Tag: World War I Repression

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene V. Debs Defends I. W. W., Declares Charges “Absurd and Malicious”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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EVD Quote, Revolutionary Solidarity, ISR Feb 1918

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday February 3, 1918
Eugene V. Debs Defends the Industrial Workers of the World

From the International Socialist Review of February 1918:

THE I. W. W. BOGEY

By EUGENE V. DEBS

WWIR, Chg IWW, EVD re Stanley J. Clark, ISR Feb 1918

The morning paper I have just read contains an extended press dispatch from Washington, under screaming headlines, making the startling disclosure that a worldwide conspiracy to overthrow the existing social order has been unearthed by the secret service agents of the government The basis of the conspiracy is reported to have been the discovery of some guns and ammunition in the hold of a Russian freighter just arrived at a Pacific port in charge of a Bolsheviki crew, from which it has been deduced that the guns must have been sent by the Russian revolutionists to the I. W. W. of the United States in pursuance of a conspiracy of the Russian reds, the Sinn Fein leaders of Ireland, and the American I. W. W.s to overthrow all the governments of the civilized world.

This is really too much!

We are not told how the Sinn Feiners happen to get in on this universal conspiracy, but as their name, like that of the Bolsheviki and the I. W. W., has great potency as a bogey to frighten the feeble-minded, the inventors of this wonderful cock-and-bull story may well be allowed this additional license to their perfervid imagination.

Everything that happens nowadays that the ruling classes do not like and everything that does not happen that they do like is laid at the door of the I. W. W. Its name is anathema wherever capitalism wields the lash and drains the veins of its exploited victims.

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Truth About the I. W. W.” by Harold Callender, Part II from the International Socialist Review

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

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday January 5, 1918
Reprinted from The Masses: Part II-Harold Callender on the I. W. W.

From the International Socialist Review of January 1918:

The Truth About the I. W. W.

By HAROLD CALLENDER

EDITOR’S NOTE: Harold Callender investigated the Bisbee deportations for the National Labor Defense Council. He did it in so judicial and poised and truth-telling a manner that we engaged him to go and find out for us the truth about the I. W. W., and all the other things that are called “I. W. W.” by those who wish to destroy them in the northwest.-The Masses.

[Part II]
—–

WWIR, IWW WNF Truth, ISR Jan 1918

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Perhaps the funeral tribute to Little by the working people of Butte may be considered the reply to the warning which the lynching constituted. About 7,000 marched to the cemetery, representing most of the labor unions of the city. As the casket was lowered into the ground the last thing seen was a pennant of the Industrial Workers, bearing the words, “One big union,” lying across the coffin. At the headquarters of the mine union there hangs a photograph of Little, and under it, “Frank Little, victim of the copper trust, whom we shall never forget.” When I saw James Rowan, secretary of the Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union, in the county jail at Spokane, Wash., he wore on a lapel of his coat a button bearing a picture of Little and the motto: “Solidarity.” Behind him sat a youth in khaki, fingering a rifle and watching him as he talked.

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Truth About the I. W. W.” by Harold Callender, Part I from the International Socialist Review

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

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday January 4, 1918
Reprinted from The Masses: Part I-Harold Callender on the I. W. W.

From the International Socialist Review of January 1918:

The Truth About the I. W. W.

By HAROLD CALLENDER

EDITOR’S NOTE: Harold Callender investigated the Bisbee deportations for the National Labor Defense Council. He did it in so judicial and poised and truth-telling a manner that we engaged him to go and find out for us the truth about the I. W. W., and all the other things that are called “I. W. W.” by those who wish to destroy them in the northwest.-The Masses.

[Part I]
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WWIR, IWW Thompson, Hardy, Foss, W Smith, McDonald, Lloyd, Doran, ISR Jan 1918

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ACCORDING to the newspapers, the I. W. W. is engaged in treason and terrorism. The organization is supposed to have caused every forest fire in the West—where, by the way, there have been fewer forest fires this season than ever before. Driving spikes in lumber before it is sent to the sawmill, pinching the fruit in orchards so that it will spoil, crippling the copper, lumber and shipbuilding industries out of spite against the government, are commonly repeated charges against them. It is supposed to be for this reason that the states are being urged to pass stringent laws making their activities and propaganda impossible; or, in the absence of such laws, to encourage the police, soldiers and citizens to raid, lynch and drive them out of the community.

