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Hellraisers Journal – Monday May 26, 1913
“To Mother Jones” -a Poem by Mary Quinlan Laughlin
From The Goltry (Oklahoma) News of May 23, 1913:
Tag: Mother Earth Magazine
Hellraisers Journal: Jack Whyte States His Contempt for San Diego Court: “To hell with your courts; I know what justice is.”
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 23, 1912
San Diego, California – Fellow Worker Jack Whyte Expresses His Contempt of Court
From The Kentucky Post of August 21, 1912:
San Diego I. W. W., Convicted, Bluntly Explains
to Judge His Contempt for Court
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SAN DIEGO, CAL., Aug. 21-Contempt of court, more bluntly expressed than probably ever before in the history of California, whose court records have been dirtied often by judicial acts which have disgraced the State, marked the close of proceedings here recently [August 5th], when Judge Sloane sentenced several members of the Industrial Workers of the World for conspiracy to violate the street-speaking ordinance.
Sloane asked Jack Whyte, Industrial Worker, if he had anything to say as to why he should not receive sentence.
Whyte had something to say. He talked straight. This is what he said:
There are only a few word that I care to say, and this court will not mistake them for a legal argument, for I am not acquainted with the phraseology of the bar, nor the language common to the courtroom.
There are two points which I want to touch upon-the indictment itself and the misstatement of the Prosecuting Attorney. The indictment reads: “The People of the State of California against J. W. Whyte and others.”
It’s a hideous lie. The people of this courtroom know that it is a lie, and I know that it is a lie. If the people of the State are to blame for this persecution, then the people are to blame for the murder of Michael Hoey and the assassination of Joseph Mickolasek. They are to blame and responsible for every bruise, every insult and injury inflicted upon the members of the working class by the vigilantes of this city.
The people deny it, and have so emphatically denied it that Gov. Johnson sent Harris Weinstock down here to make an investigation and clear the reputation of the people of the State of California from the odor that you would attach to it. You cowards throw the blame upon the people, but I know who is to blame and I name them-it is Spreckels and his partners in business, and this court is the lackey and lickspittle of that class, defending the property of that class against the advancing horde of starving American workers.
The Prosecuting Attorney in his plea to the jury accused me of saying on a public platform at a public meeting: “To hell with the courts; we know what justice is.” He told a great truth when he lied, for if he had searched the innermost recesses of my mind he could have found that thought, never expressed by me before, but which I express now. “To hell with your courts, I know what justice is,” for I have sat in your courtroom day after day and have seen members of my class pass before this, the so-called bar of justice.
I have seen you, Judge Sloane, and others of your kind, send them to prison because they dared to infringe upon the sacred right of property. You have become blind and deaf to the rights of men to pursue life and happiness, and you have crushed those rights so that the sacred rights of property should be preserved. Then you tell me to respect the law.
I don’t. I did violate the law, and I will violate every one of your laws and still come before you and say: “To hell with the courts,” because I believe that my right to live is far more sacred than the sacred right of property that you and your kind so ably defend.
I don’t tell you this with the expectation of getting justice, but to show my contempt for the whole machinery of law and justice as represented by this and every other court. The Prosecutor lied, but I will accept it as a truth and say again, so that you, Judge Sloane, may not be mistaken as to my attitude:
“To hell with your courts; I know what justice is.”
[Emphasis added.]
Hellraisers Journal: From Mother Earth, San Diego Edition: Emma Goldman and Ben Reitman Describe Brutal Cossack Regime
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday June 15, 1912
San Diego, California – Emma Goldman and Ben Reitman Report on Free Speech Fight
From Mother Earth of June 1912:
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Hellraisers Journal: “Advertise San Diego!” -Brutal Crimes Committed Against Men and Women Engaged in Free Speech Fight
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday June 14, 1912
San Diego, California – Brutal Crimes Committed in Effort to Stop Free Speech Fight
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of June 13, 1912:
Hellraisers Journal: “Pennsylvania Constabulary and the McKees Rocks Strike” by Alexander Berkman
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 6, 1909
Alexander Berkman on Creation & Purpose of Pennsylvania Cossacks
From Miners Magazine of September 30, 1909:
THE PENNSYLVANIA CONSTABULARY AND
THE McKEES ROCKS STRIKE.
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By Alexander Berkman.
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Even before the memorable days of the Homestead strike, of 1892, there was a law on the statute books of Pennsylvania forbidding the importation of armed men from other states. Heavy penalties were attached to the offence.
