal court in Enid, Okla., it was developed that forty-eight organizations under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World had planned a nation-wide revolution. The anti-draft rioters in Seminole, Hughes and Pontotoc counties began shooting just a little too soon, and posses of patriotic citizens had put 500 of them under arrest before many persons had been killed.

WWIR, IWW, Sabotage Sabots, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918

The men arrested belonged to organizations affiliated with the I. W. W., chief among these being the “Working Class Union.” The government is still trying to find out where the money used to purchase arms for the rioters came from.

It is the opinion of government attorneys that these I. W. W. leaders believed they would receive the support of the American Federation of Labor. Naturally any such hope was doomed to disappointment. But the government is still picking up threads of evidence that strengthen the belief that the American Bolsheviki leaders were prepared and hoping for a reign of terror in America that would have far outdone the Bolsheviki uprising in Russia.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: As Jury Selection Continues in Chicago, New York Tribune’s Full-Page Article Finds IWW Guilty”

Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “Tulsa, November 9th” – First-Hand Account from Secretary of IWW Local

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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

WWIR, IWW Flog Tar Feather, Morn Tulsa Dly Wld, Nov 10, 1917

[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.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “Tulsa, November 9th” – First-Hand Account from Secretary of IWW Local”

Hellraisers Journal: Great Chicago Labor Trial Begins; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Granted Separate Trial

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Quote Giovannitti, Prevail

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday April 4, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Federal Trial of I. W. W. Underway

From The Salt Lake Tribune of April 1, 1918:

100 I. W. W.’S WILL GO TO TRIAL TODAY
—–
Government’s Charged Include Sabotage,
Intrigue and Conspiracy.
—–

WWIR, In Here For You, Ralph Chaplin, Sol Aug 4, Sept 1, 1917

CHICAGO, March 31.-More than 100 Industrial Workers of the World will go on trial tomorrow before Federal Judge Landis, charged with conspiracy to disrupt the government’s war programme.

One hundred and sixty-five men and one woman were named in the true bill returned by the September grand jury, but forty escaped capture. Cases against ten have been dismissed, and three, including the woman, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of New York, have been granted separate trials.

The government’s charges against the defendants include allegations of sabotage, including the slowing down of production and the wanton spoilage of material, propaganda for strikes to delay the output of war munitions and covert intrigue against military service.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Great Chicago Labor Trial Begins; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Granted Separate Trial”