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Hellraisers Journal: Appeal for Defense of Our Imprisoned Fellow Workers: “They belong to the working class…”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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If you are a red-blooded worker
you will see that
this fight is your fight.
–International Socialist Review

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday January 3, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – General Defense Committee Appeals for Funds

From the International Socialist Review of January 1918:

“WHERE LIBERTY IS THERE IS MY COUNTRY”

WWIR, IWW Johanson Ahlteen Lossieff Graber, ISR Jan 1918

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WWIR, IWW Chaplin, H George, ISR Jan 1918

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Six of the one hundred and sixty-six socialists and members of the I. W. W. who are indicted on a charge of seditious conspiracy.

Most of the boys are in Cook County or near-by jails as it would take a cash bail of over a million and one-half dollars to secure their liberty.

They belong to the working class and are in jail because they organized and educated the workers to fight for Industrial Democracy.

It will be a class trial. Capitalist interests will demand that these men be convicted and their union legally destroyed. They want the U. S. government to do what their gunmen and governors have failed to do by brute force.

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Hellraisers Journal: 50,000 Copies of “Sabotage” by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Reported Seized by Feds in Chicago

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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EGF Quote, I fell in love with my country, RG 96

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday January 2, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – I. W. W. Books Seized by Federal Agents

50,000 “SABOTAGE” BOOKS SEIZED
IN I. W. W. RAID

Sabotage by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

CHICAGO, Dec. 28.-Some of the results of the recent raid on headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World here were made known by Federal officials today. Among the tons of literature seized were 50,000 copies of “Sabotage,” a book by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, of New York, now under indictment for conspiracy against the government. Thousands of copies of another book called “Sabotage” by Emil Pouget, were seized.

Vast quantities of stickers inscribed “Don’t be a soldier-be a man,” new I. W. W. song books and plates from which they were printed also were taken.

The Michigan Central Railroad to-day sent warnings to all points on its lines giving notice of an alleged I. W. W. plot to destroy grain elevators during the holidays. As a result special police have been detailed to guard every grain elevator in Chicago.

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[Photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: New York Tribune Article Paints Haywood as “American Bolsheviki” Bent on “Reign of Terror”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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The mine owners did not find the gold,
They did not mine the gold,
They did not mill the gold,
But by some weird alchemy
All the gold belonged to them!
-Big Bill Haywood

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 31, 1917
New York, New York – Kept Press Waxes Hysterical on Big Bill

From the New York Tribune of December 30, 1917:

BBH American Bolsheviki Terror, NYTb p22, Dec 30, 1917

The article, authored by Theodore Knappen, is a long one and describes Fellow Worker Haywood’s long history of service to the working class as an effort to seek “the destruction of the existing system of government and industry by means of direct action.”

Interesting that the same author seems to hold no such outrage for the enslavement of children in mine and mill, for the thousands of men who perish each and every year in the mines, for the strikers and their wives and children murdered at Ludlow, Calumet, Roosevelt and other scenes of massacres too numerous to mention, nor for the millions thrown onto the scrap heap to face homelessness and starvation when they can no longer work or find work. One might conclude that such an “existing system” deserves to be replaced with a system which honors and respects the working men, women and children who provide the labor that keep it running.

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Hellraisers Journal: 103 Fellow Workers Plead “Not Guilty” to Charges of Conspiracy in Chicago Federal Court

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

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Hellraisers Journal: Sunday December 16, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – I. W. W. Defendants Appear Before Judge Landis

From the Kansas Pittsburg Daily Headlight of December 15, 1917:


I.W.W. DEFENDANTS FILLED
A COURT ROOM
—


BEFORE JUDGE LANDIS AT CHICAGO,
ACCUSED AGITATORS PLEADED NOT GUILTY.
—–
“American Bolsheviki Without Whiskers,”
as U. S. Lawyer Described Them,
Appeared to Answer Conspiracy Charge.
—–

Big Bill Haywood, ISR, Nov 1917

Chicago, Dec. 15.-One hundred and three alleged members of the Industrial Workers of the World, probably the largest number ever assembled in one court room to answer the charges of conspiracy against the federal government, pleaded “not guilty” when arraigned before Judge Landis in the United States district court today.