However, when the Carnegie Steel Company was preparing to destroy the Association of Amalgamated Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, the then chairman of the company, H. C. Frick, imported armed Pinkertons from Chicago and New York to intimidate and shoot down the locked-out men. The history of that great struggle is well known. But when the strike was finally settled, public sentiment forced the district attorney of Allegheny county to bring charges of murder against Frick and other officials of the Carnegie company, they being legally responsible for the atrocious deeds of their imported myrmidons.
Naturally, the authorities felt too much respect for the Carnegie-Frick millions to press the charges of murder. It was feared that a jury of citizens might possibly send the Carnegie officials to prison. The cases were therefore never permitted to come to trial. But the popular outcry against the importation of armed ruffians became so strong that the Pennsylvania legislature was forced to action. The already existing statute was amended, making the importation of armed men treason against the state, punishable with death.
The industrial Tsars of Pennsylvania were not at all pleased with the situation. The new law expressly forbade the employment of Pinkertons, foreign or local. The people execrated their very name. It would be risky to face a charge of treason. The local Iron & Coal police were not sufficient to “deal effectively” with great strikes; nor was it financially advisable to keep a large private standing army who would have to be paid even When there were no strikers to be shot.
The coke, coal, and steel interests of Pennsylvania (practically the Same concern) faced a difficult problem. They were preparing to wage a bitter war against organized labor, fully determined to annihilate the last Vestiges of unionism among their employes. It was to be done effectively, yet economically. A very difficult problem. At last the solution was found. A high priced steel lawyer struck the right key. It was quite simple. Why risk popular wrath, possible prosecution for treason and murder, by employing Pinkertons? Why even go to the expense of hiring an army of private guards? It would be far cheaper and safer to have the great state of Pennsylvania act as their Pinkerton. What is the state for if not to protect the lords of money and subdue grumbling labor? The good taxpayers will do the paying.
Hellraisers Journal: Espionage Act Signed; Goldman & Berkman Arrested; Mother Earth & The Blast Seized
The greatest bulwark
of capitalism is militarism.
-Emma Goldman
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday June 18, 1917
New York, New York – Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman Arrested
On Friday June 15th, President Wilson signed the Espionage into law (see below). That same day in New York City, the Harlem office of Mother Earth and The Blast was raided, and Anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were arrested.
From the New York Sun of June 16, 1917:
BERKMAN AND EMMA GOLDMAN
HELD FOR PLOT
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Accused of Inducing Young Men to
Violate Registration Law.
—–BOTH LOCKED IN TOMBS
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“Literature” in Office of
Anarchist Publications
Seized as Evidence.
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Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were arrested yesterday afternoon charged with conspiracy against the Government in inducing young men to break the selective conscription law by not registering. If convicted they can be imprisoned for two years and fined $10,000 apiece, and can also be deported for preaching anarchy, both being aliens.
United Suites Marshal McCarthy served the warrants on the pair, who love to be called “the beat known anarchists in America,” in the little Harlem office where they have been publishing Mother Earth and the Blast. He said it was the best thing he ever did in his life.
They were taken to the Federal Building along with a young anarchist helper, W. P. Bales, who had not registered for conscription. It being too late for arraignment they were locked up in the Tombs. They will confront United States Commissioner Hitchcock at 9:45 o’clock this morning, and Berkman and Miss Goldman will probably have to give $25,000 bail apiece if they want to get out pending trial or Grand Jury action. A lot of “literature” in the Harlem office, of which the police and Department of Justice are now in charge, was seized as evidence, including copies of Mother Earth and the Blast. Signed articles in these magazines figure in the Government’s complaint. Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Espionage Act Signed; Goldman & Berkman Arrested; Mother Earth & The Blast Seized”
Hellraisers Journal: May Day in Seattle: IWW Martyrs Honored, Joe Hill’s Ashes Scattered, Prisoners Serenaded
Don’t waste any time in mourning-organize.
-Joe Hill
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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 2, 1917
Seattle, Washington – I. W. W. Honors Martyrs on May Day
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Members and supporters of the Industrial Workers of the World celebrated International Workers’ Day by honoring their martyred dead with a grand march to the graves of three of the five Free Speech Fighters who were murdered at Everett last November. Joe Hill’s ashes were scattered to the winds, after-which the marchers made their way to the King County jail to sing for the I. W. W. boys imprisoned there.
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