Hellraisers Journal: From The Nation: Bars and Shadows, Poems by Ralph Chaplin, One of 58 Remaining Class-War Prisoners

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Quote Ralph Chaplin, Mother and Boy, Lv Nw Era p4, Mar 14, 1919—————

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday December 14, 1922
Bars and Shadows, Poems by Ralph Chaplin, I. W. W. Class-War Prisoner

From The Nation of December 13, 1922:

Ad Bars n Shadows by Ralph Chaplin, Ntn p673, Dec 13, 1922

Ralph Chaplin and 58 of his fellow agitators for industrial justice are behind Federal prison bars because they dared to tell the truth about the war while the war was in progress. Chaplin has spent five consecutive Christmases behind the bars…

“Bars and Shadows’ [is] an ideal Christmas reminder, and one of the most effective documents for amnesty that has appeared.

DEMAND THE RELEASE OF
ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS

Do Ralph Chaplin a good turn by ordering six copies of “Bars and Shadows” and using them for holiday gifts. The book is privately published. Every penny above the actual cost of manufacture, advertising and distribution goes to Mrs. Chaplin and her son…..

[Emphasis added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: The Nation: “Children’s Crusade for Amnesty” by Mary Heaton Vorse, Grief on Parade in New York City

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Quote Ralph Chaplin, Red Feast, Montreal 1914, Leaves 1917—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday May 13, 1922
Mary Heaton Vorse on Children’s Crusade for Amnesty

From The Nation of May 10, 1922:

The Children’s Crusade for Amnesty

By MARY HEATON VORSE

Childrens Crusade w Signs, Regina Mrn Ldr p16, May 4, 1922

A GROUP of travel-worn working women and their children paraded from the Grand Central Station up Madison Avenue. The young girls stared straight ahead of them; babies stumbled with fatigue. Women, carrying children, sagged along wearily. They carry banners. The little boy who walks on ahead has a firm mouth and holds his head up. His banner reads “A Little Child Shall Lead Them.” There are other banners, which read “A Hundred and Thirteen Men Jailed for Their Opinions”; “Eugene Debs Is Free-Why Not My Daddy?” One banner inquires “Is the Constitution Dead?” One young girl carries a banner, “My Mother Died of Grief.” One woman with a three-year-old baby holds a banner saying “I Never Saw My Daddy.

Reporters, movie men, and members of the bomb squad accompany the band of women and children. This is a new sort of show. This is a grief parade. These are the wives and children of men serving sentences under the Espionage Act, the wives and children of political prisoners jailed for their opinions. Some of the men did not believe in killing, and some belong to labor organizations. Not one of them was accused of any crime. They are serving sentences from five to twenty years.

Their wives and children are on a crusade. They have come from Kansas corn-fields and from the cotton farms of Oklahoma, from New England mill towns, from small places in the Southwest. They have been through many cities. They are on the way to Washington to see the President of the United States.* They have come here showing their wounds and their humiliation. They have spread out before us their frugal, laborious days. With a terrible bravery they have displayed them so that you and I might see them and be moved—perhaps, and, perhaps, help.

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Hellraisers Journal: Prison Poem: “To My Little Son” by Ralph Chaplin & Etching of Ft. Leavenworth by Roderick Seidenberg

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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917————————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 3, 1921
Prison Poem by Ralph Chaplin: “To My Little Son”
& Etching by Roderick Seidenberg: “Ft. Leavenworth”

From The Liberator of December 1921:

——-

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Hellraisers Journal: From Leavenworth New Era: “To My Little Son” by Ralph Chaplin, IWW Class-War Prisoner

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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917—————

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday September 10, 1921
“To My Little Son” by Ralph Chaplin, Chicago I. W. W. Class War Prisoner

From the Leavenworth New Era of September 9, 1921:

POEM Ralph Chaplin, To My Little Son, Lv New Era p3, Sept 9, 1921

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: “Twenty Years” by Mary Heaton Vorse -Appeals at an End for Chicago IWW Case

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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917———-

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 2, 1921
Chicago, Illinois – Mary Heaton Vorse Has Supper with Convicted Fellow Workers

From The Liberator of January  1921:

Twenty Years

By Mary Heaton Vorse

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

RECENTLY in Chicago, after a meeting, I went to get a sandwich with a group of labor men. As I looked around the table, it came to me with a shock that I was the only person there, but one, who was not condemned to a long jail sentence. For all the people at the table were members of the Industrial Workers of the World convicted in the famous Chicago case.