In general appearance the defendants resembled a typical jury panel. There were exceptions, however, for among the I. W. W. there are not a few who pretend to literary merit. There are some who confess themselves poets, and a few are orators. These might be distinguished by the flowing Windsor tie and the soft collar of the artist or musician, by the stiff rearward brush of the hair, or, in one or two instances, by a neatly trimmed Van Dyke beard. One of the government lawyers referred to them as “the American Bolsheviki, without the whiskers.”

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Cook County Jail: the First Prison Poem of Fellow Worker Ralph Chaplin

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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When our cause is all triumphant
And we claim our Mother Earth,
And the nightmare of the present fades away,
We shall live with love and laughter,
We who now are little worth,
And we’ll not regret the price we have to pay.
-Ralph Chaplin

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 2, 1917
From the Cook County Jail, Chicago – A Prison Poem by Ralph Chaplin

Mourn Not The Dead

Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie-
Dust unto dust-
The calm, sweet earth that mothers all who die
As all men must;

Mourn not your captive comrades who must dwell-
Too strong to strive-
Within each steel-bound coffin of a cell,
Buried alive;

But rather mourn the apathetic throng-
The cowed and the meek-
Who see the world’s great anguish and its wrong
And dare not speak!


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Hellraisers Journal: Federal Agents Move Against IWWs in Kansas Oil Fields, Fifty Arrested in Butler County

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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IWW on War and Class Solidarity, Dec 1, 1916

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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday November 21, 1917
Butler County, Kansas – I. W. W. Oil Workers Seized by Feds

IWW Label, IWWC Proceedings held Nov-Dec 1916

A round-up by federal agents of members of the Industrial Workers of the World has commenced in Butler County, Kansas. Reports from Kansas indicates that most of those taken into custody were members of the Oil Workers Industrial Union. Butler County is located just east of Wichita. The county seat is located at El Dorado.

From The Topeka State Journal of November 20, 1917:

FEDERAL AGENTS START A ROUNDUP
I.W.W. IN KANSAS
—–
Fifty Arrests Made in Butler
Oil Fields Today.
—–
Starts Gigantic Drive Thru
Forest of Derricks.
—–

ATTORNEY ANNOUNCES CLEANUP
—–
“Workers” Won’t Get Chance to
Duplicate Okla. Trouble.
—–
Robertson, U. S. District Attorney,
Will See to It.
—–

Kansas City, Nov. 20.-A roundup of I. W. W’s in the oil fields of Kansas is to be made immediately, Fred Robertson, district attorney for Kansas, announced late today. Already more than fifty alleged I. W. W.’s were arrested in the Butler county oil fields today, it was announced.

The arrests today were made in the vicinity of Augusta by state and federal agents, it was announced. A tent alleged to have been used for I. W. W. meetings there was raided and a great quantity of literature was seized.

The purpose of the raids will be to rid the oil fields of the state of undesirables, federal officers say, and each man arrested will be examined as to whether he was registered.

The presence of alleged I. W. W.’s in the Butler county fields recently led to the placing of armed guards.

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Hellraisers Journal: Max Eastman, John Reed, Art Young & Four Others from The Masses Indicted by Federal Grand Jury

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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

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Hellrasiers Journal, Tuesday November 20, 1917
New York, New York – The Masses & Staff Indicted by Federal Grand Jury

Max Eastman, John Reed, Art Young, for HJ Nov 20, 1917

Max Eastman, John Reed, and Art Young, and others connected with The Masses now stand charged with conspiracy in violation of the Espionage Act.

From the Binghamton Press and Leader of November 19, 1917:

MAX EASTMAN OF MASSES INDICTED
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New York, Nov. 19.-Max Eastman, publisher of The Masses, a magazine recently denied second class mail privileges was indicted here today with six others connected with the publication of a charge of conspiracy in violation of the espionage act by the Federal Grand Jury. Bench warrants were immediately issued for their arrest.

Those named with Eastman were Floyd Dell, managing editor; C. Merrill Rogers, Jr., business manager; Henry R. Glenter-Kamp [Glintenkamp], cartoonist; Arthur Young, artist; John Reed, writer, and Josephine Bell, writer.

In addition two other indictments for attempting to use the mails for non-mailable matter were returned against The Masses Publishing Company as a corporation and C. Merrill Rogers, Jr., as an individual.

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