Ralph Chaplin sat next to me. I had been talking only a few minutes before with his wife, a girl of extraordinary loveliness. She had not come out with us to supper because she had gone home to put her little boy of seven to bed. I had seen them standing all three together, only a half hour before.

Ralph Chaplin is a gifted idealist, a poet, as well as a man of action. His quality of uncompromising courage made me think of Jack Reed. It is upon such youth that the strength of a people is founded, men ready to suffer and with gifts to make people understand the beliefs which have stirred their hearts. And his wife is like him. It made you feel right with life to see them together. They face a 20-year sentence.

Ralph Chaplin is to be put in jail because he belonged to an industrial union, a legal organization.

Ralph Chaplin was Editor of “Solidarity.” And that is why he was given twenty years. It was a pretty bad crime for anyone to hold a red card. The talented ones were selected for 20-year sentences. Apparently Judge Landis could not bear that a man of attainments and gifts should belong to the organization of the I. W. W.

Charles Ashleigh is another poet. What had he done? He had been an I. W. W. He has a sentence of five years. He was one of those against whose sentence even Captain Lanier of the Military Intelligence protested. One wonders if the Captain had ever read the poem by his distinguished relative, called “Jacquerie.” And so Charles Ashleigh is among those who are slated for Leavenworth, where he has already spent two years.

Opposite me sat George Hardy, the. General Executive Secretary. He was one of those who got off easy. He only got a year and he has already served his sentence. No one knew exactly why some got long sentences or why some got short ones.

Bill Haywood, at the head of the table, as a matter of course was given the maximum sentence; that means a death sentence if it is carried out.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Ohio Socialist: “Prison Song” and a “Picture with a Story…The Man Behind the Bars”

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For Freedom laughs at prison bars;
Her voice re-echoes from the stars,
Proclaiming with the tempest’s breath
A cause beyond the reach of death!
-Ralph Chaplin

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday March 12, 1918
From the Cook County Jail: “Prison Song” by Ralph Chaplin

From The Ohio Socialist of March 10, 1918:

Prison Song by Ralph Chaplin, OH Sc, Mar 10, 1918

———-

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

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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

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

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: 10,000 Crimes Charged to Captive Fellow Workers of the Industrial Workers of the World

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

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

Hellraisers Journal, Monday October 1, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – “10,000 individual crimes are alleged.”

From The Chicago Sunday Tribune of September 30, 1917:

IWW, 10000 Crimes, Chg Tb, Sept 30, 1917

—–

IWW Chg HQ w BBH, ISR Oct 1917

—–

More than 10,000 individual crimes are alleged against members of the Industrial Workers of the World in a vast criminal campaign of sedition. This information was authoritatively given out from government sources yesterday.

It is declared that the conspiracy laid to the I. W. W. chiefs contemplated no less a general object than the hampering of eery objective of the government in its war aims. The allegation of 10,000 distinct crimes is said to grow out of discoveries of minor conspiracies within larger ones, like wheels within wheels, whereby each local branch of the I. W. W. would render itself sufficient unto the treasonable objects in its own particular territory.

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Hellraisers Journal: Raids & More Raids! Homes and Offices in Chicago, Spokane, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Etc.

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

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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday September 7, 1917
Nationwide Raids Against Industrial Workers and Socialists

The nationwide raids conducted by federal agents on September 5th against the Industrial Workers of the World and the Socialist Party of America are described by the Spokane Spokesman-Review of September 6th:

US Officers Raid I. W. W. Headquarters
Over Nation

[Report from Associated Press]

WWIR, Raids IWW SPA BBH, Chg Tb Sept 6, 1917

Indictments May Follow.

MAGNOLIA, Mass., Sept. 5.— Attorney General Thomas W. Gregory was a guest at the summer home of Colonel E.M. House here this evening when he received word that raids on the headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World in many cities had been carried out as arranged by the federal Department of Justice.

“It is no secret,” said Mr. Gregory, “that the Industrial Workers of the World have been under suspicion for some time. The Department of Justice conducted a quiet investigation until I was convinced that we were warranted in taking such action as this.

“I do not need to say the the raids will be followed quickly by indictments if we find anything to warrant them, and the men will be prosecuted to the extent of the law if they deserve it.”

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